The bathroom remodel is ongoing. Nobody could have imagined how much work it would be. Jim ordered so many supplies online that our cardboard collection got totally out of control. It just got piled up on the extra wood, tools, and other homeless items in our garage. Getting to my extra freezer became really hard.
I finally realized that instead of trying to put it little by little into our tiny recyclables bin, I could load it into Big Blue and take it to the nearby recycling center. I've done that twice now, and it's really satisfying to clear out all that junk.
Tom Sorenson came over a number of times to help Jim. They installed the floor in color-coordinated shirts:
We went to Brody Wilson's family birthday party, and I have documentation because Trish is really good about taking pictures. Tiny may be the worst eater in the history of the world, but she indiscriminately loves all desserts. Brody taught us the joy of the lemon bundt cake, and it was enjoyed by all.
Wrenzy, Hailee (Ben and Mishelle Wilson's daughter), Brody, and Tiny
Hailee, Tiny, and Ever
Ever was so into the lemon bundt cake that I ended up making one later for a family night treat at her request.
Trisha, Hailee, and Tiny
Tiny immediately and passionately loved Hailee, who is about six months younger (but freakishly small). She followed Hailee around all night, and there was lots of hugging.
For her fourth birthday in March, Wren wanted to have the Sorensons over because she's obsessed with Jacob and Brandon. Originally she and Tiny were all about Brandon, who is 14, but then Jacob, who is 10, got the top spot in their hearts. Her other requests were monkey bread, pesto noodles, unicorn cake, nail painting, show watching, piñata, and craft making (wands, I believe). As her birthday got closer, she seemed to forget about the craft part, and I didn't remind her. I wondered if I should have asked her about inviting peers for a party, but instead I encouraged the Sorenson family thing.
We had the Sorenson party on the Saturday before her birthday, March 16. I made the cake Friday, and then Ever helped me frost and decorate it Saturday. It was a bit ghetto but good enough for government work.
I kept dinner very simple - plain noodles, pesto noodles, or noodles with red sauce, plus salad and fruit, I think. I made the mistake of mixing the red sauce in before dinner and making the noodles mushy, so that was sad.
For the first time in the history of our children, there were no tears during the piñata portion.
Jacob volunteered to do a magic show for us. He prepared in advance (Amber came upon his list of planned tricks some time before) and took it very seriously. He tried to start and then got super nervous and freaked out. He had to take a few minutes and practice and then start again. I felt bad because he really seemed to be cracking under this immense self-inflicted pressure. Once he got going, he did great. One of his tricks was actually really cool.
Cake time:
On Tuesday, March 19, JoAnn gave Wrenzy birthday brownies.
Pod had meetings in Palm Springs that week and flew into San Diego on Wednesday morning (March 20). He hung out with us that day before driving to Palm Springs Thursday morning. He humored the littles with a matching game.
I had to deliver monkey bread for Wren's birthday breakfast on Thursday. I got started on it way too late on Wednesday night. It turned out well, just before midnight.
On her birthday morning, Wrenzy opened her presents and enjoyed the monkey bread.
I didn't think I gave the girls really excessive servings of monkey bread, but Jim disapproved (and in every other circumstance ever, he gives them about ten times the sugar that I would). They ate it up and raved about it. When we got into the van for school drop-off, Tiny said she felt sick. I asked for clarification, and she said she needed to throw up. I didn't really believe her but took her inside to the bathroom. She didn't barf immediately, so I went into the kitchen to grab a bowl to take on the road. When I returned to the bathroom with the bowl to fetch her, she promptly threw up twice into the bowl. She was totally fine the rest of the day, so it had to have something to do with the volume of monkey bread or pace at which she ate it. Whoops.
The girls watched a show that day (I think an episode of Pinkalicious), and at some point we squeezed in nail painting to finish off Wren's birthday wish list. They got ice cream after dinner, too.
Wrenzy remains a tiny wisp of a thing. At her four-year checkup, she weighed in at 28 lbs, 14 oz, which was the 5th percentile. (Noah next door, who just turned two, weighs several pounds more than she does.) She was about 13th percentile for height.
We call her a fruitarian because she eats so much fruit. Often she'll say she doesn't want it, but if you put a bowl of it next to her, she'll eat it all and ask for more. She is the slowest eater who ever lived and is not infrequently at the table for an hour after Jim and I are done. (It actually reminds me of her great-grandma Norma, except Wrenzy's not even talking while everyone else is eating; she's just that slow.) She eats peanut butter and honey sandwiches nearly every day for lunch. Quesadillas and pesto noodles are her other favorites. She is an aggressive and constant lover of Tiny, much to Tiny's dismay. She also loves her big sister and would sleep with Ever every night if I would let her. Our library of chapter books is the most exciting thing that's ever happened to her, and we're quickly making our way through it. She's sweet and wonderful, and we sure love her.
Ever started gymnastics at Oceanside Gymnastics in June 2018. They had a big showcase in March. Wrenzy was taking a class at that point, too, but was too little to participate. Ever had a lot of fun (both in class and at the showcase), and I had fun seeing her out there in her shiny pink leotard. I learned at the showcase, however, that if any of my girls want to continue with gym, Oceanside Gymnastics may not be the place to do it. Even their star pupils didn't have very impressive skills, and Amy Thompson said the place Lelei used to go to is way better. Anyway, I got terrible videos of Ever on all the events.
Floor (she has the long ponytail and is behind the group of girls in the foreground):
Super exciting jump on the springboard:
Bars:
Beam:
Classic Ever faces:
Lelei and Ever:
I took Ever and Leela to Legoland once. (The arrangement when I bought Ever's season pass was that Anna would take her when she took Leela and Rafi, but I promised Ever as a reward that I would take her once. It turned out to be cheaper for me to get a season pass via a special deal than it was to buy a regular one-day pass, so I ended up getting a season pass. May have to go again a time or two before the year is out.)
Ever tried the Raptor Climb, which Leela has a freakish ability to complete successfully 100% of the time. Ever was not so successful, which upset her, but I had to cut her off after two tries because it costs extra.
I found this among some worksheets Ever brought home from school:
Does that mean she has some inkling of how much work it takes to feed children?
Ever collects things on her bed. I find so many clothes, books, stuffed animals, and random objects up there. One night I went to check on her and found playing cards spread out and her little light still on.
She did a PREP class (after school, at school) by Cadence Dance Project, and they did a performance at the end. She's in the back.
They did it twice, and Ever was not involved in a collision the second time. The second video was blurry, though, and I liked the above video better.
I had to get emo and cry a little bit at the performance, I think mainly because of the song choice. How sweet a little dancer is she?
Rafi, Naomie (friend from last year), Ever, Wren, Lelei, Leela, and Grace
Ever's Daisy troop camped at Camp Winacka.
Then they visited The Ecology Center in Encinitas.
Anna took the kids to Legoland again, where Leela won a gigantic banana for Ever at the Raptor Climb (so not a thing that I want to store at home).
I took a lot of pictures of Tiny in undies in March because it's exciting and cute when they start wearing undies, and the wedgies are amazing.
At first I thought Tiny was going to be miraculously easy to potty train. She only had two accidents the first week. At the end of that week, I thought, "Are we done? Was that it?" But no, since then she's had plenty of accidents. It hasn't been super terrible, but it hasn't been as trouble-free as it originally seemed.
Tiny went to the dentist.
Wrenzy and Tiny have no problem going to Jim and my dentist, so we never got a referral to a pediatric dentist.
Tiny read The Gunniwolf. I'm too lazy to try to edit this video. Note in the beginning how she refers to Little Girl as "Little Tiny" because that's how Jim reads it, to make it about Tiny.
I started reading lessons with Wrenzy, and she was excited about them. In the beginning of that Gunniwolf video, she said, "Maked one!" as she finished writing a letter. We got through some lessons but petered out as time went on. It's hard to find time. I'm hoping this summer we can do them regularly.
We have a ton of headbands the girls never wear. One day, though, Tiny and Wrenzy got into them, and we went on a walk with the littles looking quite fancy.
There were a few other walks, too, when they were less fancy. The green was nice, and I like the yellow flowers (weeds?) down at the end of the cul de sac.
We went out with Matix when he was over for our semi-regular playdate. That's Matix in the lead and Wrenzy behind him.
When Kristi dropped Matix off that day, she gave us a size-6 dress that Ella doesn't wear anymore. Tiny was convinced it was for her. It almost worked as a full-length number.
Jim was very anxious to move Tiny into the triple bunk. I had concerns, but one night we did it. It was fun to see the girls together and felt like a momentous occasion.
That began a horrible nightly ritual of nobody going to sleep and me threatening to move people and then me finally moving Tiny into the crib in the other room. Wrenzy was at least as much of a problem as Tiny was, I think because in the middle bunk she had access to both Ever above and Tiny below. There was lots of movement, lots of leaning over and talking to Tiny, lots of kicking Ever's bunk, etc. Tiny, of course, would also move around a bunch and talk. They just were not capable of settling down when Tiny was in there. After dealing with this for a while, we finally told them Tiny had to be booted back to her crib and could try again on her third birthday. The sad news is I don't think they'll be any better then, but we'll see.
During Tiny's stint in the bunk bed, I took this pic after they finally fell asleep one night. It depicts a partially nude Wren and a Tiny who's halfway off her bed.
Sometimes we put Wren to bed fully clothed but later find her like this:
The Monarch butterfly migration went through Oceanside this spring. I don't really know much about it other than that there were apparently two waves, and I've never seen so many butterflies in all my life. One day I looked out back and just saw hundreds of them flying through our yard. It was really neat. I took the littles out to watch them, but they didn't care that much. They were more interested in playing on the playset and jumping on the tramp.
The flowers on the other side of our fence were laden with butterflies, but they didn't show up in pictures.
The next day, Matix was over, and we walked up the street to see all the butterflies in the big tree and all over that slope of flowers just down from the tennis courts. On the way, Matix taught us about eating sour grass. Wrenzy was really into it.
The tree with all the butterflies:
We finished reading Charlotte's Web with Wrenzy and moved onto Roald Dahl.
The girl who checked us out at Target gave the girls stickers. In the parking lot, I looked down and saw that Tiny had chosen to wear one of hers right between the eyes.
This video isn't of much. I am keeping it as a snapshot of Wrenzy at this age.
Tiny gets attached to jammies and won't let them go, even when they're totally not acceptable anymore. Her "purple bird jammies" were size 18 months, so small and so holey, but she refused to retire them. Eventually I did it without her knowledge, and she only asked for them tearfully a few times afterward.
Somehow these super-old hand-me-down jammies came into circulation:
They could not have been comfortable with her toes pushing through, but Tiny didn't want me to get rid of them, either. Again, I did it secretly anyway.
Last, Wrenzy wore Jim's sunglasses on the way home from church.
