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.

Weeeeee!!!

Daddy playing with the kiddos!

Baby Sister!!!

Diella was very excited to welcome a new little baby into our family! When she finally met & held Sayda, she fell in love!!! Oh and she read her "a story" in that picture

(the menu) hehe.

And I have to mention. We talked about how the baby eats. Diella said, "can I see?" And then when we were home, and I told Diella I was about to feed Sayda, she said, "yay!" She watched for a minute, and said, "thats so cool. I wish I can do that when I get big!" How special!!! She also asked, "does that go into her body?" It was neat how curious she was HOW it happened, and that she was so fascinated by it!

Fun with Daddy!

These pictures are from the other night when daddy was giving the kids rides on his back. The more rowdy they got, the more the kids fell off… so he decided to make a harness… he rigged up two belts so that the kids could hang on… its was a blast to watch!

Just a few new things with our big girl! She's getting excited for the baby to come! Due yesterday actually! The two "big kids" have been sharing a room for about a month now, to get ready to put a new baby in its own room. They transitioned without any problems! Its really nice!

She is really growing lately! I hate to say getting "Tall" cuz who knows if she'll ever get all That tall… but she's growing taller, way faster than she ever has before! She's actually wearing the size clothes that she should be, and we're watching her grow Out of clothes so fast all of a sudden!

Diella is loving to help out with things so much lately, and I'm thrilled! She'll get a tissue or diapers or wipes when I need… she likes (and is surprisingly good at) folding small hand towels or wash cloths! … she loves to help make dinner! and sometimes will even ask to help with the dishes! Twice now, she's even cleaned the entire toy room, completely on her own! This will be GREAT when mama has a new little one around!

We were driving home from church the other day, and we passed a trailer park. Diella points & says, "Look a big house on a truck holder." HAHA! Dunno how she came up with that, but Jake & I thought that was pretty clever!

I don't remember why she said this, but one day she said, "I wish that I had two tongues." which of course I thought was hilarious. And then it even developed into -I wish I had 4 arms, 4 legs, etc.

We have some track lighting in our dining room. Diella wanted to dance for me and daddy, so he turned off the lights… she went over to the stairs & waited… daddy announced her, and slowly turned up the dimmer until she made her grand entrance and sang & danced her heart out! This was right after dinner… so I just felt so entertained! As though I had my very own dinner theatre in our home!!! With my daughter as the headliner! It was great!

Diella is quoting more & more movies lines on her own…. and of course I am a proud mother for that, hahaha! My favorite one that she said the other day (I love the line in the movie, so of course I love it even more that she's saying it now!)… is from Evan Almighty (the kids Favorite movie right now… I know… how funny!…), and Evan drives past two dogs and he calls to them, "when you're on my lawn, keep it in your butt!" … and now Diella says this!!! HAHAHAHAAAA!!!!

One day we were on our way to the park to play. As we approached the gates, I noticed that it was closed. I told Diella that it was closed, but not to worry, cuz we would just go to another park. As I turned the car around, she said, "we cant give up. Lets just go over the fence." HaaaaahAHAHAAAA!!! But of course instead of breaking the law, we did in fact just go to another park… one that we'd never been to, and found that we loved it! So yay!

Quick Blog

One picture is of the kids hugging! Willingly!!! ... another, with the 2 bananas, is what Diella did when she said, "Look! My backpack!" haha! ... and the other is her riding the ride when mommy took her on our date! One picture is of the craft we made on our date... the other craft is just one we did one day for fun!

The video is the kids giving me "smurbs" on the belly... and also hugging the belly... as well as Diella talking to the baby inside!

So... the date... Diella had been behaving really well for like 5 days straight! I was so proud of her! So I took her on a date, just mommy & Diella! We went to DQ for a dilly bar, to the store to go on that ride, hehe... and also made a craft together! It was great!

I also forgot to mention in my blog yesterday about how we're learning what time it is. We really only use it for naptime and bedtime. She'll sometimes tell me the numbers on the (digital) clock at random times too.... but she knows that naptime is at "one, three, zero," so we watch the clock when its close, so that I can SHOW her its time for nap. And that bedtime is at "nine, three, zero," ... but the funny thing is, if its like a minute passed, and we missed it, and I show her the clock, but it says 9:31, she'll tell me, "but its not nine three zero," and of course its hard to explain, but I just tell her that its PAST 9-3-0! so we're PAST bedtime, we better go, quick! hehe... its a somewhat difficult, but still fun concept we're learning!

Today Diella said something about Jesus in her heart... I remembered that my mom says she sat my brother and I down when we were two, to talk about asking Him into our hearts. So because of this, and also her comment the other day about God being "our man"... It sounds like Diella might be ready to start to understand this a little.... so I think when daddy comes tonight, we're gonna do that!