Sisters pt. 2, and more snow!

Our house after the big snowfall! SO pretty!

I have to dedicate this post to all the snowmen that are rapidly dying in my neighborhood. Yesterday, on our way to church, we saw countless, drippy, melty hunks of snow everywhere! The highest amount of snow anyone got in the DFW area was 12.5 inches. I don't think we got quite that much, but definitely more than 6 inches!
The worst part about the storm was that Aunt Colleen's visit almost didn't happen. Her flight was cancelled Thursday evening, then cancelled Friday morning, but she finally got here Friday night! So the weekend was salvaged and Gianna loved having Aunt Col and "Uncle" Bobby to play with. Playing in ths snow is so much fun, especially when there are lots of other people to go outside together. We made a family of snow angels on Friday night:

From left to right: Gianna, Chris, Moe, Elia

Chris and Gianna also went on a safari and made tracks in the snow:

I didn't take many pics of the girls with Uncle Bobby and Aunt Colleen, I am so bad about taking pics! Here are a few:

So glad Col made it!

Snow Day!

It snowed quite a bit here in Dallas today. Chris went in to work a little late to avoid the crazies on the road, so he took Gianna out to play in the morning. They made mini snow men. In fact, one for each person in our family :).

And got lots and lots of snow on them!

Then dad had to go to work, so later we ventured out. Why get brand new boots when you can make them for free out of plastic bags? And here Elia is wearing (carebear)socks instead of mittens.

I had to build a snow man of my own, and yes, I know it looks a little creepy, but! The only round thing I could find in the house was our neon orange golf balls. And G insisted we put a button on it as well.

It snowed ALL day long. And then Chris came home early. What a great day!

Sisters

This weekend, Aunt Shanny came to visit! We had a lot of fun just hanging out. She of course bought Elia and Gianna matching outfits, and so we wore those all day Saturday. Shannon and I got a much needed margarita (or 3) on Friday night, and we went hiking with the girls on Saturday. Its fun to watch Shan be so enthralled with the girls- she would get excited when naptime was over so she could see them and wanted to feed and diaper Elia and help G go potty. It was a nice break! Saturday night we had a little get together with a few friends and then Sunday was the usual church. I took Gianna with me to drop Shannon off at the airport Sunday night, and when Shannon said goodbye to her, Gianna got all misty and said "this is soo sad!" It was really cute, and Shan ate it up, but I think G was mostly putting on a show.

Shannon makes everything fun- even going to the grocery store with her is not a chore. I am so thankful for our close friendship, and I really really hope that Gianna and Elia share a good bond too someday. Its kind of hard to tell what its going to be like in the future since right now its mostly making sure Gianna doesn't poke Elia's eyes out and that Elia doesn't eat all of Gianna's puzzle pieces! But I can tell that G likes her- if Elia is out of the room (probably taking a nap) then Gianna is always asking where she is. And Gianna can get Elia to smile and laugh more than Chris and I can at any given time! They are too cute sometimes!

PS

Chris' method of feeding Elia is working out perfectly. For some reason, Elia hates spoons! She will keep her mouth tight lipped when a spoon is coming towards her, but if the hollowed out medicine dropper is coming towards her, well she just opens wide! So random!

Use the Force

I'd like to start with a thank you to Moe for picking up the slack. I really dropped the ball, or was forced to drop the ball depending on how you look at it. But thanks to her the whole world has been able to keep up with our two adorable children and occasionally their parents.



This is to all my parent friends....don't just tell your kids to eat their veggies...FORCE THEM! The last several weeks has been a battle of wills between me and the girls. Gianna has become the little 2 year old we dreaded; obstinate, energetic, distracted, and super smart. She is constantly testing hers and our limits especially at dinner time. If it looks like it has veggies in it she pics out the good parts and barely touches her food. Well that stopped about a week ago, thank you very much. We sat down at dinner, Moe made a yummy casserole or something along those lines and she refused to eat it, at least on her own, SO I picked up her bowl and spoon and made mild bargains for each bite: a bite for some juice, or a bite for some bread and butter. That soon devolved into an indifferent attitude, which escalated to threats on my part. No games, no puzzles, no movies etc, all the while i am spooning every bite and feeding her like a toddler. This has gone on for a week or so as we have stopped catering her meals and started making her eat ours. It still tries my patience, her resolve is stiff and strong (maybe a drink would help me....) but she finishes her dinner most nights now, veggies included, with far less bartering than when we started......

But her sister picked up where she left off. Last night Moe had some tutoring so I was on my own, with a rambunctious G who wanted to dance and march around the house and a hungry baby. I can't remember if Moe has talked about it or not but Elia hates food...or rather, she can't quit her mom. We have tried and tried and tried and she shows no interest unless it's a cracker or something she can hold. You can try to put a spoonful of something good up to her mouth and she is just refuses with tight lips. Moe has had limited success as well with her eating maybe once a day. Well last night E was HUNGRY and there was no mama for her to go to, and she wouldn't eat her veggies....that's where i stepped up my game. You can't force a spoonful of veggies past tight lips but you can do this....and it paid dividends...little E was happy for hours after that.

Low Key Weekend

Toofers!!!


G is going strong with potty training! No accidents in 48 hours!


This week we are going to work on the letter 'G"- so we filled a letter G with grapes and then got to eat them! She loved this activity.


A craft we did from our swap- tissue paper butterfly.

Papa started reading (paraphrasing) Narnia.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Elia is crawling! (w/ G helping)

School-time

I was completely inspired by my friend, "Jo Shabo" and so after reading her blog, I decided to do a few activities with Gianna. I just gathered a few things I had around the house:

I had a packet of arts and crafts pom puffs in 2 different sizes. So first, she sorted them into 2 different piles- little puffs and big puffs:

Then she sorted them by color into some little tupperware containers I had:

Then she used a melon baller (I don't have a little tongs) and put one puff in each cube.



I was amazed at how focused she was on these little tasks. She had more interest than some of my 3rd graders used to! I told her that this is "school" and that sometimes we will do activities like this. She is really excited about it! We will probably do a couple crafts next week that we got from our activity swap. Thanks Jo Shabo!

Busy week!

We have not sat down all week! On Sunday, we did the usual- church and football, and of course the uncles came over. That is always a special treat for Gianna and Elia, because they get so much extra love! Monday I whisked the girls off early morning to Gianna's pta playgroup. We did an activity swap- similar to this idea. Every mom came up with a craft to do with a 2 year old, made 20 of the same sets in a bag, and brought them to play group. Then we all passed ours out and presto- I have 20 different fun activities to do with G! I pulled one out tonight to do with her but everything requires glue and we dont have any-bummer.
On Tuesday we hung out with G's BFF "Lynn". We saw Lynn in December, and she had no interest in potty training. Well, she is potty trained now! So that sort of inspired me to take it back up again- uggg. So far its going ok- I have realized that you have to be ok with the messes or she won't be trained until she is 20! Lynn and Gianna played nicely and we enjoyed lunch together as well.
Wednesday I hosted my church's play group, and that was a ton of fun too! G's other BFF Soph, joined us and it was just a big party! I love getting together with my friends from church- hanging out with mom's that have the same faith as I is VERY refreshing! We are hoping to expand our little playgroup, so if there are any mamas out there that want to pray the rosary while the kiddos play in the North Texas Area (Carrollton Farmers Branch more specifically)- let me know!
Thursday we went to Elia's pta playgroup, which was hosted at the indoor playground at the mall. Gianna loves coming here and climbing all over the plastic structures. This was Elia's first time since she has learned to scoot- so she had a blast too. Then home and straight into the bath- I get nervous that those sort of indoor places are teeming w swine flu and chicken pox, etc. I have started doing baths with the girls during the day- it is something really fun for them to do and perfect when we can't go outside/get out of the house due to weather! Also, I feel like bath time wastes precious daddy time at night, so mornings work for us! Bath time lasted quite a while today! We made it to the mall and back with no accidents- this is awesome for me to report!
Friday we spent the morning with Gianna's friends, "Adam" and "Eve." Adam loves to be the boss and show Gianna what to do, and for the most part, G follows ;). Back home for lunch and nap- this week was full! I made Gianna a potty chart to motivate her for the potty- she puts a sticker up everytime she goes, and when she gets to the star, she gets to go get ice cream with daddy- which is an EXTRA special treat for her. The potty training process is a bit tedious. I have to constantly remind her and actually put her on the potty, and it seems when I get the tiniest bit distracted, thats when we have an accident!




Elia is scooting everywhere, much to Gianna's dismay. Gianna is always "making a gate"- putting a rolled up blanket or a pillow in her way so that she can't get to her toys. And just today she started going from her belly to sitting up on her own, so that means this weekend we have to lower the crib! My baby just won't stop growing up! Its going to be a cold weekend, so we are going to do lots of family time indoors.

G's Dance

Locked Out

Friday was our bi-monthly trip to costco. Gianna loves to go to costco to get the free samples. I love that Costco's carts have 2 children sized seats at the front. Anyway, we got through the store without any problems and both girls were in exceptional moods. Elia sat quietly, flirting with other customers as they walked by. As I was checking out, I noticed that my keys were not in my purse! Sure enough, when I pulled the cart up to our car, I saw that the keys were in my ignition. This is the only key we own for this car, and a new key costs $200, so I am usually very er, uptight, about making sure the key stays with me. So after calling Chris and freaking out a bit, a very nice Costco employee tried to help me. But her very measly piece of twine did not help. Meanwhile, Gianna keeps asking if she can get out of the cart, and Elia is starting to fuss because she hasn't eaten anything for 4 hours- a long time for her! I bribed Gianna with Gogurt and fruit snacks, but I was not about to go lug both girls back into Costco to find a private spot to nurse. So I did the only thing I could- I fed her a gogurt, and she loved it, thank goodness! Then, a man walking by noticed we were trying to get in the locked car and offered to help. He went back to his car and brought back the perfect tool for getting into our Honda, (hmmmmm, I wonder what he does for a living??) and the crisis was averted. Whew!