Nice Quick One

Diella just has all the answers, hehehe. I was telling her how my back & next hurt from Ethan jumping on me. Dr. Diella told me, "maybe you just need some fresh air." Hahaha! So cute!

Playing in the basement last week, the kids have this toy camera. Well Diella took the toy snake that they have, and she strung up the camera onto the snake, so that the snake was like the camera strap. She said, "look, I'm like you!" I felt so proud that she was making herself to look like a photographer! Oh and you should hear the way she "coaches" when she's pretending to take pictures! She will place you a certain way, and then direct you while she makes little changes, until she's ready to take the picture. Its so great!

At her 4 year well check appointment, Diella had to get some immunizations. She wasn't very happy about it, and she did cry a little, but then she sniffed and said, "I'll try to be brave." I was SOOOO proud of her for that! And she DID do very well for the shots, so I was even More proud!

Every once in a while, Diella will tell me about the dream(s) she had the night before. So one morning last week, she said, "I had a dream that we were at a different church, and Nikkia was there." That was nice. This is actually the second time she told me she had a dream about Nikkia, sweet.

Last night Diella was "building a nest" with grass and dirt and flowers, etc. Then the wind was blowing a bit, and she got a little upset, and yelled that she wanted the wind to stop blowing her things! I smiled and said, "I'm sorry honey, I cant stop the wind." So she goes, "God, can you please stop the wind?!" I thought that was Awesome!!! And then I said, "Diella, you're a genius." (I've said this to her many times before), and I'm not sure why, but she replied, "No, only boys." I'm not sure why she thinks that, but of course I smiled and told her that girls can be geniuses too, hehehee.

Diella also likes to try to spell things, and I think that's great! But she usually just throws some letters out there, hehehe. Like just now she said, "I'm gonna call that the Science museum. C-A-I-D-E." Heheheee.

Jellyfish

AH! I haven't posted in over 2 months! SO much has happened!

Real briefly, we discovered that Diella has the red dye allergy. It affects anger. So we've realized that that has had a lot to do with her behavior. Its been a wonderful change since we've taken the red out of her diet! It's hard for a few days when something red will get past us, but it's something we'll get through. She's very aware of it, so that's helpful too!

Here are just come funny things Diella says…

One day she asked, "why is the sun always beautiful?" And I replied, "God made it like that." She asked, "how?" I answered, "because He's SO big!" As she spread her fingers wide open, she asked, "this big?" I told her how He is even bigger than that, and I named some big things that He's bigger than, and then finally said bigger than…. our house! (we were outside), she looked at the house and said, "wow, thats big, like a giant!"

I'm not exactly sure when Diella has heard her cousin Colton's middle name, and I know she knows Ethan's middle name… but one day Diella yelled at Ethan, and she exclaimed, "Ethan Maximus!" Pah!

Once we were watching tv, and I laid my head on her and told her she was my pillow. She replied, "no, I'm not squishy."

I was so impressed one day when she told me that Simba is Lion King, in Spanish. Thats not actually true, what WHAT an analysis!!!

Ok, so Diella had never once asked about Ethan's…. boy parts. I never offered the information, I just thought I'd wait until she inquired. So finally a week or two ago, she did. It was when I was changing his diaper, and she worded it like this, "whats that twirly thing on his front?" HAHAHA!

So Jake got a terrible sunburn this summer, and one day I had him lay on his belly on the floor, so that I could peel some of it, while the kids were in the room… I was curious to see what they'd think of that. As Ethan watched, he said with desperation in his voice, "be careful mom! Be gentle!" … and then Diella asked, with so much poise & grace, "what the heck is that?"

She once asked, "why do dragons put toothpaste on their tongue, and THEN brush it?" … this is I'm sure, totally confusing until you know that that's what Mushu from the movie, Mulan, does in one scene. I quite often have to explain how some things are ONLY on tv, and not in real life.

I WISH I remembered what Jake and I did for me to write down what Diella's response was to it… but I only wrote down her reply to something that he and I must have done together… she said, "good job guys, that was teamwork!"

Once she used the phrase, "it would be my pleasure." THAT made my day!

Diella asked, "how did sayda come out of your belly, just popped out?" I figured my best response to that at the time was, "pretty much, yup!" Hahaha! oh yea, and then she also asked after that, "what part of her came out first?"

We were watching Evan Almighty. The part where the ark runs into & destroys their house. Diella asked, "what will they do?" and then answered, herself, "buy a new house… but I don't think houses can fit inside stores." LOL, Love that!!!

One day she said, "I cant go all way upstairs & then back down!" I asked why not. She replied, "cuz i don't have enough energy." So then i asked her what energy is, and she said, "it means your body helps you." I liked that answer! I've been asking her the definitions to words a lot lately, to see if she UNDERSTANDS the words she's using… another one I asked her about was the word fragile (because I've heard her use this word before), and she told me, "fragile means to break stuff." hehehe

Once after I had put down all 3 kids for bed, they were pretty quiet, and I thought they were sleeping. But I went into the girls room a little bit later, and there was Diella and Sayda, having their own little slumber party! Yappin away to each other! lol, it was bittersweet

Diella once asked my mom, "Ahna, when are you gonna have your own kids?" And then just yesterday she asked me, "why do some grown ups have kids, and some don't?" I LOVE answering these questions!!!

Diella has ALWAYS liked to name things! (which I LOVE about her!!! I have always been, and am still that way too!) So the other day she was RE-naming things. She said, "My name is Sally, and Ethan's name is Markin. My kids names are Silas and Leelee." I loved it!

Her favorite color has always been pink. Lately, she has TWO favorite colors. Pink and red. But one say she wanted to tell me why. "Do you know WHY my favorite color is red? Because its bright." That just struck me as so cute, because it describes so much of who she is! Bright, bold, loves to be seen! hehehe

Yesterday in the car, she was singing, making up a song, and it went like this, "I love Aria, and Colton, and Anna, and Cecily! And then we have 12 in our family!"

Her new thing is, when you tell her something that she likes, or is excited about, she says, "Yesssssssss!" and hold that S sound… so cute!

I loved it just a few days ago, when Diella said this…. "tell me about God. How did He make EVERYthing in the whole world? Wouldn't He get tired of doing that?"

And I assume this one probably derived from Finding Nemo, (its not said in the movie, but I'm thinking her thought process towards saying this, was maybe something she heard on that movie), but it ranked up there with my top 5 favorite things she's ever said… she told me that "Jellyfish sting you with their genicals." HAHAHHAHAAAAA!!!!

Specifics

The other day Diella asked, " when i grow up, am I gonna have my same voice?" I thought that was strange, but still sweet.

Once Diella was tying a string, and she said, "I tied, then repeat." I asked her, "what does repeat mean?" and she replied, "it means to do it again." I thought it was awesome how well she defined it! Often times we ask her what things mean, and even though I know she knows, its still hard for her to explain it into other words. This time she nailed it!!!

Quite a few times lately, she has been asking for these specifics. She says, "I want silver, shiny sneakers, so I can learn to tie em. Medium ones, so they'll fit me when I'm bigger." Well like I said, she has asked for this more than once, and her birthday is in 10 days. My mom told me last night she found Diella some sparkly sneakers! I think her Year will be made!

Another very smart thing she asked the other day…. well, she both asked it, AND answered it! She asked, "How do trees stand up?" and I think I had gotten as far as the word, "Well… " and she interrupted, "I think the other part of the tree us buried in the ground." I thought that was quite analysis!

One day, I don't remember why, but she was explaining to me how, "daddy is a bigger size, mom is medium size, Diella and Ethan are smaller, and Sayda is tiny." Again… wonderfully analytical! haha!

The other day, I don't remember what Jake was doing, but Diella made an exclamation at him that cracked me up! Now, I need you to hear it right in your head before I write it… it would be as though someone was maybe teasing you, but in a playful way, and you were to shout their name, as though to stop, but not annoyed or angrily… so, whatever he was doing, Diella said, "Daddy Ritenour!!!" heheehe.

Diella has this new obsession. Leggins. She wears them pretty much every single day, its cute! She wears them under dresses and skirts. Even when we have a hot day, she "Has To" wear them! In fact, when we suggest that she doesn't really have to wear them, when its hot out, she'll say, "I don't want anyone to see my panties." haha! … but guess what!? Her MOMMA was the same way as a kid! I HAD TO wear shorts under my dresses for church on Sundays. I remember doing that all the way up through most of grade school… 4th, maybe even 6th grade!

She has a rug in her room thats got a hopscotch board on it. She has this new thing where she likes like lay out outfits, or certain toys on each number of the board. I don't think its really for any reason, she just likes to. I think its cute. She's used the word "organized" before, so I think its just part of how her little mind works!

Nothin Gets By Her!

Diella used the word "absolutely" the other day! haha! I know she hears me say it often, but to hear her use words like this, and use them correctly, just never ceases to amaze me!

Our new favorite movie is Tangled. We watch it a Lot! She doesn't anymore, but I remember after the first few times, she was saying her name, Mrs. Punzel. Haha! I dunno where she got that???

Oh, and the black eye from the pictures. Ethan threw a remote at her. Nice, huh?

The other day she told me she was thirsty, so she went to the fridge to get something to drink, but when I caught up with her, she had just put the VINEGAR back in the fridge!!! With wide eyes, I said, "what is that??" she told me she drank it. I stuttered, and could hardly compose myself as I was trying to ask her if she was alright. Not that I thought it would hurt her, it just seemed as though she wasn't even phased by it! She said, "its not water." I laughed of course, and gave her some water to drink, but it just struck me really funny that she noticed it wasn't water, but didn't really act all that bothered by it! HA!

She is so OCD, haha! She does like to have things organized, which is great, and I'm not complaining! But we've noticed it in other things, like when its time for nap or bedtime, she likes her blankets to go a certain way. One of them has a hole in it, and that end of it has to be by her feet, not by her face. And her other blanket is colorful on one side, and solid purple on the other. Well THAT blanket has to have the colorful side UP, when she gets covered up. Yea. haha, we'll pray this doesn't develop TOO much!

There was a commercial on the other day, with Larry the Cable Guy. Diella says, "hey, that sounds like Mater!" HAHA!! THATS My girl!!!

We were driving home from Cook Forest, and we were passing lots of places with horses. We passed one, and Diella asked how many there were. I told her three. We passed more, she asked again, and I told her there were four. She said, "we passed 7 horses!" My mouth dropped open, and I said HOW Do you KNOW that??? Hahaha!

We were playing outside this week, in the front yard, each kid had a big bouncy ball. I told the kids, "if a ball goes in the road, Don't get it. Mommy will get it for you." Diella said to me, "well don't get mushed, because then we might hafta find a new mommy." Haha!

The other day I was drinking orange juice, and Diella says to me, "mommy, you cant drink orange juice! That might make orange juice come out of your boobies, and Sayda doesn't like orange juice yet." BWAA HAAHAA!!!

Finally!

Its been WAY too long since I've blogged! Diella's imagination and vocabulary are just expanding so much! One day I walked into her room, and she was frustrated. I asked her what was wrong and she said, "I'm trying to make the walls into ballerinas, but I dunno how."

Once in the car she preceded a song with this introduction, "This is a song about when I was a little baby." … but I really don't recall the song having anything to do with that, haha! This same car ride, we were asking her to sing another song and she said, "I'm not gonna sing incase you give me money." I think she meant 'unless' not incase, but it was still funny!

One day while playing dress up, Diella suddenly exclaims, "This is So Glamorous!" it cracked me up! I thought where did she learn that word!?!? … she later told me she heard it on Nemo, and then next time we watched it, sure enough, I heard Dori say it!

She once said she wants to have ten kids when she grows up. Uh, wow.

One of my other favorite things that she's said is, "I know i'm 3, but I'm still a little kid."

Once morning she came to me and said with a bit of desperation, "I had a gerbil dream!" I realized later that she meant terrible, she had a terrible dream. Aww. Luckily, she didn't remember what her dream was about.

Some of the best things to hear as a parent just stay with you forever. Once she said to me, "You make my heart feel so happy!" What more could a momma ask for??

The kids & I love to joke around with each other! One day I said, "Diella, can I bite your butt?" she said "No…… but you can bite my ear." That cracked me up!

Awwww, the day we were having Ethan's birthday party, I went in to wake up Diella from her nap. She had a whole bunch of little hair clips in her hair, that she apparently did herself before she fell asleep. I started to take them out, not that I was mad or anything at all, but just cuz that could not have been comfortable! And she broke my heart when she sadly said, "I wanted to make it pretty for the party, but I couldnt do it." AWW!!

We've talked a lot about what things are healthy to eat and good for your body, and what is not. The kids eat a very large and very healthy lunch every single day. When I got all the things laid out on her plate, mostly fruits & veggies, but also a small leftover slice of pizza, she said, "I don't want my pizza, i only want to eat the healthy things." .... Nice!

Once when Diella was on the potty, she said "I wish I had a big butt." Trying not to giggle, I said, "you do?" She replied, "yea, cuz you're big, and you have a big butt. When am I gonna be like that?" I love that she wants to be like me! Even if that means her wanting a butt like mine, HAHA!

One day she comes up from the basement and says, "this squirted ALL over the place, but don't worry, I licked it all up." ….. um, wow, my mind went in so many places! Turns out it was yogurt, and there really wasn't much of a mess at all, but it was pretty funny!

I love how kids' minds work! How they may have the right concept about things, but the reality is so much different. Like how Diella was trying to reach the balloon that was on the ceiling, and of course she couldn't. So she stepped up onto a folded towel to get herself higher. HA!

Diella loves to play Super Mario on N64. When you first turn on the game, Mario comes on and says, "Its ME! Mario!" only he says it with an Italian accent. So Diella will ask, "can I play Madio?" She thinks his name is Madio, hehehee. I finally corrected her, and she said, "oh! Mario! I thought his name was Madio." heeehee.

I asked Diella what she wanted to be when she grew up, very interested of what her answer would be. She replied, "a collector." Haha, oh my! I said, "what's that?" And she said, "when something gets all messy, you collect it." Haha! …O…… K!

ok, so the other night, my mom told me a story about what Diella did while she was watching the kids. They were playing the Veggie Tales Silly Songs DVD, and they were all dancing! Then Diella froze, smiled, tooted once, tooted twice, and continued to dance. My mom cracked up, and Diella stopped again, and said with a smile, "thats called tooting while you dance." HAHHAAA!!

So today, Diella and I were in the car, out on our date, playin games & singing songs, and after a minute of silence, she says, "I wish daddy didn't say no….. and I wish you didn't say no, and I wish Ethan didn't say no." So I then went into the big schpeel about why we have to say no sometimes, and how its because its the best thing for us, and even gave an example from an episode of Sid the Science Kid, and so on… and she said, "do you say no to yourself?" And I replied, "yea, actually I do." and she came back with, "you cant talk to yourself, cuz you don't have two mouths." HAHAHAAAA!!!!

And the Best news of all…. After about 2 and half years of Miss Diva and her attitude, we are seeing her sweet side to be the most prominent now! I would say she is officially done with Terrible Three's! She still has her minor outbursts, but overall, she has become SO well-behaved!!! Its SO incredibly refreshing to have her obey so often, and to see her want to do nice things for her siblings and for me, with such enthusiasm! We've always known how much repetition it takes with discipline for Diella, and now to see that its paying off is Such a great reward!

Everybody Dance Now

True Entertainment

Well, Diella's behavior has been very up and down. She's trying to get used to the new baby, i'm sure, but she LOVES having a little sister! Once she asked, "are we gonna keep Sayda forever?" and when I said yes, she was obviously pleased. Her next question was, "does Sayda have an armpit?" Haha, what!?

As usual, she says some pretty hilarious things. One day she called me Mrs. Cheerios. I'm not sure why, but not only did it make me laugh, but its pretty accurate…. I eat them every single day!

Once she asked for water and then she said, "if I don't have water, my bones will go away." Wow, where do they come up with these things??

Its the end of January now, but I haven't blogged since a few days after Sayda was born. So there are some stories in here from Christmas time. I love how they hear a certain word wrong, and then think thats how its pronounced. Like she calls the snowglobe, a snowglope, hehe!

One day she put herself in timeout for biting her nails (I don't put her in timeout for that, but apparently she wasn't happy with herself for doing it), and she said "and I'm NOT gonna get up until I tell myself!" HAHAHA!!!

She has used some really complicated words for a 3 year old! She uses them correctly too! One day she told me something was fabulous. Yes. And another day I noticed something and told her about it, and she said "good observation!" … I mean, she DOES hear it on Sid the Science Kid, but but Still! She heard it, understood it, and used it in a sentence! Awesome!

Oh and my favorite thing that she's said…. she told me, "Jesus says, 'Diella you gotta go to bed' and when ay go to bed, He makes your heart all better." How Great is that!!!??

Just a few days before Christmas I had the kids out at Walmart. And my outgoing, adorable, fearless little first born, as we got up & down each aisle, is singing Jingle Bells at the top of her lungs! Of course I just smile and let her to it, and I'm just all warm inside!… and as we're passing other people, every single one of them would either watch & smile, or many of them even commented how great it was! It was like among all the holiday rush & stress, she was spreading Christmas cheer around for the whole store!

Diella is starting to write her letters! I didn't even know she could do this! Aunt Mia told me she & Aria were doing it when they were here back in September! She gets lots of them right on! Like E, F, H, I, L, M, O, P, Q, T, U, W, X, Y, and she's even pretty good at a few harder ones, like P, B, D, J, ! Its neat to watch! I tried to write some down and have her copy them, its hard, but she's doing great at it!

Yesterday, Diella & Ethan were playing that their closet was an elevator. I thought that was adorable! Imaginations are the greatest things ever!!!

Aw man, the other day I was holding Sayda, she had just eaten, and Diella asked me if she could say hi to her. I was sitting on the bed & Diella was standing on the floor next to the bed, so I lowered Sayda down to Diella, and she spit up right at the top of the neck of her shirt, and it even went down the shirt a bit. I froze, mouth open, trying not to laugh. And MUCH to my surprise, Diella calmly said, "its ok." So since I knew she wasn't gonna freak out, I busted out laughing SO hard! Then Diella annoyingly looks up at me through the top of her eyes, and asks, "why did that happen?" … I rolled back, laughing SO much harder!!! I simply explained that she spit up a little, and then she says, "That. Was. Disgusting." I could NOT stop laughing for some time!! It was funny how she was so calm to start, and THEN realized it was gross. Ha!

And as always, the Best story of all for last… I think I was nursing Sayda or something, and Jake was playing with the big kids in their room. I believe Ethan was entertaining himself mostly, cuz all I heard was Diella & Jake. It was the most incredible sound. She was brushing his hair, and I believe even doing his makeup and stuff. They were having some amazing conversation, and she was even asking him if she could marry him! I wish I saw & heard more details, but I do know it was truly a moment to cherish! Later that same night, Ethan and Sayda were already sleeping, and Diella was sitting in our bed with us, as we were doing story and prayers. Jake and I were talking and laughing, a bit like teenagers, and Diella said "what's that?" We simultaneously said, "flirting." She watched, smiling, but a bit unsure. Then she said to us, "thats not how it goes." We both giggled and asked how it IS supposed to go? …. She said, "you can flirt me." !!!! We both lost it! Rolling, laughing! Amazing.