Springtime Fun

Over the past few weekends, we have had a wonderful taste of springtime weather.  After tons of rain and some fairly cold weather, we have been outside soaking up the perfect temperatures and sunny skies.  Sydney's favorite phrase has become "I'm thinking we could play outside for a little bit".  She says it when returning home from errands, after her nap, and when she finishes eating.  I am so glad she enjoys being outside.

We have taken advantage of the weather by going to several of the parks near our house.  We have especially come to enjoy going to the Yates Mill Pond Park.  Sydney loves looking at the waterfall, and they have great hiking trails. 

Using a hiking stick

Yates Mill Waterfall

Sydney and Daddy

Taking a hike

Hiking with Daddy

Happy girl!

Another favorite for Sydney is quickly becoming 'football'.  Football to Sydney is her daddy kicking the ball "high into the sky" while Sydney then chases it down and brings it back to him so he can do it again. This game has provided many laughs when the ball gets stuck in trees or gutters.  :)

Chasing down the football

Oops

Haha

Bringing Daddy the football

Snow(ish)

While we had an overall mild winter, we did have a couple of days with winter weather.  I am not the biggest fan of winter, so I'm ok with the fact we didn't have a ton of snow, but I do wish we had gotten a few good inches for Sydney to experience sledding and snowman building.  The couple of days that it did snow, it didn't stick, but Sydney enjoyed looking at it.  Maybe next year...

Yes, that really is snow

Checking out the snow

Happy Valentine's Day!

This year Sydney loved telling everyone "Happy Valentine's Day", and continued saying it for several days afterward.  We had fun making cookies and decorating them with friends as well as giving and receiving Valentines.  As sappy as it is, I love any reason for telling each other how much love we have!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Flowers from Daddy

T-rex shirt!

A Valentine for Daddy

Decorating cookies with friends

Sea Turtle Exhibit at Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium

One of our favorite things to do when we go to the beach is to visit the aquarium, especially in the winter months. This weekend we took a quick weekend trip to the beach and also made it to the aquarium, and actually watched a couple of the programs.  The first we watched was at the shark exhibit. They had scuba divers in the tank who answered questions and talked about what they were doing while they swam. Sydney wasn't super interested in what they were talking about but she did enjoy seeing the scuba divers and sharks...but only from a distance. My favorite comment of the day from her was "that shark has ugly teeth".

We also watched the otter enrichment, again where the aquarium workers answer questions and give a basic overview of the otters. They also put fish and carrots (who knew otters would be so excited about carrots?) out in their habitat, which it was fun to watch the otters search for the goodies.

The aquarium has just added a new exhibit dedicated to sea turtles.  Nimbus, a rare white sea turtle with a cleft palate and permanent fixture at the aquarium, is the "star" of the exhibit.  Sydney got to wear a white lab coat and carry an electronic turtle around the exhibit. She put her turtle in one area for diagnosis. She got to draw blood and put in a machine for analysis.  Her turtle was diagnosed as having low weight. She then got to take the turtle to the treatment area. She lost interest at this point as it went into great detail about what the diagnosis meant and how to treat the turtle (including something about a turtle enema!) so we moved on to the next section. There she was able to weigh baby sea turtles. Finally, she got to release her turtle back into the sea! This exhibit was awesome. I'm sure we will visit it again soon!

Here's my turtle

Diagnosing the turtle

Weighing the baby turtle

Releasing the turtle back to the sea

Dr. Sydney

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas we had a four day extravaganza. We started out at Sydney's Nana and Grampa's house and were joined by Uncle Matthew and Aunt Katie. Nana and Grampa bought Sydney some Christmas "creatures" (snowmen, reindeer, and santas) which she carried around and played with nonstop. She also loved decorating sugar cookies with Nana. They put frosting and sprinkles on the cookies.  Sydney loved putting sprinkles on the most.  She also liked serving everyone. :)  Sydney was also spoiled with many gifts and had a blast opening them.

Cookies with Nana

Sprinkles!

Yum!

Present time!

Pretending to go to the beach

We stayed at Nana and Grampa's through Christmas Eve, but came home that evening to prepare for Santa!  I have enjoyed starting new traditions with Sydney this year, especially since she is old enough to truly participate.  This year we made cookies for Santa- chocolate chip, of course!  Sydney helped with adding ingredients, and I think it's a miracle the cookies turned out as well as they did since she "helped" so much.  When we put the cookies out for Santa, I asked her how many she thought we should put out, and her response was "all of them!".  After we baked the cookies, Blake showed Sydney the Norad Santa tracking website.  She was definitely intrigued, and I know this will be a tradition in years to come as she becomes more aware of the fact that Santa goes to everyone's house!

Adding ingredients

Where's Santa?

I felt like a kid myself on Christmas morning.  I couldn't wait for Sydney to wake up so she could see her gifts from Santa.  We asked her if she remembered who was supposed to come the night before, and she knew it was Santa.  However, I think she was kind of like "whatever, you guys keep talking about Santa but I'm not really seeing anything".  When she came downstairs and saw her Santa pile, though, I think it all clicked together.  Her word of the morning was "Look!".  Santa brought her a bunch of creatures, per her request, and she picked each one up to check it out as she said "Look!"

Creatures!!

Look!!!!!!!

T-rex!!

And...more creatures!

As a family present, Blake and I bought an iPad.  We had it for quite a while but decided we wouldn't use it until Christmas- talk about burning a hole in your pocket!  Well, we had a blast with it on Christmas morning.  The best part was getting to do Face Time with Sydney's Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Pete, and cousing PJ.  Since they live in California, we never get to see them.  While I talk all the time about them to Sydney, it is hard to know how much she really understands.  It was amazing for Sydney to be able to hear them and see them!  She loved seeing all of PJ's toys as well as their pets.  I am so glad she will now be able to get to know her cousin, even virtually!

Christmas evening we headed up to Blake's grandmother's house.  She had tons of food, and it was great to just visit with family.  Sydney especially enjoyed playing with her cousin Amelia, who is several years older than Sydney, but is wonderful with her.  Of course, there were also some presents to open. :)

Sharing creatures with Amelia

Presents!

Ernie from Aunt Carolyn

The day after Christmas (thus the four day extravaganza), we got together with Blake's immediate family- Sydney's MeMe and Pops and Uncle Brent and (soon-to-be) Aunt Catherine.  We, of course, enjoyed more food and present opening and Sydney was much the center of attention again.  It was so nice having Catherine in the mix as well this year!

With MeMe and Pops

Aunt Catherine and Uncle Brent

Delicious food at MeMe and Pops

Disney On Ice

At the beginning of December, Blake and I took Sydney to see Disney on Ice.  We weren't sure how she would like it, especially since she hasn't seen any of the movies.  She is familiar with Mickey and Minnie, so we figured she would at least be a bit entertained by them.  To say she liked would be an understatement.  She was totally engrossed the entire time and still talks about going to see the "show".  In fact, she now pretends that she is "ice skating like Mickey" all the time.  This simply means she is running around in circles.  :)  Overall her favorites were Mickey and Goofy and the Little Mermaid part, especially Sebastian and Flounder.

Checking out the ice before the show started

Mickey!

Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy

After the show!

We went with Sydney's friend Lilyanne and her parents (thanks for the awesome seats, Dianne!).  Sydney constantly talks about Lilyanne, but the funny part is that they basically ignore each other whenever we get together.  When it was time to go, we tried to get the girls to hug each other before leaving.  They both acted super shy and braced for a hug, but neither actually extended arms or even attempted a hug.  So funny to see how two year olds interact!  I hate that I didn't get any pictures of them together...