The Engstrom Family: Happy First Birthday Giana!

It is amazing for me to believe that Giana is 1, but she is! Even though I cried (just a little), I am feeling pretty good about having a 1 year old. She is just getting to be so much FUN! She is really starting to pick many new words and is seeming to understand everything—from where is your head, ears, eyes, mouth to where is Talia, Mommy, Daddy, Annie (our sitter and friend), Gunner (the dog), the balloon, the ball, the cark the piano, etc. It is amazing. She is constantly chattering and her favorite question is “is it?” while she points her little pointer finger. She wants to know what everything is—it is very cute! Other words include: Mommeeee (which is cute, but it is usually in the middle of the night when she wants to party at 3 am!), uh-oh (when anything drops on the floor, which is especially nice when we are walking in the mall and something falls), annie, hi, bye-bye, ni night, up, owie (as soon as she falls, or hits her hand, head, or is doing something that she does not want to do, ie-have her diaper changed…etc), and recently NO! And speaking of no, she and Talia have had a few screaming matches now that Giana is getting into everything and and soon as she does, Talia wants whatever it is. But even though Gigi is smaller, she has grabbed Talia by the arm and pulled on her hard enough to knock her over. FUN TIMES! She is also blowing kisses, clicking her tongue, and clapping. She is trying lots of new foods like soft carrots, peas, blueberries, strawberries, breads, cheese, chicken, pizza, and pastas. She loves to try to walk or pushes objects (usually chairs) to help her walk along. She will take a couple of steps on her own, but that is only towards me or Kenny or the couch. She has not taken the full plunge yet. She loves to play with shoes, purses and chairs. She usually crawls along with a purse around her arm, and like to crawl and stand on chairs, and has learned to sit herself back down in the chair so her little legs hang over. She especially loves the rocking chair and will seat herself down and try to rock it, saying “rock, rock” (or more like rot, rot) She is a climber! She will lift herself up onto anything she can. She has even begun to push the chair close to the couch to climb onto the chair and then climb onto the couch, a trick that she has learned from her big sister. She loves to open and close drawers, cabinets, flip phones, etc. She enjoys pushing buttons and seeing what happens—she is really starting to get cause and effect. While she has pooped on the potty a few times now, there really hasn’t been much consistency. I do notice that she will grunt and then we run to the potty with success, but sometimes she goes in the morning when I am at work. I will definitely be working on this spring break and then the summer.

For her birthday, we tried to go to Olive Garden, but the wait was too long, so we ended up at Jason's Deli. Giana loved the noodles, crackers, corn muffins and ice cream at the end. When we got home, we wanted her to have her special cupcake (that I got from our friends Matt and Cassie's baby shower earlier today). She did not want to go in to her high chair...