Uncle Josh Comes to Town

It's not very often that Uncle Josh comes to visit, so when he does, Sydney gets pretty darn excited.  Lizzy is still a little unsure about Uncle Josh...she liked his presence, but didn't necessarily like for him to hold her or touch her.  He came for two weeks before his year long trip (or until he runs out of money) to Africa.  I don't know too many people who are willing to travel to Africa for a year all alone, but Josh seems to think it's a great idea.  We couldn't be more opposite!  It's hard for me to even step foot on to an airplane...I'm perfectly happy at home and he is ready to go or do anything no matter what time of day it is.

Speaking of time of day, Josh seems to have his days and nights a little mixed up, which completely baffled Sydney.  She thought he was always sleeping.  Josh would run on the treadmill at 3 in the morning before going to bed.  One day, I was getting the kids ready to go to daycare and Josh walks in the door from wherever he was, ate breakfast, and went to sleep just when we were getting our day started.  One of the days, I heard the garage door open at 4am, and I got up and asked him where in the world he could have possibly gone.  He said he was bored, so he went to Meijer to buy a couple of books...I guess that's a reasonable answer, just an odd time of day, but I would imagine the lines are pretty short at that time, so he had that going for him!  So, it was very apparent that Josh was in our house due to his conflicting schedule, you could hear strange things in the middle of the night, but it was just Josh being Josh.

One thing that Sydney always thinks of when it comes to Josh is Chuckie Cheese.  She made sure that he took her.  She wouldn't stop talking about it until he did.  It's her favorite thing to do with him.  Of course, on the day that they went, she had to wait until 3:30pm for Josh to wake up for the day, but hey...they went and had a great time.

Unfortunately we didn't catch too many pictures with Josh (duh, he was always sleeping), but that doesn't mean we didn't have fun.  He was here for Hanukkah, which was fun, because now Sydney is at the age when she really gets it.  Although Josh wasn't here for the entire duration of Hanukkah, we had a great family party and he got to be here to see the girls rip into their presents.  Unfortunately, Sydney is just like me when I was little.  She would open a present, get all excited, and then throw it aside and say, "can I have another one?"  I know it's hard to open just one a night, but the kids survived.  Even Lizzy understood that when we light the candles, it usually means that a present would follow.  As soon as the candles were lit, Lizzy would dash into the family room and grab a present and start ripping.  She even knew which wrapping paper belonged to her.  It was a lot of fun!

The last thing that Josh did, was bring our video games back to life.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing.  I will say that we had a ton of fun playing Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Wii Bowling, but when it comes to war games, I'd rather not get Jason started on them...but oh well!  As long as he helps out and does his chores, he can play his games all night long (when I'm not watching)!

So, all in all, we had a great time with Josh.  Sydney calls the spare room Uncle Josh's room.  Lizzy still looks for him.  The other morning, she opened the spare room door and yelled "hiiiiiii", but didn't get a response, so she went closer to the bed and started hitting it and saying hi, but no one answered.  The kids grew accustomed to him being in the bed during their waking hours, so Lizzy would at least hear a voice come from the bed when she would say hi.  But he is gone and Sydney keeps asking when he's coming home.  She doesn't understand how far away Africa really is and has no concept of time, so telling her he is gone for a year means absolutely nothing!

Eventually Josh will be back though, and he'll have to come back here to get his car.  So, I'm sure we will relive all of these events again and then hopefully the kids will seem him on a more regular basis.  He tends to travel a lot lately and leaves for a year at a time, but he has to settle down eventually, right? Well, at least we'd like to think so!

By the way, I'm not sure what's up with his long hair, but again, it's just Josh being Josh!

School Visit

I've been a little behind on this whole blogging bit, Josh was in town which turned the house upside down (not in a bad way), but more on him later.  Anyway, last Thursday, the parents were invited to Sydney's school for a gingerbread party.  Of course, I will jump at any opportunity to visit the school, I just love the little kids.  We had a ton of fun!

First we got to decorate cookies, one girl and one boy...Sydney gave me the boy to decorate, I wasn't surprised at all.  Another thing which didn't surprise me in the least bit was how quickly Sydney grabbed for the pink sprinkles.  She didn't care about the fact that there were M&M;s, Fruit Loops, raisins, licorice,etc., she only wanted a pink gingerbread.  I explained to her that the white frosting was kind of like the glue to help the sprinkles stick.  She reluctantly picked up a glob of frosting and stuck it in one spot, dumped some pink sprinkles on it and said, "DONE"!  Of course she was the first one done because everyone else was making cute faces and outfits, I tried to get her to do that too, but the teacher said there was no wrong way to do this, so I gave in and decorated my boy while Sydney ate her girl...she just couldn't wait!

When we went back to the classroom, the kids had practiced three songs to sing to us...it was the cutest thing ever.  Sydney sang along to the Zoophonics song, but for the other two songs, she just stood there staring at me.  She ended up just standing with Mrs. Teeples (the assistant teacher) who was trying to get her to participate.  On the way home, I asked Sydney why she wouldn't sing and she told me that she didn't want me to hear her...I guess kids will be kids...but it certainly was cute.

Finally, they gave us some awesome snacks (as if the cookies weren't enough) and took our pictures in a snowman board.  Sydney thought it was pretty darn neat...I was impressed too since Mrs. Teeple's husband painted it...I can't even draw a stick figure, so I'm easily impressed, but it really was cool. 

I'm glad I was able to spend the morning with Sydney, and the holiday gift that the kids made were absolutely amazing.  They made calendars with really cool artwork for each month.  I'm exctied because I needed a calendar, but I'm even more excited that Sydney made it. I'm very fortunate that my job allows me to leave and participate in these activities!  It means a lot to me to spend these moments with my kids, since I know they will grow up so fast.

Fearless

This past weekend we went to a birthday party for someone at Sydney's daycare (while Uncle Josh slept the day away) which was at the Livonia Rec Center.  That place is just amazing, it's like a one stop shop for everything you could possibly need.  A workout facility, gymnastics, swimming, dance, floor hockey, adult lounge, game room, rock climbing wall, kids tree fort...I mean the list is endless.  We need one of these in Farmington Hills...there probably is one, but I don't know about it and it can't possibly be as amazing as this place.

Anyway, the best part was the swimming area...it was like The Great Wolf Lodge.  And of course as it turns out, my fearless little Lizzy was scared out of her mind.  She spent the entire time with her head between my legs and hung on for dear life.  I thought she would love it since she enjoys splashing in the bathtub so much.  Poor little girl ran to the exit door as fast as she could and was banging on the door hysterically for someone to let her into the locker room.  Although she was crying, I thought it was pretty funny...you have to laugh at your kids sometimes!  Towards the end, she stood next to me and played with the little water fountain, but the second anyone came near her, she was back between my legs. 

Sydney, on the the hand, who is usually very scared of everything, had the time of her life.  It was hard to get her to go home...she loved every minute of it.  She was singing and dancing in the water and playing with her buddies...it was so cute.  She definitely shed a few tears when it was time to go.

I'm thinking that it's time to sign my kids up for swimming lessons soon.  I don't want Lizzy to be this scared of the water and Sydney needs to venture out into water that goes past her ankles (and by the way, she still insisted on wearing the swimsuit with floaties).  The problem is finding the time to actually take them.  It's hard during the work week, and I don't want to be tied down on the weekends, so we'll see.  Swimming in December just doesn't sound appealing to me right now.  Maybe dance lessons first...that's what Sydney really wants.  I guess we have some decisions to make!

"Love My Mommy"

Sydney sang the sweetest song to me today when I picked her up from school and was driving her to daycare. Lately, Sydney likes to sing her conversations.  She picks a tune and then tries to make the words that she wants to say fit into the tune of the song.  It was to the tune of  "Found a Peanut".  She sang, "I love my mommy, love my mommy, love my mommy, she's the best, mommy in the wooo oooo ooooo ooooold oh ye eh ehs she is."  How sweet is that?  It certainly made my day!  I think Sydney is just in an extra good mood because her favorite Uncle Josh is in town and will be staying for a couple weeks before he leaves for Africa.

I'm pretty sure there will be lots of Uncle Josh stories to come.  Josh arrived yesterday from Florida and I'm not quite sure that he realizes he's in Michigan.  Usually in December in Michigan, we don't wear shorts and flip flops...but Josh does.  We all went to Red Coat Tavern for dinner all bundled up for winter and he was still dressed for Florida.  He better go shopping and buy a pair of pants to survive his visit.  I suggested that he might want to get a haircut as well since I've never seen his hair so long, but he didn't like the suggestion!

But anyway, Sydney doesn't care how Uncle Josh dresses, she just loves playing with him every second!  On tap for tomorrow...Chuckie Cheese!