a bit of freedom

  Sylvia is allowed one hour of freedom from her helmet a day.  I try to use that time to get some sweet snuggles and lots of pictures. 

Sylvia had her hair in a small ponytail for most of the day.  Even without the hair tie, it stayed this way :) 

 All cleaned up & looking beautiful!

9 months old

Today our dear Sylvia is 9 months old. We also had her 9 month check up today and the results were great! She weighs 22 lbs 8 oz which puts her at 96%. She is 29 & 5/8 inches tall which puts her at 98%. She's a big girl (as you can see in the picture below). She continues to be our easy to laugh, easy to smile, easy to entertain girl. What a gift God has given us in our beautiful daughter.

Andrew, our faithful helper

I am just loving Andrew's helping stage. He loves to help with chores, on his terms of course.

Helping me wash windows, glass, and mirrors:

Checking out a plumbing problem.  His diagnosis:  'the leak is coming from this square over here, Dada'

sprout

Sylvia has just enough hair to make a small sprout on top of her head. Special thanks to her cousin, Alexa, for making her a little flower clip.

and more snow...

And it just keeps on snowing! Luckily the latest snow was perfect for making a snowman (a small one).

Fun in the snow

It's pretty much been snowing non-stop the past few days. I meant to take Andrew out today to make a snow man, but the snow was too powdery, not the right consistency. But we had fun anyway. When there is almost a foot of snow on the ground, you can always find something fun to do.

Andrew making snow angels

Checking out his outdoor toys, too snow covered to play with

Showing off the large icicle we found

GR car show

With the Car Show coming to Grand Rapids, it was a 'no-brainer' to take Andrew. All day on Friday, he asked when we could go see 'all the cars' :) This boy was in pure heaven when we arrived. He ran from one car to the next saying "let's look at this car," "what kind of car is this?", etc. I had so much fun watching the excitement on his face. Hopefully these pictures captured a bit of his happiness.

Sitting inside an Audi

Checking out the back of the car & the trunk

Posing with a real talking, walking robot

An orange car?  How cool!

Looking underneath the mini cooper

Sylvie's new 'accessory'

Poor Sylvia! Due to a flat spot on the back of her head, she is forced to wear a helmet for the next 2-4 months. We are all still adjusting to her new accessory, but of course still think she is the cutest thing around.

All smiles!

Wait, I can't take it off!

Feeling more confident about her riding moving toys now that her head is protected :)