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!
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