recent reasons that Sylvia made us smile

1. At the grocery store, she saw a large display of enormous bubble containers and started shouting "Bubbles". There weren't even pictures of bubbles...my guess is that daycare must have the same container. Needless to say, we left with an enormous container of bubbles.

2. She can identify every Elmo in the grocery store from a mile away. She can also find every box, bag, and sign with a picture of a baby...."BABY!!!"

3. She knows the sign for milk. I thought she was waving bye-bye to herself, until I realized that it seemed to coincide with her milk requests. I found this on-line to confirm my theory: milk Here is more, if you are interested. (See video in the 4/27 post below - she is good!)

4. She can play peek-a-boo with a dog. Sylvia likes to look out the window to watch our neighbor's dog Jax from her high chair. Today, during dinner, she decided to play peek-a-boo. She is scared of every dog in the neighborhood right now, even the teeny, tiny ones, but from the comfort of her high chair, they are her best friends!

fancy shoes and log rolls

Don't let this cute little smile fool you! Sylvia was actually in the middle of a screaming fit because even though she could get Mommy's shoes on, her feet slipped out the fronts and the sides, which made her extremely angry. The lady loves her shoes!! (I have a feeling with her tiny toes, she may never fit into Mommy's size 8's.) Anyway, when she saw my camera, she gladly looked up and said "CHEESE" before screaming some more.

Sylvia had her second session of "Tumbling Tots" last night. Last week she did her first log roll and her first forward roll with assistance by Miss Jody. This week she wanted no parts of Miss Jody! She spent the first 20 minutes afraid of everything except for watching the other kids. By the end she warmed up and had a lot of fun doing log rolls down the ramp with Mommy and Daddy, crawling through tunnels and tents, and climbing up the sliding board stairs before zooming down to Daddy. Also, she always likes the parachute balls and bubbles that come at the end. She spent the whole ride home saying "Log Rolls - Yeah!!". Maybe she can make friends with Miss Jody next week.

more peas with garlic

This video may be the last time Sylvia wears her beloved Elmo sweater :( I realized a few days ago that I can't ask her what she wants to wear, because she will always either grab that sweater or say "ELMO!". It has been very warm lately, so I thought we would be packing it away, but today was cool again, so one more time for Elmo!

I knew they were starting to teach the babies some sign language at daycare, but I didn't realize that Sylvia has been doing some of the sign language at home - I guess it is only effective if I learn it too! I fed her some peas for lunch with a little bit of garlic on (which she loved - she's definitely our child). She kept doing the sign for more. I got the video camera and got her to do a re-enactment. I wonder what else she has been saying in sign language...

a few more from Ally's Angels

very sweet Ally video

Jill's mom sent me this link; It is really touching.
Click here: Ashley's School Fundraiser for Organ Donation

angels for Ally

We had a great time at the Dash for Organ Donor Awareness event. The weather was perfect for a walk along the river.













The photo below was taken when we first arrived: before Sylvia decided that she would not be using her stroller :)

Here is little Ally playing with her cousins.

Sylvia had lots of fun before the walk taking Aunt Chrissy on her own mini-walks!

Sylvia decided she didn't like her stroller that day, so Daddy pushed her empty stroller along the whole walk. I definitely didn't mind though - I'll gladly take any excuse to hold our little sweetheart.

dancing with elmo

This is just a cute little video. Sylvia has an Elmo book that indicates when you are supposed to press a certain button to make a sound effect. She likes to press each button and then do a little dance to the sound effect. Each noise only lasts a few seconds, so she has to pause her dancing frequently to press the button again - so sweet!!

the early signs of an athlete

Sylvia and I were playing with her football and her carebare ball today, and despite her teething induced crankiness and getting hit in the head, she could not have been happier. In the second video, check out her moves while waiting for the ball - she reminds me of the little t-ball players in the outfield that are twirling around oblivious to the bat or ball. The third video is long but is probably my favorite video that I have ever taken of her (and I have taken a lot!). There is no better way to spend my time than listening to her laughter.

babbling in the bathtub

I have so much fun with Sylvia at bathtime. She is so funny :) She's starting to be more willing and able to repeat those ABC's. I usually have to catch her when she's held captive away from distractions, like in her high chair, on the changing table, in the grocery cart, or sometimes, in the bath tub...

steady as she goes; well not quite

Sylvia makes a few baby steps of progress each day now towards walking solo. She is up to about 4 or 5 wobbly steps, which are sooo cute. We caught a few attempts on video tonight. In the beginning, we had Wheel of Fortune on, and Sylvia was far too distracted by Pat Sajak to walk.

most beautiful baby in the world

These pictures are just so cute. I couldn't wait to dress Sylvia in some of the dresses my mom made her for her birthday with matching ones for her new baby doll. The weather was warm, so we tried out the lady bugs. The bloomers fell down a bit and she got a little mad when she couldn't crawl as well...but she looked so cute!!

sunny saturday

Saturday morning we took a walk in the neighborhood, and thanks to our little friendly baby who smiles and waves to everyone she sees, we met a few more neighbors. Sylvia had a ball playing with 3 new friends under the age of 3. Unfortunately for daddy, they are all boys. I think there are 3 or 4 little boys for each girl in this neighborhood. Later in the afternoon, Aunt Jill came to visit, and Sylvia showed off her new walking skills. She is up to 3 or 4 wobbly, unassisted steps!



Our neighbors told us about a dairy down the street, so we went to try that out in the afternoon (a local dairy may mean trouble for an ice-cream addict like John..). After the ice-cream, John and Jill took Brock and Sylvia across the street to see lots of fun stuff: cows, bumble bees, and a giant tractor. The boys were in heaven.



We finished out the beautiful day with a trip to Manderach park. Sylvia didn't want to get off the swings, and Brock just didn't want to stop running from one thing to the next. I'm sure he and Sarah will both sleep well!

our baby ballerina

Sylvia can't quite walk yet, but she can certainly sing and dance. We have often seen her do a "sitting down" dance, usually when the rooster plays his song on the Playschool farm. However, we caught her on tape doing her first standing up ballet rehearsal. Enjoy the videos!

fear of doctors

Sylvia had her one-year appointment this morning. She is up to 19.5 pounds now, which is 25th percentile and 28.5 inches, which is 50th percentile. I would guess the length may not be too accurate, because she is still completely scared of the table where they measure her. I had almost forgotten about her tendency to freak out on public changing tables and the table at the doctor's office. Unfortunately, it hasn't gone away. In addition, she is now terrified of all of the doctor's instruments, which made the whole visit pretty unhappy, with a finale of 2 shots. On the bright side, she was happy when they gave her a sticker on the way out the door and happily snuggled into her crib for nap time. Hopefully, she'll just think the whole thing was a bad dream and this will all get easier when she is a little older - hopefully.

daycare genius

Sylvia's daycare teachers informed me this morning that Sylvia can now say Ms. Brenda (which sounds like "Enda" and Ms. Donna (I'm not sure what this one sounds like). She also knows all of the other babies in the room and can point to them as the teachers say the names of the other children. She's at the head of her class at age one! Most of the other kids in her class are teeny tiny babies, but it still counts!

I've realized that she is getting very good at mimicking tone and inflection in the voice of others, so that when she repeats you, even if the actual letters are way off, it still sounds like she is saying the same thing that you are. It is very cute. I will have to try to catch some of it on video. If she is in the right mood, she will attempt to repeat each letter of the alphabet and knows the sounds of several animals. By far, her favorite words right now remain "Dada" and "Elmo", (she has stopped saying "Melmo" in the last few weeks.)

I heard her say banana "Nana" for the first time this afternoon. She saw one on the counter, and screamed "Nana" over and over as she reached for it. I believe that is her favorite food of the moment, and it does change by the moment. At daycare today, she wanted only a bite or two of her lunch and snack food, which consisted of foods she normally loves: cottage cheese, a cheese stick, ravioli, and apple sauce. However, she managed to trade her cheese stick with the baby next to her and acquired some meat loaf, green beans, and macaroni. She certainly is a resourceful little girl!

Finally, I think I have figured out the trick to getting her shoes on. If I can get them most of the way on, then have her stand up, I can now tie them and she is set to lead me around the sidewalk outside. It is very tricky to get shoes on her little foot when Sylvia keeps her toes all curled up. I think she is getting the idea of shoes, and knows that is the only way I will let her stay outside, which she loves. She is also realizing that if she can sneak off then edge of the sidewalk there is much mud and hay, which are way more fun than sidewalk. I can keep her out of it now, but she will be walking on her own very soon, and things will get much more challenging. A few nights this week, Sylvia took steps on her own going between John and me. She was wobbly, but she was thrilled! It was big news, because she has insisted on holding onto furniture or someone else's hands with BOTH of her hands up until this week. It won't be long!!