A blog about Gia at 3 1/2 years old

Gia has been doing so many things the past few months, and I know that if I don't write about them, I won't remember 2 years from now.  So, this is a post where I brag on my 3 year old, and it gives the grandparents some info so that they can brag, too :)

Gia can:

count to 100 and beyond.

count by 10s

Add 2 numbers that equal 10

Spell some words (lots of 3 letter words) and read a few words (cat, Gia, Mama, Daddy, dog, and a few more)

Has memorized 10 bible verses

Identifies upper and lower case letters (has since she turned 3) and knows most of their sounds.

Can tell us easily what letter any word starts with

Is learning the months of the year


She is so sweet with her brother and quick to apologize if she accidentally hurts him or does something she shouldn't.  She takes care of him, lets him play with most anything she's playing with without complaint, shares her snacks with him, and gets very excited to play with him when he wakes up.  She empathizes with others so well!  She LOVES to dance, sing, read books, watch Doc McStuffins or Daniel Tiger, play in the dirt, go to AWANA, and go to church.

My girl is always asking me, "Mama, what are we doing today?  What are we doing tomorrow?" because she wants to know what friends we are seeing or what activity we're doing.  She loves to be with people and has a few really good friends that we see on a regular basis.

She still has some tears at nap and bedtime, but it's not every night anymore and only requires a reminder of attitude (we've come a long way!).  The "fear of the dark" stage has started, but her little Christmas tree helps (yep, it's still in her room because she likes the light).

Her favorite things to eat are probably Lucky Charms, M&Ms, carrots & humus, mac & cheese, strawberry smoothies, popcorn that she and Bobby make in our popper, and milk.  She's still a small eater, but eats at least one good meal a day.

She's tall and thin... she wears 4T clothes now, but needs that internal belt that a lot of pants give now and has to wear the skinny-style jeans because otherwise they hang off her legs.  She loves to wear her boots, especially her pink boots (thanks Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Johnny!)


She is SO excited about being a big sister again!  At first she would tell people, "God's going to decide," when they asked what she thought the baby would be.  But now, she wants a baby sister, so we are helping to remind her that God has already decided what the baby is and that we will be so excited no matter if it's a boy or a girl.  I think that she may be a little sad if it's a boy, but we will make it fun for her and then she'll hopefully be excited.


She still goes on almost-weekly dates with Bobby.  They have their routine: Doughnut from Smiths', hot cocoa at the local coffee shop with whipped cream on the side, then playing pretend/coloring/playing doctor/reading books with Daddy.  They know my family at this point and look forward to seeing Bobby & Gia every week.

She says the funniest things!  I need to write them down more...

She likes to brush her own teeth first.

She loves to wear tutus.  And socks.

Boo-boos are a big deal... they usually require a kiss and a Doc McStuffins bandaid.

Her morning routine is hard to break.  Potty, then milk while watching Doc McStuffins.  If she misses this routine, she's disappointed.  But thankfully she bounces back quickly.

She remembers everything!  I mean, information that we talked about weeks ago.  It's amazing.  Also, she can hear something once and remember it, like a Bible verse or when she was learning to count.  I think I showed her how to count to 100 one time, and a couple days later she just suddenly did it.

She loves to tell us that she loves us, and she is quick to thank us for things we are doing (like getting her a snack or cleaning her clothes or helping her with something).  She is so sweet, this girl.  She is patient and kind, feels badly when she does something wrong, rejoices with others when they accomplish something, gets excited about the little things (like fruit snacks, playing playdough or movie & popcorn night).  She loves people and is learning more and more about the Lord all the time.  She will quote me the Ephesians 6:1 when she obeys (Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right).  She loves to help me cook, especially when it's cookies and takes pride in being a good helper.  Her 3 year old stage has been so amazing.  I am of course looking forward to 4 years old, but I think this will be the first age that I will miss.  I just love this girl so much!  I'm not quite ready for her to grow up yet.

Trey - 15 months

My baby boy is growing so fast!  At his 15 month appointment, his stats were:

Weight: 26 lbs 4 oz (90%)
Height: 31.5 in (75%)
Head: 95%

Ha ha!  Who would have thought that I'd have such a big kid?  I was having some back issues a couple of months ago with picking him up, but it went away, thank goodness, even though he's gotten bigger!  The boy gained a pound in one month.  The doctor told me that kids this age usually slim up at this point, but not mine!  She wasn't worried though, and neither am I... Bobby was a big baby, too.

He is fascinated with bellies lately.  He wants to pull up our shirts, see our bellies, put his finger in our belly buttons (which drives me crazy) and then give our bellies kisses (or bite them, but he's learning to just give kisses instead).

He can say a little over 30 words.  His favorites are "hot," "mama," "daddy," "G-G," "No-no (Nola)," "please," "this," and "more."  Gia taught him to say, "please" by giving him M&Ms whenever he said it and not giving it to him until he did.

He said his first sentence:  "Dadda's ah wuh?" (Daddy's at work?)

Everything that he can't touch is "hot."  He'll point to the guitar and say, "hot?"  He'll point to the stove and say, "hot?"  He'll point to his sister's sippy cup and say, "hot?"  He did have an experience with burning his finger on a hot dish, and that helped him understand "hot" a little better, but he still thinks it just means something is off limits.

He is still my snuggly boy, but definitely is showing his stubborn side.  When he doesn't like what is happening to him, he will swing at us or knock things off the coffee table (like papers or sippies).  We are working with explaining to him that this is not the right response and help him use his words.  I figure that getting him to have a calm response will come with age and practice.

He LOVES babies!  Which is a good thing, since we'll be having one of those in our house in the next 7 months.  He loves to pet their hair, give them kisses, and of course poke at their eyes.

He loves to play outside.  He's usually bored by 10am if we aren't going somewhere, and I have to bundle him up and send him outside with Nola for a while (and usually sister Gia joins him).  He and Gia love to play in the water table and dig in the dirt.

He gets so excited when Daddy gets home!  He runs towards him and wants to play right away.

He of course loves to eat.  He especially loves grapes, broccoli, bagels, any kind of cookie, and cheese.

He likes to put on his coat and shoes, which is a complete turn around from about 2 months ago.  I think he knows that it means we're going outside.

He isn't as into books as Gia is, but he does like to sit and listen to a story while drinking his milk before nap and bedtime.  He loves the interactive books like "no more monkeys" or "going on a lion hunt."

This boy.  His smile just melts me.  Especially when he says, "please?" and claps his hands together... I usually have to give him whatever it is he wants (within reason) because it's so darn sweet.

"This?"

This boy LOVES his dog!

His favorite thing is playing in the water table.

Okay, look at that smile, and then picture him saying, "please?"  Could you say no?

Christmas Eve/Day 2014

This Christmas was the first one that Bobby and I have spent without extended family.  Although it was an adjustment, we really had a wonderful Christmas season and a sweet Christmas Eve & Day.  Of course we would have loved to share that time with our families, but it wasn't possible this year, so we made our own traditions as a family of 4.

My absolute favorite thing we did this Christmas was our handprint advent tree.  I traced Bobby's hand and cut out a bunch of handprints, then taped them to the door in the shape of a tree.  Then I took glittery stock paper and traced a cup to get the shape of an ornament, and cut out 25 ornaments.  On each ornament I wrote a special note for Gia.  Some examples were "Pick your own bow," "Go on a date with Mama/Daddy," and "Get an extra TV show today."  Every morning before breakfast Gia would go over to the container that held the ornaments and choose one, and I would read her what it said.  Whatever it said, we did that day.  Fortunately, the "date" ones ended up being picked on days when we could make it happen, and everyday it seems that we picked just the right ornament for that day.  It fostered the BEST quality-time moments with my daughter, and I cherish the memories we made because of this advent calendar.  It's a new tradition, for sure!

Gia & I before our Mama/Daughter date

Christmas Eve:  We skyped with Kelly & Derek during lunch and exchanged gifts, then rushed around like crazy getting ready for church.  Bobby worked pretty hard all the way up to Christmas Eve, but after our church service, we relaxed for the next 2 days.  Side note: we had a good number of people show up for church on Christmas Eve, which surprised me because last year on Christmas Eve, we hardly had anyone there.  This year there were at least 50 people.  After a great time at church, talking to friends and listening to Bobby preach the Word, we got back home and Gia & Trey opened their Christmas Eve gifts.  This will also be a yearly tradition, I think.  It was a box with new PJs (on sale for $4 at Carters!), Frosty movie, an ornament, hot coca packet and some candy.  We ate our dinner of homemade ravioli, cheese sticks, clam dip & pumpernickel boat (I realize all this sounds weird until you've actually tried it) and talked with our parents.  We then put Trey to bed, made popcorn & hot cocoa, and watched Frosty with Gia.  We then read the Christmas story to Gia and talked with her about the real meaning of Christmas.  After reading the Bible together, we skyped with my parents and my dad continued the tradition of reading "Polar Express" to us.  That just made my whole night.  After Gia went to bed, of course we got to work (Bobby put together a complicated toy, and I wrapped/cleaned).  We went to bed around 12:30am.

Christmas Day:  We made Christmas day "technology free" other than Christmas movies.  Boy, was that nice!  Bobby and I got up, then Trey got up, and we had to go wake Gia up!  Looking out the window, we realized that it was a White Christmas outside!  It snowed all day, and by the end of it all we had about 6 inches.  Just enough to play in, but not so much that it blocked the roads.  It was absolutely perfect.  We told Gia that she could eat whatever she wanted this day, and she loved that.  We opened stockings, then ate breakfast, Skyped with Grandmama & Grandaddy first, then Nana & Papa, then realized that we really had cut back on gifts this year because our tree was bare at this point.  Gia opened her 3 gifts from us, and gifts from our friends Donnell & Cody, and then we ate lunch.  When the kids went down for a nap/quiet time, Bobby and I exchanged our gift to each other.  He got me an ESV study Bible with my name on it, and the whole family chipped in to get him a large coffee roaster.  It was cool.  When the kids got up we all went outside to play in the snow.  Here in Utah, the snow doesn't always pack very well because it's not wet, but we had fun making snow angels, and Bobby did manage to make a small snowman.  Trey, as you can see, was not a fan.  He just wanted to be held.  It got dark, and then we completed our day with another new tradition:  we went to IHOP to get dinner, wrote the waitress a letter sharing the gospel, and left a very large tip.  It was the most awesome thing to see who God gave us as our waitress and know that we could be a blessing to her.  We were able to really talk in depth to Gia about what we were doing and why, which was so special.  So, this tradition's a keeper, too.

The next day the four of us just hung around, ate bad-for-you food, went sledding (Gia & Trey's first time, Bobby's 2nd time), and had a fun time eating dinner & hanging out at the Bodden's house.  It was great having Bobby home with us, all to ourselves, and you could tell that the kids loved it, too.  Christmas was so relaxing this year, although I feel like we led a crazy week leading up to it.  Really, having a 3 1/2 year old in the house during this time of year makes the whole thing more awesome.  She was so into everything, and could really understand the traditions and the real meaning behind this holiday.  She could help me roll cookies & cut them out herself, she sang Christmas songs and watched all the Christmas movies, she learned the Nativity story and really soaked in the live Nativity at Mountain View, and was just excited in general about our traditions.  I love that girl more and more all the time, and she just makes everything in life more fun.  I really look forward to next year when both of our children get into things!  Boy, that's going to be fun!

Some fun photos from our Christmas season:

Waiting in line to see Santa

 Making bracelets with the kit Nana got for Gia.

 Dancing to Christmas music (might have been NSYNC)

 My Christmas date with Bobby, thanks to gift cards, free entertainment and kind friends who watched our kids!

Weaning

So, just a couple days after Trey turned 13 months, I decided to give him one bottle a day and start weaning him to 2 feedings a day.  2 days later, he was completely weaned!  I guess he loved that bottle, and I loved how he was sleeping more during the day.  I just drank a little less water, and Trey, little by little, told me "all done" when he nursed, until I just started offering the bottle instead.  Now, he takes 3 bottles a day, loves it, goes down to bed wide awake and puts himself to sleep.

I cried and cried the last time I nursed as I realized he was done.  It's a little heart breaking watching those snuggle times go away, but thankfully God gave me a snuggly baby boy, and hopefully he'll just continue to want to sit with me as he gets older.  However, bottles are wonderful things.  I mean, nursing is precious, but bottles are awesome.  Doesn't take as long, he can drink while I change his diaper in the morning (and therefore doesn't fuss or roll around), and he has gone from taking 1/2 hour naps to taking 2 hour naps!  Ahhh, time to myself!  Well, time to clean, but I'll take it.

Trey - 1 year old!