Coco and Antone Came

Coco and Antone came to visit on Saturday, July 14. Tony got his first taste of girl toys.

We went to Thom and Annie Bunnell's to swim and BBQ that evening. Much like Tiny and Wrenzy, Antone wants to swim alone despite lacking the ability to do so. Bags spent the entire pool time wrestling him and getting splashed in the face. I spent the entire time trying to keep my littles alive as they jumped in from the side over and over. 

Sunday morning, the children played. The girls love "baby Anson," as they call him, and they're all so cute together. The girls followed Tone Loc around on hands and knees.

Then they all played outside.

At church, Coco and I hung out with the three littles in nursery. Anson hid in the cupboard.

He may have been trying to escape from his overly-loving cousins.

He enjoyed bubble time at the end, though.

After church, we ate, and the littles played nudist colony.

Jim and Ever spent forever making cake pops for dessert using a recipe from her cookbook. They were not amazing, and everyone was sad.

Monday morning, Tiny set up a little track for herself and raced in circles around the island.

There were more blocks.

Tiny felt very affectionate toward Wrenzy and kept hugging her and saying, "I love you. I love you, Wrenny." It seriously went on and on. She can very faintly be heard saying "I love you" in a gravelly voice in the beginning of this video, before my prompt.

Tiny and Wrenzy had their last swim lesson with Miss Tracy that day. Tracy was pretty booked but squeezed them in for just five lessons this summer. At first they did wonderfully, and Wrenzy was swimming short distances by the second lesson. Then they started being anti Miss Tracy and crying the whole time. That was a setback. Anyway, it was confirmed to me that if I had been turbo about lessons all summer, Wrenzy could have been really great. Coco got in with Anson, and Tracy gave her a few pointers about how to teach him. He was dunked for the first time, and he did great!

Tuesday morning Ever loved on Tiny, and then we had waffles for breakfast (Ever's request).

Tiny got really Nutella-dirty and enjoyed every moment of it.

Tone Loc shared his food with Tiny.

Coco read stories to the girls.  (I love Tiny in this pic.)

Somebody put pants on Tony's head, and he didn't mind.

We spotted a bunny in the backyard. Too bad Mamo wasn't here.

Tiny desperately wanted Tony to sit on her lap. She had to settle for having him sit between her legs.

Coco and Antoine went to visit Coco's friend Kara. 

Wednesday we hung out at home and played with the blocks again.

Ever and Zoza (new-ish nickname, from "Wrenzoza," used primarily by Jim) made a fun pattern.

Tone Loc practiced driving.

Ever helped feed Tony his bottle.

We swam in Cikaneks' pool. I was glad Coco finally got to meet them, as I've told Coco and Rebecca lots about each other.

The girls had earned a movie night, so we watched The Parent Trap (old version) and ate delicious chocolate mousse cups and ice cream.

Thursday morning we got ready for a trip to Ventura to see the Deetrixes. While Coco packed, Tiny attacked.

The Rest of the First Half of July

Wren and Ever did a couple of four-day weeks of swimming lessons at Alga Norte, the super-nice and incredibly warm public pool in Carlsbad. Tiny usually played in the splash pad during their lessons.

I don't know that eight lessons really did anything to advance the girls' swimming skills. Wrenzy's little preschool class didn't do any real swimming. They just pulled themselves along the steps, blew bubbles, etc. The price is right for those lessons, though, and the pool is amazing. I'll probably do it again next summer but sign them up for as many sessions as I can (and get Wren in a more challenging class, I hope).

Wrenzy and Tiny had fun with napkins.

Tiny considered a career in trains.

We met some friends at the beach. (We lied when we said we'd go a lot this summer.) I thought the girls would be ecstatic, but they just sat in chairs and didn't do anything when we got there. Wrenzoza, in particular, was very tired. Eventually there was some play.

All in all, the beach is still a lot of work at this point. As we were leaving, Jim said he totally agreed with me that it's way too hard, and we should never go again. I don't understand how everyone else with littles goes all the time. I feel as if I'm betraying my motherland/upbringing, but seriously - it turns out swimming pools are way easier.

I still find all my girls in a shopping cart adorable.

Wrenzy and Tiny had a snuggle fest, during which Wren saved Tiny from something (a bird?) that was going to eat her. Wren is so my mini-me. She clenches her teeth and gets a little violent when she's loving on cute little people. 

Wrenzy and Tiny started a handful of swimming lessons with Miss Tracy. Tiny sat, comatose, while she waited for Wren to finish one day.

Wren napped in an odd position.

I took Ever on a date. We had McDonald's for dinner, shared an Oreo shake from Jack in the Box for dessert, and went to Boomers for mini golfing, laser tag, and the bumper boat ride.

Tiny Turned Two

Tiny's second birthday fell on a Sunday, so we got to celebrate on the real day. Bear Bear helped me make pancakes in the morning.

The Wilsons came over for dessert. I think we had cookies and ice cream. I have no pictures.

Tiny enjoyed opening presents.

She got her very own rolly bag.

We attempted a kid pic.

Tiny had a lot of fun with the Wilsons, as did the other girls. Ever since then, they've been talking about the Wilsons and planning their next birthdays, which all include "the same people coming over."

Tiny is the funniest, liveliest little thing. She's so affectionate and sweet. She gives us amazing hugs and pats and sometimes says as she does, "I la [love] you, Mom" or, if there's someone else she can draw into a group hug, "I la you guys." She is the pickiest eater but passionately loves "watermilk" (milk) and would live on it if she could. She has a loud, crackly voice that can cover an octave in one sentence and that we passionately love. She knows all the words. When she sees me in my workout clothes, she asks me if I'm going to "take exercise." She is super into reading and loves looking at books - hers or Jim and mine. She has the best cheeks in the business, and I pinch and kiss and crush my cheeks against them constantly (as in, I can't get anything done because I can't stop feasting on them). Tiny invariably hops down the last step in a flight of stairs, and she hops a lot of other times, too. She makes us sing "Pa-rum-pa-pum-pum" ("The Little Drummer Boy") to her every night before bed and then put her blanket on her "all the way up," no matter how hot it is. She used to need her stuffed giraffe, too, but she broke up with it for some reason recently. She's presently obsessed with her footed, fuzzy jammies and wants to wear them all day and night, even though they make her sweat. (Putting her blanket on when her nose is already covered with sweat is painful.) She always says "thank you" and "sorry." Whenever she drops or spills or breaks something, she says, "Sorry, Mom," except the way she says "sorry" is something like "sah-yee" or sah-zhee." Sometimes she follows her apology immediately with, "It's OK, Mom." She has the sweetest face and the most amazing smile and is the light of our lives!

Fourth of July

This first picture is unrelated to the holiday for which this post is named. I took it on July 2 only because I enjoyed how the biggers moved their chairs over to Tiny's side of the table, so they were all crammed together on the end.

The Karners hosted a BBQ/movie/fireworks party on July 3. The Rancho del Oro fireworks show is on the third every year, which is nice because we don't have school or work the next day. The Karners have a good view of the fireworks from their backyard. After dinner, Eric Perkins showed a kids' movie (can't remember which) and then The Princess Bride on the big screen outside. We paused the movie during the fireworks show.

About 10 or 15 minutes into The Princess Bride, I asked Ever if she was liking it. She said something like, "I don't have any idea what's going on," and she wanted me to explain it to her. Nonetheless, she was really liking it. In the end, a ton of it must have been over her and Wren's heads, but they were obsessed.  They talked about it constantly for days. In fact, Wrenzy chose to rewatch it on her next movie night, and I took this video on August 25, when she was chatting up a storm during lunch about a man in a red shirt and "Wes-tle-ley," etc.

Back to the Karners' party... Tiny watched some of the first two movies. Otherwise she just piddled around, entertaining herself. She was so good, as were the others, that we just stayed and stayed. Somewhere around 11:00 or 11:30 P.M., I was outside chatting with some people, and Amy Thompson caught a glimpse of Tiny wandering around. She said, "Are Whitney's kids still here?!" I'm pretty sure I'm notorious for not going to things because my kids have to be in bed. Amy and Tyson host an annual New Year's Eve party, and we've begged out in the past to put the kids to bed. Life is getting easier now that the kids are getting older.

After the outside movies ended, Tiny came in and planted herself right in front of the TV for some more viewing. This may have been after I moved her away from the TV:

So much screen time. Meanwhile Jim played ping pong with Alyssa and Bryan Hawkins and Tom Sorenson, so everyone had fun.

On the fourth, Leela's family hosted a pool party. 

Tiny wanted to jump in but wasn't quite brave enough. Jim helped her out.

Maggie Long (new friend in the ward) texted a few days before the holiday and said she was thinking of hosting a BBQ/fireworks-viewing party at their place on base the evening of the fourth, and she wondered if we'd be up for that. I answered in the affirmative probably 15 or 20 minutes after she texted. Then she texted back and said she'd texted another girl in the ward, Alexis Peacock, at the same time she texted me and found out that Alexis was thinking of hosting the same thing at her house. So, Maggie said, Alexis said we were welcome to go to her place. Alexis tried to make it a legit invitation by texting me directly, but it was still super weird; we don't know Alexis and her husband, Brandt, very well and were pity, tag-along invitees only because Maggie had thrown an invitation out to me before her plans were totally pinned down. Jim and I desperately wanted not to go but didn't know how to get out of it. So awkward. To make matters worse, Alexis texted before we left to say that the guards weren't letting people on base, so she would have to meet us someplace off base and escort us on. At that point, I tried to get out of it. I said that that was too much of a pain for them, and it was totally fine; we would just stay home and get our exhausted kids to bed at a decent hour and get together with them another time. She insisted, however, so we went. She'd made tons of food, and everyone was nice. We walked to the park near their house for a great view of the fireworks. Jim cranked his little emergency radio so we had some static-plagued patriotic tunes playing during the show. It was pretty funny. Also funny was Tiny, who kept saying, in the weirdest voice, that every firework was "another favorite one." This is just audio:

All in all, it was a festive and friend-filled holiday.