Thankful

 We were blessed to be able to share a Thanksgiving meal with both sets of Grandparents this year - Matt's family a couple of weeks ago, and mine today.  

When I say prayers with the kids at night, we always start with thanking God for the good things in their day and things they are grateful for.  This year for Thanksgiving, we decided to do a project where we wrote things that we're thankful for on pieces of a paper chain.  Our chain is very long....so much to be thankful for!!!

Matt had lots of helpers with stuffing the turkey!

Babies!

Gianna has a super-short attention span and she does not like to sit still to watch TV or movies for more than a few minutes, but the one show she's interested in is Sesame Street.  She calls it "Babies" because her favorite part is when Elmo's World comes on and he usually has a segment where he talks to a baby.  As soon as she gets home from preschool she always requests "vanilla milk and Babies"!  So when we saw that Sesame Street Live was coming to town, we knew we'd have to get tickets just to see the look on her face!  The show didn't actually contain any babies, but she was still amazed by the big singing characters and loved it!  Gigi really never dances, but this show even managed to get her up and moving to the music.  The boys even had fun even though the show was geared towards younger kids - it was a great family night out!

Fall Fun

I'm terribly behind in posting on the blog but I wanted to be sure to post my Halloween pictures before Thanksgiving at least!!  GiGi and Angelo dressed up as garden gnomes and Dominic as the Headless Horseman, continuing with our sweet + scary theme from last year!  This was Gianna's first year to go out trick-or-treating with her brothers and friends.  This girl has almost as much of a sweet tooth as Angelo, so she was in her element!

I love this picture because it looks like Angelo is protecting Gianna from the scary Headless Horseman.

It's all about the candy!  Gigi being silly before trick-or-treat.

GiGi and Dominic still going strong.... Angelo was ready for bed after the sugar rush wore off.

  

GiGi's candy corn Halloween outfit for pre-school

Cheering on Dominic at flag football the weekend before Halloween.
Gigi loves to watch the boys play sports and clap.

I'm looking forward to having more time this holiday weekend to catch up on posting!  :)  So much to be thankful for!!

Gianna's 3rd Birthday at The Little Gym

Here's a video of the party that the Little Gym staff made for us.  I didn't know they were filming so I was super-excited to get this after the party!!  

THREE!

We recently celebrated Gianna's 3rd birthday!!  She has always loved everything about birthdays - the "Happy Birthday" song is actually one of her favorites for us to sing, even if it's nobody's birthday!  She always loves to listen and pretend to blow out the candles on a pretend cake.  So you can imagine how excited she was for it to be her REAL birthday!!  We held her party with family and friends at the Little Gym.  A gym wouldn't seem to be the best place to have a party for GiGi with her balance problems, but this one is perfect. It's designed for toddlers so it's completely padded and colorful!  Her party theme was Sesame Street.  This is the only show she likes to watch, and she actually calls it "Babies" because her favorite part is where Elmo talks to babies.  We were so grateful for our families to be there - they traveled from 3 states to celebrate with Gianna!  She talks about all of them all the time and of course especially the new family "babies" Matthew and Troy.  Have I mentioned that she's a little baby-obsessed??  GiGi was so happy and calm during the whole party - I thought she might get a little overwhelmed, but she seemed to just soak it all in and enjoyed every minute of it!  She's such a people-person - so being surrounded by so many people that she loves was an incredible birthday gift!

Elmo head to toe.....

With Nana and PapPap

With Mimi and Granddaddy

Taking time out from playing for a family pic

Gigi was so excited to get to see her new cousin Matthew for the first time!

It was hard for Gianna to put her fingers in the right position for "three".
She kept asking me to, "fix my fingers!" so that she could show off her new age.

The party guests signed Gianna's banner as a keepsake for her

It was a treat for GiGi to get to feed her new little friend Douglas!

High heels, birthday crown, and her cousin Haley.....perfect combo!

This little kitchen from Troy and Shannon is going to be a favorite!

Enjoying singing into her pink diva microphone from Aunt Adria!

This pic was from the morning of her actual birthday  - she was still practicing putting her fingers in the right place to show off "three"!  She asked me every day for a week, "It's my birthday again?!"  

Back to School

I can hardly believe that Gianna has started PRE-SCHOOL!!  She has the teacher that Angelo had for pre-school, so she is comfortable with her, and some of her friends from the toddler room have moved up with her also.  She's still only 2, but since she will be 3 later this month, they felt she was ready to move up to the new room.  She still loves to go to the infant room to visit the "babies".  So funny because I still feel like she's MY baby!

Full disclosure.....this isn't actually a backpack - it's just a big stuffed animal that you put on your back.
It really has no use, but I couldn't resist getting it to wear with her outfit! :)

Showing off her new glasses!

GiGi was sorting colored bears when I left - she was ready to play and just said "Bye Mom!"
No tears for her, but a few for me!
And oh yeah, the new glasses are already replaced by the old one again this morning....
I've got to get the new ones adjusted again.

GiGi's artwork and note home from her first day.
I love hearing what she did during the day!

Angelo started Kindergarten and loves it so far!
A big relief for me since I thought he would miss pre-school.
Dominic is in 3rd grade now and showing Angelo the ropes.

Birthday Gift

Hearing GiGi say this was the best gift I could ever receive!!!  She loves everything about birthdays (the Happy Birthday song is one of her all-time favorites), so all day yesterday she said - Happy Birthday Mommy!!!

Hard to Say Goodbye

In less than 3 years, Gianna has been blessed with some amazing therapists, teachers and friends.  She has grown so attached to some of them, and saying "Goodbye" is never easy.  I've written a little before about how special Ms. Leah is.  She has been her teacher in the toddler room, the teacher who first taught her to say "water" which really started GiGi's talking, the teacher who GiGi wakes up every single morning and asks about ("I see Leah today?").  Since GiGi has been on summer break for the past two weeks, she doesn't realize that when she returns to school on Monday, Ms. Leah won't be there.  She moved out of state for her husband's work.  Which of course I completely understand, but also breaks my heart!  Today when Gianna asked me "I see Leah today?" and I told her "Not today!", she followed up for the first time with "Ever again?".....  I couldn't even respond because I knew I would lose it and cry!  

So Ms. Leah, THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts for the love, caring, patience, and persistence that you have shown with Gianna.  You have always believed in her and brought out the very best in her.  We're going to miss you like crazy and wish you the very best!!!  I am not sure if GiGi will get to see you "ever again", but I know that the positive influence you've had on her life will remain with her always.

"What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, 

for all that we love deeply becomes a part of us."

 - Helen Keller

Last day of spring semester

Ms. Leah doing an assessment at home with GiGi.
This is the first time I ever heard G start to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"

Eyes on the Prize

These pictures show the moments when we were having fun.....
No pictures of the grumpiness, boredom and tears from getting her eyes dilated and waiting for 2 hours!!  

We visited the ophthalmology office today to get Gianna's eyes checked.  I'm anxious to get her a new pair of glasses.  She has loved her purple ones, but they are definitely "well loved" like an old favorite stuffed animal at this point - scratched, scuffed and stretched.  It was a LONG wait today but her doctor did think her eyesight has improved a bit (she is slightly less far-sighted than before).  She does still need to wear her glasses at all times and we need to patch her left eye for a half hour a day.  I was pretty proud of how she could name the pictures on the screen to check her eyesight (hand, cake, bird, etc.).  The only one she was totally mystified on was the phone - it was a picture of a traditional old phone.....which probably no kid her age has ever actually seen!!  But it was neat to see her name the pictures - not only to demonstrate her improved vision, but also due to the fact that she literally wouldn't have been able to say any of the words for these pictures just 6 months ago!  She also sat in the examination chair by herself instead of in my lap for the first time - such a big girl!

Happy 4th of July!

Celebrating the 4th...and a day home together!

No swimming, cookouts or fireworks here today - it has rained ALL day long!!  But we still had lots of fun and smiles sharing the day together with Mimi and Granddaddy, and an afternoon walk through the rain.  

Sharing Mimi's corn on the cob

This picture pretty much sums up the weather here today....

My little Miss America! :)