Giana's First Day of Winnetka Covenant Church Preschool

Giana has been very excited about going to her new school, Winnetka Covenant Church preschool.  Her teacher, Miss Linnea, is a former parent of mine, so it is very fun that she is now Giana's teacher.  There are only 6 students in her class, and all girls!  I know that she will have a wonderful year!

Giana is 4

Another year older for my sweet Giana...so hard to believe.  Where does the time go?

Giana is such a beautiful, sweet, funny, happy, stubborn, and kind little girl.  I love how easy going she is, how honest she is, and how funny she is.  She is willing to do anything for you, and is such a helper.    It is hard to be in a bad mood around her, or to get angry at her.

She loves going to school.  She loves to look at books, write her name, color, and pretend to do homework.  She loves math, and definitely has more of a math brain.  She can identify numbers to 20 and loves to add.  She wants to learn to read as Talia reads to the babies all the time, so she wants to as well.  And even though she has so many books memorized, she is trying to match letters and sounds to read.  So cute!  She loves anything princess-especially Tiana.  She loves Dora.  She loves animals, and these days keeps asking for a hamster just like her friend Avery's.

She loves to sleep, and still naps most days.  She loves to snuggle up with a blanket and watch TV or The Muppets on the I Pad.  She does not like to be alone.  She is such a little cuddler.  

She weighs 36 pounds, and is just over 40 inches tall.  Around the 50th percentile for each.  She loves to eat, well, mostly, she loves to snack, but she is not afraid to try new foods.

I am so lucky to be her mommy!

Blankie Ride

Giana loves going for blankie rides just as much as Talia did. It is so cute to watch her drag the blanket to Kenny and ask for him to give her a ride. She loves it!

Giana loves Daddy

Giana just loves Kenny! She will hug him or kiss him and loves to be held and snuggled by him.

She is really daddy's little girl!

Look at her super cute outfit...I love it!

Fun in the Leaves

Giana loved playing in the leaves! Kenny would try to rake the "pile" and Giana loved running through them--it was so cute to see her and hear her little giggles.

Giana at 18 months

It seems as though we have another strong willed and sassy little girl on our hands. Giana has become more fun, sweet, lovable and stubborn than ever before. Here are some of my favorite things that she does at 18 months:

-she says “I love you” first (it is so sweet to hear)

-she pats you on the back when you pick her up

-she loves to give hugs and very wet kisses, usually with her tongue

-she loves her sister most of all, and is constantly looking for her and wanting to play with her

-she loves to “dance” by bopping up and down and twisting

-she pinches and throws things when she is angry

-she loves to eat and will eat the meat (chicken, sausages, burgers, etc) before eating anything else on her plate

-she loves purses, babies, cars, coloring and books

-she loves to play in the car and pretend to drive; she also loves to play in the pretend kitchen

-she is talking so much—lots of 3, 4, and more word sentences

-she says “mmm-uhh” for yes a lot and it is so cute to hear

-she can count to 11 and sings her ABC’s

-she knows many body parts and many animal names and sounds

-she loves the park—she especially loves to swing and the slide

-she loves the pool, but not the sprinkler (she does not like the water touching her head)

-she loves to play in the sand and grab water to pour over and over again

-she weighs 27 pounds and is 32.5 inches tall

What a fun, sweet girl she is!

Giana's First Haircut

We have been talking about getting Giana's haircut for a while now, and we finally did it today--we got some of her curls and mullet chopped off. Talia went first, so that Giana knew what to expect...or so we thought. She ended up sitting in my lap and was doing really well until all of a sudden she needed to turn her head and she began to cry. Poor thing! She did look super cute in the end though!

Trying out which chair she is going to sit in...or so we thought...

getting ready

the clips

the crying

the thumb sucking (even though she does not usually do this!)

after picture--happy with her lollipop

She has become an even more pretty baby girl!

Giana at 17 months

Giana continues to grow and change and talk more each day. She loves to play in the pretend kitchen, play with babies, carry purses, color/scribble, play in the pool (but not the sprinkler), swing and go up and down slides at the park, and hit/pinch her sister! She is definitely starting to become more assertive with Talia, and with us. She will hit and pinch and throw things or knock them over when she does not get her way. She is also starting to throw herself back or lay on the floor when she is having a tantrum. It is pretty funny to see her so assertive with Talia, but not so much to see her with us. Hello Terrible Twos! (Talia always hit those benchmarks at the half year, and it looks like Giana is doing the same thing too!) Talia is a great big sister though and will just yell for us to help her--she will not hit her back.

Giana's language continue to grow: she is becoming so well mannered, saying please and thank you without needing to be prompted, no thank you, help, let's go, I want some, outside/inside, upstairs/downstairs, and randomly saying I love you! It is so sweet to hear.

She is loving books and has a bunch of them memorized. Some of her favorite books are the touchy feely books from Usborne, That's not my...., Eric Carle's Have you seen my cat?, and Oops David. I love that she loves books so much. Talia is even starting to read to her, as they both sit in the rocking chair. It is so cute!

Giana was not so cooperative during this photo sessions, so here's one of her standing.

Giana at 16 months

The days have flown by since last month, and Giana continues to amaze me with all of the new things that she says and does each day. She is almost poop potty trained. She will tell you when she has to poop and I'd say that she goes on the potty about 50% of the time (or she will tell you just after she has gone...) We'll work on that more this summer. Can't wait!

Giana has the sweetest and softest voice when she talks and sings...but NOT when she is screaming on the way to school everyday! She loves to sing now. She'll join you in singing Happy Birthday or the ABC song, or Old McDonald had a farm. She is constantly chattering. She is counting to 10. She will name many items including paci, bear, shoe, purse, cup, ball, car, bankie (blankie), key, geese, phone, baby, etc. She loves babies and playing in the pretend kitchen. She loves to talk on the phone. She loves to walk around with keys and purses. She loves animals and calls them all "baby." Earlier as we walked to the park, so saw some ants on the ground and she leaned over and said "hi baby" to them. It was pretty cute!

She loves to give hugs and kisses and will say "ahhh" when she hugs you and "mah" and smack her lips together to kiss you. It is SO CUTE!

She continues to eat and sleep well. She loves meat--especially "ha dogs" and "chickie." (hot dogs and chicken) On the weekends now, she will sleep from 7:30 or 8 to 6:30 or 7! Hooray. It has taken a while to get here, but it feels good to sleep in 'til 7, and sometimes later, if Kenny lets me! You can't help but laugh and smile when Giana is around!

Giana and her purses

Giana just loves purses. She is drawn to them. Wherever we go, she will seek out a purse and try to walk away with it. She will put as many of them on her arm and *try* to walk around with them. Here are a few pics of the happy girl with a few purses.

Happy Baby Girl

Can she be any happier??? She is just edible!

Giana at 15 months

At 15 months, Giana is just so fun! She is talking so much and has such a sweet little voice. She has the best manners. She will say "bless you" after a sneeze, says "peeze" and "tank oo", and says "he-wo" (hello) or "hi" and "ba-bye" when entering or leaving the room. She will also pretty much repeat anything that you say, and her initial response to everything is "NO!" When she does not want something, so will say "mama" and hand it to you--she does this to both Kenny and Annie. She loves to give hugs (and will say "ahhh") and open mouth tongue kisses. Fun! She loves purses, keys, and any kind of musical instruments. She loves to dance and bobs up and down to any kind of music. She is walking with much more confidence, and she is getting very fast! She likes to go up the stairs and has started going down too...although she thinks that she can go down facing forward. She likes to climb onto everything! She also is starting to sing her ABC's and can count from 1-10 (although she skips four sometimes). She loves to read books now, and her favorites are the touchy-feely ones. She especially loves the one called "Little Feet Love" and touches all the touchy-feely things with her little feet. It is so cute! She loves to try new foods and loves all things meat! She is really a carnivore right now...let's hope that this continues. While she may continue to wake up at 5:30 am some days (thank goodness the 4:30 wake up is over!), she will call out to both Kenny (Dada) and me (Mom, Mommeee, Mama), and even call for Talia (Ta-we-ya) when we don't respond. Then as soon as you go in to see her, she will throw herself back down on her mattress and play a little game of "I-am-not-going-to-get-out-of-my-crib-right-now!" It is very cute! She loves drinking out of cups with straws and anything in a glass bottle (like a beer!) What a fun toddler she is!