Ode to Greenie

I'd like to take a moment and thank one of our best friends, Little Greenie, the steam cleaner. My 89 year old Grandma was taken by ambulance to the hospital on Thursday with an awful flu bug. As caring family members, we were all there taking turns going in to see her and crack little jokes. Little did we know, this would come back to bite us all....and it bit hard!

Grandma went to my parents while she recovered and the next day they were both praying to the Porcelain God. Then....Cousin Seamus and Aunt Betsy got it {Uncle Jay dodged it so far by consuming large volumes of alcohol}. We thought we were in the clear and woke up with plans to head to the White Sox game today...Sydney's stomach disagreed. We tried to ignore the first signs of her being a little whiny, but our thoughts of cold beer and hot dogs at the game fizzled before our very eyes.

Poor Sydney is in her 6th outfit of the day and Little Greenie is asking for a time out! Praying it passes fast and holding our breath that Chris and I make it out of this unscathed.

Still adorable even when she's sick.

Flirting with disaster

Sydney started up swim class lessons again. She's in the second level called Mudskippers ...love that name. She was so excited about the lessons, we almost couldn't get her to leave the place {read as we took her out while kicking and screaming}. The nice thing is that her class is so small that she gets to go down the slide 4 times, which is one of her favorite things.

Sydney getting ready for her name to be called. Please admire Sydney's lovely fingerprint on my point and shoot camera lens. Gotta love when you don't realize it until it's too late. Not sure how she manages to always tag my camera lens!

Making annoying faces now that I got her fingerprint off the lens. Argh!

Sydney climbing out of the pool on her own and then jumping in the water. Froggy Dives!

So here comes the hard part. *sigh* As I mentioned earlier, Sydney was removed from the facility with a few flailing appendages. While fighting us trying to strap her into her car seat, I make that dreaded promise "If you're a good girl, you'll get a treat". Immediately she cooperates and helps us put on her car seat saying "Good girl, TREAT!" I get that look from Chris as he makes some comment about bribing our child to be good. I'm pretty certain that bribery is exactly how my mom got my brother and I to always behave out in public and we turned out pretty good if you ask me.

So now comes the next part of....what kind of treat? It was kinda steamy out at the pool, so I suggested some milkshakes since it was on the way home. Chris calmly asks how on earth we plan on giving her the treat while in the car. I go on some rant about Sydney having to learn how to eat these things and if we don't teach her, then she'll never learn. {words I shall eat rather soon}. So, the milkshakes come and of course have to be topped with whipped cream and a cherry. Sydney decides to use her straw as a spoon, I gasp slightly and then proudly tell Chris that she's so good at this that I can't believe we've waited this long to give her this type of beverage in the car! We drive home and I'm watching her like a hawk, knowing that any type of mess that she causes will be my job to clean up since Chris highly discouraged this treat from the get-go. I take my eyes off her for a nano second as we pull into the driveway because I was checking out my roses in the front realizing they need some water. I turn back around after hearing "OH NOOOOOO" from Sydney. I mean TEN SECONDS from getting into the house!!! She tried to drink the shake out of the tiny hole at the top and it all dumped down the front of her. So, at this point I have to say "You were right Chris, I'll start cleaning it up".

Lastly a little shout-out to one of Sydney's favorite little people. She loves watching all of Savannah's videos and even knows where to put the mouse to make it play a gazillion times! For those of you who don't speak Sydney talk, she says "Oh Mama, OH MY GOSH!"

Spring Cleaning

We made a huge dent in our "to-do" list that was nearing three pages this weekend. Spring (Summer) weather here in Tucson along with Sydney's 2nd birthday approaching, motivates me to get everything done. The fun thing about this Spring is that Sydney loves doing big girl things. While I steam cleaned the rugs this weekend, she stood in the hallway moving her bubble-blowing lawn mower in the same motions as the steamer. When Chris power sprayed the back deck and rinsed off the furniture, she had to help out. I was a little nervous that the power of the hose would knock her on her hiney, but she did great! Isn't this the whole reason we have kids? :)

Here's one of Chris's biggest pet peeves. The growing number of rocks in the bottom of our fountain. I caught her red-handed and she gladly showed me how she does it...

For all her hard work, we treated her (and us) to some gelato. She had a hard time tearing her eyes away from Elmo on tv, but she kept saying "Happy" over and over.

If you look closely you can see her two teeth that have broken through on the bottom. Only the top two and then a few more molars and we're all good *sigh*

The Green Hangover

We headed over to my parents house for the traditional Irish dinner (Corned Beef, potatoes, cabbage and Irish Soda Bread) last night. Of course, there was a lot of green attire and green beverages flowing fast.

Papa with the Irish pup, Riley (Please notice the green martini on the ledge)

Chris being a good sport with the green accessories :)

Me enjoying little green wine while Sydney tricks Lala with her fake tantrum


Cuttin' the beef

Sydney loves her some Irish Soda Bread


My lovely green vanilla pudding treats

Who doesn't follow-up dinner with a nice dip in the hot tub?

ooops, Chris's drowning!


Haha, she bought it!!!


HI PAPA!

The result of too much green milk

Annnnnnd last but not least, Sydney's finger painting, water coloring clover decoration for 2009!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patty's Day is near and dear to my heart and my Irish roots. We started a new holiday tradition where Sydney will make a decoration every year and we'll display them year after year with the growing collections for each holiday. This year she painted coffee filters with yellow and blue water colors (food coloring + water) and I cut them into four leaf clovers. She absolutely loves painting, she wouldn't put the brushes down until she went to bed. I'll post the finish project later today!

Admiring her handiwork!

Had to stop for a little Chicken and Broccoli nugget to get her energy for the rest of the project

She takes this very seriously

Getting ready for school in the outfit Lala got her for St. Patty's Day. THANK YOU LALA!!!

Ok more later!!!

Go Cubbies!

Today we went to the Cubs game here in Tucson! Sydney had an absolute blast and even made it until the fifth inning in her seat! Sydney absolutely adores her cousin Seamus and was running all around the grassy area playing catch, Ring Around the Rosey, Skip to My Lou and racing.....the girl was TUCKERED by the end of the day!

Chicken fingers, fries and baseball...life is good

Lala and Papa!!

Watchin the game with Dad


Seriously, she's so darn cute

This is how you get a better view, stand ON Mom!

This is where the party started

Is there anything more exciting than flashing lights on a truck?

Plotting their next move

One-handed push-ups

Being a total cuddle monkey before bedtime

You mean all kids don't sleep on the counter?