Birthday Party

Sylvia has started playing make believe much more often recently. She feeds her baby, puts her football to bed in the crib, prepares meals for her little people, and comes up with many other creative things to do.

This is a picture of birthday party Sylvia set up for one of her little people.

Eating Snow

I took these pictures a few weeks ago when it was warm enough to go outside and the snow was still nice and fresh. Sylvia learned that she likes eating snow. I had to keep an eye on her because she tried eating some snow/ice that she picked up out of the driveway.

Bowl Season

This bowl season, Sylvia's love for football has grown but she is now also interested in the marching band. During half times she would ask, "Where are football players going?" and during the games she would ask, "Where is marching going?"

She also enjoyed watching the Rose Bowl Parade with me. During the parade she got Dan and I up to march in a circle around our family room waving our hands in the air like the drum majors.

Children's Museum & Iowa Basketball

Last Tuesday, while my brother's family was still in town, my parents took us all to the Children's museum.

Sylvia made some pizza for Aunt Gretchen.
She liked climbing right inside the refrigerator to get her crust out.
Driving the ambulance and riding in an airplane were also highlights.
With older cousins around, Sylvia visited the art room for the first time.
In the past, we've spent the majority of our time in the grocery store and farm so it was fun to see her interested in some new areas.

Later that night, we all went to the Iowa basketball game together. Sylvia sat and watched some of the game. She also enjoyed shaking the pompoms, clapping and dancing along to the music, walking around the arena, and eating pizza and ice cream.
Nana & Papa were also at the game so we stopped by to visit them at halftime.We've definitely got a little Iowa fan on our hands. She loves running around the house saying, "Sko Hawks" (Let's Go Hawks).

Sylvia's Kitchen

For those of you who were still wondering what these cabinets became...here it is.



This was our Christmas gift to Sylvia. We still have a few small finishing touches to put on it now that we've seen her play with it a little. I'll post more when it's officially complete.

Hoefer Family Christmas

My family celebrated Christmas together on the 26th. After eating breakfast, we marched downstairs in chronological order. Sylvia and Carl were old enough to head down on their own this year. We opened stockings and then Evan, Katie, and Grandpa took turns reading the Christmas story from the Jesus Storybook Bible. Carl threw his clementine just as the story talked about God "flinging the plants into place." The kids helped pass out presents and we opened our first round in order by age. Sylvia had to learn to share the responsibility of handing out gifts. After all the gifts were open, we had a small lunch before nap time. We were able to keep Sylvia on her schedule for the most part over the break which was very nice for her and us.

Sylvia got to open the first gift because she is the youngest. Evan looks interested to see what she got.
Along with not being able to pass out all of the gifts, Sylvia was also limited to helping mommy and daddy open gifts instead of helping everybody.

I guess she did get to help Grandma with a gift too.
I still don't let Sylvia have lots of sweets. I was very impressed with her for asking permission to eat a cookie when they were sitting out on the coffee table.
Taking a ride, with Zander's help, in Grandpa's new Christmas present.

The kids went out and played in the snow after nap time. My parents' neighbors have a small hill that still holds the kids interest. Sylvia enjoyed helping push people down the hill but didn't really like sledding.
Margaret, Zander, Carl (standing), Sylvia, Evan, Katie, and Ben
My mom made a wonderful Christmas dinner and for now we all fit around one table. With two more grandchildren on the way, Christmas should be even more eventful next December.

Christmas

We woke up at our home on Christmas morning. Dan read the Christmas story while Sylvia followed along with our nativity set. Then we opened our stockings. Sylvia also got to take a look at her new play kitchen since we did not attempt to wrap it. She hadn't received any kitchen toys yet so she preceded to put anything and everything into her oven...including baby Jesus. Daddy and Sylvia made our traditional french toast for breakfast before we opened our presents. Sylvia enjoyed delivering the presents to me and Dan to see what the tags said. She now has the hang of openings gifts and knows exactly what to do. She quickly asked for "more" after opening each gift. My parents stopped over for a quick lunch of Chinese food before Sylvia's nap. Dan and I also took naps. After nap time, Dan's parents came over to open gifts and eat dinner together.