Sylvia - 3 years

I had so much fun taking Sylvia's 3 year old pictures a couple of weeks ago. I was able to capture so many of her expressions. This isn't even all of them.

Sylvia is such an active little girl. She loves singing and drawing. It's very entertaining to listen to her make up her own songs. Here are the lyrics to a few of her recent songs...

"The back hoe's in the sky. The back hoe's in the sky. Hi ho the derry o. The back hoe's in the sky."

"We looked at some houses. I went in the rain. And now I'm all all wet."

"Jesus loves the little buildings, because they're very tall. And I love the little buildings because they're cute."

"The angel said to Mary, 'Don't be afraid. I bring you good news.' That's what it's all about."

I'm learning that this can be a difficult age but there are so many things to enjoy that it makes it all worth it!

Erickson - 9 months

I'm not sure how this guy is 9 months already but he is. It's definitely going by more quickly than it did with Sylvia. I'd love to figure out a way to slow things down. Eric is a busy little boy. He's crawling, pulling himself up and walking around things, climbing (rocking chairs and the steps to our slide) as well as putting anything and everything in his mouth and then throwing a fit when I try to dig it out. His activeness is keeping me active but makes it hard to get anything done around the house in a timely manner.

Sylvia's Projects

My girl loves to do projects and help out. I don't take pictures of all the things we do but occasionally I like to catch a few shots of her in her element. While playing with toys she is all over the place, moving from one thing to the next or one room to the next. But, set her at the table with a "project" or let her help out with tools and she will be so focused.

Helping Daddy build a gate back in March.
Caring for her baby while she helped me out in the garage.
Here she's "sewing" a necklace.
Cutting has been a recent favorite, especially with all the wrapping paper scraps laying around. She's getting very good with the scissors and doesn't even need me to help her open and close them anymore.

A couple of favorites...

I'm going to have my hands full with this kid.

We took the kids swinging on Sylvia's birthday. It's always been one of her favorite activities.

Siblings

Sylvia has liked Erickson since she first met him in the hospital. It was nice that she was not jealous of him or overly fond of him. She did give him a pillow once while he was in his bassinet. Another day, I heard her announce from his room, "I put a nickel in Eric's mouth."

Erickson loves his big sister and Sylvia is quite fond of her little brother. Sylvie loves going into Eric's room to get him when he wakes up from naps, and she can always make him laugh. Now that Eric is a little older and getting around by himself, Sylvia is really starting to like playing with him. She likes to tell me when he's getting too close to the power cords or putting something in his mouth that he shouldn't be. Recently we've been working on giving him a new toy if we take something away that he's not supposed to have. She also needs reminders not to physically move him. "That's mommy's job" is heard a few times a day at our house. Eric doesn't like it when Sylvia grabs things from him and Sylvia doesn't like it when he pulls her hair or bites her.

Here's a couple of my favorite sibling pictures we took recently.


Isn't this such a big sister look?

Curious George Birthday

We had a few friends over last Sunday to celebrate Sylvia's 3rd birthday. She is a big Curious George fan so it was easy to decide on the theme.

The girls started the evening doing a little coloring. Sylvia likes making funny faces.
We also played a couple of games. Dan made the Curious George face, and I sewed the bananas for the bean bag toss. I also found some cheap wild animal visors at Oriental Trading that we invented a game for.

I looked online for a cake idea and decided this would be my best bet since I wouldn't have to try and cut a shape or anything. It turned out to be a little more difficult to frost than I had anticipated. I'll probably get this cake decorating thing figured out just in time for my kids to grow out of it.Here's the shirt I made for her birthday. I went with gender neutral and am hoping Eric can wear it in a few years.Sylvia, Mabel, Isabella, and Samantha enjoying some cake and ice cream.
After three years of experience, Sylvia now knows just what to do with a present.
The girls had a lot of fun together. It was so fun to watch Sylvia interact and play with her friends. I am noticing just how grown up she is becoming. The giant pad of paper is one of her birthday presents from mom and dad. The girls liked making a train to go down the slide.
Sylvia and I put together a little bag for each of the girls. Our favorite party gift was the crayons we made.
An attempt at a family picture with the birthday girl. She's trying to hold up three fingers to show how old she is but that's tricky to do.

Sylvia's Family Party

Sylvia turned 3 on Saturday. We had our families over for a morning party with pumpkin raisin muffins and fruit kabobs. Sylvia helped with the food prep.

Sylvia was happy with muffins instead of birthday cake.
The first thing Sylvia opened was a signing birthday card. She wasn't too impressed with the other cards after that. She got some fun new presents that she really enjoys playing with.
Telling Great Nana "thank you" for the tigger stuffed animal.


Nana and PapaGrandma and GrandpaGreat Nana
Erickson and Katie