Mini Molnars: Memories and Milestones: Our Three Mini's Personality Profiles

Since the last time I blogged, a LOT has changed. First off, we were surprised with the pregnancy of our beloved Micah. We never, ever thought, imagined, or dreamed we would (or could!) have another baby so that was pretty much a shock for a while. We've moved from South Carolina back to Ohio, from a rental house to a potential forever home. Micah was born without a C-section (what a redeeming experience), Gianna slowly potty trained, Micah learned to sit up, crawl, walk, and talk, Briella started Kindergarten, and soooooo much more in between!

Jim took a promotion shortly after Micah was born and it sent his work schedule into complete overdrive. He's gone weekly; averaging 3.5-5 days out of state each week. I struggle with the proper adjective to describe all of it because if I say it's, "tough!" {which is certainly is most days} then it can be misconstrued that I am complaining about him having a great job that provides for our every need. If I say it's "easy" then I am a complete and total liar who's invalidating his role in our household, and I'm also discrediting my need and longing for a spouse and the father of my children. It's all very hard to explain in words and even more difficult to explain from my heart (or from the kids' hearts) because, well, it's downright lonesome. Likewise, sometimes I feel his traveling makes me into a Momzilla. We are abundantly fortunate that he even has a job, though there's no doubt that I'd feel just as fortunate if we had a smaller house with a lesser demanding job. Most every work week is spent missing him, praying for his safety, wishing he was home, not sleeping because I hear every noise in the house, and awaiting his safe return home to us.

Walked into her room on
on a Saturday morning after
waiting for her to come
downstairs and asked
her, "What are you
doing?" she said,
"Reading." :-)

Briella is growing up! She absolutely loves Kindergarten, her school, her teachers, her classmates, and she's not at all shy or intimidated to talk to boys or older girls. She's quite the confident girl and I admire that quality in her. To read back on so much of what I wrote about her 2 years ago (the last time I blogged on here), there's a lot of similarities and definitely (positive) differences. I am amazed to watch her maturity blossom, to see her heart in action, to watch her love and play with her siblings, to observe their adoration for her, to witness the growth in her education and learning to read, to encourage her as she learned to tie her shoes, to be awe struck watching her learn to ride her bicycle this past summer with such ease, to feel such pride as she takes her own showers and makes her morning toast for breakfast. 90% of the time she is a great example to Micah and Gianna (this time last year, I was giving her 70-75% stats, haha) and I'm extremely thankful for her helpful, servant's heart. She's become a great listener, a better communicator, and a fantastic helper. I get stopped at her school or at our church by people who know she's my child to tell me she's so friendly, she always says hi to them, and also to check up on some tall tale that she's recently told them (eye roll). She will rant and rave about the goofiest things to anyone who will listen to her. She has a true, deep heart for The Lord. That is one thing about her that has stayed the same and I adore that quality in her. She loves being an older sister and often says she wants me to have more kids (and has fervently prayed for more too) because she wants to be able to carry a baby around in her arms as well as changing their diapers. She's transitioning from tone deaf to a sweet singing voice. She's a natural performer and doesn't get nervous whatsoever to perform on stage for either school or church. She's showing interest and hobby in artistry and sketches self portraits of us and sometimes they are really good, and other times, we are downright uuugglly! Ever since the beginning of the school year I've noticed that she has some sensory issues with her clothing. She won't wear jeans whatsoever, she won't wear clothing that's too tight, too loose, too short, or scratchy...and she knows this in .001 seconds of trying it on and, once she thinks it, that's it; she will never wear it again. About two weeks ago she says, 'My tooth feels bumpy." and I said, "What do you mean?" So I had her open her mouth and, sure enough, there was an adult tooth coming up behind the baby tooth. She still hasn't lost the baby tooth, but the adult tooth keeps growing behind it. It's hard to believe she's moving on to the losing her teeth phase of childhood. Seems like her baby teeth just came in, but that was 5 years ago. Just this past week, under the bright lights of our kitchen, she told me I was growing a beard and looked like a catfish. I couldn't stop laughing.

Gianna is growing up too, in so many ways, but is a textbook "Threenager". Oftentimes, she resorts to crying or shrieking rather than talking, but slowly I do see her recognizing it and definitely calming down a LOT faster these days. When prompted and given her the choice between crying or _____, she eventually chooses to talk. She's so different from Briella, though, in so very many ways and it is fascinating to think about how two girls from the same parents are utterly different. Briella was (still is!) very attached to objects and animals and Gianna doesn't get too attached to anything; just like her Mommy in that way. Briella likes to prolong bedtime talks and Gianna crawls into bed and pretty much closes her eyes and says, "Good night and goodbye." Gianna is happy with replacements while Briella didn't accept replacements; only the "real" thing will do for her. Gianna sat up, crawled, and walked before Briella. She also ate table food earlier and better than Briella did at the equivalent ages. Briella was talking in infancy and Gianna hardly talked until after she was two years old. Gianna is reserved, Briella is outgoing. Gianna is happy to hide behind the shadows and Briella wants center stage. Briella blurts out the first thing she thinks and Gianna tends to be more methodical. While Gianna is more whiny at 3, compared to Briella at 3, she does seem to learn from consequences a bit more quickly. She doesn't demand attention, like Briella did/does, but humbly accepts being given attention. She's tender hearted and in tune with feelings. She studies our faces and will say things like, "Are you happy?" "You weren't happy when I _____." Briella was never "in tune" with feelings like that, at 3 years old. The few things that you both are similar in is that you enjoy your independence. You both have been dressing yourselves since 3 years old. I love how Gianna is usually the last one awake in the house, but comes down fully dressed and ready for the day. Such a little grown up in that sense. And it was a year ago, when Briella was sick and we were giving her medicine, that we discovered both she and Gianna were fully willing and wanting to take pill medicine. For years we have been emptying our compounded capsules into juice and now they both take pills like adults! Gianna has been doing this since she was TWO years old; amazing, I know.

She looked like little red
riding hood and it was
adorable!

At the beginning of Briella's Kindergarten school year, we helped her break her thumb sucking habit hoping to encourage her to prepare her for school. We were incredibly impressed with her ability to take on the challenge like such a big girl and she has done so well with coping without it. I'm certain that her recent flare up with incessant whining is due to the fact that she doesn't use the thumb to cope, but I'm so happy for her to have that habit behind her! She and Micah enjoy playing together while Briella is at school, and while they wrestle and wriggle around quite a bit, they definitely have fun...and get hurt. They both beat up on each other, though, so I feel like somedays I am more a referee than a mom, but there's plenty of days that I have to step back and say, "You are old enough to figure this out, Gianna." On a funny note, she says some of the most darling, silly things and listening to her pray leaves us feeling awe-struck. She memorized The Lord's Prayer and says it nightly since she turned 3! Gianna calls probiotics "ProbiAugust", she calls chapstick "lopstick" and says "bank you" or 'banks" instead of thank you or thanks. Anything that begins with an "L" sounds like a "Y" such a "Yittle", "Yove", or "Yike" (like). Every poop she takes is equated to some object or an animal: "It looks like a mountain. It looks like a snake." She does this every.single.poop. Gianna is incredibly tall and 3 year old clothing is too short on her. She loves to paint, color with crayons or markers, having tea parties with me or Briella (or both of us), putting sheets on the bed, helping retrieve diapers and wipes for Micah, enjoys dust busting the floor crumbs, and most recently, peeling potatoes or helping with baking/cooking any chance she gets. On a recent trip to the grocery store she told me she didn't want to wear her jacket and I said, "Gianna, you have to wear your jacket. You'll be cold and I'm a bad mommy if you don't wear a jacket." The look of sadness and concern in her eyes as she said, "Mommy, you aren't a bad mommy! You're a great mommy!" I got misty eyed and immediately hugged her when she said it and I'm getting misty again as I re-write it. And then she says the most funny things. As she was helping me fold and put away laundry, she proudly, confidently, and matter-of-factly hands me an article saying, "Mommy, your bra! It's for your booberries."
Blueberries, huh? Sigh...

Micah is in the most darling (and ornery!) phase right now. He is 19 months old and putting together 2-3 word sentences such as "Hi Mommy" "Hi Daddy" "I love Mommy" "Monkey gone" "up please" "thank you" (which, weirdly, sometimes comes out as dee-dee and other times sounds like thank you; just depends), "night-night" or "up please" to name some phrases. He tells us what he wants such as "Color" when he wants a pen and paper or "tired" when he's sleepy. Just yesterday, when prompted, he clearly said, "Thank you, Mommy." Impressive! He wants to answer the phone and, when he does, says "Hi-yay" for hello. He is a sponge just soaking in so much new information daily. He's been saying "I love you" (eye-ya-you) since he was 13 1/2 months old! He loudly calls for me all throughout the day saying, "Mama!" except he is slowly changing his "Mama" into

He loves sitting at a
regular chair, like his
sisters.

"Mommy" and I feel sad about him no longer calling me Mama because it's just another sign he's growing up. He loves to march into Briella's room in the morning to wake her up exclaiming, "HIiiiii!" He is starting to enjoy leafing through books independently and sitting on our laps and having books read to him. His favorite books are Little Blue Truck and Mine-o-saur. He play with cars all of the time, but his cars get him into trouble because he throws them at his sisters or hits them with them. So, he's begun visiting the corner, almost on a daily basis. He is going back and forth between a booster chair or a high chair; kind of at our discretion on the messiness of the meal. He's been recognizing that he's pooped and will even come up to us to say, "poopie" and he's going as far as pulling out a diaper and wipes and then, laying down or walking into the bathroom and standing there while he does his stinky business. (Oh, I hope this is a sign he'll be easy to potty train?! Briella was easy, Gianna was not easy.) When I tell him or the girls to "Pick up and put away", he really does help do it, and one step further, he uses the dust buster correctly and enjoys doing it! He is distinguishing between hot and cold as well as saying, "Hurt" and pointing to the area where he's hurt himself. He slides down the stairs on his bottom saying, "BOP!" with every stair and he loves crawling up the stairs by himself. His very favorite stuffed animals are monkey and puppy. I hide them in his room so that, at nap time and bedtime, he is excited to go to sleep and it definitely works. He is an extremely early riser for the last several months. He wakes up during the 5am hour, and if we are lucky, anything after 6am is "sleeping in". Sigh..

He is extremely affectionate and I stop anything I am doing to take one of his hugs and one of his "wuah" (as he sweetly says while puckering up) kisses. And, by the way, he give the best hugs; they are squeezes. He likes to play with my hair while saying, "hair" and gets excited when he sees a brush saying, "busssh". Half of the time he doesn't even know what the excitement is about, but if the girls get excited about something, the next thing he is doing is jumping up and down shouting, "Yay!!" He is not the most ideal sit-down-to-eat child. Some days he does great and other days he only wants to eat while running around. He's been climbing up the ladder to go into the treehouse by himself, even though it scares me. He roams the woods in our backyard by himself and he's infatuated with picking up sticks and throwing them into the fire pit. Most recently, he is starting to help unload the dishwasher and the pride on his face is priceless. He also knows to throw trash away and runs to the can saying, "away, away". He most definitely can be a little stinker too, recently locking me out of the house! Jim was out of state for work and I'm just so thankful Gianna was home or else I would have been locked out for good. He is saying, doing, and figuring out all sorts of new things everyday and he does it all with a smile on his face.

November 14, 2017

To say that everyday is easy; especially when I'm doing the 'single mom workweek' is entirely false. I affectionately refer to us as the "Molnado's" because we are a loud, fierce windstorm that leaves a trail of destruction everywhere we go. Everyday the house is loud, kids are busy at play, sometimes sharing and other times totally incapable of sharing, tattling, hitting, or crying over *some* thing that seems like a total catastrophe in that very moment (and, believe me, it's NOT). Food and drinks are constantly being spilled, messes constantly being made, and, when it's quiet, BEWARE! Gianna is currently attempting a rebellious preschooler phase so she says "NO!" when requests or commands are given to her, she says white lies, and she's even had some kleptomania moments when we've been visiting people's houses. To say that we've been doing a LOT of "training" with her is an understatement. Her stubbornness is quite frustrating and upsetting to me and Jim, but she learned it from us (parenting is humbling). She will sit at most every meal starring at her food, but not eating it until 30 minutes after we've all left the table when she's eating all alone, ice cold, out of principle. Micah's sleep is terrible and his 5 o'clock hour wake ups are insanely too early and often make me feel fuzzy in the brain or irritable. He fights us to eat at least one meal a day, or sometimes, all three. He's had a runny nose/sleep cough/congestion for over two weeks now (mommy too...) and it seems it's never going to end.
Briella wants so badly to do everything right and without a mistake that as soon as she begins making mistakes, she wants to give up. She gets very upset when she thinks she's disappointed us and it makes my heart heavy to see such perfectionism in her little soul because it's a trait she's inherited from me. The moment she becomes disappointed, it's hard for her to unravel from the defeat. She's making advancements with her reading, but some days and moments, silly and simple mistakes can cause her to lose hope and, other days, the same silly mistakes don't shake her whatsoever. I know she's annoyed that reading hasn't happened as quickly as riding her bicycle, tying her shoes, or doing cartwheels and that confuses her because she's used to mastering skills very quickly. In just this very week, though, I am seeing huge strides in her reading. She opened up a book she's never read before "The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat" and 'lo and behold, she was reading it. And, if she struggled with a word, she sounded it out instead of 1. asking me to tell her the word or 2. giving up. I was extremely impressed and she even said that she was proud of herself. I loved seeing her go to bed with a huge smile on her face. That moment was just awesome to experience as a mom.

Three very different personalities creates quite an interesting home environment! I feel like I am always reading parenting advice, posting scripture verses or parenting inspiration around the house, praying to God for wisdom, (and equally for forgiveness), and begging Him for patience. Some days are confusingly difficult and stressful and then there are those very rare days that are easy-breezy and I question why they all can't be that simple? I'm certain, more often than not, it's due to Mommy's impatience from being alone than all the kids' doing; if I must be honest here. Nonetheless, it's a ride; fun, exhausting, long, or exciting it may be at each different hour of the day. And that is why I am writing down these memories so that I can remember them, cherish them, look back on them with fondness, and appreciation. These kiddos are growing and if I don't write it down, I might forget and I don't want to forget. I want to remember how we pray every night and how each of you takes time out for God in your little lives. The way you light up when you realize it's Sunday morning and you get to go to church for Sunday School, or equally, when you know it's Wednesday and you get to go to Kids Choir or "Never Too Young" (n2y). These childhood days are precious, though tiresome for me, they are a beautiful gift that many only dream to experience. I feel guilty for the times that I unknowingly take them for granted.

And now for some pictures from summer and fall 2017 when Briella was 5 going on 6, Gianna was a 3 year old, and Micah was a one year old changing every day.

This was taken in August; which was a month before we helped Gianna through the process to stop sucking her thumb. I don't know which is my favorite part of this picture: the way the girls are looking at me while I'm reading or the fact that your Dad spontaneously took this picture without me knowing it. (This is not something he usually does so it made me happy!).

This moment was not staged. Micah and Gianna are always so excited to spend time with Briella after she's come home from school so couch snuggles are a common daily occurrence.