Sydney Rose Ford - Summer 2010

Sydney Rose Ford is already ahead of her time. She turned three this July, but for some reason tells everyone she is four years old.

She has an older sister named Taylor, who will be six in October. They are about the same size and are often asked if they are twins. They recently started sharing a room together and are the best of friends.

She and her sister have quite the pet collection: three dogs, Tori, Tiffy and Jasmine; a cat named Nala; a turtle, JJ and two hermit crabs (Syd calls hers Mr. Krabs, and Taylor named hers SilverNGold.) Sydney loves to have hermit crab races, chase the cat, and feed the turtle.

Up until she turned three, Sydney attended a Busy Bees preschool class through Early Intervention (EI), once a week for two hours. At 27 months, EI tested her, and she was so far advanced, she no longer qualified for the Busy Bees class. Her parents still wanted her in the class, and the teachers wanted her to be a peer role model, so she continued until her third birthday. She is so excited to start preschool in Ms. Foster’s class this fall, where her big sister went.

Sydney has patiently watched her sister take dance lessons and be in the church choir last year. Now that she’s three, she can start both this fall—and she can hardly wait. She loves all types of music. Just the other day she was listening to her daddy’s hard rock, and was completely mesmerized dancing to Jimmy Buffett!

This summer, Sydney went with her family and grandparents to the Gulf Shores (before the oil spill). She loved the beach and doing cannonballs in the pool, but she was terrified of the ocean. She also spent a lot of time with her grandparents at the lake, and she loved riding around in the golf cart, making sure all the nearby farm animals were okay. Her grandparents are taking her to Disney World this Christmas, and she’s thrilled she has a chance to meet Ariel, Flounder and Nemo!

Sydney recently returned from Boston with her parents, where she had her annual cleft clinic appointment. She loves to fly and is so brave—she held her parents’ hands so they weren’t scared!

Her favorite movie is The Little Mermaid, and she loves watching Dora and Spongebob on TV.

She has a favorite pink blankey that she has kept close to her since she was a baby and going through surgeries, she adores anything “mermaid or Dora.” She also loves to play dress-up with her many costumes.

Sydney likes looking at books and painting things like mermaids, snakes and fish. She loves to swim and is looking forward to her first swim lessons this summer in her quest to become, you guessed it, a mermaid.

She also loves to make people smile and make sure they are okay. There isn’t a day that goes by that she isn’t making sure her mom has a smile on her face.

Sydney was born with a cleft lip and palate, and has had four surgeries so far: lip/nasal adhesion and partial gum closure, ear tubes, full lip/nose repair and palate repair. She will have a lip and possible nose revision in the next year or two, and she will possibly need a pharyngeal flap surgery around age five. She will definitely have palate expanders to prepare for the bone graft around age eight to ten. Then she will probably have a final revision around age 16 and possibly get teeth implants. Right now, she’s enjoying being in the “no surgery club” since her palate repair at 8 months old.

When she grows up, Sydney wants to be Spiderman, despite never seeing Spiderman movies. Sometimes she also says she wants to be a doctor, a mermaid (of course) or a mommy.

If you would like to share your story with CCA, please send an email to Annie Reeves at areeves@ccakids.com. If your story is chosen, with your permission, we will edit and publish it in the CCA newsletter, on the Web site or use it for public awareness programs. Not all stories will be selected.

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