Sylvie at Two

Sylvie is two, and given that we are heading into year 3 of her life with nothing that even resembles a "baby book," I am going to document some of the things she's up to here.

Sylvie's favorite color is purple. She hates clothing that involves buttons, snaps or zippers and would like very much to spend all of her time "nake!" Her favorite foods are berries and Chinese chicken salad. Anytime you ask her what she wants to eat, her first response will be "hot tea!" with a big smile. She loves to go out for "susi," where she likes hot green tea, edamame, and unagi (eel) roll.

She can count to 20, but sometimes gets a littele tripped up after 14. She knows almost all of her capital letters and has an association for each, such as H, "Hank" and T, "Turtle." She is talking more and more everyday and some of her pronunciations are so endearing that Thomas and I have just decided to go ahead and adopt them. In our house, food is "foof" and noodles are "noonles." Anytime she sees a dog out for a walk, she says "Dog. Walk. Poo-poo. Bag. Trash." She cracks us up all the time.

Sylvie's favorite toys are her books, her animals and her Potato Head. Her favorite books are anything from the Olivia series or author Karma Wilson. She loves to take her animal collection out to the garden and play with the animals in the plants. Her Potato Head collection has grown and grown and currently takes up an entire double wide shoe box. Although there have been times we have wanted to throw the Potato Head box off a cliff, Potato Head does deserve a bit of credit. He has done wonders for Sylvie's fine motor skills. And it is because of Potato Head's tricky buns that Sylvie learned to say "help, please," a phrase she uses a lot.

Busy as she is these days, Sylvie's still the world's best snuggler. Each night when her favorite show, Wheel of Fortune, comes on, Sylvie rounds up Thomas and I while yelling, "Forch! Snuggle! Couch!" Sometimes during the day when it's just she and I and she is feeling sleepy, Sylvie will tell me, "Snuggle. Cook.," which is code for "let's snuggle and watch some Food Network." Sylvie loves to watch cooking with me and point out "apples!" "onions!" She gives the best big hugs, and even seems to know when a little pat on the back with a hug is appropriate. Just one of the many times when she seems like an old soul.

Sylvie owns her Daddy's heart. One of the sweetest things I get to see is Sylvie demanding Thomas' eye contact. She will take his face in her hands, one little hand on each of his cheeks and bring her Daddy's face right to hers. Sometimes she rubs her nose against his. It feels like I am watching a grown man's heart melt.

As you can probably tell, I could go on and on. There is so much more to Sylvie and about her that I could say, the things that endear her to us and make our joy and love as her parents immeasurable. Happy Birthday to our sweet girl.

[Pictures of her birthday party to come...thank you to all who celebrated with us!]