Chris | 
03 31st, 2009| 
As promised, here are some photos from our trip to NYC:
Mar
31
Mar
31
We’ll posts some photos soon, but we just wanted to let everyone know that we returned safely from New York late Sunday night. Sylvia was a super traveler and will gladly list for you all of the types of transportation she enjoyed – pretty much everything but boat, though we talked about riding the Staten Island Ferry just for fun.
The trip was a bit of a whirlwind as we tried to squeeze in time with all of our friends. We really can’t express enough how great Sylvia was on the trip (during the nine-hour trek back to Chicago, Sylvia cried for exactly two minutes!). There are not many two-year-olds who will endure hours of travel on planes, cars, buses, and trains and then move from apartment to apartment for four days just so her parents can visit with friends. But of course our friends are her friends, too, and she enjoyed every minute with them.
Thanks to everyone for having us in New York!
Mar
21
The Book Club – Darcie, Sabrina, Sarah, Kiley, Carey
Tonight, our book club members, spouses, and kids met up for a game night and a farewell to our friend, Kiley, and her husband, Steve, who are moving to D.C. for Kiley’s new job in Youth Development. Our book club has been meeting for 5 and half years. Four of the five of us met in graduate school. While our group will continue without Kiley, she’ll be greatly missed.
We didn’t get any pictures unfortunately, but Sylvia and Nate played rock n’ roll band together, chased trains, and tortured the cat, “Tiger” during our farewell.
Mar
21
On the thumb:
Sylvia: “My thumb tastes like blackberries and sun.”
Mom: “Oh, really, that must be why you like it.”
Sylvia: “And sandwiches.”
On the bird:
Sylvia: “Charlie’s pooping?”
Chris: “Yes, she pooped on my pants.”
Sylvia: “And not on your shoulder.”
Chris: “Sometimes when she is on my shoulder, yes. Right now she is on my legs.”
Sylvia (to Charlie): “Charlie, you go sit on the potty?”
Mar
16
The weather is beginning to feel a liitle more like spring here in Chicago. To celebrate we bought new converse for Sylvia and went for a bike ride.
Mar
13
Pop-Pop finished his meeting in Indiana and made it back to Evanston for another visit. This time, I got some pictures of Sylvia reading some books and enjoying a St. Patrick’s Day cupcake.
Mar
11
I don’t know what I was thinking. We didn’t have the camera out for Pop-Pop’s visit today. Sylvia was quite excited when we told her he was coming to see her. She, of course, wanted to know where Grandmom, Austin, and the 5 horses were as well.
Pop-Pop has some work in Indiana and was able to spend the day with us in Evanston before heading over to Indiana. We had a great time playing and eating Chinese food. Sylvia had the luxury of having someone gladly read at least 10 books to her in one sitting. Pop-Pop put Sylvia down for a nap while I ran some errands. He had to leave before she got up from her nap. Her first question when she woke up was, “Where did Pop-Pop go?”
That’s the hardest part about being so far is Sylvia only gets these short and sweet visits with all of her grandparents. She is always talking about everyone and wondering where they are and what they are doing.
Mar
11
Sylvia has been in the potty learning process since February. Progress is progress. We’re not pushing and she is coming along quite well. I stocked up on some “prizes” if we needed them to encourage Sylvia. We’ve found that stickers are all the motivation she really needs. I thought we would need the prizes to get Sylvia to the toilet. Turns out, we have to use the prizes for getting her off of the toilet. She can hang out for hours reading, singing, drawing, talking, and even eating. So, tonight for the first time, we broke out a potty prize to say, “Great job getting off the toilet.” Her prize was this little faux camera. She’s taking pictures of everything.
