Sydney Fuller

What Are We Watching

One of Sydney's favorite phrases is "What's that?". So tonight we went and gave her something different to watch.

Boy, Am I Thirsty

Everyone always tell me to stop cussing around Sydney because someday she will copycat me. Well, I don't think I am the one you should be worried about. Sydney is now copycating the dogs -- tongue and all!

Nice Moo Cow

Sydney loves animals so we drove up to Cheyenne to go to Frontier Days last night. The big event was the Professional Bull Riders competition.

Sydney goes on jogs with me most days at home. On the way, we stop by and see the cows at the dairy farm. But these cows last night were a little different. They really moved around a lot and that got Sydney excited!

I Love The Wiggles

You all may have noticed the Now Playing section new to Syd's website in the last couple of months. This keeps tracks of what music Syd is listening to at the moment and updates the website so you can all see what her tastes are. If you have noticed this at all you would have seen that 99% of the music is from The Wiggles.

You see, several months ago we happened to be surfing through the Playhouse Disney channels for cartoons and saw these four Australian guys singing and dancing around to very silly songs. Brandon and I thought it was a little strange to say the least. Four men in their forties dancing and singing for little kids? But, Syd was entranced by them and could not take her eyes off the TV. Before this Syd had absolutely no interest in watching TV at all. Which is fine until you need something to keep her busy for 30 minutes while you cook dinner. We didn't think too much about them at the moment but caught their show every once in awhile.

Then, two months ago we were walking through Toys R Us and Syd started screaming and pointing. She was pointing to the display of Wiggles toys. She actually recognizes these guys. To keep a long story short, we now LOVE the Wiggles. At breakfast we listen to Wiggles music while we eat. Then we watch the Wiggles on TV. Next, we play with the Wiggles car (that actually sings while it rolls around the house) while we simultaneously have more Wiggles tunes blared on the family room stereo. Then we go to the Wiggles website and play games while eating Wiggles fruit snacks. Finally, we have more Wiggles tunes playing in the car while we drive anywhere.

Mom and Dad no longer think the Wiggles are strange. We love them because they can make Syd dance during even the worst tantrum. Mom and Dad have even been caught singing Fruit Salad, a favorite Wiggles tune, around the house on more then one occasion. To our surprise many of the neighbor kids are also huge Wiggles fans. Who would have known these guys were so popular with the kiddie crowd. Next time you go to a book store, toy store or even Target take notice. There is Wiggles merchandise everywhere.

Check out the video of her dancing to the Wiggles tune, Wags the Dog, on TV.

In a Pickle

Roll Call

Lately, we have been hearing how a friend of a friend of a friend visits this web site for updates on Sydney. That is great...but here is the deal: we want to hear back from you! Notice the little comment link after each entry -- you realize that you are supposed to click on that and type something? Well, you are!

Sydney has had a lot of vistors over the last year. The web site statistics show it. Here a few interesting stats:

• Nearly 10,000 distinct computers have visited this site.
• 1% of the visitors to this site are from Japan.
• The most frequent word used in search engines to find the site: belly
• The most popular entry is this one.

Lately, we are nearly down to only the grandparents commenting. Folks, the grandparents are old and barely know how to use a computer. They are now grandparents, for god sakes.

So let Sydney hear from you! Leave a note. If we don't know you, tell us who you are and where you live. Its like "Six Degrees of Sydney".

No Swimming For You

Today was Sydney's 2nd swimming class. I decided to be a good Dad and go and watch my child. Swimming and I have a history as you might know.

Well, when we got to the class, it was raining. All the other Moms stayed home. Not us, we were there dammit. Growing up, I used to have to go to swim practice rain or shine. Unless there was lightening spotted, you had to get in the pool. Man, for a bunch of young kids back in the day, we were the best lightening spotters the world had ever seen.

So today no lightening and no classmates. What should we do? My Mom (@!$#$...I mean, bless her heart) used to kick me out of the car and she would drive off while I would chase her down the street -- Mommy, come back!

Anyway, I looked down at Sydney in her cute flamingo robe and decided that it was best if we left and stayed dry. Have to get that picture another time.

Crested Butte Campers

Enough adult activities in Crested Butte, let's do something with the kids! So we took the trucks and ATVs out to the Gunsight Pass area and setup a car camp!

We put up a tent for the kids to play in. Sydney is pointing out the cows nearby. They don't seem to like us.

Kim and Chad (CJ's Dad) went for an ATV ride up Gunsight Pass so Brandon and Becky (CJ's Mom) decided to do a small -- say 1,000 vertical foot -- hike along the ATV route.

Sydney likes the backpack! Mount Crested Butte in the distance.

The opposite direction showed the beautiful lush valleys.

When we got back to camp, I had to take Sydney for her first ATV ride before I washed the truck.

Hanging With CJ in CB

All these acronyms! Today, Sydney hung out with CJ all day while the parents went out and played in beautiful Crested Butte (CB).

Diapers Are For Babies

Tonight, Kim picked up Sydney and noticed a stranage feeling. Upon lifting her dress, Kim was surprised to find no diaper on the child. Strange. "Brandon, did you forget to put a diaper back on Syd?" Nope. Upon further inspection, we found her diaper on the stairs with pee and poop inside of it. Some how this child removed her diaper and decided to cruise around the house without it. Hopefully, this isn't a trend. I would like my daughter to keep her pants on now and forever.

Picasso Who?

Poolside

After an abnormally rainy June (which we needed to help the drought), its now officially hot in Colorado. If you haven't been to Colorado in the summer, then you haven't felt hot before. The sun is very piercing due to the altitude. I think Grandpa Herbie even got burnt when he visited.

Therefore, it is only appropriate to chill out in the pool!

Ah, relaxing with my (ok, Dad's) favorite beverage in the pool.

The Gymnast

We rode our bikes downtown today and went to the Rythm on the River. Its a local 1-day festival. They had lots of local vendors there demonstrating their services. Sydney particularly enjoyed the gymnastics area. She didn't quite get what she was supposed to do in terms of waiting in line. She just ran all over the mats and rolled around. Needless to say, Mom is going to put Syd in classes right away! Its too fun. Dad might not be going along. He still is scarred from all the years he had to go and watch Aunt Natalee do gymnastics after school.

Fort Fun, Week One

Well, we are back from our whirwind visit back to Fort Wayne. We had a great time visiting with everyone. Syd loved all the attention she got from everyone and Mom loved all the babysitters. Here are just a few of the many pictures we took. To break things up this first entry is of the first week.

We spent the first few days with Grandpa and Grandma Coburn. Mommy must have been overly relaxed with having babysitters that she didn't take any pictures with either of them. She was very upset about this once she figured it out. She did however get photos of my favorite activity. I would climb up this huge fireplace, everyone would count to three, then I would jump off! This kept me entertained for hours. I also learned to cough like Grandma and even covered my mouth with my hand. Something I still do for attention. We only made it to the Cracker Barrel once since I slept in so late. They even babysat me with Aunt Jamie while Mommy went to her first movie in a long time.

On Saturday we all went to the cottage on Lake Wawasee. Here I am running up and down the pier. Mommy was afraid I would try to jump off, but I was too scared for that.

One of my favorite parts of being at the Lake was that you could run around buck naked and nobody cared if I watered the lawn. Here Aunt Natalee is chasing me around because I was getting more and more interested in jumping into the water.

Since the lake was so cold Mimi decided to get a pool out for me and Christian to play in. Uncle Dave filled the pool up for us with warm water. He thought it was funny to pour it on Christian's head. I have to admit it was great payback for the earlier tackle Christian gave me.

Mommy decided I was too young for a jet ski ride, but Aunt Natalee let me sit on one just for fun.

After a quick ride in the lake water on my floatie I decided to warm up with Mimi on the swing.

Grandpa and Christian played baseball during the afternoon. Not something I had any interest in joining.

Grandma Fullers' friend Betty also made it up to the Lake. I think she enjoyed chasing me around as well.

On Sunday it was time to move on over to Grandpa and Grandma Hakes' house. The Coburns' were headed off to Florida for a whole month, we were a bit jealous. I really missed hanging out with them a lot. It took me an hour or so to warm up to anyone else and I was a little crabby. But, after a little warming up I thought these new grandparents were pretty cool too. Grandma Hakes wore me out so much that I just crashed on her floor while reading a book.

On Monday Christian came over to play while his Mommy was at the spa. We had a great time playing and even shared this bench.

Tuesday we headed over to Grandma Fullers' work to pick her up for a day at the Botanical Gardens. To my surprise a little girl was there to play with. I just stared at her but she was excited to meet me.

Here we are in the rain forest room of the Gardens. I thought this waterfall was awesome.

Next, we moved on to the desert room where there were lots of plants that weren't too fun to touch. Mommy loves this picture of me on top of this rock.

After the Gardens we headed over to a yarn store where Grandma Fuller let me pick out my next sweater material. There were lots of fun things to pull on. Later that evening Grandma Hakes picked us up and we headed off to yet another party for my cousin Jessie's sixth birthday. My Uncle Jim was really cool and kept me entertained the whole evening.

And as if that wasn't enough for one day, I had to help the Governor (aka Grandpa Hakes) out with his duties as County Assessor. It was tax time so he needed all the help he could get.

On Wednesday, we then headed off to the Fort Wayne Childrens Zoo with Grandma Hakes, Fuller, Aunt Steph and cousin Christian. Here we all are in the African Veldt where we walked around the animals on a cool suspension bridge.

Here Christian and I liked running down this ramp at the end of the bridge.

Then, instead of walking back out of Africa on the bridge we all got to ride back in these awesome safari jeeps.

Here I am driving us through all the dangerous animals. Grandma was very thankful for my great driving skills.

The day began to get pretty hot so Mommy let Christian and me cool off in the fountain in the Australian section. Mommy tried to get photos of Christian in the water but he was too crazy. This one spout was just the perfect height for me.

Next we moved onto Christian's favorite ride, the train. The train took us around a pond where we saw lots of ducks and turtles. There was also a dark tunnel that made everyone scream as we went through. I was a little nervous about this but didn't cry. Then as we were headed back the trains' horn made a loud whistle which made Christian jump a foot into the air, kinda startled me as well.

Lastly, we headed over to the petting zoo. Here I am getting chummy with one of the goats. I had really been missing Ti-Ti so this was a great activity. Mommy later bought bottles to feed to the goats which really got me mad. Why did they get bottles but I didn't?

Grandma and Grandpa Fuller babysat me later that evening so Mommy could go out again. Why she was so excited to drop me off I will never understand.

Wow, that was a busy first week. But, we sure had fun.

Fort Fun, Week Two

Week two was just as busy and fun as week one in Fort Wayne. We both really enjoyed being around family more, but not enough to move back to Indiana ever. Guess we will have to keep working on them to move out West.

On July 1st we met up with Mommy's friend from grade school, Lori. Her Mom even came along which was great. Mommy said she spent many many days and nights at the Bernardin house growing up. She said she is still afraid of being confined from the time KJ pinned her and Lori in their sleeping bags.

Lori's daughter Emma loved kissing as much as Syd did. We couldn't keep them apart.

After lunch we headed over to Aunt Steph's to spend the day. Christian's cousin Conner was over playing. At one point we all sat together under a blanket and watched cartoons.

Since it was too hot to go for a walk Aunt Steph set up a sprinkler for us to run around in. The boys were being a little too rough for me so I decided to go throw a little tantrum and sit on the stairs. That'll teach them!

Next Grandma Hakes came over and we headed over to meet her best friends Dave and Sue. Mommy has known them since she was a baby. I was not so sure about Dave's beard at first so I would not give him any kisses. I would sneak up on him in his chair and run if he caught me. After awhile I warmed up to even Dave.

Friday we met up with Uncle Tom and Aunt Susan for lunch. Uncle Tom has been feeling really bad lately so he was not able to visit much. Luckily, we worked in a little time.

After lunch we packed up and headed up for a weekend at the lake. Mommy filled my pocket bib up with hot dogs and strawberries to keep me busy for the drive. She even stopped half way to get me some McDonalds french fries, Yummy!

Later that night we went out to the end of the pier to watch the Floatilla go by. There were all sorts of boats decorated in lights. You should be able to see one in the background. I waved to everyone that passed by.

That night Mommy told me there would be a great surprise for me when I woke up and boy was she right. I stood up in my crib at morning and started screaming and pointing because Daddy was there. We had a great deal of catching up to do so we hung out on the pier.

Uncle Dave then decided it was time to take Christian out on the jet ski. Boy, did Christian love that. They rode all over the bay then Christian would cry when he had to get off.

Daddy would not be outdone. He said if Christian could go then Syd could go. Remember, Mommy said it was not allowed last weekend. She finally relented and agreed only if I wore my brick butt bathing suit. So off we went. Daddy and I had a blast. Daddy said he would look down and see me screaming with excitement as the boats went by, pointing to all of them.

Here is an action shot for all of you.

Afterwards, I decided to chillout a little and just float around with Mommy for a bit.

Aunt Steph was cool enough to venture the cold water to push Christian and I around in a boat.

Since I had tackled many great feats this weekend I decided to try the great stump. Needless to say this too was conquered within a few tries.

The brave Christian conquered the hot lava rock. He had been eyeing these for hours and just had to go for it.

Here I am with Uncle Dave doing the claw.

Uncle Ben, right, and his best friend Ben from grade school also made it up. They would go to the sandbar to look for chicks. No luck, sorry to say.

Cousin Eddie brought his long time girlfriend Jackie up as well.

I had a good time with Grandma Fuller at the lake. She kept me busy with bubbles, balloons...one popped as I bit it, and play at the table and chairs.

Later that night I decided to relax in this chair inside the cottage. There was just something special about this chair.

Check out the video.

That night the lake also had its fireworks display for the 4th. We sat out on the end of the pier for the show. Check out the video of me watching my first fireworks.

On the 4th we woke up to spend the day at the lake but the weather was not cooperating with us. So we decided to go over to the Jungbauers for a quick hello. We then went back up to Fort Wayne to watch yet another fireworks show there. We sat on a blanket for the show, but I was much more interested in running up and down the hill then watching the fireworks. It was a great way to get Daddy his daily exercise needs.

On Monday we went back to Grandma Hakes' for a barbeque. It was so nice outside that Grandma let Christian and I run around her front yard. At one point Mommy had to take my dress off because I had dirtied it up. Christian thought it was a great idea and stripped down as well. We played chase and threw rocks at Daddy's rental car. :)

Time to head back home. We will see you all at Christmas.