Puppies!

Mom and I had a busy day today! But the best part is that I slept until 8:30 this morning :) Mom hasn't been sleeping well, so she was particularly grateful for the extra sleep this morning. After breakfast, we went to dance class. I'm really enjoying class and can't wait for the Winter Revue so mom and dad can come see what I've learned!

Mom and I stopped for lunch, then went to Joe and Ruthie's house to take their dogs, Jackson and Indy, out to go potty. I *love* these dogs so much and was so excited to play with them!

Indy wanted to go out first. There was another dog outside and he got pretty excited. We walked around a lot and he sniffed the ground a lot.



Jackson wasn't nearly as excited as Indy, but he was so friendly and loved being petted :)



I actually cried when we left because I didn't want to leave the puppies behind :( Mom says I can go back and play with them another time, though.

Mom and I spent the afternoon trying to get my brother's room ready and I cleaned out a lot of toys and clothes that are too young for me. So much stuff to sort through! We made a lot of progress, but still have a lot to do. Mom's taking some vacation time before my brother comes, so that should help.

Happy weekend everyone!

Happy Halloween!

What a fun day! My school parade was this morning - mom and dad came to watch and I got to wear my Tinkerbell costume and parade around school.

Mom dropped me off a little early and helped me get dressed in my costume. I was so excited that she put a bun in my hair this morning.



I waved to mom and dad during the parade.



After the parade, we got to decorate (and eat) cookies in my class :) Lots of treats this time of year! Yesterday, we even got some cupcakes at school that had black frosting. My whole mouth turned black and my face looked green! We had to really scrub during bath time last night.

After school, we went to Arabelle's house and had dinner and went trick or treating. We've done this the last few years and it's always a great time. It was raining a bit tonight, but at least it was pretty warm and we didn't really mind. Belle dressed as Jessie from Toy Story, her brother Cole was the alien, Ken was Buzz Light Year and Marie was Bo Peep :) They were all very awesome costumes, but mom didn't get any pictures on her phone, unfortunately. I'd say we did well, though - our pumpkins were nearly full by the time we got back to their house and my arm hurt from carrying it!

Mom wore her "Pirate on Board" shirt and I told her that she was like Captain Hook since I was Tinkerbell :)



We still haven't carved our pumpkins, but think we'll do that this weekend. Better late than never, right? And we'll also sort through all of the candy after school tomorrow - it was way after bedtime by the time we got home tonight, so I got straight into my jammies and went to bed.

Hope you all had a nice Halloween!!!

Here are a few fun pictures from the past week.

Last Saturday, my cousins Carter and Cole came to visit for a while. We had so much fun playing together!



And we got to visit with Jay, Molly, Jacob, and Lily on Sunday! It was Molly's birthday and it was so nice to meet baby Lily! I had a TON of fun playing on Jacob's rocking horse!



I can't believe tomorrow is November already. That means I'll get to meet my brother some time this month!!! I'm really excited about that (and I think mom's pretty ready, too).

Take care, everyone!!!

Marble Mania!

I told you I like to build things! My marble maze is so much fun to play with. Daddy and I tried to build a maze tonight that was as tall as me, but we didn't have quite enough pieces. It was pretty cool, though...

Pumpkin Patch

What a fun weekend! Yesterday I had dance in the morning and Cole's birthday party in the afternoon. It was a bubble party and was SO much fun! Arabelle and I and one of her other friends were allowed to play in the basement AND in Belle's room, which was really cool. I think Cole had fun with his friends, too :)

Today, mom and I got donuts for breakfast in our PJ's :) Mom was out of coffee, so we went to the Dunkin Donuts Drive Thru - win for both of us! Then we went to the Pumpkin Patch! We got to take a hay ride out to the pumpkin fields. I had fun, but it was a bit bumpy and mom said it wasn't too comfortable for her. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, though!



This was the first pumpkin I picked.



It was heavy!



This one is more like it :)



The big pumpkin on the ground is for daddy and the one I'm holding is for mommy. Mommy was holding mine because it was too heavy for me!



Mommy and I.



Daddy and I.



I took a rest with daddy on the ride back to the farm.



After we took the pumpkins back to our car, we went back to feed some of the animals. I fed an alpaca, a goat, and some chickens! The rest of the animals (the pigs and the cow) were sleeping and weren't hungry.



We had a blast and the weather was perfect! The line for food was too long, so we ended up just getting some apples and some cider from the market and stopping for lunch on the way home.

Back to school tomorrow...hope everyone had a nice weekend!

My Brother

School was closed today because the teachers had meetings all day (aka an inservice day). Mommy had one of her weekly doctors appointments to see my brother, so she told me I could go with her this time! I've been very anxious to hear his heartbeat because mom says it's much faster than ours is. The appointments with this doctor usually take a long time, so she doesn't usually want to take me, but she said that if I could behave I could go.

It did really take a long time, but I behaved PERFECTLY! While we were waiting, I wrote a story about my brother that I'm going to read to him when he comes home from the hospital.



I thought of a lot of words to describe my brother, then wrote them all down. I did as many as I could without mommy's help, but I had to ask for help a few times. In case you can't read my writing, here's what it says:

MY BROTHER

cord (I asked mommy how he breathes right now)
baby
boy
little
car seat
crib
milk
cry
sleep
smiyl (my version) and smile
laugh
swaddle blanket
no hair
diapers
potty
bath
gentle
story
toy
bag
mommy rocks (she says she likes this one the best!)
daddy rocks
big sister rocks
cat rocks
wonderful
baby rocks

What do you think???

When we finally got to go in to see the doctor, we got to see lots of pictures of my brother. There was a student in the room too, so we got extra pictures while she practiced. My brother was being stubborn (still) and wouldn't give us a very good picture of his profile. He's still breech and was hiding his face with his hands. His position makes it hard to do the monitoring the doctors need to do and it's making it hard for mommy to breathe and to feel him move much (other than the occasional nudge from the back of his head). The student was finally able to get a really good 3D picture of his face in the moment he moved his hands away. I was totally fascinated - his face looked really red on the screen, but mom assured me that he wasn't really that red and that it was just the picture.

My brother's heart rate was really high the whole time, though, so we had to stay for some additional monitoring (which only added to the already REALLY long appointment). Thankfully he calmed down and we were able to go home instead of to the hospital for more monitoring. Mommy's been super itchy, so the doctor gave her some medicine and wants her to get some more bloodwork, which we'll do tomorrow morning (she says she can't eat first, so we'll go first thing). Fun times, huh? Hopefully the medicine they gave her today will help! Mom joked that my brother's middle name was going to be "Trouble!" I don't think I believe her, though...

Mommy had to get some work done when we got home, so I got to watch a movie on daddy's TV in the basement :) I wanted Winnie the Pooh because it doesn't have ANY scary parts in it! I continued to behave really well all afternoon while mommy and daddy worked. Daddy went to a play tonight, so mommy and I went out to dinner. As a treat for being so cooperative today, mom and I split a piece of chocolate peanut butter cake :) It was delicious, but we weren't able to finish it.



We have a fun filled weekend ahead - dance class and a birthday party tomorrow, then hopefully some outside time on Sunday! The weather has been quite nice the past few days and it looks like it will continue through the weekend - huzzah!

Engineer in the making...

I LOVE building things. Blocks, marble mazes, ramps for my cars, lego sets. You name it and I love to build it. I love to play with my circuit set with dad too - you can do all sorts of fun things. There are motors, lights, switches, dimmers, batteries, and lots of other fun elements.

It's been a while since I've played with the set, so dad had to remind me how to set it up.



I eventually got the hang of it again and was able to build some cool circuits!



School has been going really well. Mom and dad were super proud when I brought home this guided reading worksheet last week!



A few days ago, daddy let me help him make some cookies. Yum! We made sugar cookies and I got to help measure, mix, and roll out the dough. I even got to pick some of the cookie cutters and the colors for the icing. We picked orange and purple for the icing since it's almost Halloween :) It was pretty cool to see the icing change from white to the different colors when we added the food coloring! After we played with my circuit set tonight, I got to eat a yummy cookie! I definitely have a sweet tooth...I even told mom the other day that I hope the first baby tooth that falls out is my sweet tooth! Too bad it doesn't work that way, huh?

Dancing Sydney!

I know I'm way overdue in writing about my awesome FIFTH birthday, but you'll just have to be patient and wait a little more time...mommy still has some photo editing to do...

In the meantime, this one is for Aunt Terry. No video, but I'm really enjoying my dance class. Tap first, then ballet. A few of my friends from my old school are in my class and it's nice to be able to spend time with them again.



Everything else has been going pretty well. School is fun and I'm doing well. I'm still really enjoying reading and am spending much more time working on my writing. I've even learned to count to 100 by 2's and 5's! Mom was proud of me for that one (she says she likes math, so that made her happy).

Maybe mom will finish the photos this weekend and I can share some of them from my birthday. Thank you to everyone who was able to come celebrate with me and for all of my fun and wonderful gifts!!! I've loved wearing all of my fun jewelry, making some new jewelry, decorating a new jewelry box, and playing lots of games! We're in the process of re-organizing all of my toys so my new toys can stay out and my "baby" toys can be saved for my little brother.

Hope everyone is doing well!

CAST FREE!!!

Huzzah! No more cast! Mom picked me up a little early from school to go get the cast off :) Surprisingly, they took us right in. That doesn't happen too often there! But I did get to see mom's physical therapist and she remembered me and asked what happened to my arm.

Mom told me the saw wouldn't hurt my arm, but that it would tickle. I bet her that it wouldn't tickle...

The saw looked a little intimidating!



But the tech showed me on her own arm that it wouldn't cut me. She also said that it would just tickle.



And it's off!



My wrist and elbow were a little stiff and my skin is VERY dry, but otherwise it felt great to have it off! They came in and took me for a follow up x-ray to make sure the bone is healed. A few minutes later, the doctor came in and said that it was all PERFECTLY healed! To the point that I don't even need a brace now!

He did have my cast cut down (so it covers my forearm only and not my elbow) and told me I had to wear it for my birthday party this weekend - no sense in falling and getting hurt again. They put tape around the edges so it's not sharp and gave us a bandage to wrap it with to keep it on. No jungle gyms, playgrounds, or bikes for a week, but then I should be ok :) I told mom that was ok - I could wait another week no big deal. I'm allowed to go to soccer class next week, though, so that's a good thing!

After the doctor, we went to the new Wegman's to get some cupcakes to take to school tomorrow :) It just opened on Sunday and has been too crowded, but mom figured at 3pm on a Thursday it wouldn't be so bad and she was right! We picked out the cupcakes and got food for dinner and then went home.

Mom had some more work to do, so I got to watch a TV show. She sat down with me and I rested my arm on my brother - I told her it was pretty comfy :)



After dinner, mom and dad let me open my birthday gifts from Aunt Terry - thought we might spread out the birthday festivities a little! I was SO excited!



An AWESOME decorate your own jewelry box! It's my favorite colors and has three of my favorite things - jewels, stickers, and glitter glue!



And a princess jewelry set! Mom even said that I could wear the earrings :)





I told mom I want to wear the ring to school tomorrow and she agreed (since it's for my birthday celebration and all).

I got to take a LONG bath in mom's tub tonight - we put some oatmeal stuff in the tub and I just soaked for a while. It felt really good on my arm and I was really glad to be able to get my arm wet again. After the bath, we covered my arm in lotion, so hopefully my skin won't be so dry in the morning.

Two more sleeps until I am FIVE!!! Can you tell I'm excited???

Last night with the cast!

Hooray! Tomorrow afternoon can't come soon enough :) I get my cast off and will get a removable brace. It's got to be better than the cast! Mom and I have a list of questions for the doctor - my only two are:

1. Can I play on the playground? and
2. Can I play in gym class?

I'm hoping he says yes! And mom said I can take a nice, long bath in the big tub tomorrow night. I do miss my regular baths!



Last weekend was fun - I had my second dance class and really enjoyed it. We start class with tap, then switch to ballet. I'm so glad mom finally found a class for me to take! And hopefully I can go back to soccer class next week as well (haven't been able to go with the cast on). After dance, we went to the DC United game. As always, we had a blast. DC tied the game, which isn't bad for them this season.



School is going well so far. We're a few weeks in and I'm enjoying it a lot. We started getting homework last week and I actually enjoy doing that, too. It's been pretty easy so far, but I have a feeling it will get more challenging as the year goes on.

I'm also really looking forward to my birthday on Saturday!!! I'm so excited to turn FIVE!

Thank you, Maureen, for the awesome games! They really are challenging and I've really enjoyed playing them!



Hopefully the next entry will be with a cast free left arm!

Big Sister Class

I was complaining that my cast was rough and was scratching me, so mom found some of my old baby leg warmers and used one to cover my cast. Perfect!!! I'm also loving wearing mommy's t-shirts to bed (they're easier to get over my arm / head than my pj's are). Pretty funny looking, huh?



Mommy and I went to a Big Sister class at the hospital tonight. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot! I'm definitely ready for my brother, but am being patient waiting for him to come.

We got to practice changing the baby's diaper (though I've already told mom and dad that I'll help them get diapers, but won't actually *change* a diaper). 

We talked a lot about things that babies do and how I can play with the baby.  I had a lot of good ideas for the class. We got to watch a fun movie about becoming an older sibling. We even got to color a picture for the new baby and the teacher gave us each a really nice teddy bear. Mom thinks it's supposed to be for me to give to the baby, but I told her that the teacher told us the bears were for the older siblings, so I'm sleeping with the bear tonight :) 

After the movie, we got to take a nice tour of the Mother Baby suites at the hospital. I got to see the room that mom will be in (or one like it, at least). We even learned that the rooms have DVD players, so when I go to visit mom, I can maybe watch a movie if we take one. I think it helped answer some of my questions to actually be able to see where my brother will be born (and where I was born, too!) Hopefully he'll be able to stay in the room with mom rather than going to the NICU! But I'm at least a little less apprehensive about mom being in the hospital now that I've had a chance to actually see where she'll be! 

Roughly 86 days to go (not that mom's counting or anything...).

After the class, we stopped for dinner at Cheeburger Cheeburger. I made a map of Treasure Island while we waited for our food. 

I even got an Oreo milkshake for dessert :) A good night indeed!

Visit to Grammy's

We had such a fun day on Saturday visiting with Grammy, Grampy, Aunt Laurie, Uncle Dan, and my cousin Kaylee! Daddy got back late Thursday after being at his sales meeting all week, so we had a little down time on Friday, then went to visit Grammy's Bay house on Saturday.

I of course couldn't go swimming, but I had a ton of fun anyway. Grammy had lots of toys for me to play with, including a play kitchen with all sorts of play food! I made everyone some yummy meals and desserts :) I also got to play frisbee with Kaylee and her friend Gavin. We also had some Dominoes, Jenga blocks, and little cars to play with. I definitely wasn't bored!

After lunch, we walked down to the water. The tide was up, so we couldn't walk too far along the beach, but we could stand and watch some of the boats and kids swimming.



Daddy taught me how to skip rocks, but it was difficult because the water was pretty rough.



I really enjoyed getting piggy back rides from Kaylee!



Aunt Laurie helped me try to build a Domino tower as tall as me. We didn't quite get it as tall as me, but we tried!



Cousins.



It was a HOT day and I got super duper sweaty and gross, but it was so much fun!

We left after dinner to drive home. I put on my pj's before we left and mom let me play with her iPad to keep me awake. With about a half hour to go, I handed it back to mom and fell asleep. Dad carried me in and put me right into bed. I slept pretty well for about half the night, but then got up and started itching - I had so many bug bites! I kept mom up, but we both took a nice nap on Sunday afternoon. I hate naps most days, but I didn't complain this time! 

New Cast

I wasn't supposed to get my cast on until Tuesday, but when mom picked me up at school the other day, the top half of my splint had come unwrapped. And later that evening, the bottom half came undone. She managed to get it wrapped back up, but wasn't convinced the splint would last through the weekend. My doctor got me in this afternoon to put the cast on.

I did a great job waiting in the lobby and drew a picture while we were there.



The doctor wasn't running too late (it's pretty typical to wait for an hour here - mom would know as she's spent a lot of time here in the past year!) Turns out that the doctor treating my arm is the same doctor who operated on her foot :) The nurses were all very nice as usual and I was being a goofball. I've recently learned to cross my eyes and to whistle, both of which are driving mom CRAZY!



One of the nurses cut my splint off and cleaned my arm so they could cast it. I picked pink, of course! It didn't take too long, but it was pretty sticky. After she got the cast on, it got a little warm, but then it cooled off and it was hard and protected my arm. We were good to go! I get it off in 3 weeks and then get a brace to wear after that. Needless to say, mom's going to be a nervous wreck for my birthday party if I fall on my left hand (I get the cast off 2 days before my birthday).



I was TIRED by the time we left, so I took a little snooze in the car. We've been keeping my butterfly pillow in mom's car for me to rest my arm on - it works pretty well!



Anyway, I like the cast much better than the splint. My fingers are a little more free and it's hard, so I don't (I mean mom doesn't) have to worry as much about it coming apart. And of course, the best part is that it's pink :)

Thank goodness the weather is nice, because I have to wear shirts with bigger arm openings. I've been wearing mom's t-shirts to sleep in and that works pretty well. Fingers crossed for a good night sleep! Tonight's the first night with no Motrin, so we'll see how that goes...

Consequences

I had a great second day of Kindergarten as well. It's really not so different for me because it's at the same school I've been going to for the past year and a half and I already know the kids and teachers (though the Kindergarten teachers are new this semester). We worked on our time capsules again today - apparently the bags we started yesterday were just the beginning and the teachers are having us draw pictures and put different objects in the bags. Then we'll open it on the 100th Day (It's *One* Hundredth Day, not *Hundredth* Day as mom said earlier today).

I slept pretty well again last night and told mom my arm didn't hurt this morning. I didn't want any Motrin, nor did I want my sling. Mom packed it in my backpack anyway, but I think she knew I wasn't going to use it. She told my teachers and the director to call her if I seemed to be in pain at all during the day, but they didn't have to call her.

We went out to dinner to celebrate Ruthie's birthday tonight. We went to Cava, a Greek restaurant that I've been to before. I'm still going through a picky eating phase (which drives mom nuts) where I won't eat things that I used to love and sometimes only will eat a few bites, even though I complain that I'm hungry. Of course, I only ate a few bites of my dinner tonight. Then I asked mom if I could have a dessert for Ruthie's birthday, but she told me no since I hadn't eaten dinner. That's the rule - no dinner = no dessert. I started crying and had a hard time stopping, so mom took me to the bathroom to calm down. I told her I didn't like the consequences tonight...

I calmed down and we said goodbye to our friends. In the car on the way home, I told mom that my heart had broken into four pieces and was going to stay that way until I was an adult. She said that made her sad and we talked about choices and consequences. We agreed that it was my choice to not eat dinner and the consequence was to not get dessert. I thought about it for a while and told mom that if she didn't want my heart to stay broken that she might want to choose a different consequence for me. I think I'm sharpening my negotiating skills :)

First Day of Kindergarten!

I survived the night with my splint on and was only in a little pain this morning. Mom and I found a dress that would fit over the splint, but I was cold, so wanted to wear leggings and socks too.



We stopped at Dunkin Donuts for a special first day of school breakfast. I got a Boston Cream donut and an apple juice - yummy! I ate it in the car and had a very chocolatey face by the time we got to school :)

We found my new cubby at school and met one of my new teachers (mom can't remember how to spell their names, though). Mom said she'd be back to pick me up if she could get me in to see the orthopedist.

I had a great day! I knew almost everyone in my class and am now in a class with some of the older kids from last year (there are only a few of us who are 4, but turning 5 before the end of the year - the rest are already 5). My favorite part of the day was making the time capsule. We'll open it on the 100th day of school! I wasn't very specific in talking to mom, but I told her I put my name in a bag. I guess we'll see!

Mom did come back to get me a little early. We saw Dr. Witte (the one who operated on her foot!) and he confirmed the break. He said that since I was able to sleep with the splint on, he wants to wait a week to put the cast on. Said this splint would allow for swelling and would be less painful for me if we wait. It should be a quick healing process with a cast for only 3 weeks. He said he'd give me a brace to wear for my birthday party so I could still bounce away. Huzzah! And I don't *have* to use the sling if I don't want to, so I was happy about that - it's a pain and didn't stay put easily. Not to mention it made it significantly more difficult to get in and out of my car seat!



We went to our favorite sushi restaurant for dinner to celebrate a good first day :) Then mom and I had to figure out a way to take a bath. We managed to get me clean and keep my arm dry, but it was hard for mom to bend over the tub with her belly in the way! My brother's growing too much! At least we've somewhat figured out how to get the bath done, though we may end up doing baths every other day until the cast comes off!

Hopefully I'll have more to report about school tomorrow!

First Broken Bone :(

Boo. I was having so much fun at a playdate with Casey and Cameron, but when I was hanging on the gray spinny things (kind of like monkey bars, but they spin around), I slipped, fell, and hurt my arm. Mom was walking towards me when it happened, so unfortunately she didn't see exactly what happened. I was shaking and crying, so we put an ice pack on it and sat down on a bench for a few minutes. Thankfully mom had an ice pack in the bag with my snacks! I didn't stop shaking or crying, so mom thought I should be checked out. Casey and Cameron gave me some princess stickers and those made me feel a little better.

We headed to the ER, which was right down the street. We talked to daddy on the way (he's unfortunately at a sales meeting this week) and that made me feel a little better. We got checked in really quickly, but had to wait in the room to see a doctor for a while. The doctor came in and checked me out from head to toe since we weren't sure if I had hit my head or hurt anything else. Everything else was fine, it was just my arm that hurt. The nice nurse gave me some blankets to rest my arm on and an ice pack. There was a TV in my room, but we couldn't find anything worth watching, so mom and I just talked.



I got really tired and cold waiting for them to come x-ray my arm.



They finally came and took me over to the x-ray room. Mom had to stay in the hallway because of the baby, but I was a really brave girl and did exactly what they asked me to do. They took two pictures first and then let me choose 2 stickers. The tech asked mom if I had ever broken my arm before, to which she of course said "no." But of course that made mom wonder what they saw...They came back and took a few more pictures before they let me get up and go back to the room.

The doctor came back in and told mom that I had fractured my arm. She said they'd come and splint it and we'd follow up with the orthopedist in a few days.

Here's the beginning of the splint...



The splint is fiberglass and completely immobilizes my wrist and entire forearm. The fiberglass goes from my hand the whole way around my elbow. Then it's wrapped in padding and elastic bandages. Once the fiberglass dried, it hardened, so it's almost like a cast. The advantage to a splint like this is that it allows for swelling (which a cast does not) without cutting off circulation to the fingers or contributing to "compartment syndrome" (when there is swelling, but nowhere for the swelling to go). The doctor told us that the orthopedist may want to wait a few days to put the cast on because of the swelling. They gave me a sling to rest the splint in because it's kind of heavy. I'm not so fond of the sling, though...



Mom said I was a trooper, so I got whatever I wanted for lunch...Mac and Cheese, chocolate milk, and a Rice Krispie Treat for dessert :)



Mom let me watch TV when we got home so I could sit and relax with my arm up (I'm supposed to sit with it propped up on pillows when I'm at home).



Mom gave me a mini-bath and at least washed off my feet and back. Then we piled up some pillows in my bed so I could get comfy. My buddies helped to keep me comfortable, too.



Mom checked on me several times through the night, but I slept relatively well (except the few times I woke her up to tell her I had itchy bug bites).



Not happy it happened, but happy I seem to have survived my first broken bone!