Christmas Day

Christmas Day was remarkably uneventful for the most part. Sydney woke up bright and early. We brushed her teeth and brought her downstairs to open the one remaining present that has not already been opened. Santa made a quick visit to our house and left a few presents this year unlike years past. We decided to open our presents early in the week and move on. The one large remaining box sat under the tree, waiting for Sydney. It was a walking, talking Cabbage Patch Kid baby. Sydney was mildly amused by the doll. She learned to squeeze her hand to make her walk and talk. The CPK doll had a hard plastic pacifier meant to fit tightly into the doll's puckered mouth. Before long, the pacifier was fitting snuggly into Sydney's puckered mouth. It was the only thing she liked about the doll. Ruh roh!

The rest of the day past by quietly. The weather was cold and damp. It had been drizzling slightly all day which somewhat dampened our spirit as well. Early afternoon, Tracie took the baby upstairs to change her diaper. They made a quick stop in the bathroom to wash up. Before long, I heard Sydney burst into tears. I found out she had toppled over and banged her forehead lightly against the vinyl floor. No harm done except for a bruised ego. Her forehead should be rock hard by now. The night before, she had leaned over Tracie as Tracie was bent over. As Tracie stood up, Tracie's head and Sydney's forehead greeted each other cordially with a loud thump. The neighbors probably had heard the noise and thought Santa was landing on our rooftop. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt. There was not even a bruise. Sydney should make a fitness video and title it "Foreheads of Steel".

Back to my story, Tracie calmed Sydney from the fall in the bathroom and took over to the changing room. I decided to sneak downstairs to catch a few minutes of TV while the family was occupied upstairs. I beebopped down the steps while singing a Christmas tune: "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the wayyy..ay..aayy.AYYYY...."

CRASH, BOOM, BANG!!

Tracie was laughing so hard, she had almost turned into Peter Pants (pee'd in her pants). Lying in a heap on top of the metal gate, I could hear her howl in the midst of her laughter: "Oww, oww, oww, I gotta go. I got a full bladder!!"

I had misjudged the last step and reached for the gate at the bottom of the stairs to catch myself. Unfortunately, it was not closed all the way and swung open with my full weight bearing down on it. The gate gave way as my foot caught the lower cross bar and slammed into the corner of the wall. The whole gate crumbled on the hard wood floor with pieces of plaster scattering about and my face planted on top of it. The poor frame was a twisted wreck. What a fine Christmas Day we're having.

I strained my right shoulder pretty badly and could barely lift my right arm but at least I was pretty sure nothing was broken. Similar to Sydney, it was mostly my ego that was bruised. After a few ibuprofen tablets and a shoulder massage from Tracie, I would be almost good as new in a few days.

Xmas Card

Can you believe we are just 11 days from Christmas?? In honor of Sydney's 2nd Christmas, we would like to dedicate a song to everyone.

Get your own at Gizmoz.com

Merrrry Christmas. everybody!!

Sydsie and the Chimichanga

For the uninitiated, a chimichanga is not a dance or a type of Mexican dog. It's a Mexican dish, resembling a fried burrito with a corn tortilla shell. It's one of my favorite food in the world, but only from certain places. There's a Mexican restaurant near my house that we frequent whenever the mood strikes for a killer margarita and a chicken chimichanga (or fajitas on occasion). Our last visit was last Thursday.

I just found out early this morning that my daughter's name was Sydsie. As I had been doing on almost a daily basis for the last 2 weeks, I asked Sydney what her name was. Finally she answered me this morning. I asked the question: "What's your name? Is it Sydney?" to which she replied clearly: "Shid-shee!" Aha!! We were getting somewhere. Words were flowing from her more and more each day. Tracie bought a book with 100 objects pictured inside along with the names of the objects. We had been coaxing Sydney to repeat the words after us. Some came easy. Others were tough or not yet part of her vocabulary. We said "fish." She said "feeshhhhhhhh." Good enough. We said "apple." She said "obboll." Awesome!! We said "banana." She said "Aaaaaaaaaa." Also good enough (I guess).

And so, her name was next on my priority list. My daughter had to know her name. I made sure I asked every morning since Thanksgiving. Now that she had repeated her name, it was time for validation. I waited until Tracie woke up and ready to listen to Sydney. I cornered Tracie and Sydney in the closet.

"Sydney? What's your name? Is it Sydney?" I asked after I had gotten both their attention.

"Shid-sheeee!!" Sydney replied.

Well, Sydsie it is. Good enough for us. Tracie thought Sydsie was a cute nickname.

So the story continued with Sydsie going to the Mexican restaurant for a little fiesta last Thursday with us. Tracie's mom thought it was not a good idea. After all, what Asian baby would eat Mexican food? It tastes nothing like our food. We knew Sydsie liked cheese quesadillas because she loved cheese and had tried the cheese quesadilla before. I also remembered vaguely that she tasted my chicken chimichanga before and did not spit it back out. That night, Tracie and I both were in the mood for the chicken chimichanga and decided that she would split our meals with Sydsie. We shouldn't have to order anything just for her since she had eaten half a banana (i.e. the Aaaaaaaa) and some crackers just half an hour before. The baby was apparently still hungry. She munched on some chips (about a fourth of the basket, actually) before the main dishes came. Tracie got the plastic baby fork and spoon out and cut up a portion of her chimichanga for the baby. She was not prepared for the chimichanga eating contest that was about to start.

Sydsie was ready. No sooner did Tracie put a morsel of the chimichanga on the fork and fed Sydsie was Sydsie's mouth wide open for the next bite. We started an assembly line. Tracie was putting the food on the fork into Sydsie's mouth while I load the spoon. Then Tracie put the spoon into Sydsie's mouth as I frantically load the next piece on the fork. If we were too slow, Sydsie would grab the next piece off the plate herself, dripping with queso (melted cheese, also for those uninitiated in Mexican food). I thought about naming our routine "The Sydsie Shuffle" because we were shuffling between the spoon and fork as fast as we could to feed our little piglet. When it was all over and Sydsie was happy to sit there playing with her crayons and paper, about one thirds of Tracie's chimichanga was gone. About one thirds of my chimichanga was also gone into the abyss called Sydsie's stomach. Tracie and I left the restaurant still hungry. But we were happy that Sydsie loved Mexican food and found it amusing how much she ate.

The Sydsie Shuffle