Preschool So Far

Mr. Mister has been doing great at preschool the last couple weeks.  Here is a picture I snapped with my phone as he went in on his first full day.



That day when I picked him up I was so excited to hear all about it.  When I asked him what his favorite part of the day was he answered,

"I roared at the girls on the playground.  They thought I was a lion."

Oh great. It is starting already!  He knows all the girls names in the class but can only remember a few boys names.  We are in for it.

He's so sweet though.  I wish I could have captured the excitement on his face today when he told me that he got to be the cup helper and pass out the cups for snack time.  It really made his whole day.

Leaving him the first day was a little harder for me than I had anticipated.  But every day we pray before he goes in and he gives me a big hug and kiss and then goes in with all the confidence in the world!  

Sweet Boys Get Timeouts Too

This little boy is so sweet.  Seriously...it's the best word to describe him. He smiles and giggles all the time - he has become his name (check out what his real name means if you have a second).



Two of my favorite things that he does right now are how he backs up into my lap to sit and read a book and how he nods or shakes his head when I ask him questions. When he nods to say yes, he gets a big smile and exaggerates the nod as if he is glad I finally figured out what he wanted.



And today, this sweet boy had his first timeout on the steps, just like his big brother. It was actually really cute to watch him. We told him to go to the steps and he walked right over there. Then we said sit and he sat and just looked at us until we said he could get up.

And our first thought, after smiling at him being sweet even in timeout, was "WHAT?! This really happens? Kids actually just walk to timeout, sit there, and then get up when they are told to?"  Oh I hope this lasts!  Because this mama can't handle round two of what we've been through (and still go through daily) with our beloved spirited first child who is going to do amazing things and impact the world in great ways someday because of the spirit God created him with.

The School Boy

Here is the big boy on his first day of preschool, which actually turned out to be a little anticlimactic because what I thought was a one hour first day was really a meet the teacher/see the classroom time during which the parents (and little brothers) stayed.  Mr. Newton loved playing in the classroom and the next time we went to drop Mr. Mister off, he was sad he couldn't stay and play again.

So tomorrow is the first full day (full day being two and a half hours).  Mr. Mister is pretty excited about the whole preschool thing, although it is an adjustment to have to actually be somewhere in the mornings.   I do not get excited thinking about having a scheduled life.  But I can't complain about two days a week!

Hard to believe this little boy is growing up!

Birthday Weekend

I'm a little late on this, but I wanted to post pictures of Mr. Mister's birthday weekend.  It was quite the celebration.  He had a little party at the park with his friend who also had a birthday that week.  Then we went camping with Grandma and Papa in the motor home (that's my kind of camping!).  And we capped it off with the annual cupcakes at our neighbor's house. I think he squeezed every ounce of celebration out of turning four!

Camping

Family Beach Time

We went back to the beach in August for a few days with my whole family.  There were 31 of us, including cousins I hadn't seen in 8 years.  We had an amazing few days of spending time together, eating some delicious food, playing at the beach, and getting caught up.  I just love being with my family.

As the back of our matching shirts say...
"Siama venuti per la spiaggia, pero...rimasti per la famiglia"

(In Italian because my dad and his brothers are 100% Italian. )

Translation:
"We came for the beach but stayed for the family."

All 31 of us! (32 if you count Orange Juice, who also made it into the family pictures)

The grandkids. 

A little pink in a sea of boy.

Impromptu baseball game.  Who needs a ball and bat?

Creative minds at play.

Riding some waves.

Our favorite ice cream place...just a bike's ride away.

Bye beach!  We'll see you next year! 

Almost 4

Life just keeps going and all of a sudden it's been over two weeks since I've blogged anything!  I want to be capturing our life on here so I guess I better get writing.

The big event coming up is Mr. Mister's 4th birthday!  Here was a funny discussion we had when we were talking about his birthday party.

Me: Who do you think you want to invite to your party?
Him: My cousins!
Me: That would be fun. Anyone else?
Him: I have a great idea!  Can we let Mr. Newton come?
Me: That would be a great idea to let your brother come!
Him: And Orange Juice!

And that was it.  He wanted his cousins, his brother, and his brother's stuffed dog.  If you were left off the list, don't be offended.  He has a very small worldview at this point.

Other Fun Four Events

• He starts preschool this year!  He got a letter from his teacher and I cried when I was reading it to him.  I am so excited for him - I think it is going to be really really good for him to go to this class.  He is most excited about bringing his Thomas the Train backpack. But I think he is still a little nervous...one night he asked me to pray for him so he can be ready to go to preschool.  So sweet.

Yep, still sucking that thumb. He's not all grown up yet!

• He got to go to his first movie at the movie theater!  Tonight, Daddy took him to see Cars 2.  But it ended up to be a little too scary so they went to Winnie the Pooh instead.  If I had taken him, I would have brought apple slices and water bottles in with us.  But since he got to go with fun Daddy, they got popcorn, cotton candy, and a drink.  He loved it!  Tomorrow we will be eating only vegetables. 

Waiting

We are so excited to find out what our baby is...on Feb. 15th (or around then!).  We love not knowing ahead of time. I know everyone is different in this, but we love the anticipation and the waiting. I really feel like it makes me more disciplined in waiting on God.  It makes me give up a lot of control and brings me so much peace in knowing that the Lord is creating this little one in my womb with specific plans and purposes for him or her that are not dependent on my plans and purposes.

I think it's funny when people ask if I'm hoping for a girl this time.  I don't think it's very wise to hope either way because how sad would it be to be disappointed when your baby is born? We don't have much of a choice in it anyway (thankfully).   So we are excited to wait to see if we will be adding some pink to our truck and dirt filled lives or if I will be even more outnumbered in this house.

I can honestly say that either way we will be thrilled.  If we have a girl, it will be a new kind of adventure and I'll get to buy some of those cute little girl dresses that I always look at on my way to boring pants and shirts (but I can almost guarantee that she'll be sword fighting in those dresses by the time she can walk).   If it's a boy, the clothes may remain boring, but my life will certainly not.  We'll just add another buddy for these brothers and I'll continue to embrace my life of boy adventures!