One week from Four!!

I can hardly believe it! My baby will be four years old in 6 days. It just seem so unreal. I've been looking back through pictures of her infant and toddler years and it's amazing how she became such a big girl this past year. Vacation 2009 in March, she was still such a toddler and then since this summer and fall, she really grew. It's just so amazing. I keep telling her that I want her to just stay three and her response to me was, "Mommy, I'll still love you when I'm four"......how sweet she is! So I guess I'll let her turn four!

We went to have her 4-year old pictures taken today. She was really good despite the photographer not being that creative. She did fine overall and took over 100 pictures, but none were like "oh, how can I choose" poses. I went to Portrait Innovations and really wanted to get the $9.95-one-pose package so I was hoping it wouldn't be terribly difficult to narrow down the choices and luckily, it wasn't that hard. Hannah took a lot that were good and oh so cute, but there really were only 3 poses that I really liked that captured her personality as she turns 4. I was able to get the one-pose package and then bought another 3-sheets of another pose just since it sort of marked her 4th birthday. Here's what we came up with:

The main pose

And the extra pose

And in other news, we started swim lessons this past Saturday. To clarify (and to answer Erin's question) yes, Tony goes in with her. This class is a parent with child class and I think Hannah is one of the older students in the class. There are a lot of little ones and probably several 3-year olds, but the lessons start in the baby pool area and then go to the deeper (5-foot) area of the pool, so at this point for Hannah, we definitely need Daddy there. It's starting very basic, which again, is good since Hannah has zero experience in a pool as of yet. They worked on blowing bubbles in the water, which she did really well. I guess the water was fairly cold, so her lips were chattering the whole time, but she still did really well for her first lesson.

They worked on front floats (to which the teacher remarked she had very nice form)

and holding on to the wall and kicking and blowing bubbles.

They also threw a toy and then swam to it.

Then they had a little play time down the slide.

She really liked it and I'm so glad we finally got her into lessons. Maybe now I won't have to worry so much this summer at Aunt Dawn & Uncle Jack's house and maybe we can actually take her swimming on a hot summer day!

Tony and I went on what is likely to be our last "one child date" Friday night to our favorite Japanese restaurant. We had a great meal and it was really topped off with the fact Tony's boss was there and picked up our tab. It was so nice of him and we tried to tell him no, but he insisted! We may have ended up with a free meal anyway since the chef was doing his little show with the bowls of fried rice and as he reached to give Tony a bowl, the whole thing went flying across the table and crashed in front of him and went all over the place! It was just rice, so it cleaned up easily, but it still was a mess with the glass bowl broken and rice all over the place. Leave it to Tony for that to happen to!!! At least it wasn't a knife (again)....yep, one time many years ago he got a knife in his lap when the chef was twirling them around. Those aren't butter knives either so that one was a little scary....nothing happened though! So anyway, we had a great meal and a nice night out together.

I went to see The Lovely Bones with the girls from my book club Saturday afternoon. I haven't read the book and most of them had read it several years ago. The movie was OK, I didn't LOVE it, but it was good. I guess it was quite different from the book. I was expecting to cry a lot and didn't at all. I mean, the thought of a 14 year old girl getting murdered is sad, but the story wasn't told in a way that I thought was sad. It was good overall, especially for a matinee price. The girls all surprised me at lunch with baby books for the new baby! I was so surprised and it was so sweet of all of them. It was also amazing that with all the books we have for Hannah, I only got one book we already had. It's nice that the baby will get a few things of their own and not all hand-me-down's from Hannah!

And speaking of baby, everyone at poker (well the girls) all think I'm much bigger than the last tournament 2 weeks ago, but still mostly all belly. My mom thinks I've dropped since a week ago and I just feel the same....big and uncomfortable. Everyone keeps telling me they think this is a boy, so I'm getting real anxious to find out if everyone is right. There are only a few people who have said it's a girl, so we'll see.......either way is fine for me of course. The only difference it makes is on clothes. If this is a boy, I'm getting rid of all Hannah's clothes in a child resale at one of our schools in town in March which I'm excited about. I had planned on taking everything to Once Upon a Child, but if I can sell it on my own instead, I'm sure I'll make out much better. We'll see what happens I guess.

And I think that's about it for now. We've got a super busy week ahead of us. Monday's our only free night and I have to go grocery shopping since I didn't have a chance to do that this weekend. Tuesday night is Bible Study, Wednesday night is Story Time, Thursday night is Gymnastics, Friday night is my nephew John's birthday party and and Saturday is Hannah's birthday.....there will go another week!!!!