Gianna's Little Quirks

Gianna's personality has long been taking shape, but lately she has shown quite a few little quirks I thought worth sharing:

Red Light Green Light

When we are walking around in the stroller, she will say "red ahead, stop!" and so Mom has to stop pushing the stroller. Then she will say "Green ahead! Go!" and I can start pushing again. When we are in the car and she sees a red light, she will say red ahead, stop! and same goes for a green light. But her newest quirk is that if I turn left through a green light, she gets REALLY upset! She will sometimes cry and say you have to go ahead, you can't turn when its green!

Philosopher?

G has started the dreaded why, why WHY???? When I ask her to do anything, she always responds with a why. Why do I have to put my shoes on? Why are we going to the store? Oh why? why? why? why? Last week we were on a hike and she picked up a rock and asked, "why is this a rock?" I think she is all ready for UD!

Nakey

Last week, I hosted my church's playgroup. While all the mamas pray the rosary, the little ones wander around the house and play. At one point, Gianna decided to take her pants off. And when I went in the room to make her put them back on, all she could say was why? why? why?

But now I have her pretty convinced that when friends are over, we need to be er, clothed!

All Aboard!!!!

Her latest thing to play is all aboard the train. She will come up to me and say do you want to all aboard the train with me? And of course I can't refuse, its just so cute! She lines up all her chairs, and the bumbo for Elia and then we sit all in a row.

Dad, get your shotgun!

Gianna is absolutely obsessed with Uncle Tim's girlfriend. When she hears that Actually (Ashley) is coming over, she goes crazy. I started babysitting another little family of 2 little boys last week, one who is Gianna's age. After they were playing for a little bit together, Gianna ran up to me and said "mom, I have a boyfriend just like Ashley!!!" I didnt realize that interest in boys would happen at such a young age!!! ;)

I love my angel girl!

10 Months Old!

Sweet Elia is almost 1! Where has the time gone? She is so curious now and gets into EVERYTHING! She is such a fast crawler and now she is pulling up and trying to walk along furniture. She prefers our food over pureed fruits and veggies that Mom so painstakingly makes for her. Her favorite thing to do right now is swing- she laughs as soon as she gets into a swing! I am not ready for my baby to be so big!

Paradise Pond

Today we took a field trip to Paradise Pond. We went with Soph and Baby MM. Everyone had a blast!

Dressing up:

Elia and Baby MM are quickly becoming BFFs!!

Going on a Safari

It was an absolutely GORGEOUS day here in Dallas, so naturally we went outside and went on a safari. We had to wear safari hats, at Gianna's request:

While Elia watched, Gianna searched for dinosaurs and giraffes:

I put a blanket down for Elia to crawl around on, and it was hilarious to watch her try to crawl on the grass. Every time she put her hand on the grass, she would look so confused and then just stay on the blanket.

By the end of our Safari she had ventured out onto the grass and her knees and hands were filthy! I hope the weather stays like this, it was such a fun time to be able to get out and play!!

Pictures of Late

Pulling up!!!

Enough hair for bows now! Aunt Shan, like the t-shirt?

I had to take this picture- they were sitting quietly together for maybe 10 whole minutes without any intervention! They are just about at the point where they play with each other. Gotta love sister love!

Being Silly

Sisters getting into mischief.

And again!

Trying to help with laundry.

Close Call

Last week, Elia had to get a routine finger prick to at her 9 month check up. On Monday, the nurse left me a message on my phone saying, "Hi Mrs. Rowles, please call me as soon as you get this message." A million bad things went through my head. My stomach kind of started turning into knots. Visions of cancer and weird random illnesses were running through my head as I hurriedly called her back. Of course, when I called her back, she was with another patient and could not talk to me. Finally, a half hour after I listened to the scary message, she called me back. "I just wanted to let you know that Elia's blood results came back clean. Everything looks normal!" I really wish she could have spared me the fretting and just said that very thing in the first message she sent to me.

Milestones

I have taken a small hiatus from blogging due to a broken computer. But I am back, and have a few happy things to report! Gianna is officially, completely potty trained. (YAY) Through the day, through naps, and even through the night! Every time she "goes" she says "I'm a little big kid now." I guess she recognizes that she is small but also grown up.

Elia is full out crawling and now, gasp, she is pulling herself up onto furniture. She is getting into EVERYTHING. Her latest favorite is turning the volume dial on our tv reciever around and around. She is eating more solid food and nursing less frequently and less enthusiastically. Why would she sit with mom quietly when she can get down and explore a whole new world? Her 9 month appointment went well- off the charts for height and 85th percentile for weight. I guess all that crawling and exploring is preventing her from staying off the charts for weight! She had to have a finger prick, which was so sad, and sad for Gianna to watch too.

Chris and I (w the help of Aunt Meg and Uncle Craig, thanks guys) just booked flights to go to Atlanta for Easter! It is an especially exciting time because Craig is converting to Catholicism and we will all be there to witness it. We are going to be there for a long weekend. Chris will go home before me, and I will stay out there for a little bit to have some Aunt and cousin time! I am a little nervous because that means I will be flying back to Dallas by myself with both girls for the first time, eeeek! So thats what is new with us. I will post some pics of the Rowles soon.

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!