The Rest of August

The rest of August, in pictures (because I remember nothing that wasn't recorded):

Ever loves to help me bake. She LOVES batter/dough. Any kind. Even french bread dough. We made caramel brownies to take somewhere, and she spent more than 15 minutes scraping and licking. No batter left behind:

Wren is adventurous. It's a little scary. Jim let her climb on the play set before she could really walk. I told him to watch her (meaning stay right with her so he could catch her if she fell), and he said, "I am." This was happening, and Jim was nowhere near:

Wren is obsessed with belly buttons. If she and Ever are in the bath together, she goes for Ever's piko (one of the few Hawaiian words we use) over and over. Ever likes it, but it's a little weird. Here, she checks out her own:

Aven Dalton, Ever's nine-year-old friend, still likes to play. I had her over once in August, figuring that since I can't seem to leave the house, I might at least bring in a little diversion. The girls sported matching jumpsuits/rompers:

Tyna, being alert:

Resting:

Wrenzy reading, Mardi Gras-style:

Ever proudly posing with the completed Frozen puzzles she got from Auntie Dawn:

Wrenzo looking her finest:

Sisters:

For the first time, I put on Baby Bach or something for the big girls to watch while I cooked dinner one day. They seem to get so needy around 4:00 P.M. when I'm trying to get dinner done (on those occasions I cook). One day I finally couldn't take it anymore and realized I had to turn on a show if I wanted to get it done. The show consisted of numbers and shapes flying slowly across the screen while classical music played. Wrenzy was mesmerized:

When Ever saw what was happening, she joined the party, equally excited:

Wrenzy has the best expressions:

Tutu gave Ever 100-piece puzzles, and she finished them all by herself:

I took a selfie with the baby once so that my posterity will know I existed:

Aardvark is the happiest, most smiley baby. I was trying to capture her smiles one night, and Ever wanted in on the action:

Feeding children is a nightmare because they are picky and messy. So messy. A lot of each day is spent feeding and cleaning up after feeding. (And to think - in the next month I have to start feeding solids to another baby!!!) When left alone with Honey Bunches of Oats, Wrenzy got them all over her hair, face, and everywhere else.

It's hard to watch:

Yogurt is the worst, and unfortunately I give it to her nearly every day because it's pretty much her only source of calcium:

Ever congratulates Wren on a job well done (mess well made?):

This face:

Sometimes it's incredibly hard being the parent of small children. They can make me crazy. They bring out a temper I never knew I had. The whining, crying, fighting, screaming, sassing, dirty diapers, disobedience - SO HARD. One really bad day culminated in Ever and Wren's breaking a small Pyrex dish. Having to clean this up was just the cherry on top:

On the other hand, these girls can be so incredibly sweet. One day I went upstairs to put away laundry and returned to find Ever reading to Tyna, who seemed to be enjoying it:

Ever loves her sisters.

Wrenzy started talking. In the last couple months, she's had a word explosion. One of her first words was "hello":

Ever continued her dance class at the Y. Mad skills:

Auntie Dawn gave us a book of "You Are My Sunshine," where you can record yourself reading the story. Ever and I recorded ourselves singing it, and we dedicated it to Wren and Arden. Wren was really into it when we showed it to her. I tried to record her bopping, but then the dancing stopped and turned into a brief sister snuggle session that Ever clearly loved:

We went on a family run for the first time in a long time and hit the traditional smoothie place afterward. Wrenzy's quite the card:

Tyna slept:

Wren tried an acai bowl for the first time:

Ever always gets strawberry banana:

Note the woman in the mechanized chair behind Ever in the above picture. Upon ordering, she maneuvered herself into a position near the counter, out of the way of people going in and out, and close to our table. Jim, whispering, asked me if we should invite her to sit with us. He asked a few times. I didn't know. Then he said we needed to, and he asked me to do it. (I was closer, and he had Wrenzy on his lap.) I was a little uncomfortable, but I went up to the woman and said something like, "It looks like you've got a good spot here, but you're welcome to join us at our table. We've got room." She accepted, and we chatted with her until we finished. Her name is Kathleen. She lives in an assisted-living facility near the smoothie place. She has a son in Orange County. She asked all about our girls and admired them. We told her we go there a lot on Saturdays, and maybe we'd see her again. We told her to have a good day. She said something like, "It is now." I was so grateful that Jim felt prompted to reach out to her. The really unfortunate news is that we didn't make it out for another run for months after that, so we haven't seen her again. But I'm so grateful that we got to brighten her morning that day. I imagine she's very lonely. I love my husband.