2 years old

Happy 2nd Birthday Sylvie! She's the Littlest Luhring...and she's lovable, sweet, sassy, funny, and she's Ours! :) Lucky us!

Like her brother's was, Sylvie's language is pretty advanced for her age. She speaks in 4-5 word sentences. Dr. Kim was pretty impressed with her at her two-year wellness check. She was a little chatterbox. So even if we can't tell what she's saying sometimes, that's perfectly normal for a two-year old. Her fricative sounds have gotten a little better. But "h" is often still substituted for "s" as in "hwing" for "swing." She says "f" now (no more "hwog" boo!). So sometimes she'll substitute "f" for "s" as in "fwoon" for "spoon" or "Fwiderman" for "Spiderman." It makes me laugh Every time I hear it! :p

Some of my favorite things she says-
"Dees is not mines!" (This is not mine!) I need to record this. I think it's the only whine that I will ever love. It's almost always spoken as a whine, but somehow I find it completely adorable.
It's always "mines" which I think would actually make the English language more consistent- hers, his, yours, theirs, ours...why not mines? :p She mixes up pronouns...and b/c she's our littlest Luhring, I still find it cute. She uses the subject pronoun for everything. "She need she jacket!" for example.
"Dis is my fway-vwit!" (This is my favorite!) She has lots of favorites- it's very cute.
"Bwhay-dee! Be nice!" Yup, she "manages up" and keeps big bro in line. :p
"Not today!" Love this b/c it's a repeat of something I say often and it sounds hilarious coming out from her b/c she sings it.
"Daas bahd noooz!" And it really does sound like "that's bad news" but it is adorable the way she says it. It's her parroting me so it's usually said like this- "We don't fa-whoa toys! Daas bahd noooz! Wight Mommy?" (We don't throw toys. That's bad news! Right Mommy?)

She's been going pee on the potty for a couple months now. She's gone poop a couple times too. She doesn't ask to do it. But she'll go at daycare when all the other kids are and she'll go before her bath like her big brother does. I'm definitely one of the very few parents who are not so excited about this. I don't mind diapers (when faced with the alternative of a touchy toddler on a public toilet seat- ewww!) Our pediatrician's instructions were to wait until after they turn 2 and I'm fine with that. No rush, little girl.

Physically she's on target as well. My most favorite sound in the world is the padding of her little feet on the hardwood as she rushes off to wherever she is going. love it! She wears herself out daily- she loves her nap (me too!) and sleeps ~12 hours/night...still going down without a fuss and still waking up so sweetly, amusing herself until I go get her or she calls for me, "Mommy, wheh-ah ahhh you???" :)

Emotionally I'd say she's on target for a two-year-old girl. She gets upset easily (especially with her big brother! "Bwhay-dee!" is often heard in the most shrill voice!) and will just crumble and cry. She will burst in to tears if she is yelled at or spoken sternly to. Sometimes she's able to be distracted and can quickly recover. Other times, the drama takes over and the wails of injustice go on and on.

I'm not sure how Sylvie is growing so well. She has a very limited palate at home. Yogurt, fruit, Goldfish, gummy snacks, Rice Krispies, cheese sticks, oatmeal, pancakes are her staples. The typical toddler plates- mac n' cheese, chicken nuggets, grilled cheese, pizza etc. go down without a fight. But if we're having something other than these foods, she rarely eats with us. She flat out refuses and says, "I don't like dat." without even trying it. sigh. Apparently she's a little hoss at daycare though and cleans her plate there. But we all know Ms. Omayma is an awesome cook, so no surprise there! :p

Weight: 29.3 lbs (81th percentile)
Height: 35.5 inches (89th percentile)

Trash Day

The kids (well, Brady...Sylvie just goes along with whatever he's doing) have this game that they love...and I don't usually love. Brady declares it Trash Day and makes Sylvie and himself trashmen whose job it is to pick up Everything in sight (even things that are put away in their place) and haul it his designated dump site (the location of which varies).

This game is scalable. The smaller version usually just involves all his vehicles- matchbox cars, Chuck and Friends, aircraft, etc. He makes a giant pile of them that resembles a junk yard. It's a sight to see. This morning's game was full-scale and since it's Sylvie's birthday, I let them do whatever made them happy...and you wouldn't believe the happiness brought on by grabbing all kids' objects in sight and piling them in their play kitchen (today's dump).

I tried to make a lesson of it and declared it a recycling center where we would sort all objects and then restore them to their proper place. Uh, no- I was the only one who wanted to be a recycler. Sylvie was ready for nap and Brady just wanted to keep admiring his handiwork. haha!
They did ask if they could nap in the dump...and that last about 1 minute until the quiet, comfort, and order of their bedrooms won out over the "trash heap" that Mommy was left to clean up. :p

and yes, they are still in their jammies...at nap time. We got dressed when they woke up.

As Happy As A Turtle

Brady's imagination really is awesome (and Sylvie's compliance with her big bro's ideas makes her awesome too!). haha! Brady often plays "turtle" after bath and crawls around with his "towel shell" and hides under/in his towel shell. Tonight he stepped it up a bit with a cardboard box. The two of them have been playing with these boxes for a couple days now. Last night they put blankets and pillows in them and then asked me if they could sleep in them. haha! Tonight Brady kept trying to make himself a turtle shell out of the box, but was getting a little frustrated b/c it kept sliding off his back when he moved. So I cut him a hole for his head and he was as happy as a clam, or a turtle I guess! :p

Making their way over to Daddy Turtle-

Spies Like Us

Ever since Aiyee gave Brady a "spy kit" for Christmas, it seems we have nightly visits from Spy Guy and Spy Girl. Mimi explained that spies are secretive and "no one can see them" and they watch people for information. So Brady puts on his spy glasses and we pretend not to see him and he takes pictures with his spy camera and notes his observations. He usually outfits his sister, Spy Girl too. Tonight she appears to have dressed her own self-- complete with badges (both hers and Brady's to confuse people as to her true identity), her play disc launcher (note, Not a gun!) :) and upside down sunglasses (which make her truly unrecognizable)! hahaha! Of course, they are on the move very quickly and they are spies after all...so it was hard to get a good picture of this secret shortie!

Oh- here's one from a few days ago of them hiding in the corner plotting (the race car helmet is either another version of spy equipment or Brady's cover story for his spy career- lol!). Sylvie's "purse" doubles as her spy kit and also her builder's toolbox. LOVE these kids' imaginations. They're awesome!

Happy Birthday(care) Sylvie!

Sylvie celebrated her second birthday with her daycare pals today with cupcakes. As mentioned, Sylvie loves candles and cupcakes...so I just did funfetti cupcakes with pink icing (she loves pink too!) and sprinkles...and I think she was okay with that. Although I felt pinged by a "second child missing out" feeling when Ms. Adela said, "What?! No monkeys like Brady's? Those were So cute!" whoops...I'll do better on your actual birthday this weekend Littlest Luhring! :) She was still pretty darn happy with her cupcake (and was also happy to wear her cupcake outfit she kept saying, "My cupcake shuhht! My cupcake pants! Sybbie happy bir-day!" :)

Love you, my cutie-cake!

Growing In To Hockey

I think it's a mixture of his best friend Colton's love of hockey and the fact that he's taking ice skating lessons now...but Brady's interest in hockey is growing. Today Veronica brought over a jersey for him to wear (b/c he's been asking for one...again, I think b/c Colton has one and b/c they are hanging all over the Ice House). He'll need to grow in to it, but tonight he had fun running around with the jersey and the "real hockey helmet" Veronica's son Tim is lending to him. Thanks V!!

Rear View

This was what I saw when I turned around in the car this morning. Such cuteness that I had to take quick picts! Little sister's got one of Brady's hand-me-down hats paired with her Zsa Zsa Gabor coat today- TOO cute. And I think the Batman hat Mimi gave Brady for Christmas is his (and some other preschool pals's) new fav!

Double Bubble

It's very rare that I allow Sylvie to have a bubble bath. These days it's sometimes even rare that they get a bath together b/c Brady likes to take a shower. But baths together are fun and bubble baths are super fun- this was the first one they've had together (and I think only the second one Sylvie's ever had). They loved it...and I loved their smiles and giggles!

iMoments

Sometimes the amount of time either requested or spent on the iPad drives me crazy! But other times it makes for cute quiet moments like this one-

Ice Skating Lessons

Brady has his first "Daddy and Me" skating lesson today. (and imagine how excited we were to learn yesterday that Dan just signed himself and Haylie up for the same class!!! YAY!) Our preschoolers (and daddies) did Great!

Aren't these ice skates the cutest little things?

We hung out for a bit afterward b/c the boys were thinking about going to public skate. In the meantime, we watched a hockey game and played in the arcade.

Toy Kid Box

We just got these toy boxes to try to contain the kids' mess fun toys. :) Note where all of the toys are...and where the kids are. Our idea for cleaning this place up is just another toy to them...ha!

Dancing with the Stuffies

Syl Stills- love them!

I was watching Sylvie be Sylvie today and finally decided to video some of it. She's so fun and happy. She kept turning the snow-girlies on and dancing with Pig. I love how she dances with her partners- be it an inflatable T-rex or a stuffie, she holds their hands and jumps around. It's so darn cute!

NYE

The Ehlerts hosted us for NYE this year. It was a great way to end 2011 and ring in 2012 with friends! Sylvie was Loving all of Haylie's fun"girl toys."

Guess who the photographer was here?

Jenny had planned to have a kids' toast @ 10 PM, but amazingly they made it all the way to midnight!! At first we counted down @ 11 b/c poor Sylvie had been saying, "My tired. My go home?" (she says "my" for "I") since about 10. So we counted down and toasted the new year. But then our extended goodbye (which happens with all good friends) had us not actually leaving until after midnight...so we all really did ring in 2012 together! Awesome! Way to go, party animals!!

We took a fam foto before we left for the party. Yes, Sylvie's wearing the same cute fuzzy shirt she did last year! :)