From the Funny Stuff File - she hasn't yet learned tact...

So when Cousin Aya (pictured here, playing with Sylvie's Spanish speaking piggy bank) was over this weekend, I think I mentioned that we capped the day with a walk in the chilly pre-Spring air.  Baby Aya donned one of Sylvie's old coats - the pink, fuzzy one with little ears on the hood. 

As we were all pulling on shoes, coats, etc., Sylvie pointed up the stairs to where Aunt Lia was carrying Aya and yelled, "Aya!  You look like a PIG!!"  Melissa and I were impressed by the full sentence structure, of course.  Not "Aya PIG!" like she would have said just a couple of weeks ago, but "Aya! You look like a PIG!"  Probably because we all found the pronouncement so amusing, Sylvie repeated it for the first five minutes or so of our walk.  Aya looked unperturbed, but I think she was probably planning all the things she'll say about her cousin once she starts talking. 

Cousin Brunch

The shot above sums up how Sylvie feels about her cousin Aya these days - all hugs and kisses (except when Aya is playing with a toy that Sylvie wants, that is. In that case, it's law of the jungle time).

Sylvie wore out her Uncle Ben, forcing him to play tag, serve as her horse, and submit himself to endless tickle sessions and pig piles. I'll have a video of the revelry up as soon as I can get it edited.

Got some very cute photos of them sharing a little time out on the floor. Cousin Aya ventured into the ball pit for the first time. She pretty much enjoyed herself... until her cousin piled in too and caused a shift and some sinking - and then made things worse by applying a "hug"/sleeper hold that was a little much for Aya's liking.

We ended the morning with a brisk walk to wake everyone up after Sylvie's Dad's famous breakfast burritos.

Many more photos from today in the March 2010 Gallery.

Saturday morning in the play room

Chilly again this morning, so Syl and I burned calories in the play room. The little slide/climbing thing is without a doubt the best investment we ever made, toy-wise, at least in terms of longevity of use. These days she's using the climbing part to do some pretty gymnastic moves. She also rediscovered her Elmo Tickle Hands, and used them to terrorize her Dad. That led naturally to some down time with a couple of Elmos as we waited for Sylvie's cousin Aya to arrive with her folks for brunch.

Sylvie's Song

If anyone can identify the song Syl is singing in this clip, we'll give you... I don't know, but it'll be good. She's singing it all the time lately. It's consistent enough that we think it must be based on something. And after she broke out with Beyonce a few weeks back, we're willing to acknowledge the possibility that she's aware of some current hit that we haven't even heard yet. It sounds like the main part is "You don't [something]," over and over. It gets quiet, it gets loud, and there's a big finish. Usually when she breaks out with this we're obliged to dance like trained monkeys - which we do, of course.

Mom and Dad are off to the movies and dinner tonight. A date night! Shutter Island. Aunt Mary is coming to sit Sylvie. She's pretty excited.

Portrait of the artist as a young girl

Chilly day here in MA, so we're mostly inside.  Sylvie is hard at work on a couple of masterpieces at her easel.

She's very intense about the creative process - very focused.

 In the end, the most important thing is remembering to put the caps back on...

A sign of Spring at School

Back to Oak Grove - with Madeline and Jake

Some fun video of the kids playing this morning at Oak Grove. The O'Leary kids are just perfect pals for Sylvie. Madeline continues to set an excellent example, and Jake is just amazingly gentle and sweet with Sylvie. It's really striking the older he gets. He's a whirling dervish of an active, energetic little boy, but we never have to worry about a stray limb catching Syl in the noggin or anything like that. He's very careful around her.

Dessert

The aforementioned BIG sundae. She ate more of it than you'd expect...

Lunch at Friday's

This one comes out of chronological order - and obviously it's a lousy quality Blackberry photo. We went to Oak Grove Park this morning with Madeline, Jake and Brendan O'Leary (Trystan is in CA this weekend with her sister). Then we all went for lunch at Brendan's most favoritest restaurant - TGI Friday's. Syl likes it too. Mac n Cheese and then a BIG "kids'" sundae.

Sylvie's dejected 'Charlie Brown' walk

When Sylvie is dejected - as she was this afternoon upon realizing that she still is a little too small to pedal her tricycle - she does a pretty good imitation of the dejected Charlie Brown walk made famous in A Charlie Brown Christmas...

Not Puzzled

Melissa got Sylvie yet another new kind of puzzle last weekend. This one has a bunch of shapes - triangles, ovals, rectangles and squares - that fit into a series of picture puzzles. We're not sure if she's seen one of these at school or something, but it took her all of about 3 seconds to figure it out.

This kid continues to be puzzle crazy. The other day when Melissa dropped her at daycare, she made a beeline to a new puzzle that was set up in the corner. The teacher laughed and said, "we knew Sylvie would hone right in on that."

Goofing in the tub

Sylvie got a real kick tonight out of slurping up bath water - and then guffawing at my reaction. She really likes yanking my chain...

Sylvie's Reading Rainbow

Sylvie has always been good at entertaining herself. Lately when she's off playing by herself and she falls silent for a while, more often than not we'll find her in the corner chair, "reading" a book to herself. She doesn't have all the words down, but does tend to track the plot in a recognizable way. Another sign she's growing up, I guess!

Funny Stuff

Sylvie usually greets me in the morning with a drowsy "Hi mommy" or "Wonder Pets?" Today, though, the minute she saw me she told me, "Mommy, you number 2." I asked her what number she is, and she replied, "I number 1." I expected her to tell me that Dan is number 3, but when I asked, she instead said "Zero."

Everything old is Elmo again

Rainy, rainy weekend, so we ended up spending a whole lot of time playing in the house. Sylvie worked her way through all her toys, eventually rediscovering her Elmo collection. The crazy robotic Elmo (can't recall what they call him, but he's the latest version - I think) used to scare Syl when we first got him for her. But today she was fascinated. They talked a while, and then did some dancing...

The good time she had with that particular Elmo apparently inspired her to bring out the whole red, effusive gang (plus one Cookie Monster). It was cacophonous Elmo anarchy - and it made me realize that if the prediction underlying hit movies like the Terminator and the Matrix ever comes to pass, and the machines become self-aware, the Haleys are likely to be taken out by our Sylvie's Elmos. They have us significantly outnumbered.

Last night's educational energy burn

I've put up plenty of videos in the past showing how Sylvie tends to burn off a bunch of energy before bed - usually by running like an insane person around the kitchen.

Last night she decided to add an educational element to the routine, showing off her ABCs - which then segued naturally into a couple rounds of Twinkle Twinkle. Unfortunately she didn't watch where she was going and had a little head-on-table incident, but she bounced back quickly. For whatever reason, she found my suggestion of a transition to Row-Row-Row Your Boat to be highly objectionable.

After all that running around, Sylvie wanted to do a little letter/color studying before her bath. She's getting really good at her letters, but only has so much patience for my questions. If you listen, when she gets sick of me you can hear her respond to my last question with a polite "no thank you." Also, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of hours of Dora the Explorer, when she refers to the "Y" mysteriously as "Swiper," she's referring to Dora's nemesis. I have no idea why the "Y" becomes Swiper, but I think it's part of Sylvie's effort to end the letter identification game without hurting my feelings.

Neater New 'do

A couple more shots of Sylvie's new hairstyle, after a bath and a more concerted effort by Mommy to get the mane under control.

Juice (right now)!

I am sometimes accused of providing an unrealistic account of life with a two-year-old, by posting only video and photos of the happiest times. Tonight I caught a minor tantrum on video, and offer it up in the spirit of full disclosure. Also, it's kind of a funny one, since she's so clearly faking a good deal of her supposed agony (the giggles give her away every time). The trigger for this little fit is a pre-dinner request for a glass of juice. When she was sick a while back, Sylvie got used to consuming tons of orange juice. Since it was all she was consuming, we let her have it pretty much constantly. Since then, we noticed that when she has a cup of juice shortly before meals, she tends not to eat as much. So we've implemented a juice with meals, water beforehand policy. This is not always popular...

Sylvie's New 'do

Sylvie's crazy hair is finally long enough to put into pigtails - kind of... This cute sight is what greeted me when I got home tonight. Melissa tried to convince me not to record this first stab at a new 'do, insisting that she'll be able to make them much neater. I thought it was a tremendous victory simply that Sylvie wasn't pulling them out. And anyhow, neat or not I think they look pretty darned cute.

Here's a vid in which Sylvie makes it clear that she very much agrees ("too cute," is her verdict). Also, she demonstrates her new found knowledge of her parents' "other names."

More funny stuff

With all of the wisdom emanating from Sylvie's mouth these days, I think these "funny stuff" posts might become a regular thing.  A few recent entries, in no particular order:

On a recent walk we passed an older Indian gentleman.  He had a gray beard.  He was wearing all black.  He smiled and said a pleasant hello.  Sylvie got very excited.  "Hell-o!  Hell-o!  Hell-o!"

When he'd passed, Sylvie confided to us the reason for  her excitement.  "That Santa Claus,"  she said, then added, "he SMART."

For the record, aside from the beard and jolly demeanor, nothing about this guy said "Santa."  Not sure where she was coming from on that one, but she seemed pretty certain of the identification.

Then the other night, Syl and I were wrapping up the post-bath tooth brushing routine in the bathroom (the subject of a recent video).  I asked her for a hug, as I do on occasion, and she took the opportunity to stick it to me.  "No," she said.  "You hugs toooo much, Daddy."  Then to rub it in she turned to the bathroom door, flung her arms wide and pressed herself flat against it.  "I hug the door," she said, and laughed uproariously.  Because I laughed too, she upped the ante.  "Awwwww.... I love the door," she said, pressing her cheek against it and stroking it with her hands.  "Awwwww.  I loooooove the door."  And then more of the belly laugh. After that she did give me my hug though.

Also, Sylvie now has a pet rock.  She found him on a walk last weekend, and named him - what else?  - "Rocco."  She's grown quite attached.  We'll try and introduce him in a video this weekend.

Spring is Springing!

Fifty degrees out today with plenty of sunshine, so we took the opportunity to head to Oak Grove Park to get in some quality playground time. We might be pushing the season - forecast is for 30s again next week. But the daffodils in the yard agree with us. They are just starting to push out of the ground.

Sylvie didn't take long to remember all of her favorite things to do at Oak Grove.

And in case you were wondering, yes - I've created a March 2010 gallery.

More photos there.

Daddy's big nose

Just after Syl woke up this morning, while we were walking down the stairs, she suddenly stopped and looked up at me.

"Daddy, you have a big nose," she said, and smiled.

"Daddy has a big nose?" I asked, to be sure.

"Yes," she replied. "I has a little nose," she said, and laughed.

"You have a little nose," I agreed.

"Daddy has a big nose," she said again for emphasis. Then she continued, to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding. "Daddy not a duck. Daddy not a pig." Apparently I fit within that probiuscular subset, though.

Then she continued down the stairs.

Building towers

Another indication that Syl is thinking of a career in engineering. She took her blocks and built the most unlikely, precariously balanced towers - that somehow stayed up. There's nothing holding these together. They're just plain old blocks. She's so deliberate about placement. She seriously has steadier hands than either of her parents.

By the way, I fully recognize that this might be the sort of thing that is fascinating to a parent who witnesses it in progress, but leaves the rest of the world scratching their heads and saying, "huh?"

Sylvie's Shiner, a few days on

Didn't end up nearly so bad as we thought it might... And the sweet potato and peanut butter smeared all over her face distracts from the bruising.