Sylvia is 21 months old!

It feels like Sylvia has gone through a transformation in the past month. If I had to put a name on it, I guess I'd say that she's gone from toddling baby to an earnest toddler. Which sounds kinda lame when I say it that way, but it's really awesome! Her language and physical abilities have been really taking off, and I just can't believe how she seems less and less like a baby and more and more like a little kid.

Sylvia had her second Easter. I expected it to be another year before she could hunt for eggs, but my aunt and uncle set up a hunt for her and my 10-year-old cousin. We gave her a basket, took her out to the lawn, pointed out an egg, and told her to go pick it up and put it in her basket. She did it, and we asked her if there were any more, and she was off! I won't pretend that she didn't continue to get some assistance, but she really had it figured out and had a really great time! And she learned a new word: "egg-ggie". She was pretty unhappy when all the eggs had been found and it was time to go in. Once I got tired of taking her eggs, laying them back out, and letting her collect them, we dragged her into the house, where she proceeded to begin a game of opening up the eggs, declaring them "boke", and handing them to the nearest adult for repair. She also entered into a game of hiding and finding eggs in my aunt's sweater pocket. It was a wonderful day, and Sylvia was totally ready when we had an egg hunt with some neighbors the next day. Several days later, and she's still hiding and finding eggs, and taking them apart and demanding help putting them back together.

We've started going to My Gym, where we attend classes designed for kids around Sylvia's age. She gets impatient with 'circle time' and with activities which require her to wait her turn, but it's probably good that she start to learn how to manage those kinds of situations. And she has a lot of fun playing with their stuff.

She's also had her first trip to the dentist and (today) her first hair cut. At the dentist, she enjoyed being somewhere with new toys. She was very pleasant to the people but resisted somewhat when they sat her down to poke around in her mouth. Then they took her away for a minute to get a treat, and she came back looking like this:

At the hairdresser, she enjoyed being somewhere with new toys, was very pleasant to the people but resisted somewhat when they sat her down to mess with her hair. She tried to get back down to the big train set a few times and kept trying to look at the hairdresser, but she was really quite good. The hairdresser offered to give her a lollipop, but I didn't think she was quite ready for that; we shared a donut instead.

Here's an 'AFTER' shot. Don't feel bad if you can' tell the difference. She barely had any hair to start!

Toddler Tales

My daughter is hysterical. Here are some anecdotes that I’ve been sitting on for a while (interspersed with cute pictures which are totally unrelated to the stories)…

Recruitment:

We were on a morning outing one day while Max was out of town. I think Sylvia was a little sick of spending all her time with me and starved for other company. We spent some time at the playground, and Sylvia was playing with a little boy a few months younger than her. It was time for him to go home, and Sylvia tried to follow him and threw such a fit that we started heading home ourselves. Along the way, a little girl who’s a few weeks older than Sylvia spotted us and called out “hi!” from her upstairs porch. Sylvia saw her and started screaming “Up! Up! Up!”, and Kira tried to squeeze through the bars while screaming “Dowwwwn!” Both girls started crying when I said “bye” to Kira and started to walk away, so Sylvia and I eventually went up and asked Kira’s dad if she could come out to play. We agreed to meet back at the playground in a few minutes. While we were waiting, Sylvia heard a cry from a nearby apartment and ran off straight to her friend RJ’s porch and started chanting “hi! hi! hi!” until his mom decided to bring him out. Kira eventually joined the other 2, and Sylvia thoroughly enjoyed the fruits of her first attempt at party planning.

Messy:

Sylvia and I were going through the grocery store. She was sitting in the cart, holding her little Big Bird doll and her “spill-proof” snack container. I’m going along and focused on my shopping list when I see Big Bird’s head has been shoved into the snack container. Sylvia is saying “yum yum yum” with delight while “sharing” her Cheerios with Big Bird. Sylvia pulls out Big Bird, who brings several Cheerios with him, which then scatter on the floor. Before I have time to react, Sylvia is pulling out more Cheerios and throwing them on the floor. I say, “What are you doing?!?” Sylvia’s eyes get very big. She points at the floor but is still looking me straight in the eye and says, “Messy!”

Baby:

All three of us were at the zoo. I saw a family with a newborn, and I pointed out the baby to Sylvia. She ran over to them, pointed up at the baby, announced “Baby!” and then reached up, obviously demanding that the baby should be given to her immediately. The parents laughed and asked if she was available to babysit. (This was actually a repeat of an almost identical situation with a puppy outside a restaurant, instead of a baby at the zoo. Interestingly, the pet owner was not nearly as good-natured about it as the parent.)

Dog whisperer:

A few weeks ago, we visited family & friends in San Diego. We left early, Sylvia slept most of the way, and we got to Max’s parents house without much drama or hassle. When we parked, Sylvia seemed to recognize the house and to be pretty happy to be there. She ran into the house, went straight for the back door, and immediately found the dogs. She got so excited and ran to them. Once she was about a foot away, she raised her hand, shook a finger at them and yelled “sit down!” This (along with the occasional “ssshh”) has since been her standard greetings for all dogs.