Happy Birthday Aunt Amanda

Today is Aunt Amanda's birthday!! We had been hyping it up all week so when Sylvie spoke to her on the phone, she could appropriately greet her. Well, we weren't able to reach her on the phone (she was too busy partying, apparently) so we decided to send her birthday wishes via e-mail and Youtube! Here's the pic we sent to her...

We decided Amanda's birthday was a perfect excuse to have some strawberry shortcake. Here's a cute rendition of Syl singing "Happy Birthday"....though you'll see that the purpose of the celebration is quickly forgotten once the sweet, sweet whipped cream touches her lips.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT AMANDA!

Green thumb update:
As Sylvie is eager to point out....we've got radish sprouts, people!

Boring

I recently signed up for a bi-weekly crafting newsletter, specifically designed for young kids. This past issue gave detailed instructions on how to make a paper mache bowl. I'm always trying to find crafts that are good for both Sylvie (2.5 years old) and Nicole (10 years old) so this one seemed perfect. As I expected, Nicole and her friend Miranda were really excited to get cracking, and spent literally 4 hours straight working on it. Sylvie, however, lost interest after about 4 minutes.

She did really enjoy the first part though, tearing up the tissue paper!


But she quickly got bored and made her way into my stash of sequins. She had a much better time dumping them all over the table, the chairs, and the floor. Which didn't stress me out at all, no sirree!

Miranda tears up her own pile of tissue paper:

Nicole glues her tissue paper to the bowl:

4 hours later, our three bowls are set out to dry:

And voila! One paper bowl, which is now a part of Sylvie's toy kitchen collection!

Juicy and delicious!

Science Lesson

I recently picked up this little growing kit, figuring it would be a lot of fun for Sylvie to see some root vegetables grow before her eyes. But in all honesty, I'm really excited about it too.

It all started with this exhibit we visited almost 2 years ago, during an October festival at a local farm. Each year they have a theme and in 2006 it was "under the earth" or something along those lines. They had this one barn structure totally transformed into an "under the earth" exhibit, and it included one room that was supposed to be the soil, with root vegetables growing down from the ceiling. It was so cool, and I've always wanted to do something fun with Sylvie with root vegetables ever since. So if all goes well, we'll be growing some radishes, carrots and green onions!

First we assembled the kit, and Sylvie poked these three strings through (the strings sit in a little reservoir of water under the base, to keep the soil consistently moist).

Next we placed the soil pods in a big pot and added several cups of water.


Sylvie stirred and watched them expand 17 times in size!


Once the soil was ready it was time to scoop it into the kit!

And finally, time for the seeds!

Now we just have to find a nice sunny window and hope for some strong seedlings.

Sylvie was quite pleased with her little green thumb.

Setting the table

Sylvie set the table tonight for dinner! Of course I helped by taking the dishes down from the cabinet for her, but I let her tell me each thing that needed to come down. She then put each item in it's spot on the table. I love it, and she really did a great job!

But man, my table setting is really pathetic, how embarrassing! Looking at this photo is making me realize that we never really did register for a nice big set of dishes when we got married. Hmmm....our 5th anniversary is quickly approaching, and we have been talking about how to celebrate. Hint, hint John! :)

Shake it!

Trish and Jon came over today and while the boys were watching some baseball we decided to have a little arts and crafts party in the kitchen.

I gave Sylvie two paper plates, a muffin tin of various craft supplies and some glue, and just let her go to town.


And yes, Trish and I made some too!

Here are Sylvie's completed plates. Great job, eh?

We then poured some dry beans into the plates and stapled them together, making a lovely tambourine for her musical instruments collection.

Shake it!

On my way to where the air is sweet...

...can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?

So I think it's safe to say that Sylvie had a life changing experience yesterday and today, when my mom and I took her to Sesame Place for a two-day excursion. Life changing, people! Yesterday was fun, but today was the main event. We started bright and early with a breakfast with the characters. The Elmo and friends breakfast was sold out, but we were able to get in to the Cookie Monster and friends one. (And thank you thank you thank you because Sylvie's all-time favorite character, The Count, was at this one!) Here Sylvie is meeting Ernie for the first time, and as expected, was a little apprehensive about the whole thing.

She was so excited about each character she saw, she'd squeal and grab my hand and beg and plead for me to take her over to them. And then as soon as we'd approach him....she'd stand about 15 feet away and stare at the ground and nervously twiddle her thumbs.



Here she is watching from a safe distance as The Count commands the floor and twirls another little girl around.

Sylvie may have been too nervous to grab his other hand and dance with them, but that didn't stop her from getting in on the action altogether and shaking her little groove thing!

So I convinced her to come back to the table and get a little food in her, and we talked about the characters she was seeing and how nice! and fun! and cute! and awesome! they all are. We really talked up their good points, you know? And I guess Sylvie started to loosen up, because without even asking for my help she made her way back to Ernie.

And this time gave him some real affection!

And Big Bird too!

And don't forget Bert!

And finally, finally, about 5 minutes before the breakfast was ending mind you, she made her way over to The Count. And this time, grabbed his hand!

And nervously allowed him to get in close...

And ultimately accepted his advances and gave him a hug!

Okay okay, so really it's more like a body lean on Sylvie's part, and sure her eyes are on the ground and her arms are tightly folded and she immediately ran back to me to for the safety of my hand. But still, STILL, she met The Count! She held his hand! She got a hug! I was very proud of her. And she seriously hasn't stopped talking about meeting The Count since. And how much she loves him.

So the day got off to a great start! And the rest of the day was a blast too. Sylvie splashed in the pools, rode on the Merry-go-Round, saw two live character shows (her favorite part, I'm guessing), got a caricature drawn, and just completely ran herself ragged. We can't wait to go back!

A teaser

Just a little preview of what's in store for tomorrow's post....

My Winnie house

Preface to this story: My Grandma Winnie currently has my cat Sassy living with her. It was supposed to be a temporary arrangement when we were moving, but the two got along so well that it's become permanent. Sylvie loves going to visit Sassy, she's fascinated by her! But we usually see Winnie at family gatherings in NJ, so it's not that often that we're actually in Staten Island at her house. Our visits with Sassy are few and far between.

So earlier today Sylvie was playing with her stuffed kitty, when she started obsessively asking me for her cat.
"I have a kitty cat Mommy! Where is she?"
I was confused and asked her "are you sure you have a kitty cat, Sylvie?"

She then started frantically running around the house, looking behind furniture, looking through windows, under tables, behind curtains.
"Mommy! Where is my kitty! I need her! I need to find her!"

I asked her if she was looking for a kitty toy, to which she grouchily responded in the negative, and I then told her that I didn't know what she was talking about, because we didn't have a kitty in our house.
"Yes! Yes I have a kitty in my house! Where is she?"
(she pauses for a second and I can see the little lightbult appear above her head)
"I have a kitty at my Winnie House!"

Yes, of course you do, you have a kitty at your Winnie House! Now why didn't I think of that?