Video of the Rapprochement

Sorry for the delay.  Here is the promised video of the very first - but hopefully not the last - time PAx allowed Syl to "pat" him.  He even shows her some genuine affection.  And while in the photos earlier in the week his expression could easily have been mistaken for barely-suppressed annoyance, here I think you can quite clearly see that he's warming to the little tyke.  Sylvie, of course, needs no warming to Pax.  Which brings up another thing... she's crawling like a maniac now, and pulling herself into a standing position whenever she can get hold of something to hold onto.  I'll get video this weekend.

TEN THOUSAND!

That's right. Some time last night Sylvie's Place had it's ten thousandth "hit." Pretty fun stuff.

Coming to an Understanding

Syl started out the day feeling pretty under the weather - another cold! This photo really does pretty much sum it up.

As usual though, she snapped out of it and pretty soon was mugging for the camera.

The real news of the day, though, was the breakthrough Sylvie had with Pax. Or rather, the breakthrough Pax had with Sylvie. This is the first time he's sat still and let her pat him - much to her delight. We're pretty sure it had everything to do with Sylvie's Aunt Amanda's diplomatic skills. Pax has always been a particular fan of Amanda's. He seems to have decided that if Sylvie is okay with Amanda, then Sylvie must generally just be okay.

Not sure if the look on his face is acceptance... or resignation. Either way it beats the annoyance he usually shows when Syl comes within reach.

As for Sylvie's feelings about the whole business, this photo tells the story.

I managed to get some excellent video of the interaction, but don't have time tonight to do it justice. Hopefully will get it posted tomorrow. More photos in the July Gallery.

Say Uncle!

Sylvie is very excited to announce (okay, somewhat belatedly) that yet another of her aunts is giving her the gift of yet another uncle - and this one has a BEARD!!

That's right. In their understated, almost casual way Aunt Emily and Uncle-elect Zach have announced that they are engaged!

As many of you know, Aunt Emily is staying with Sylvie and her folks this summer, while Zach hunts the elusive Yeti in the wilds of Montana and South Dakota.

Congratulations Emily and Zach - Sylvie looks forward to helping Aunt Emily with the wedding preparations for the rest of the summer.

A day of firsts

First day in REAL SHOES!!!

First time in the kiddie pool!

First ride in the new baby backpack!

As you might be able to tell from the last photo, this was also Syl's first day with her latest nasty cold.  Happily, it seems this one is a pretty run-of-the-mill cold.   We'll see...

For real this time

I realize that I have in the past purported to post footage of Sylvie "crawling" when in fact what she was doing was another species of locomotion entirely.  This time it's for real.  Today Sylvie graduated from the "wounded soldier" drag/roll to bona fide crawling.  Life will never be the same for any of us...

It may not be at all a coincidence that today was also Sylvie's first day at her new daycare center.  She spent the day romping around with infants only slightly older - and more mobile - than she.  Could be that she took some pointers.

Sylvie's report sheet noted that she spent much of the day "sitting and clapping with her new friends."  This gives me comfort that these daily reports are not fabrications - or at least not entirely so.  There is nothing more genuine that could be written on the topic of how Sylvie spends the bulk of her time these days than "sitting and clapping."  She's also added a vigorous head shake to her repertoire, which can be quite amusing particularly when it happens to coincide with some refusal (as of her bottle).  I'll try to catch that on camera in the coming days.

Enjoying the day

A beautiful New England summer day, so Syl decided to treat Pax to his favorite excursion - Ashland State Park - along with Mom, Dad, and aunts Amy and Emily.

It's an Elmo-Gram!!

Today the mail brought a box from Ohio, addressed to Sylvie...

An Elmo-Gram!!

An Elmo doll....

and Elmo Books!!

It's not hard to see how pleased Syl is with her special delivery.  

This may be the first time she had some notion that the gifts coming out of the box were for her.

The kid does love that Elmo!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Happy 4th of July

This year we really celebrated the 4th of July in full.  To support her Dad's campaign, Sylvie "marched" in Hopkinton's annual 4th of July "Horribles" Parade.  Joining her were her mom, Aunt Emily, Uncle Pat and his friend Kem, and supporters Ken Weismantel from Hopkinton, and John Cronin and Jeff Snow from Holliston, along with some other folks we picked up along the way.  Boy, did Syl's Dad appreciate the support!

We weren't sure initially what a "Horribles" Parade was.  As it turns out, "Horribles" means there are satirical floats... and spectators are encouraged to spray marchers with water guns and hoses, and to pelt them with water balloons.  

As it turned out, this was an awful lot of fun!

Sylvie was hit by an errant water balloon - not directly, but she caught a good splash.  She thought that was great, laughing, clapping and lapping the water off her chin.  

And as things turned out, that was a break!  The judges of the parade took note of her "sacrifice" for  her dad, and when the time for awards came around after the parade, they called her up to the gazebo, told the crowd what she'd done, and gave her a trophy for "Youngest Participant."  Sylvie and her parents were quite pleased.  She clapped and squealed while he crowd of 50 or so folks on the Hopkinton Common cheered for her.

All in all it was a really fun experience.  

Here's a little photo montage.  The photos are also in the new July gallery, of course...

Later on in the day, Melissa, Sylvie and I headed to Wayland to meet the newest member of the Green clan, 3-week-old Avery Marie.  She's fantastic, of course.  

Sylvie got a little more than she bargained for though, as 2-year-old Zachary Green, who decided a couple of weeks ago that he is quite fond of Sylvie, decided to get a little bit... affectionate.

Dad was glad to see Sylvie has the right instincts in dealing with amorous boys (Arm Bar!).  But Zachary comes from a good family... when she's 30 or so, he's welcomed to ask her out to a movie or something...

Working from Home

Syl's Dad seems to have relapsed a little bit.  While everyone else in the house is pretty much in the pink again, he was feeling low enough to stay home from work today.  Fortunately, due to wireless technology, remote access and all the rest of it, being at home isn't much different from an access point of view than being in the office.  

Sylvie also made the most of Dad's mobile communications technology.  She's either a big fan of his Blackberry, or its worst enemy, depending on how one interprets the following two clips...