Sydney's Summer Vacation

[Mom&DadMulhern]

SYDNEY’S SUMMER VACATION

Recently, we had a rare opportunity. Michael and Meghan decided to go to Las Vegas for the weekend from July 30 thru August 2nd. Mike and I were asked to sit with Sydney, and we planned to meet halfway to pick her up. Cassie was so excited to have her cousin come for a visit. We decided she would have more fun staying with her Aunt Jenny, so Cassie helped Jenny fix up the guestroom right next to Cassie’s room for Sydney. Cassie very carefully picked out stuffed animals to sit around the room for Sydney to see and play with. She was counting the days until we could go pick her up.

FRIDAY:
When Friday came, Cassie was a bundle of excitement. She could not wait to go pick up Sydney. Meghan had purchased a used car seat for an earlier visit and left it with us. Quite coincidentally, it was an exact match to Cassie’s car seat. Jenny placed both in the back seat of her Expedition, put the girls in their seats next to the windows, and placed a tub of toys in between them. If all else failed, an over-the-seat DVD player was all set to entertain with movies.

With Cassie secured in her seat, smile on her face, toys and snacks ready, we were off. We drove to Normal, Illinois Friday and met Michael, Meghan and Sydney at a Steak & Shake at Exit 165A off I-55. We arrived around 1:00, just before they did and went inside. We could see when they arrived. Michael carried Sydney inside, and she immediately put on her shy act, burying her face in Michael’s neck. She slowly agreed to sit on a chair and eat some mac ‘n cheese and applesauce. After getting her tummy full, she warmed up to us.

After we ate and visited a little while, Meghan carried Sydney out and placed her in her car seat. We were all wondering how that would go, but it seemed fine. There was a big smile on Sydney’s face, and she was ready for the trip. We all said our goodbye’s and we were off.

Jenny had bought little stuffed puppies for both of the girls. Cassie chose the light one named Honey and gave Sydney the darker one, which Cassie named Chocolate. Jenny had bought silky ribbon to put around the puppies’ necks, which the girls loved. Both of them like to feel the silky ribbons on their tag blankets, so it was cute to see them holding their puppies and stroking the ribbons.

Sydney was happy all the way. She looked out the windows easily in Jenny’s big Expedition and pointed to a train and trucks. So cute. Along with her new stuffed puppy, she liked Cassie’s Doodle Pad. Entertained herself with that while Cassie decided to watch Cinderella on the DVD player.

When we got back after the two hour car trip, she was excited, as was Cassie. We showed her the room that was prepared just for her. She seemed to understand that she would be staying in there. Soon, Uncle Abe came home from work and Papaw came over for dinner. We had pizza. Cassie and Sydney had peanut butter and grape jelly Uncrustables and milk. After dinner, the girls played and played. As would be the case with little ones, they didn’t really play together, but played with their own things separately but close by. She was afraid of Jenny’s dogs and said, “Want dogs go away.” So, Jenny put Blossom and Bailey outside for the rest of the evening.

Jenny got the bathtub ready to give the girls a bath and get them ready for bed. She had bought bathtub crayons. Cassie immediately got in and started drawing on the tub and the walls around the tub, but Sydney was not so sure she wanted a bath. She sat on Cassie’s potty chair for quite a while watching Cassie in the tub. As to not make her cry on her first night there, Jenny let Sydney draw with the crayons on the outside of the tub and went ahead and cleaned her off. I took her then and put her PJ’s on, while Jenny got Cassie out of the tub and ready for bed.

Jenny took Sydney and read her some books in the hopes of making her sleepy. I took Cassie in her room and read stories until she went to sleep. I think Cassie was asleep long before Sydney. It took several tries putting her in the Pack ‘n Play to get Sydney asleep, but finally all was quiet in the Loveless household. I left and went back to our house.


SATURDAY:
Up at 6:30 am. Sydney ate a bagel with strawberry cream cheese and blueberries along with milk. Well, actually she ate one blueberry and discovered that the blueberries were very fun little balls to roll around on the highchair tray. I went back over around 8:30 and played with the girls in the basement while Jenny got ready for the day. Sydney immediately liked the Party Kitchen in the playroom. Lots of little dishes and cups and saucers to play with. She pretended to cook and put plastic veggies into the pots and pans and set the table. Cassie was content to play with her Barbies close by.

Papaw came over for lunch, and we all went upstairs for that. Sydney and Cassie each got ham, cheese and crackers for lunch along with milk. They probably could have just shared because Sydney mostly just ate the crackers and Cassie the cheese but both downed the milk.

After lunch Sydney easily went down for a nap from 11:30 to 2:00. When she awoke she was all happy and so Jenny and I decided to try something risky. We took the girls to Wal-Mart in the hopes of getting their pictures taken together. Luckily, there was no waiting line. All was good until I tried to place Sydney on the photo table. She wanted nothing to do with that, and the Wee Beastie came out. It wasn’t too bad. Probably not even enough to call a meltdown. Jenny took her and sat with her on the table and once Cassie also positioned herself on the table, she was too busy watching what was going on to continue crying. The photographer brought out bubbles and started blowing them at Sydney, who right away smiled. The girls took their matching stuffed puppies with them and the photographer used them in the pictures. She used one of them to play with Sydney along with the bubbles until Sydney forgot all about being scared and grinned and grinned. She was able to get some really good pictures. We don’t have them yet, but I’m sure by the next visit, there will be plenty to see. I was going to wait and surprise Michael and Meghan, as I hadn’t told them about the pictures, but they will be pleasantly surprised enough when they see the finished pictures.

After the Wal-Mart trip, we went to our house for the rest of the day. Uncle Abe came over, and we all had veals for dinner. Veals (for those of you who don’t know) are thinly pressed breaded ground pork that is deep fried. Veals were created in Wellston, Ohio (Michael’s hometown), by the Abele family, who are Michael’s ancestors. Years ago, many people couldn’t afford meat, so the name ‘veal’ was used as a joke for this inexpensive, yummy sandwich that quickly caught on in the area. Sometimes I make them myself, but these were some that I brought back from our last trip to Wellston, Ohio.

We intended to go out on Papaw’s pontoon boat, but everyone was getting pretty tired by the time we finished dinner. The girls played in the playroom. Sydney especially liked the Fisher Price Playhouse that was Cassie’s. We keep it at our house for her. She loves to ring the little house’s doorbell and put the window shade up and down. We all went back to Jenny and Abe’s house to get the girls quieted down for the night. I rocked Sydney until she was soon asleep, but when I went to put her down in the Pack n Play, she woke up and seemed afraid, so I picked her back up and lay on the bed with her. She went to sleep on top of me. After Jenny got Cassie in bed and asleep, she came in, took Sydney off me and put her easily in the Pack n Play sound asleep. It was about 9:00.

SUNDAY:
The day began about 7:00am. Sydney once again woke up happy and smiling and ready for breakfast. She ate cheerios and cantaloupe as if they were her favorite foods, ate a small piece of toast and drank a glass and a half of milk. Not sure where she put it all. After breakfast it was time to get Sydney used to the dogs. It took about 20 minutes of Jenny holding her while she whimpered with the dogs just milling around the room for her to adjust. She didn’t scream during this time but was very nervous if they were within 2 feet of her. After that, she was good and the rest of her visit she seemed to like the dogs.

Syndey was dressed for the day already but Cassie wasn’t yet so Jenny took the girls into Cassie’s room to get her dressed. She sat Sydney on the bed while she got Cassie’s clothes out and the two girls got giddy. They were bouncing and giggling and having a great time on the bed. Next came playing dress-up. Sydney put a purse over her arm and kept peeking out Cassie’s bedroom door at the dogs that were lying just on the other side. She kept saying “side” to say that the dogs were outside the door but Cassie thought she wanted to go outside. Jenny actually thought outside sounded pretty good before it got too hot so we put on shoes and headed for the sandbox.

It was very hot outside so Jenny grabbed two juice boxes and they headed out. When they got to the sandbox Jenny passed out the juice boxes before they got started playing and was amazed that Sydney sucked hers down in about 10 seconds. We only found out later that this was the first juice box she had ever had. She didn’t spill a drop. Sydney was skeptical of getting sandy at first but quickly warmed up and even enjoyed the dogs lying right beside her while she played. She got very talkative pointing out the dogs, a neighbor that was mowing, a car going down the neighbor’s driveway and different toys in the sandbox. The girls took turns burying treasure (coins) and filling and pouring out buckets of sand. After the sandbox, they swung for a short bit and headed inside for a much needed lunch and nap.

As they were heading into the house, Papaw and I arrived for lunch. Sydney was just about too tired for lunch, but she managed to eat some Wheatables and went to sleep really easily from 11:30 to 2:45.
After nap time, everyone went to our house to take a boat ride. Sydney seemed to love that.
We took milk and snacks for the girls. Sydney took turns sitting with Aunt Jenny and me on the boat.

After the boat ride, we came inside and got ready for dinner. We had lasagna and hot bread and it took longer than expected for the lasagna to cook so, Jenny went back to her house and got the girls PJ’s, came back and gave them both a bath. Sydney was not receptive to the bathtub again. The Wee Beastie came out. She got a very quick clean up and out of the tub. Probably because the bathtub put Sydney in a not-so-good mood, she refused to eat anything and just wanted to fuss. We decided to cut the evening short, and this time I didn’t follow Jenny back to her house. I told her to call me if needed, but she said Sydney went down easily in the Pack n Play. Jenny lay down on the floor beside her until she went to sleep. It was the easiest that Sydney had gone to bed since arriving.

MONDAY:
Sydney was apparently a tired girl because she slept in. When Jenny finally heard her cooing at 7:45am, she went in to get her out of bed. She was happy and gave Aunt Jenny a big smile. Breakfast was Cheerios, strawberry Jello with peaches and milk. She ate every last Cheerio but wasn’t at all sure about the Jello. She did decide at some point though that is was fun to feed all the Jello to Cassie so that elicited a lot of giggles.

After breakfast, the girls played in the living room for awhile. Sydney enjoyed some of Cassie’s play dishes, stacking cups and then knocking them down. She brushed Barbie’s hair, washed clothes in Cassie’s clothes washer, and played with foam blocks. Next they headed to the playroom for a change of scenery. In the playroom, Sydney played ball, colored with chalk, slid on the slide, pushed a toy shopping cart, played peek-a-boo with Cassie and most of all enjoyed shaking a Ziploc bag full of strawberry shortcake pieces.

Due to the sleeping in, Sydney didn’t get tired until much later today. Papaw and I went over about noon and took lunch. Sydney ate a couple of fries that she enjoyed dipping in ketchup and some peanut butter wheat crackers but otherwise didn’t want anything. She took a nap from 12:30 to 2:30pm.

Michael and Meghan’s flight was due in today around 2:30. They called about 3:30 to say they were getting in the car to meet us again at that same Steak n Shake in Normal, Illinois. We started out too at that time, giving each of us a two-hour drive to meet. Sydney was fine the whole trip. Jenny drove, Mike sat up front, and I sat in between the girls in the back seat this time and played with them. Very happy all the way. Sydney seemed to understand that we would be going to meet her mommy and daddy.

Once there, we were ahead of them again. We went in and Sydney sat on Jenny’s lap. She saw when her mommy and daddy arrived, and was all smiles watching them getting ready to walk into the building. When they got to the table though, instead of reaching for them, she didn’t want to leave Jenny’s lap. We were kind of afraid this would happen, as she seems to attach herself to one person and then take her time warming up to another, regardless of whether she knows them well or not.

Meghan and Michael brought her a green M&M cap from the M&M Factory. They brought Cassie green M&M pajamas, which Cassie couldn’t wait to put on.

After much coaxing and Wee Beastie antics, Meghan took Sydney outside. She calmed down, but I think she was overwhelmed by having everyone there. Not sure she understood what was happening. I tried to kiss her goodbye, and she turned away from me, which made me feel worse. Jenny didn’t even try, as to not upset her more. We said our goodbyes to Michael and Meghan, waved to Sydney and left. As I’m sure Michael or Meghan will post, Sydney calmed down within a few minutes of leaving and chatted until she fell asleep arriving home.

It was the end of Sydney’s summer vacation.
Sydney, we really enjoyed having you here, and we hope you will come and visit us again real soon.
Thank you, Meghan and Michael, for trusting us with your little one. We all had a great time!

[mightymulhern]

Many thanks to Jenny, Abe, Cassie, Mom, & Dad for looking after our Wee Beastie for the weekend. We had a great time in Vegas.

Sydney clearly had a great time, but I think she was just overwhelmed by having us back all of the sudden. We probably stayed away a day too long for her liking.

Later the night we got back as well as the next day, we tried asking her about her trip, and our queries were met by immediate whimpering. We dropped it for a few days and then asked again. At that point she was all smiles and answered "Yeah!" very enthusiastically when we asked about playing with Aunt Jenny, Nanna, and Cassie. She even said she like Bailey, one of Jenny's dogs.

Interestingly, in the middle of last week we explained that Aunt Sarah was going to come and watch her on Saturday, and she flatly said "No! Ma and Da". That's the first time we've gotten that type of reaction. Anyway, Saturday night went off without a hitch. Sydney was good and had fun with Sarah.

So now the question is how to break it to her that Meghan is going to India for 6 days the week of August 23rd.