Sydney's Haircut

A while back Syd told me she wanted to get her hair cut shorter. When I asked her how short she said she wanted it to be like Amy's (one of her preschool teachers). I said okay, no problem, but wasn't sure she'd actually go through with it when it came time to get it cut. For the last couple of weeks she has been telling me over and over that she wanted to get it cut, so I finally made an appointment and we went on Monday to get it cut. Even as we walked into the hair salon I wasn't confident that she would go through with it. But sure enough she told Abby (the woman who does our hair) she wanted it cut shorter. So Abby and I helped her decide on the right length and off went the hair.

As most of you know, Syd didn't have much hair at all until she was about 2 and didn't have hair past her shoulders until she was almost 3. So, I think this was harder on me than her. I hated to see the hair that took so long to come in being cut off. But, she really looks cute with her new doo and we don't have to do ponytails anymore, which is very cool.

The only teensy problem we're having now is that she takes her bath at night before bed and has been going to bed with damp hair. When we were putting it in the pony that was no big deal because it was all pulled back, but now without a pony her hair is sticking up all over the place when she wakes up in the morning. So, we're working on finding a solution for that. Otherwise, everything is much easier... no ponies, less tangles, easier shower after swim class, etc.

This is her right after she got it done. Isn't she the cutest?

Boyne Highlands Ski Trip

This past weekend we went to Boyne Highlands on a ski trip. The UT Alumni Association sponsored a weekend up there that was really inexpensive so we couldn't resist. We left Friday morning and stayed through Sunday around noon. It's about a 5 1/2 hour trip each way as it's up at the very northern tip of the Michigan mitten. Syd snowboarded on Friday night and Sunday morning, but skied all day Saturday (and I mean all day - we started around 10:30 AM and ended around 8:30 PM with a lunch/dinner break somewhere in the middle). Syd and Dad swam in the heated outdoor pool Saturday night.

It was a great weekend to go skiing. It wasn't really cold and we had fresh powder on Friday and Saturday, as it was snowing both days. We had a lot of fun and would love to go again. It's a great ski resort.

Below are some videos of Syd skiing. The first one is from relatively early in the day - around 1:00 PM (when she still had the sit down method of stopping) and the second is from later in the day - around 8:30 PM (when she slowed way down and then just skied into the railings for the carpet to take her back up). In the second one you can hear Mom saying "start your pizza." We learned this last year watching the ski classes at Whiteface Mountain, and it was reinforced at Boyne where they used the same lingo. Basically they teach kids to ski by using "french fries" and "pizza". The french fries are when the skis are parallel and you want to be moving and pizza is when you use the skis in a v shape, like a snowplow, to slow down or stop. It seems to work for Syd so we went with it. It's funny, in one of the videos we have (not in the blog) you can hear Dad saying the word pizza about 10 times, each time a little louder and with more panic.

There are a lot of people in this first video, but you can spot Syd coming from the right, near the little building, in her turquoise coat. As you can see, the cones are still up from the classes and Syd is practicing going back and forth between them. The hill is pretty busy... and these are the easy hills.



In this video the hills have really thinned out, probably because it was getting close to 9:00 PM and that's when the lifts stop running. As you can see, Syd has the one side of the hill all to herself (well, except for Mom following and Dad filming).

Syd Skating

Over Christmas break Syd and Mom went ice skating at the BGSU ice arena. Mom finally got around to uploading the video below of Syd skating. She's getting better every time. Soon she'll have mastered all of the winter sports.

Syd and Nick

This is a picture of Sydney and her very good friend Nick. They have been friends since they were 6 months old. Their birthdays are less than a week a part. They started out in the Infant Green room at Apple Tree Nursery School (Syd at 6 weeks old and then Nick at 6 months old). They moved up to Toddlers 1 together when they were about 18 months old and then moved up to the Dolphins preschool class a couple of months before their 3rd birthday. They are like brother and sister, loving each other one moment and hating each other the next. Nick has been her closest friend at school for almost five years and we're all wondering what they will both do without each other next fall when they leave to go to different kindergartens. We'll definitely have to stay in touch with Nick and I know Syd will miss him greatly.

More Snowboarding...

This past Saturday we decided to go snowboarding/skiing again. We went back to Alpine Valley for their 3 - 11 PM special. It's really cool because after 8:00 there's basically no one there and we only have to share the hills with about 10 other people. Syd started out skiing, but switched to snowboarding after about an hour (we were on the hills for almost 5 hours). Once she got back on the snowboard she just kept going and going and going. Dad and Mom are beginning to get worried because we're wondering what happens when Syd's ready for the Intermediate hills and we're not (Mom on skis and Dad on the snowboard). Anyway, she made about 20 runs from top to bottom down the three hills we were on without falling at all. We still haven't been able to teach her to stop so we have her sitting down to stop, but other than that she's an ace. Here are some more videos of her (Dad shot them so you can see Mom skiing in the background). You can see in the last one that she lost a mitten and still just kept on going.

New Year's Eve - Skiing and Snowboarding

This year we decided to do something different for New Year's Eve. We decided to go skiing and snowboarding. We went to Alpine Valley Ski Area in White Lake, MI (http://www.skialpinevalley.com/). They had a special for New Year's Eve - half price off all lift tickets. The special went from 3:00 PM to 11:00 PM, which worked out well since Dad had to work until 5:00.

Mom made sure Syd got down for a nap so she'd be fresh for the evening of fun. She ended up taking a 3 1/2 hour nap that Mom and Dad had to wake her up from so we could leave. The resort is about 2 hours away, north of Detroit so we didn't get there until around 7:30. We ended up just getting lift tickets for the bunny trails because it was Syd's first time snowboarding, Dad's not a pro yet on his snowboard, and Mom's not a pro on skis. Also, because they didn't include a chair lift, Syd was free and Dad and Mom were only $13 each. It was quite a deal. And we didn't even have to use a tow rope (which would have been a challenge with Dad and Syd on snowboards and Mom on skis), because they have one of those magic carpets that you stand on and it takes you to the top.

We got on the slopes around 8:00 and closed the place at 11:00. By the time we left, we were three of only about 20 people left in the whole place. The ski patrol had to come over and let us know that they were closed. The best part was that because we were there so late, there was barely anyone there and we shared the one hill with only a handful of people the last hour. That was great.

Below is some video (we have more). The first one is of Syd at the beginning of the night. The second one is of Syd at the very end of the night (demonstrated by the fact that they have turned off the music)... showing a great deal of improvement. This one is a bit blurry because the camera couldn't figure out what I was focussing on, but Syd's the one in the turquoise coat.

It was a great time and we plan on going again soon. It's all Syd talks about.

Video of Syd riding a roller coaster...

I have uploaded the videos of Sydney on the Goofy roller coaster in Magic Kingdom due to popular demand. The first video is her first ever ride on a roller coaster. She got off the ride saying, "That was awesome!" and was very excited. As you can see Zack rode in front of us and got us from the front.

The second video is of her second time on the roller coaster. We sat in the very front seat of it and Zack filmed us from behind. Again, Syd loved it and even put her hands up for most of it.

Enjoy... we sure did.