Breakfast With Santa!

Syl's first real exposure to Santa did not go so well. While we waited in line, Santa heard the call of nature and went running by us, ho-ho-ho-ing and bells a-jingling. Sylvie grabbed onto Melissa and squeezed tight enough to leave marks. Needless to say, five minutes later when we tried to drop her in Santa's lap, her reaction was basically, "WHAT? Are you KIDDING me?"

Happily, with Melissa by her side, she settled in for a calm, if stoic, photo. I love the shot of her looking up at Santa distrustfully. I'm sure she'll feel better about the jolly old guy on Christmas morning.

Aside from the Santa encounter, Syl had a great time at the breakfast. Dad spent a few hours volunteering with the Lions, serving hungry Hollistonians, before Syl and her mom arrived. Then Sylvie enjoyed some pancakes, met Santa, spent some fun time hanging out with Edward Daniels, her friend from school, and danced with mommy for a little while.

She was also quite impressed with all the snow on the ground this morning. Looks like winter is here for real!

More, of course, in the new December 2009 gallery. And if I can get the scanner working, I'll try and get the "professional" shot with Santa scanned and posted. It's pretty funny.

Big night out

Yep, that's MY wife.

Sylvie's mom and dad got all gussied up last night for a black tie dinner at Framingham State College, where dad is on the board. Well, Sylvie's mom got gussied up - and how! Her dad just dusted off the penguin suit.

Sylvie had a great time with Aunt Mary. She stayed up playing until we got home at 10:30!

Starting a new month with a new book!

Sylvie and Mom say down last night with a brand new book - Fox in Socks. Both Melissa and I had forgotten just how hard Dr. Seuss can be on his readers! Talk about a tongue-twister. Even Sylvie got overwhelmed.

This one is going to take some practice...

First snow is supposedly coming tonight. It isn't supposed to accumulate much or last long, but we'll see if we can get some playing in tomorrow morning before it melts. Maybe on the way out to the Breakfast With Santa down at the elementary school...!

In much more important news, Sylvie was thrilled last night to hear news from DC that her friend Kay Taylor Winthrop is now a big sister, with the (reportedly very quick!) arrival of a happy, healthy, Seraphina Margaret Wood Winthrop. Congratulations to Dudley, Jen and Kay Taylor!

Forgot this one - getting her doll house

I went to edit video from Thanksgiving weekend tonight, and realized I'd forgotten to do anything with my footage from Sylvie's real birthday, when we presented her with her new doll house. As you can see, her little imagination kicked in immediately, complete with several separate scenes of pretend domestic tranquility... and a baby crisis in the bath tub (no, I do NOT know where that came from).

"Big kid!"

This shot of Sylvie enjoying her Thanksgiving dinner might be the last photo I ever get of her in her high chair.

She has fully embraced the concept of being a "big girl." It's funny how at a certain age they just instinctively start wanting to emulate the older kids - and start to reject the trappings of toddlerdom.

Sylvie MUCH prefers her new night-time pull-ups to her diapers, though in truth there is not much difference between them. Whereas she fights a diaper to the death, she's almost eager at night to put on her "big girl pants."

The latest casualty of this evolution seems to be her high chair. All of a sudden, any attempt to put her in it triggers a tantrum. "NO - THIS ONE!" she yells, pointing at either the stools that sit in front of our kitchen island or one of the kitchen table benches. More troubling is the fact that she's even rejected the booster seat, meaning that she eats precariously perched on either a stool or a bench, with her food on the table basically at eye level. It's a tough way to eat.

As between the two (the stools or the bench) I much prefer the bench - if only because from the bench it's a much shorter fall to the hard kitchen floor in case of a probably inevitable tumble.

So last night she insisted on the stools. She was sort of crabby (seems she's coming down with - surprise! - a cold), and so we relented. When she started to squirm back and forth, though, I decided to try and coax her into the booster seat at the kitchen table. Thinking I had her figured out, I pointed at the booster seat and said, "Sylvie, do you want to come sit down here like a big girl?"

She looked at me pointedly, motioned at the stool where she was already perched, and hollered - "NO! This one for BIG KIDS!"

UPDATE: It seems Melissa has negotiated a temporary compromise. The high chair, sans tray, pulled up close to the center island so that the island is Sylvie's eating surface seems to satisfy both her "big kid" table impulse and our desire for a modicum of safety... We'll see how long this lasts.

A change of scenery for lunch

For lunch today the whole crew went over to Cousin Aya's house, where Sylvie's Aunt and Uncle cooked up a delicious sausage-based lunch.

Baby Aya, who has adopted the 'sleep in day, play at night' philosophy, woke from a nap to join us in particularly good spirits. She has the same kind of fascination with Sylvie that Sylvie has always had for Madeline, which is fun to watch.

Sylvie had a great time chasing - and being chased by (and wrestling with) - her Uncle Ben (the first). A great time, that is, until she did a face-plant on the hard wood floor. Luckily she caught herself and her arms took the brunt of it. There was much crying, but nothing a few sips of Aunt Lia's grapefruit soda couldn't cure. "That's GOOOOD!!!," Sylvie proclaimed, miraculously healed.

She also had fun locking her various aunts (and Aunts to be - Kem!) in Aya's playpen with her.

As always, more in the November Gallery - including some particularly cute ones of Aya.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Steve!

A couple of days ago Sylvie came to Melissa and me and expressed concern that Grandpa Steve's birthday might get short shrift, falling as it does on the day after Thanksgiving. To alleviate that concern, Melissa arranged for the family to have a birthday lunch at Henrietta's Table, a Harvard Square favorite to which we hadn't been back in years.

Despite claims by several folks to still be stuffed with Thanksgiving bird, all enjoyed a good time and a good meal.

Sylvie and her cousin Aya are developing quite a nice little relationship. As you can see here, it is built on trust - in this case, Sylvie trusting that her discovery of Aya's teeth would not cost her a finger, and Aya validating that trust...

Happy Turkey Day!

Sylvie enjoyed her third Thanksgiving - she even ate some of the Thanksgiving fare for a change (though no turkey). Mostly she enjoyed playing non-stop.

We had a full house again, with all of Sylvie's Aunts and Uncles on her mom's side, plus soon-to-be Aunt Kem, Grandma and Grandpa, cousin Aya and Aunt Lia's mom and dad, all the way from Seattle!

Plenty of photos at the tail end of the now voluminous November Gallery. And here are the two cutest shots of the day.

Lots of pre-Thanksgiving fun

To celebrate the Day Before Thanksgiving, we had our traditional ginormous pre-Thanksgiving meal of Grandma Lynne's delicious BBQ beef, Mommy's delicious homemade mac & cheese, and assorted cakes and cookies. Just like the pilgrims and the indians did it on the last Wednesday in November.

Sylvie had a blast, primarily chasing and wrestling with her uncles and Grandpa Steve. That girl has some energy.

She got a big kick out of the dry ice that came with the iced cream that Aunt Amy shipped from Columbus (thanks Aunt Amy!). Uncle Ben was oddly disinterested in the dry ice, raising suspicions that perhaps there is a reason he looks an awful lot like Julia Roberts...

As for Baby Aya, she mostly had fun watching her cousin go hog wild. And she sure does love those kisses.

My new favorite photo

Caught Sylvie's joyful excitement this evening as she whizzed by, chasing Uncle Ben through the kitchen. You can tell a kid to "smile!" or "say cheese!" a thousand times and not catch a smile like this.