Finally Got A Pet!

.... hehe, well... sorta.... these are 2 squirrels that live in the tree in our front yard... we have named them Fatty & Maddy... Maddy is Fatty's girlfriend. They disappeared for two weeks, we thought maybe they moved away, but they're back! They entertain us! We watch them, Diella and I, and sometimes they watch us back, no joke! Its fun to have "wild" animals as pets, hehe :)

Constant Progress

Quite a while ago, Papa taught her how to say "ta da!" when she accomplished something... well lately, she says it ALL the time! Its so cute, she gets so proud of herself! And then sometimes, adds "good girl" hehehe

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The sentences are finally starting to pour out! So our communication is just getting better & better! Like she'll say "Ella do it" and "Ella share" and "Daddy home"... things like that ... lol, she JUST now was looking at a book and said "flower, good girl, the end" lol, random! She's in Diella Land! I LOVE when she plays by herself & uses her imagination!

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I said how her new fave show is the Backyardigans... well thats a hard word to say! And we'll go through each syllable... i'll say "Back", she repeats it. Yard, 'yard' - Again, 'again'.... I say "Backyardigans" ... and she says "See sings" lol, thats what she calls em, cuz she cant say the whole word, hehe... random!

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Aunt Alethea bought her a little apron (for when she's over there & they cook)... she likes to wear it around the house almost every day! She also likes to wear her sandals, which she calls slippers... and she'll walk around the house, rockin this look... then the other day, came into the living room in the get up, but also added her sunglasses, and she enters the room & just stands there til she gets a reaction out of me... and it totally works, she Cracks me up! (I took a pic of this when it happened, but its kinda a crappy one)

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A LONG time ago, Diella made up her own word for water - 'gakee' ... and i've never corrected her, cuz its so cute... well lately her dad has been working on pronouncing Wa-Ter, and she can do it fine :) so, sometimes when she asks for water it comes out 'water' and other times 'gakee' hehe... there are Lots of words we have been working on pronounciation with her, and almost every time, she corrects herself & gets it right... like this morning she said 'pace' (face), and all I said was "Diella, face, with an F"... she goes "Face" ... perfect! A few ones that she's corrected lately, she repeats them all the time, to remind me that she's got them right now, like she'll say all these in a row, like she remembers them... Light, jammies, bunny, friend, cuz she's got the pronounciation down, finally :)

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She's got this new thing, when she's telling me something or asking for something, she tries to be all cute & tilts her head & has this little grin... she knows JUST how to make us smile & try to get what she wants by bein extra cute... we're in trouble

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Alphabet song, she's still learningn it, piece by piece... her favortite part right now, is H-I-J ... she sings that part over & over, hehe, cute! ... and she'll go "X-Y-Z, now I know, ABCs" ... so we're still pluggin away at it... the other day, I heard her over the monitor, she had her Leap Frog who sings the ABCs and she would repeat every few letters, cool!

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We have a new nickname for Diella... I call her Tornado, my mom calls her Cyclone... this girl jus tears up a room, one after another... we make her pick her messes up, but its jus crazy how fast they happen! Puzzles, will dump them, play with em for a bit, then move to the next room, get out paper & crayons, play with em for a bit, move on... etc.... SOMEtimes we'll leave a room & she'll remind me 'mama, back' ... she knows she has to put everything back... but its just nuts how often we're picking up.... Constantly!

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And there's actually one More nickname we've been calling her lately... Terradactyl... sometimes when she's playin & bein hyper, she's got this LOUD screech that we say sounds like a terradactyl... and its funny, cuz when she was first born, one of her nicknames was "mouse" Jake & I called her that cuz these little tiny adorable squeaky noises she would make... so she's graduated from mouse to terradactyl! ... my dad's one of the ones who calls her that alot, and I always joke with him that its his fault that she's got such a big voice... see, when she was a little baby & she would cry, I would go to get her & my dad would sometimes say 'let her cry a little, she needs to build up those lungs' ... so now I say, "see dad? its all cuz of you that she's so loud" hehe

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I know this sounds silly, her being so young, but if I had to pick, I'd say her love language as of now is Words of Affirmation. Whenever we ask her to do something & she does it, she says "good girl" and we agree, "good girl!" ... I think she wants to hear it from us when we're proud of her, that is so cool! Like we'll say 'take one more bite' or 'use your spoon' , and when she does, she goes 'good girl' ... hehe, and when I said "i'm proud of you" she goes "prou-vu" hehe :) ... oh, and she's really good when we make deals with her... like "if you eat more potatoes you can have a cookie" (or "if you dont eat your potatoes, you dont get a snack) and she says "ok" and does it! Yeeeeaaaahhhh!!!

Played at the Park!

We went to the park with Aunt Alethea & her kids. It was pretty chilly, but we still had fun!

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Diella is so sweet. She asks, alot, "are you ok?" all she says is, 'ok?' but thats what it means... like if I bump my arm or something & say ow, even under my breath, she says 'ok?' I say, 'yea i'm ok" and smile.... she does it if Ethan cries at all too... 'ok?' and I tell her, yea he's ok :) and I've even seen her ask Colton, like if he falls down or anything... 'ok?' ... she's so sweet!

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So her colors, she's got down, all of em. And I noticed something... we never really worked on shapes, but I think one of her books is shapes... she has, for a long time, known star & heart (which I think should be the hardest?) ... and she's also known circle for some time... and quite a while ago, I didnt even know she knew this, I think Ahna helped her with it, but she knows oval, which I thot would be a hard one!... and I think she said triangle the other day?! Cool

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She has discovered the Backyardigans, and LOVES them! I felt bad yesterday, she pointed to the TV and asked me, "duck, moose?" ... I said Backyardigans? she smiles & nodded, but I felt bad cuz it didnt come on for abother like 2 and half hours! But its cute that she likes them so much!

Few Little Stories

The pictures... Diella was doing all kinds of different poses in this chair & turning to me to smile for a picture, it was hilarious! ... Ahna put some clip on earrings on her, she liked that! ... and She Finally Let Me Put Pigtails In Her Hair Again!!! She hasnt left them in since last August! I held her down & put them in the other day & we were all sure to make a BIG deal of how pretty she looked with em in, so she left them! Then even to church this Sunday, I put some in her hair & she left them, YAY!!!!!

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Last blog, I said how Diella has been sitting in the most 'grown-up-looking' positions... well her new one is with her arms behind her head, ya know like arms up, elbows out, hands behind the head, all relaxed... it is So cute! (except she does it alot when she's sittin in her high chair & then whatever food is on her hands gets in her hair... so I am Not for that, but watchin her is adorable!)

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She's getting So much better with pronouncing things correctly! Like for some reason she always said bunny like 'buckin' ... well her daddy helped her say bun-ny, one syllable at a time, and now she says it all the time BUNNY! Like reminding us that she says it right now! :) same with jammies... she used to say it, oh geez, I cant even describe how she used to say it, but she's got it right now anyway :) hehe... in fact, last night I put her down for bed and she goes "jammies, bunny" hehe

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When she's saying a word that we dont understand, we'll go what is that? And she'll keep trying to say it... sometimes she'll hold out her hand and take you to Show You what she means, and she'll say 'show you' ... then when we figure out whatever it is she's getting at, we casually say "oh, ____!" (whatever it is)... and she goes "Oooooh" like to say 'you got it' hehe

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The other day she was sitting in front of the bookshelf, and got out a bunch of books (some kids books, some adults books) and was just so calm & quiet 'reading' these books! It was so cute to see her so entertained all by herself! Then she brought me this huge adult book & sat it on my lap & said 'read' ... lol, ambitious!

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She's finally doing so much better with sentences, starting to put them together much better! We were puttin her down the other night & I said 'tell daddy nite nite', she says 'nite nite' , then I said, 'say nite nite to mommy', and she goes "nite nite mommy" I was so elated!

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One day she was spelling. She said D-I-D-I! I think she was trying to spell her name? It was cute. She was so excited about it too!

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She sings the beginning & the end of the alphabet song (she's trying to catch up with her cousin Aria ;) ... she goes "A, B, C's.... Now I Know!" hehe... and lotsa times she'll jus walk around the house singing "Now I know, now I know" ... aww

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Another kinda sentance she said was "Hi baby"... funny thing is, she wasnt talking to Ethan... she said it to me, LOL

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Ok, every night, Diella & daddy & I say our prayers together before bed. Well there's this specific one that we do with her, thats the same every night. Usually, we say a word, she repeats it, til we get through the whole thing... well the other night, we folded our hands to pray, and all by herself, she begins.... and says ALL this all by herself... "Jesus, thank you, Mommy, Daddy, Ahna, Papa, Amen" !!!! That's most of the prayer, she left off a few things at the end (like her other grandparents that we always mention, Grandad & Mamaw) but I was amazed! She is memorizing! And did it witout us asking her to, it was awesome!

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And lastly, everyone has been asking how she's doing as a new big sister.... (I guess a lot of first borns have trouble with a new baby around)... well she's doing great! She loves to hug & kiss Ethan... and she doesnt seem at all jealous when we hold or feed him... (not even when Ahna holds him... I thought maybe she might not like sharing Ahna with him, but she doesnt mind! :) ... and with them sharing a room, she only woke up the first night, and not since :) So all is well, everyone is adjusting & making it work!

I'm A Big Sister!!!

"I love my new little brother! I love to kiss and hug him! And I'm even (mostly) good about being gentle around him! He's so cute! I cant wait to be able to play with him more!"

~Diella

Just Bored, Figured I'd Blog

Just some pictures Jake took on Sunday, cuz we were rockin the headbands! :) I think Diella is ready for this baby to come, as we are! She hugs & kisses my belly alot! :)

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The colors and numbers have been popping out correctly, left and right! We've had out the two puzzles with colors & numbers & she'll jus plug away & rarely mess up! Even white & black! :) Plus, she loves to count lately, so its really coming along well now!

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Still no success on the potty yet. We're working on that... sigh* ... feels it will never happen.

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We met a squirrell the other day. There's one that lives in the tree right outside the living room window, we named him Fatty. We threw him some bread, and I think he saw us. He went to another tree & started showing off... then walked right up onto our front step! :) Then we saw another one, so we figured it was his woman & we named her Maddy. Fatty & Maddy. They're not out every day anymore, like they were, but we're hoping they come back to stay! Its entertaining for us!

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Oh and she has become quite the little negotiator, believe it or not! Like for example, she'll ask for a cookie... and lets say we tell her either "after dinner" or she didnt eat a good enough dinner & we say no, she holds up one finger right in front of her face and says "Oooone" ... lol, sigh* tryin to inch out every little allowance she can get... thing is, mommy's good at standing her ground & following through with NO, daddy is Such a softy!