Sydney Says

The latest and greatest quotes from Sydney :)


Sydney:  Us going to Grandma and Grandpa's house?
Me:  Not today sweetie, Grandaddy is kinda sick, so were going to wait until he feels better.
Sydney:  Okay. Grandma comes over to us house instead? It's no Granddaddys turn today. Right? Grandma's coming over. Grandma's no sick. Right mama?
____________________

Me:  (turned off tv after we watched Frosty the Snowman)
Sydney:  Mommy! You goofed! My allowed to watch Frosty the Snowman ALL DAY!
Me:  Oh really? Who said you could watch it all day?
Sydney:  My did.
____________________

as I was driving to Costco:
Sydney:  Oh no, mommy, you are going the wrong way!  That's a problem.
(just for the record, I was in fact going the right way.)
____________________

I was vacuuming in Sydney's playroom, and as I vacuumed it pushed a few of her toys across the floor.
Sydney:   Mommy!  Don't push my toys!  That's rude!

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving 2012 via camera pictures:)

 

pie for breakfast :: apple pie :: at the playground at Peachtree-Dekalb Airport

cranberry pie :: Thanksgiving :: painting with MAEMAE

smiles! :: at the Chattahoochee Nature Center with Daddy

Sydney Says...

The Sydney-isms continue:


Sydney:  My has 2 little brothers.
Me:   No Sydney, you have 1 little brother. Just 1.
Sydney:  No.  My has 2 brothers.  This Hunter is on the monitor {points to video monitor that is showing Hunter sleeping in his crib}  and other Hunter is upstairs {points up the stairs}.


So, we've spent our morning having a little lesson on how a video monitor works.

Hunter and his toys

I mentioned the other day that Sydney likes to bring toys to Hunter so he can 'play' with them.  (We're still working on the fact that he's little and he can't play quite yet).

This would be a prime example:

I put Hunter into the bouncey seat with his paci.

Sydney 'helped' by bringing him Nick and Sally. 

(Nick and Sally are the names of the 2 little kids in The Cat in the Hat, so that is what Sydney's named her GaTech and UGA sock monkeys.  For reference, Nick supports GaTech and Sally is a UGA fan.)

Jesus Loves Me, by Sydney

Sydney LOVES music class at preschool.  She's been singing all of the 'classics' (The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Row Row Row Your Boat, etc).  There's also been a few that I can't quite figure out just yet (anyone know a song that talks about 'flapping your wings like a flying bird'?).  Granted sometimes she takes a few liberties with the lyrics, but regardless, it is super cute. :)

Halloween and Fall Festivals

Apparently we like to dress up like animals for Halloween --- a butterfly last year and a penguin and lion this year.

 

our lion
 

trick or treating

 

Sydney was SO excited to go trick or treating.  I got out her pumpkin and she exclaimed "yay! Put candy in it!"  So I think it's safe to assume that she remembered from last year.

She let me walk up to the door with her for about 2 houses.  Then she was quick to tell me "No mama. Wait here. My do it all myself." when we got to the rest of the houses.  After we'd made it about halfway down the street, we asked her if she was getting tired or if she wanted to keep trick or treating.  Her response: "Still trick or treating. No go home yet."  She reminded us of her answer after every house we visited.  Just in case we were going to try to sneak her home.



A lion (with a pacifier) and a penguin (with her 'cheese' face)

We also hit up a couple of fall festivals this year.  No pictures from the one at our church, but I was able to snap this one of the cousins playing one of the games at Roswell UMC's fall festival.

She got her face painted.  She was a little confused by the whole experience and later told me that it 'tickled my cheek'. :)

The kids got candy and little toys during the 'trunk or treat', so MAE MAE helped them learn how to play with the whistles.

 

Poor Joshua didn't see this coming.  :)

 

Not the greatest pic, but it does at least prove that Dan and I were there.

Sydney Says...

Sydney's vocabulary is exploding these days. It's great that she can express herself, and its also great that she can make us laugh on a regular basis.  

Exhibit A:

{Hunter was crying}
Me: Hey Hunter, you're okay. No more fussing.
Sydney: Dude! Stop it!

Georgia Voter

 

 

I think it took me longer to get Sydney loaded into the stroller and Hunter into the Baby Bjorn than it did for me to vote - we were in and out VERY quickly!

A Day in the Life

Here goes another round of 'A Day in the Life of the Chase's'.....
(I actually started writing this post about a week ago, and it's taken me until now to get it finished - my days are BUSY these days).

7:45am - Hunter wakes up and nurses.  I also change his diaper and get him dressed for the day.  (into outfit #1 for the day anyways... he'll spit up and need a new one at some point :) )

8am - I haven't heard Sydney stirring yet, so I take a few minutes and to get ready. Hunter is content to play on his little playmat and make coo-ing noises along with the music.

8:20 - Sydney's up.  I change a diaper and get her dressed.

We head downstairs for breakfast.  While I make breakfast, I let Hunter and Sydney "play" together in the living room.  As is usually the case, today this consists of Hunter laying on a quilt and staring at the fan and Sydney bringing him toys to "play with".  He usually ends up with some of her stuffed animals laying next to him and a few rattles laying on his belly. 

We eat and get loaded into the car by 9:15 to drop Sydney at preschool. 

9:30 - I drop Sydney at preschool and consider myself lucky since I got a 'bye mom' as she hopped out of the car.

Hunter has fallen asleep during the run to preschool, so I take a few minutes to run to Target to return something.  Which leads to wandering around Target for an hour or so. :)

I head home so that I can wake Hunter up and feed him at 11.  He's awake after he eats so he and hang out for a while.  By noon he's starting to drift off again, so I let him take a nap (today he's in his bouncey seat, so I just leave him be).   I grab some lunch and take a minute to read some blogs/check facebook/whatnot.

At 12:45, we get back in the car to head to preschool to pick Sydney up.  We get home around 1:15 and Hunter's still sleeping, so I bring his carseat into the kitchen and let him continue his nap there.  Sydney and I play for a little bit and I ask her about her day.  I'm starting to get a bit more details in her answers these days, but there for a little while the only thing she'd say was that she 'played'. 

2pm - Naptime for Sydney.  And Hunter is waking up to eat.   So I feed him/change a diaper.  He relaxes in my arms for a while and when he starts to nod off, I take him to the bassinet for a nap. This is definitely his fussy time of the day and he spends the next 'naptime' alternating between screaming and taking quick catnaps.  I, meanwhile, spend my time checking the video monitor and muttering to myself questions like 'why won't he keep the flipping pacifier IN his mouth?' and 'sweet boy, why did you spit the paci out AGAIN? you know it makes you angry when you do that.' and 'is it time for Dan to come home yet?'

Between trips upstairs to replace a paci in Hunter's mouth and one to Sydney's room to remind her that she can talk to her baby doll AFTER naptime, my productivity is limited to putting a load of laundry into the wash.

5pm - Both kids are up.  I let Sydney watch a show (Curious George) while I feed Hunter.  Dan calls to say that he's on his way home (woohoo!). 

I reheat some homemade soup from the freezer for dinner and play with the kiddos for a bit.

6pm - Dan is home.  Hunter has fallen asleep in his bouncey seat and I remind Sydney yet again that she can't play with her brother while he's sleeping.

6:30 - dinnertime.  Sydney says the blessing for us before dinner.  It is incredibly cute and like most nights, it leaves Dan and I biting our tongues so that we don't laugh out loud.  She folds her little hands and closes her eyes tight.  Last night the blessing went something like this: "Us bodies.  Mommy, Daddy.  Baby Hunter be happy.  MAE-MAE, Grampie.  Grandma, GranGran (granddaddy).  Thank you Father us food, many blessings. Amen."  (the 'us bodies' is a nod to the part when Dan and I usually say 'bless this food to our bodies' when he or I says the blessing.  The list of family members comes from her nighttime prayers.  As for the "baby Hunter be happy" part - I dont' really know where that came from, but I'm not going to stop her from praying for that!

7:00 - Sydney has some 'independent playtime' in her playroom while Dan and I clean up the kitchen and have a chance to talk about our days.  Sydney is really NOT feeling the 'independent' part of 'independent playtime', so we have to pop our head into her playroom every now and then to encourage her to be happy. 

When Dan goes into her playroom she tells him that she doesn't like her playroom because it's messy.  So - Dan reminds her that she can clean it up, gives her a bit of direction and tells her he'll be back to check in a few minutes.

Dan and I hang out with Hunter in the living room.  (with periodic trips to the playroom to check on Sydney's cleaning up progress).

7:30 - Sydney joins us in the living room and we all hang out for a bit.  Dan turns on some music and Sydney has "dance parties."  Her music request for tonight:  Dropkick Murphies (the blue cd). 

8 - bedtime for Sydney and bottle-time with Daddy for Hunter.

After his bottle, Hunter gets changed and swaddled and put into his basinette.  He falls asleep with just a few minutes of fussing (but no real crying tonight... woohoo!).

Dan and I crash on the couch with the intentions of watching a show that we've taped.  (Sometimes, this results in us watching about half a show and then one of us waking the other of us up and saying 'let's go to bed.' :) ).

Tonight, so we hang out downstairs watching tv and catching up with each other until it's time to feed Hunter again.

11pm - Hunter eats again and falls right back asleep.  He'll will wake up once to eat (maybe twice, but probably just once) before 8am, so Dan and I crash pretty soon after he does so that we have a chance at getting some sleep.

So Fresh and So Clean

Getting ready... This is usually where I can find Sydney - right by my side as I am doing something for Hunter. :)

 

 Before we got started... he had no idea what was coming!

 

 Not a big fan of the bath so far.

 

 He got a lot happier once Mama got him out of the tub.

 

 My little cutie!

A is for Apple

We went apple picking in Ellijay a couple of weeks ago.  Just like last year, we all had a great time. We came home with a bunch of apples and have a little stockpile of apple butter, applesauce and apple pie filling in the pantry now :)

 

Apples!

 

She was excited :)

 

Sydney was off and running as soon as we got there

(check out all of that hair blowing in the breeze!)

 

 "Look Mom!"

 

Dan carried Hunter... it was his turn since I'd already taken a turn for 9 months :)  (I don't think he minded too much!)

 

All loaded up!

 

One

One month old already!

 

 

 

Length and weight from the doctor visit this morning:

10 lbs 14 oz

22 inches long 

  

Hunter is eating like a champ -- about every 3 hours, pretty much around the clock. We had a stretch for a week or so where he was stretching that out at night and the middle of the night feedings weren't quite as frequent, but our Little Man is an eater and likes to wake up to eat.   Thankfully, he'll eat and go straight back to sleep.

 

Sydney is doing great as a big sister... she loves to help hold Hunter or bring him a paci or a toy.  She's VERY quick to remind us that she's the 'big sister'.

 

We're adjusting to life as a family of four...granted, it takes us a big longer to get out the door when we're going somewhere, but we're getting better at it :)   And we've already toted Hunter around on lots of fun adventures (more posts to come), so having a newborn isn't slowing us down TOO much.  (we are just doing it with a bit more coffee than usual :)  ).



A playdate at the park

We met up with the kids from Sydney's preschool class this morning at the park. 

On the way to the park she told me "My goin' playground with my scloo friends.  My 'cited!"   (Translation:  'I'm going to the playground with my school friends.  I'm excited!')   :)

We fed the ducks.

 

And played with friends.

And even met a frog. 

(the poor frog was immediately surrounded by a dozen two year olds.  one of the other mommies scooped him up and 'took him to his house' in the grass on the other side of the playground.)

"big sister read you a book"

Up 14

 

We went to the dr yesterday for a weight check to make sure that Little Man is growing well.  The answer was a resounding 'yes' --- he was up 14 oz from last Monday.   The doctor just starting laughing and said that she thought the nurse wrote down the weight wrong.  Nope, no typos by the nurse, he really did put on almost a pound in 7 days. 

 

For those keeping track, at her week and a half weight check, Sydney was up to 8 lb 8 oz.  Up 10 oz from her birth weight.   Hunter was 8 lb 14 oz.  Up 10 oz from his birth weight.    Apparently my children like to eat :)

A house divided

You know how some people have those "house divided" license plates? We don't have one of those, but we did have a bit of a divided baby for game day... Hunter sported his Georgia Tech blanket and a Georgia hat.

He's here!

Little Man has arrived!

Hunter Daniel Chase arrived Sept. 20, 2012 at 2:32 am. 8 lbs, 4 oz. 21 inches long.

Off to school

A couple of things to note:
1.  her preschool is at our church.  so that's been a bit confusing to her.  hence her answer of church when I asked where she was going.
2. apologies for the shaky camera work -- the only way that I can video her these days is if I turn the camera screen around so she can see herself during the 'taping'

Our Preschooler

Sydney was very excited to start preschool this morning.  All morning she kept reminding me "Mama drop Sydney off, go home".   When we got to school, she walked right into her classroom and didn't look back -- no tears or anything! :)

 

She's officially a preschooler!

Parrot

Sydney is quite the talker these days.  And she's also a little parrot.  She's quick to copy ANYTHING that we say and throw it back at us at a later date....

Examples:

(driving in the car, when a car pulled out in front of me)
Me: "Oh come on!"
Sydney (from the backseat):  "Bad driver!  Mama, Look!  Bad driver!  Sydney tell driver 'no-no'.  Driver, No-No!"


(as I was walking down the stairs, the dogs started wrestling and keep bumping into me)
Me: "Hey!  That's enough!"
Sydney: "Mama?  Rough day?"

My name is...

Little Miss likes to refer to herself in the third person (and a third person nickname at that).  Pronouns are proving a bit confusing, so sometimes she just sticks to "Syd".  Probably heard most often in "No mama! Syd do self."

So, we've been working on what her name is.

She gets a little impatient with us since we ask her so much (she probably thinks we're pretty dumb since we "can't remember" and have to keep asking), so I've been having some trouble getting it on video.

Sydney-isms

I love Sydney's phrases and words that don't come out quite right.  Her Sydney-isms crack Dan and I up on a regular basis.

Unfortunately (or I guess, fortunately) she's starting to lose some of these, but I wanted to document them so that Dan and I can reminisce at some point :) ...

• "Dub-Dub" (aka the letter "W") has been recently replaced with the proper name for the letter. That was a sad day.  We used to ask her 'what letter is this' on a regular basis just to hear 'dub dub'
• "Peeps"  She uses "peeps" for 'people' or for 'somebody'.   As in: "hear peeps cut grass" ('I hear somebody cutting the grass') or 'peeps running'.   I think this one may start to phase out pretty quickly because when we ran an errand last week, I came to a red-light and someone started yelling 'move people! move people!' from the backseat. :)
• "Rengy".  Aka 'orange'.  Sydney learned her colors a while ago - she could pick them out if you asked her to point to a certain color. And she could name most of them (all except for orange).  She's only started saying 'rengy' in the past month or so.  This may have replaced Dub-Dub as my current favorite.  We ask her 'what color is this' when pointing to an orange item all the time.
• "PGs" (pronounced like pee-gees aka PJs).  Somehow the J and the G got confused, so she wears "Pee-gee's" to bed at night.
• "Lella" Despite being able to say the B sound, Bella's name has remained "Lella".  (Bentley, by comparison, is in fact "Bentley".  with the B sound.)
• "Them's".... We had a playdate the other morning and when her friends left, Sydney told me that they were going to "drive to them's house".  
• "Nam" - aka banana.  Not terribly sure how she got 'nam' out of 'banana'.

The Chase's

Uncle Matt and Aunt Natalie came to visit this past weekend and we had the whole Chase Family in the same place for the first time in a year or so. 

The cousins had fun playing:

And we even managed to grab a photo with everyone.  It only took 2 different 'photo sessions' to get one with all 11 of us looking at the camera :)

Dance Parties

Sydney LOVES to have 'dance parties' - she wants us to turn on some music and she'll dance around the living room.

Two: the stats

Hmm, I just realized that this never got posted.  And we're only a couple of months past her 2nd birthday.... Oops. 
Nevertheless, Sydney had her two year visit recently ('recently' as in - 'in May') and we didn't learn much that we didn't already know.
She gained 5 pounds and 4.5 inches in 6 months.  
So, she's tall (no shocker there.  I knew that when all of her footed pjs quit fitting and her pants all became high-waters.)

Though we did learn that we were giving her too much milk (I didn't even realize that was possible).  So maybe it was the calcium making her super tall. :)

We brought some crayons to the appointment so that the little lady could color on the paper on the exam table and keep herself entertained.  So she showed off her counting skills by counting the crayons for the pediatrician.   And she made sure to let Dr C know that we aren't supposed to color in library books.  Just out of the blue, she looked right at the Dr and said "no color library books".   I don't know, maybe Dr C was looking like she might get all wild and crazy with the crayons. LOL. 

But she was declared 'perfect', but we already knew that :)

4th of July

We spent the 4th of July at MAE-MAE and Grampie's house hanging out, grilling out, eating and taking naps (okay, maybe that part was just me and Sydney :) ).   We got there before it got TOO hot, so we spent a few minutes grabbing some pictures of Sydney first.

Saying 'cheese' for the camera

Playing with the rocks

She's so stinkin' cute

We also went to watch the neighborhood parade, which I must say was MUCH bigger than the one we saw a couple of years ago.

Waiting for the parade

Putting her flags in the ground

the parade

her favorite part of the parade?  that they threw lollipops.

once she got her hands on the lollipop she tossed the flags to the ground and was 100% focused on the lollipop

my favorite parade participant.  there is NO WAY that Bentley would let me dress him like that. but look how cute this little guy is.

Sydney found a card that played music when you opened it, and she spent most of the day dancing around.  I think the adults might still have this song stuck in our heads, given the number of times we heard it that day.

Catch Up Photos

the Atlanta Botanical Garden :: 107.6 - it’s been a hot summer :: swinging at Thrasher Park

meeting Curious George :: worn out :: playing at the Splashground

still pretty as a flower, but definitely taller than last time :: 28.5 weeks

No whammy, no whammy, stop.

I'm not sure that I can even offer an explanation for where she picked this up.

But apparently we're practicing for a future appearance on Press Your Luck.

(and apologies for the oh-so-wonderful camera angle. Someone is more interested in watching videos of herself than performing for the camera, so we have to take what we can get these days. :) )

Meeting Curious George

Curious George was hanging out at the bookstore this morning, so Sydney got to meet him -- she walked right up there and gave him a big hug.

Dear Publix Cashier...

Dear Publix Cashier,

Just as an FYI, seeing my pregnant belly, asking my due date and then telling me that I'm "going to be as big as a barrel by then" is rude.

Sincerely,
Kristen

Friday Photos

it was a bit of a rough afternoon :: Sydney decided she didn’t like the wallpaper in her room (I don’t either, quite honestly, but we’re renting, so we weren’t exactly planning on taking it down….) :: putting on deodorant

a picasso-inspired face :: playing with Daddy :: one of the gems that Sydney picked out at the library this week

we played trivia this week and came in 3rd.  the prize was a mariachi inspired shirt :: Bentley

Friday Photos

We're going with a photo dump again this week since I can't seem to find the time to write a full blog post!

yogurt :: splish-splash :: the sunday comics

boo-boos :: the only time I've seen her suck her thumb (due to previously mentioned boo-boos) :: reading with Dada

coloring :: pigtails

Friday Photos

A few photos from our week:

'testing' out some newly rediscovered baby toys :: my water baby :: flowers from my hubs

23 and a half weeks :: on the computer at the library :: hugs for Bella

an in-progress quilt for Little Man :: kisses

100th Anniversary

We went to Fenway for a game, but we also went back during their 100th anniversary celebration.  It was an open house of sorts and we were able to wander around the whole park.

We saw the famous red seat that indicates where the longest home run ball hit in Fenway landed.

We met Wally (well, a Wally statue).   Sydney was more than a little confused. 

And saw Pesky's Pole.

We took a little time to practice learning our letters:

And spent some time up on the Green Monster.

We even got to walk out on the field. Sydney kept trying to play in the dirt on the warning track. As someone near us commented, it was like she knew it was 'special dirt.'

It was like Christmas morning for someone. And Sydney seemed to enjoy herself too. :)