Out of Town

Sydney and I just got back from visiting family out of town. Sydney's Uncle James was on leave after being in Afghanistan and we took the opportunity to spend a little over a week and a half to see him and other family.

Sydney had a great time visiting with all of her family. She played with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas and friends. It seemed like we went to the pool almost everyday. Sydney is rapidly turning into a little waterbaby. At one point, we were at a friend's second birthday (I would share pictures of all of the fun she had with him and his cousin, only I don't have permission from the respective parents to put their boys on Sydney's blog). Sydney was one of the youngest there and I guess between her being younger than the boys and being a girl, everyone was very concerned about the boys splashing her and upsetting her. I kept trying to point out that she was splashing as much as the boys. But I did appreciate the concern. I think it was the birthday boy who taught Sydney that she could indeed climb in and out of a baby pool. As soon as we got home, she tried out that new skill in our own baby pool. Sigh. I guess learning new tricks is the price of seeing friends.



I really enjoy seeing Sydney interact with her grandmas. We spent a lot of time at my mother's house. I would play with my niece and nephew while my mother got to devote her attention to Sydney. I am amazed at my mother's patience for repetitive activities. Among Sydney and Grandma's favorite games was the put the top on and off of the water bottle game. Good grief but the two of them played that for a good ten to twenty minutes at a time. I guess that's what grandmas are for, right? They also played CandyLand while my eight year old nephew made up rules for a Dragonology game for himself, my niece and me to play. I think Sydney and Grandma had more consistent rules in their game than we did in ours.


We also spent a lot of time with my cousin Danielle and her two kids, who are twelve and ten. The ten year old has always had a soft spot for Sydney and spent a great deal of time just playing with her. The twelve year old was very busy with her texting -- I think at one point I texted her in her room while I was in the living room to ask her a question -- but she was generous enough to give us the use of her room for a night (although the life size cut-out of Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer had to be put in the closet to avoid harm -- which was too bad, I wouldn't have minded sleeping with Spike, I mean, sleeping in the room with the cut-out, of course).

The rest of our time was split between visits with Uncle James and Grandma Kim and our good friends Nat and Kristy. Nat and Kristy's daughter is roughly Sydney's age and her cousin, who is two was also there. On the one hand, it was neat to see the three girls playing -- they are like stepping stones in age with no more than six months between each girl. On the other hand, I do not understand how parents of multiples manage -- the trouble those girls could get into together was way more than one girl times three. On the other hand, at one point I got to snuggle with two of the girls reading a book while the third stood and listened and that was pretty neat, so I guess having more than one little one around has its perks.

All in all, it was a great visit, and we're looking forward to going back in July. Some time tomorrow or the next day, I'll post some pictures of Sydney with Uncle James and pictures of Grandma Kim and Sydney at the beach (Sydney's first trip to the beach, actually).