September 2020

 In September, the littles were cute and loved each other.

Also in September, Tiny bit Wrenzy on the back, and it was horrifying.

From the kitchen, the girls and I spotted a dead rodent under our outside table. I was calling it a rat, but Jim later said he thought it was a gopher. Wrenzy wrote and illustrated a story about it. The pencil is hard to see in these pictures, but it says, "One day there was a rat under our table outside. I saw it. It was outside my window. This is how big he was. I wrote it when I was five. It was brown." 

Tiny, the nearly naked wilderness child:

It ticked me when I looked out the window to see Tiny, dressed as Cinderella, on the fence. Except then I had to tell the girls that I don't like them climbing that fence. 

Leela and Ever did a Zoom cooking class for Girl Scouts. They made homemade pasta and sauce and chocolate-covered strawberries. It was really stressful and hard for me to help them both with the pasta and try to keep up, and the pasta totally did not work. It wouldn't cook. I don't know what we did wrong, but we couldn't make it not raw. The chocolate-covered strawberries were more of a success. 

Wrenzy started dance at Cadence.

Daddy/daughter dogpile. 

I found this thing that Ever made, and I thought it was hilarious. 

Zoom piano recital.

Tiny started preschool at Meagan Bunnell's Little Bugs (she took it over after Miss Paula moved).

Sweet Tines got all tuckered out from fake reading.

The children love climbing the wall on the other side of Cikaneks' house. If they fell, they would land on concrete. Cikaneks' neighbors on the side finally regulated at some point because it terrifies them. 

Wrenzy is on the far left side of the wall in this pic; Nathan is crawling near the lamp.

The girls went to the beach with Karners (and Oddous, I think).

Trail walking with Rafi and the Cikanek boys. 

Scott and Rebecca printed lots and lots of worksheets and coloring pages for the children, who would spend long periods of time on them. Often I would realize I didn't know where the girls were, and I'd text Rebecca and find out they were over there working.  

Noah and Tiny shared some sweet moments.

Other than what is captured in pictures, I suppose it was homeschool, homeschool, homeschool. The Coastal curriculum was great. The English program (Logic of English) was super intense but amazing. I learned tons from it. Ever was able to go ahead in math. We got permission to do fourth-grade math instead of third-grade math. Most of that was stuff we had already covered, though, so I later discussed with our advisor and decided to do a program called Beast Academy instead. It covers everything on a way deeper level and encourages kids to understand math intuitively rather than to just solve problems mechanically. It was really challenging but fun, for the most part. The flexibility Coastal offered was amazing, and the kids learned so much. They were amazing and motivated students. 

Susan was working three days a week, and we came up with an arrangement wherein I did school with Luc and Amelie at our house a couple days a week, and Susan took the kids another day or two. I don't remember our exact schedule, and I think it changed over the course of the school year. But it ended up being incredibly difficult. Luc made me crazy. He complained about everything. He fidgeted and created nonstop distractions whenever I tried to teach something. He always gave silly answers that he thought were clever. Amelie was hard for me, too (she's really into whining), but Luc was a nightmare. I was super mean, which I always regretted but could not seem to control. It was awful. Later in the year, I started having problems with Ever and told Jim I wondered if it was Luc's influence. He threatened to talk to Susan if I didn't, so I ended up telling Susan that I had to cut back on the togetherness because I thought maybe Ever was acting up to impress Luc or something. It totally screwed Susan over because she was already overloaded with work and homeschool and everything else, and she simply could not be home to do school with them. On days I didn't take them, she was coming home from work and doing school with them at night. I could tell she suspected that I wasn't telling her everything and that it was really her kids' fault, and she was really stressed about how to manage everything. It was such a disaster. She is so good with kids. She's super patient and kind and does fun things with them. I am the exact opposite. I have no patience, am not fun (and don't want to spend extra time coming up with fun things), and expect a lot. I've always known I wasn't a kid person and didn't do well with other people's kids (even worse than I do with my own), and this experience really solidified that. Susan was able to homeschool her kids just fine. Luc is a bright kid and not a troublemaker in a classroom. I just could not do it. Anyway, that happened down the line. In the beginning, I really enjoyed homeschooling my kids.  

Things the Kids Have Said, Part 4

Arden -10/7/19

"Mom, I'm hungry, and I can't hold it."  Often she says, "I'm super hungry that I can't wait."

Arden -10/11/19

Twice in the morning, as soon as we got in the car and started driving somewhere, Tiny said she had to go potty - very, very urgently, like she could not wait at all. In the past, I've been so confused by her sudden and desperate need to go to the bathroom, even when she's just gone to the bathroom, that at one point I said something like, "I don't understand, Tiny! Your body has a bladder. Use it." So today, the second time Tiny desperately needed to go, she calmed down and said, "My body can't hold it, but my bluster can hold it. My bluster is doing it."

Arden - 10/12/19

"I'm going to have an activity where only grown-ups fight. To see who's the best fighter. I'm the goodest fighter in the whoooole city of my sisters, Wren and Ever. I can pull their hair. That's a good fight. And I hit. That's good, too."

Arden - 12/19/19

In the car:

Tiny:  "Daddy, I need to go potty, but I can hold it."
Me:  "Do you have a strong bluster?"
Tiny:  "Yeah, it can hold five million pieces of potty."

Arden - 1/1/20

While we were eating dinner with Mamo and Papo, I asked Ever how many kids she wants.  She said, "Two boys and three girls."  Then I asked Tiny how many kids she wants.  She said, "One boy and eight ... million girls."

Arden - 1/4/20 and all the time

Often I sing the oldie but goody "Johnny Angel" to Tiny:  "Tiny angel, how I love you, and I pray that someday you'll love me. Then together we will see just how heaven could be." Tiny says, "Mom, I already love you, so you never have to sing that song again."

Ever - 1/6/20

Since Ever is on winter break, the girls have been wanting to sleep in the same bed. (We made a rule a while ago that they couldn't sleep together on school nights since they don't settle down so well. Also they don't really fit in one twin bed, but they always eventually fall asleep.) They did OK last night, or at least they were quiet and went to sleep before too awfully long. Tonight they were SO tired. We skipped naps and went mini golfing, and by the time we did our bedtime reading, they were zombies (yet still trying to stretch out reading and everything else so they could stay up later). I wanted to get them in bed by 6:30 at the latest; instead it was about 8:00 by the time they were in bed. Then they wanted to sleep in the same bed. We said OK, but we were only giving them five minutes; then if they weren't settled down, we'd move somebody (or all of them). I ended up not checking on them until 8:30. They were all awake, and Wren was sitting up next to Ever chatting. I went in and said, "Wren, get in your bed." She silently complied (which shocked me), while Ever said, "There's so much to talk about." Then Ever asked if they could they talk until 7:00 if they went to bed at 6:15 or 6:30 tomorrow? I'm working tomorrow, so I said, "Yes, if you can get Daddy to get you in bed by 6:30 tomorrow, you may talk until 7." So cute. I love that they are friends, and I wonder what in the world they have to chat about for so long before bed when they've been together all day every day lately.

Wren - 1/9/20

Me: "Bear, you're so big, and you're going to kindergarten soon. What am I going to do without you?"
Bear: "Live your own life."

Arden - 1/15/20

"Mama, when are we gonna be able to see Tutu and Papa? Is it gonna be three days? Is it gonna be five days? Is it gonna be eight million days? How about 15?"

Arden - 1/17/20

I was reading Tiny a library book, and I started by saying the title, by So-and-So, illustrated by So-and-So. Tiny said, "Thank you for that person to writing this fun book!"

Arden - 1/25/20

Jim said to Tiny, "Tiny, why are you so fun?" Tiny responded, "I'm never going to stop the fun."

Arden - 2/7/20

We were on our way to pick up my friend's one-and-a-half-year-old, Baby Tommy, so she could go to a doctor's appointment. Tiny wondered if he knew we were going to take him. "Is he knowing? I know that babies don't know stuff. Babies don't know anything."

Arden - 2/8/20

As Jim was loading up the car to take the girls Girl Scout cookie selling: "After we go cookie selling, we're going to have a snuggle fest with Daddio [or Daddy-oh?]! Just because Mommy just had one. If I have time, I'll snuggle with Mommy." Then, referring again to the snuggle fest with Daddy, "And it's going to be a long one!"

Wren - spring 2020

Bear calls everyone "babe" now - not all the time, but not infrequently. As in, "Hey, babe. Come on, babe."

Mommy - all the time

I have a lot of made-up songs I sing constantly to the girls, especially Tiny. To the tune of the Primary song that goes, "Mother, I love you. Mother, I do," I sing "Tiny, I love you. Tiny, I do. I love you, Tiny, and I love you true," or some variation. Lately the girls have been joining in on my songs, and I love it.

I also recite letters to the girls all the time. Usually they go something like this: "Dear Tiny, How I love you! Love, Mommy" or "Dear Tiny, How much do I love you? Love, Mommy" or "Dear Tiny, I love you. What do you want for breakfast? Love, Mommy." Once in a while, they write me back. When Wren writes me back, it usually goes, "Dear Mommy, XOXOXO."

Arden - 3/6/20

To me: "Do you have a 'nola bar for Wrenzy-poozy-lovey?"

Then later: "I'm super hungry that I can't wait. But I still have the mint taste in my mouth. Can you see the taste?"

Arden and Wren - 3/6/20

Tiny and Wrenzy told me how when we were in Hawai'i with the Karners, the Primary teachers couldn't understand Wren's name.

Wren: "I couldn't say my name, so they were calling me 'Gwen' the whole time."

Tiny: "I could say it, so I told them three times."

Wren: "And every time, they were like, 'What did you say?'"

Tiny: "I could say my name loud enough, but I couldn't say Wren's name loud enough. I told it in my same voice."

We had a good laugh together about Wren's being called "Gwen" all through Primary.

Arden - 3/22/20

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, church meetings have been canceled for the time being. We've had two weeks of home church so far, and it's wonderful. Tiny has been scribbling on a couple of pages (like wavy lines filling up the entire page) and calling them "church sheets" or "church copies." She stands on the bench by the window in front of all of us and presents them in the beginning of our meetings. Today's was about Jonah and the whale. She said Jonah didn't want to teach in a city, so Jesus made a storm. Jonah fell off the boat and was swallowed by a whale. Then the whale spit him out. She is hilarious and amazing, and she is very serious about her church copies. Once Wren wrote on one, so Tiny had to copy it all onto a new page.

Update:  On 4/1, I asked Tiny to go pick up the papers she left on the ground and put them in the recycling bin. She said, "No, of course I wouldn't do that. They are my church copies and some of the pictures that Jesus made."

Wren - 3/22/20

"I have two talents - coloring and yelling." Then we spent a while taking turns yelling "vegetable beeeef!" to see who was the loudest.

For being the tiniest human in the world, Wrenzy can yell so incredibly loud. Sometimes when she's downstairs with me, I'll yell for one of her sisters upstairs, like "Ever, come down please!" Then Wren will yell at the top of her lungs (about three times as loud as I did, and I thought I was loud), "EVER! COME DOWN HERE!"

Arden - 3/23/20

Tiny, while snuggling in our bed in the morning: "Why don't we use the deck?" (We just put in a new one.)

Me: "We need to get some furniture so we can sit out there."

Tiny:  "We need to use it to watch nature." Then, "I want to hike to go camping."

Arden - 3/23/20

As she was eating lunch: "Every time I close my eyes, I see Anna and Elsa."

A minute later: "Mama, how do you say 'frozen' in Spanish? That can be our Spanish word for the day. When Wren and Ever come in [they were out outside riding bikes], you have to tell them. Because I'm learning how to speak Spanish. And then I want to learn Angalish." That's how she pronounces "English."

Ever - 3/25/20

During her morning prayer:  "Please help Mom to let me read more."

During our COVID-19 quarantine, she's been reading a ton. She started the Nancy Drew series, and her pace is a book a day now. We have a full schedule of different things we want to do with her each day (Spanish, biology, math in various forms, writing, etc.), but all she wants to do is read - to the point of shedding tears if/when I try to make her stop reading.

This afternoon, when I found her reading on my bed after I got out of the shower: "Mom, this is the best chapter! And the chapter before this was the best chapter, and the chapter before that was the best chapter. They're all the best!"

Arden - 3/25/20

Tiny came downstairs with socks on her hands and socks on her feet. Jim asked what was up with her mittens, and she said, "Because - to contain my powers. And my feet have powers, too."

She and Wren came down a little while later asking me to tie blankets around them like capes. Such fun they were having.

Arden - 3/26/20

Tiny is generally the first to get out of bed, around 6:45 or 7:00, and she comes into our room and goes straight for Jim. She snuggled with him for a while this morning and then said, "Now I'm going to snuggle with Mommy." She came to me, slipped one arm under my neck and laid the other one over it so she was hugging my neck, and said, "I just want to look at you, sweet Mom." Then, as she was poking my cheek, "I like your chubby cheeks." (Clearly inspired by Jim's and my constant love of her cheeks.) She went on to profess her love in a variety of ways, including something like, "I love you so much that I always want to live in this house, even when you are a grandpa and grandma."

Eventually we ended the snuggle fest, and I got up to brush my teeth and get dressed. While I was in the bathroom, she said, "Let's go back to bed together and snuggle." So round 2 happened. It was amazing.

After her nap, I told her that the house needed to get cleaned up and fold her laundry. She said, "Only if you give me some snuggles."

And after she came downstairs, when she was on the couch and I was in the kitchen, "Will you give me some snuggles?"

Never has there been a more loving child.

Ever - 3/28/20

"Mom, are you in a good mood? I need to know if I should ask you something. It's very high-risk." (She wanted to ask if we could do a slumber party in the living room that night.)

Arden - 3/30/20 and always

While helping me make her oatmeal, Tiny said, "Will you spill it, and I'll mix it?" She always says "spill" instead of "pour."

Arden - 4/3/20

The girls were trying to get me to read more of By the Shores of Silver Lake (book 5 of the Little House on the Prairie series) before bed. Tiny threatened, "I'm going to eat my boogers if you don't."

Wren - 4/7/20

Over dinner, we were talking about The Sound of Music, which the girls had watched that morning. Jim asked, "Does it have this in it?" And he sang loudly and with feeling, 'The hills are alive with the sound of music." Wrenzy said, "Yeah, but it's not that tune."

Arden - 4/10/20

This was all right after Tiny came into Jim and my bed in the morning:

"It's a snuggle fest. We'll see who has the most snuggles." My back was facing her, and she put her arm around me from the back. Then she directed, "Now turn over." She lay on top of me, hugged me tightly, and gave me a couple sweet kisses on my face. Then she announced, "It's over. The winner is Mommers! She had the most snuggles."

Jim passed gas in a loud way. Tiny said, "You tooted." Jim said, "I did. It was I." Tiny said, "Mmm, it's one of your yummy toots."

"I've got to watch on my sisters ... make sure they're not getting into mischievous." She went into the bunk-bed room, and I heard her say, "Are you mischievous?" Then, back in our room, "They are into mischievous."

Ever - many times every day

Every time Ever takes an AR quiz, she makes Jim and me guess how many AR points she has. It goes something like this:

Ever: "Guess how many points I have?"
Parent: "380."
Ever: "More."
Parent: "390."
Ever: "More."
Parent: "400?"
Ever: "Less."
Parent: "394."
Ever: "More."
Parent: "398."
Ever: "Less."
Parent: "396."
Ever: "More."
Parent: "397."
Ever: "Point?"
Parent: "Point 4."
Ever: "More."
Parent: "Point 6."
Ever: "More."
Parent: "Point 7."
Ever: "Yes."

She does the same thing every time she reads. She'll come downstairs after reading Nancy Drew and say, "Guess what page I'm on."

Every time. So much guessing.  

Ever - 4/10/20

I agreed to allow Ever to do abcya.com. It's ostensibly educational, but some of the stuff is more game, less learning.

Me: "But no more than half an hour, Goose. You've had a lot of screen time today. Two shows so far today." (One show was in Spanish, but still.)

Ever, smugly: " 'So far' sounds really good, Mom. Really good."

Arden - 4/11/20

Some background: possibly the first time Matix Rondo came to our house (at least two years ago), he broke a toy. The girls never forgot it. They talked about it all the time, and they started blaming all broken things on him. Jim started joking about it; if something was broken, he'd say that Matix probably did it, even when Matix hadn't been here for a year. So this morning, as I was putting sunscreen on Tiny, we had this convo:

Tiny: "I don't like the spray sunscreen. It feels like a dolphin is biting you."
Me: "Really?"
Tiny: "Yeah, and I remember long, long ago when Matix was here, he didn't like it either."
Me: "He didn't?"
Tiny: "Yeah, I remember when Matix was here a long time ago, he broke our stuff, and he didn't like the spray sunscreen that feels like a dolphin is biting you."

I remember having a conversation with Matix about spray sunscreen and believe he may not be a fan. I have to think the dolphin-biting-you thing is all Tiny, though.

Arden - 4/11/20

Tiny wrote me a letter, and it wasn't even in response to one of mine!  She came in from outside and said, "Dear Mom, Dad sent me in here because he needs help by you. He needs help making the ceiling." (He was putting wood on the ceiling of the entryway outside the front door.)

Arden - 4/12/20

Tiny: "Mom, what can I do right now?"
Me: "Um, love me?"
Tiny: "That's not fun. Can you think of something funner than snuggling?"
Jim: "Why don't you go outside and play?"
Tiny: "OK." Then, on her way out the door, "Mom, is it snail weather?"

We recently had a wet day when the snails came out en force. It was disgusting. They were all over our windows and deck posts, and they left their trails all over. They freaked out Tiny, and now I think she's afraid to go out if it's "snail weather."

Arden - 4/12/20

Me: "Tiny, will you please go upstairs and hang these dresses in your closet?"
Tiny: "Please may I hug you first?"
And she gave me a big hug and a kiss. The sweetest.

Ever - 4/12/20

Tongue-in-cheek: "My clock is doing a weird thing. It was 4:00 when I was reading, and then I looked up and it was 4:56. It had only been a few minutes."

Arden - 4/15/20

Tiny came to me while I was playing the piano and said, "Wake up for snuggles!" She told me to come for snuggles on the couch. While we were snuggling, she said, "I don't need anything else besides Mommy and Daddy. And a house."

Arden - 4/20/20

Tutu made us cookies while we were in Hawai'i with the Karners in February, and everyone loved them. I got the recipe from Tutu and made them yesterday. Jim thought mine weren't as good as Tutu's, and Ever seemed to agree. I made my sad whale-song sound and said nobody liked my cookies. Tiny said, "I like your cookies!" Then she came over, hugged my leg, and said quietly and sweetly, "Well, you tried your yummiest."

Arden - 4/24/20

The girls watched The Sound of Music a couple weeks ago, and Tiny has been confusing and combining the song that goes, "Doe, a deer, a female deer / Ray, a drop of golden sun" with the farewell song that goes, "So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu / Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu." The other day she was singing, "Doe, adieu [but sounding like "deer" with a British accent], adieu, adieu, adieu." Tonight she sang, "Adieu, adieu, a female 'dieu."

Arden - 4/27/20

I was trying to work in the home office, and Tiny came in holding a candy. "Mom, could you get me a envelope? It's for Mother's Day." Then, just as I was about to express my appreciation for her preparation of a Mother's Day present, she continued. "It's for someone not in our family. I want to give it to Piper."

Arden - 4/29/20

About the chocolate milk in her Happy Meal, "I'm a fruitarian for this stuff." (We started calling Wren a fruitarian because she eats so much fruit. Tiny uses it for for anything she eats a lot of.

Then, talking about how she and Wren saw me drive up when they were in their Barbie car and started yelling for me: "I just wanted to jump on you and hug you and kiss you!"

Arden - 5/1/20

Tiny and Wrenzy walked into the kitchen with a little sari around Tiny's head and tied under her chin, as Wrenzy called her "Mary." Tiny said, "I need to check my checkbook and see when my baby is coming."

Wren - 5/2/20

We were listening to a song that contains the line, "When I grow up, I want to be your girl." Wren said, "She should want to be a mom. Then you can eat treats."

Ever - 5/8/20

"I'm going to read about politics, Mom. Then I'll be able to talk in your conversations with Papa."

Arden and Wren - 5/11/20

Tiny and Wrenzy had been playing together while I showered. As I emerged from my room, I passed them on their way to their room.

Wren: "Hi, Mom. We're finding books with beautiful girls in them."
Tiny: "Yeah, so we can be them."

Arden and Wren - 5/11/20

Tiny: "I remember when you almost died in Mommy's belly."
"Wren: "No, you don't. And that's not even how it went. Mommy almost died."

Ever - 5/11/20

After Ever followed me to the door instead of continuing with the stuff she was supposed to be doing, we had this exchange:

Me: "Dear Goosey, Why are you here? Love, Mommy."
Ever: "Dear Mommy, You shouldn't have used the word 'love' in your letter. It was a very angry letter. No love, Ever."

Arden - 5/12/20

Picking up a picture of me by a lake in Canada and loving on it: "My favorite picture of Mommy! So I can look at her even when I can't see her."

Arden - 5/13/20

To Wren: "You're funny. I don't like funny girls."

All the girls - 5/13/20

In her dinner prayer, Wrenzy asked Heavenly Father to bless that Coco and Dun Dun would have another baby. When she finished, Ever said she was praying against the will of Coco and Dun Dun. I explained that Coco and Dun Dun do want another baby, just not right now; maybe in about eight months. Ever said she wants them to have a boy. Then the girls discussed how they couldn't have a family that matches ours (three girls) because they have Anson. Wrenzy said, "They could put him in jail. For all the years."  Ever said, "Or an orphanage." Tiny seconded, "Yeah, an orphanage."

Ever - 5/13/20

Ever earned a reward that was supposed to be a three-hour activity with Jim or me. Since everything we normally would have done is closed, she chose to watch the first Harry Potter movie, having just read the first two books. We watched in installments - half last night, half tonight. Last night she asked me to watch with her, and then she sat cuddled against me with my arm around her the whole time. It was originally her idea to watch only a little bit, but then she didn't want to turn it off. She reluctantly agreed when we were exactly halfway through but still sort of jokingly gave me a hard time about turning if off. When I walked her up to bed, I said, "Good night. I love you." She was by the stairs to her bunk, and she put her fist up and said, "Grr. You're the worst!" Then she rushed over to me and threw her arms around me and hugged me.

Tonight when she was getting ready to turn the movie on, she asked, "Will you snuggle with me?" I told her I would; I'd just get the cookies in the oven first. She kept talking about snuggling, saying it was her favorite, and it was good because now I'd be snuggling with her during the scary parts. I turned on the oven and did dishes while it preheated. She kept turning around to chastise me for not yet snuggling with her. I told her I'd clean up while it preheated. Then I told her I'd just wait until the cookies were done. Then when I joined her, she snuggled right up and cuddled the whole time.

She is so sweet. How did we get such loving girls?

Arden - 5/14/20

I went to check on Tiny in the bath and asked if she washed her feet. She said she did. I lifted one out of the water and smelled it. She said, "What does it smell like? Delicious watermelon?"

Arden - 5/14/20

I told Tiny I couldn't find my phone so to look out for it. She said, "OK. I'll look for your denwa bango."

"Denwa bango" means "phone number" in Japanese. I call my phone "denwa bango" instead of just "denwa" (which means "phone") because "denwa bango" is more fun to say. I didn't know Tiny had picked up on that term, though, so it made me laugh when she said that all on her own.

Wren - 5/24/20

Wren: "What should I do?"
Me:  "Love me."
Wren:  "What should I real do? You're doing computer stuff, so I can't love you." (I was on my laptop blogging.)

Arden - 6/6/20

Jim was working on the new room (the garage loft), and Tiny had been hanging out with him while I worked in the office. She came into the office and said she hadn't seen me for sooooo long, almost all day. I said, "I know! Have you been having fun with Daddy?" She said "Yeah." Then, "No, not a lot of fun. Because I can't have that much fun unless I'm with you and Daddy." And she went on and on about how it's really only fun if she can be with both of us.

That evening, she came into the office and kissed my arm (which she has done repeatedly today). I asked, "How are you so special?" She said it's because she's so loving. I asked how she's so loving, and she said something like, "Because I'm so cute. If you're really cute, you're more loving, and I'm little, so I'm super-duper cute."

A minute later, she said, "I want to stay with you for a little. So I can be with you and see you."

Then, spontaneously, as she was snuggling with my arm, "I love you. You are the best. I love you. My best girl is right here."

(Her declarations of love and displays of affection are so amazing, it's as if they're scripted. Like they are designed to manipulate us. I told Jim maybe she is manipulating us, and he asked, in effect, "To what end? To get hugged and kissed?")

She pointed to the picture of Grandma and Grandpa Hastings on the desk and asked who they were. I told her, and she asked, "After they get resurrected, can you take me there?"

Arden - 6/12/20

Coming in from outside, where she and Wrenzy have been playing in dirt and sawdust making "food" and who knows what else: "Wrenzy and I are playing Little House. We each picked a person. Wren picked Ma, and I picked Mary. We can't pick the same person because that doesn't make a family, and we're trying to make it real. I don't really like when people are bossing over me, but moms are supposed to. So Wren's bossing over me but only a little bit because I don't like a person bossing over me."

Arden - 7/6/20

Tiny got out of bed and came downstairs. She walked up to me on the couch, and we had this conversation.

Tiny: "I want some water, and I want to tell you a question."
Me: "What's your question?"
Tiny: "Um, Mama," looking away from me, over toward the bookshelves, "how is wood made?"

Ever - 8/1/20

Ever told me she was on page 200-something of Anne of Avonlea (the second book in the Anne of Green Gables series).

Me: "Are you enjoying it as much as the first one?"
Ever: "Yep. Even more because there's more romance."

Arden - 8/4/20

Out of nowhere, as we were driving home from dropping Ever, Leela, and Rafi at day camp:

"Mama, I want to see a mountain lion that's dead."

Wren - 8/4/20

The littles were at the table eating lunch, and I was in the kitchen preparing more food. While at the stove with my back to the girls, I sang, "How do you like me now?" (from the Toby Keith song, although I didn't know who sang it until Google just told me). I heard Wrenzy's voice reply, "I like you more than you could even know."

Ever - 8/5/20

Ever decided that instead of earning a show for practicing piano five times in a week, she wants to earn a book for every 20 piano practices. I asked her what book she's going to get. Her answer:

 "I'm going to Google 'romancey books.'"

Arden - 8/24/20

Tiny: "Mama, I don't want to go in an orphanage." 

Me: "Tiny, you're never going to have to go in an orphanage." 

Tiny: "But how can I die at the same time as you?"

After a brief discussion about why she wouldn't ever have to live in an orphanage, Tiny said, "Tricked you! I want to go in an orphanage to see what it's like."

Arden - 8/28/20

Tiny was eating letter cookies that Coco left here, and she held up two A's and said, "This is in my name!" I asked her what sound it made. She made the sound for "t" three times - "/t/, /t/, /t/." I said, "Is there a /t/ in your name?" She said, "Yeah, Tiny!"

Arden - 9/12/20

Minutes after discussing with the littles the fact that the next day was Sunday so we'd have plenty of time to read, I said to Tiny, "Tiny, tomorrow will you snuggle me all day long?" She answered, "It won't be possible because I have to do chores and everything." I laughed. Tiny continued: "And I have to do Black Beauty with Daddy, and as soon as I'm done, I have to do Little House. It's gonna be such a big day."

August 2020

 I'm so far behind and have almost no memories of these times. My record consists primarily of my random photos and videos. The detailed stories are the few things I wrote down at the time.

Anna and Leela roped us into two more weeks of camp in August. Ever and Leela went to a day camp at the YMCA the week of August 3 through August 7. They opted for the traditional camp over some other specialty ones we told them about. Ever started calling it "trabajar camp" because she couldn't remember "traditional." "Trabajar" means "to work" in Spanish, so it sounded as if we were sending her to a labor camp, which I enjoyed. Anyway, when Ever found out the camp was at the Y, she got a bad attitude and said she didn't want to go, camps at the Y are junk, etc. She was basing that on the fact that she no longer enjoys child watch at the Y. The only camp she's done was a gymnastics camp at a different location a few years ago, and she had a great time. Nonetheless, when August 3 came around, she was a little weepy and said she didn't want to go. I told her to be open-minded. When she came home, she said it was AMAZING, and it should be called "game camp." She had a wonderful week and passionately loved it. Her favorite thing was some game called "gaga ball,"  but she also enjoyed playing dodgeball, search and destroy, and all sorts of other things. She was a little bummed when, toward the end of the week, she hadn't won Camper of the Day. Thursday, her leader didn't award anyone that distinction. Ever said she had to win it Friday since it was the last day. When Anna brought her home Friday afternoon, they were excited to announce that Ever had won Camper of the Day and Camper of the Week! Not only that, but she and Leela had broken the previous camp record for hula hooping. The record had been 41 minutes, but Leela and Ever hula hooped for a whole hour. I don't understand how that's possible, but apparently it is. Ever said Leela dropped her hoop at 59 minutes; Ever had to stop at an hour because they had to move on to something else.

Wrenzy does her own hair sometimes, and I love it. 

Sunday afternoons are for baking. Not infrequently, Jim (who generally avoids the kitchen at all costs) feels the need to make cookies or some other sweet treat on Sundays.

Tiny went out in her nightgown and got completely soaked playing in water at Nathan and Noah's. 

This is what we call "side face."

The littles played with dolls and related items for a really, really long time, and it was lovely.

Wrenzy turned a section of her bed into a fort and peered out menacingly.

Tiny spent a long time reading chapter books, despite not being able to read.

There was a Zoom piano recital.

Afternoon ice cream on a perfect summer's day.

We allowed Ever to go to Ella's birthday party, despite COVID.

Indecent exposure here, but the littles were so cute together in the bath.

Besides the week of camp at the YMCA, Ever and Leela also did a surf camp through the city of Oceanside that consisted of many hours at the beach with very little supervision. They were tiring days, and Ever got crazy blisters on her hands that caused problems. She was really over it before the end, and I don't think there's any desire to do it again. Anna met them on a lunch break one day and took them Italian ice.

In Costco, the littles loved.

I put Wren and Ever in Coastal Academy for the 2020-2021 school year. It's a charter school that supports homeschooling families, with options for kids to attend classes on campus once or twice a week. Palmquist did such a bad job during the 2020 spring shutdown after COVID hit that I didn't want the girls to have that sort of experience and waste a year on Zoom. I figured if we were going to be homeschooling, I wanted to do it through a school that actually has a homeschool curriculum. In August we went to the school to pick up books. The first few months were entirely at home.

Sam and Tess and Rue Hawkins came down, and I was rude enough to ask Scott and Rebecca if we could use their pool. Scott had hung some shade canopies over the pool, set up a couple of ropes, and attached the playset slide to a palm tree to make a waterslide. The pool was fabulously tricked out in a ghetto sort of way.  

Our girls are always really shy with Tess and Rue at first, but Ever, especially, always ends up having fun. She and Tess played around with my camera phone like teenagers. Nobody knows where Ever got the peace sign from, but I blame Tess because I know her mom does it in pictures all the time. 

The Homers did a crazy road trip across the entire country and managed to make it all the way to us. Dustin worked during the day. The girls fawned over Baby Eleanor, and we spent some time in Cikaneks' pool. Ever was crazy blond.

Silliness:

Anson spent some time with the play kitchen. Here it appears Tiny was "reading" to him while he played.

The girls couldn't get enough of Eleanor. They fought over holding her. I believe this was when Tiny's obsession with Baby Eleanor began. She started calling herself "Baby Eleanor," so we called her that, and then we called her Baby Heleanor, and then Baby Helen. We still call her Helen and Baby Helen to this day. 

Wrenzy got tuckered and just passed out on the couch one day.

Again we took our guests in Cikaneks' pool. Anson mostly played with the watering cans by the hot tub. Anytime Scott was in the pool, he had all of the Kringel girls and his own kids (at least Nathan) all over him. It gave him a workout pulling five or six six kids around. 

We went to the beach, and the ocean was unusually freezing. It really ruined things. Mel Karner said she'd been not long before that, and it was warm. We just hit it during some weird cold patch. It was a real bummer because nobody could go in the water.  

Cikaneks let us borrow some of their trucks, and Anson was in heaven. 

We made the recipes for hotcakes and sugar syrup from one of the Little House books. (I think it was one of the Caroline books, not the original Little House series). Enjoyed by all.

Anson tried to follow the girls onto the wall between our house and Cikaneks' and was very upset over his inability to climb it. 

I think it was during this trip that Coco made this comment as we watched the girls outside, barefoot, exploring beyond the fence, climbing everything, etc.: "Your girls are, like, wilderness children." It was my favorite. Now when I see them out there, I think of their being "wilderness children." 

More pool time. We decided that was better than the beach, given the unbearable ocean temperature.

Tiny and Wrenzy helped Anson set up a store on the edge of the hot tub.

Coco and Dun Dun left on Friday, August 21. We jumped into Scott and Rebecca's pool for one last swim in the afternoon. The girls kept swimming after we said goodbye to the Homers. I told Tiny to get out, I think because she was misbehaving. She would not and instead swam defiantly into the middle of the pool where I could not reach her. I told her a number of times to get out. Rebecca egged me on, saying, "You want to jump in, don't you? You've been wanting to jump in. Do it." So I jumped in, fully clothed, to retrieve Tiny. I told her she didn't get to swim anymore that day and couldn't swim the following day. She sat by the pool wrapped in a towel and watched us swim. By "us," I mean not only me, in my clothes, but also Rebecca, who joined me in her clothes in solidarity. It was pretty funny. The following day, Ever and Wren swam at Subrebosts', and Tiny missed out. 

Sweet Bear likes to take pictures and videos. 

Saved this vid to remember her tongue thrust and everything else about her five-year-old self:

Tiny went through a serious orange phase.

Jim left on a surf trip to Mexico super early on Monday, August 24, the day we started home school. 

Despite the informal circumstances, we got our first-day pics.

Third grade Goose:

Kindergarten Bear:

Homeschooling through Coastal was incredibly overwhelming at first. Everything was so confusing. Documents with links and then more links. I couldn't figure out what I needed and what I didn't. As I got used to everything, it got less crazy.

Since Wren was on a "track," under normal circumstances she would have been at school a couple days a week. Because of COVID, she did some Zooming instead. One of her first Zoom sessions, she started yelling for me. I went into the office, and she told me that they were having to say their names, "and I can't say my name." (The "r" sound is really hard for her. People don't understand her when she says her name.) She was so upset, crying; she wanted to get off the Zoom and wouldn't let me help. She was distraught. It was so sad. 

Later Wren was writing on her little whiteboard. Ever came downstairs, saw what she was doing, and said, "Wren can write sentences?" Wren had written, "a man had a cat" in really neat writing, all spelled perfectly (although the first word was not capitalized). It was amazing. Then she continued the story, "that man lavde [loved] hith cat." I realized that she sounded out "his" and got "hith" because of her tongue thrust; the sounds "th" and "s" feel really similar to her. Her story was adorable, but it also made me feel bad because I know she's gotten frustrated and embarrassed by her inability to say certain sounds. I wondered if we needed to look into speech therapy. (The update to this is that in this 2021-2022 school year, I got Bear into a little speech therapy at Scholarship Prep. It was only six sessions, I think. It didn't seem to help, and it was all the school could offer us.)

That first week of school, the girls were really tired but refused to sleep. I worked really hard to get them to bed early (like between 7:15 and 7:45), but then they'd stay up for hours. I believe they keep one another up and would fall asleep much earlier if they were in separate rooms. On August 27, the night Jim was expected home (at 1:00 A.M.), they stayed up forever. Wren and Ever came downstairs about 9:00 because Wren needed to go to the bathroom and Ever wanted to ask me something. They talked to me, wrote super cute notes to Jim, and finally went back upstairs around 9:30. Ever threatened to try to stay up until 1:00 to see Jim, but fortunately she couldn't manage it.

These were the notes the olders left for Jim. Wrenzy's says, "Welcome Home daddy We mad[e] ap [up] a story. Here this is sam [some] av [of] it You glued a chair in top av [of] the train I Love you I hop[e] you had a good tim[e] Love wren." She was some kind of kindergartener. 

Homeschooling. Tiny wanted in on the action, too. 

One night Ever read to the littles. On the bathroom floor. No one knew why.

While I was in the shower, the littles organized our bathroom drawers. It was very unexpected and amazing.