Wrenzy Turned Three

On March 21, Wrenzonamous turned three. She opened her presents from us that morning: her very own rolly and a bag of notecards, paper, post-its, and a couple of binders to keep her drawings in. All of these things were purchased by Jim, and I have to say - it's lovely to have a husband who participates in the gift shopping.

That night we had the Wilson/McEwan fam over for pizza and dessert. To this day, Wrenzy answers with her fingers (up one at a time) when she's asked how old she is. It's very cute. In this video, she added a verbal "thee."

Wrenzy opened presents.

We had ice cream, cookies, and, for those who wanted, ice cream cookie sandwiches. I wasn't sure how the cookie recipe I chose to use would work in sandwich format. As I feared, the cookies were very hard until they'd sat out and warmed up for a minute. I was glad I'd only frozen a few sandwiches so I knew to try something else next time. It was really hard to get a candle into the cookie for this terrible blowing-out-candles pic:

Ever's remote-control helicopter made an appearance. It pretty much only comes out when the Wilsons come over for birthdays. Ever began landing it in Brody's hand, which was a fun game.

The following Saturday, March 24, we had a few people over for a friend party. Wren wanted to invite Ella and Lelei, who are Ever's friends. Wren thinks they're her friends, which is cute. At my suggestion, we included Matix - Ella's brother who is actually Wren's age and Wren's friend. So in the end we had them, the Karners, and Nathan and Noah Cikanek. Luc and Amelie Oddou were busy with family in town, so they couldn't make it.

Wren wanted chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream for her birthday. To make it a little more exciting, I made chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream sandwiches, thereby avoiding the hard-cookie issue. This was another experimental birthday treat. I thought they were quite delicious, and they were mostly eaten by the kids, unlike the cupcakes I made for Ever's fifth birthday.

I don't know what happened, but Wren started crying hysterically right around the time we began singing to her. Why does the birthday girl always have to cry at her party? She managed to get it together in time to blow out her candle.

The kids enjoyed playing baseball (aka, taking turns hitting). I think getting out the baseball stuff was Ever's idea, and it started a stint of her wanting to play all the time. She was going out with Jim in the evenings whenever she could, and she got pretty good.

Then we did the traditional pinata and opened presents.

After everyone left, Ever spent some time riding her scooter out back while Jim used Wren's new bubble blower. It was an idyllic scene.

Wrenzy continues to be the most darling little sprite there ever was. At her three-year checkup, she weighed in at 26 lbs, 7 oz (ninth percentile) and was in the sixth percentile for height. She has an angel face and the most adorable expressions, and I love the way she talks with her hands. She sometimes plays so well with Tiny, whom she calls "Tiny Boo," taking care of her and talking sweetly to her as if she's much younger. Other times she takes things away from Tiny and makes her cry. She is all over Tiny, holding her hand, hugging her, pulling her to wherever she wants her to go, trying to get her to play what she wants her to play. Lately she's been trying to get Tiny to go camping with her all the time. Tiny does not usually like it, so there is crying over that, too.

Wrenzypoo-lovey has the cutest speech impediments. She has a tongue thrust on her s's when they're in the middle of words, but when words start with s's, she usually turns them into d's. She makes f's into d's, too. "Sleep" sounds like "deep." "Fork" sounds like "dork." She says the "ar" sound like "ow," so "car" sounds like "cow," and "Arden" sounds like "Owden." She pronounces "toilet" sort of like "talet." I love the way she talks.

She's a good helper. She and Tiny excel at dishwasher unloading. Every time I start cooking, she asks if she can help. She also likes to help Jim in the yard. She loves Curious George. Jim recently bought her a couple of collections of Curious George stories, and they've been a hit. She always wants to be read to and requests stories while she eats. She misses Ever when she's gone. She's flexible and does jumps and spins and forward rolls. I have high hopes for her gymnastics career. She's just a delight, and we eat her up.