Happy Birthday Kenny!

We celebrated Kenny's 35th birthday today by going to Talia's friend Taylor's 4th birthday party. It was at the same place that Giana had her b-day party--the Carousel room at the Elk Grove Village Park District. We really love that place. Taylor had a "clown" making really cool items out of balloons (Talia got a ballerina)

They also had a face painter. Look how beautiful Talia's butterfly face is.

The girls had a great time riding the carousel, eating a ton, and playing in the play area.

When we got home, we sang Happy Birthday to Kenny with a cherry cheesecake.

Happy Birthday to Taylor and Debbie too!!!

Giana at 13 months

Wow—this month has really flown by! Giana is 13 months today and it seems that the past month has been a whirlwind. At 13 months, Giana is still not entirely walking on her own, and now it has become a game to have her walk between us and watch her give up trying and just fall down and crawl away as fast as she can! She is sleeping much more soundly, usually waking up around 6, with an occasional 3 am wakeup call (where I sleepily leave her be until she falls back to sleep, usually within 15 minutes) as well as the occasional 7 am wakeup call on the weekends. (it is those times, however that Talia seems to wake up around 5:30 am—I just can’t catch a break!) She has an amazing mouth of 11 teeth, and 3 of her molars have just come up. She is talking a lot more and especially seems to be saying ends of words more clearly. Some of her new words include: “Nick”, “Sarah”, (2 of Annie, our sitter and friend’s kids), “hi yo”, OK, Ja-na (for Giana), and “nana” for banana. She has learned to shake her head no and swat items away. She also knows some animal sounds: “mmmm” for cow, “oof “for dog, and “mow” for cat. She knows where her eyes, nose, ears and head are. What a smarty pants! She loves music, and is starting to finish the ends of songs, like the Hokey Pokey—that’s what it’s all a—and she’ll finish with “BOUT!” She loves to dance and bobs up and down. It is so cute! She is loving food too—and is trying everything. She loves chicken and hamburger. She has also loved quesadillas, applesauce, olives and of course pasta. She now drinks only from a sippy or straw cup (no more bottles) and the transition has been fairly easy. Hooray!

Chuck E Cheese

We headed to Chuck E Cheese today, and we had a great time. We have not been there since a b-day party in Sept, and we should really go there more often, as both of the girls love that place and it is pretty cheap. Yes, I said both girls--Gigi loved being there today. She loved seeing Chuckie, dancing up and down, pointing at him, and riding all of the rides. Fun times!Talia and her friend Taylor on a "roller coaster" ride.

riding with the Tellitubbies--are they still on TV?Hi Mommy!

February...

I am sorry that I have not posted in a while...my new class (I am getting my masters in Administration, if you don't know) is kicking my butt and I have just been so busy! But I do want to share some pics so far in February.

Giana loves purses. She will hook any purse onto her arm and crawl away. It is so funny. She has also started to take some steps on her own, but still toward something, like the couch or one of us. When she falls, she just continues to crawl.

It is very cute!

Giana now sits forward in her car seat. She has never loved being in the car and we thought that since she was 1, now she would be able to sit forward facing and all of our car screaming fits would be over....we were WRONG! I think that she just doesn't like to be tied down....

I went to a Creative Memories Regional Convention with my newest team member Debbie (hooray!) and saw a great little movie clip that included some tips on taking pictures. I tried them out with Giana and I think that I did pretty well. She is a beautiful model, though...

Talia had a 102 fever for 5 days, with really no other symptoms, so that was a hard week for me and Kenny. We were alternating days off, which was not fun. When we took her into the doctor, Talia had developed a cough and continued with an ear infection. She was placed on a nebulizer and an anti-biotic. Talia was a bit scared of the nebulizer, but when I showed her the album from 2008, where she had already been on a nebulizer b/c of pneumonia, she was not scared anymore. Plus, she gets to watch some TV (and wear a princess dress) while she is taking her "breathing medicine." It seems to have helped her cough, thank God!

Gigi likes turning the machine on and off.

Valentine's Day was fun! Talia loved her class party and getting chocolate and cards from all of her friends. The girls wore the cutest Hanna outfits...

I think that you are all now caught up to date! Phew!

Professional Pics

I just wanted to share some of our favorite professional pics that we had taken at Portrait Innovations. They always do such a great job!

We did a family picture too. These are the super cute color coordinated outfits that we wore to Giana's birthday party.

Talia wanted to take some pics with the bears. Cute, right?Then we thought, oh, let's get Giana in some too...bad idea!Woe to her...I changed Giana into her Birthday girl shirt and she posed like this all by herself.We also did some cake shots--Gigi loved the cake!

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...But after we sang to her, she was calmer...Then she realized that eating cupcake was fun!
And...then she was done!Happy, Happy Birthday, my sweet baby girl. I love you!