Saturday, May 5, 2012

Savoring our Mommy/Sydney days

It hit me yesterday, and not in a good way. We're in our final month of Mommy/Sydney days. That's what we call Fridays when AJ is at school, leaving Sydney and I to play together. All too often, a good chunk of those days are spent with me handling work that I've brought home with me, freelance assignments or the mundane, but necessary, errands like grocery shopping.

And now we only have a few left. Once the school year ends, AJ will be home with us, not that that's a bad thing, but it changes the vote count on how we spend the day. And come fall, Sydney will be in kindergarten, and I'll likely be returning to a five-day-a-week schedule.

It makes me sad.

Determined to make the most of it, I dedicated the day to Sydney. Who chose this day to sleep until 11 a.m.

We adapted to making it a Mommy/Sydney afternoon. Quick brunch of hotdogs and watermelon, and then out the door we went. Quick stop at the grocery store. Not so quick stop at Target. And then we headed to Sydney's choice - the Aquarium.


That's Patrick (from Sponge Bob) in the above photo, she decided. And he's not wearing any clothes!

As we ran from exhibit to exhibit, I couldn't help but notice she seemed to bypass most of the ones that had anything to do with fish. She liked the turtles, the ducks and the boats, but when I called her over to look at the big tank of sturgeon and salmon, I got a "no thanks." And then off she ran to steer the ore boat.


The highlight for her came at the end of the visit when we checked out the gift shop. She picked a turtle craft kit. The white turtle came with four markers. Sydney only needed one. When we got home, she colored it green and named it Turtle.


I suggested she could use the other markers to decorate it, but she disagreed. Turtles are green. But then inspiration struck. Grabbing glue and pompoms, she gave it... can you guess? Those are barnacles. It's now a sea turtle, she told me. So she's changed it's name. To Sea Turtle.

As we'd shopped yesterday, I told her I was going to miss our Mommy/Sydney days next year. She suggested we could do them in the afternoon after she gets done with kindergarten.

"That's a great idea," I told her. "You're a good problem solver."

Skipping along beside me, she happily agreed, "Yes, I'm a problem solver."

Too bad she can't find a solution to slow down how quickly she's growing up.

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