Conversations with Gianna

These have been gathered over the last month or so.

G: Do you want to hear me say ‘picture’ in Spanish?

Me: Yes!

G: No!

Me: Gianna, can you just stop talking for a few minutes?

G: But that’s what I do; I talk and talk and talk.

Me: I’m exhausted.

G: Why?

Me: Because Daddy hasn’t been home for 3 days and I’m tired.

G: (after thinking a minute): You should just be happy that you’re healthy.

Right you are, Gianna thanks for making me feel very small. (She got this idea from our Madeline book, but I was still surprised that she said it at an appropriate time.)

Me: Tell me about your drawing.

G: These are dinosaurs.

Me: Dinosaurs?

G: Yes. This one is a wackosaurus.

G: Mom did you play soccer.

Me: Yep, when I was a little girl.

G: Did you spore any golds? (score any golds)

Me (as Cinderella’s stepmother): You can’t go to the ball.

G: (as Cinderella): Yes, I can. I’m going to the ball.

Me: Well, I guess you outsmarted me this time.

G: Yes, I unsmarted you.

And I mentioned (and provided video evidence) that Gianna has been a singing and dancing fool lately. Here's some more evidence in some still photos. She even danced around in the Tinkerbell costume Aunt Elizabeth got for her months ago...she has always refused to wear it.

And, I can't leave Mark out of this post completely! I believe he is 1) ready to hop on his sweet ride, away from the craziness and 2) adorable!

End of July/early August

Before spending the last week of July with Grandma and Grandpa, we had Doug’s co-worker and his family over for an early barbecue. The insanely hot weather kept us inside, but the kids still had a great time…and so did the rest of us.

Our time at Grandma and Grandpa’s passed quickly. We spent a lot of time with Nonna and Elizabeth and the kids too. We did some crafts, we went to the zoo, and the boys “chased” each other. Too cute!

Other than that we’ve just been trying to stay cool. Gianna’s become quite the singer and dancer lately and Mark is just trying like crazy to walk instead of crawl! Oh, and I’m note sure the pictures do it justice, but his hair is getting curlier by the day. Much to Doug’s dismay, and my delight!

She washed dishes with my mom every night we were there. It was not a quick task and it always involved singing. I'm not sure what the song below is about, but there's a lot of theatrics, which is awesome.

July has been pretty relaxed so far, but we’ve had lots of fun visits from family and lots of fun summer activities. On July 4 we went up to Indian Lake, NJ to see a bunch of my family members. My cousin Matt lives on the lake. So it was an awesome place to celebrate with some great food and boat rides. Gianna loved meeting her 2nd(?) cousin Jake and hasn’t stopped talking about him since. Unfortunately, though, she had a bit of a fever so we did not stay late enough to see fireworks there. But TV fireworks work well enough for me!

My parents came to stay with us for a few days after that and we had tons of fun. The highlight, I think, was our trip to chik-fil-a (aka The Nugget Store), where Gianna got this hat that she wore for two days straight. Gianna and I had a fun girls morning one day and went to Chuck E. Cheese’s. And Doug and I took her to a little concert nearby that night. (This ended in a ridiculous meltdown over a stubbed toe, but let’s focus on the positive!) It really is so fun to have time alone with her every once in a while.

Later in the week Elizabeth and the kids came to visit. The girls played really well together and it’s so fun to see the boys start to do fun things. Jack is all over the place, I hope Mark can keep up soon! They’re definitely interested in each other.

We made the trip up to Jersey City to see them on Saturday when Aunt Jenny came to visit. I forgot my camera, but we had a great lunch at The Taco Truck in Hoboken and fun playing in the park. Gianna and Mark both loved seeing their Aunt Jenny. Mark liked showing her what a messy eater he is.

The kids and I went to Jersey City again during the week for a playdate, but turned out to be mostly a lunch date for Elizabeth and me. There’s a deli famous for awesome sandwiches, called Fiore’s. So Elizabeth kindly went and got us the day’s special, sausage sandwiches. And they were awesome. Doug and I will have to make the trip sometime for their renowned roast beef…only made on Thursdays and Saturdays! I’m sure it will be worth it.

Last weekend we made a day trip to Binghamton (way too much time in the car, but at least we got to sleep in our own beds that night!) for the DeAngelo family reunion. We celebrated Isabella’s 3rd (!) birthday beforehand. Gianna was super excited to see Bella open her gifts and share her cake! And, as always, it was nice to see the extended DeAngelo family. Gianna enjoyed playing with her cousins in the sand and on the playground and even in the lake a bit. Mark just looked cute.

Since we met up with Nonna and Pop-pop at the reunion, they brought us the walker for Mark. He’s really loving cruising around in it. He desperately wants to get on the carpet with it, but he still manages to chase his sister around the kitchen. Too cute!

Gianna may be turning into a Jersey girl after all. Here’s a video of her talking about stickers (“stickahz”).

In other news, Mark's latest favorite toy is this ball. And as always, he loves attention from Gianna!

I lost the will to blog...so here is all of June!

June has been super busy for us. It started with a fun trip into Manhattan for a playdate with Riley (2) and Piper (10 months). Gianna and Riley had a great time playing together. And Gianna is quite taken with Piper too. Piper introduced Mark to one of her local friends, Ryann. And these three chubs had some good staring contests. It was an unbelievably gorgeous, mild day and we were so happy to spend it all outdoors with friends! Thanks girls!

The next weekend our friend from Harvard, Kelly, came all the way from Texas to visit us. It had been a year and a half since we last saw her and it was great to reconnect. Gianna took an instant shine to her and wanted to show Kelly everything; especially her latest accomplishment: using the potty! We’re grateful to Kelly for being such a good sport and being Gianna’s potty “audience” for 2 days! (The potty training was basically Gianna’s idea and she’s been doing great! We’re so proud of her!)

The following week we went to my parents’ house in VA while Doug was in Luxembourg again. We didn’t do too many exciting things, but I got a chance to get some shopping done with the extra hands around. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

We came home Friday afternoon and Nonna made the trip with us; which was great since there was a major accident and the trip took almost an hour longer than it should have. Pop-pop came up Saturday morning. It was great to spend the weekend with them.

Gianna sporting all of her pull-ups on the trip home.

Gianna "feeding" Mark, so cute!

Last week we went to our church’s annual carnival. Gianna enjoyed the rides this year, so that was fun. It was SO hot when we were there that it sapped our energy a bit. Nonetheless it was fun to see her enjoy the rides and games.

Mark makes this face often, but it seems like the heat made it more prominent!

For the last few days Doug has been at a class and not been able to get home before the kids were in bed and was also gone all weekend. So we missed having Daddy around for sure! We’ve mostly passed the time with silliness at home, but we have had some fun outings like our trip tot he Discovery Museum. And check out our two silly videos at the end where Gianna sings happy birthday to America and Mark spins on his butt.

TEETH!

I swear, he makes this face all the time. It's not JUST because of the tiara :)

Mark loves The Supremes (he's watching a video of them)

I'm sure he would have enjoyed this "pond" more if he could crawl.

The first time Gianna has ever enjoyed a ball pit.

Grandparents and great-grandparents

The last couple of weeks have been busy. The kids and I went to VA while Doug was in Luxembourg during the week. We had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa and getting to see Aunt Elizabeth, and cousins Bella and Jack almost every day was a real treat. Unfortunately, I am a terrible photographer and there is little to no evidence that any of this occurred. But, it was a hot week, so I managed to snap a few pictures of all the fun Gianna had in the pool at Grandma and Grandpa’s and all the fun she had with Bella in the sprinkler at Nonna and Pop-pop’s. It was a great week and we are super grateful to everyone for keeping us from missing Doug too much.

Doug had a good trip to Europe, but we were so glad for him to come home Friday evening. But there’s no rest for the weary and so we were off to Binghamton to celebrate Doug’s grandfather’s 90th birthday and to see the rest of the De Angelo family (including great-grandma De Angelo, see picture). We had a great time getting to see so many family members!

As a side note, we are on day 2 of being pacifier (aka bunkin) free! I followed my sister-in-law Elizabeth’s idea of suggesting the idea of a bunkin fairy coming to take them all away and give them to babies who need them (thanks, Elizabeth!). So I’ve been mentioning the bunkin fairy to Gianna for a week or two and every once in a while I ask if she’s ready for the fairy to come. On Monday, much to my surprise, she said yes! There have been a few minutes of crying at every bedtime or naptime and some early wake-ups (but she’s been getting up early anyway, so not that much worse!) but all-in-all she’s done really well and we’re so proud of her. After her first nap without it she said, “Am I a woman now?” Sorry Gianna, just because you’ve gotten rid of your pacifiers does not make you a woman. Unfortunately, I believe she thinks the only thing standing in her way of becoming a woman now is using the potty. We’ll keep you posted on that one!