Baby Sister Comes Home!

 My baby sister came home from the hospital today! Mimi, Great-Grammy and I went up to our house at lunch time to get things ready for everyone to come home. After a while, Grammy and I thought we'd keep a look out for Daddy's car on the front porch. When are they going to get here? Waiting is so hard for us almost-four-year-olds.

 Soon enough, we spotted their car!

 

As soon as the door opened, I rushed over and gave Daddy a big hug.

 Then I jumped into the backseat and gave Mommy a big hug, too. I sure missed my Mommy and Daddy!

Then I spotted Mia.

 She was fast asleep.

 Before we went into the house, Daddy put out our "It's a Girl" sign. I guess that means she is here to stay.

I told Grammy all about Mia when we got inside. She had not seen her before today. See, Grammy, that's my baby sister.

Awww, she is so cute!

 I started to think that maybe she was OK and that maybe I could get closer.

Hey, she is not so bad at all. She is actually quite nice.

Daddy encouraged me to give her a kiss on her head.

Welcome to our house, little one. I'll show you around later.

When Mia woke up, I decided it was time to hold her. I was so much more relaxed at home than I was at the hospital. It was wonderful! And I am super proud to be Mia's big brother.

Here's a photo of our family of four. We look awesome together!

Welcome home, Mia Patricia! I am so happy you are finally here and that we are all home together at last. Let the good times begin!

Welcome, Mia Patricia!

My baby sister was born today! Even though Mommy went into labor yesterday, our baby was born in the wee hours of today. Her name is Mia Patrticia and she was born at 1:24 a.m. Here's one of the first pictures of her. I think she is just so very, very cute.
Here's a picture of the scale so you can see her weight. She's 6 pounds and 14 ounces and 20 inches long. So tiny!

Later in the morning, Uncle Jon, Aunt Jenn, Cousin Jack and I arrived at the hospital to see Mia for the first time. I wore my "Big Bro" T-shirt for the occasion.

Here I am meeting her. I was a bit nervous at first and afraid of touching her.

But Mommy assured me that it was OK and that Mia was now a part of our family. That made me feel a bit better. I wasn't ready to hold her or anything quite yet. Baby steps, people.

Then I found out that Mia had a special gift just for me, her big brother.

Oh, boy, it's a Batman helecopter. Neato! That sure did make me feel special.

By the end of our visit, I felt a bit more comfortable and we took our first picture as a family of four. Awww!

And I gave my new sister a few pats. She was so soft and nice. I was certainly warming up to the idea of being her big brother.

Soon it was time to say goodbye to Mommy, Daddy and Mia for the day. It was so great to meet you, little sister! Welcome to our family. I love you already and I can't wait until you get home tomorrow...

Then it was off to Mimi and Pop-Pop's house for Thanksgiving dinner and to spend the night. Tomorrow, Mimi, Great-Grammy Mary and I are going up to our house to welcome Mia home from the hospital. Stay tuned...

Happy Thanksgiving...One Day Early

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

OK, so I know it is one day early but my Mommy went into labor today so my official blog post for the holiday is from Wednesday instead of Thursday. That means that our baby is coming today! Hurray!

I came home from school today with these awesome handmade Thanksgiving art projects. And check out the Native American headband. Stylish and fesitive, right?

Here I am with my Mommy. She says that I'm going to go stay at Cousin Jack's house tonight while she and Daddy are at the hospital. Sounds like fun to me!
Here are a few more cool Thanksgiving items that I came home with. This one says "I'm thankful for my Dad and Momma." Awwww!

And here are my two Thanksgiving signs up close. The hand turkey is a keeper for sure.

And finally, I made this cute little card with the preschool staff for my baby sister.

Here's the inside. It says: "We want to welcome Baby Mia...beautiful bundle of joy! Congrats to your family! Your friends at Notre Dame." Mommy and Daddy were really touched!

After a dinner of pizza and salad at Mimi and Pop-Pop's house, Mommy's contractions got much stronger (that means the baby is coming soon) so she and Daddy were off to the hospital. Here she is settling into her room. Now the wait for our baby begins. I can't wait to finally see my baby sister and become a big brother! Stay tuned...

Legos Rock!

This weekend, I had tons of fun with my Legos. Mommy says I've finally taken building with them to the next level and have begun to use my imagination during play. I don't know about that, Mommy, but I sure did have fun. I built houses and big towers and the animals all took turns taking rides in a parade. I had a blast!
Here's a close up of my final creation. Don't ask me how I got all the Legos to stay together without toppling over. What can I say, I have mad skills.

I think I'll build the Taj Mahal next...

Veterans' Day Fun

Friday was Veterans' Day and I had the day off from preschool. Unfortunately, Daddy had to work. Boo! So Mimi and Pop-Pop came up to our neck of the woods and we planned a fun day at the mall. First, we checked out my favorite thing there: the carousel! Mimi took the first turn with me. I chose the elephant.
Wheeeee! Hi, Mommy!

Then Pop-Pop and I took a ride on the kangaroo.

Awesome!

Hey, is that a train? That's new. Can we take a ride, please?

Score! I love trains!

Choo-choo! I loved it.

Aunt Jenn and Uncle Jon had the day off, too, so they came up to have lunch with us. Later, we found this neat painted bear. What do you think I did next?

That's right, I rode him!

I was up high and having fun!

What a fun-filled Veterans' Day I had, huh? I had these adults wrapped around my little finger. Ha ha! Thanks, everyone, for a great day!

What I'm Learning in Preschool: October 2011

In October, my preschool class was busy learning how to use our fine motor skills. That meant that we were ready to work on cutting, manipulating small items, drawing straight lines, making letters and numbers and much more.

We started off learning how to hold a small item, like a bead or piece of pasta (as seen above), and using our little fingers to thread it on a piece of yarn. Ms. Leslie says I did pretty well with this one and that I have a lot of control in my fingers. Not only did I have fun making these but I also had fun wearing them, too.

We also tried our hands at threading holes in a straight line. I tried really hard to thread all the way around on my paper plate man but I had some trouble remembering where to put the yarn next. I'll have to keep working on this one.
We also started to work on writing our numbers. I did pretty good on writing 1 through 5 almost on my own.

Next, we worked on our motor and visual skills. I had to draw a line from the animal to its home on this one. I drew pretty straight lines almost by myself.

Then we worked on drawing shapes. Ms. Leslie says I do pretty well with tracing circles, squares, rectangles and triangles.

On this exercise, we had to try to memorize the shapes we saw and then fold the paper over and try to remember what we saw. I didn't do too bad.

Then we worked on tracing other kinds of lines. Ms. Leslie says I did pretty good on this task at the beginning of the month...

...And by the end of the month, I was tracing those same lines like a total champ! Awesome progress, huh?

Then came the best part of the month...writing letters! At the beginning of the month, I had quite a bit of help from my teacher...

...But I soon got better...

...And better...

...And better! Until I could write my name all by myself. Not bad for an almost four-year-old.

Not a bad month at school, huh? I'm doing really well with my fine motor skills. And with practice, I'll get even better!

So, good thing we are going to work on lettering and creative skills in November, right? I'll get LOTS of practice on writing letters and numbers as well as tap into my creativity! Stay tuned for more about what I'm learning at preschool...