Sylvie Mae Kennedy

You’ll notice a common denominator in these photos…other than Sylvie, of course. She has a new LOVE for balloons. She was introduced to her first, a Steelers balloon (surprise, surprise), on Super Bowl Sunday. She carried it around with her for two days. Then we went to Jasper’s birthday party today, and she was absolutely obsessed with the balloons. She kept one in her hand all through lunch, eating only with the other hand. And you’ll see that she was pretty irritated when the boys tried to steal her balloons. We’re having a hard time recreating the Alek-Sylvie-Jasper photo these days. They all have little minds of their own now, and won’t pose for the camera.

It’s been a busy month for Miss Sylvie. She turned ONE on Dec. 8th and had a wild cupcake party. She learned to pull up a few days after that. She took a 9-hour+ road trip to visit Nana (who now prefers “GaGa,” since that’s all Sylvie says) and Poppy for Christmas in Knoxville. She got her first cell phone. And still, with all of this activity and big-girl stuff, she has yet to pop one single tooth. What’s up with that??? We’re beginning  to wonder if we’ll have to fit her with toddler dentures.

Happy New Year!

Well, we only have two more weeks until Sylvie turns ONE! Unbelievable. Now that we’re so busy chasing her around, we’ve slacked off on pictures and videos. But we know that Sylvie still has an adoring public out there, so here are some pictures of what she’s been up to…

You’ll see how Sylvie loves to “inventory” (a.k.a. pull each and every item out of) the tupperware cabinet in the kitchen, her toy box, her diaper bag, and anything else she can unload. She’s also very good about helping with laundry by emptying any laundry basket in sight. Another one of her favorite pastimes is swinging doors open and closed, open and closed, open and closed…

Miss Sylvie is a bit of a daredevil, too. We found her with a nail in her mouth a few weeks ago. In our attempts at child-proofing, we had very carefully tacked a phone cord along the baseboard of one wall in the livingroom. Well, Sylvie managed to yank the cord so hard one morning that the little plastic tack popped off the wall, along with the nail that secured it. You’ll see the “After” picture here where I’m taping the phone cord to the wall at 7:30am! [MK: um, for those of you dialing social services right now, make sure they know that I was the one watching her at the time.]

The girl still has not a tooth in her mouth. Hey, this could save us BIG TIME on dental expenses, right?! I dunno, are you allowed to have birthday cake when you don’t have any teeth??? We’ll see…

So, for those of you who don’t already know I just got back from a nine day trip to Tahiti and Bora Bora — without Anne and Sylvie. I know, I know: how in the world did that come about? Well, my buddy Trent won a free trip, his wife didn’t want to leave their daughter for nine days, so he asked if I wanted to go. Anne said she was fine with it if her mom could come help out with Sylvie, and Pat agreed, so off I flew! I’m quite a lucky guy to have a wife as understanding as Anne and a mother-in-law who is so willing to help out and enable my ridiculously indulgent vacation Thank you both so much for making it happen!

I brought some flowers back from Tahiti because they smelled so good. The next morning we put one in Sylvie’s hair and grabbed some photos. Here’s our little island girl!

What do these have things have in common? Nothing, really. But they have been important themes in Sylvie’s life in the last month or so.

Sylvie is nine months old. Nine. Months. Old. It’s so hard to believe. She has lots to say these days. Her favorite expressions are “awa wa wa wa wa wa” and “GUH. GUH. GUH.” And she finds great satisfaction in screaming at the top of her lungs. She isn’t a crawler yet, but loves to roll and roll and roll. I’ve had a big pile of papers and books stacked in the living room since she was born – this weekend she rolled her way over to them while we weren’t looking and “organized” them herself.

Still no teeth in sight, but Sylvie is all about eating. Lately she’s been munching on cheese, tofu, yogurt, avocado, grapes, and other exciting new foods. She’s experimenting with the sippy cup—but, mostly, she’s loves to hear it hit the floor after she throws it from her high chair.

Sylvie slept from 7:30pm to 7:30am for two nights straight over the weekend. Hallelujah! Her crib is littered with pacifiers because now she can find them herself (mostly) without needing to call us in for help in the middle of the night.

We took Sylvie to the park on Sunday, where she swung in a baby swing for the first time. There was a 5-year-old little girl there who asked if she could push Sylvie in the swing. Very cute. Sylvie LOVES any attention she can get from big kids.

I’ve included a sampling of photos from Sylvie’s days as an eight-month-old. Enjoy!