The Molnar Winter Olympics, Easter, & Personality Profiles

Carpet dancing...

Briella would correct me and say, "It's ice dancing" or "It's ballet" 

"Feels like -22"

I thought it fitting with the winter olympics ending a few weeks ago and spring setting in just last week to do a recap on our 2018 winter. Well, it's been cold, snowy, cold, sometimes rainy, and snowy. Did I say cold & snowy? (hahahaha). Briella has had a handful of school snow days this winter, and get this, one of her snow days was last week; the first official day of spring! Here's the picture from that day---------------->>.


Your Daddy has been traveling non-stop this winter. He seems to always be in Chicago. He also went on his first international trip to Germany and came home at 9pm the night before my 37th birthday. I did not enjoy knowing he so very far away from us. Brittany Robinson and Londyn stayed overnight with us for one of the nights he was gone so that was a great way to get our minds off of him being gone.

What's there to say about me? I'm 37 now [can I just stop and say, "WHOA, I'm 37"] and I don't know what to think about this aging business. I can no longer think I'm seeing things when I wake up and see another wrinkle and I look older. It's real, it's happening, and there's nothing to stop it. Aside from that humbling fact, I guess I just hope, beg, and plead with The Lord that not all of your memories of me are tired or grumpy because I sure feel like I struggle with both on any given day, with grumpy usually happening between 6-8pm because I'm tired. {it's a vicious cycle, I tell you}. As very young kids, it's hard for you to truly understand and process what a Mommy and Daddy do in a day. Geesh, I didn't understand what my mom or dad did in a day until I became a mom so, truth is, you won't know until you experience it for yourself. What I'm getting at is, Mommy is tired because Daddy is traveling {likewise, Daddy is tired because he is traveling a lot}, and Mommy is seemingly suffering from some sort of auto immune disorder(s) which only compounds those feelings. Most every morning I wake up feeling like I didn't sleep, my body hurts, my stomach hurts with eating food, my face immediately breaks out in rashes from food, my eyes burn and throb, my head gets light and rushed feelings and sometimes I get stars in my eyes and feel faint. There are sooooo many other symptoms I feel on a day-to-day basis, but I can't just stop what I'm doing and rest or feel better. I have to keep plugging along through the tug-of-wars on toys, the arguing, the crying/screaming, the tantrums, the rivalries, the midnight wake ups. There are *some* days that I do feel like I'm drowning in exhaustion and all of you are holding me under water with the behavior issues {this is usually day 3 or 4 of Daddy being gone when I need a time out for myself}, but ultimately, please rest assured, I feel like it's because of all of you that I stay above water because you give me the purpose to do just that.  

  

Individual cheescakes for my 37th birthday. 
{shortly after my birthday I would discover that cream cheese was giving me a very red, hot, itchy rash on my cheeks}

If there's anything I want you kids to know is that I try to be a good role model, a good mom, and a kind human to those around me. Lord knows I do try despite how drained or achy I may feel on any particular day. I meditate on scriptures and in prayer, I sing along to praise and worship music during day-to-day activities, I listen to the Christian parenting/marriage podcasts, I read the articles that tell me how to be a better mom/parent, I try to understand your love languages, your learning styles, your personalities, what sets you off, what calms you down, and I write inspirational notes around the house to remind me of what's important. The bottom line is it boils down to me. Somedays I excel at the responding instead of reacting mode of parenting and other days I downright fail miserably at it. In your life, satan will try to steal your joy through any avenue and oftentimes I feel he's the joy thief in the mommy department. I know he wants to make me feel like a frazzled failure; defeated, guilt-ridden, and unworthy, but The Lord reminds me the importance to keep pushing along and to do it with Godly training because, one day, you'll get there. We all have and we all do. We're ALL 'in progress', are we not? I'm a parent in progress and you are adults in the making. One day all these silly, shrieking, crying, arguing, non-sharing moments will be a distant memory. While it's near impossible to fathom a phase in your childhoods that you aren't constantly saying, "It's mine, give it back" as your ready to go to fists or tantrums over it, I know it will happen. Just like I know each one of you are going to have a wonderful impact on the world around you, and hopefully in testimony for The Lord while you are at it. I know great things await you in your lives and I can't wait to be your biggest fan, advocate, and supporter through it all. 

Just one of Briella's many sweet notes
that she writes all by herself. 
I beam at her heart for Jesus.

Briella continues to accelerate in her reading and writing skills, even writing notes to people without me needing to dictate the spelling of words. Her love language is writing letters. She desires to wear "ball gowns" to school every day so she and I have to compromise daily on school-appropriate dresses. She attends choir practice and n2y (never too young) each Wednesday from 6pm-8pm. She loves it. Her love for The Lord continues to blossom and grow. Our family new years goal was to memorize one Bible verse a month and, so far, she's memorized 6 verses! She also loves our evening prayer cards and is a great prayer warrior. Besides getting a really cruddy flu bug in January, she has managed to have a fairly "healthful" Kindergarten year. She blesses me daily with her ability to make her own breakfast, clear out the dishwasher, set the table, wash dishes, and her helpfulness, eagerness, and desire to want to be a "mommy sister" to Gianna and Micah absolutely blesses my heart.                   

She gets so bummed out if she thinks she's upset me in any way and she thrives on showing us what she can do independently, as to make us proud. But, in the same breath, she absolutely loves companionship and prefers to do things with us by her side. Just last week she attended her first school dance; a daddy-daughter dance at Northside Academy. She loves getting Micah out of his crib in the morning and practically begs me to do it. How can I refuse when it gives me an extra 5 minutes to keep on chugging along?!! She really does try to be a great example, but just like me or anyone else, she has her "off days", "off moments" and it's usually disappointments that unravel her most times. She doesn't cope well with disappointment and she becomes very emotional, irrational and/or impulsive when she eats problematic foods (corn syrup candies, corn flour, too much chocolate, too much sugar). She comes home daily and showers, washes her hair, and does it all by herself. Her struggle is brushing her hair. It's so thick and tangles easily so she thinks she's brushed her hair, but oh boy, she has not. I love listening to her process problems in her life with making plans and taking a step back and letting her teach me a thing or two. I can't believe how much she is growing up!

**funny stories** Jim: "Briella, what is that on your face (a dot on her chin) Briella: {very confidently} "Oh, it's a nipple. I mean, a nimple." (She meant to say pimple)

Briella: {while sitting at the dinner table} "So, Dad, do you like mom being your wife? Do you think you'll ever let another man have her as a wife?" Jim: {chewing with confused look on his face}"No, never." Me: (laughing hysterically) "That's what he says now, but don't ask him when he's upset with me."

   

Just a typical school day wearing a dress (this is actually my childhood dress) and drinking her morning glass of homemade kombucha. With Easter approaching and being home from school on Good Friday morning, she drew a representation of the cross scene without any prompting. 

   

Nonna took these candid photos of me helping prepare Briella for her dance and I just love them. A mom's 'behind the scenes' moments rarely get seen.

   

  

 Pictures of Briella while at school shared by her teacher, Mrs. Turocy. 

  A picture of Briella in action at n2y that was shared by one of the teachers. She sure loves to live life to the fullest! 

Gianna is slowly, but surely starting (emphasis on the word "starting" {wink, wink}) to evolve from a constant whiner to an intermittent whiner. She is, too, really trying to assert her own authority and thinks she can stomp her foot or say no and it's not going to have to happen. With that being said, thankfully, she is also starting to understand rationale and reasoning; which in turn, helps us to 'talk her down' from an emotional situation. She is showing more interest in helping around the house, cleaning up without being asked or prompted, and her food strike is slowly lifting too. Goodness, her almost year-long eating strike was tough! She's still particular about her food being too hot and won't eat it unless it's 'cold'. She's fussy about meats, gravies, and sauces. If she could eat cereal for most every meal, I think she'd be completely satisfied. For the past couple months, she wants to wear a headband daily and is showing more interest in wearing dresses. She used to say that "Briella wears dresses, but not me." so that no longer seems to be the way she thinks. Now she wakes up, opens up her closet, and pulls down dresses from her hangers to wear. She's growing up! I will catch her mothering Micah; rubbing his head, his back, and trying to hold him. In the same minute, I may catch her giving him a very aggressive push, taking a toy away that he's clearly enjoying to play with, and hiding stuff from him. Every day she takes pride in helping me to put him down for his nap with giving him hugs, kisses, turning on his sound machine, or giving me a diaper. Her interest and desire to want to cook, bake, or just simply help is strong, hahahaha. She cries if she can't help the moments she has the urge. She loves to peel her own carrots, peel potatoes, hard boiled eggs, stir batters, peel brussels sprouts. Just this past week she got to spend an afternoon with Jim at the Strongsville office for a Daddy-daughter workday. I gave her Briella's original preschool book bag to bring with her and she hasn't let it leave her side ever since that day. Her fine motor skills are starting to really develop with the way she holds her pencil and colors, even creating shapes and designs. I created a meal game that involves guessing numbers or letters of the alphabet to help motivate her with eating and it's been encouraging to not only see her eat better with playing, but to hear her know her letters and numbers. She still struggles with immediate shrieks/screams upon getting upset, frustrated, or when hurt but she's much easier to "talk down" from such moments so I guess that's a start...?? (we parents learn to take any crumbs of proof that occur from our parenting). 

**funny stories** Gianna to me: "Mom, you will always be my mom, not Daniella. (she pulls me in for a hug and begins caressing my hair.) You're only my mom, just my mom, you're never going to be Daniella."

Me to Gianna: "Do you want to go to Walmart"
Gianna: "NOOOOOOOOO, nooooo, noooooo (insert actual crying over this question.)
Me: {extremely confused} "Why not? We were just there a few days ago and you had so much fun shopping, getting stuff off the shelves, putting them into the cart.
Gianna: "No, I don't want to go! Please, I don't want to go. (insert more real tears). There's too many people, too many cars, too many circles on the walls." 
Me to myself: "I guess we're not going to walmart today..."

   

    

Look at Gianna "striking a pose". I love watching her reserved personality start to blossom with confidence. 

 

This picture. Every time I see it I remember the 'calm before the storm'. Micah looks pretty calm and chill, right? I tell you, I blinked my eyes and he ran down the aisle and charged the stage at Briella's school during her chapel service while she was on the stage receiving an award. Oh, the screaming after I caught him...there's always a story with these kiddos.

Micah's ability to communicate with words, with screams, resistance, confidently saying NO, and with aggression has completely taken off at full speed. He not only talks in short, concise sentences, but he is carrying a tune with singing too. I'll never forget the day I was driving them all home from picking up Briella from school and he just started singing a Psalty song {actual video footage of this moment below}. I could hardly believe it. His personality really reminds me a lot of how Briella was at his age except his upset/angry moments are a lot less frequent and quickly remedied as hers were not so quickly cured. He is deliciously sweet and the tartest sour. He hugs, kisses, and squeezes without solicitation and then turns around and hits and screams the moment he gets frustrated or angry. Unfortunately, though, most of that angry behavior is geared toward Gianna. The two of them have quite an interesting relationship and he and Briella have a much different relationship, but nothing I haven't said in other posts. The video above shows just a few clips of him and Briella doing their ice dancing together. Interestingly enough, there was a brother-sister ice dancing duo in this year's 2018 olympics too. 

The gates just came off our stairs and Micah has just begun traveling the stairs alone. I'm not sure how I feel about it as it still gives me a scary feeling in the pit of my stomach, but he's proving to be pretty good at it and deserves the chance. He's been eating great with a spoon and a fork for a while now and if his eating is 'on point' {not eating anything problematic} then his sleep is great; usually 11-12 hours a night. Ever since we all got the flu in January, he (and me) have been struggling with red rashes on our cheeks. We feel the culprit is something to do with cream cheese and/or certain potato chips. It continues to be trial and error, but those were two food items that he was eating a lot, and since eliminating them, his cheeks are looking so much better. He absolutely loves playing hide-n-seek with his sisters and attempts to count to 20! He's also great at using blocks as weapons, hitting when he gets frustrated, or pounding their heads with his cars. I can't help but wonder if he thinks it's too feminine to be "too nice" so he has to add a sprinkling of tough guy into his personality? Nonetheless, there's never a dull moment when Micah is in the room. 

**funny stories** My funny stories are coming from situations that have happened within the last few hours or days and, I don't know why, but I'm drawing a blank on any funny stories about him. Let's just say this, though, when he asks for more blueberries it sounds just like he is saying, "More boobies". It's hilarious. 

    

   

I can only hope and pray that Micah's excitement for Bible reading is something that sticks with him. I love that Briella took a picture of this morning devotional moment. She's becoming a great photographer.

This moment of tandem down dogs was not staged. I left my mat out from a morning workout and this is what I walked into the room to see them doing. 

Time for the Easter egg hunt! 

I actually sent this video to Psalty and he wrote back and told me that he absolutely loved watching it and that "those two are a hoot to watch."

Papa and Nonna took the girls overnight from Good Friday afternoon until Saturday morning when we met up with them, with Micah, to do an Easter egg hunt in their hometown of Westfield. This is the first sleepover with both of the girls together since December {Gianna went through a sleepover strike}. The girls had a great time. Gianna went to sleep without a tear and refused to eat dinner; sounds about right for her. Jim and I enjoyed a relaxing evening with Micah in Fairlawn eating at Five Guys, shopping at Mustard Seed, and walking off calories and energy at the mall. It was a great night alone with our littlest big boy. 

   

     

                  Gianna's nervous face here...             ...but a few minutes later she was smiling again. 

Thanks to Nonna for insisting we stop to take this picture. Micah was squirmy, but everyone was looking at the camera so she accomplished the goal! 

Oh my goodness, be still my heart. If only Gianna wasn't being uncooperative to be in the photo. The bunny was making her nervous; which is "typical Gianna" these days.

   

 Thanks goodness for Biscuit, the hand puppet, for giving smiles. 

   

I am absolutely amazed at us that we were all ready, fed, took pictures, AND left for church at 8:22 rather than our typical 8:32. Say what? We definitely win Olympic Gold for this feat! 

   

                        

All About Micah

It is almost incomprehensible that my sweet, smiley, cuddly, loving, darling Micah is almost two years old. A week ago, he turned 21 months old. To say that I adore him is an understatement. I never knew I could enjoy a little boy so much, but I sure treasure him more than I can describe. He's got an amazing personality and brings so much fun, joy, and little boy adventures to all of us.

Obviously, I'm his mom and I think he is incredibly sweet, smart and witty for not even being two years old, but when compared to Gianna's disposition, communication abilities, and retention at this age, he is definitely more happy, comprehensive, talkative, and far less emotional! (hahahaha). His receptive language skills have always been impressive, even before he was even one year old. On the flip side, he's also more aggressive than the girls ever were at his age.

I recently found my baby book and really enjoyed reading the details of what I was doing during my first year of life. I thought that Micah might enjoy reading some of the fun stuff he’s saying, doing, and highlights of his days at this age. It will be interesting to see if he continues to be the confident, silly, fun loving, adventurous, speak-up, affectionate, independent player {yet loves companionship from his sisters, me, or Jim}, car loving, sweet disposition, easy going child that he currently is into his older years?

He officially graduated from the high chair a few days after Christmas, at 20 months old; which is a little later than Gianna and around the same time as Briella (I think?). He eats with a fork and a spoon really well, as long as messes on the floor don't count as eating 'well' with using the spoon, hahaha. He's all boy, though, and gets these urges to throw his eating utensils across the room or instigate food fights, but thankfully, his sisters know better than to join in to his immaturity and gasp at him attempting such an atrocity.

He has been climbing with ease pretty much since he began walking; which was at a much earlier age than either of the girls ever were able to do. He crawls up the stairs like a rocket, but is also trying to walk up them without holding on and that terrifies me. He's had better balance, agility, and strength compared to them since he was a crawler. Likewise, he's got rhythm and motion and is a natural with dancing when he hears music. I can't get enough of when he swivels his hips.

Micah has a matchbox Shelby car that he lovingly calls, "Colby". I don't know why, but I think that is absolutely adorable; however, I didn't know he called the car Colby until Jim told me. So, when I went to get him out of bed one morning and he kept saying "Colby, Colby", Briella and I thought he was saying that he wanted colby cheese. Whoops, hahahaa. Micah says mouth as "mouse" and it is just the cutest thing ever to hear. But when he sees one of us eating something he wants and opens his mouth up wide saying, “Mouse”, I don’t know if I should laugh or say awwww.

He first began calling his matchbox motorcycles "Keykoles" but now, it's turned into "motorcicles" (think: popsicles). He loves to look around the room, point to each of us, and call us by name. If he gets to stay up later than his sisters at bedtime he will ask, "Where Anna? "Where Bwella at?" He even asks about our background squirrel that I lovingly named "Plumperpotomus" for it's plump tummy. He will look out the window and ask, "What Plumper doin'?" "Where Plumper at?" He will get a toy and say, "MAMA! Watch this." He will throw a ball, or any item for that matter, toward one of us and say, "Catch!". (He really says so many things like this in the correct context). He will come into the laundry room or any room that I'm doing something and say, "What a doin'?" A funny thing is when he drops something or has an accident and says, “Awwww, man.” or “c’mon”. He says, “More peas” (please) and says phone as "pown" {po•own}.

He adores Briella and Gianna, but it's very interesting how he interacts differently with the two of them. He is very affectionate and tender with Briella and he's equally affectionate with Gianna, but hardly as tender, hahaha. He will wrestle her, hit her, pull her hair and then follow it up with a laugh. Uh oh. He's so affectionate with me and Jim, constantly giving unsolicited leg squeezes, front hugs, back hugs when I am crouched down, and sweet kisses. I hope he stays affectionate; the world needs more strong, yet sensitive men in it.

He is much more tough with getting hurt than the girls were or still are, for that matter. His mouth will be bleeding or his knees will be scraped and bloody and he will cry for a minute or two and then want down to run off and play again. As long as he gets that immediate comfort and hug, he's good. If he's left to cry without immediate comfort is when he can become inconsolable.

Micah knows very well what it means to go to the corner. He also knows how to remedy a misbehavior with a hug and a, "I sorry." He is talking in 3-5 word sentences saying things such as, "Anna, no touch." "Don't like that." "Don't want that." "I no eat." "All done _____" or "Go away____!" If I tell one of the girls to go to the corner, he points his finger and says, “Cona!” {cone•a}

He's obsessed with any kind of moving vehicle and the noise that accompanies it such as the horn of a car, the whistle blow of a train, the engine of a plane flying over the house, the beep, beep, beep of a truck backing up. He will, every time, stop whatever he is doing to listen to the sound and then repeat the sound or say what it is: "Choo-choo" or "Araplane". He knows what it is to go fast in the car and will say, "Again" to go fast. Likewise, he sits in his carseat saying, "Weeeeeeee" when one of us is driving and gets extremely excited for curvy roads; which there are a lot around where we live.

He loves to pretend play in the kitchen and he will push cars around for an hour at a time when his stomach is full and there are no distractions (aka: sisters asleep or sisters gone). He adores his monkey and puppy and they sleep with him at every nap and every night. He will bring them downstairs after every wake up and when he leaves them laying on the floor, I know he's done with them and I sneak them back upstairs as a way to excite him for sleep. Sometimes he'll even start rubbing his eyes saying, "Monkey. Puppy." when he’s ready for bed.

He absolutely enjoys watching Bubble Guppies and Cailou or Little Einsteins makes a close second or third. He also enjoys watching Veggie Tales Sing Along Songs and Psalty videos when waiting for Briella in the car pick up line at school. He says, "Veggie Tale" perfectly too. He equally loves to couch eat and car eat while he watches television. Jim happily accepts that Micah takes after him with that quality.

He knows when he poops and has been telling us for a couple months now. He will go get his diapers and his wipes and lay down for a change. Oh, how I wish he'd just go sit on the toilet with going to such detail. Then, other days, he will play the "You can't catch me" game when he has a poopie diaper. All depends on his mood, I guess. Just last Saturday, he was upstairs for his nap. After 35 minutes of him playing in his crib (which is not normal for him whatsoever), I knew something wasn't right so I went upstairs to check on him. When I went into his room, he had taken off his pants and his socks, thrown them out, and was working on taking off his diaper. He has never done that before and hasn't done it since, but it was quite an unexpected occurrence to find him doing that! Interestingly enough, he had eaten a new cinnamon cereal that morning and when I took him out of his crib, his cheeks, chin, and nose were all red like they had been sunburned. He was WIDE awake too; which is very unlike him at nap time. He also has a sensitivity to oranges and orange juice. He doesn't digest oranges and they come out whole and orange juice/oranges give him a red burn rash on his cheeks.

He loves people; especially his family. He smiles and waves at most anyone he sees or that talks to him. He flirts with men, women, and children at the store and half the time I don't even know he's doing it until I look up or look over to see it happening.

He wants to do anything and everything his sisters are doing. He doesn't like anything but what they are using either so he's been using real tea set cups and enjoying real tea parties since he was 19 months old. You know what? He's pretty good at it too.

Making cupcakes for Nonna's birthday on January 2nd

He knows all of his body parts, tries to say them, and points accurately at them. He knows most of all animal noises and is about a 50-60% with saying his colors correctly at random. If it's a Pete the Cat book that has colors in it, he knows the colors by memorization because he loves reading the same books over and over. He knows some of his emotions and will do the cutest curly lip sad face and biggest grinned happy faces. When we are taking pictures he will say, "Cheese", but I'm certain that the moment that I take the picture he stops smiling. On purpose? I don't know.

Since Briella started school in the fall, he knows when we pull up to Dad and Mom's house and will excitedly say, "Papa, Nonna house!" and usually follows it up with clapping or a "YAY!"

He just ate his first cupcake, at 20 months old, at Mom's birthday last week. Up until that point, he would not eat cake, not even for his birthday, not for Gianna’s, not for Briella's, Jim's; he would NOT eat cake. Jim introduced him to beef jerky and he loves it.

He's been a B-I-G boy since he had a growth spurt around 9 months old and it hasn't stopped. He's tall, sturdy, and solid for a 21 month old. Let's just put it this way, he's 34 pounds and Gianna is 36 pounds. Now, that's a BIG boy.

Micah is just like his mommy with his love of french fries. 

      

I walked into the family room and he had arranged all the animals around him and was hugging and kissing each one individually while hysterically laughing to the snowman running out of batteries. 

Yes, he laid like this for the entire show. In fact, he's enjoyed laying this way since he was about a year old. Nowadays, he won't lay on the couch without getting a blanket. He's a smart one.

Micah in the corner for a consequence. 

       

Watching the girls play in the snow. He had woken up from a nap and they were near to come in so I didn't bundle him up and he was okay with watching with his monkey and puppy in hand. 

Micah's first snow steps.

Micah climbed into her lap, without help from anyone, while I was doing dishes. I looked over and saw this and grabbed a picture; too cute for sure. Gianna absolutely LOVES 'mothering' him too (she always has). 

Briella crowned Micah the king with her "Child of the King" crown from Sunday School.

Completely immersed in watching Bubble Guppies before bed. 

He was feeding his puppy and monkey a bottle, but anytime I snapped a picture he would stop doing it.

Briella got a new camera for Christmas so her new 'hobby' is taking pictures. She saw me and Micah sitting together and run to take a picture. This is just one of the few (that I approve) of hundreds she's taken of me/us. Thank goodness for Briella, she may just prove that I was around in pictures after all. [wink, wink].

This is my poor Micah during his first flu on January 15th. It's now the 16th and the fever is finally subsided and he's napping, but the coughing and draining is at it's worst on this day. He has not wanted to eat for almost a week, but thankfully, he is drinking apple juice, some water, and occasional smoothies. I was so encouraged seeing him excited about this sucker yesterday because he had resisted any type of food/snack/treat until this sucker.

The prince on his throne drinking juice, along with his sisters. All 3 kids sick with flu, along with me at the same time, was awful!

You said your name for the first time on March 20th, at almost 2 years old, with Mommy holding you in her arms while looking at  your baby picture.