Where Have You Been All My Life?

So where were we?
I'm embarrassed to say it has been four - count 'em four - long years since I last wrote in this blog. And boy, a lot has happened.
Our precious daughter, Sophia Hayden Mandelaro, entered this world at 3:53 a.m.  on Monday, February 22, 2010. And I nearly missed it! Here's what happened: Kerri, Matty and I came home after a day visiting Kerri's parents in Irondequoit. Kerri complained in the driveway about not feeling well, and I told her now is the time to go to General Hospital if we needed. She said it was probably indigestion.
 It wasn't.
 Sometime in the early morning, she woke me up and said it was time to go to the hospital. We called Karen Lally, our neighbor, and she came over to watch our sleeping 4-year-old boy. Then we called Kerri's best friend, Ellen Hansen, to arrive. Kind of crazy in hindsight. We headed to the hospital and checked in. I parked the car, and I remember the parking ticket said 3:14. I met Kerri and Ellen in the maternity ward. By this time, Kerri's sister Laura had arrived at our home it relieve Karen and watch sleeping Matty. I was In the hallway talking to Laura and thinking it would be hours before our daughter was born. At 3:53, I ended the conversation as I was walking into the room.  And what did I see? My daughter sliding out of my wife. Sorry, there's just no other way to describe it.  Another two seconds and I would have missed it.
 Thank God I didn't.
 Long story short, Kerri was in the hospital 36 hours before we brought our new addition home. I'll never forget Matty and I driving home that Monday evening. We ate jelly beans in bed and slept together in the downstairs bedroom. The next day we brought food from McDonald's to the hospital. That was the day Sophie came home.
 Here are some pics from that amazing time:

 Sophie is 3 now - she'll be 4 in seven weeks. Matty is going to be 8. Time flies so fast.
 Matty went to Perinton Nursery School for two years, and now Sophie is in her first year. Matty attends Dudley Elementary School. He is in seconde grade, in Mrs. Cioppa's class. He was in Mrs. Cardona's class for kindergarten and Mrs. Stamp's class for first grade. We have loved all of his teachers so far.
 Dad is still a sportswriter at the Democrat and Chronicle. Mom works for Anita Drake, a dentist in the village of Fairport. Matty was a huge cars fan - fueled by the movies Cars and Cars 2. Last year, he was sooo into NASCAR (Dale Earnhardt Jr. is his favorite). Then he fell in love with the Boston Red Sox, who won the World Series this past October. Now, he is very much into video games - especially one called Minecraft. Santa brought Matty an Xbox 360 for Christmas last week. And a guitar!

 Sophie is into princesses - the Disney classic ones and the more recent Sofia the First. She loves to draw and do puzzles, and she is very good at both!
 Mom and I love you guys so much. We would do anything for you.
 As I write this, the holiday season has ended. It's Jan. 2, and we are having quite the winter storm. Mom had to work this morning, and Dad drove Matty to and from a play date with his buddy Erik Andrews, his friend from Perinton Nursery School. The roads were bad. We just enjoyed a nice spaghetti dinner (Dad prepared it!) and are now cozying in the night. Our beautiful tree is still up, mainly because we don't want to take it down. I do love the holiday season, but man is it busy. So many parties!
 I promise to write lots more and post plenty of photos. Here are some from the Christmas season.