More goofy Sydney-isms

[mightymulhern]

I mentioned Sydney not liking the helicopter seeds but didn't venture into the broader spectrum of things Sydney's irrational fears, dislikes, and general odd behaviors. Let's list a few for fun:

1. After several successful vacuumings... we appear to be back to being afraid of the vacuum cleaner. Somehow we went from watching and occasionally yelling at it to looking at me with a panicked expression when it was fired up.

2. In the morning when I'm getting Sydney breakfast and Meghan is getting ready, Sydney will often point toward the doorway when Meghan switches on her hair dryer and make an inquiring noise (think "what is that?"). I do a great hair drier imitation in which i pretend to brush my hair with one hand and move a hair drier around with the other while making a noise. Sydney is as fond of my imitation as she is of the actual hair dryer. ie. NOT.

3. When at the park if there are wood chips on the sidewalk (that escaped from the play area), Sydney reserves the right to walk around them steering clear, pointing, and expressing general dissatisfaction for them begin on the sidewalk.

4. Bath time has become more of a challenge lately. Sydney's first bath (ever) was a challenge as was her first bath in the kitchen sink. Other than that, she's always been very receptive to bath time and has had fun playing in the tub. More recently though she doesn't really want to take a bath and REALLY REALLY REALLY doesn't want anyone to wash her back side/nether regions. Getting her to stand up for that has resulted in whining, shaking her head no, and at some points even crying. Why? We have no idea. All of said parts check out as normal and all efforts are made to keep the time spent washing said parts to a minimum.

5. With Easter money from Grandma Mulhern (Sydney's Great-Grandmother), Meghan found a lightly used toy car on Craigslist that a toddler can climb inside and push with his/her feet. Meghan was so excited to give Sydney this car. It's pretty cool and even has an opening/closing door. For the first week, Sydney was terrified of it and wouldn't go near it. Showing it to her resulted in head shaking, "no no no no no", and crying. Then the following week it became the greatest toy ever, she climbed right in, and loved it.

6. Sydney also has a weird thing about having her feet visible. Shoes/socks are ok. Throw a blanket over her legs and suddenly we have a problem. All I can figure is that the only way Sydney has to know that her feet are there is to see them. As one might imagine, this makes keeping a blanket on her at night a challenge. Normally her feet are sticking out or there is no blanket on her at all.

7. Speaking of blankets, Sydney has never liked being wrapped up tightly in a blanket. At school the other day they were doing something butterfly/cocoon related and getting wrapped up in a blanket was part of it. The note coming home informed us that Sydney did not want to be wrapped up in the blanket. We weren't real surprised by that one.

8. Hand washing... Sydney is a little bit odd when it comes to her hands. She doesn't like it when they are dirty. ...and sometimes (often) she sees dirt on her hands that doesn't exist. We're pretty much always looking at Sydney's hand, wiping them with a napkin, or humoring her and letting her wash them in the sink. When they do finger painting or anything else where something could be sticky at school, we can always expect a note that Sydney didn't like _____ on her hands or didn't like it when ____ go stuck to her hands.

It's funny because they have steps up to the sink at school so that the kids can wash their hands. Apparently they wash up frequently. At home, our house is not 1yr old accessible meaning that if Sydney NEEDS to wash her hands, she has to stand on a stool, lean forward, and can then just barely touch the water coming out of the faucet. ...I'll admit I considered building something but decided that my house does NOT need to be 1yr old accessible.

9. I borrowed my neighbor's fire pit a few weeks back to burn some leftover lumber from our basement remodel. Meghan and I had lawn chairs out in the driveway sitting around it and we had Sydney's chair out there too. Rather than sitting in her chair, at one point she sat down on the driveway BEHIND mine putting her as far from the fire as possible while still being an arms length away from me.

10. Until just recently, I've normally been the one to get Sydney out of bed and started on breakfast. Then Meghan would get up, take over Beastie duty, and I would take a shower. A few weeks ago, Meghan got up first and got Sydney out of bed. I got up a short while later to find them both sitting on the couch. Apparently Sydney didn't want breakfast from Meghan and was waiting for me. When I walked in, she handed me her blanket and pacifier and we walked into the kitchen. (Tradition is to hand me those items right before I server her breakfast.) On the flip side of this, Meghan has to put Sydney to bed. I can read the book, but that's usually not good enough. Bed time is mom-time.

11. When at my parents house, Sydney REFUSED to get into the little trolley car to ride down to the lake. There was lots of "no no no no" when Meghan tried to get in it with her. Fortunately she was willing to ride back up.

12. At Chuck E Cheese a few weeks back Sydney didn't take well to the vast majority of the rides. The mini Merry Go Round was scary, as was the horse, as was the monster truck that rocked from side to side, as was the van that rocked front to back. ...we did get her in a car though that rocked gently and she loved that. Everything else was "no no no no no" with lots of head shaking.

13. At Jenny & Abe's, Sydney wasn't very keen on playing up in the play house on stilts... but was soon having enough fun that she forgot she was scared.

14. At Jenny & Abe's, Sydney seemed to think the dogs were going to eat her. In the end she was willing to pet Bailey's tail end but still didn't want anything to do with his head. Either dog trotting towards her, or looking at her within a range of a few feet clearly had her scared.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to pick on Sydney here, but I did think it would be fun to capture some of these things on the forum. Hopefully one day she'll appreciate and be amused by that. The world through the eyes of a 1yr old must be a big and terrifying place.

[Meghan]

Additional Sydney-isms:

1. Every Sunday, Sydney and I go grocery shopping. In the car on the way to the grocery store, I explain that we are going to buy some food, including her favorite food yogurt, but that we aren't going to eat it in the store. We are going to take it home and eat it at home. Then she rides in the cart, and when we get to the yogurt aisle, I explain again that we are going to pick out some yogurt, but we aren't going to eat it now; we are going to take it home. Then I put some yogurt in the cart, and she has a meltdown because I won't let her eat it. Then I explain again that we can eat the yogurt at home. The meltdown usually ends by the time we get to the next aisle.

2. Sydney's fascination with taking things out of other things, and then putting them back in, continues. Now I keep a bunch of different plastic jars with various items in them on the floor in the computer room. I can sit and work for quite awhile while she diligently empties the jars, and then fills them again. Her favorite is a peanut butter jar full of elastic hair ties. She could empty and fill that thing for hours. She also likes to try to put the hair ties in her hair. Unfortunately, her hair is still too short.

3. Sydney's head is finally big enough to wear my sunglasses without them falling down. She loves to put them on and grin at us.