Road trip!

So we drove down to the DC area this weekend to visit with John's sister Amanda and her entire bridal party. We decided to leave as late as possible Friday evening, hoping that Sylvie would sleep for most of the 4 hour trip, and of course hoping to avoid the notorious mid-Atlantic traffic trap. We were thankfully victorious on the latter, but our little bright eyed sweetie managed to stay awake the entire time.

Here she is earlier in the day on Friday. I'm only including this picture because she looks so damn cute (and okay because technically the 3 pictures below were taken after midnight and early Saturday morning, and this is the Friday post y'all).

And here she is many many hours later, after a 4+ hour car trip, sometime around the midnight hour. Like all, sleep? me? Nah!

The happy fest was short lived though, we had just enough time to get a little food into all of our systems and get in our PJs before she completely fell apart and had a little sob fest in my arms, begging for "car. bye bye. home." Turns out she was really freaked out by the whole concept of a strange hotel room, and wanted nothing more than to turn around and go home. Poor kid! With some serious cuddling and some milk for her tummy we all managed to fall asleep.

Okay so normally John and I loooooove staying in hotels. Because hotels mean one thing: luxurious king size beds. We talk about how "one day we'll have a king size bed" the way most normal people talk about their dream house. So I guess it's no surprise that Sylvie has taken a liking to them as well:


Weird thing is that we've slept in a king size bed with her before, several times. So what gives? John and I were both literally clinging to the edges while little miss sprawled and luxuriated. It's such a toddler cliche. Why do they do this??

I guess she heard we're going to DC this weekend.

Romney watch?

Okay so she didn't actually ask for Romney by name, but it wouldn't have surprised me, what with her weekly Sunday morning "Meet the Press" date with her father.

I'm delighted to report that she was thoroughly unimpressed with tonight's candidates. Phew!

Tuesday Night is Guest Blogger Night: Low Key

Kacey worked late tonight and Syl and I had a tough workout at the Little Gym. So by the time we got home, we were ready for a low-key remainder of the evening.
She likes playing with her Little People farmers.

She likes to line her Little People farmers up in a tidy row.

Sometimes she randomly breaks out in song. Here she is hitting the final triumphant note of "That's Elmo's WORLD!!!" What you don't see (and can't possibly hear in this still image) is me making the same face while providing her with a harmonized accompaniment. It was like an angelic chorus right there in our kitchen.

No encores tonight.

Water Play

Tonight we set Sylvie up at the kitchen sink and let her splash around. She loved it!

choo choo

We spent this afternoon with Chloe, Gina and John, and decided that it would be a fun little treat to take the girls on a train ride. Gina and John live about half a mile from the train station, and we figured we'd take the train to the next stop, one town over, which is a cute little town to walk around, get some lunch, etc. We got a kick out of the fact that it would be a three minute train ride, and just knew the girls would totally enjoy it. The problem was that we didn't take into account the logistics of a 3 minute train ride. By the time you get on the train, find an empty seat, get yourself settled and pay the conductor, it's time to get off! For the 3 hours we were together all the girls talked about was the train and wanting to go back on, and in the end all they got was 6 measly minutes. What a tease!

They still managed to make the most it though:

Couldn't care less

You'd think she sees this everyday. Like hey, nothing new here, just a Christmas tree smack dab in the middle of my living room.

Quiet.

The baby is soundly sleeping, the house is clean and things are put away, the husband is out of town for the night. I think I'm going to pop in one of my favorite movies, snuggle under the covers, and try to enjoy the solitude.

And yes, I will update the last post with pics, this post too. It's just that the computer is almost completely out of space and I have to move a bunch of videos and do some annoying stuff to free up room to import new photos. And hey, I have a quiet peaceful night to enjoy here people. :)

Updated to add this picture from last night. Mmm yogurt.

A very happy Thanksgiving

We had a great day today, from start to finish. There is just so much to be thankful for. I will post pics and a longer update when I catch my breath.

Okay, finally posting an update with pics, and lots of them. We spent the first part of the day at my aunt and uncle's house, they hosted an amazing dinner for 15 of us. Sylvie had the time of her life playing with my cousin's daughters and we are so excited to spend Christmas Eve with them again this year! Later in the day we hooked up with our friends, just in time for dessert. It was such a great day, I think Thanksgiving is becoming my favorite holiday!

So here are some things I'm thankful for this year:
1. my beautiful little girl

2. a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with the people I love

3. the kids' table! (don't you love how they're all like "what do you want?")

4. 3 of my favorite people (Riley, Kris, Reagan)

5. cousins

6. 3 year olds

7. chocolate lollipops (and bibs to protect pretty dresses and highchairs to protect pretty furniture)

8. 3 little monkeys jumping on the bed

9. late night jam sessions

10. playtime

11. best friends

Back to our regularly scheduled program

Before I start this post I think I should prepare Grandma Winnie, because she's probably not going to approve. I'm going to blame it partially on the fact that it's the day before Thanksgiving (and so going to the grocery store this evening was out of the question) and partially on my mom (who dropped by our house while we were in the middle of deciding what and where we should eat, and then stayed for more than hour playing with the babe). But let's just say that we didn't leave our house until after 9pm. And didn't get Sylvie to bed until after 10pm. Yes, we know we are lucky to have such a flexible, and happy, baby. (And we won't do it again Gram, promise!)

So here she is at the diner, after finishing her grilled cheese. Notice how empty the diner is? I guess all the competent parents were home with their children snuggly tucked into bed.

Tuesday night is now Guest Blogger Night here on the Daily Syl

And the guest blogger is always me, Daddy.
I had mentioned to Kacey last night that I would probably like one night a week to be my night to post the daily entry onto DailySyl. Half-listening, she agreed that would be a good idea, and the topic was dropped.
This evening, as Sylvie's night was coming to an end as it usually does with the bath time rituals, Kacey knocked on the bathroom door. Sylvie and I said "Come in!" in near unison and Kacey entered saying that she has "made a decision... Tuesday nights are now guest blogger nights. Here's the camera. I haven't taken any pictures today and oh yeah, the batteries are just about dead." I said "I thought maybe Wednesday would be a good night for me to do it because..." "No, it's Tuesdays from now on," Kacey said as she exited.
So anyway, I know there have been a few posts over the past couple of months with the bath time theme, but here is another one. 4 cute pics. Maybe next Tuesday we'll explore a new topic, but this was the best I could do with 2 mins of battery-life and a kid who was well past her bed time.

She knew she was being cute for this one...hamming it up.

I screamed "Boo" because she was passive-aggressively refusing to look up.

Getting bored with the "shoot."

Sylvie is a Punk Rocker!

Sick baby

Sylvie's cold ramped up considerably today, and in combination with some canine teething. All around fun times! The poor bug hasn't wanted to eat much of anything today, has had a low grade fever on and off all day and is having an impossible time sleeping. She wakes up every couple of minutes (literally) from coughing. It's definitely not the worst cold she's ever had, but it still stinks. She seems to finally be resting well now, let's hope it's a good night for all of us.

This picture was taken earlier this evening, when Sylvie was inspecting the inner workings of her art easel's paper roller. Peek-a-boo!

In the kitchen

Sylvie's been under the weather for the past 3 days with a sad little cold. Combine that with some rain and general parental exhaustion, and you get a pretty low key (read: boring) weekend. We did some arts and crafts and lots of dancing and playing with music instruments, we read a bunch of her books over and over and over again, and we thanked the gods for our cable On Demand program, which allows us to play countless Sesame Street episodes as much as we want (read: need) to. Today we decided to bust out Sylvie's new recipe box and let her explore her culinary side. We went with the Z is for Zany Zucchini Sticks, and while Sylvie had a blast making them, especially all the messy parts, she wanted nothing to do with eating them.

I think I like having a little helper in the kitchen. How soon do you think we can start expecting breakfast in bed?

Getting a jump start on her holiday gift-making.

She couldn't believe her eyes...

Best. Book. Ever.
!!!

22 months old

22 months?! Freakin' unbelievable. I realized the other day that even with daily posts on this blog I feel like I'm not coming close to capturing how amazing Sylvie is these days. She is nothing short of a total and complete joy to be around, I feel like I fall more in love with her every single day, and just wish so much that I could bottle this feeling up and carry it around with me in my back pocket. I was telling my mom today that I just don't think it's possible that another person could love their child as much as I love Sylvie, it's not possible! Now, I know this is ridiculous and I'm not actually suggesting it to be true, but it's how I feel deep down in my core. She is literally the greatest thing in my life, I love her so much. It blows me away on a daily basis.

And now....on to the language list. Amanda, good job on the guesses! You got 4 out of 7 correct! Here are the translations, plus her other words mentioned in previous posts (rounding out the list for posterity):

pee-cheese = mac-n-cheese
bargage = garbage
Brover = Grover
po-coon = raccoon
Ah-cole = Nicole
Ah-count = The Count
snuggy = snuggly
bee-box = mailbox
pee-tube = youtube
pee-pop = lollipop
au-plih-uhrrr = caterpillar

Well aren't I a cutie?

Since posting recently about Sylvie's language progression, I've been noticing more and more of her baby words. Just tonight she said "Ernie" for the first time. It's always been pronounced "E.E." And I have to say, as excited as we were to hear her pronounce it so well, we were equally sad to know that E.E. is probably gone for good.

So here's a list of some of her current babyish words. Anyone care to make a guess at the translations?

pee-cheese
bargage
Brover
po-coon
Ah-cole
Ah-count
snuggy

I'll edit this post to add more words as I think of them. It's late, my brain is tired.

i-berry?

This morning after Sylvie woke up I told her that we were going to the library for music time. Her whole face lit up and for the rest of the morning she followed me around asking "i-berry? mama, i-berry?" The library class wasn't until 12:45 this afternoon, so the poor thing had quite a bit of waiting. As far as she's concerned, it was worth the wait.

Speaking of caterpillars...

I bought Sylvie The Very Hungry Caterpillar this weekend, and we finally sat down and read it today. She was pretty captivated and as soon as we finished she grabbed it from me and sat down and read it all back to herself. I was pretty impressed with how she remembered each page and knew what to say. And the best part was her saying "au-plih-uhrrr" over and over again, which I realized is her version of "caterpillar". I think it's her most babyish word yet.

In totally non-Sylvie news, I found myself behind a Ford Taurus with the world's worst personalized license plate today:

2DAMALL

Really, what's wrong with people?

BeeBox

By far my most favorite thing about Sylvie's language skills right now is her pronunciation of compound words. Sylvie typically speaks very clearly and doesn't have a whole lot of "babyish" phrases, so when she comes out with peepop for lollipop, peetube for youtube (for watching videos of herself, natch) and beebox for mailbox, my heart melts. Going to the beebox is a part of our daily routine, though honestly I don't think the mail itself is all too thrilling for Syl. She does receive the occasional care package and she already has her own magazine subscription, but for the most part going to the beebox is really just about holding the door open for mommy, pointing out the flowers and convincing me to let her water them, checking out the dogs going by, etc. The beebox is just the means to an end for one busy little girl.

So with our day being so busy yesterday we never got around to really checking or opening the mail, and were happily surprised late last night to find a little package for Sylvie from her Mimi (John's Mom Mary). We decided to put it back in the mailbox and let her find it this morning after she woke up. When we brought her to the mailbox this morning she was a little confused about why we were so intent on having her actually get the mail. She had gardens to assess and neighborhood canine gossip to catch up on! We convinced her that a special treat was waiting for her though, and she was not disappointed:


Inside her special little package was a miniature Elmo figure and matching Ernie figure. Sylvie's first reaction was a bit of squealing. Her second reaction was "Bert?" Because well, duh, everyone knows that Ernie always rolls with Bert. Luckily she remembered that she had a little Bert figure with her Sesame Street playhouse, so she immediately ran and got him. She then proceeded to play with her new toys all day. Literally. She even used Ernie as a dipping tool at dinner, licking her ketchup right off his shoes. Yum!

Sylvie has a whole new appreciation for the beebox. Thank you Mimi!