Gia recently had her 5th birthday. When I really stop to think about her being 5, I have a hard time knowing that all that time has gone by. I have a hard time thinking about the change that's coming. School, mainly, and along with that losing control of always being with her to protect her, guide her, kiss her boo-boos, gently correct her, and encourage her in everything (because she's with me nearly all the time).
When I look at who she has become so far, I'm overwhelmed with joy and pride. She's kind, thoughtful, so very quick to forgive, silly, smart, beautiful, helpful with her brothers and a gentle teacher to them, and always happy to be around other people. She can be stubborn, like the rest of her family, but I pray that she uses that determined mind to do what's right and stand firm against what's wrong.
Her favorite food, if you ask her, is chicken casserole. Her favorite lunch is sandwiches.
She just loves to take care of Joey, and she and Trey have fun playing together.
She still lets me pick out her clothes without complaining, but she's just as excited about looking pretty as any other 5 year old girl. And we tell her she's pretty all the time.
She wears size 5, but she can still fit into size 3 leggings. Size 10 shoes (but I think she just recently has grown a little and might need size 11 soon).
Still likes bows, but doesn't always want to wear them. She has fun choosing her hairstyles.
She spends 20-30 minutes every night reading in bed after we tuck her in. She can read on a first grade level and is learning new words all the time. I've stopped doing flash cards with her because she knows all the words she needs to through at least first grade.
She's very excited about school, although I'm so sad to see her go. I think she'll do really well in school, but I'll miss my little smiling helper in the mornings.
She absolutely loves church! This makes my heart happy :) She also gets very excited about any kind of social engagement, like playdates, dates with Daddy, seeing extended family, block parties, Awana, etc...
She can do so many things that she couldn't a year ago! She can completely work the TV and Wii, and do a lot of skills in the kitchen. She writes thank you notes and makes up her own songs. She is amazing at coloring in the lines and just recently learned to do a cartwheel (well, the start of one, anyway). She learns so fast and I'm always amazed at how quickly she can pick up math concepts, memorize words to read, memorize Bible verses
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Friday, July 1, 2016
Joey - 9 months!
Boy, did we have a full month! So many things have happened for Joey! Here's a recap:
This past month we flew to SC for Joey's first trip to see family. Before the trip, Joey was sick and gave himself pink eye. He was being treated for that as we left for SC. On the plane ride to Dallas Joey was nursing under the cover and somehow sliced his finger on the armrest. Blood was everywhere (I didn't know a finger could bleed so much) and he cried like I've never heard him cry before. It was awful. We had a stop over in Houston where the EMS took us to the ER and Joey got 4 stitches!
Then, because of the craziness of his finger, I lapsed on his eye drops and the pink eye came back. He was pretty fussy for a couple of days, and then suddenly he cut 2 teeth. A couple days later he got sick with a fever which turned into croup and a bad double ear infection. It was a good trip to SC but a tough time for Joey! My sweet baby just wasn't himself.
Joey actually has his 9 month appointment at the end of the month because of our schedule this summer, but when he went to the doctor for pink eye he weighed 17lbs 13oz. He's definitely lighter than Trey, but heavier than Gia. He's super long with big feet, but his belly is lean and he doesn't have a lot of rolls. He does have amazing cheeks, though!
He is still a very happy baby, but he has more of a voice when he's not happy! He lets you know when he's mad because you've taken something away from him, stepped out of the room or when he's hungry.
He LOVES sister Gia and enjoys brother Trey as long as Trey isn't touching him... I think he's learned that when Trey gets too close, he gets hurt, ha ha :)
Joey is eating all kinds of soft foods. He usually shares my eggs in the morning, enjoys all kinds of fruit and veggies (including peas, which my other two hated!), and wants to try whatever I'm eating. His favorite right now seems to be humus! He'll eat it right off the spoon. He's the only one of my kids who fusses when we don't spoon the food in fast enough.
Oh the sleep. I don't know what's up with this kid, but it sometimes feels like he'll never figure out the sleeping thing. Some nights he'll wake up once and sleep from 9-7, and other nights (like last night) he'll go to sleep at 9:30 and wake up around 3:30, then decide to be wide awake for a couple of hours. He'll fall back to sleep, get up at 8 and be grumpy until naptime around 1pm. Oy with the poodles already! (it's a Gilmore girl thing).
He has started to take one nap around 1pm, which is wonderful. Sometimes if he has a rough night he'll take an earlier short nap and then a 5pm short nap, but periodically I'll get lucky and have all 3 kids down at once so that I can actually do work for the Kid's ministry or clean. Currently this morning he's laying on the floor screaming, so I guess that means it might be a 2-short-nap kind of day.
He LOVES Daddy! I'll admit it... he said Daddy first at around 7 months. He sees Bobby, gets all excited and starts waving to him and saying, "Hi Daddy." So, now that Bobby has officially won, I think we're going to try to get him to say Mama next :)
He waves at everyone, knows what the word "up," "come here" and "more" means and knows who all of his family members are.
He might be entering a "stranger anxiety" stage. He definitely prefers to be held by me or Bobby, but as long as he's fed & well rested he will typically let others hold him. If he's tired, however, forget it. If he can see me, I'm the only one he wants.
He nurses 5-6 times a day for 15 minutes.
He gets a kick of of Nola lately. They bonded a couple weeks ago when the other kids were in bed, and ever since then he waves at her and likes for her to lick his feet.
He's in 12 month clothes, although he can still fit in some 9 month stuff. He still doesn't wear shoes.
He's scooting himself across the floor! He can go from sitting to a position that's kind of on his knees, and then he gets on his belly and pulls himself forward with his forearms. So, not crawling yet, but he's getting close.
He loves music and doesn't seem to mind if it's loud. Gia and Trey like to yell, "turn it up!" from the backseat, and Joey never fusses about it. Joey actually bounces (his form of dancing) to the upbeat songs we play.
His favorite toys are our Noah's Arc, the light-up stick and balls. And basically anything he can get his hands on and put in his mouth. I've been sweeping my floors a lot more lately :)
We started using the swing again after a 2 month break from it. I didn't think he'd like it at this point, but it's a fun distraction for him for at least a little while, and it has put him to sleep a couple of times.
The coolest thing about this past month in Joey's life is that his Nana & Papa moved near us, which means that he will grow up always having them around and never knowing a childhood without them. Coming from my perspective where I can't remember a time of living around my grandparents, this is a precious thing to me. The next step is to get Bobby's parents here...
This past month we flew to SC for Joey's first trip to see family. Before the trip, Joey was sick and gave himself pink eye. He was being treated for that as we left for SC. On the plane ride to Dallas Joey was nursing under the cover and somehow sliced his finger on the armrest. Blood was everywhere (I didn't know a finger could bleed so much) and he cried like I've never heard him cry before. It was awful. We had a stop over in Houston where the EMS took us to the ER and Joey got 4 stitches!
Then, because of the craziness of his finger, I lapsed on his eye drops and the pink eye came back. He was pretty fussy for a couple of days, and then suddenly he cut 2 teeth. A couple days later he got sick with a fever which turned into croup and a bad double ear infection. It was a good trip to SC but a tough time for Joey! My sweet baby just wasn't himself.
Joey actually has his 9 month appointment at the end of the month because of our schedule this summer, but when he went to the doctor for pink eye he weighed 17lbs 13oz. He's definitely lighter than Trey, but heavier than Gia. He's super long with big feet, but his belly is lean and he doesn't have a lot of rolls. He does have amazing cheeks, though!
He is still a very happy baby, but he has more of a voice when he's not happy! He lets you know when he's mad because you've taken something away from him, stepped out of the room or when he's hungry.
He LOVES sister Gia and enjoys brother Trey as long as Trey isn't touching him... I think he's learned that when Trey gets too close, he gets hurt, ha ha :)
Joey is eating all kinds of soft foods. He usually shares my eggs in the morning, enjoys all kinds of fruit and veggies (including peas, which my other two hated!), and wants to try whatever I'm eating. His favorite right now seems to be humus! He'll eat it right off the spoon. He's the only one of my kids who fusses when we don't spoon the food in fast enough.
Oh the sleep. I don't know what's up with this kid, but it sometimes feels like he'll never figure out the sleeping thing. Some nights he'll wake up once and sleep from 9-7, and other nights (like last night) he'll go to sleep at 9:30 and wake up around 3:30, then decide to be wide awake for a couple of hours. He'll fall back to sleep, get up at 8 and be grumpy until naptime around 1pm. Oy with the poodles already! (it's a Gilmore girl thing).
He has started to take one nap around 1pm, which is wonderful. Sometimes if he has a rough night he'll take an earlier short nap and then a 5pm short nap, but periodically I'll get lucky and have all 3 kids down at once so that I can actually do work for the Kid's ministry or clean. Currently this morning he's laying on the floor screaming, so I guess that means it might be a 2-short-nap kind of day.
He LOVES Daddy! I'll admit it... he said Daddy first at around 7 months. He sees Bobby, gets all excited and starts waving to him and saying, "Hi Daddy." So, now that Bobby has officially won, I think we're going to try to get him to say Mama next :)
He waves at everyone, knows what the word "up," "come here" and "more" means and knows who all of his family members are.
He might be entering a "stranger anxiety" stage. He definitely prefers to be held by me or Bobby, but as long as he's fed & well rested he will typically let others hold him. If he's tired, however, forget it. If he can see me, I'm the only one he wants.
He nurses 5-6 times a day for 15 minutes.
He gets a kick of of Nola lately. They bonded a couple weeks ago when the other kids were in bed, and ever since then he waves at her and likes for her to lick his feet.
He's in 12 month clothes, although he can still fit in some 9 month stuff. He still doesn't wear shoes.
He's scooting himself across the floor! He can go from sitting to a position that's kind of on his knees, and then he gets on his belly and pulls himself forward with his forearms. So, not crawling yet, but he's getting close.
He loves music and doesn't seem to mind if it's loud. Gia and Trey like to yell, "turn it up!" from the backseat, and Joey never fusses about it. Joey actually bounces (his form of dancing) to the upbeat songs we play.
His favorite toys are our Noah's Arc, the light-up stick and balls. And basically anything he can get his hands on and put in his mouth. I've been sweeping my floors a lot more lately :)
We started using the swing again after a 2 month break from it. I didn't think he'd like it at this point, but it's a fun distraction for him for at least a little while, and it has put him to sleep a couple of times.
The coolest thing about this past month in Joey's life is that his Nana & Papa moved near us, which means that he will grow up always having them around and never knowing a childhood without them. Coming from my perspective where I can't remember a time of living around my grandparents, this is a precious thing to me. The next step is to get Bobby's parents here...
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