When you hear...

.... a little voice at around 2am saying, "Ut oh Mama. Ut oh Mama" coming from your 20 month old, be prepared! Luckily, it wasn't as bad at I first thought. After hearing quite a few people saying that some nasty stomach bug has been going around, that was my first initial thought to the "Ut oh". Gianna isn't one to wake up during the night and most definitely has never said that.

You see, Gianna is loving knowing how to zip and unzip. Needless to say, before she finally fell asleep last night, she must of unzipped her footed pajamas, taken them completely off, and removed her diaper. Once, I was able to focus and realized that "Ut oh" was indeed not a bunch of vomit in her crib and was only pee, I was relieved! I can deal with a quick wipe down of the baby, changing of sheets and jammies, and trying to trick her with a pink blanket that is not the pink blanket. Mission accomplished and said baby went right back to sleep.

Phew. Lesson learned. Pack all zipper jammies away once baby masters the unzipping process. :)

(Bye froggie jammies. Until next time....) :))

Ava

I have to say, that 3 has been by far my favorite age so far. Ava is learning more and more each day. Shes constantly asking questions (it hasn't drove me crazy yet). Shes extremely observant. I have to be honest, I thought for sure Ava would have the hardest time transitioning from being the only child by my goodness, she sure has surprised me! Going from being the only to 1 of 3 in the last year she has been a trooper. She absolutely adores her sisters! Shes loving that she always has a playmate that's always willing to play. And when Ava's not feeling like "playing" shes loving being able to be the Mama to her baby sister. Ava is so kinda, gentle and nurturing to Lainey. Of course, Ava and Gianna's favorite thing to play is Mama. So, having a real life baby to dress, undress, feed and (pretending) to change diapers, they both are over the moon. Conversations like this happens on a daily basis. This particular one is from yesterday:

Scene: Making Ava's been and shes trying to hang on to my leg

Me: Ava, please don't do that.

Ava: Why, Mama? You have a baby in your belly?

She used to always do this when I was pregnant with Lainey and I had enough weight to carry around and would tell her that it hurt me and the baby to do that.

Me: No, Ava, Mommy doesn't have a baby in her belly.

Ava: Then why cant I do it?

Me: I just don't like it.

Fast forward a couple hours

Ava: Mama, your going to have a baby in yours (she always says "yours" hehe) belly again?

Me: Yea, some day. Why do you ask? Do you want Mommy to have another baby?

Ava: Yes, I was all the baby brother and baby sisters because I want to hold them all.

Another conversation with her a couple weeks ago while driving in the car.

Ava: Mama, one day, I'm going to be a Mama just like you. I'm going to drive in my car fast with all my baby boys and baby girls.

Hehehhe. Shes obsessed, I tell ya!!

I briefly mentioned in Gianna's post that Ava is quite the bossy little thing these days. Ava whole hearted believes *she* is the Mama in this house. Which means that she barks quite alot of orders. No joke, multiple times a day I hear "Gianna, come here, 1....2.....3.... ok! Time out!" :)

Speaking of, we will be having to re-evaluate our parenting techniques.. :) Stay tuned!

Gianna

18 months old on Christmas---------->
Lets see... Gianna is 20 months old! Wow! She is now the age that Ava was when we brought her home from the hospital. Her age is really showing these days... I'm still not quite sure why they call it "Terrible Two's" when it definitely starts around 1.5. For about the last 6 months or so, Gianna has been a real handful. Trying to gain her independence, testing the waters, and starting to get alittle mouthy. ;) I guess we could blame it on a couple of things... bringing a new baby home, becoming the middle child, or her age. Id like to stick with the last and just blame it all on the age. But, no, really. Gianna LOVES her baby sister. More and more shes becoming interested in loving on her sister, wanting to hold her (note: Lainey does NOT like to be held these days, she by far way too busy for that), comfort her, and make her laugh. Shes finally stopped wanting to poke Laineys eye out, now she would much rather stuff a bottle in her mouth if she happens to find one, regardless if its realy or fake. Gianna is also maturing alot, too. She developing a great relationship with Ava. They are about to converse back and forth with one another, she takes orders pretty well (Ava is bossy, but we will save that for the next post). Gianna is learning how to count. Her favorite number is 2 but refuses to count correctly.. goes something like this - 2, 3, 7, 8. Hey, its a start!! :) Which reminds me, her vocabulary is growing by the minute. A matter of fact, she just saw that I had my slippers on and said "Mommy, shoess off!!!!". Gianna is still a lover of food and sleep (yahoooo!). She takes 1 nap a day ranging from 2-3 hours and is also in bed at 7pm. She is a major Daddys girl (and look just like him and her big brother!). She snuggles right up to him and would be ok if they didnt move all day. It makes Daddys heart happy. Gianna is in the 90th percentile for height - shes just started wearing size 2t in clothes and size 7 shoes! Wowzer! Im really excited for this summer... Gianna is going to love playing in the sandbox and swimming!

Lainey

Ill start with updating everyone on our little ones. Ill start from youngest to oldest:

Lainey.. I don't even know where to start with her! The last time I updated this blog she was just a couple weeks old when I (finally) announced her birth. Tomorrow Lainey will be 7 months old. I'm not even joking, 7 months old!! The first couple of months were really rough before we realized that she had acid reflux which always seemed to be at its worst at night.. figures! Once we figured that out and started medication for it, things started looking up. Sooooooo, here we are today.. almost 7 months ago, I gave birth to what I didn't even know at the time, was going to be exactly what our family was missing! <3 Isn't it amazing how God creates each child so differently and just knows exactly what every family needs?

There is just something about Lainey... when looking at her, she just makes us feel like everything is just fine in the world. When she smiles, she smiles from way deep down inside. She shows she great emotions... all of them. When shes happy she has this really big smile (not the open mouth baby smile but a real smile) and she just started to do this really cute giggle with it. When shes sad, she looks at you with these eyes.. her eyes get weepy, they start to tear up and she tries really really hard to not cry, then out comes the pout and the big alligator tears. Breaks this Mamas heart <3

Shes rolling everywhere, scooting, and practicing really hard to start crawling. Shes constantly rocking back and forth on her hands and knees. She hasn't yet figured it out. Even though I'm extremely happy and excited for her, Im also really sad. Im sad how fast time goes by. Im sad that Ive had to start working on her 1 year scrapbook in order to have it finished by her 1st birthday. Im sad that she is going to be a toddler sooner rather than later. But, with all that said, I cant wait to see her personality continue to evolve and see how she fits in with her sisters.

Shes sleeping really good.. shes still taking 3 naps a day, down for the night by 7, wakes usually 1 time in the middle of the night (if its anymore than that, this mean Mama makes her cry it out, which by the way never lasts more than 15 minutes and is a stop and go kinda thing).

She sits with us at dinner every night at gets some jar food. Shes only been introduced to peas, green beans and carrots. Shes really been enjoying them and being part of the family at dinner time! (I love seeing how full our table it at dinner! Its fills my heart with so much joy!) Oh, and she has 2 teeth. I thought for sure she was going to get a couple more bottoms soone after the others but still no sign of them. I sure cant wait to see that beautiful smile with top AND bottom teeth!!!

We're still here!!

Hello?... Hello?... Anybody out there??? Im baaaaaaaaaack!

I know, I know, Ive said this a handful of times, but seriously, Im back for real. See these girls are doing way too many cute things these days for me not to keep up with a journal (blog) for them. I obviously really stink at making sure I write all these cute little things they do down but Im confident that I can dedicate a blog post every couple of days to their milestones and cute little sayings. My wonderful husband, has started working on our family website that we have had for years, that still hasnt been touched. Im really excited to finally have it up and running in no time! Which means, my blog will be moving but dont worry for all you readers that love reading about my exciting life, Ill be sure tell redirect you when the time comes! <3 But for now, Ill be working on a couple of posts to catch me up! :) Be sure to check back lots in the next couple of days!