Not Working

A week ago this past Saturday we all went out to get the mail. Normally after getting the mail we walk down the block and back. This Saturday was no different except that a little way past the mailbox Sydney tripped. She fell on the sidewalk and skinned her knee.

Crying ensued and we went immediately back to the house. Mommy took her upstairs and proceeded to clean the knee. Once that was done Lanacane spray was applied.

Sydney likes Lanacane and will ask for "spray" when she gets hurt. It helps take the hurt away. This time was no exception and Sydney pronounced herself better and ready to go back outside to continue playing.

After we had been outside for a while Sydney dropped something she was playing with and it fell/rolled under her little chair. She got down to get it back. She got down on her scraped up knee.

Crying ensued again and we tried to figure out what had happened. When asked if she hurt her knee again Sydney nodded and cried, "spray, spray".

Mommy asked if she could kiss Sydney's knee and make it better. "It will be just as good as spray." Sydney nodded and said okay.

Mommy lifted her up into her lap and raised the knee so she could kiss it. No sooner had Mommy kissed the knee than Sydney started crying a little louder with, "not working. Not working".

It was back upstairs again for a cleaning and spray. Anne and I got good chuckles out of that. I still smile and laugh to myself when I think about it.

One night after dinner I was in the kitchen cleaning up. Anne was sitting out with Sydney while she finished up. When Anne had given her a cookie for dessert Sydney apparently decided that a picture was in order.

"Take uh pikka wif da camra," she told Mommy.

"You want me to take a picture with the camera?" Anne confirmed. Sydney told her yes and repeated the request.

I heard it and ran upstairs to get the camera.



Sydney has moved on to a new level with picture taking. She will still pose and ham it up for the camera, but as soon as the picture is taken she wants to see it. She'll run over and turn the camera so she can see the LCD screen on the back.

Sydney also says, "I lug you, [Daddy]." This is usually only done when prompted. (Like when Mommy asks her if she told me she loves me as I'm leaving for work.) Sometimes she will say it in response if we tell her we love her, but not usually.

She will regularly say, "pease," "tank you," and "you welcome" without prompting. The "pease" comes especially easy when she wants a cookie after lunch or dinner. And it comes constantly until she gets her cookie (or we tell her no). She really wants us to know how polite she is!

Sydney can count fairly well. Usually it is in small doses. "One, two three, peekaboo!" Or, "eight, nine, ten, go!" when playing a game. She can count up to twelve or so. I've had her get up to eighteen before, but she skipped a couple numbers (but added them in with some prompting). She regularly skips four and five. Sometimes she'll skip eight or nine, but not usually.

But that is mainly just repeating numbers. I haven't really seen her use them for counting. Until this morning, that is.

After breakfast we went upstairs to get dressed. Sydney started to climb the stairs and counted each one as she stepped up. She paused at counting four, but I prompted her. She got it and quickly went on to five. She skipped nine and counted ten. When I corrected her she repeated "nine" and then went to ten.

The top step is fourteen. I'm not sure what she said, but it mostly sounded like she said "eighteen". I corrected her and she said whatever it was that sounded like "eighteen" again. I'm guessing maybe that was her fourteen, but I'm not sure.

This past Saturday we went to a wedding of a friend of mine. It was a gorgeous day, which was good since the wedding was outside.



They actually had some young ladies in the house baby-sitting for all the children there. We weren't sure how Sydney was going to handle it, but she did fine. She stayed up there and played and ate. A little later I went in to use the bathroom. When she saw me she apparently realized that we weren't there with her and she wouldn't let me leave without her. So she came down and joined us outside. Then she and Mommy got up to dance.

With Or Without

I have been tagged to make a blog post. It's to be a list of things I can't live without. I first saw it on Nettie's blog. She tagged MadCarlotta who tagged me. Just about everyone of the regulars over at the Museum of Hoaxes forums who has a blog has been tagged. Luckily I know several people with blogs outside of the MoH. But we'll get to that later.

Now I will say that I am happy to be doing this. Thanks for getting it passed around the Museum, Nettie. Even if other people grumbled, I'm not. I was hoping to avoid detection and miss getting tagged to force me to do it, but I was probably going to take it and do it anyway.

I've tracked this a few people backward from Nettie and I'm not seeing any hard and fast rules. It just seems to be "list things you can't live without". That can apparently be any number of things. Some of the others from the Museum of Hoaxes have set some guidelines and I'm going to use those. I'm also going to impose a couple more on myself so I don't get redundant from what some of those others said.

First, no people. Second, no life-giving essentials. None of the items can be things like air, food, or shelter. Third, nothing medical. This kind of falls under the previous rule for items like medicine (which I don't take anyway), but I am also using it to include corrective lenses. I couldn't see well enough to survive without glasses or contacts, but I'm not listing them. And fourth, nothing that is used in getting or maintaining any of the previous three rules. So I won't be listing my car because I couldn't get to work without it. And I won't be listing my job because I couldn't afford my house, food or medical needs without it.

So here's my list:

1) My memories. I have been fortunate to live a very good life (so far). I have loving family and friends. I have a beautiful wife and an adorable daughter. If I suddenly lost my memory I would still have those things I just wouldn't remember them. Or our past together. That would be a terrible thing. Many of those memories cheer me up when I'm sad, make me laugh even when I'm not and always make me smile.

2) Pictures. Especially those taken since my daughter came into my life. They are memories given a physical form that I can share with other people. That I can tell stories about them while showing them off. They are irreplaceable.

3) Games. I'm a gamer at heart. Always have been. Ever since the days of the Atari 2600. It doesn't matter if it's computer or console gaming. If I didn't have gaming to help me escape every once in a while I know I wouldn't survive. (I could include pencil and paper role-playing in here, too, but it's been soooooo many years since I've done any of it I can obviously survive without it. Though many computer games can probably be attributed to getting me through these many years without pencil and paper D&D.)

4) Movies. Like games it's another form of escapism. But instead of me controlling and being actively involved in the story I just get to be absorbed into it. Depending on the movie I can think a lot or I can just go without over-analyzing it. It can be a well done cinematic marvel that I lose myself in or it can be a cheesy, hokey piece of schlock that I laugh at and make fun of. It can be anywhere in between. It can stir emotions both good and bad, strong and weak. I have never met a movie that I didn't like on some level (though there have been a few that were at the very outside edge of the lowest level).

5) LEGO. I love LEGO. If I had the money I would buy every set and piece I could get my hands on. I love the simplicity and complexity all rolled into one. I love following the instructions to put the sets together into forms that are so familiar. I love trying to find the pieces I need in a large pile of bricks to build the vision that only I can see until I give it form. Yet another form of escapism for me, yet I haven't done nearly enough with them lately.

Honorable Mention: Books. Mentioned by some others on their blogs so I decided to leave it off mine as much as I wanted to put it on. But I wanted to try to come up with my own five more.

Now who shall I tag (or 'ping' if you will)? Let's see...

Accipiter write: Ha ha ha! Hardly anybody knows about my blog, and I never update it anyway, so I can just sit back and laugh at you all being pinged!

Oh. Well then I guess Accipiter gets tagged!

I will also tag Murphyz and aki2403. (That blog may require you being a member of the forum to see. If so I apologize.) And, because he hasn't updated his blog in almost four months, I'm going to tag cokebaby.

Lastly I'll tag my old friend Pollyanna Pickles.

I would tag my Mother, but whenever she gets these kind of things she leaves the tagging open. She doesn't name anyone and just lets people do it if they want to. So, mom, if you want to do this go right ahead. But I'm not officially tagging you for it. Same goes for you, Grandma.