Cooling down

At last the hot summer heat wave broke this week, and we have taken full advantage of it. On Wednesday I turned the air conditioning over to heater. Nothing says fall like the smell of the dust and spider webs burning off of the heater.
On Thursday we built a fire in the fireplace. Sylvie was very interested in that, but I'm glad to say her instincts are functional. She came up close with me sitting there, and as she climbed up on the hearth to get closer, she felt the heat and backed right off.
On Friday, we were going to hit the balloon glow, but changed our minds due to weather, then changed plans again and decided to have dinner at Red Lobster, then buy marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers, and head home to use our fire pit. What a perfect night for it.
Then on Saturday we went to the balloon race, and had a great day. We saw the parachuters, and had a front row spot for our blanket. Gideon and Sylvie loved the balloons. I'll post some pictures later.

It's been a great week, and while our lives might be crazy busy, we wouldn't want it any other way.

Happy Birthday Sylvie!!!

It's hard to believe an entire year has gone by, but today you are one year old!!! You've been walking everywhere without help for two weeks now, which also means Mommy has been putting you in some very cute dresses (crawling in dresses is hard work). You are a very happy baby, and you are quick to cheer up even if things aren't going your way. You have four teeth now, all on the bottom, and you love French toast, pancakes, little mandarin orange slices, red or white pasta, hot dogs, peas, carrots, rice, corn, and whipped yogurt. You don't like broccoli much. You sleep most nights almost all of the way through, except for a half-bottle occasionally around 4AM. You love animals, sometimes even climbing up on our giant black cat, Cole, using his fur. He is a very good cat and just says mrrrooowwwlll until someone saves him. You love to play in water, although you don't like bath time lately, but I think that's just from getting water in your eyes a couple of times. You love bath time if Gideon is there too. You splash him a lot. You giggle when you eat something you like, just a little. You've started really played with dolls and your dollhouse, and some pink race cars too. You're stacking foam blocks, nesting toys, and pointing at things you want. You really like playing your little pink piano, the xylophone, and the drums, so I'm thinking you'll be musically inclined. You've also started grabbing dishtowels and carrying them around like security blankets, which is pretty cute. You say mama, dada, and baba, and sometimes you've even said Gideon, and recently, you started saying meow and pointing at Cole. Daddy carries you all over the place still, just because. You love to snuggle up to us, and climb in our laps when you want to take a break, just leaning back against us.

With all of these things you do, you still find time to be so cute that you make everyone smile when they see you, and to melt our hearts all day long. So Happy Birthday Sylvie, we love you so much, and if you want that car when you turn sixteen, keep being Daddy's Girl and I'll see what I can do.