Catch Up on my Elf

Let's just say that life got a little hectic the last few weeks of December and mom hasn't had a chance to help me edit and upload photos :) So I can remember where he was, here are all the other places that Sly showed up until he went back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve!

He borrowed my hot chocolate mug (and made a mess in the process). He did it wrong, though, because he forgot to add the water!



He hung upside down on the Christmas Tree!



He borrowed mom's vacuum cleaner - he must have vacuumed after I went to sleep because it was plugged in and the family room had been vacuumed by the time I got up.



He watched over the nativity set.



He made some cookies with the mixer. He must have eaten them all, though, because he didn't leave any for me! How rude!



He made a Christmas tree for me out of my legos! He made a mess and left a few blocks out - I cleaned those up when I got up (I was careful to not touch him, don't worry!) He even left the tree for me when he left that night.



He played my guitar! I helped him a little by strumming the strings (again, being very careful not to touch him).



He played my favorite game...6 Nimmt!



This one was pretty cool - he left a note for me saying that there were only 3 more sleeps till Santa's visit!



I think Sly drank a bottle of wine this night :)



On his last night, he hid in the presents under the tree and left me a Merry Christmas note!



I had a very Merry Christmas and hope you all did, too! An update on that in a little bit...

Early Morning!

I was up pretty late last night, so mom figured she'd get to sleep in at least a little this morning. Not so much! I was WIDE awake at 5:30. She tried to get me to go back to sleep to no avail. We got up and had breakfast and she tried to get me to play quietly, but I was *really* cranky (gee, I wonder why).

I found Sly on a table playing with my Little Bits set! It's an engineering circuit set that daddy got me. I don't play with it every day, but I was pretty upset that Sly was playing with it today and I couldn't :( Dad said tomorrow we could play with all of the different circuits, though!



I'm getting a little less cautious about getting near the Elf - let's see how close I can get without actually touching him...



I ended up painting and making a card for Grammy (we'll send it as soon as we get stamps, I promise!) Coffee wasn't helping mom and she was really tired. After lunch, she tried to take a nap, but the doorbell rang, I woke her up, and she got a call for work, so that didn't work and she was pretty frustrated. We ended up just getting up and going shopping.

Mom and I had a fun dinner date and went to Macaroni Grill. She told me I could draw on the table and that was AWESOME! I even got a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert :) Mom had Blood Orange sorbet which was also quite yummy! We stopped at the book store on the walk back to the car and mom bought me two new books - Snowmen at Night and a Pete the Cat Christmas book. I've read them both at school, but thought they would be nice to have at home.

Note to other parents, though - don't take your kids into a book store right before Christmas when they sell Elf on the Shelf...I got quite upset at some adults picking up the Elf to look at it - I told them that it would lose it's magic!

Teacher Conferences

What a busy day today! Mom had to take a day off because my school closed at noon for our parent teacher conferences. She had PT this morning, so I went with her and then she dropped me off at school. Once again, I behaved *really* well at PT, and patients, therapists, and doctors all commented on how good I was. That made mom so proud! Mom's foot is finally starting to feel better. They started a lot of new strength training today and she was able to use some of the weight machines for the first time. She's been having trouble with one of her toes going numb, which worried her, but after talking to her doctor today sounds like it's unrelated to the surgery and not a huge deal (at the moment, at least). Her doctor said if it got worse that he'd see her any time and without an appointment, so that was nice.

She dropped me at school and went home to work for a few hours (she says that people who work in insurance don't ever really get any time off in December since January 1 is a very busy date for them). She picked me up a bit early and we went to Noodles and Company for lunch (my very favorite). Then we headed back to school for mom and dad's conference with my teacher.

I did extremely well in all of my assessments and scored the max amount of points in every area except one (pattern recognition). I've only really learned one type of pattern (A-B-A-B), so we'll work on others. Given that I'm in a pre-school class (for kids who are 3 at the start of the school year), the assessments aren't too surprising given that I turned 4 less than 3 weeks after the start of the school year and have had a lot more time to learn the things that we were being tested on. There's a HUGE difference developmentally between a young 3 year old and a young 4 year old.

Mom and dad are meeting with the director of education at my school next week to set up the plan for helping me get ready for Kindergarten next fall. There are unfortunately no spots in the Swing pre-school class for the spring (they follow the pre-school curriculum for the fall, but the Pre-K curriculum for the spring), but my teachers and the school will work with me to ensure that I'm ready (curriculum wise) for Kindergarten next year. We're pretty sure that there will be a spot in a private Kindergarten class at my current school in the fall (our first choice), but in case there isn't, we're going to explore what needs to be done for early entry evaluation into public Kindergarten (second choice, but we need to make sure we don't miss deadlines just to keep the option open).

At any rate, mom and dad are THRILLED with my current school. I don't think dad thought mom would ever be truly happy with one of my schools, but she really loves it (as do I).

We went home after the conference and mom let me watch the Tinkerbell movie while she got some more work done. Then we had to leave to take Razzy to the vet to get her rabies shot and physical exam. Mom put her crate next to my carseat, so I was able to comfort her while we drove to the vet. They took us right back and Raz got to get out of her crate and made herself at home on the table. The vet says she looks great, but is still pretty fat :) She's 15 lbs, which is pretty big for a cat. We're supposed to put her food out twice a day, let her eat, then take it up during the day and again at night. We'll see how that works - when she's out of food, she finds stuff to knock over, which can sometimes set the alarm off! But she needs to lose weight, so we'll have to give it a try and I'll have to try to make her exercise more (laser pointer, feathers, whatever toy she'll play with).

Oh yeah - I almost forgot! Sly moved from my stocking to mommy's stocking! I yelled at him when I saw him this morning and told him to leave mom's stocking alone!!!



Mom, dad, and I all got in the car and were going to go shopping tonight - we got about a mile away and mom looked at the clock and realized that she forgot that I had swimming tonight (in 20 minutes)!!! We turned around, rushed home, grabbed a swim suit and towel and mom and I rushed over to the pool. We made it about 5 minutes late, but that's not too bad. I did a great job today and spent a lot of time actually swimming by myself. One of the skills I have to pass to go to the next level is to hold my face underwater for 10 seconds - I made it to 7 seconds, but that's HARD! One more week of swimming for this session - we'll have to check the schedule to see if I go again next session. It's super convenient to my school now that the new location is open, so that really helps.

Good night all!

Ghost from Halloween

I had a rough night last night :( I was having dreams about the Ghost from Halloween (must have been in a book that I had in my bed). I was up crying several times and mom had a hard time calming me down. Mom was SO tired this morning. And of course she had to take me to school pretty early this morning so she could get to a meeting in Virginia.

Sly showed up in my stocking this morning!!! I was SO excited to find him! I told mom I thought he'd leave me something in my stocking.



We'll see where he is tomorrow! I'm pretty sure he's been telling Santa that I've been a good girl!

Quiet Time

I think Sly needed some quiet time. He grabbed a book and climbed (or flew) to the window above the front door!



One more full school day - Friday's a half day so mom and dad can have their teacher conferences. Later!!!

Hungry Elf

Sly must have wanted a midnight snack :)



I was worried that we couldn't use the fridge all day, but mom was able to open the doors without touching the elf, so we were good :)

We made latke's at school today! Though we made them with bananas, which mom can't figure out. She says they're not supposed to have bananas in them...We had fun mashing up bananas and potatoes, though, so I don't care if they weren't quite "right."

I was pretty tired and had a total meltdown at bedtime. I was sad because I hadn't had my vitamins (mom just hadn't given them to me yet), then I was sad because I was going to miss the elf at bedtime, then I was sad that it wasn't Christmas yet, then I was sad about 10 other totally random things. It was clearly a case of overtired child! Needless to say, we went upstairs, brushed teeth, cuddled in the dark for a few minutes and went right to bed.

Pardon the red, puffy eyes, but mom thought this was a funny pose :) G'night!

Happy Monday

It was back to school and work today...I did a good job listening and got ready pretty quickly this morning. I picked out my clothes last night, so that helped. I was still pretty tired and didn't want to take my Santa jammies off, but I was excited to get back to school to see my friends, so it didn't take as long as it does some mornings. 

Guess where I found Sly this morning??? He was on ANOTHER light! In the dining room this time :) Doesn't he look funny just hanging up there???

School was fun - we're talking about the holidays and I'm learning about a lot of holidays that people celebrate around the world. I was decorating a mitten with "holiday" colors when mom picked me up. Really, they were whatever colors we wanted :) I even got to glue some cotton balls to the bottom of the mitten. They're going to hang the mittens on display in the hallway at school - I can't wait to see it! 

We stopped for sushi on the way home - yum!!! I got my usual - avocado roll and vegetable roll. I ate ALMOST all of it, plus a piece of mom and dad's, plus half a bowl of miso soup. Such strange eating habits for a child, huh? I had a few pieces of avocado roll and vegetable roll left, so mom packed them for my lunch tomorrow. I like being able to take my lunch to school - it's a little more work, but I get some fun lunches :) 

Good night all! I'm rockin' my other Santa jammies. These aren't *quite* as cool as the others because they don't have Santa hats on the feet. But they'll do!

Funday, Sunday!

I was SO excited for today! We had a play date this morning with my friends, Casey and Cameron. They're sisters that I used to go to school with. The weather was *supposed* to be nice today, so we met at a playground. Needless to say, it was cold and foggy, so the whole playground was soaking wet. Thankfully I had picked out some fleece pants, so they did a good job soaking up the sogginess from the slides. But it got pretty cold. My gloves got soaked, so mom gave me hers (which were white). Hers also got wet and DIRTY, so she'll have to wash them!

Mom rode her bike and I did my yoga DVD again when we got home. I'm getting a lot better at some of the balancing poses. Dragon Breath is my favorite, though! Daddy went for a run while we were exercising. When he got home and we were all done, we all went shopping and bought all new dishes! It's been a long time coming and it was time to pull the trigger. Now to run them all through the dishwasher and switch stuff out of the cabinets. Lots of work, but well worth it.

Mom got me some new Christmas jammies the other day. How cool are the feet??? Santa's hat is separate from the rest of the jammies, so I kind of have to hold it up. I told mom these are my FAVORITE jammies ever!



Guess where Sly was this morning??? He was hiding on the kitchen light! I told mom he flew there and decided to sit and take a rest :)



I told mom I want him to be in kitty's stocking tomorrow, in my stocking the next day, in mom's stocking the day after, and in dad's stocking the day after (that's the order they're hung in on the mantle). We'll see where he decides to show up tomorrow!

Didgeridoo!

That's right, Sly tried to play daddy's didgeridoo! Dad got up with me this morning so mom could sleep in. When mom got up, she asked me if I had found the elf. I told her I had and that he was playing daddy's instrument that sounded like "dooooo dooooo." I couldn't remember what it was called! I told mom he was too small to actually play it, though - he'd fall the whole way through!!!

Good Morning!

Guess where Sly was this morning??? I was a little upset that he had one of my dry erase markers, but mom assured me that he'd give it back, so that was ok.



I had to get up early, but I got to go to PT with mom. I behaved *really* well and was quiet the entire time. All of the therapists and other patients all comment on how good I am :) I even got to say hi to the doctor who treated my hips when I was little.

Mom dropped me off at school just in time for calendar and snack. I was really looking forward to the day at school - it was Pizza Friday (the PTO hosts Pizza Friday a few days throughout the semester). It was also show and share day for the letter P. I took my Plastic Peas from my kitchen :) I thought that was pretty clever - I figured my friends would take lots of Pink Pigs, so the Plastic Peas seemed a little different.

I'm looking forward to a fun weekend - decorating for Christmas, some shopping, and some playing - the weather is supposed to be gorgeous!

Spice Time!

Guess where the elf was this morning??? Hiding in the spice rack!



Wonder where he'll be in the morning...

Going for a walk...

I had a little freak out again last night and didn't want to see my elf today. I was kinda ok when I found him sitting in my doll's stroller this morning :) My baby must have been taking him for a walk!



We had a fun night tonight! We ate a really late dinner so mom could ride her bike an do her exercises and dad could go for a run. Mom even put on one of my yoga DVD's for me to do! So she rode her bike while I did yoga - it was pretty fun. It's designed to help kids go from "silly to calm," but I was still feeling pretty silly by the time we were done! A good way for us all to get in some exercise, though.

Mom's foot is *finally* starting to feel a little better. She just finished another double dose of oral steroids and is walking a little better. She says it's still pretty sensitive and still hurts to walk and put a shoe on, but she's definitely walking a little more normally than she was. PT must be helping. She has to go for at least another month and then see how things are from there. I think I even get to go with her on Friday morning :) When she has really early appointments, there's not enough time to get me to school and get back there, so I go with her and read books (or better yet, play with her iPad).

Tonight, I read mom and dad one of my fall sight word books. I'm really doing a great job with reading! I mix up my lower case b's and d's sometimes, but otherwise do a great job sounding things out or reading other sight words that I know (assuming I'm not beyond tired, that is).



Hope everyone is doing well!

Elf Shopping

I had such a hard time finding my elf this morning! I was SO tired. But when I went into the dining room and started to walk through the living room, guess what I saw???

He must have been doing some online shopping!



Dad picked me up from school and told me that I could start decorating the tree if I ate a good dinner without fooling around and without it taking too long. We've been having some trouble with me taking FOREVER to eat. I played while mom got dinner ready.



Mom had some work to do, so she made me some mac and cheese (with peas)! That helped move the dinner process along. I ate that and said I was still hungry, so she gave me some blackberries and raspberries. I ate those, too! Then I had some applesauce. Who knows where I put it all - I'm still a tall, skinny girl!

Needless to say, I ate well, so got to decorate the tree. I told mom that I was hanging the "fragical" ornaments up high so kitty wouldn't break them. See how high I can reach?



G'night all!

Happy Cyber Monday

Happy Monday, everyone! As expected, I had a hard time getting up this morning. Thankfully, mom had a meeting and didn't have to leave till a bit later than normal, so she was able to get up and work a bit before I had to get up. I was still pretty tired, though.

When I finally got up and came downstairs, I discovered that Sly wasn't where he was yesterday! It took me a while to find him, but I finally saw him sitting on the mantle with Joe Pa as mom and I were cuddling.





I hope he'll tell Santa I've been good!

Can you tell how excited I am that daddy put up our tree??? I think we're going to work on decorating it the rest of this week.



Till later! Where will Sly be tomorrow???

Last Day of the Long Weekend

In order to celebrate the fun we've had the past four days, I slept LATE this morning! Mom went to bed early last night and I woke up at 2 crying that I didn't want to see my elf. Mom told me I didn't have to worry about the elf and we cuddled in my bed until I fell back asleep. Mom had the distinct pleasure of sleeping until 8am only to find that I was *still* asleep! She even came in to check on me to see if I was up and just playing quietly in my room. Nope - I was sound asleep and didn't wake up till 9:15! That's literally the only time I've ever slept that late in my life! Crazy, huh?

I was over my fear of the elf by the time I woke up and was delighted to find him in the new tree that I picked out. We were at Lowes the other day and I picked out this little planted evergreen tree. Sly must have liked my choice! I wouldn't get any closer than this to let mom take a picture because if you touch the elf, his magic goes away!



We had a fun day today and got to go the library to pick out new books and music. I got my usual 10 books (mom says that's so she always knows how many we have to return in case they get moved from my library bag). I also got a music CD to listen to and a book on CD that I'm very excited to listen to. Mom got a few books too, so it was a good trip.

We went grocery shopping for the week and I even got a cool snowman cookie to eat after dinner :) Not as good as the pumpkin pie cheese cake that daddy made for Thanksgiving, but I suppose it'll do.

I've had a lot of fun at home the past 4 days, but I think I'm ready to go back to school tomorrow. I really miss my friends and teachers!

Guess who came to visit???

Look what I woke up to! I woke mom up by SCREAMING this morning because I was so excited to find my elf :) Mom and dad read me the book last night and I decided to call him Sly this year, just like one of the penguins at the aquarium from this summer. And sure enough, when I woke up this morning, he was sitting on my dresser right beside my picture of Grandma Rebecca! I can't wait to see where he is tomorrow!

Pumpkin Patch!

A tad bit late, but here are the photos from the pumpkin patch from before Halloween! I had so much fun walking around trying to pick out my pumpkin!

Wagon ride to the pumpkin patch.



I liked this one.



This totally captures my personality, don't you think?



This is a good one too.



Heavy pumpkin! This is the one I want!



I had to stay home sick with dad yesterday because I had a fever and cough on Sunday night, but I was good to go by the time I got up yesterday morning. I slept late on Monday and got to rest a lot, so I think that helped. I was pretty good and let dad get some work done, too! Mom's been really busy at work and couldn't rearrange her schedule to be home, so it worked out really well.

Today we had my Thanksgiving Feast at school - it was so much fun! Each class got to prepare food for the feast - my class made the succotash! My teachers and the owners of the school made a lot too - there was turkey, mac and cheese, succotash, fresh fruit, corn bread, jello, pumpkin pudding, applesauce, and popcorn for dessert! Before we ate, each class performed the song that they had learned. My class did a song called "A Turkey Named Burt" and we all got to wear our Indian and Pilgrim costumes that we made. I'll have to ask mom to take a video of me singing the song because it's pretty cute. After each class performed, we all did the Thanksgiving song that I posted earlier. There were 3 pre-school classes (24 kids per class), so there were a lot of kids and parents in the room! After the kids got served their food, the parents got to eat too. After we ate, mom and dad had to go back to work, but I'm so glad they could come!

Mom and I went to Whole Foods after school and it surprisingly wasn't too bad for being two days before Thanksgiving! Dad's got a nice meal planned for the three of us and we're looking forward to some down time. It's been a pretty crazy schedule lately. Then I have swim class on Friday night - I started again last week and really enjoy it so far.

Hope everyone is well! Happy almost Thanksgiving!

The Thanksgiving Song

Check out this new song I learned in music class :)

Sleepy Girl

Guess I should have updated that we made it through Sandy and are perfectly safe! We lost power for about 2 hours, but it was no big deal. Dad was in my room helping me when it went out and I was sleeping when it came back on. Mom and dad sat in front of the fire (huzzah for the gas fireplace!) and read books while it was out. We had no tree or water damage, so we were really lucky. Seeing the news coverage of NY and NJ makes me so sad and I wish we could do more to help those people who have suffered so much. So sad :(

I was so thankful that we got to celebrate Halloween as normal on Wednesday this week. I dressed up as Cinderella (I'm just slightly obsessed with princesses these days). This was Tuesday night when I had to gather my costume to get ready for my school parade on Wednesday morning. We had to make sure it all fit and that we could find all of the pieces. The dress is really short, but it's a size 6!!! Crazy. The tiara is mom's that she bought for the Princess Half marathon in February. It even blinks :)



We went trick or treating with Ken, Marie, Arabelle, and Cole on Wednesday. How fun! We had pizza, then got in our costumes and headed out. Look how excited we were!



We walked all over Belle's neighborhood and got tons of candy. My bag got SO heavy and I could barely carry it anymore. Dad kept asking me if I was done trick or treating or if I thought I could carry the bag some more. Needless to say, I carried the heavy bag and got some more candy! It was late by the time we got done, so we came home and I went to bed. We sorted through my candy on Thursday night and I got to eat some Hershey's Kisses (from Marie's mom) while we watched Charlie Brown. Pretty cool. I even shared with mom and dad - I gave dad a Milky Way and Mom a 3 Musketeer's bar. Yum.

This morning I got to go to PT with mom. She had a really early appointment and she didn't have time to get me to school beforehand, so she took me with her. I got to play with her iPad and was really, really good the whole time. I counted for her while she was stretching and got to touch the ice pack and e-stim when she was done. That was fun. I got to school late because of PT, so it was snack time when we got there. It was also pizza Friday, so we didn't have to pack a lunch. I told mom that I ate two whole pieces (but not all of the crust) and a whole container of applesauce. Dad made pad thai for dinner and I totally devoured it :) Yummy shrimp!

I had a nice, long, warm bath tonight, then mom and I read a book. Then I laid my head down on mom's shoulder, and...



Out cold. Mom says she loves still being able to rock her "baby" to sleep :)

Hurricane Sandy has begun...

Just wanted to write a quick update while we still have power. All is well here so far (5pm on Monday). It's been raining since last night and the wind has recently picked up. We've got plenty of food and are prepared for the power to go out. Flashlights, candles, beds ready in the basement, plenty of water (thank goodness for 5 and 6 gallon glass carboys for daddy's homebrewing), plenty of non-perishable food, iPads, iPods, and phones are all charged. Now fingers crossed that all of the trees in our backyard stay put.

Mom's office and my school were closed today and mom's office is already closed for tomorrow. Metro and all local buses are also canceled, so it's best to just stay put. We had a pretty fun day today and got to play a lot, drew some pretty cool pictures, took a nice warm bath (in case we lose power and our hot water heater goes out), and even took a nice nap. Mom shared her bed with me (the only way she can get me to nap these days) and we both got *almost* an hour rest. Then I started playing with the buttons on one of my toys and that seemed to annoy mom. I don't understand why! We made some apple cinnamon muffins and I got to stir it all up and scoop the mix into the muffin cups. I even ate one of the muffins for snack this afternoon, but we're saving the rest in case we need them tomorrow. Now, we're waiting for dinner to cook (mom's heating up a frozen baked ziti and is hoping the power stays on till it's cooked. Dad and I are going to carve my pumpkin that we got at the pumpkin patch on Saturday (a separate post on that once we get a chance to edit photos).

Yesterday we got to watch a lot of our friends run the Marine Corps Marathon! They ended up having a pretty nice day ahead of the storm. Angela, Sofia, Molly, Jay, and Alex all ran and did extremely well!!! Daddy left earlier than mom and I did and met Steve so they could run around and spectate in a few different spots (crowd support is pretty critical, especially for a long race like that with impending crappy weather). Mom and I went a little later and were planning on spectating in one spot (it was hard for her to walk too far). She and I went and staked out a spot that we thought would be at mile 18, but was probably more like just shy of 19. We stood there for a while and unfortunately missed Angela, Sof, and Alex. It was SOOOO hard to find people. We were lucky enough to find Molly and Jay, though, and I gave them hugs and high fives. They looked GREAT and I knew they'd finish strong. They all did finish very strong and we met up with them at Jay and Molly's house afterward to celebrate their run and Molly's birthday. I had a blast playing with all of Jacob's toys - sorry Jay and Molly for making such a mess of all the toys!!! Feel free to come over and return the favor anytime :)

I'm going to sign off for now and go work on my pumpkin. Will post updates as we can, but for now, we're all doing well and still have power. Stay safe, everyone!!!

Mom's a sucker :)

I got to spend yesterday with Grandpa Coble while mom and dad went to a concert. We had so much fun! We swung in the hammock, rode my bike, put some puzzles together, and even had bunny shaped mac and cheese for dinner! Then I got to have a piece of candy from Alanna's birthday - I think grandpa can come back any time :)

Mom and dad ended up leaving the concert a little early because it was REALLY crowded, so they got home before I was done with my bath. I even got to open my birthday present from Aunt Laurie, Uncle Dan, and my cousins Courtney and Kaylee. They got me some AWESOME dresses and leggings that I can't wait to wear! Will post pictures soon, but it's been hard for mom to carry her camera, so she'll have to wait till she gets the pictures from grandpa.

Grandpa read to me (and I read a little to him) at bedtime, then I said night night. I got mom good, though. After grandpa went back downstairs, I called for mom on the monitor:

Me: Mom - I want to cuddle with you!
Mom: But we just cuddled downstairs, Sydney. It's time to go to bed.
Me: But mom, I'm laying here with my turtle just thinking about cuddling with you.
Mom: Oh yeah?
Me: Yes. If you come cuddle with me, I'll be able to sleep tonight.
Mom: OK - I'll be right there (as she hobbled back upstairs on crutches).

I win!

Brave Girl

Mom and I went to the pediatrician today for my 4 year well visit. The last time we were there was September 27, 2011, meaning that I was for the most part healthy ALL.YEAR.LONG! Dr. Glassman was happy about that (and so were mom and I)!

I got my first vision screening and a follow up hearing screening and both were PERFECT. Because I was in the NICU at birth and had a little trouble with the hearing screening, they've checked my hearing pretty regularly, but they haven't checked my eyes yet. Mom wasn't too worried about my eyes - I haven't showed any signs of having any issues, but since both mom and dad wear glasses and dad's eyes are pretty bad, it's good news that my eyes are ok.

The four year visit is a rough one in terms of vaccinations. I got 4 routine vaccinations plus my flu shot. I usually get the flu mist in the flu clinic in the pediatrician's office, but they're now able to give the shot right in the exam room and bill the insurance directly, so that's what we did. I had to sit in mom's lap and she held my hands. They brought in an extra nurse so they each gave me two shots in each arm and it was over really quickly. I was SO brave and stoic and didn't cry when I was getting the shots. The nurse could see on my face how much it hurt and told me it was ok to cry. I turned around, put my head on mom's shoulder, and sobbed like crazy. Mom just held me and rubbed my back and told me how brave I was. I really loved the bandaids - they were silver and sparkly - pretty cool! The nurse even gave me TWO tokens for the bouncy ball machine and told me I could also get TWO stickers on the way out!

The doctor weighed me and measured my height - 41 inches and 36 pounds. 75% for height and 50% for weight - right on track from where I've been for years now, so that's good! Everything else checked out perfectly and Dr. Glassman even told me that I don't have to get any more shots (other than my flu shot) until I'm ELEVEN! That's pretty cool :)

Mom got her flu shot on the way out and then I picked out my two stickers and we went home. I was pretty excited to tell daddy how brave I was and we had to leave the bandaids on so I could show my teachers the next day.

I'm absolutely loving my new school (I think I will forever call it my new school). I'm the oldest in my class, but am still learning a lot of new things every day. Now that the school year has started, we get to participate in the enrichment activities such as gym, music, yoga, sign language, and Spanish.

I've learned the following signs in sign language: great, happy, sad, and a bunch more that I don't feel like telling mom at the moment :) I do know a bunch of the letters, please and thank you, and some colors. Yoga is a lot of fun and I teach mom the poses that we learn. We're also learning about rhythm in music class - pretty cool stuff.

Till later!!!

Happy 4th Birthday!

I am officially FOUR years old! Can you believe it? Mom and dad can't, either. On Thursday night when mom put me to bed, I reminded her that it was my last bedtime as a three year old. Completely melted her heart. I was really excited and had a hard time falling asleep. My birthday was on Friday and I got to take some Rice Krispie treats to school to share with my friends and teachers - I was SO excited about it! I got to wear a fancy dress and sparkly dress shoes to school - mom doesn't usually let me do that because of all of the running around we do, but she said it was a special day so it was ok.

I opened my gifts from mom and dad after school and before dinner. I got some really cool things including a beginning electronic circuit set, some new blocks, a new lego set, the Snow White movie, and my very own iPod!!! Three guesses what my favorite was. The iPod had all of my favorite apps on it and I was excited to have one of my very own.

We went out for sushi for dinner and I had a GREAT dinner. I had a bowl of Miso soup, split a plate of edamame with mom, had a few pieces of mom and dad's sushi AND had my own two sushi rolls. Yum. I told mom we'd do a sushi dinner for my birthday and Dogfish for her birthday - she laughed :) After dinner, the waitress brought us 3 cookies and a lollipop. Mom let me have her cookie, so I got to have TWO cookies and a lollipop in the car on the way home. Talk about a special treat :)

We read a very special book at bedtime on Friday. Grammy and Grampy Clements wrote a children's book called "The Runaway Hanky." We all sat in my bed and daddy read it to me. What a special book - I even got the very FIRST copy of the book! When I opened it, I saw Grammy and Grampy's picture on the back and asked mom and dad if they were the authors. When they said yes, I was really excited. I always ask mom about the authors of books, so it was really cool to see my own grandparents on the book!

I slept well Friday night - I was probably exhausted and crashing from all of the sugar. I was also pretty excited about my birthday party on Saturday. A lot of friends who I haven't seen in a while were there, so that was really fun! I got up pretty early on Saturday and helped mom get stuff together. Dad had to run all the errands (cake pick up, grocery shopping, etc.) since mom's still on crutches and can't shop too well. Grandma, Grandpa, Great Grandma, and Great Grandpa got to our house around lunch time, so I was excited to spend some time with them. I got to open their gifts, play, and spend time with them before my party. They stayed at the house and rested when we went to the Gym for the party.

I had a lot of fun at my party. My favorite part (aside from the cake) was the "snowball" fight with daddy. The pictures aren't great, but check out this series:

Getting ready to start the fight...



Jumping over the slide...



Daddy went down!



Nice recovery, dad!



And after all the gym fun, my absolute favorite part - the chocolate princess cake!





I'm so excited to be four!!!

Dance Recital for Grammy

It's been a while (again!) Will write more later, but it's been a fun and busy weekend. We had a great night on Friday and a bunch of my friends came over to play with me while our parents hung out. Delicious pizza for all and wine for the grown ups.

Grammy, Grampy, and Aunt Terry came on Saturday and we've had a really fun visit so far! Yesterday we played at home and I even read a book to them and then they read some books to me. I got to sleep in the guest room and let Aunt Terry have my bed. We got to go to a playground today (mom was dying to get out of the house) and went to a restaurant for a late lunch. Now we're watching football and playing.

Grammy brought a fun toy for me to play with and I had a dance recital for Grammy :)

Fun Last Day!

We had a very busy day today! We all got to sleep in a little - I didn't even wake up until 8:30! Mom woke up before me again and was confused that I hadn't gotten up yet, but she was easily able to roll over and go back to sleep. When I finally did get up, we had breakfast - I asked for pretzels and mom actually let me have them - she said we were on vacation, so it was ok. I picked out a pretty dress to wear and we packed up to go to the aquarium. It was supposed to rain, so we had planned on doing the aquarium just in case. Fridays at the aquarium are Fin Fridays, so there was a focus on animals with fins - like SHARKS! We got there just in time for the dive exhibit - they still have the replica of the U-352 (the wreck that daddy got to dive on Tuesday) and they have a bunch of sharks in the exhibit, including some sand tiger sharks, sand bar sharks, and nurse sharks. They were all pretty big and one even swam really fast right in front of us - it was pretty cool to watch how powerful it was.


This whole sculpture was made out of sand - how cool???




There were three divers in the water and one had a full mask on with a microphone cord which allowed him to talk to us, even though he was underwater. There was a man standing in front of the exhibit with a microphone who was taking questions from the audience and relaying them to the divers. I got to learn a lot about the sharks - did you know that they only eat two times a week??? That's crazy talk! I was kind of bummed - when the divers were ready to get out of the water, they were swimming by the glass and giving kids a diver handshake. I tried to give all three of them the OK sign, but I don't think any of them could see it well enough through the glass.



There was one fish who just hung out in the conning tower of the U-352. It was pretty funny.



After the dive show, we went back to the beginning of the aquarium and walked the whole way through. They have a new penguin exhibit this year and there were four penguins - they were all hatched in California and were recently moved to the aquarium here. Their names were Suki (the only girl penguin), Sly, South, and Oswald. It was hard to distinguish them from each other because they all had bands on their arms, but you couldn't see them too easily.



We left the penguin exhibit and saw the river otters sleeping. Those are mom's favorite part of the aquarium - they're really playful creatures, but these two must have been taking a nap, so we continued on. We took a detour to one of the outside exhibits and saw some crabs in the water and a few birds. On the way back in, we stopped to see a turtle statue and then found the stingray petting pool. They were swimming a little too deep this year for me to pet them and I almost (accidentally) put my face in the water trying to reach them - yuck!!! A butterfly ray swam by close to the top of the pool and I did get to pet that one :) Daddy pet a sting ray and had one back up away from him when he tried to pet it. We left there and went to see the hermit crabs and horseshoe crabs. They were fun to watch, but the horseshoe crabs were buried under the sand, so we couldn't see much more than the tops of their shells.

Giant Catfish!



We finished walking through the rest of the aquarium and saw lots of cool fish, including a scorpion fish, an eel, and tons of jellyfish. Speaking of which, I think I forgot to mention that daddy actually got stung by a jellyfish - TWICE! Once on his arm when he went for a swim in the ocean (a half mile, can you believe it???) and once on his lip while he was scuba diving. He said that REALLY hurt and he had a hard time not spitting out his regulator. When we got to the end of the aquarium, mom said she wanted to look in the gift shop, so daddy took me back to see if the River Otters were awake. One of them was, but the other was still sleeping. We met mom back by the exit and she surprised me with a stuffed river otter! She said she was going to get me a penguin, but the otters were too cute. I asked what his name was, but his tag didn't have one, so dad told me I got to pick a name. I decided to use one of the penguins names, but couldn't decide between Sly and Suki. After quite the identity crisis, I decided on Suki. So I now am the proud owner of Suki, the cute and cuddly River Otter :)

We left the aquarium and drove to the historic town of Beaufort. It was lunch time and we were all starving, so we stopped at a BBQ place. I only wanted mac and cheese and hush puppies (what else is new), but mom and dad said the BBQ was pretty yummy. We walked around the town a little and got to go in the ship building shop. No one was actually working, but I got to see a man working on a model ship. He showed me the ship and even let me hold the little life boat. It was pretty cool. I looked at all of the sample pieces of wood on the wall and picked out which ones I wanted to use to make a boat. I'm pretty sure that will never happen, but you never know.

There is a maritime history museum across the street, so we walked over there. I enjoyed it more this year than I did last year and got to see a bunch of cool stuff and asked a lot of questions. I particularly enjoyed the big wheel :) You couldn't use a flash in the museum, so pardon the fuzzy picture. On the way out, dad bought me a book about otters! I couldn't wait to read it - it's called Oopsie Otter!



We left there and wandered through the town along the water. There are some HUGE yachts docked there and there was a fishing tournament going on. We stopped in a few shops and mom bought me what she says are the cutest shoes ever! I'll have to ask her to take a picture of them :) On the way back to the car, we ended up stopping at a wine store - mom and dad had a glass of wine and I got a strawberry cheesecake gelato - it was delicious!



It was a quick drive back to the condo and I decided I wanted to fly my kite before we left for the week. So we grabbed the kite and headed down to the beach. It was SUPER windy and the sand blowing on my legs really hurt. Dad got the kite up pretty easily, but the string burned his finger as it flew up high - don't worry - he's ok now.





Daddy and I went for a swim while mom ran out to pick up a pizza for dinner. Dad got cold because the sun wasn't over the pool anymore, so he got out and sat on a chair right next to the pool. He was only a few feet away from me and I was sitting on the steps (still had no desire to actually go swimming). I told him "Dad, if mom were to come back right now, she would be FRIGHTENED that I'm in here by myself." Mom actually said that she would have been ok with that too :)

The pizza was yummy and daddy taught me a trick to fold the pizza in half so it's not so floppy. I thought that was pretty cool. I decided to read Oopsie Otter at bedtime instead of finishing Ralph - we only have one more chapter, but I think I'd like to finish it at home. Tomorrow we have to pack up and are heading home, but we get to stop and see my cousin Christine on the way!!! I'm so excited - I haven't seen her since I was 9 months old!

Definitely an awesome vacation. I had a really good time with mom and dad!!!