Christmas Eve and Christmas

We were planning to go to Hawai'i for Christmas, but tickets were about $900 apiece. Tutu and Papa could get tickets to California for less than $300, I believe, so they took one for the team. They flew to California the week before Christmas and went straight to Ventura to spend some time with Christian and Shandra's family. Then they took the train down to Oceanside on Christmas Eve. I made a lot of terrible food while they were here. It was tragic, really, this streak of bad cooking I was on. Anyway, we made a chocolate caramel pecan pie that actually turned out OK. Tutu's first order of business upon arrival was helping Ever make the crust.

For some reason, the littles love playing with Papa. He does not solicit their affection, but kids love him. Tiny and Wrenzy dragged him off to play. Fortunately for Papa, Zoza told him exactly what to do. Here, his instructions were to go to sleep on the chaise.

After dinner, we read the Bible account of Christ's birth and awkwardly tried to act it out. (I finally realized that to act out the nativity, the narration has to be a modern-language summary of the story, not a reading from the Bible. News flash.) Then Tutu read The Happy Prince.

We sang. Despite the fact that she cannot read, Zoza tried very hard always to be on the right page in the book of lyrics.

Then Jim read a little more to the kids, and they were off to bed at a pretty decent hour.

The girls slept until a normal time on Christmas morning, which was lovely.

Tiny wasn't really great at the stocking thing. Hers didn't get unpacked until Ever and Wren did it for her. She just fixated on each present and didn't want to move on.

We had waffles with Nutella for breakfast. Ever is a nutty Nutella eater. Somehow she got it on her pants and all over her foot.

I had done a last-minute Target run a couple days before Christmas to get a few things to add to the girls' Christmas gifts. One of the things I'd gotten was a leotard (technically a "biketard," but I hate that word) for Wrenzy since she was starting gymnastics. I was so glad I did because she was ecstatic about it. She said something like, "This is the best present ever!" when she opened it, and she wore it all day.

Ever challenged Papa to a game of chess on her new chess set.

Tutu and Wrenzy played a memory game.

That night we watched Home Alone, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. I loved hearing the laughter from the couch while I was in the kitchen. It's amazing how many of the lines from that movie I remember.

It was a mellow and lovely Christmas.

The Rest of December Before Tutu and Papa Arrived

Miss Paula took Wren's class to visit Santa at the mall in a parent's old party bus. For the first time in her career, she didn't call ahead to make sure Santa would be there, and alas - Santa was not there. They got a class pic with his sleigh, though, and Wren was front and center on Miss Paula's lap:

Bear is an independent lady, in a good way. She doesn't usually do things that I don't want her to do, but she gets her own dishes down, gets herself water from the bathroom tap, etc. When I'm making lunch for all the girls, Bear-ba-loot will often say, "I'll get the plates!" Then she'll climb up on the counter and ask, "Ever, what color plate do you want, or do you not care?" Ever will answer, "I don't care." And Wren will get the colors she and Tiny want and pick a color for Ever.

She likes to help make her peanut butter and honey sandwiches. It started with squirting the honey, but then she started asking if she could spread the peanut butter, too.

Ever has a crush on a boy named Marcellus in her class. I never thought my kids would have crushes so  young, but there you have it. Classmates and idiotic adult playground attendants have taught her about such things. I first learned about Marcellus when Ever told me she had earned "lunch with teacher" and had chosen Marcellus to join her. Apparently the kids who want to join the lunch with teacher raise their hands, and the kid who earned it gets to pick a friend to join. Ever always picks Marcellus, and they have little supervised lunch dates. It's so weird to me that she doesn't have a good girl friend in class that she'd pick. I hope this isn't a bad omen about her teenage years. Marcellus is the little guy two kids away from Ever:

Ever's last day of school before Christmas break was Friday, December 21. Kristi Rondo took my littles so I could watch Ever's singing performance and then help with gingerbread houses.

I videotaped all of the songs, but I was way in the back and had a lady holding her phone in front of me almost the whole time. Didn't work out. Ever is about fifth from the left in the front:

Gingerbread house:

After gingerbread houses, the kids were free to leave. I thought Ever would want to come with me, but instead she said she wanted to stay. She ran off to join her classmates in a corner (I think possibly because of the school's iPads) and didn't give me another look.

Jim continued his work on the bathroom. Taking out the shower tile:

This was our pile of demo debris:

I was able to get my new BFF, Pierre from Clear Junk Removal, to come haul it all away before Tutu and Papa arrived on Christmas Eve.

On Saturday, December 22, we went for a short walk/ride, and Ever took a spin on the trike.

She and I had an ice cream date later that day.

Proof of Ever's Rocky obsession - listening to the Pandora station as she folded laundry:

Sunday we had an hour-long church service, and then we baked. I don't remember what, but the girls liked the batter.

Wrenzy was playing the guitar and singing an amazing song about baby Jesus and Mary. She kind of froze when I started videotaping, which is a real travesty.

On Monday, I spied a very sweet, spontaneous group hug.

Ever and Wren sat through the weirdest song because it was from the Rocky soundtrack. I'm certain that if it hadn't said Rocky, Ever would have told me she didn't like it and tried to change the song. The Rocky obsession is powerful. The song contained lots of screaming and growling. I didn't capture the best of it.

Things the Kids (and Jim) Have Said (and Done), Part 2

Arden, 12/16/18

While watching The Polar Express:

A:  What is the policeman?
Me:  That's not a policeman. That's the train conductor. He works on the train.
A:  Oh. When is his birthday gonna be? Maybe he's going to be 19 or 15 or 2 for his birthday.

While decorating the Christmas tree, she sat down with a little glittery shoe ornament and said, while trying to jam her foot in it, "Look, it fits!"

I always tell her she's so sweet, I have to eat her up. She offers me a cheek and says, "You can have this cheek."  While we were decorating the tree, we started having that conversation, but she said, "This one is for you, and this one is for Daddy. Then I'll be all gone." Sometimes she tells me both cheeks are for Daddy, but I can have her hair. There's some variation.

Arden, regularly

Tiny says that when she puts on her jammies, she becomes a little baby. She says babies don't have names; they're just called little babies. If she's in her jammies and I call her "Tiny Angel" or "my little, tiny baby," she corrects me and says she's not "Tiny," she's a little baby. Every single time she puts on pajamas, we have these conversations. "I'm about to become a little, tiny baby!" (For some reason, she can refer to herself as a "little, tiny baby," but if I say that, she hears "little Tiny baby," and that's wrong because it's a name.) When we finish getting her jammies on, she exclaims triumphantly, "I'm a little baby!" It is so incredibly cute. Jim just ordered a two-pack of footie jammies to try to replace the falling-apart, too-small, size-18-month "purple bird jammies" that Tiny's been living in for months. Now Wren wears one of the new footie jammies, and Tiny wears the other, and they both become little babies.

If Tiny is playing with a doll and you ask her what her dolly's name is, she'll say babies don't have names. (Wren, in contrast, names all her things "Sweet Rose.")

Wren, regularly

Wren is a little confused about blowing kisses. She gives us the sweetest, lightest kisses on our cheeks and then does a little blow. So cute.

Wren, January 2019

At dinner, Wren asked Heavenly Father to bless that the food would "healthy us."

Another day, in the car: "Mommy, I finished pretending to read Jack and Annie already! I did it so quickly!" (Ever's recently read a bunch of The Magic Treehouse books, starring characters named Jack and Annie. As in, Ever read five of them in a few days. Anyway, Wren found one in the car and fake read it as we drove.)

Arden, January 2019

When the girls were in our bed one morning, Jim asked Tiny what she wanted for breakfast. She said, "It's gonna be Hunchy Bunchies with watermilk and watermilk in a cup."

She had a virus that was gunking up her eyes. Sometimes they were stuck shut in the morning, so I'd clean out the "junk," as we called it. One morning she asked, "How did the junk get in the door, up the stairs, and into my eyes?"

Arden, 2/4/19

Wren was at the table. Tiny moved chairs, and as she climbed up onto the one next to Wren, she said, "Wrenzy, I have to sit by you because I like you."

She was holding the Friend magazine while I was changing her diaper and found Wren's favorite story, which involves a shark. She started reciting the story: "When I was little, we were in Mexico with another family..." Then she said, "I'm very good at telling the shark story. I'm learning how to be a mommy, a really big mommy. I'm learning how to read the shark story."

Wren, 2/4/19

To Tiny, during dinner:  "Jesus is special, and you cannot forget it. He is our big brother."

Wren, 2/6/19

"Heavenly Father, bless that we'll do good things today and that all the food will strengthen and healthy us. Bless that we won't do anything bad. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Arden, 2/6/19

Wren went outside while Arden and I were finishing lunch. Arden asked if there coyotes. I said, "Yes, but I'm watching her so I can keep her safe." Tiny said, "When I am outside, I will keep her safe from the coyotes that take little people. I will keep her safe so they don't take her away or put her in jail."

Wren, 2/13/19

"Dear Heavenly Father, please bless that there will be no bad things, only good things, and if there's bad things, please forgive us. Please bless that this food with strengthen and healthy us. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Arden, 2/21/19

As I was putting her footy jammies on, "I'm going to be a little baby! I won't be Tiny anymore. Bye-bye, Tiny."

Arden, 2/28/19

Saying our morning prayer, "Thank thee that we can have a nice day. Can Jesus save us." It was more of a statement than a question.

Jim, probably sometime in 2018

Today, March 2, Ever found a really old post-it note on which I'd written various things, one of which was this quote: "I love you, too, honey. We're parasites, though. We live in a trash dumpster." That is sleep-talk by Jim.

Wren and Tiny, regularly

Wren and Tiny think Vaseline is called "gasolina," pronounced Spanish-style, like "gas-oh-lee-nuh." (Apparently they were talking to JoAnn about it, and she told them gasoline is for cars.) Wren has been saying "I need gasolina" all the time because her lips have been so dry.