Early to Bed

For the past two nights, Sylvie woke up around 3:30 and did not fall back to sleep. Michael did overtime Saturday night with Sylvie and I spent the better part of last night saying "Mommy needs to go to sleep" while Sylvie demanded I read Eloise or Snow White. We have a reissue of the 1954 Kay Thompson book that I picked up on the clearance table at Anthropologie years ago and as kitschy as it seems, I have to constantly skip over parts that are totally inappropriate, whether Eloise is commenting on the fancy folks smoking in the elevators at the Plaza Hotel or terrorizing the hotel guests. Sylvie does not need encouragement in that area.

Caroline, who I've dubbed, the Jackie O of Brazil (I have to Netflix "The House of Yes" for her) entertained Sylvie while Michael and I took the dogs to the Quiet Path. We ran into our friend Steve Jones who we had not seen since before Sylvie became ill although Michael has talked to his wife Linda here and there. Linda is our friend and real estate broker and I know them through doing business with their sons who founded the bombastic extreme ski film company Teton Gravity Research.

Once the dogs were officially wiped out, we came home, loaded up the car and headed to Burlington for the afternoon. By the time we arrived, Sylvie was asleep and Michael wanted to nap in the car, too. So off Caroline and I went exploring Church Street. I love Burlington. It reminds me a lot of Madison, Wisconsin, where I went to college. It's a very educated yet liberal small city on a lake with a cool little downtown and car-free main drag. After numerous trips back to the car where Michael remained out cold, finally I called his phone to jostle him awake. Sylvie got up and we sped over to the bathrooms in the mall with our portable potty seat in hand (thanks to my friend Jenny!). Then we cruised over to Sadie's Diner for grilled cheese, burgers (a veggie burger for me naturally) and Sylvie went from being a rotten apple to having a pretty splendid time. Which means we all had a great time. I'll upload more photographs tomorrow.

We got home in time for Sylvie to eat some miso ramen noodles and dance around to Harry Belafonte "Jump in the Line." I think we may need to make "Sylvie's Holiday Mix" this year because her playlist has grown quite significantly since her May 12 birthday mix.

Off to sleep just in case Sylvie wakes up early again. I looked at a photo of Lucky when Sylvie was born. No gray muzzle. Not a single white hair on her golden snout. And now, three years later-- she's whiteface. What does this say about us?!