Counting birthday blessings

Today was my birthday. It was such a good day. 

1. Sylvia started saying her name: "Seel-ya!"

2. I got to hold our neighbor's new baby, Theo, for a couple of very sweet hours. Such a tiny person! He's just over six pounds, and very alert. 

3. Sylvia played a game with me where we sat in two kid-size chairs and then switched at her direction, over and over. (This is way cuter than I'm making it sound.) She said "Mommy!" a lot and gave me several unexpected kisses on my elbows. 

4. Paul came home early so I could go out with a friend who is getting married on Saturday. We've been welcomed into her family over the years, and participating in her wedding feels like a culmination of that. 

5. Paul asked Sylvia if she knew it was my birthday today and she said, "Mm-hmmm!" And he asked her say happy birthday and she kind of did! She said something that sounded like it, with three or four syllables and a big grin. 

6. I got to have sushi and stay up late. 

7. And now I get to go to bed :) 

p.s. When Sylvia saw me tonight she said, "Tyler! Tyler!" and "Charlotte!" -- the names of the kids she played with while I was out. She has started telling me about her day like that, and she has also started talking, without prompting, about her cousins and other people she loves. And now she also says several two- and three-syllable words. All of a sudden in these past two weeks we're getting to see a lot more of what's going on inside her head. It's wonderful.