Sylvia has been busy the past few days. We hope these photos will catch everyone up on the activity.
Saturday morning we joined Zella Rose and friends to celebrate Zella’s 2nd birthday. We all met at the offices of the group Chicago Books to Women in Prison where we sorted and packaged books to send to incarcerated women.
Saturday evening, we went to Old Town School of Folk Music to hear Kimya Dawson sing songs from her new children’s album Alphabutt. Sylvia and little Nathaniel had a blast dancing and clapping. Sylvia even went up on stage (Kimya invited all the kids on stage).
I’ve been waiting for this day to come, this amazing glorious day when Charlie moves out of my home (she wishes I would move out, I’m sure). We have a love/hate relationship. Birds tend to love only one person and Charlie loves Chris. Also, I love cats, and cats and birds in a two bedroom condo are not great conditions (for the bird, anyway). Dede and Papa had offered to take this bird out of my hair. There was talk of Charlie retiring to Mississippi this Christmas. I’ve been counting down the days. After, 9 long years of living with this animal who has no interest in me, chirps when I try to put Sylvia to sleep, throws bird seed everywhere for me to sweep up (Chris falls behind on this so I take up the slack), and who screeches at least an annoying hour a day, Charlie has started to take an interest in Sylvia.
Sylvia and Chris have a morning ritual of feeding Charlie together which is probably one of Sylvia’s most favorite moments of the day. Well, this evening when I walked into the kitchen, Sylvia had pulled her chair over to the cage, climbed up, and was standing there watching and laughing at the bird as she took a bath. So, I’m letting go of my dream of Charlie moving in with another family, and I am trying to embrace her as part of our family. I’m not going to offer a home for any other birds, but Charlie is staying as she makes Sylvia laugh and smile and there’s no way I can let that go.
We just returned from a playgroup weekend trip to Starved Rock State Park. The weather was cold, but everyone bundled up well. Activities included hiking, swimming, playing in the great room, and orchestrating seating arrangements for 10 big people and 7 little people at every meal.
While Darcie and Zella’s mom, Manda, attended a yoga class, I watched Sylvia and Zella. I actually did a lot of playing, too. It is amazing, though, to see how much our daughters have grown; to see how much they actually interact and negotiate on their own now.
So Many Toys
Playing Soccer
We’re a little belated in posting these pics, but Dan Fisher (you can visit his blog ‘Chaplain Danny’ in our Blogroll) was in Chicago last weekend for the 2008 American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting. While he was in our neck of the woods we had lunch and went for a stroll downtown.
Here at Sylvia and Co., we are proud to celebrate the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President. We are excited for Sylvia to be part of this amazing history. Sylvia has been an Obama toddler and helped to make calls to Ohio for those swing voters and has been campaigning with her other friends. Sylvia recognizes that everyone has different views and loves a great dialogue or exchange of potato head pieces.
Chris | 
11 25th, 2008| 
