Bye Bye 2007!

We arrived home this afternoon after a pretty easy day of traveling, and as soon as we stepped into the house Sylvie went right to her dollhouse, not missing a beat. Sylvie needs a little help posing the doll figures, but she gave me very specific instructions on where to place each member of the doll family. First she decided that the little boy should sit at the kitchen table. Next she wanted the mommy to cook dinner. Next we placed the little girl on the couch, playing with the puppy. And last but not least, Sylvie announced that the daddy was "pooping". So on the toilet he went! I can't believe she's not even 2 yet and is already picking up on gender stereotypes. Yikes!

A close-up of the family members in their respective rooms:

And a (slightly blurry) close-up of the happy little sweetie pie:

And with that, it's time to say goodbye to 2007. It's been such a terrific year, my favorite one yet! I can't even articulate how happy and blessed I feel to have John and Sylvie in my life, and all of my amazing family and friends. I know exactly how lucky I am. I hope each one of you has a safe and fun New Year's Eve, and a healthy and happy 2008. And in the spirit of the Daily Syl, here's a quick retrospective of this past year, one of my favorite photos from each month:

Packing

Sylvie wanted to help me pack up our stuff tonight, but as soon as we started she found her new pair of rain boots and became totally distracted. I'm so happy she loves wearing her boots though, because look at this cuteness!!!

And hey, apparently the boots make for good jumping!

A few minutes later she stumbled across her new accordion, and once again I lost my packing assistant!

Thankfully she did get back to the task at hand:

And later in the evening, enjoying some goodbye cuddles with Aunt Amanda and Mr. Wilson:

Children's Museum

We took Sylvie to the Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh today, and as expected she loved it! The main play area was gated off, and the kids had their own special entrance:

Once inside Sylvie was a fireman:

a farmer:

an artist:

and a chef:

She had her little paws on everything, she just couldn't get enough. She played on a life size pirate ship, splashed at the water tables, played with the trains, and pretended to drive a school bus. I think we all agree that New Jersey desperately needs a Marbles Museum. We can't wait to visit again!

We're never coming home!

Kids!

Late last night we had more family show up...Tony's daughter Dana, her husband Chris and their two kids Collin and McKaylea arrived after a hellish 14 hour drive in bumper to bumper traffic. Sylvie could not possibly be happier about their presence. She has been running around non stop and every so often runs past me just to yell "kids!!" She's so happy. She especially seems to love Collin and just likes to follow him around mimicking his every move and sound. They played for hours and hours straight this morning, playing on their bikes outside, sneaking pumpkin cake and even sneaking upstairs by themselves when no one was looking. Here are a few sneak peeks from the day so far:

Sylvie's tree

Mimi set up this little tree in the foyer of her house, with a box of ornaments and doodads just for Sylvie to decorate. She is totally mesmerized by the strand of beads ("beebs"), and sneaks over to take them off the tree every chance she gets.



We're still getting the hang of the new camera, but man we love it so far. Thanks Mom!!

Merry Christmas!

Santa found his way to Cary, NC and left some goodies under the tree.
Happy Holidays!

Christmas Eve

Santa came early, and left lots of loot for the little one. Unfortunately all of the pictures are stuck on our other computer for now, so you'll have to just take my word that it was loads of fun and she was as cute as ever. :)

We're on our way early tomorrow to visit Mimi and Papa in North Carolina!!

And P.S. today is our 100th post! Hooray!

Santa Claus is coming to town

Santa made his annual fire truck tour of the neighborhood today, checking in on all the little boys and girls. Sylvie has a serious thing for fire trucks, so this time she was slightly more interested in the man in the big red suit. Slightly.







Video to come!

More visitors!

Sue and Ben came over tonight, and all 7 of us piled into my mom's old truck and drove down to the big drive through light show. It was PACKED and just waiting in line to get into the show took 2 or 3 times as long as driving through it. We sang along with Christmas tunes though and had a good time, and then drove around some more, rating the lights and decorations on random houses. Classic Christmas!

Here we are back at home, the kids found the stash of hershey kisses, left over from cookie making earlier that day:

I'd love to know how many hershey kisses they each have stuffed into their mouths:

So with all that sugar energy we thought it was the perfect time for a dance party!

Ben gave Sylvie a dollhouse for Christmas (and they didn't even know how much we wanted one! Amazing!), and it is a HUGE hit. She has been playing with it almost non-stop! John took a cute video of her playing with it tonight, soon after we put it together, and as soon as I get it uploaded I will post it here. Thank you Sue, Al and Ben!