Concentration

Taking her puzzle very seriously...



P.S. In case anyone is wondering, yes Sylvie is wearing the same shirt in these pictures as she was wearing yesterday. She wore this onesie to bed last night and these pics were taken this morning after she woke up. I wouldn't want anyone to think the DailySyl is trying to pull a fast one on our beloved readers.

P.P.S. Sylvie received a mysteriously delightful package in the mail yesterday, 3 DVDs about learning Spanish! There was no sender information, and we have no idea who could have sent these. If you're reading this, leave a comment and let us know it was you! :)

Tucked in

Sylvie got a hold of the paper towels tonight and unraveled the whole role in a matter of seconds. Caught in the act:

We thought she was just having fun with it and after letting her play for a minute, and ripping a couple of pieces off, we put the paper towels away. Sylvie took off into her room, where we could hear her playing for a few minutes while we cleaned up from dinner. Then Sylvie reappeared, mumbled something about Bert and Ernie sleeping, and then took off again to play with her musical instruments. It wasn't until a little while later that John called me into her room, where I found him chuckling over this scene in Sylvie's room:

Bert and Ernie sleeping! Tucked in as snug as two little bugs.

What a cutie patootie!!!

Grandpa the Fish

So remember Sylvie's little obsession? Well after dinner tonight we let Sylvie feed the fish, and she surprised us by continually calling it "Grandpa". We have absolutely no idea where she came up with this, or why she honestly thinks the fish is named Grandpa, but we pretty much made an on the spot decision to go ahead with the name change.

So without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of the Farrell family, Grandpa the Fish. Some video too.

Tuesday Night is Guest Blogger Night : Miscellaneous scenes

Here are some scenes from this rainy, New Jersey Tuesday.
Kacey took this picture from the front seat (while safely stopped at a red light, I'm sure). They were driving to the library singing the "Sylvie's going to the Library" song we penned a couple weeks ago. How apropos. By the way....that white plastic bag in the center of the picture....it's her Flower Girl dress for Amanda's wedding in April. Yes, we have pictures and I must say that she's super cute in it. No, you can't see the pics...you'll just have to wait!

So they arrived at the library a bit later for some singing and dancing. When I was her age, singing and dancing at the library was strictly forbidden. Now, it's apparently encouraged. My how times have changed. This lady is cool, though...she's there each week with guitar in hand rocking some jams for all the kiddie-poos.

We love this pic below. It captures one of the millions of reasons why we love Sylvie. Notice how most of the kids in the pic are standing still or sitting on their mothers' laps, politely listening to the music lady. Look at how our little free spirit is a complete airborne blur! She's dancing like nobody's watching and loving every minute of it.

This quiet reading time pic was taken before bathtime tonight. Take note of that curled lower lip. If you ever see Sylvie with that look, do NOT distract her. She's likely deep in thought and would resent having her concentration disturbed....she's in no mood for idle chit-chat.

I love you shirt. Yes I do.

Sylvie got a package from Grandma Mimi in the mail today. She tore right into it and was so excited to see a brand new potty book!! She already has a potty book from Mimi, but it features a little boy and all of his boy parts. We thought maybe a book about a little girl would be easier for her to relate to. Now she's just so thrilled to have TWO potty books, and she wanted to read both of them simultaneously.

She read them through several times and then remembered that there were other surprises waiting for her in the package. She was very excited to find two shirts, and wanted to try them on immediately.

While attempting to get this one on she made up a little song. "I love you shirt. Yes I do. I love love love love you shirt. Yes I do." She sang it over and over again.

Obsession

Today got off to a good start. After feeling pretty sick and yucky all weekend we went out this morning and got coffee and donuts. Sylvie had her very first pink frosted sprinkle donut (and according to her dad this was her Aunt Amanda's favorite as a little girl). Well, she loved it.

We then played with her flash cards. I think at this point she has 5 or 6 sets of them, and I'm always on the search for new ones. I don't know where this passion came from, but she really loves them!

The day just kept getting better, as later on she got to play countless games on the computer with her dad;

we played hide and seek;

and then the best of all...we cleaned the fish bowl!

In the past week or so Sylvie has become a little obsessed with the fish. One of us recently made the mistake of letting her pull a kitchen chair up to the buffet in the kitchen to get a closer look at the fish, and since that day she's had a one track mind. She asks to "look at a fish" every day, many many many times. Sometimes when we're not looking she pulls the chair over herself and climbs up for a closer view. It's kinda becoming a problem. So tonight we thought we'd give her a special treat and let her clean the bowl. Which was great, and she loved it!

Until we told her cleaning time was over.


NOT happy. And we couldn't help ourselves, we were literally hysterically laughing. Which made her cry harder. Poor kid. Tonight she told me "the fish is my baby". She really loves him! We're not sure how to handle it.

This reminds me of a cute story from when my brother was a little kid - around 3 or 4. I had an angel fish, and Kris decided one winter day that the fish was probably thirsty. He proceeded to pour an entire mug of hot chocolate into the fish bowl. Later that day I came home from school to a cloudy fish bowl and a dead fish. For years and years Kris would bring it up at totally random moments, apologizing for accidentally killing the fish. I think it probably still haunts him!

Bathing beauty

Snow!

Finally!

February Baseball

Sylvie and I got out of work early today and since we had some time to kill before the sun went down I decided to stop by the park. I asked her "Sylvie, should we go to the park?" And she said "Yes!! See a baseball game." Okay then! I wasn't optimistic that I could really find a baseball game in progress (on a cold February day no less) but we went to the nearest park anyway. We pulled up and saw two kids on a basketball court and Sylvie yelled out from the backseat "Look Mommy! Baseball game!" Her wish is my command.

She climbed a little on the monkey bars, climbed up the very big slide and managed to tumble down it backwards and sideways, swung on the swings, and then made her way into the wooded area, where she spent most of the time we were there.

She picked up this stick and started walking around with it, dragging it through the dirt and leaves. She kept saying "Look Mommy!" and when I finally got a chance to ask her what she was doing she simply replied "Gardening."

And later on this evening, John took this picture of Sylvie eating her apples and peanut butter. This really feels like an eerie glimpse into the future, I'm guessing about 11 years from now? Yes, I'm quite sure that this is what Sylvie will look like at 13, when she's disgusted and embarrassed by and completely fed up with her annoying parents:

Dancing Queen

Sylvie shakes her groove thing right before bath time:


Sylvie had a good day, though it started with me realizing that she was scheduled for a flu shot today (her second one of a 2 part series). So we rushed around the house, I threw some clothes on her, packed the bag and managed to make it there just in time, walking into the office exactly one minute before our scheduled time. Go mommy! But you see, the receptionist didn't have Sylvie's name on today's chart, and quickly realized that our appointment was scheduled for yesterday. I was actually 23 hours and 53 minutes late. Go mommy! So Sylvie handled the shot really well, I was so proud of her! And she was especially thrilled that I had snuck some hershey kisses in my pocket as a little reward. Chocolate trumps needles any day!

And one quick and cute little story from this afternoon. We were at work and Sylvie was out in the living room playing with the kids. I was doing some work for my boss in her office when Sylvie ran in, hugged my legs and said "Hi Mommy. How are you doing today?" Love it!

Tuesday Night is Guest Blogger Night : School

Despite the post title, it's Kacey here. You didn't really think I'd get two nights off from the Daily Syl?! John has been really busy tonight and it just so happens that I brought the camera to school today, so here's a little glimpse into her second day of Mommy-n-Me. It's an hour long class, which starts with about 10 minutes of free play with the other kids. We then go right into craft time, and since today's theme was "Look at my healthy smile!" Syl painted white "toothpaste" onto a picture of teeth. And she even got to use a toothbrush to do it! The teeth had little black spots on them, which I was supposed to explain to Sylvie was the plaque, and she was supposed to brush the plaque away. Well, I'm not really sure the message was totally conveyed, but she still had fun! I couldn't take any pictures of her actually working on the craft, as I was too busy keeping the toothbrush with white paint OUT OF HER MOUTH, but here's a shot of the finished product:

After we clean up from craft time the kids all go to the Big Room, where they get to chase balls around, tackle the climbing structure, and the favorite of all: ride around on all those vehicles!


Here Sylvie is being chased by her friend Amy, a three year old in the class. They were having so much fun squealing and galloping along.

At one point Sylvie almost tripped and Amy's mother got up to intervene. She then apologized to me for her daughter being a little aggressive with Sylvie, and I assured her that I wasn't worried at all, that I take a somewhat, uh, laid back approach to that sort of thing. As long as no one's actually getting hurt, I figure it's best to let the kids figure it out themselves. She laughed and said something along the lines of "oh good, me too, but you know you never know how other people are with their kids!" We then agreed that our girls were just too cute and having such a good time together, and wouldn't you know not a minute had gone by when someone tripped and Sylvie ended up slamming her face into the hard floor, with Amy slamming down on top of her. It was a pretty traumatic scene, Sylvie had a swollen lip and red nose, and a little goose egg on her forehead. She was very upset and it took a few minutes to calm her down. Poor Amy wasn't hurt (Sylvie made a soft cushion!) but she was very upset and worried about Sylvie. Of course about 5 minutes later the girls were back to running around the room chasing each other around, and Amy's mother and I were rolling our eyes and wondering aloud "didn't they just learn anything back there?"

Before any more damage could occur we made our way back to the classroom, this time for snacks!

And finally, class ends with story time:

I'm happy to report that Sylvie did not stage another rebellion this week and no chairs were brought to the story time circle. They read a book about Walruses brushing their teeth, which Sylvie found stimulating for about 30 seconds. I'm glad I snapped this picture when I did, because soon after this moment she was up and about, wanting to roam around. She was a good girl though, and stayed in the circle for the most part. I think she's starting to get the hang of things, and I'm already looking forward to next week. And Sylvie hasn't stopped talking about school all day!

President's Day

Today is President's Day and unlike most non-government employed workers, I had off today. Kacey was not so lucky, so Syl and I got to spend most of the day together...just the two of us. We're experiencing some unseasonably mild weather today (66.4 F according to my thermometer), so when I suggested we head over to the duck pond, Syl instantly said "Okay, okay, okay" and went to fetch her shoes. We both put on light jackets, she hopped on her bike, and off we went on a short walk to the pond.




Time to head back home....a PB&J, some grapes, a bottle of milk and a nice nap await!

Today is obviously not guest blogger night, but since Kacey works a long day today, I figured she'd enjoy a night off from updating the Daily. If not, then maybe there will be two posts in one day.....but don't count on it.

Scenes from the diner

Sylvie spent the night with Grandma Kathy last night while John and I hung out in North Jersey with Trish and Jon. It was a really fun night, John got to taste some super swanky scotch that sells for something like $260 a bottle. He keeps telling me about it, I think he is under the false impression that I care AT ALL. Oh and right now he's online looking up scotch and he just informed me that they sell some other variety for $800 a bottle. At that bargain price, I think we should order two!

So anyway, my mom and Sylvie came and picked us up this morning and we drove into Staten Island to visit Grandma Winnie and have a delicious diner brunch. When we got to the diner Winnie hopped out of the car first and Sylvie looked at me with a little concerned look on her face and said "Winnie coming too, Mommy?" Once I assured her that Winnie was going to eat with us she was satisfied and did her usual skip hop walk to the entrance.

Here Sylvie points out all the animals in her book:

A little kiss:

Ice cream!!!!

We hit another milestone today, and even though it's a pretty small one in the grand scheme of things it's something that means a lot to me, and I've been waiting a long time for. Today while we were leaving the diner I got Sylvie to stand on top of my feet while holding my hands (and facing me), while I walked around. Do you know what I'm talking about? I remember doing this with my dad ALL the time, it's a really vivid childhood memory of mine. In fact, come to think of it I remember doing it mostly at Grandma Winnie's house! What I don't remember is if it was when he was dropping me off each morning or picking me up each afternoon, I just remember standing on his feet and him walking and dancing around with me holding on as tight as I could. And I would say that probably for the last year I've been trying to get Sylvie to do it. She just never got the concept of standing on my feet, and staying there, while I walked around. And totally out of the blue today she did it! I was so excited that we kept doing it over and over again, walking around in circles by the diner entrance. It wasn't really a photo moment and I know it's not a huge deal, but I wanted to make sure I jotted it down on today's post. I guess it was one of those circle of life kinda things.