Solo stand... less than successful attempts to catch on video
Giant Baby used to sleep in this.
Throw back to February...so small!
You can kind of sort of see her teeth in these two pics
2. Gianna has a new fruit obsession: MANGOS. She literally went crazy for them. Proof is in the video below. I also made this overnight vegetable dish that I had with my Aunt Karen and grandmother, and Gianna loves that as well. It's got celery, onion, french style green beans, peas, and corn with vinegar, oil, and sugar. The pieces are so easy to hand feed her and for her to try to pick up. 
3. Facetime.We use facetime on our iphones pretty much every day to chat with Chris or my mom. Gianna's favorite part is seeing herself in the screen before they pick up, but she also likes to "chat". There are lots of negatives to technology, but for us, facetime is a definite plus. Chris has recently taken to screen shotting our convos:
Mess in the background created by Gianna in approximately 2 minutes. Like 5 times a day. This is another reason for our big toy chest "storage" (TOY JAIL), which you'll read about next.
We break up our day by breaking Mama's face!
4. Speaking of breaking up our day, thanks to interest sparked by my friend Renee and an upcoming CMOM mtg at a Montessori school, I went a little crazy this week researching Montessori style learning for babies. I really identify with a lot of the methods because they make sense. For example, letting a baby learn to feed themselves. Duh! I also appreciate the practical style of learning. To "Montessori-ify" our house, I've done a number of things:
- Put "discovery boxes" in each room. These consist of 6-8 toys/every day objects, that will entertain Gianna for a period of time. In the kitchen, the box is exclusively kitchen items. The point is to learn about their environment and be familiar with objects that we use every day, not just toys. We have a "toy chest" that I put all the extra toys in, and each week will swap out the toys and household objects to keep each discovery box fresh.
- Made sound toys using old spice containers. One has paperclips, another pennies, and the last is beans. Gianna loves these.
- Stacking toy. My mom bought this for Gianna, but Chris is specifically showing her how to stack and unstack each morning. Sometimes she watches, sometimes she doesn't. She'll learn eventually though.
Discovery box underneath table, stacking toy and puzzle on table, and baby/high chair to the left. Chris likes play baby dolls with Gianna to (in his words) "work on her mothering skills". Those two crack me up.
- Made a mirror accessible and make a point everyday to do different things in the mirror, like standing up, putting on a hat, etc. so Gianna gets a first person perspective on what she's doing and how.
Mirror and discovery box in the guest room/office, since I've been working on the computer a lot, we spend lots of time in here. Of course, Gianna loves annaiG. We have 3 new videos of that, here, here, and here.
- Work on drinking out of a cup by herself. Gianna is good at drinking out of a cup, but I thought it would be a good skill for her to learn to do on her own. She really wants to do it, so it's not really a stretch. She can do it when she's in the bath tub laying down, but usually just throws the water all over herself while at the table. I just put the tiniest amount of water in it, show her how a few times, then let her loose.
I like that doing these different things punctuate our day, and I can already see Gianna has become super excited to get to her discovery boxes, particularly the kitchen one. She remembers it's there and will go to it on her own, even if I'm in another room. Will I always do this kind of stuff with every kid? Eh, we'll see ;-) For right now, it can't hurt!
5. We haven't done too much work on the house at all in the past two weeks. Last weekend, the Grossman's came over, and this weekend, we took it easy and focused on stocking the fridge--much much much needed! Instead, I've been focusing about 20 or so hours a week on updating/creating Lectio Divina guides for Communities of Prayer. I am really good at tedious sort of work like that, but I always feel like I'm losing my mind and that it will never end. I also hate that it takes time away from Gianna, but it has made me more thankful to be able to stay at home. I work during her naps and when she's playing on her own...I can't imagine having to be away from her all day!
This is the only picture I took when the Grossmans came to visit. Story of my liiiiiiiife. This one is super cute though. Stella crawled in to be with baby Blaise and Zion is showing him some of the toys. Clare was playing with Gianna when this happened. Gianna LOVES Clare and gets super peaceful around her.
This is what "cooking" is like at our house these days:
6. Fall is Here(ish)! We're loving the 80 degree days. A welcome respite from the heat and foretaste of lots of outside time to come.
Miscellany from the last week:
OMYGOODNESS I die for these giggles.
10:02 am
10:03 am
10:04 am. No one can accuse her of not having a range of emotions...
She used to eat her umbilical cord/play with it in the womb, too, according to our sonogram.
Closets are great places to hang out
Getting her learning on
Something makes me love this picture, but I can't put my finger on it.
Note the sweet fall inspired outfit. Baby jeggings and knit top. Par Excellence.
Practicing her "mothering" skills LOL. Clearly not at peace in that vocation just yet. We'll get there.
We're really bad at selfies.
Gianna is obsessed with this toy. Actually, every kid that comes over to our house is. Like...they cry over it. Something about the combo of sound/movement/light...
Gianna loves to be carried on Chris's shoulders. Watch "Papa the Bull" here. Note that it looks like Gianna's head is about to be chopped off by our fan in the video, but it's totally not, trust me.
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