Visitors

Before the holidays and back when Kurt was still a young boy of 3, we had a visit from Jeff, Jayne, Kurt & Maria. It was generally chaos, but the best kind of chaos! With all the different wake-up times, nap / rest times, and bed times to navigate, we barely had enough time to all get out of the house at the same time, but we did manage a few field trips, and we made the best of our time around the house.

Happy Birthday, Kurt

On the day that he was born...

And (almost) 4 years later...

How did that happen?!?

Happy Holidays!

Sylvia had a wonderful holiday season all around. It was really fun seeing how much she enjoyed everything. We'd been talking to her about how we'd see all the family for Christmas and Hanukah, and she was so excited! She was enthralled by menorahs, Christmas trees, and presents!

We had Christmas Eve at my uncle's house.

And Christmas Day at my cousin's house

She had a wonderful time, but she was exhausted by midday.

Still, she perked up to celebrate the last 3 nights of Hanukah

The traditional monthly chair picture may have finally met it's end (or at least have hit a gap), but those last two happened to be taken on December 27th!

Sylvia is 2-1/3

...Yes, Sylvia is really that big... and that big of a goofball!

She's also very sweet, a lot of fun, and super bossy!

We're back from our temporary apartment, which is good, and Sylvia made the transition like a champ.

I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but I can now have nearly coherent conversations with my baby girl. She tells me about her day, tells me what to do, argues with me, and says hilarious things to us like "No way, mama!" and "What's up, daddy?"

It's difficult to take pictures and videos of her now, because as soon as she sees the camera she asks, "See it please? See Syl-wah please?" and feverishly tries to get behind the camera. We haven't yet convinced her that we need to TAKE the picture before she can see it.

Sylvia had a very nice third Thanksgiving at my uncle's house. It was fun actually hearing her try to say, "Happy Thanksgiving!" And she had so much fun playing with her family. She was already very attached to her cousin Amelia, but by the end of the day, they were inseparable.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the past month...

dancing around in her mittens...

watching the otters at the zoo...

...and the penguins...

and painting in the bathtub...

3rd Halloween

Has it really been more than 2 years since we took a 2-month-old Sylvia & a 1.5-year-old Kurt to the pumpkin patch?

Two years later, and here's Sylvia, back at the same pumpkin patch, posing with another super special K-named friend (Kira):

And here's a time-lapse family photo!

And here she is on Halloween Day, dressed as a froggy.

"Yibbet!"

Sylvia is 2 - 1/4

Yup, it's been another month! How are we already 1/4 of the way through her 3rd year?!

We've taken a few steps backward on the potty training. I can hardly blame her, though. Our first setback happened when we took a trip to San Diego. Amazingly, there were absolutely no accidents in the car rides there or back, but there was just too much excitement for her to separate herself for something as silly as a restroom break.

We came home to more excitement, but not nearly so pleasant. We came home to a very hostile situation and ultimately had to temporarily switch apartments while deciding whether to make a permanent move. We have done our best to make this as fun, pleasant, and comfortable as possible, but relocation is generally difficult on a toddler, and this is no exception. And so, potty training (as well as sleep training, etc.) took another big hit. Hopefully the next impending relocation with go smoothly and won't shake us up too much.

Ultimately, though, we've been proud of how Sylvia has handled the transition to "new Syl-wah's house," as she calls it. Here she is, making a little hideout in the livingroom cabinet:

Halloween pictures will hopefully not be too far behind this post!

Sylvia is 2 years, 2 months

If I can ever get myself to update this thing on any day other than the 27th, I may stop celebrating every month. But that day is not today! So, another month, another post...

It's been a big month for our little girl! A week ago, I would not have expected to be saying this today, but Sylvia is potty trained! It's still new and requires a lot of attention, but she's doing amazingly. When we started the process, I thought that the best case scenario would involve us being housebound for a few weeks, but she's doing so well that we've been able to go on several outings and playdates - without incident! I am just crazy proud of her!

This month also included Sylvia's first flight with her very own seat. We went to Oregon for a reunion / anniversary party. Sylvia was soo happy to be surrounded by family.

She had a great time, and it was wonderful seeing how much fun she had with her cousins.

And the pool was awesome!

Generally, Sylvia has just been more and more aware and independent. Here she is, admiring herself in the mirror after requesting "kip... kip... kip... kip...."

...She'll start taking them out in about 5 seconds...