Happy Halloween!

Halloween certainly seems to be the official kid holiday. Sylvia had a total of 4 Halloween related events over the past few days. And of course all of that culminated in trick-or-treating tonight.



We have posted a whole gallery of costumed images here. Have a look, and happy Halloween!

Feed Unto Others

We here at Sylvia and Company think pretty highly of our little mascot, Sylvia. She’s become a master sleeper, she’s rather chipper and interested in the world around her, and we consider her pretty cute. Lately we have noticed that along with those wonderful traits, she is also a good eater. Not just that she tends to eat a lot, but that she also eats well.

Last night she and I sat down to a meal of lentils, tomatoes, spinach, potatoes, and brown rice. After her third bowl, I realized that she had eaten more than me. I never thought I would be writing this next sentence. My one-year-old couldn’t get enough lentils and spinach. I brought out some pear sauce to mix thing up a bit. She ate that, but then began asking for more lentils and spinach.

Of course, she can be fickle. She could decide tonight that she will not be eating any more spinach for a while, but overall Sylvia tends to be open to all kinds of food – not just mac and cheese out of the box or ultra-sugary baby yogurt snacks. As I filled up her bowl once more, I threw a few more bites on my own plate, and I realized that maybe one way that we have encouraged good eating habits is by feeding Sylvia exactly (or almost exactly) what we eat.

This works well for many reasons. First, Sylvia is really a part of the dinner activity. She has her chair at the table and eats the same stuff as us. If she’s not into it at first, a bite or two from our plates with our spoons usually gets her interested in her own meal. Secondly, it encourages us to eat well, too. It’s pretty hard to eat a burger you ordered while trying to convince a one-year-old to swallow her stewed carrots. Lastly, it’s a lot cheaper. Making a large fresh meal costs so much less than individually tailored or restaurant-prepared meals.

Now we just have to work on the issue of wearing our food.

They Were Nice Enough to Just Use One Candle

When Chris woke up on Sunday, he felt a little strange. At first he thought he might be a bit wiser or more mature, but it turned out to just be a crick in his back which Darcie informed him would happen now that he was 30.

At least they only used one candle.


Opening gifts.


For brunch we headed to Blind Faith Cafe for some eggs and pancakes. It was a great 30th birthday.

A Little Bit of Halloween

This weekend Dede and Papa came for a visit.

Sylvia was a great hostess as always.

On Saturday afternoon, we went to a 'little' Halloween party.

Sylvia was a monkey. Another kid was a monkey, too. With so much in common, there was a lot to discuss.


The group photo. That's Sylvia behind the purple ball.


Bobbing for apples.


The walk home.

A Little Turkey, A Little Pumpkin

Technically Canadian Thanksgiving was celebrated a few weeks ago, but to a lot of Chicagoans, October 21 will do just fine. Better late than never, as they say in Toronto. Cecile, our resident Canuck, hosted her annual Canadian Thanksgiving and pumpkin carving this evening. It felt less like Canadian Thanksgiving, though, and more like Florida Thanksgiving with the 72 degree weather. Before going to the party, we even stopped off at the beach to play in the sand.



After brushing the sand out of our hair and practicing a few yoga poses together, we whipped up a squash casserole, grabbed our pumpkin and were off to the party.


Joe did a lot of the hands-on work, though Sylvia tried to help.


Chris and Joe do some carving.


Joe polishes up the final work.


The gallery of jack-o-lanterns.


Our goofy jack-o-lantern.

The Day Mom Was Waiting For

On Saturday, Sylvia had a change of heart and let us strap a bicycle helmet on her. We rode all the way to the lake and back (stopping at the swings by the water, of course). She loved watching Darcie's feet pedal and Chris pass on his bike.



Also, we had Halloween pancakes:

A Few Words about Words

One of the main duties of a parent is to worry. Is my child happy? Is that a rash? Did she just stick something in her mouth? After Sylvia's last trip to the doctor, we at Sylvia and Company picked up a new concern. Is Sylvia's language development on track? Darcie was asked if Sylvia knew four or five words. Words? As in English words? Like 'surreptitious' or 'corporation'? No, she doesn't. She knows 'mama' and 'dada'. She uses 'ba' for bath and about a quarter of the rest of the objects in the world. She makes an 'ahhhh' sound for water, but words?

So we opened some books. We looked online for advice on how to encourage your one-year-old to talk. We dropped adult-speak altogether in exchange for toddler-talk. We needed four words. Five would be great, but we needed at least four. And somehow we knew that we had missed the opportunity to teach our child language, one of the most valuable skills a human can posses. We failed her. If only we had repeated 'ball' a few more times in the first sixth months. Our nasty little secret was that 'ball' didn't even come into the picture until month six!

Then this morning at breakfast, as we agonized over our language development backup plan, Sylvia interrupted the conversation with laughter. She was watching the bird who, hiding at the bottom of her cage, suddenly poked her head up then disappeared again. Sylvia laughed. She pointed at the bird, looked at us, and covered her own eye peek-a-boo-style. The bird is playing peek-a-boo. Sylvia communicated a sentence. It wasn't in English necessarily, and we're not sure about the grammar, but she communicated a complete thought.

They should really offer a caveat when asking if your one-year-old knows five words.