Sydney’s Aunt Chris, who took the picture, tells the tale:

The story with this is that Sydney wanted to open the door to the building by herself. It was a heavy door, but I said OK and let her stay on the outside to try it. As she struggled, and people began to arrive behind her, I opened the door from the inside and reached for Sydney. A man came up behind her and held the door, above her head. I looked up and was face to face with the governor.

He didn’t have a large entourage, and was wearing sunglasses, but I was pretty sure it was him. I sort of muttered,
“Oh…can I take your picture with Sydney?” He was very gracious and stepped over to pose with her. About that time I started to wonder if maybe this was just some guy who looked like the governor, but then I saw a body-guard type guy in a shirt with the state emblem.

Anyway, I told Sydney that this was a very important man - that’s when she gave him the “I’d vote for you look” in the photo. Actually, he’s pretty much a crook like most of the Chicago/Illinois politicians, but he does take a nice picture.

Later, I told Sydney his name was “Governor Blagojevich.” She said “Wow.”¹ I asked if she could say it, and she said “Governor Gabloblovech.” I said, close - try again, and Sydney laughed, shook her hands beside her head and said “Governor Blah Blah Blah Blah.”

I’m not sure that Sydney realizes that, as an Oregon resident, she doesn’t get to vote in the Illinois elections even if the age issues are resolved. Ah, well. Thanks, Aunt Chris!

1. It should be noted that Sydney says “wow” to almost anything –Amp. (back)

I’m going to be doing some baby bloggings again — although no more huge photo series, I’m afraid (too time-intensive). But some of these photos are too cute not to blog. :-)

Ok, not so serious question: what’s the deal with kids and boxes? I remember loving boxes as a kid, and one of my early memories is of me playing in a box in the kitchen. My parents had bought something big, and I was playing in the box like it was a boat. Here we have pictures of the Brandenator (new nickname) at 4 and a half. Rather than playing with the toy, he started by playing “in” the box. I think he was hiding or something.

Not only did he want to be in the box, but he figured Daddy wanted to be in the box, too. In this picture, he was trying to put Daddy in the box, and he couldn’t figure out why Daddy didn’t fit.

Now fast forward to 7 years old. I had this box sitting on the floor by the trash. He picked it up, and put it on his head. Then proceeded to play video games with the box on his head. That’s when I took this picture.

I think this must be some kind of developmental stage or something because almost all kids I know of love boxes–in particular sitting in them, crawling in them, or in the picture above using the box as a “mask.” I’m sure a child psychologist or child development expert tell me why this is. As an adult, it’s really entertaining to watch because playing with boxes usually involves some kind of creative play, and it’s often much more creative than the play associated with the toy or product in the box.

My 7 year-old stepson Branden is here for part of his summer vacation, and we decided to take this time to teach him how to ride his bike without the training wheels. We took him out to the park in front of our building and put him on the bike in an area with a downward slope and after about 25 tries he finally got it. This was last Sunday, and by Wednesday he was able to ride around the perimeter of the park in a full circle.

Surprisingly he didn’t crash until Wednesday. It was ironic because his Daddy was saying how he wished that Branden had a wreck so he would watch where he’s going, and so he could “get it over with.” His Dad and I were talking, and agreeing that bicycle wrecks are a rite of passage, and literally 3 minutes later he took a hard fall on the pavement. He stayed on the ground and Daddy rushed over to help him up. He scratched his knee and his finger, but not too bad. Well in our view it wasn’t bad, but as soon as he realized his cut was bleeding and we were giving him attention, he started bawling and limping. We took him inside, and took a picture of his first bicycle injury. He was crying even harder at that point because he thought I was going to pour alcohol on the cut. I couldn’t convince him that I was going to put neosporin on it and it wouldn’t burn.

Even though he fell, he was happy about two things. He got to wear bandages, and he got to show off his cut to other kids.

Here’s a picture of the scraped knee, it’s hard not to feel sorry for him with that sad face.

Then, we have a close-up because he wanted everybody to see the blood, and the cut on his finger.

Branden, Daddy, and I are happy to report that his cut is healing, and he wasn’t the least bit scared about getting back on the bike a few days later.

Now we’re working on tying shoes.

Another photo from our trip to the glasses store. I can’t think of the right caption or thought balloon to go with this photo, but Sydney’s expression here really cracks me up.

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Mommy needed new glasses, so we all trucked down to the glasses store (well, the glasses section inside Wal-Mart). I’ve never met a baby who didn’t like trying on glasses.

More below the fold…

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Just a couple of pictures this week, from a trip we took to the park last week. (Portland has so many small parks, almost anywhere you live in the city you’re walking distance from one).

I love this photo of Sydney. It’s a nice photo of her at play, and at the same time it explains why it’s so difficult to take nice photos of her at play.

Sydney is looking so much like a kid these days, it’s amazing — although partly that’s because she’s quite tall for a three-year-old.

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More from the batch I took a few weeks ago, with Sydney wearing a floral dress one of her grandmothers found on Ebay. These are kind of moody compared to most “baby blogging” posts, but I like them.

There are a few more pics beneath the fold.

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This little girl totally cracked me up. Here on Youtube. Thanks, Bean!

Another one-photo baby blogging, I’m afraid; I’ll try and do a longer baby blogging next week.

This week it’s Sydney in an old-fashioned dress, which I think one of her grandmas found for her on Ebay. Being the master of cliche I am, I’ve put the photo in sepia. Sydney had a cold the day I took this picture, which actually worked out pretty well, in that she actually stood still for the camera for a change. The photo’s pretty big, so I’ve stuck it below the fold.

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This wasn’t posed, honest! (Click on the image for a larger version).

Sydney had gathered up the bears herself (to keep Maddox from playing with them — “No, NO, Maddox, no!”) and then fell asleep like this.

By the way, I’m headed to Florida for a week to visit family (’tis the season to hold seders…). So I’m not sure how much I’ll be posting in the next week — we’ll see how it goes. And moderation may be slowed down, as well, so if you find that your comments are waiting longer than usual for approval please be patient.

Well, smeared only a little bit. With magic marker ink. Sydney was the one that did it; tune in next week to see what Sydney did to herself with the markers. (Well, with a little help from her friends.)

More below the fold.

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This is Sydney’s bunny outfit. It’s not really a bunny costume, just an outfit with bunny-themed pictures on it, but Sydney likes to pretend she’s a bunny when she wears it. Note her slight attempt to give herself buck teeth in the above photo.

More bunny pics below the fold….

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I’m feeling lazy today, so only one baby blogging pic this week… Maddox in the sink. Maddox is happy to be in the sink, of course. She’s happy anywhere. Unless she’s decided that being unhappy might get her mom to put her on the boob, in which case she’s unhappy anywhere. One of Maddox’s few complete sentences is “I want boobie.”

Oh, and speaking of milestones, it’s been a week since Sydney pooped anywhere but in the potty. (Sorry, no photo to go with that).

One lovely thing about having babies is that you can dress them in the most outlandish outfits and they’ll like them. Next week: Sydney in her bunny dress.

Here you see Sydney drawing on my Cintiq, which is a monitor you can draw on directly. (Much better than using a mouse or even a tablet to draw). Sydney’s concentration can get very intense when she draws.

The program she’s using is TuxPaint, by far the best of several children’s drawing programs I tried out. (And it’s free!) I’m not sure if Sydney’s learning anything about drawing, but she’s definitely learning to use computers; I’ve been really impressed with how much she’s learned about how to navigate TuxPaint’s option menus.

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Still sick (although mostly better). Also, basement flooded. Thousands of dollars of damages. Contractors, contractors, contractors. Insurance. Not a good week, as far as I’m concerned.

Anyhow, in that context, I hope folks will understand how baby blogging might end up being a day late. :-)

This isn’t a great photo of Sydney, but what I love about it is all the iconography that might be meaningful on its own — the space rifle¹, the ghost doll, the Flintstones-style dress, the red fingernails — but which, placed together, defies any attempt to find a coherent meaning.

Gotta love a big pen. Remember when she was bald?

1. Sydney likes to fire the zap gun at adults; if the adult pretends to die in agony, Sydney finds that especially hysterical. (back)

Not much to say, really, except: Why aren’t I having this much fun? Seriously, to enjoy myself this much I pretty much have to take drugs.

Maddox is a super fun baby to watch and play with because she just plain enjoys herself so much.

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Boy, I’m sure milking Sydney’s third birthday for a lot of Baby Blogging posts… Actually, Sydney and Maddox are currently out-of-state (visiting grandparents for the holidays), so I’m currently very toddler-deprived.

Anyhow, on to the cute pics.

Here is Maddox on the merry-go-round at Chuckee Cheese. Did Maddox enjoy it? I dunno. I said “hey, let’s put Maddox on the horsey, that’ll be a cute picture,” and we did, and it was. Maddox grinned and enjoyed it, but Maddox pretty much grins and enjoys all of existence; her basically happy nature is, I think, her most striking personality trait. She’d have grinned just as much if we had plopped her down in a dusty corner with an empty coke bottle to play with.

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