Christmas Highlights

• Abri and Kayla randomly singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "Christmas Bells are ringing" throughout the day
• Having a Supper Like the Saviour eating lentil soup, flatbread, meat strips, and dried fruit with grape juice while sitting crosslegged on the floor of the living room by the light of the Christmas tree
• 12 Days of Christmas Devotionals each night
• Angel service--our gifts to Jesus that we put into a stocking when we service for each other
• Advent calendars with Chocolates from Aunt Sherry
• Searching for and then finding Cami under the Christmas tree playing with the tree skirt after she crawled under there one afternoon
• Caroling in a big group to friends' houses

Star Features

Its interesting how each of our girls, so similar, has their distinguishing traits. Kayla-at top-has the trademark curls at this age and unique blue eyes which light up her whole face that get comments. Abri has beautiful, long, blond hair with perfect curls just at the end that people frequently comment on. (She would have been a perfect Aurora for Halloween if we had gone that route.) Emma has these insanely long eyelashes that she inherited from Todd--sorry, no pic.

Abri's hair in particular is a bit of a thorn in Emma's side. She's told me before--"will you please cut Abri's hair? Everyone says how beautiful it is and no one talks about mine." (Sadly hers doesn't loog as good long, so I had it cut when Emma was about 3 and I've kept it on the shorter side ever since).

I'm just hoping there isn't too much sibling rivalry when they get older, i.e. teenagers.

How a 7 yr old shows off to her 4 yr old sister

Emma to Abri: Abri, what’s 100 + 100?
Abri: um [long pause], a lot
Emma [laughing]: yeah, that's true too.

but then the 4 yr old still manages a surprising answer. . .

More Tales from the Twos

Mom: Kayla, put down the marker.
Kayla [looks up at me, looks back down]: Shh
Mom: Kayla, put it down.
Kayla: Shh [puts finger to her lips]
Mom: Kayla, last chance or you go in time out.
Kayla [points to the next room]: GO! [looking at me]
[Putting a toddler in time-out—not so funny]

Boo Activities

We had lots of fun for Halloween. For the church Halloween Party on the 23rd, we went as a Fairytale Family-unicorn, evil queen, Princess and the Pea, Fairy, and Prince Charming. On the 31st, we finally made it to the Pumpkin Patch, had a spooky dinner of mummy dogs and ghost fries, and then trick-or-treated on our street.

Don't you just love babies?

Camilla at almost 4 months--just too cute :) I can't pick her up without giving her a kiss or two, or three. She loves standing, being tickled, held up in the air horizontally, watching any lit computer screen, chewing on her fingers, and being in new places. She has rolled over before but only by accident.

In Need of a Vacation

Surprisingly enough, the title doesn't describe me, it describes Abri. But the reason might surprise you. In September, she informed us: "I want to go to a hotel." Me: "Why is that?" Abri: "Because their beds are so soft and comfy."
Then later in the month, "I really want to go to a hotel. They have soft beds. When can we go to a hotel, Momma?" Then another two weeks later: "Momma, Can we go to Virginia again? I really want to go to a hotel. They have nice beds." I'm pretty sure it's even come up at her suggestion another couple of times since.

The pattern is pretty evident--no talk of pools, or even TV, or just fun vacation activities--it's their beds! So, we're considering getting Abri a new bed. To justify her request, her mattress was 2nd hand when we got it 10 years ago, so its probably time.

You know you have a child-fountain when. . .

• they manage to spit up on clean clothes that haven't even been worn yet



• they spit up inside your shirt



• you haven't even finished cleaning up the first spit up before the 2nd and 3rd spit up comes



• Bibs are useless



• Even the absorbency of a cloth diaper is useless since it's such a small surface area



• you step barefoot in spit up on the floor that you didn't realize was there


• your baby's face is covered in it after spitting up while laying on their tummy


• your kids give you a hug and tell you you smell like spit up

Whoever invented the tooth fairy idea ought to be punished

This is going to be an admission of bad parenting to my seven year old who has lost four teeth since last Sept. We are not, Really not, good at the tooth fairy thing. The first two teeth were normal. We got $2.50 in quarters under her pillow with no incident. (As a side note--how do you decide how much to give them? Do we have to account for inflation? I still think $2.50 was pretty steep, but Todd handled the first one, set a precedent, and now she has got some affluent teeth in my opinion.)

The next two, both of which have happened in the past four weeks, have been disasters. Emma lost the second of her two front teeth within a week of us getting home from the hospital with Cami. She put the tooth under her pillow on the 2nd day after losing it. We forgot to switch it out. She woke up devastated in the morning. We told her the tooth fairy must have been confused since she actually lost the tooth the day before but had forgotten to put it under the pillow the same day. (We thought, whew, we had a lame excuse to cover ourselves, but at least we had some logic to appease her.) 2nd night, we forget again. In the morning: a very distraught girl, again. We tell her to cut the tooth fairy some slack, maybe she's out of her routine. 3rd morning--we finally get it switched, thanks to Todd. It never even crossed my mind that night either.

So, we are quite contrite about messing up Emma's experience with the tooth fairy, when two weeks later she lost her fourth tooth, her 2nd front bottom tooth. I groaned to myself when the tooth came out, hoping we could manage to not botch this time up. Todd remembered that same night to get the 10 coins traded for that affluent tooth. The next morning, Emma woke up, came into our room and this time said, "What!!!??? Car wash tokens?? The tooth fairy left car wash tokens under my pillow?" Todd had bested me at remembering once again, but this time hadn't checked the coins well since 3 of 10 were wrong. Todd gave an answer that those could be used the next time we go to Peter Piper Pizza. She wasn't entirely appeased by that, but let it drop.

Personally, I think she may be harboring deep doubts in the ability of the tooth fairy. I can't blame her. All I can say is whoever came up with the idea had not just had a newborn that was waking them up and distracting them at night.

Cute girls

At the end of May we went to the Temple and took pics on the temple grounds. I especially liked this shot of the three girls together.

Life updates

Thanks to all my friends who posted congratulations on my last post--that was such a pleasure to read comments. :)

Life is good--feel like I'm finding a sort of equilibrium. Sometimes I'm not sure who causes more stress--my almost 2 yr old Kayla or Camilla with the baby demands of being held, fed, etc. Oh wait, that would be Kayla, as images of hair gel, toothpaste, and diaper rash creme spread over various surfaces of my house come to mind. Not to mention her entry into the two stage, or tendencies to take her diaper off when she throws those characteristic tantrums.

Like any two year old she has her charms and cute phrases--"gi go" or Here go, as she hands you things, i.e. pacifiers for Camilla that have fallen on the floor; "Doe know" or Don't know, when you ask her for something she can't locate, with her arms raised in a questioning manner; "Go" to keep you singing when she likes the music.

Abrianna has found her calling of showering Camilla with love. I suspect her frequent requests of "Can I pet Cami, or kiss Cami" are partially motivated by desire to get out of things she's asked to do, i.e. cleaning her room. It's not always so cute, such as when I have to lean down with Cami for the 2nd time in two mins to satisfy her request.

Emma has shown a bit of resentment at her greater responsibilities of keeping an eye on the smaller girls--to be fair, really just Kayla, getting various items from around the house, or picking up after all the girls, not just her own things. She surprised me last week in a spectacular show of maturity. She told me she wanted to help with Mommy chores; she asked me to teach her how to do laundry and make dinner. We covered laundry basics, and both she and Abri are doing better at putting away their own clothes, so that's a plus. We haven't tackled dinner yet. Overall, she fulfills the position of eldest sibling well and I'm really proud of her.

Pics of Camilla

Understanding of a 2 yr old

Toddlers are so cute yet so frustrating at times. One situation that was on the funny side of things happened while in Virginia on July 1oth. We were at a state park under a pavilion. Abri, Kayla, were on one side of the pavilion, myself on the other. I noticed I had left my cell phone on the bench on that side, not far from where Kayla was. Concerned Kayla would pick it up and drop it the ground, I told Abri: "Abri, will you put my phone back in the diaper bag just there so Kayla doesn't get it?" Abri didn't really pay much attention to what I was saying, but Kayla on the other hand, was. She promptly picked up the cell phone, looked at me, then put the phone in the bag. If I wasn't so pleased and amused I would have felt a little offended that she so blatantly understood what I was saying but disregarded the intent if not the request.

Virginia

It is such a blessing to have time spent with family. We loved having time with Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and Grandparents on a trip out to Virginia. The East coast is so green and beautiful compared to here and its so refreshing to enjoy the scenery while appreciating good company.

Hasn't met a fruit she doesn't like

I know there are some I haven't tried with her yet: Papaya, Mango, Coconut, Pomegranate, Plaintains, but Kayla loves fruit. She shovels it in when she's hungry. Here, on July 4th, I think she ate 3 slices of watermelon before she had enough.

She's Here!

Camilla Chaya made her entrance yesterday morning at 5:14am. It was a very long night after we arrived at the hospital at 9:40 pm. I was only 3 cm dilated which astounded me after the amt of contractions I had had before arriving, but my doctor ok'd admitting me, and my contractions stayed strong all night, keeping me up all but about 30 mins. In a nutshell, it was probably my longest birth experience of the four girls, i.e. the longest length of time I felt pain. Kayla's takes the cake for most painful since it was without drugs, but I'm not certain which I'd prefer.

Here I am two days later, still exhausted between little sleep on Sun night and night-time feedings on Monday night, so I think it's been the most tiring of my births as well. Or, one could always chalk it up to getting older.

For those that live around here, we were talking about naming her Rayna Rachelle up until the birth. Somehow after she came, it just didn't seem to fit eventhough it fit all our criteria for names, so we went back to talking about other names. I mentioned Camille, the name of Pres. Kimball's wife (or so I thought), and there was just something that felt right. We corrected it to Camilla since that was actually Pres Kimball's wife. It has Latin roots meaning Pure, or noble, or also unblemished character which we liked. Since we both like Hebrew names, we paired Camilla with Chaya (pronounced Ki-yah), meaning life, keeping our pattern of double letters for our first and middle names. We'll be calling her Cami for short. Now Abri won't be the only one with a nickname in the house.

Emma was very disappointed when we told her Camilla was the new baby's name--she feels its too "unusual and weird" and she doesn't like it. She liked Rayna and thought it was pretty but didn't ever classify it as unusual or weird. Go figure. Abri didn't have any opinion on the matter, and of course, Kayla is barely saying one syllable words to give an opinion.

I'll post pics soon, but to describe her: she has brown hair, less than any of the other girls, chin with prominent cleft/dimple, charcoal eyes (for now), long arms, fingers, and toes, with Todd's nose (we suspect), and my lips and ears. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz at birth, length 19 3/4 inches, the smallest of all our girls. But, she's healthy and doing well.

Anyone still bothering to check my posts?

It's likely anyone reading my blog before has given up checking it for updates. April and May were simply insane months. . .and nearly drove me to it myself. To summarize: hope that you never, ever get multiple kids with lice in your home, particularly girls. . .while juggling a part-time to 30 hr job per week, dr appts, or eczeyma infections make your child's skin look like "raw meat" in Todd's words--all beyond the normal every day activities. It was not a fun couple of months.

But, here we are just in time for another change any day now. Lice is gone, job is over, Kayla's skin is almost looking normal--and with another girl coming any day now, I don't even have to change my Blog title.

Baby comparisons

Each of my kids is here shown at 4 to 4 1/2 months of age. Thought it'd be fun to post.

Kayla:Getting into the Music

Kayla started in nursery last month. The first Sunday she went in, I put her down on the floor and she got this huge frown on her face and these crocodile tears coming out her eyes, without actually crying. It took her a few minutes after I left til she got distracted by the toys enough to get over her pouting, and she's done fine ever since.

Last Sunday, the Primary chorister, our friend Shauna, went into nursery to do some music time for the first time. She related that her visit to the nursery had a mixed reception--some of the kids could care less and basically went about their business while she tried to sing, while others participated. Happily, she said that Kayla got involved with the singing--swinging her arms like she was conducting along with Shauna, and loved doing the motions for the songs, like springing up on "Sunbeam" for "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." It's not too surprising since she really enjoys our singing time as a family at bedtime. She'll stop what she's doing and we'll hear her "ba-da-ing" along, the extent of her singing up to now. She just wouldn't be a part of our family if she didn't like music.

On a side note: she isn't talking much yet, still just the basic Mom, Da, tha(t), yea. She communicates well, just not with words.

Soap Opera of a Seven Year Old

If Emma knew I was writing this, she would be soo embarrassed, but I had to take a few minutes to record the drama that she is so tortured by right now--mostly because I'm so surprised that boy drama has already started in our household.

Last year her neighbor Will had a crush on her, as related in a post from Sept I think. Well, Emma is in the throes of unrequited love for him while he's moved on to another girl it seems. Here are some updates of comments Emma has been making over the past few weeks.

Today at recess Will was talking and walking with Faith and he ignored me. Why can't he like me instead?

Mom, it is going to be so long before I can do anything about loving Will. I have to wait til I'm sixteen before I can tell him I love him. Its so hard.

I listen to love songs and think about Will [and looks at the picture she drew of him]. I bet he doesn't do that and think about me.

I need to get a shirt like Faith's, then maybe Will will like me like he likes Faith.

Emma turned 7 last week. We had what seemed like a week-long celebration. That Wed night we had a special family dinner with cake to celebrate, then Fri night she had a sleepover party with some of her church and school friends. Sat after overnight guests left, she got to go outfit shopping with our good friend Yvonne, followed by an evening at Peter Piper Pizza with Grandparents and Aunt Tracy, Uncle Royce, and cousin RJ. Whew--it was busy. But she said "this is the best week of my life!" Thanks to all our family that sent cards in the mail as well.

I posted a few pics from Peter Piper-a fun evening for all three of them, not just Emma. Kayla couldn't get enough of the carousel ride and Abri loved carrying around her own set of tokens and putting them into the rides and games. Emma was disappointed that the prizes that she wanted were all too many tickets. We ended up "saving" a large no of tickets that we could redeem the next time we go (probably for Abri's birthday) and hopefully have enough for one of the bigger prizes then. Definitely a lesson in saving now so you can get what you want later. Sad part is, she was hoping to get a baseball we had seen when we went to PPP at Abri's birthday party last year, only to find out it was no longer a prize. When all is said and done, it's also a lesson that you don't always get what you want when you save because the items aren't always there anymore.

Funny Observations

Abri: [On seeing a stray dog across the street] It's a DOG! . . .but it looks like a cow.

Emma [at Peter Piper's for her Birthday]: I hope they don't sing to me. They don't always sound very good when they sing for birthdays at restaurants.

You are Special

Our primary gives a paper plate to a child the Sunday they are spotlighted with a message glued to the back: "You are special. . .as a child of Heavenly Father. . ." which asks family members to each tell the child something special about them as they sit around the dinner table that night, with the plate as their special dinner plate for the evening.



Abrianna was spotlighted today. So, at dinner, we went around telling her why she is special to us. Emma started. "Abri, I think, I mean, I know you are special because you are nice to me and nice to Kayla and pick up things when Mommy and Daddy ask you to when Kayla has gotten them out." [This is true the a lot of the time, though, not suprisingly, not all the time.] My comment: Abri, I love that you love books like Mommy does and that you listen well to your teachers at preschool and church and do what they ask." Todd: "Abri, I love that you tell us such cute stories."



Then, Emma came and whispered to Todd and I individually, "On 1, say, we love Abri, and I'll count". She counted down from 3, and on three (rather, one) we all chimed in. Abri looked rather sheepish, and smiled so sweetly and said, "Guys" rather drawn out, in this tone of, "you sound so silly but I'm so pleased that you said it." It was a funny moment to which I can't do justice.



Additional notes: my friend Rachel told me that Abri's favorite vacation, as shared during spotlight time, was "when my family goes to McDonalds." [We go so rarely now that she probably would consider it a vacation.] Emma related in the car on the way home from church that she and Abri were both standing up for a long time as they narrowed down who the spotlight was because they share so many of the same things. The spotlight hints: she has two sisters; her favorite place to visit was Grandma's; favorite food: macaroni and cheese; favorite activity: movies; favorite colors: pink and purple. We definitely have a houseful of girls.

Family Pictures for First time in 3 years

Emma's Powers of Observation

I wish I could remember and recount all the things she notices that prove this, but one happened this week that I just couldn't help mentioning. We've finished reading the Junie B. Jones books popular with her age group that are funny for almost any age. The last two we had checked out from the library were Junie B Jones First Grader: Toothless Wonder, #20 and Junie B Jones First Grader: Boo and I mean it, #24. Emma was examining the covers side by side. She pointed out, "Mom, This one is no. 20 (Toothless Wonder) and she has no tooth in the picture since she lost her tooth. Then, in no. 24, she's got all her teeth again. It comes after no. 20, so she should still be missing a tooth. They didn't get that right." Trust Emma to notice a difference in the covers, analyze the sequence of the books and realize that the sequence mandated that the covers be different that what they were.

Christmas Memories--Belated

Writing our Christmas Letter stayed on my unfinished Christmas "To Do" List, but I wanted to at least write a few memories from Christmas last year. Some things that made us laugh:

Kayla was the thief of candy canes off the Christmas tree at the library. If I took my eyes off her even briefly, she was always by the tree, grabbing the closest cane that she could get. She was quite proud to show off her accomplishment when she succeeded. She's also really small next to a 7 foot Christmas tree. The contrast always made me smile because she's getting so big now, that I don't think of her as small anymore.

Emma is her class perfectionist. Really, she's probably one of the biggest perfectionists in the whole grade or school. One example from her class Christmas party: the Room Mom had given each child a handful of paper bells and two antlers to color and glue to a red band that went around their head, then the band was stapled together to fit. Most kids didn't bother coloring the bells, just glued them on, in random places on the band, and if they did color them, they were any color of the rainbow. The majority of antlers were just lightly colored with a lot of white paper between streaks. Then there was Emma's: yellow bells meticulously colored, glued equidistant from each other along the band, the antlers a solid brown, on both sides, with deliberate color strokes. She was the last one finished, and when she took her antlers to the Room Mom to staple, the Mom said, twice (with slight variation), "Wow, those are great antlers, Emma." I think it was the equal distance between bells she was most impressed with, but it just goes to show that Emma takes her craft projects and other schoolwork very seriously.

Abrianna: She loved, absolutely loved, wearing her Christmas dress with Candy canes on it. Of course, in typical Abri fashion, it was a dress, and whats even better--it had Candy on it. I only wish the forest green corduroy and red plaid didn't clash so much with her pink boots. (She's in it beside Santa at our Ward Christmas party above.)

Storytime & Abri's Love of Books

Tuesday evening I told Abri we would be going to storytime in the morning. She got this huge grin on her face and excitedly said, "Storytime at the Library? We're going to storytime?" We go weekly to our local library but had missed the last three weeks due to sickness or other conflicts and by her reaction, it was obvious she had missed it. She talked about it a couple more times before going to bed that night.

The next morning, 8:00, she comes downstairs: "Is it storytime yet?" (This from the 3 yr old that has been sleeping in till about 9 lately.)
Todd: No, the library isn't open yet. You'll need to wait for a bit.
Abri: Oh, the library isn't open?
Todd: No, not yet. Go play for a while and we'll let you know.
Abri: Ok
9:00--Abri: Is the library open yet?
Leanne: No, sorry, Abri, not yet. There are still a couple more hours.
Abri: "Oh", very disappointed, again.
10:30 Leanne: Time to get ready to go to the library for storytime.
Abri: Yeah! Storytime!

Yet another miracle: She didn't argue with me about what she would wear because she was that excited about going. When I told her she couldn't wear the green sundress, she accepted that answer with an immediate ok and we settled on a denim skirt. (Of course, I didn't get her to wear pants, but at least it was something different from her usual favorite dresses.)

The simple pleasures of childhood.

The Smell of Joy

Flour, 1/2 lb of butter, 2 1/2 cups sugar, eggs, milk, and cinnamon--aka Cinnamon Rolls with frosting. I baked them today from scratch for the first time. I refuse to think about how many calories they were, or how much fat they had, or how few whole grains they had because it was sheer joy to smell them baking and then to eat them warm out of the oven.

I've baked fresh bread, rolls and pizza crust over the last year and a half (discovering an ability that I'm quite surprised by) but cinnamon rolls had intimidated me and I just couldn't get the nerve up to dedicate the time to try them. Happily, they turned out well despite my late night yeast rising dilemma.

The girls' reactions:
Abri: Yum, I like your cinnamon rolls, Mommy.
Kayla: Didn't even eat a small center piece of bread from one. Sometimes I'm not sure she's my daughter. She just doesn't seem to like bread products much. (Even fresh baked bread! Too weird.)
Emma: (Missed them for breakfast since she had to go to school) As soon as she got home from school, I got this big hug I wasn't expecting, and a "Thank You Mommy!" with an explanation that it was for making the cinnamon rolls.

Book Suggestions

I'm the Book Club Leader for my Relief Society and was wondering--what books have you enjoyed that you think would benefit others? My criteria: I want the reader to feel uplifted after reading, and feel that the time was well-spent. So, all you lurkers out there who haven't posted :) --post a comment, please, with any book that you've read that met this criteria. Thanks so much!!

Mystified that she's not motivated by sugar

I've mentioned before Abri's stubborness. Over the past several months, she has become so picky about what she will eat. At dinner, she will often refuse the main entree and consequently eat few calories to get her by until the next meal. Our house rule says you can't get a treat without finishing what's on your plate, and we're careful about not putting too much on their plates that would be unrealistic to finish so that we don't waste food. Regardless of the rule and the no. of times we remind her about it, Abri will still refuse to eat on a regular basis.

Tonight we had family home evening and ended with a treat, and Abri did actually get one. After she had finished, she sat there in her seat for about 40 seconds, and then said in this reflective tone with a smile, "It's been a long time since I had a treat." You think? I had to laugh. I doubt it will have any affect on her pickiness, but at least I can hope.