Tiny Turned Four

Tiny brainstormed for months about her birthday and all the things she wanted to do (backpacking, hiking, camping, ice skating, surfing, and a bunch of other things). In the end, her real requests ended up being as follows: crepes for breakfast, Little House on the Prairie (the first episode is longer than the others, TV-movie length), swim in Cikaneks' pool, chicken nuggests for lunch, play on the tramp, piñata, hot dogs for dinner, and s'mores for the birthday dessert. It was the most mellow birthday ever, and she was perfectly satisfied with it. 

I decorated the traditional "birthday chair" with crepe paper and balloons so that on her birthday morning, Tiny was greeted by that and all her presents. Jim had bought her some random stuff already, and then he asked her about a week before her birthday what she wanted. To our surprise, she rattled some things off like a ruby and a stuffie. So he tried to make all her dreams come true by also buying everything she asked for. She ended up with a giant ball (like an exercise ball), a bean bag chair, Black Stallion, an elephant stuffie, and maybe more. Then  Ever bought her an apron, and Wrenzy gave her a unicorn stuffie. It ended up feeling like quite a haul. Later I asked Tiny if she liked her bean bag chair, and she said, "So much. I love it as much as I love Ever's elephant. And that's way more than a thousand. That's how much I love every one of my presents." It was very cute. 

The girls watched the first episode of Little House on the Prairie and passionately loved it. I'd never seen the show, and it's really heart-warming. I can't overstate how much I love my girls' love of it. 

Tiny got some solo reading time with Daddy out of one of the books he reads just with her (as opposed to the book we read to all the girls together, the book I read just with Ever, and the book I read just with the littles; we have a lot of books going at one time). 

I don't have any photo proof, but I believe we did swim in Cikaneks' pool.

We grilled hot dogs and burgers with Cikaneks for dinner. Then we finally used the unicorn piñata that we bought last year and forgot to pull out on her third birthday. Noah and Nathan helped the girls whack it. It leaked candy for a while and died a slow death, so everybody got plenty of hits.

In an effort to avoid giving their boys more sugar, Scott and Rebecca took them home before we made s'mores on the fire pit. 

Tiny took her s'mores on chocolate graham crackers. I knocked the top off to insert the candle.

It was a lovely summer evening. The girls took out the hula hoops, and Ever showed off her mad skills.

Tiny at four: 

She is our wildest, most carefree child. She chatters nonstop. We were in the kitchen once while she was going on and on, and Jim said, "Can you say 'incessant'?" I love her babble. 

She's made great strides in the eating arena and now eats some fruits and vegetables. Apples, oranges, avocados, oatmeal, yogurt (often with Grapenuts), cheese, and Mexican food are favorites. And of course snack food and all the treats. She LOVES treats. She still drinks "watermilk" (milk), although Jim and I started rationing her a long time ago so she wouldn't fill up on that instead of food, so now maybe she doesn't get enough. 

She generally pees in her undies multiple times a day - not enough to get on the floor (that I know of) but enough to make me really exasperated, especially since she's been doing it for months and there's no end in sight. And she plans to sleep in diapers forever. 

She's hilarious and silly. She has multiple alter egos - Normal Baby, Cutie Baby, and Ever's Kitty are the main ones. Sometimes she's Normal Baby Who Loves Mommy, and she snuggles with Mommy. Sometimes she's Normal Baby Who Loves Daddy, and Daddy gets the snuggles. When she's Cutie Baby, she's super affectionate with everyone and covers parents and sisters in kisses and hugs. Cutie Baby is our favorite, obviously, and she used to visit a lot. Lately (I'm writing this in September), she promises appearances by Cutie Baby but isn't delivering so much. I'll be devastated if she's growing out of her extreme-affection phase. 

Tiny loves nature and always asks to climb any mountains or visit any snow we see. She asks to go hiking and camping. She's brown-skinned and an amazing little fish. It still makes me so very happy to see her jumping into the pool, swimming down deep, and being totally confident in the water.