Catching up... October and November

You may wonder where I have been the last few months.  Well, I've been here but I've been a very busy little girl.  There are lots of things to do when you are 4 and I just haven't taken the time to work on my blog lately.... I will try to get you back up to speed...

For Halloween, I was a dragonfly!  I knew exactly what I wanted to be this year - colors and everything!  G and Poppy came in town to go trick or treating with me, and we had a fantastic time together!

I taught G some hand-clapping songs.  I LOVE hand-clap songs!

 And I took them to the new dinosaur exhibit at the Museum of Natural Science.  

It was COOL!

 As we left the exhibit, a lady told us about fossils and I got to search for some!  

I loved it!

 I sure love my G and Poppy!  We have lots of fun together!

At school, we had a big feast for Thanksgiving!  My class got on stage and sang a few songs and then I had a yummy meal with Momma and Daddy!

Momma's good friend Michelle came in town for a couple days in November!  She is a great photographer and agreed to take some pictures of us...  Momma had just realized we had hardly any photos with HER in them!  She is always behind the camera!  Silly Momma.

 

 Our family!  If you look REALLY closely, you can maybe see the little bump in Momma's belly.  That's Button, my baby brother!

Isn't Michelle great?

Carving Pumpkins

I think carving pumpkins is such fun.  I planned what the faces of my pumpkins should look like when Momma and I picked the pumpkins out at the store!  (I really plan ahead sometimes!)

 The insides are all squishy!

Right off the bat I knew this would be my HAPPY pumpkin.

 Yeah, I see you watching me, Momma...

It takes hard work to get all the gunk out of the inside so we (as in Momma) can actually carve the faces!

 We made a HAPPY pumpkin and a SAD pumpkin!

 Pretty cool, don't you think?

Silly faces for everyone!

Yes, we did carve the pumpkins for Halloween, we are just sharing the photos late!

BIG NEWS!

I have some big big news to share.

I AM GOING TO BE A BIG SISTER!!!

Yes, it is true!  Momma has a baby in her belly.  It is a boy!  I am so excited!

The other day, I got to go to the doctor with Momma and they used this cool machine to look at the baby inside Momma's belly!  Here he is!

I went ahead and labeled the photo so you could figure it all out.  These pictures are hard to understand sometimes.   Anyway, he is laying on his side looking right at us.  He was sleeping, and had his arm up by his head.  Isn't that amazing??

Momma is lucky because she gets to see our baby every time she visits the doctor.  Most mommas don't get to do this but my Momma is special because she is older than some other mommas.  So sometimes people think Momma is a crazy freak of nature because she is older and having a baby, but the awesome benefit to being older is getting to see our baby all the time!  She got to see me all of the time, too.  Momma is called "Advanced Maternal Age".  Anyone 35  years old or older is considered to be "advanced maternal age".  It is a lot of hooey, if you ask me.  The doctor Momma first went to when I was in her belly actually called Momma a "GERIATRIC PREGNANCY".  What??  Geriatric?  Have you met my Momma?  Momma ended up leaving that doctor (and I am sure being called geriatric probably factored in to that decision, wouldn't it for you??) and went to the doctor that she is still seeing for this baby. 

This baby is supposed to be born some time around Daddy's birthday, which is April 12.  We have lots to do before he arrives!  

Dancing in the Rain

I have my own umbrella!  I love it.  I like to pretend it is raining outside so I can play with it, but it is even MORE fun when it actually IS raining!  So one Saturday when I returned from dancing class and it was raining just a tiny bit, I grabbed my umbrella to dance in the rain!

As you can see, dancing with an umbrella is loads of fun.  I suggest you get out your umbrella and try it yourself!  I guarantee it will bring a smile to your face!

More Summer Vacation! Part 5

So the reason we went on this long vacation this summer (besides wanting to visit our families) was to celebrate both Grandma and Papa AND G and Poppy's 50th wedding anniversaries!  Yes, they all got married the same year, a couple months apart.   Auntie and Momma were in charge of planning the celebration for G and Poppy, which meant I got to help, too!  They had their celebration at their church, which is where Auntie and Momma went when they were little.  Everyone knows them there, and they know me too even though I don't know them! 

 

 Here I am with G in front of the cake/punch table.  Momma made the cakes.  

Aren't they beautiful?

 And we made a slide presentation about their lives together.  Poppy got teary-eyed!

  It was a truly special day!

Grandma and Papa had a celebration, too!  Theirs was at a restaurant and Daddy and Aunt Elisabeth made a slide presentation for them, too.  

I am so lucky to have such great families!

I hope you had a wonderful summer vacation, too!

More Summer Vacation! Part 4

When Auntie came in town, we went to the zoo!  The zoo by G and Poppy is GIGANTIC and is really great.  Momma especially loves this zoo.  Not only is it a truly amazing zoo, but she had her very first job in a gift shop in the zoo!  She had a great time working there, but the shop where she worked isn't there anymore.  

When we got to the zoo, Momma looked at the map to figure out what things the St. Louis Zoo has that the Houston Zoo does not so we could try to see them.  I am so glad she did that because guess what?  The first thing we did is go to the PENGUIN HOUSE!

It was cold cold cold in the penguin house, which is just how the penguins like it!  Do you see that cute penguin swimming right behind me!  They would dive in the water and splash all around.  We had to watch out or we would have gotten wet!

 Aren't they cute?

If we had penguins in Houston they would be miserable.  Too hot!

 There are also puffins in the penguin house! 

 The St. Louis Zoo has a train that goes all around the inside!  I loved riding the train!  We could get off and see things and then get on again and keep riding!

They have GORILLAS at the St. Louis Zoo!  Zowie.  This is not a real gorilla, in case you are wondering.  It is a statue!

We also saw hippopotamuses!  There were a bunch of them, all huddled together down in a big pool.  We could see just the tops of their heads and their eyes above the water, and then we could see the rest of their bodies under the water, too.  They are huge!  We started to sing "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" and a guy who works there looked at us and shook his head.  I love that song.  Too bad if he doesn't get it!

We spent all morning at the zoo and still only saw a small fraction of it all.  We will definitely have to go back again next time we visit G and Poppy!  What a great zoo!

More Summer Vacation! Part 3

 We went to the park!  This time Poppy and Mugsy joined us! 

 Mugsy and Poppy watched us play!

 I showed them how I can do the swings all my myself!

 And G pushed me on the merry-go-round!

G and I went down the slide together.

On a couple of afternoons, we went back to the park to go to the pool.  They have super fun pools there.  There is one big pool and then there is a kids pool with a play structure inside, and then there is a lazy river too!  And the lazy river wasn't so lazy for a little person like me!  Momma had to keep hold of me or I'd go zooming away!  In the big pool, I got to show G and Poppy what I learned in swim lessons this summer.  It was such fun!

More Summer Vacation! Part 2

On another day in St. Louis, G, Momma and I went to a butterfly museum!  

There were butterflies EVERYWHERE!  

 Do you see the butterfly in G's hair?

 Me and my G!

 I flew like a butterfly in the butterfly chair!

Here are some of the beautiful butterflies we saw!  There were lots of the blue ones in the bottom right photo but they never stopped flitting around!  They were happy and just flying everywhere!

 When we left the butterfly museum, I climbed up on a big caterpillar outside!

Then we walked across the parking lot and went to a building that had this amazing old carousel!  It is from the early 1900's!  It was so beautiful.  It played calliope music and we rode and rode and rode!  It is the best carousel ever!

And THEN we had a picnic in the park!  What a special morning!

More Summer Vacation! Part 1

After leaving Grandma and Papa's house in New York, Momma and I headed straight to St. Louis to visit G and Poppy!  Daddy headed back to Houston for a few days to get some work done and then met us in St. Louis for the weekend.  He really  missed out by going to Houston, because we had such fun!

One day, G, Poppy, Momma and I went to a marionette show!  It was incredible.  First a man came out and told us about marionettes and how they are made.  It is very complicated!  Then they did a show!  Truly, it was astounding!  There were marionettes that juggled, there were ballerinas, a tight-rope walker... it was great!  Towards the end of the show, they brought out the show-girls! 

 Look at her!  Do you see all those crystals hanging off of her arm?  Each on is put on individually! 

And each sequin on her panty-hose was glued on by hand! 

But aren't they incredible??

 And there was this clown!  He came over and put his arm around me! 

I loved the marionette show.  It was just amazing.  We all had a great time.  Momma said she recalls seeing these marionettes when she was a little girl!  It must be a St. Louis tradition.  If you live in St. Louis, I recommend you go see a show!  They are called Bob Kramer Marionettes.  It is so much fun!

Summer Vacation, part 4

Most of the time, we just enjoyed each others company.  I loved doing things with "the girls" (Hanna and Miriam) and Samuel and I spent hours and hours together.  He is so much fun!

 Coloring with Miriam

 With Aunt Elisabeth

 With Grandma

With Samuel

Momma, Daddy, Grandma and Papa!

It was a fun vacation.  It was truly special to spend so much time with everyone!