my little sunshine

sweet. innocent. happy.

that's all folks - vacation part V

Ok, enough fun. I'm tired.....take me home!! That big yawn was just taken just before we walked out the door from the shore house after a very fun week.

The video I took that morning was very long and full of lots of cute moments, with Sylvia showing off her new fifth teeth and her knowledge of body parts, but I had to cut it down to the highlight reel for this site. The first song has been a favorite of Sylvia's from Tumbling Tots and we use it often to entertain her in the car. From the video, I would say it entertains adults as well :) And the second song is probably Sylvia's favorite. She listens to it on her bed-time CD each night.

And so, without further ado, here are a few songs for the road....

Farewell Beach; Hello Elmo! - Vacation Part IV

Sylvia came down to the beach with Daddy and Grammy after her nap, and promptly started strutting her stuff for the paparazzi. She has developed a recent obsession for hats, which works out well because she has about 10. Several of her outfits came with cute little matching hats and Grammy Donna made her a few others. So...she just happened to have a matching hat for each of her bathing suits and didn't seem to mind wearing them at all. Baby Fashionista!

Our last day at the beach (sniff, sniff) was as sunny and beautiful as each of the other days had been, and Sylvia kept herself busy with the sand and all of those buckets.
We finished off our last night with a walk on the boardwalk and Mack and Manco pizza (yum!) and when I saw a little girl with an Elmo balloon, I had to ask her mom where she got it and find one for Sylvie. We couldn't get the little manageable size. Ah, no. Only the humungo jumbo size for our little girl. It caused a lot of problems, because if she held on to it, we couldn't see to push the stroller. Oh well; she will love it when we get home and use if for decoration in her room. Gotta love Elmo :)

Sylvia's highlight of the night, and maybe of the whole week, was a ride on the carousel. I was sitting behind her, so I wasn't sure if she was happy, scared, or ambivalent. Just as the ride ended and I pulled her off the horse, she started screaming "Neigh, neigh! Neigh, neigh!". I realized she had become very attached to her horse, and she continued screaming as we bought another ticket, waited in line again, until she got on her new horse. She was thrilled for two more minutes until the ride ended again. She kissed her horsey good-bye (twice, plus an extra kiss for a horse that we walked past), and we attempted to fix the screams with the above mentioned Elmo with limited success.

I can't help but think that next year she may have a new level of awareness and be afraid of the horses. And maybe the year after that the carousel ride will be the boring place to be. This year, in that moment, she wanted nothing more than to ride around in circles on her magical horse and she screamed at the top of her lungs to make sure everyone knew how much those moments meant to her. I wish she could keep a piece of that magic forever.

And....a grand finale of ice cream (of course). We're definitely going to miss this place.

these are a few of my favorite things - Vacation part III

The next few days of vacation combined some of Sylvia's favorite things.

Favorite thing # 1: the swing


Grammy was more than willing to push Sylvie until she was tired of the swing (which can take hours....) Other children came and went, but our Sylvia out-lasted them all. We spent a good part of an afternoon at the little park while Daddy, Mark, and Chris went on a golf-outing, and Grammy brought Sylvia back to the swings on Thursday when Mommy and Daddy snuck out to dinner.


Favorite thing #2: Lions, Tigers, and Bears.....and all of the other animals

Unfortunately the day we went to Cape May Zoo was hot & humid and involved a slightly tired and cranky baby that wanted to be carried around the hot & humid zoo - but we still had fun and Sylvia got to see a lot of great animals. Grammy let her pick a stuffed animal from the gift store, and Sylvia picked a lion And a snake (somehow she snuck 2 animals). She also got a shirt that she will be able to wear next year to remember her trip to see the animals.

Sylvia's favorite verse (with the exception of "neigh neigh's"): Old MacDonald had a Farm EIEIO, and on that farm he had a rooster EIEIO, with a doodle-doodle-doo and a doodle-doodle-doo, here a doodle, there a doodle...
Favorite thing #3: lounging in front of the TV with Daddy; can you say Teletubbies?

Sylvia often catches a show or two amidst her busy schedule of crayons, puzzles, books, and bubbles, and the list of those that will hold her attention have expanded to include Sesame Street, Curious George, Mickey Mouse, Caillou, and I cringe as I write this, Barney. However, she still smiles for good old Teletubbies, and I'm pretty sure she would be content watching anything with Daddy (maybe even golf?!)

still screaming - Vacation Part II

I snuck in to take these photos while Sylvia was napping. From these precious little views, you'd never guess that she went to bed each night on vacation screaming for a very long time at the top of her lungs. Sylvia has always gone to bed very easily, with at most, five minutes of screaming on the worst nights. This was a whole new dark and scary world - endless wailing. I think she couldn't stand the thought she was missing something and we couldn't stand to listen to the poor thing screaming for soooooo long. or maybe she was a little scared? I don't know. We didn't know what to do. Most nights I either stayed in the room where she could see me until she fell asleep......hours later, and other nights we just let her stay up until she passed out.

Sylvia: 1

Mommy and Daddy: 0

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

Dream big dreams, baby girl, and may they all come true.

You are, without a doubt, our dream come true.

she is screaming - Vacation Part I

From the time we brought Sylvia home from the hospital as a tiny little baby, she demanded nice, warm bath water. I was always afraid of the water being too hot for her delicate little brand new baby skin, but lukewarm or cooler and she would shriek like a banshee.

This is the same child who runs fearlessly into the ankle numbing waters of the Atlantic Ocean. (Note, she is screaming in the video below not because the water is so cold that it sends shooting pains up and down your legs, but because Daddy wants her to get out and warm up.)

and so, my Sylvia, with a little help getting used to the strange new world of sand...


you set off bravely to discover all that the ocean waters and sandcastles had to offer. We are so excited for all you have yet to discover and even more thankful to be part of your journey.

planes, trains, and automobiles...

...OK, it was just 2 planes and a minivan, but close enough. We flew out to Indiana on Thursday and little Sylvie handled her first airplane ride like a pro. Thank goodness for the stickers that kept her occupied. I was so nervous that we would have a screaming child for two hours suffering from ear pains. Luckily, we could convince her to take sips of water as needed by bribing with teddy grahams. I'm not sure if it made a difference, but it gave me peace of mind.

She had fun peaking over the seat to play with Chris and Mark on the way out, and although the gentlemen behind us on the flight home were nice, I think it confused Sylvia that these guys who were trying to read their books weren't quite as responsive to her periodic "Hello" as Aunt Chrissy and Mark had been. By the end of the flight she found a friendly lady in front of us that was more than willing to chat. The worst part of the flights was when we thought one of our bags was lost and the customer service reps were less than helpful. Fortunately, the bag eventually showed up a bit more than fashionably late. Oh well. I'll take a late bag (even a lost bag) over a child in pain any day.

GiGi

These pictures say more than words could. When I think of GiGi, I think of these moments from the fall of 2006, when we first told her that baby Tex was on the way.

I carry those overwhelmingly joyous moments with me.

swing time

We went to Grammy and Pop-pop's for dinner. The new pool and the old swing both met Sylvia's approval. The rain chased us in the house half-way through dinner, but no clouds could spoil Sylvie's smile (especially when yoo-hoo's were on the menu :)

looking back

I just noticed Sylvia is wearing one of the same hair bands in the last post as she was about a year ago in this photo......life goes by so quickly.

from August 2007 (compare to our water baby below)

summer is here

Sylvia has seemed slightly afraid of the sprinklers that we've been using in our half-hearted attempts to establish a lawn, but today I decided to throw a bikini on her and see what happened......nothing but laughs!!

kiss, kiss, hug, hug

Sylvia found a new play-mate today - the baby in the reflection of the glass door. Kisses and hugs for the baby!

called you on the telephone

These videos are on the long side, but oh my goodness, how cute is she? Before tonight we could barely get a word out of her on the phone, but once I let her have control of the phone there was no stopping our Sylvia chatter box. She was fresh out of the bath-tub talking to her daddy before bed. I cut a few minutes from this first video, where she really reminded me of myself on the phone; she was walking in circles like I tend to do on the phone. Notice how she pauses to point out her elbow at the end (my favorite part).



Here is the second part...she demonstrates her technique of trying to stay on the phone when John is ready to end the call. Once she senses his intentions, she whines, and then shouts out a bold "HELLO". This is why they were still on the phone when he got home.

bye bye elmo

Here Sylvia was playing in her crib before bath-time. I think I had stuck her in there to get a few things done quickly with her safe and sound, but she didn't mind at all. She was finding it very funny to say "Gotta go" (or something like that), and give Elmo a nice toss out of bed.

The Little Firecracker and the Mango Men

This was a busy weekend for us. On Friday, Grammy, Chris, & Mark came out to celebrate the fourth of July and for a fun game night. Sylvia was the center of much attention, and there are many awesome photos from that night (Thanks Chris!). It is hard to pick one to post, so here are a few.

On Saturday, Sylvie and mommy went to the McDonough baby shower. Finn is doing awesome, and will be coming home soon. He is truly a feisty little fire cracker. We can't wait to meet him.


On Sunday, we went to see Mango Men with Grammy and Pop-pop. I was a little worried about Sylvia, with the start time being fairly close to bed-time. I am still kicking myself that I didn't have my camera with me. Sylvia was dancing from the second the music started, and spent a lot of time lounging on her Daddy enjoying her first taste of lunch meat (Roast beef). She clapped along with everyone and all of the Jimmy Buffett songs and ran around chasing puppies and meeting friends throughout the evening. Next time we'll have to take a ball for her. She borrowed a nice person's ball to kick around for a while. We may have a future soccer star on our hands.




While I definitely missed capturing some precious moments that night, I made up for it the next night, when I just happened to have my camcorder on hand as Sylvia talked to her Daddy on the phone.....so cute!! If I ever find my software to download the video onto my new computer I will add that to the site. (Hopefully soon)

Messy hair and Oatmeal

When Sylvia woke up today she said "hair" (her hair was in her face), and my mom asked her if she wanted her hair fixed and she nodded her head yes. Then my mom asked her if she wanted pancakes or oatmeal and she said "Oatmeal!!". She proceeded to gobble up a big bowl of oatmeal. Such a big girl!! She is amazingly opinionated for being so small. She doesn't get as frustrated now that she can express herself a little - unless she is demanding something that she just can't have :)

Baby buggy

I found this while checking out the daycare newsletter. Sylvie is hanging out in the back row with her buddy Grady. So cute!!