Cute shots romping with (on) mom

The subject line says it all...

Have I mentioned how cute my niece is?

Since Sylvie chose to retire early today, her cousin Aya humored me in my need for a model. I got some good shots, if I do say so myself...

There are quite a few more in the almost-done February 2010 Gallery...

Lunch guests!

Sylvie was cheered up (temporarily) after the eye incident by the arrival of her cousin, Aya - who is now crawling like a champ and really quite mobile. Syl had fun reading to Aya, trying to push her on a riding toy (that didn't last long), playing with Uncle Ben, and then schooling Aya's grandpa Toshi on the finer points of lego construction. She even let Aya borrow her high chair, no questions asked. Unfortunately, this is where the day took a turn for the worse. Syl decided lunch would be a good time to demonstrate her best tantrum technique to her cousin. She was off to bed for a nap long before our lunch guests headed home.

Sylvie's Shiner

Sylvie and I were just about to go take a walk with Pax this morning. She was doing something in the laundry room, and I called her to get on her socks. She came running out - and ran straight into the corner of the kitchen table, catching it squarely in the eye. She went flat on her back. I was sure we were looking at a trip to the emergency room. After less than 5 minutes of wailing, though, she proclaimed herself ready for our walk. These shots were taken about a half hour after impact. We assume her little eye is going to get more colorful before it goes back to normal. She doesn't seem to mind!

Next Beyonce?

A few weeks back, while we were on the couch watching the Super Bowl, actually, Sylvie abruptly stood up and started singing and - there's no other way to say this - shaking her booty. I was stunned, especially when I recognized what she was singing. "All the single ladies, all the single ladies." My daughter was busting out with some Beyonce.

I asked Melissa if she'd taught Sylvie the "Single Ladies" dance. Melissa denied it. Then Melissa asked at day care if they'd been dancing to Beyonce. The teachers - many of whom are in their 50s and 60s - looked at her blankly. We settled on Madeline O'Leary as the most likely source of Syl's Beyonce exposure.

I've been meaning to do this, and just got to it tonight (pre-bath energy burning time). We put the "Single Ladies" video on the computer, just to see what Syl would do.

I think we might have a budding dancer on our hands. Sure, she spends a lot of time just watching - intently. But she also gets some of the moves down just right! This one cracks me up. Hope you enjoy it. My favorite move comes right at the two minute mark.

Jinxed... by Aunt Emily!!

The other day when I posted sarcastically (kind of) that the Haley household is trying to experience every major childhood illness in the space of a couple of months, Aunt Emily lodged a comment suggesting we try Chicken Pox next. Well...

It's not Chicken Pox. But I do have red spots and an itchy rash all over my upper body and face! Went on Amoxicillin a week ago for my sinus infection. Turns out I've developed a mild allergy. Woke up this morning thinking I was having a weird outbreak of adult acne on my forehead. Then I looked in the mirror while shaving and discovered it was all over my torso.

Doc says take Benadryl and watch for worse symptoms, like shortness of breath. None of that yet, so hopefully I'm getting off easy.

Said it before, will say it again now: we're ready for this winter to be OVER!

Bedtime shenanigans

Sylvie and I have settled into kind of a nice weekday pattern. She seems to store up a bunch of energy and mischief to be deployed with/at me when I finally get home from work, in the short time we have together before she goes to bed. She's definitely inherited my love of being a noodge. This video really captures her sense of humor. She just gets a huge kick out of pushing my buttons. The video also does a good job of recording our nightly post-bath routine. First we brush teeth. Then we count things. Then she turns off the lights in the bathroom and makes a big deal of letting me out of the dark. Then she closes all the upstairs doors and tries to avoid the diapering process. Somehow, it's all fun every single time!

Of course I don't get this fun side of her every night. Sometimes she can be a real grouch at bedtime. But lately I've seen more fun Sylvie than screaming Sylvie (knock wood)...

More funny things

A couple more funny things Sylvie has said lately. She's saying a lot of funny things, now that she talks NON STOP. She also says un-funny things, but I don't bother relating those... I should also note that both of these things were said to Melissa, so I'm typing her second-hand account.

1) Last night, Sylvie wanted fish crackers for dinner. This is not unusual. Melissa told her no, she had to eat some of her pizza before she could have fish crackers. A tantrum ensued. Strangely, the tantrum was self-arresting, as Sylvie abruptly stopped crying and began eating her pizza. Reflecting on her behavior, she told Melissa: "I not crying. I happy." And then, "I CUTE!" with a huge smile. I have no idea who told her she's cute...

2) This morning, Sylvie woke up at 6:15. I understand and appreciate that for most kids her age, 6:15 might be viewed as sleeping in. For Syl, though, it represents at least an hour and 45 minutes of lost sleep time compared to a usual night. She insisted on getting up and watching "Wonder Pets." Melissa allowed her to do so, while she showered, etc. Around 8, Melissa told her it was time to go to daycare. Sylvie's response was very Haley: "No... I tired. I go back to bed?"

Sylvie's Night-Night Game

I showed you photos yesterday of Sylvie and her mom pretending to take a nap on Mommy and Daddy's bed. Last night, Sylvie pulled me into the room and walked me through the naptime game. She was being particularly chatty, so I grabbed the camera. Basically the game entails Sylvie and a companion (in this case, me) lying down on the bed. Sylvie selects "blankets" for each of us. These are actually pillows. We then go to "sleep." Sylvie promptly awakens, realizing she's forgotten something: her juice, her ball, to close the door... whatever. She climbs off the bed, using her footboard to hope chest to floor method, takes care of whatever she'd forgotten, then reverses the process and gets back in bed. There's also some quick reenactment of the "No more monkeys jumping on the bed" story - a Sylvie favorite. This is a little long, so it might be the kind of thing that only a grandparent can truly love...

Lazy Sunday

I found my girls enjoying a lazy Sunday morning today with their favorite activity - lolling around in bed. Sylvie is truly her mother's daughter. For some reason she prefers my pillow to a blanket.

In other news: in our quest to experience every nasty childhood virus known to man in the space of this winter, we decided this week to import some conjunctivitis. Happily it skipped Sylvie (thus far) and made its way directly from day care to... me. Yuck. But so long as she doesn't get it, I'm fine with that. Knocking wood...

Cute photos from school

Pretty new dress

To dinner tonight Sylvie wore the pretty new dress that Great Grandma Betty and Great Grandpa Steve got her. Doesn't she look smashing!? It kind of freaks me out how much more like a big girl she looks every single day.

Night night with Beth Cronin

Our friends the Cronins had all of us for dinner tonight. Sylvie and her friend (and sometimes babysitter) hit the sack right after dessert!

Three funny things

Three funny things Sylvie has done lately:

(1) When calling Melissa or me, she's taken to using our last name. As in "Mommy HALEY! Where are you?" Or "Daddy HALEY! Time for my bath!" We think this comes from Melissa addressing her as "Sylvie Haley" when being stern or emphatic.

(2) Melissa is teaching Sylvie our first names. I have no idea why - I have no desire for my toddler to call me "Dan." But I'm not arguing. Last night, Melissa asked Sylvie, "What's daddy's other name?" "Dan," Sylvie answered promptly. "What's Mommy's other name?" "Bum."

(3) Syl is really in to "playing catch" lately. This involves her throwing the ball at me or at Melissa (she has a good arm!) and then standing there with her arms out and letting it bounce off of her on the return trip. Last night I said, "keep your eye on the ball!" You know where this is going. She picked the ball off the floor, planted it firmly against her eye, and looked at me as if to say, "what does this stupid idea get me?"

Disturbing scenes from Sylvie's dollhouse

*** WARNING! GRAPHIC CONTENT! ***

Mommy's insistence on buying Sylvie more and more characters - both human and animal - for her dollhouse, along with furniture, food, clothes and other accessories - has led to allegations of dangerous overcrowding in that facility. Our undercover photographers exposed scenes of shocking living conditions, possible substance abuse, and even neglect. Our photographers did not interfere in any way - all scenes are exactly as we found them.

Overcrowding is requiring doubling up in single beds, and unsanitary animal/human co-habitation in shared sleeping quarters.

This photograph clearly depicts the aftermath of a destructive chipmunk bender in the kitchen.

... and animal/human physical altercations are reportedly becoming common.

Meanwhile, a lack of yard space apparently forces the animal residents to use human elimination facilities...

... as the "man of the house" has clearly given up on the situation and spends most of his time on the couch, ignoring the problems festering under his roof.

Sylvie is doing her best to care for her youngest and most vulnerable wards...

... going even so far as to build a fire in the kitchen to keep the infant chipmunks warm.

But persistent overcrowding has forced her to set up unsafe temporary sleeping quarters in the front yard.

More information will be provided as it is obtained.

Play Videos

Some playing videos from this weekend: Bowling, Karaoke, and another installment of the ever-popular Monkey "You OK? I OK." series, with the addition of a dinosaur, a camera and a Superball to the cast. By the end the drama devolves into Sylvie hurling the Superball at me repeatedly and laughing.

And she doesn't even ask if I OK...

Jump-o-lene

Daddy is off of work today for President's Day and it is sort of gloomy out, so Mommy had the bright idea of setting up the "Jump-o-lene" that Beck and Boden Hamilton sent Sylvie for her birthday. Good call Mommy! Some jumping and climbing and tickling was just the thing. She had a great time... though as you can see, the Jumo-o-lene is also the Static-o-lene, and it gave Syl some serious Rod Stewart hair.

Video at the bottom... More photos in the Feb Gallery.

Happy Valentine's Day, Family!

Sylvie's Dad was in charge of getting Valentines out the door this year, and he failed miserably. She's hoping that everyone who was kind enough to send her a Valentine will be willing to accept this Valentine's Day video as a weak substitute...

Sylvie had a nice Valentine's Day (despite a little mid-day crabbiness that called a premature end to our family lunch in downtown Holliston... but we're over that).

Thank you again, everyone, for your Valentine's wishes!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Sledding - finally!!

So the weather, Sylvie's health and the snow (kind of) FINALLY cooperated to give us a nice Saturday morning for Daddy and Mommy (primarily Daddy) to take Sylvie out sledding.

In retrospect, I probably should have anticipated how it went. My first run (to make a path) put me unexpectedly on my back in the road in front of a Fed Ex truck. I'd forgotten (a) how fast those tubes go, and (b) that you cannot steer or stop them. Luckily for me, Melissa was preoccupied with Sylvie and didn't catch it on the video camera.

Sylvie really enjoyed her first run on my lap, which ended in a slow-speed crash into a snow bank. She kind of enjoyed her second run on my lap, which ended in a slow-speed crash into a tree. And that was enough for Sylvie.

When we get some more snow, we'll go to Oak Grove Park, which has a nice hill that ends on a soccer field - nothing to crash into. Until then, I'm just glad to know that she at least enjoys the concept...

I love this first photo of Sylvie's mom. Despite how it appears from the second and third, we didn't actually let Sylvie sled on her own. As she said, "Toooo fast!"

Mommy did a good job with the video, despite some trepidation...

After sledding, we met the O'Learys at the Eagle Brook Saloon for lunch. Syl always loves seeing her pals, Madeline and Jake. When we got in the car to leave, she said very seriously to Melissa, "That's MYYYYY Madeline and Jake." We think she meant it in the best possible way.

Happy Birthday Grandma Lynne!

We posted this when we thought we were missing our happy birthday chat with Grandma Lynne. But it turns out we caught her! So this is a bonus Happy Birthday message...

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Photos from lunch

Sylvie and Aya both behaved very well through lunch, and then took advantage of a mostly emptied out restaurant to have a little cousin fun.

They shared a lap (Aunt Lia's), shared a hug, and confirmed that in fact they do both have faces...

A few more in the February Gallery.

Pretty Pictures of Cousin Aya

We had lunch today at Oga (Mommy's favorite!) with cousin Aya, Aunt Lia and Uncle Ben. Syl's dad took the opportunity to take some photos of the other beautiful little girl in his life. She's growing up so fast!

Pretty pictures (outside)

Too cold to be outside for long, but Sylvie was willing to pose for a few pretty pictures...