Dec. 22: Last week, Andrew packed up some of his animals in his lunchbox and requested that Bryan take them with him to work. To our delight, we got a report mid-day on how Andrew’s animals were enjoying work at OpGen. It seems that all got straight to business. See photos here!
Three weeks of photos
Dec. 21: I’ve gotten behind on taking and uploading photos. I blame Christmas. And reading Eragon. And Syliva not sleeping so well.
However, I believe that the situation has been rectified. There are now many photos in the gallery for perusal. Lots of playing in the snow pics. Lots of Sylvia-being-cute pics. Even a couple friendly dog pics. Enjoy!
Snow, snow snow!
Dec. 21: We’ve had a lot of snow here the last several days. Our sweet neighbors again dug us out on Friday. Bryan’s office closed due to the storm, so we had a long weekend home together.
Joe was supposed to fly home tonight, but unfortunately, the weather out East has been terrible. His flight was canceled, and he won’t be able to get home until Tuesday. Instead of flying from Portland to Madison, he’ll be flying Boston to Milwaukee. We’re sad that he’ll be away from home for a couple extra days. We were all looking forward to seeing our dear Uncle Joe.
Today, Andrew learned how to read -2 degrees on our thermometer. And it’s windy too! Check out a video of Andrew, Alivia, and Sylvia for some fun in the snow.
Sylvia at 10 months
Dec. 21: It’s hard for me to believe that Sylvie is a full 10-months old. She’s become such a fully-developed little person. Here are a few thoughts about my girl at this point in time.
- Sylvia is gearing up to walk. She just started walking behind a walker. Yesterday she needed me to slow it with my foot so she didn’t fall on her face. Today, she’s already gotten the hang of it, and she drops to her knees when the walker starts to get ahead of her. Amazing! She can’t turn it yet, but she can walk all the way down the hall.
- Sylvia loves food and eats just about anything we put in front of her. I actually can’t think of anything that she doesn’t like to eat. She’s figured out what the word “cracker” means, and she’ll eat lots of those! In addition to fruit, dried fruit, crackers, and cereal, she likes hamburger, spicy things like enchiladas, tomato-y things like lasagna, mushrooms, pizza…etc!
- Daytime sleep is somewhat better than it has been in the past. She’s napping for an hour to an hour-and-a-half twice a day. Once at 9am, and once at 1pm. I’m down to nursing her just before her two naps, before bed, and then two to three times at night.
- Nighttime sleep hasn’t been great. She had been waking up once or twice, but these days it’s more like three times. She’s also recently been doing a lot of back-arching and screaming at night. The last several nights have been particularly frustrating. Bryan and I take turns trying to soothe her, but she often starts crying again a few moments after the soother gets back in bed. Last night after trying to get her back to sleep for what seemed like an hour and a half, we let her cry for a half hour or so until she fell asleep on her own. THANK HEAVENS that Andrew is a sound sleeper.
- A couple days ago, Sylvia learned how to put a toy back in a container. She was so proud of herself:)
- She’s not clapping yet, and she really hasn’t done any baby signs. Also, I haven’t heard “uuuhp” in a couple weeks.
- She loves eating snow.
- She loves her daddy and lights up when he comes in the room.
- Television doesn’t hold any interest for her. And toys are only interesting if they’re being manipulated by someone else. Or sometimes she’ll play with toys if she’s had a lot of sleep.
- She loves dolls.
That’s a quick snapshot of life with Sylvie these days. We’re looking forward to celebrating her first Christmas this week!
Naptime boogie
Dec. 18: It’s Thursday morning, which means that Andrew is at his preschool. After putting Sylvia down for her nap and quietly shutting the door, I found myself jamming down the hallway, “Get down today! Get down today!” I feel such elation upon anticipating an hour with a sleeping Sylvie and a preschooling Andrew. Made me dance while I made the bed:)
Just thought I’d share my joy:)
Last night we hosted our annual neighborhood party. We had around 15 people attend, and I had such a fun time! Everyone brings a plate of cookies, and then we swap them all around so everyone takes home a variety. We see lots of our neighbors in the summer, but in the winter, conversations become much shorter. It feels god to have a house full of happy friends.
Tonight, Dad, Michael, Lisa, and maybe Becky are coming over to celebrate my dad’s birthday. I’m going to make Mom’s enchilada casserole. I should be putting it together right now. But I wanted to play on the computer first:)
I haven’t taken many pictures of the kids in the last couple weeks, but I got the camera out yesterday, so hopefully I’ll have some new ones to share soon.
This morning, Sylvia was having fun with the Christmas tree.
I decided to let her play with one of my Grandma’s cross-stitch ornaments. She developed a little very cute game for herself. While sitting in a chair, first she’d pull the ornament off the tree. Then she’d reach over and drop it on the ground. Then (while I hung on to her ankles), she would dive off the chair and reach down to retrieve the ornament. She’d pull herself back on the chair, lean over, and set the ornament back in the tree. After looking at it for a moment, she’d grab the ornament back, and the game would continue.
It was so neat to watch her think through all the steps. What a cutie!
Syliva has had a temperature and a runny nose for the last couple days. So far, the rest of us haven’t come down with it. We’re hoping that sickness stays isolated to the current recipient and that no new viruses come our way!
Happy last week before Christmas!
Around the world in 4 minutes, 29 seconsds
Dec. 17: My friend Jen just sent me a link to the following video. Her friend Matt traveled and danced all over the world. And by that I mean ALL OVER the world. Andrew loved hearing the names of all the places (and he kept saying, “We haven’t been there yet. We haven’t been there yet. We haven’t been there yet.”)
This is one video that should make you smile.
For an enhanced viewing experience, the clip is available in high definition on YouTube.
Ahh peace
Dec. 15: It may seem like small news, but after a day filled with more crying (Sylvia) and meltdowns (Andrew) than I care to experience in a week much less a 12-hour period, the house is in a state of peace. All three of my loves are asleep. Kitties are snuggled close to me. Candles are flickering, the Christmas tree is glowing, the house is <relatively> clean. I’m sleepy, but I almost don’t want to go to sleep because I don’t want to miss appreciating this stillness. sigh.
Handmade toys in peril
Dec. 14: I’ve been really unhappy to read that a new law, the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act (which is going into effect in February) is going to have a terrible effect on the handmade children’s toys. The law is a well-intended one, designed to prevent toxins in toys like the ones that have been coming from China. However, the law is going to require anyone who creates children’s toys and clothes to have their products third-party tested and labeled. Since undergoing this testing is anticipated to cost four thousand dollars per toy, the natural toy industry – the artists, stay-at-home-moms, and small shops that makes some of the toys I most adore – are going to go out of business – UNLESS the law is ammended to fix this oversight.
Here are some good resources to learn more and some links to quick actions to take:
Cool Mom Picks – Save Handmade
Handmade Toy Alliance
These sites have links to more information, petitions to sign, a Facebook group to join, votes to cast on Change.org, sample letters to send to your representatives, etc.
Quickest tree shopping ever
Dec. 14: Yesterday morning, Bryan, Andrew, Sylvia, and I went to Jung’s Garden Store to pick out our Christmas tree. We thought about cutting one down, but the idea of keeping things simple seemed more appealing. The four of us walked into the lot, Andrew ran over to the first tree in the aisle, and said, “I love THIS tree! I want to get THIS tree!” It was a fir, which is what I was looking for, and it was a good size. We asked if he wanted to look at other trees, but he insisted that all his love was devoted to this particular specimen. So we said, “Easy enough!” And we walked out with our tree. Bryan was happy to see that his son has shopping tendencies that mirror his own.
In other news, when I brought Sylvia in to say goodnight to Andrew last night, he kissed her and smiled, saying, “Mommy, she smells like laughter!” Heart melting.
We’ve got the tree up, the house smells like Christmas, and Sarah and Wes came over yesterday to play, make cookies and toffee, and share sweet Charlie with us:) It feels like Christmas.
A little help from our friends
Dec. 9: We had a big, beautiful snowfall today. Most of the day we spent being cozy indoors. That was helped by our wonderful neighbor Jenni who snowplowed our driveway for us while we watched from the windows. THANKS, Jenni!
Mid-afternoon, I took the kids out for a foray into the snow. Sylvia got to ride in a baby sled in our back yard and up and down the driveway. Meanwhile, Andrew shoveled for me. We had fun!