Sylvie Mae Kennedy

Finally! More Sylvie videos. Believe it or not, all of these were taken in one day…this may give you a sense of how much time we spend going up and down four flights of stairs each day. This was Sylvie’s first day of taking her new umbrella to Eli’s house. The day before, she looked at me very seriously after we put on her raincoat to go out in the morning, and said “um-blah-la-la.” Though it may be clear in writing, it was not at all clear at that moment. This was the first time I had heard this word from her, so I asked her to repeat it several times, trying to understand. I didn’t get it…until we got outside, and we saw the rain coming down, and she said “um-blah-la-la” again. So, of course I had to go out and buy her an umbrella that day. That was the best $9.99 I’ve spent in a long time. We’ve gotten hours of entertainment out of our lovely “um-blah-la-la.”

Miss Sylvie is 19 months old today. Thanks to Grampa Kennedy for most of the pictures this month. We’d be in bad shape for our “birthday” post without them. Let’s see… well, Sylvie has learned how to give big kisses — a little TOO well, as far as some people are concerned. And, just as quickly, she’s learned how to wield her power by denying kisses whenever she wishes. She loves books — we’ve even found her “reading” by herself in her room recently. She gets a kick out of jumping, though her feet don’t really leave the ground, and she can do big-girl slides all by herself now. (Check out the photo of her on the spiral-y slide. She looks like she had her hand on one of those electrostatic thingies. Hehe.) Sylvie, a.k.a. “Pig-Pen”, is NOT a fan of baths right now. And, after a big fight over getting a clean shirt over her head this morning, she refused to let me put on her shorts or shoes. She prefers dirty and naked. Oh, and she’s totally irresistable when she says “Peas” (meaning “please”).

We’re celebrating Sylvie’s 18-month birthday this week.  Eighteen months!!! Oh my. She knows lots of words — bubble, hi, bye-bye, up, uh-oh, and baby are among her favorites — and she’s nearly an expert in making farm animal noises. She still LOVES music and dancing. It’s hard for me to listen to NPR in the car these days because Sylvie is always pointing to the stereo buttons, asking for music. She hugs and pats her baby doll and pushes her all around the house in a little stroller. She’s learning how to wash her hands at the kitchen sink and how to feed herself a container of yogurt (with almost half ending up in her mouth!) She’s taking good two-hour naps most afternoons (hallelujah!), and she’s still a good sleeper at night. She’s lost most interest in food lately. All the books tell you that will happen, but it’s been an adjustment for me. There’s something about watching your child eat a big meal that makes you feel like a good mother. Oh well.

I wanted to post some of our favorite photos from the last couple months. We’ll begin with some playground shots from April 19, the day after we picked Sylvie up from her two weeks with GaGa and Poppy. In May, Sylvie had a lovely visit with Grandma and Grandpa Kennedy…thanks to Grandpa for so many of these photos!

We wanted to share a couple of Sylvie’s new-found joys: her dog on wheels and the Swiffer. You’ll notice in the second video that she’s wearing her winter coat. It was somewhere in the 80s outside when we filmed this little clip…probably the hottest day we’ve had so far this spring. I had been packing up Sylvie’s winter and too-small clothes. She pulled out the winter coat, insisted that I put it on her, and pranced around the house in it for a couple of hours.

Also, these videos make it look like she’s all quiet and serious. She’s anything but these days. She’s squealing and laughing a lot (and making us laugh), and she’s saying more words than we can keep track of anymore. We’ll try to get some of her chatter on tape next time…

We FINALLY got a few shots of Sylvie and Poppy during GaGa and Poppy’s last visit to DC. I’m also including a few shots of Sylvie in the snow earlier this week. Overall, she wasn’t impressed. Snow is cold and wet, and her boot fell off.