Shadow Dancing

One September day, our munchkin was heading out to the State Park with her daddy. 

While waiting for him outside, she discovered (and played with) her shadow.

* I know these are old, I'm just discovered a bunch of stuff I never posted.

Frustrated Mutterings

Since she was a baby, with a few episodic exceptions, Gianna has been a fantastic sleeper.  She still goes to bed early (7ish), but there is seldom an incident when she awakes at night that a quick hug and rock isn't enough to send her back to dreamland. That is, until New Years Eve.

We live outside of the city limits in a small community.  The revelers that apparently mortgaged there homes in order to buy ridiculous amounts of fireworks -  spent at least five hours on Friday night shooting what sounded like heavy artillery.  Gianna went to sleep just fine after watching a fun firework display from our sunroom window.  But around 10pm she awoke in a screaming panic.  We would take turns seeing about her and rocking her, but she BEGGED us to stay with her, sleep with her, hold her hand.  I'd never seen that before with our independent little girl.

Interestingly enough, the fireworks themselves didn't scare her.  I think being awaken from a deep sleep to what sounds like warfare is the jarring feeling that sent her into a panic.  I was FURIOUS.  The fireworks are always bad in our community....but this year took the cake.  It was excessive, insane and just plain rude.  It's not like we live in the country.  We live in a populated suburban neighborhood.  Trust me when I say that there was a plethora of threats and expletives muttered under my breath that night. 

Finally, at 2:30am, I managed to convince her that the fireworks were done for the night and negotiated a 'prize' for her if she went to sleep to morning.  Good thing I picked up a tiny LED flashlight at the drugstore the night before!

She woke up happy as a lark. Whew.....we made it through that ~ so I thought.  Every night has been a fight since then.  She was still panicking about possible fireworks waking her up.  It was getting increasingly better - until last night when a thunderstorm blew through for several hours.  She screamed her little heart out.  It was really quite pitiful. 

In her 2 and half years, she has never once even woken from the loud rumblings of a thunderstorm - and we've had some doosies!  Now, it seems like we've entered into a whole new territory, thanks to our popaholic neighbors had a grand ol' time on New Years Eve. 

For two hours last night I slept on her floor.  That was the only way she would semi-sleep. Finally by 2:30, she managed to sleep hard enough for me to go back to our bed.  UGH. 

She was difficult today around mid-morning and I know it's because she was exhausted.  Now it's affecting our nights AND our days.  I'm just so irritated. 

I thought writing this out would make me feel better.  Apparently I was wrong. :/ But I supposed that if this is the worst I have to complain about - it's not so bad.  Oh well.  Another day in the life...

Christmas Joy - Part II

I already mentioned what a ball, little Ms. G had on Christmas day.

I just loved how the little things bring such big joy.

There's a life lesson in there somewhere.

Iain got some video of G on Christmas morning...

* * * * * * * * *

Each year I hope to get a sweet Christmas picture of Gianna.

2008

2009

 and there were attempts at the 2010 shots...

...and then some more attempts....

Almost, but not quite...

And our best effort.

The Christmas Card pic attempts had just has many out-takes, but we ended up with this one:

* * * * *

I mentioned in my last post that G got a Karaoke machine from Uncle Vinnie...

Here's my little performer in action...

Christmas Joy - Part I

Christmas was lovely, and simple and abundant.

We stayed home in the morning and opened gifts from Santa.

She got a little ambitious in gift opening - assuming ALL the gifts were hers.

After naptime, we made our way to Memaw and Pepaw's house.

Major Overload!!!!

Gianna got an awesome real keyboard that has tons of songs in it's memory bank and even can teach you how to play them.  And there's a jack for a microphone. (Yes, the phrase, "What was I thinnking?" has come up more than a few times.)

Speaking of microphones....

,,,one came with her Karaoke machine from Uncle Vinnie.  Oh my word ~ I can't wait to post videos of that!  She loves music SO much and has an amazing memory for lyrics.

I'm sure I'll be questioning my brilliant gift ideas in the future, but I know she'll have hours of fun with both gifts. 

My dad's comment was the best, "Are you sure you really want to amplify her?"

What can we say?  The girl's got a voice and some serious volume all on her own!

But she sure makes us smile!

Posing for the camera is not on her 'fun things to do' list.

The little red riding coat makes up for it, though. :)

Yep....she sure brings joy to OUR world.

* * * * *

I found a cute little Santa app on my iPhone which I used to send a message to Gianna.

...and a half

Happy Birthday .....and a half!

Today, this little monkey is two and a half! 

Whew - this ride is going fast.

I'm hoping these next six months toward her third birthday are filled with a whole lot more laughter, learning, love and little moments of heaven.

I also hope her that she and her mommy learn to handle all the challenges that come our way with more finess, grace, kindness and patience.

Happy New Year to all of you!

Thank you for taking the time to check in with us from time to time.