Sylvia's Big Day

Today was my brother-in-law's, Brian's, high school graduation open house. It was a wonderful event on a perfect, sunny day. It was very well attended and we had great food and great company. Sylvia got to see all kinds of people, including Great Grandma DeMeester. She enjoyed her time in the sun and wound down her day with some great food of her own. Today was a good day.

My Baby Girl Is Becoming a Little Girl

The other day I had to go shopping for pajamas for the Pumpkin. Sylvia needed twelve month p.j.'s because of how long she is, but I couldn't find any in the infant section. Everything stopped at nine months. Then I saw a tiny little toddler section of clothing and went over there to look. Sure enough-- there were the 12 month jammies. AND they were "real" little girl jammies, with separate pants and cute t-shirt.

My baby girl is becoming a little girl now. This makes me kind of sad.

In other milestones: She is sitting on her own for sometimes several minutes at a time. She can simultaneously hold an object in each hand and when she drops something she knows to look for it and pick it back up. Hard to believe how much has changed in such a short time.

Speaking of people growing up, my brother-in-law graduates from high school this weekend. This is also very strange to me as I have known him since before the sixth grade. Of course, my birthday is in only a couple of weeks and I suppose that I will also be a year older. Time keeps moving forward, doesn't it?

Seven Months Already!

Sylvia is seven months today. It is just so hard to believe. To "celebrate" we met Uncle Chris at church and then went out for lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, XO Asian Cuisine. Afterward we went back to Uncle Chris' apartment and talked while Sylvia napped. It was a very fun afternoon.

The Little Pumpkin can also nearly sit all by herself now. She can support herself for sometimes up to a minute or more before she topples over. She greatly enjoys this additional freedom and new view.

Feeding Myself

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers! We rejoice in having you and feel blessed knowing you are part of our lives. This is my daughter and me at my scrapbooking weekend last weekend. I had such a great time and it was a pleasure having Dave stop by with Sylvia for a visit. He even took me out to lunch!

Sylvia continues to grow. She is eating plenty of solids now. It is like she finally figured them out and can now finish half a container of the Gerber 1st Foods without a problem. In general she is a veggies girl and has little interest in fruits-- and has a distinct dislike for bananas. Today she got an extra special treat from Oma and Opa; they gave her a little taste of cheesecake. She loved it!

She is also able to sit on her own for a brief period of time. She is trying so hard and I can tell she is getting frustrated at not being able to sit entirely by herself yet. It will only be a matter of days, I think.

These are all cute pictures of her I took before church this morning:

Yeah, we know. She's the cutest thing ever!

Six Month Checkup

Sylvia went in for her six month checkup on Tuesday. She looks great! In fact, the doctor said that she was the first healthy kid he had seen so far that week. Yay! Her stats were also wonderful: 16 pounds 6 ounces (50th-60th percentile), 26.5 inches long (75th percentile) and her head circumference was, I think, 16.5 inches (40th percentile). The doctor said that she is well proportioned and doing wonderfully for her age.

The shots didn't go so well this time, though. She had her initial cry and then she ceased, but then a minute later to continued to just wail. She developed a fever quite quickly and remained punk for another day. The poor girl. All is well now, though.

As a sidenote in regards to the comment that "parrot lover" left me on the last blog when I mentioned saying goodbye to Chloe: I can assure all of you that this was a well thought out decision and if Chloe were not such a personable and needy bird (meaning she spent her entire day out of her cage) we would have kept her. But as it was, she needed to be around us all the time and there was no option of putting her in her own room or leaving her in her cage and putting up guards. She would have been miserable. We firmly believe it was the best decision for HER to bring her to a new family. I am sorry if not everyone can see our point of view but I firmly believe this was the best decision for us and her. And we miss her terribly.