Gia turned 3!

Wow, my little girl is 3 years old!  Bobby keeps teasing me by telling me that she is no longer a toddler, she's a "little girl."  I refuse to believe it.

This year has been full of changes for our family: planting a church, Trey's birth, my surgery, planting a church... yep, I said it twice.  And amidst all of these life changes, Gia has faced each one with grace and joy.  She loves our church and has adjusted so well to our crazy schedule.  When Trey was born, there was no sign of jealousy.  She loves him and kisses him and makes him laugh everyday.  She's the perfect big sister for Trey. 

Gia's language took off around Christmas, and now she speaks clearly (mostly) and has so much to say!  She loves to describe the things she loves and hates, and she is up for pretty much any kind of game or activity.  We go through fazes of stubbornness or disobedience, but we work with her through these times and she comes out of them.  She's learning obedience and self-control daily, and although she does have the stubborn streak, she is also very eager to please us and show love.

Gia can count to 29 (with some help with the teen numbers), identify many numbers, and count backwards from 11.  She can spell some words, knows many of her letter sounds, and can write her name... although you can tell a toddler wrote it, she can do each letter.  We try to expose her to different words and books and activities that will help her vocabulary and knowledge of the world grow so that she will excel as she learns later in life.

Gia has her appointment at the doctor on Monday, but I'm guessing that she weighs around 28 lbs.  She needs 3T pants for the length, but still barely fits into 2T around the waist.  Thank goodness stores have started to include those built-in belts!  She wears size 7 shoe.

Her hair has grown SO much!  I am having so much fun doing different things with it, and making bows to match every outfit.  I think we're going to get a trim to shape it up, and then let it grow.  I love how it softly curls halfway down, and I don't want to cut it off.

So, right now she's learning how to use kind words when feeling frustrated with having to share, and we are balancing trying to teach her to stand up for herself while having kindness and putting others first.  It's a fine line!

Frozen, Veggie Tales and Doc Mcstuffins are her favorite shows.  She also still likes Daniel Tiger, but we don't watch it as much anymore.  Spaghetti and meatballs are her favorite, along with ice cream.  She also loves humus!  And that girl still has 3 sippys of milk a day!  She loves "Wagon Wheel" and Elmo Radio, and "Jesus Loves Me."  And dancing is her absolute favorite thing.  I think we might put her into dance lessons in the Fall.

Her bedtime routine:  Jammies, brush teeth (she takes a turn, then we brush them), read 2 stories in our bed, pray (she prays, then we pray for her & Trey), shadows (which started out as shadow puppets on her bedroom wall but has now turned into Bible story time), then, if she has done all of this without fussing, she gets to put a sticker on her chart and try to earn a treat.  I never thought I'd do positive reinforcement this way, but for this particular thing, it works and I like it.  Then we put her in bed and say, "Nana loves you, Papa loves you..." and we include Grandmama & Granddaddy, Uncle Josh & Aunt Kelly, Brother Trey, Nola, Mama, Daddy, and Jesus.  Then, when Bobby tucks her in, he says, "Night night Gia.  Don't let the bedbugs bite!"

She's still scared of dogs.  Loud noises scare her, too.

Nana taught her, "When you're finished with something, what do you do?"  "You put it away!"

The scariest moment we have experienced with her this past year was thinking that we had lost her a block party our church put on.  I thought Grandmama had her, and she thought Granddaddy had her, and he thought one of the volunteers had her, but in fact she had walked completely across the park to the playground.  This was completely out of character for her to do, and there were some people around who didn't make me feel completely comfortable in the area, and we completely panicked.  My world stopped.  It was the worst 30 seconds of my life.  She was safe, and Bobby went to get her, but it made this "safe" mama even more protective!

There are SO many stories I could tell about our sweet Gia.  But some important things are that we have been teaching her more and more about God and the Bible, and we have been learning her love language and focusing on spending special time with her to build our relationship.  She feels deeply loved by her family and friends, and although she's got a little bit of drama, she is a happy girl who loves people.  We hope this year to grow her mind and her character to develop her into a creative, caring, academically curious, sacrificial, kind girl who will seek to encourage others, be content in her circumstances, and learn how to look out for the underdog.  Above all, we pray that she will love Jesus and live her life for God's glory. 

We love you, Gianna Grace!  You are an absolute joy and blessing in our lives as well as many others.  We are so proud to be your parents!  Happy birthday!

Trey - 6 months!

Oh, my sweet little boy is half a year old!  I can't believe how fast this past month has gone!

Size:

We haven't gone to the doctor yet, but his weight on the home scale was about 9 lbs 5 oz.  He's still chunky, but I guess he's slowed down in his weight-gain.  I'm a little sad about this, although I know it needs to happen so that he isn't 30 lbs by the time he's one!  But, he still has those cute rolls and cheeks!  Trey is wearing 9-12 month clothes (9 month pants, 12 month tops).    Cuh-RAY-Zee!

Personality:

Oh my goodness, he is everything I thought a sweet baby boy would be.  He loves to snuggle and be tickled.  He only fusses when he's tired, hungry, or needs a diaper change.  Trey laughs the most when being thrown in the air, when Gia dances in front of him, or when Nola walks by.  He LOVES his sister and his dog!  And he gets super excited when Daddy talks or walks in the room.  However, I like to think that above all else, he's a Mama's boy :o)

New things from the past month:

Trey began sitting up at the end of 4 months, but this month he has been doing it all the time.  I still put a pillow behind him because he tends to get excited, rock back and forth and then tip over.  His new toy is his jumper, which is an awesome way to work his legs, entertain him and give Mama's arms a break.  His favorite toy is a puppy that my friend Donnell gave him.  

He puts everything in his mouth!  No teething as of yet, but that seems to be a theme for my kids... they get their teeth late, which the dentist told me is actually a good thing.  And he doesn't bite me, so the later the better!

Eating:

Still usually nursing 6 times a day.  Mostly my milk, occasionally a few extra ounces.  I got lazy with my water this past month and he was drinking like 3-4 supplemented bottles a day, but I got back into drinking water, and now we're good.

Trey started eating solid foods this past month.  He has tried apples, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, peas, green beans, mangos and bananas.  His favorite is probably apples and bananas.  He doesn't care much for peas, but this boy doesn't really turn down any kind of food.  He eyes our food when we eat, moves his mouth in the eating motion and follows our forks with his eyes!  It's too funny!

Sleep:

You're killin' me, Smalls.  His sleep is very random: sometimes a long nap and short one, sometimes 2 short ones, sometimes just one long one.  At night, he will sleep 9 hours for a couple nights, then get up at 5am for a week straight.  Last night he went down at 11:30pm, got up to eat at 4am, and then again at 7:45am.  So, I just never know and I have to grab sleep where I can get it!

Relationship with Gia:

So. Sweet.  There is much love going around our house these days.  Gia loves to give Trey hugs and kisses, and she has realized that Trey lights up and giggles when she talks to him, so she loves to entertain him.  She helps me change his diaper, feed him and bathe him.  He gets incredibly excited when she is around, and he talks to her a lot.  When Gia has her hair done or puts on a new outfit, or does something new, she says, "I'm gonna go show Trey!"  Which isn't to say that she doesn't sometimes snatch toys from him, but overall, they love each other.

 In this picture, Trey was falling over on Gia, and she kept saying, "Trey, don't fall on me, Bud!  Ah, Trey, you're falling on me!"

Other random facts:

We are working on getting Trey's skin under control.  It looks better, but still flares up.  He also scratches his face quite a bit, no matter how short I cut and file his nails.  Trey loves other kids, and doesn't mind being held at all by strangers, although after a while he wants to come back to Mama.  And if he's tired, he wants Mama.  And he usually wants Mama to feed him milk, especially right before bed.  Just in the past week or so, he has started to have a "fake" cry  that means, "pick me up" or "pay attention to me."

Trey, we love you so much!  You are a cutie and a great baby!

 His "model" pose :o)

Nana is here visiting us, and Trey loves her!  He's almost as big as she is!

Jesus is God

Last night, Gia found a cross necklace that I had hung around the door handle.  She asked to wear it, and has been wearing it ever since.  I told her that the cross represents Jesus.  This morning when Bobby went to get her, she asked if she could put on the necklace.  Then she said, "Daddy, is this necklace for me or for God?"  Bobby explained that that the necklace was Gia's, but the cross was about God/Jesus.

It was amazing to me that she asked if the necklace was for "God" because I know that I told her it represented "Jesus."  In her almost-3 year old mind, she has realized that they are one-in-the-same.  She associates them together and interchanged God & Jesus.  I am just amazed at all that she hears and understands, and how she is starting to verbalize it.  It makes me very excited for future theological conversations!