Happy Birthday, Gianna Grace!

Our baby girl is one year old today!  I can't believe how this year has flown by, and how much we have loved it.  Gia is a social, happy baby with a llittle bit of drama mixed in (especially if she's hungry or tired).  She loves to babble, but the only words we can make out are "Uh-oh," "Hi," and occassionally "mama" and "daddy."  She sometimes makes the "puh" sound for "puppy," but we haven't heard the actual word yet.  You're cruising, but not walking yet... I think it's right around the corner, though!  You love to eat "chubby bunny" style, and the sippy cup is still more of a toy then a cup.  You love to blow kisses and wave "bye-bye," and we are just dying for you to give hugs! 

Gia, you are deeply loved.  As you grow up, remember that you have love and support from us, your aunt and uncle, your grandparents, great-grandparents, great-uncles and aunts, second cousins (and one day, cousins), church family, many friends, your dog, and most of all, from your Heavenly Father, who created you to be just who you are.  

You will make mistakes in this next year, and I promise to be patient as you learn new things and try out your independence.  I promise to let you grow at your own pace and not compare you to any other baby.  I promise to love you with whatever personality, talents, interests and faults you develop, and (Lord willing) I promise to be here to help you grow in the knowledge of the gospel, so that you can know true love, peace and forgiveness.

We love you so much, Gianna Grace.  You will always be our first little girl, with a special place in your Mama and Daddy's hearts.  I will sadly miss your baby stage, but I am so excited to see you as a toddler!  Thank you for being an amazing daughter.  We wouldn't trade you for the world (not even for an Abbott's)!

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Getting messy isn't always fun

Our friens Laura took pictures of Gia for her first birthday.  Laura has a special eye for photography, and she & her son Blake were excited to come with us to photograph Gia.  They brought all kinds of objects, like a tamborine, so that Blake could get her to smile.  I got the "smash cake" idea from my friend Kelli Esler (she did the same thing with her girls), so I bought a $2.50 oversized cupcake at Smith's so that we could have some fun.

Gia's first reaction was to grab the decoration on top.  She had no initial interest in the actual cupcake.

Then, the disaster happened.  Gianna swipped her foot across the top of the cake, covering the foot with icing.  She felt extremely violated by this icing, and proceeded to tell us so with an angry cry.  

It was cold and Gia wanted milk, not cake.  But in the end, we finally helped her understand that she did want cake, by feeding it to her.

By the end, she got into it and enjoyed eating the cake.  I got the blue icing so that it would show up well in the pictures.  However, this meant that she ened up looking like a smurf.  But a very cute smurf!  I hope that this was good practice for her so that when she eats her real cake on her birthday, she will know what to do with it.  Thank you Laura for capturing these memories for us!  They are priceless!

Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Vacuum?

When we first got Nola, she would pee and poop all over the floor everytime I turned on the vacuum cleaner.  Until about 6 months ago, I always put her outside when I vacuumed.  For some reason, Gia is also afraid of it!  She cries and cries when it's turned on.  It's really hard to find time to vacuum now... I don't want to wake her when she's sleeping, but I can't vacuum when she's awake.  What to do??

So yesterday, since Bobby was home, I thought that I would try to vacuum while he took care of her.  But when I turned on the vacuum, Nola jumped on the couch for saftey, and Gia began to cry.  Bobby took her out of the room, and Nola followed.  After I vacuumed a bit, I looked into the kitchen and found this:

Our poor, scared little girls.  I don't know if Nola will outgrow her fear, but I sure hope Gia does, because I plan on passing this chore off to her!

What's In a Name?

Dear Gianna,

I wanted to blog about why we named you "Gianna Grace," so that when you read this one day, you will know just how special the name is to us.  I found the name Gianna, and I loved it because I thought it sounded sweet and feminine.  I was also drawn to it because it is an Italian name, and I wanted you to remember your Italian heritage.  

I wanted your name to have a special meaning, or at least to know that it wasn't a terrible meaning.  So, I looked your name up on the internet.  

Gianna" means "God is gracious".  Gracious = getting good things that we don't deserve.

When I shared this meaning with your dad, he fell instantly in love with your name.  He said that "God is gracious" has been the theme of his life.  God has given him so many blessings and good things which he didn't deserve (he included you and me in that list of things).  Despite our sin, God continues to give us good things.  God doesn't owe us anything, but out of His over-flowing love, He gives us these things.  Always remember how deeply your Father loves you.

As far as "Grace" goes, it of course continues with our theme of how gracious God has been to us.  But also, I just loved the way it sounded with "Gianna."  So, you're not named after anyone in particular, but your name is there to remind you of the goodness of God, as well as your Italian roots :o)    

Expect the Unexpected

Sometimes things happen, and they take you off guard.  Most of the time, I panic initially, but the situation ends up being fine in the end.  So, first up was that my Corelle Ware plate broke.  I mean, broke into 20 pieces.  I am really good at chipping my "pottery" plates.  I'm not sure how it happens, because I try to be careful with them, but inevitibly I end up chipping them.  I have also broken a number of glasses in my lifetime, so we don't bother having nice china or anything around the house.  But, I have never broken a Corelle ware before, and honestly I thought it was impossible.  This stuff is supposed to be indestructable!  But in Lindsay's kitchen, I guess everything is fair game.

So I was washing the dishes, and I had the plate in the sink.  Above it, I was washing a bowl, and it slipped and fell on the plate.  I mean, we're talking maybe 3 inches above the plate, and it shattered!  Really?  How does that happen?

Then, Gianna broke into a rash on Sunday night.  We got home from church and she was broken out on just one side of her face.  Bobby's mom suggested that it could have been a reaction to someone's perfume or fabric, and after giving her a bath, it got much better.

Despite the look on her face, she wasn't in any pain or itching at all.  It looked worse than what the picture shows... her ear was bright red, and she had the rash from under her eye to under her chin, but only the left side of her face.

Then on Monday, when we got back from the gym, she had broken out all over her body.  There were red areas on her legs, arms, back and face.  It almost looked like mosquito bites because there were raised, white areas within the rash, but I knew it wasn't a bug bite.  

So after talking to my mom, Bobby's mom and our friend Jennie, we decided it must be either a reaction to strawberries or a heat rash.  And then, after further experimenting with being in the car, I think it is heat rash.  I hate that she will break out like this everytime she gets hot, but hopefully when her sweat glads develop, it will stop.  I panicked for a while, calling everyone I could think of to give me advice, but in the end, she was fine and the rash was not a major thing.  Thank you, Lord!

 

Here, Piggy Piggy!

I love to watch Gianna eat.  The faces she makes and the way she shovels food in her mouth just crack me up.  She grabs food in both hands and puts in one fistful after another.  And this kid can pack it away!  She's almost at the point where she needs her own kids meal at restaurants.  If this is any indication of how she'll eat as a teenager, Bobby's going to have to get a second job.  

She does go through moments of not really wanting to eat much and then of being really hungry.  Right now she's eating pasta, carrots & celery, BBQ chicken and pears.  Nola sits patiently at the base of her highchair waiting for Gia to drop food, and I let her because it's less clean-up I have to do.  I usually let Gia eat naked because she makes such a mess, and then I can just wipe her down!  But for this video, we kept her shirt on for good manners :o)

This was her first taste of mashed potatoes (aka: potatoes with spray butter), and she loved it.

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Special Moms

Happy Mother's Day... a little late.  Bobby and I were SO busy yesterday, I didn't have time to blog (we knew we would be, which is why we celebrated Thursday night).  But I still want to write about how awesome it is to be on the other side of Mother's Day.  I am used to celebrating having a mom, but it's crazy that now I am a mom!  What a gift Gianna has been in my life.  I feel fulfilled in being her mom and taking care of her (although my true fulfillment is in Christ... this is just an "overflowing" kind of fulfillment.)  I feel so blessed that God would be gracious to us and give us this baby girl to play with, love on, lose sleep over, and see grow.  I love being her mom!

And I know that I couldn't be a good mom without my mom.  She just seems to know everything, like what to do when Gia is sick or how to cope with not getting enough sleep.  She encourages me to put off doing the dishes so that I can play with Gia, and she never makes me feel guilty for doing "dumb mom" things (like bumping Gia's head).  Mom, I love you as many stars are in the sky.  I couldn't be a mom without you.  You are my example and I thank God for you daily.  You are the best mom in the world!

I also happen to have the greatest mother-in-law a girl could ask for.  She is patient, kind, faithful in prayer and faithful to the Lord.  She can make and fix ANYTHING with a needle and thread, and is always cheerfully willing to sew the clothes that I save for her to fix.  She calls me when she know's I'm having a hard day or when Bobby goes out of town, just to make sure I'm okay.  I know she misses us, so we are just waiting for her to move to Utah.  

We're so grateful to have wonderful moms!  We don't take it for granted... we are reminded all the time of how blessed we are.  We love you!

Unexpected Fortune!

We celebrated Mother's Day early (Thursday night) because Bobby works all day Sunday, and for dinner we got Chinese food.  After the meal, Bobby asked me if I wanted my fortune cookie.  I told him that he could eat my cookie, but the fortune was still for me.  When Bobby opened up the cookie and read the fortune, he began laughing as he read it.  I thought he was making it up to tease me because I had said that I wanted to keep the fortune, but he wasn't.  Here's what it said:

I had to read it for myself to believe it!  How funny that this would be MY fortune!  We are going to New Orleans in June, and then I just booked my tickets a few days ago to visit NC in July.  I think that the fortune covers both of these visits, but I don't think that my happiness will be unexpected! 

 

 

Honey Buns!

We buy our bread from the Sara Lee store down the road.  I can get a loaf of bread for 75 cents!  So, once every couple months, Gia and I head over there and stock up on about 10 loafs.  This time when we went in, an elderly man came up to us and handed me a dollar.  I think he may have had a stroke because his language was a little slurred, but I understood him and gushed over his kindness.  HIs said, "this is so she can buy a cookie."  I thanked him repeatedly and couldn't get over how sweet it was.  Gia gave him a big smile, so I'm sure that made his day.  The store keeper told me that he comes in on a regular basis, and he always carries a dollar just in case he sees a child.  How sweet!  

I looked around the store at what they had, trying to find something that Gia could eat and Bobby would enjoy, too.  When Bobby got home and saw the Honey Bun, he got excited and said, "Hey, a Honey Bun!  Is this for me?"  I said, "No, it's for Gia."  His face dropped momentarily until I laughed and told him the story (and that he could have some, too).  So, this morning after breakfast, they shared the treat.  Yes, I know, sugar overload for my 11 month old.  But just look at that face... she loved it!  And she'll have Bobby's amazing cholesterol and metabolism, so what the heck. 

This one looks a little blue-tinted... not sure how that happened.

Needless to say, she's got a sweet-tooth like her daddy!

Uh-oh, Spaghetti-os!

I guess Gia's first official "word" was "uh-oh!"  I had said it to her maybe twice, and she just suddenly started saying it!  Sometimes she says it the right way, and sometimes she just mimics us.  

One time, about three weeks ago, Gianna was sitting on the couch with Bobby and me, and she let out a loud toot (Mama Faye, I didn't write f*rt, just for you).  Then she says, "uh-oh!"  It was hilarious.  Sometimes she will say it when she purposefully drops something (or is about to), but mostly I think she just knows that she's cute when she says it, so she does it for our amusement. 

I got her to say it for the camera, too :o)

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Rainbows, Panera and Blue Bell

Utah is a great state.  Beautiful mountains & scenery, family-friendly, and no humidity.  They have many tasty restaurants, such as Red Robin, Cracker Barrel, and Zupas.  Plus, it has awesome children consignment stores.  But there are three things that would make Utah even better.

Number One:  Rainbows.  I'm not talking about the multi-colored arches that come after a rainstorm.  I'm talkin' about the shoes.  Utah-ians have not been introduced to the wonder of Rainbow flip-flops.  They are comfortable, supportive and match any outfit you have.  I had to search all over to get Bobby some after his last ones were worn out, and there was only one store that carried them... even then I had to order the Rainbows through the store because they didn't have his size.  Utah, your feet would be happier if you had Rainbows.

Number Two:  Panera.  We have a bagel restaurant here that is good, but if you're not there before the group of retired men take over, you can't find a seat and they run out of the bagel you want.  We need a Panera.  I miss their bagels and salads, and I drool when I see my NC friends talking about eating there.  Utah, your bellies would be happier if you had a Panera.

Number Three:  Blue Bell.  Everyone here loves Farr's, but I'm telling you, you haven't eaten ice cream until you've had Blue Bell.  The most delicious thing I've ever eaten.  Bobby and I could take out a whole gallon of mint chocolate chip in two sittings.  Now, I have inside sources who tell me that Blue Bell would like to make their ice cream available out here, but it's just too expensive to ship.  I think we should start a petition to get them to send it to Utah.  Utah, your scales would be sad if you had Blue Bell, but it's worth it.

Don't take this post the wrong way.  I love Utah.  I love my Utah people so much that I want them to experience these happy parts of life.  So, my Utah friends, next time you see me, let me tell you all about these three amazing things!

11 months old!

Gianna is 11 months as of yesterday.  This age is the best.  She is friendly with everyone (although shy at first, which started this past month), but saves those special smiles for Mama and Daddy.  She can still wear most of her 6 month clothes, but can also finally fit into her 9 month clothes.  Such a tiny thing!  As of today, she weighs 17lbs 10 oz.  And I can tell!  She has gotten heavier just in the past couple weeks, so naturally, the muscles in my arms have gotten bigger.  

So, here are some things from the past month:

Her hair has grown a lot, and we're pretty sure it's Bobby's hair.

She finally got into size 1 shoes.

Learned how to pull up and stand.

Can stand on her own (but gets nervous).

Says, "Uh-oh!"

Learned (finally!) how to wave

Actually chews intead of just swallowing her food.

Went swimming for the first time.

Her favorite foods are Macaroni and Cheese, watermellon and ice cream.  You should see her beg from her daddy for some ice cream!

Went to Florida for the first time.

Knows the words "No," "wait," "all done," "milk, and "more"

Spent more than 4 hours away from me.

Sleeping totally through the night and taking two long naps (although she seems to slowly be transitioning to one nap).

These next 3 are very similar, but they were all so cute, I couldn't choose.

The belly shot

Can't believe a year is fast approaching.  I'm looking forward to the celebration, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to break down and cry at some point.  She is getting so big and doing new things all the time, I just need her to slow down and stay a baby for a little bit longer!  What a fun, happy baby you are Gia!  We are so glad that God blessed us with you!