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!

Dinner time

Just wanted to share some pics of dinner time.

Kenny loves to cook these days. Hooray for me (and us!)

Giana shows us her green goldfish cracker tongue

Talia is posing with her pasta

Giana is getting really good at using a fork

Dinner time is always fun time at our house.

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!

Kenny's Work Picnic

Abbott puts on a great picnic every year, and this year was just as great. We all had a fun time! The girls wore really cute dresses (of course)

They had good food

ice cream

boat rides by the water

and fun games for the kids

Another fun family day! Hooray!

Talia reads to Giana

Talia and Giana have been playing so nicely together lately. Talia is the first person that Giana asks for as soon as she wakes up each day. It is so nice to see Giana give Talia hugs. Giana has really been into books lately, and one of their favorite things to do together is read books. It is so cute to see Talia read to her sister.

Here is what it looks like after Giana has been reading for a while--her books are all around her where she was sitting. Cute, right?

Happy 4th of July

Our annual 4th of July party was another successful event! Talia and I picked out her and Giana's matching dresses in April, and she was counting down the days until she could wear it. I think that it was worth the wait--they were adorable!

The boys enjoying lunch

Cousins

popsicle time (outside!)

After watching the annual hot dog eating contest on TV, the guys thought that it was a good idea to start one here too...Tony actually dipped his hot dog in water (just like they do on TV) and finished his hotdog in just about 40 seconds. He is the "Top Dog" until next year!

We tried to get a family pic...these were the best that we could get:

And with my parents going to Italy soon, they wanted a Mollo family pic--wow there are a lot of us!

The night ended with fireworks--it was a great day to be with family and friends!

Mundelein Days

We headed to Mundelein days for another carnival and fun times. The girls are becoming pros at riding the rides and going to carnivals. For some reason, they get a lot of attention from others...and they LOVE it!

Talia enjoyed riding the motorcycle

Giana stuck to the purple car

Me and Giana

Talia took a solo ride in the teacups

and then went down the slide all by herself too

Kenny and Giana

After we grabbed some dinner, we walked over the park to run around. Giana loves to swing with her head leaning back. It is so funny!

Talia poses for the camera.

Even though it was hot, it was a fun family time!