happy days

Sylvia had a great week at daycare. Drop offs were not perfect, but got a little better each day. Every day when I picked her up she was happily playing and smiling. Tuesday, when I got there she was dancing in front of a mirror with Miss Beth to the Aladdin music, and could not have been happier. Wednesday the teachers wrote on her update sheet that she especially liked singing the Elmo song, and I caught her singing pieces of the Elmo and Big Bird song that afternoon. I think she is really starting to have fun again, thank goodness. Sylvia impressed her teachers this week by pointing out the colors she knew in a book, and she was eager to impress me when I came to pick her up, by pointing to each sippy cup on the counter and telling me who drinks from each cup.

I took her to the park one day after daycare, and we had a lot of fun. Sylvia loved watching the squirrels going up and down the trees and learned that blowing on the dandylions is fun; getting little fuzzy seeds in your mouth is not.

for some reason she reminds me of John with her little belly hanging out :)

She also went down the slide completely by herself for the first time (I was too busy chasing her to get a picture), and a little boy convinced her to crawl under a playground bridge with him, because he saw that she was too little to climb over it (shhhh... dont' tell Daddy Sylvia is already sneaking around with little boys!)

master of a tiny universe

At this moment in Sylvia's world, Mommy and Daddy are not only the center of her universe, but in her eyes we control the universe, including everything she sees and hears. She is in the habit lately of asking "Again?" everytime she sees or hears something she likes. In the last week or so that has included watching an airplane go by (Again?), hearing a fun song on the radio (Again?), and hearing the people clap on Jeopardy (Again?). Alas, we don't have DVR, so I couldn't even make her last wish come true, although I promised, there would be people clapping on Wheel of Fortune too.

She is doing really well with the potty, and has asked to use it with success several times this week. She also pretended to need the potty once when she didn't like her dinner the other night. Outsmarted by a 1 year old. She has started clapping and cheering for me when I use the bathroom. I suppose it is only the polite thing to do, after all, we have a little party each time she goes potty :)

It is amazing how much our lives have changed in the short year and a half since she was born. The other week during dinner, John looked at me very seriously, and asked if I knew that Pinky the beanie baby had the same birthday as me, per the tag attached to the little flamingo. (He had just been playing with basket of animals with Sylvia.) I think it is sooo funny that our "normal" dinner conversation has evolved (disintegrated?) to discussing the pretend birthdays of stuffed animals.

I am looking forward to getting some photos and/or videos of Sylvia's swim lesson on Saturday. She had her first lesson with Daddy last weekend, but I didn't go, because I was worried she might be nervous and cling to me, which would defeat the purpose of Daddy / Daughter swim class. However, Sylvia bravely jumped in the pool with her daddy and did whatever the teacher asked (lay on her back, kick, do the hokey pokey, etc..) She's growing up so fast.

Happy Birthday Auntie Mo!!

Sylvia is totally obsessed with birthdays right now, so lucky for her, we know a lot of people with Fall B-days! We celebrated Morgan's birthday this past weekend with the family, including great-pop-pop. (I still have trouble believing Morgan is 22; I feel like I am the one who is 22....). I often catch Sylvia singing happy birthday by herself "Happy to you, happy to you......" It's one of her favorite songs right now, along with "you are my sunshine", and "ABC.."

Sylvie wore her Eagles cheerleader outfit to cheer the Eagles onto victory, and had a lot of fun playing with Brock. I asked the kids to put their heads together for a picture at the kitchen table, so Sylvia put her head way back in her chair and made funny faces. I guess she didn't quite understand what I was asking :)

They had the most fun playing Ring around the Rosie (despite Morgan's protests that the game is morbid...best not to think about it). Sylvia and Brock both thought it was funny to drop down before my mom would say "All Fall Down", and laughed hysterically each time. My mom was worried someone might get hurt, so she tried to teach them to do it the "right way" with limited success. In the end, they played "their way" by themselves, landing each time in a fit of giggles. I definitely need to take more videos than I have been.

first trip to the Oley Fair

Last weekend after Daddy spent all day working on our yard (or what will someday be a yard if we can get the grass to grow!), we took a trip out to the Oley Fair. Sylvia is too little for most of the rides, but that didn't bother her. She had a ball waving to Brock as he rode around on boats, bugs, and trains. Daddy did take her down a huge slide ride, but she came out much paler than she started, and she might have been happy to skip that one! I was so caught up in watching them, I didn't get a picture, but when Pop-pop and Brock came down next, I caught a photo of sneaky Brock trying to run back up the stair-case!!Sylvia and Brock both loved seeing all of the animals, although I don't think Sylvia ever realized how loud and scary a real sheep could be..."BAAAA!". She also got a little scare from a baby pig when she fell in the dirt just outside their pen, and one came a little too close to where her face was. At least the piggy was quiet.

Brock was desperate to sit on one of the real motor cycles and got his wish just for a few seconds.

Most of all, I think Sylvia just liked hanging out with Brock. At the end of the night they were holding hands and just being silly. She thinks he is the funniest person ever and spends most of her time laughing, which is contagious to Brock, so they just walk around giggling. I definitely need to break out the camcorder a little more often.

Today's program is sponsored by the letters M, W, & R, and the number 8

After John told me that daycare drop off went poorly on Tuesday, I spent the whole day thinking I should be looking into other daycares or staying home from work or I don't know what. I was really anxious when I flew into her daycare room, to find her smiling and playing...."Hi Mommy!" Sylvia had lots of fun playing in the little play-kitchen, dressing up in different clothes, and making special art projects this week. Her daily update paper had "Sad" circled every day last week, with "happy" and "sad" circled on Thursday. This week, only "happy" was circled, so we have made progress. Other than when Daddy drops her off or when she wasn't allowed to take Elmo out on the playground, very few tears were shed.Sadly for us, Miss Carrie (her awesome head teacher), is changing jobs in a few weeks, which means her little daughter Kristen will be going with her. 1 year olds tend to play near each other as opposed to with each other, but Kristen is her closest "friend" there and one of the only other girls. We'll be sad to see them both go. I think everything will work out ok though. Miss Carrie's replacement, Miss Beth, is already there each day and Sylvia seems to really like her (as do Mom and Dad). And there are lots of other kids to play with. Sylvia mentioned "Ben" in every other sentence yesterday. I'm starting to think those teeth marks were a love bite :)
These photos were from a happy day at home with Mommy last week. Sylvia insisted that "Bubba" should color too. I think she spent far more time arranging the crayons for Bubba than actually coloring anything. She is getting pretty good at identifying colors...and then there are days when she says everything is "green", but she is definitely right too often to just be guessing right. I realized today that she can consistenly recognize the letters M, W, and R, and the number 8. She's not going in order, but she's getting them one by one. Yeah, baby girl!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Carys!!

We had a great time at the birthday party last weekend. We loved seeing everyone and visitng Courtney and Eric's beautiful home for the first time. There were lots of sweet little pirates running around, but I thought this one was especially cute :) Sylvia had soooo much fun playing Carys and all of her great toys, but her favorite thing had to be Ethan and Carys's swingset. Sylvia loved the slide, and only her strong desire to "drive" the steering wheel that is in the little playhouse area above the slide would let her overcome her apparent fear of heights. Her poor little legs shook everytime she stood up to reach the wheel, but that didn't stop her!

Mommy unfortunately dressed her in a skirt that was a little to big, so after spending half of the day showing off her cool new style that involved most of her diaper hanging out, we ditched the skirt. I had to laugh when John took a turn changing her diaper. She has started to tell us know when she is "going potty". As John was starting to put on her clean diaper I heard her say what sounds like "poppy", but really means that she is wetting her diaper. John was trying to decipher..."puppy??". Luckily, the new diaper was in the right place, and we contained our messes :)

Here are a few photos from the day. Ethan is truly faster than a speeding bullet, so that was a rare shot. How comfy does Sylvia look with Eric? Very nice to spend time with cousins. Luckily, Sylvia slept soundly for a good 1/2 of the trip home. We spent the other 1/2 of the trip making up words to a lullaby song to try to get Sylvia to sleep. Each of the 100 verses was followed by a little "again?" from the back seat. Obviously, Sylvia isn't too picky in her music taste yet...

difficult days

Sylvia has been having some difficult day care days. It is probably a combination of transitioning to a new room / teachers and getting some new teeth (at least I hope that's the explanation). I dropped her off this morning screaming at the top of lungs. I could still hear her screaming after I dropped off paperwork down the hall 5 minutes later. That was a first, and please, please, please, let it be a last. No fun. I think if I had snuck out after I setting her up with breakfast, instead of kissing her good-bye, things may have gone better. Lesson learned.
John picked her up and found out she had gotten bitten that morning and still had the bite marks to prove it. Hopefully that was a once and done event as well. Bad timing for a tired and cranky child to be bitten (although I'm not sure what good timing would be.)
This little message from Daddy and Sylvia makes me forget the tears that I left Sylvia with this morning (Click Play below):

Blink

It starts off early in a sandbox

We blink as sand gets in our eyes

We blink up at the sun in wonder

We blink and somehow time just flies ~John Flynn

*********************

And a blink later...all grown up and saying things like "Mine", "I do it", and lots of please and thank you's (my favorites).

She also says "ok" in response to questions now, which I find very funny. Her new teachers are Miss Carrie and Miss Amber, and she says both names perfectly (unlike her own tricky name, which is why she probably still refers to herself as "baby"). The other day she named one of her baby dolls "Emery" after one of the babies at daycare. There is nothing like watching her pat the baby's back or put Emery in her little high chair to feed her "bananas", "meat", and any other food that pops into head at that moment.

computer keyboards

Saturday was work around the house day, although we did go out to dinner, and for some reason we decided to drag our screaming, tired child around Home Depot AND Lowes. Sylvia would have happily stayed at Lowes if we let her. She reached up to the cashier to hold her, who then let her play with computer keyboard. That was definitely the highlight of Sylvie's day.
Sunday we had breakfast at Cracker Barrel, which was great. It was so nice just to hang out in the rocking chairs before they called us. They even had little Sylvie sized chairs. On the way out we bought Sylvia's Halloween Costume. They didn't even have her size (we got a 3T and she wears 18 months), but it was the cutest little outfit and it actually does fit her pretty well.

We stopped at John's office so he could get some files for a trip, and Sylvia wore her little Halloween outfit as she moved big water jugs around and typed on an extra keyboard. John got some cute photos on his phone, but I can't post them and ruin the surprise of what she is going to be!!

After the Eagles game (woo hoo!), Sylvia and I joined my family, including great-Pop-Pop, for dinner at Friendly's. Daddy had to fly out on business. Sylvia spent the night trying to sneak hugs and kisses from Brock. She is so funny with him.

Somehow I survived the weekend without getting called into work. Now if my luck can just hold on another week and a half....

Tartan Terrors and treacherous territory

Sylvia is officially a "Cat" at daycare and did great with the transition to the young toddler room. She woke the first day from her nap a bit upset, but after a little visit with her old teachers in the infant room, she was ready to go back and play with the big kids.

The highlight of her day Friday involved buiding a "tent" in the family room with a blanket and some pillows. It kept her entertained for a good 20 minutes, which is record-breaking in the world of one-year-olds. She is so serious sitting in her chair watching Caillou (her favorite show of the moment).


In the evening, we went over to the Irish festival, which was surprisingly lively, for a Friday night. I'm not sure if the events are just growing each year or if people just knew that Saturday would be a washout, but there were a lot of people there. We ate dinner while watching the Irish dancers and then watched the Tartan Terrors perform, who were great: http://www.tartanterrors.com/



Note for next year: bring flashlights on Friday night. There were very few lights, and the rocky terrain was a bit treacherous.

I am a rock star; I got my rock moves....

We had a very nice Labor Day Weekend even though Sylvia had a cold that got progressively worse that she lovingly shared with Mommy. Gotta love daycare.
...and they walked off into the sunset....rest of photos (not too many) here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/TexFamily/2008LaborDayWeekend#