Pieces of Us

Piano Recital Day

    Today Ginny and Gabby had their first piano recital.  Now I am not one of those biased moms that thinks their child is magnificent no matter what.  I see my kids faults and I hear their mistakes.  But today I was amazed at the skill they both demonstrated in their performances.  Ginny is one of those kids that takes a lot of prodding to practice but a few weeks ago she just committed to practicing without being told and she has progressed so far.

    Gabby brought tears to my eyes which is no small feat.  She played near flawlessly and the songs were timed so well.  She has blossomed and I think has the talent to be a very good musician.

Weird things

    I spent the last couple days doing some deep cleaning of the kids rooms.  The last part of the job is the oh-so-fun cleaning out and refolding of drawer contents. I was going through Ginny's pajama drawer when I came across the weirdest item ever.

 

A Bulb of garlic.  A real one!

I am wondering if she was warding off vampires.  Or maybe she is treating a cold?

 

It was really one of the funniest things I have seen in that room yet,

Bravery

    If I could give Genevieve a medal for bravery I would do it.  Today we had to get up early and take her to the lab to have 6 vials of blood drawn. We've been concerned for awhile now about her lack of growth.  She is very, very short and has only gained about 11 lbs since 2009. 

    Being a mom who lived through the nightmare of watching one of her children nearly dying before her eyes with no clue as to why...this of course strikes a little fear into my heart.  I do not suspect that Ginny has diabetes.  Her symptoms do noot track with that and of course I have tested her myself.  But something is not right with her growth. She had a bone age xray done which showed that her bone growth is fine so now we will see if it's thyroid or celiac or some other metabolic problem.

 

    Hmm...This all sounds so familiar doesn't it?  I lay it all in God's hands and we will see what comes of it. She was so darn brave this morning, hopping up into the chair and chatting with the phlebotomist.  No fear in her eyes whatsoever as she told the woman, "I can do this, this is nothing.  My sister has to have shots every day."

Girls!

    I think the elder girls room is fast becoming our favorite girl hangout.  It's so bright and sunny in there, easily the brightest room in the whole house.  I often notice the girls congregating in there doing things like brushing each other's hair and drawing or sewing.  It's such a fun place.  I had to sneak attack with my camera and capture a moment.

 

 

Ginny's 8th Birthday

    It's cliche for a mother to say that it seems like just yesterday her 8 year old was a baby.  I'm going to refrain from being cliche because as I mentioned before Ginny is my kid who has always seemed older.  I feel like I barely remember her baby days.

For instance...when did she ever look like this?

Things I remember from those days:

• Mike called her 'Bobbin'
• She had to have a Bili Blanket for Jaundice
• She was the best dressed baby in Fillmore according to Nancy
• She was finicky and Auntie Laura was the best at getting her to sleep

 

Even though she was so tiny, she was my biggest baby of all at 7lbs 5 oz.

She had the most fabulous flaming red curls.  Our little ' I Love Lucy' baby.

She was daring and reckless from the start.

She adored Minnie Mouse.

 
She was also a complete ham from the very start!

She looked JUST like me!

And those curls!

She LOVED the beach.

She wasn't all girly girl either.  In fact she was a rather grimy kid.

And she was often naughty...

She is wild and crazy but we love her so much!

 

For her birthday she wanted to go shopping at the mall so we started by heading to Build-A-Bear.  She wanted Grammy, Auntie, Jess, Maddy, Gabby, Jilly and Me to go on the shopping trip so we all followed her around while she spent her birthday money. She chose a border collie at Build-A-Bear and it's apparent that she LOVES that thing already!

    The next stop was to get her birthday corndog and Lime lemonade.  She looks forward to this very much.  Mine gave me a tummy ache.  Oh to be 8 again and not get tummy aches from corndogs!

In the evening we had a fun birthday party.  The theme was zebra with teal/aqua accents and we had fun making party favors and decorating.

Jillian was especially happy that Kyla was back in town!  We were all happy to have our good friends the Hattons back.  We missed them!

Ginny loved the Pet Shops she got from Aunt Kelli and Uncle Jeff!

And being typical Ginny and thinking outside the box...she requested Ice Cream Sundaes instead of Cake.

So our beautiful 4th child is now 8. Time does fly.  Oops...cliche!

 

Here are some favorite Genevieve blog posts from the past 7 years.

 

CACO!

First ER trip

Ginny Funny

My Pink!

Nighty Night

I got throat!

People

Ploblems

Carbs

Is that you Peter?

Picture of the Day

Two of my lovely daughters.  (Which reminds me, I also need to blog about Munoz Family Game Day and The Campout.)

Genevieve's Week

    Genevieve can be an intereting child.  She is outoging, dramatic, a whirlwind talker.  But she can also be sullen and moody (likely a spin-off of the dramatic part). Today she has been dancing around the house telling everyone within ear shot that this has been her 'Greatest week ever!".  Why?

    The other day Jessica taught Ginny to ride a bike with no training wheels. When they began Ginny couldn't even roll forward a couple feet and within a couple hours she was zipping around like this:

 

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

    I have to be honest, I thought that girl would never learn to ride a bike. There are many things I am good at....but teaching bike riding is NOT one of them.  I don't have the patience or the stamina.

    Also this week, Mike and I were at the store buying Ginny some new tennis shoes.  I chose a really cute pair of pink and black Danskin Tennies.  Mike was skeptical.  "Has Ginny ever had shoes that tie?" he asked.

    "I don't think so!" I said.

    "Maybe we shouldn't buy them if she can't tie shoes, " said Mike.

    "No, she is 7!  How did we miss teaching her to tie shoes?" I worried aloud. "We have to buy them so she can learn."

    We bought the shoes and brought them home.  She LOVED them. I showed her how to tie them a couple times.  By the next day she was tying them as if she had been doing it for years...double knots even. Apparently learning at 7 when your dexterity is far more developed must make it easier to get it right.

    The last part of Ginny's good week was yesterday.  She began piano lessons with Amanda. She is so excited and I know she will learn quickly...as long as she stops pausing to entertain Amanda with all of her zany stories.  Did I mention she's a whirlwind talker?

Genevieve's turn

    Ginny has also been working very hard on penmanship this year.  I thought it only fair to give her her due.  Here is one of her papers.

 

Willow Tree for Ginny

    When my kids get to an age where I can truly see their personality traits, when I feel I really know them, I buy a Willow Tree statue for them.  Up until now I had one for AJ, one for Gabby and two for Maddy (the kids receive a small one for their baptism and so far Maddy is the only one baptized). This year Ginny receieved her Statue for Christmas. I truly think it is the perfect one for her!

Seven

    In a few hours our Genevieve Audrey will be turning 7.  I am sure I have said before how I never seem to marvel at her new age each year.  She has always had a quality of wiseness and she has a bit of an 'old soul'. I don't truly believe in such things but I can say she has never seemed as 'young' as the others.

    One thing I love about the link between Ginny and this blog is that there is very little time in her life that I was not blogging.  I began this blog when she was just 11 months old.  And so many of her quirky little moments have been captured here.  I love to go back and read them and I think I will link some of the better ones at the end of this post for inquiring minds to revisit or read for the first time.

    Ginny was my earliest baby, born 6 days early (induction...big regret there but I was naive). She was also my largest baby at a modest 7 lbs 5 oz. Due to an overly cautious doctor she spent her first 11 days strapped to a BiliBlanket in order to break down the bilirubin in her body. Later I would come to realize (from research and experience) that her level in no way needed to be under light treatment.  She will always be our gloworm now.  Ginny was also the first child to come home to the house we live in now. She has never known another home. I spent the latter days of my pregnancy on a step ladder painting the entire inside of the house (fume free paint, I promise!)

    Always full of surprises and interesting commentary, we can't imagine life without our Genevieve Audrey.

First Phrase

Santa Belly

Rubby

High Five

First ER Trip

Bovine

My pInk!

Just People

I tried and tried...