Getting to Know You. . .one day at a time

I had a goal I would write about the girls on this blog at each birthday as a way to document their changes. That hasn't happened in a long time what with other distractions, but here's my latest attempt at writing just some of the things that makes them their own individuals and a blessed part of our family.

Sarah as of 5/13/13:
What can you say about a sweet new baby? The sight of her warms your heart. It's an amazing thing when bodies are created, and new little spirits inhabit them. She has these dark blue eyes that I look in and just wonder about what kind of personality is in there.

• She loves the sound of running water-she immediately stops crying when I turn the tub water on.
• She is just barely starting to smile and respond to others.
• She grows fast! (which is good since she was the smallest of all our girls at 6 lbs 15 ozs at birth.) Doctors have been amazed that she gained over 2 lbs in her first month-from 6 lbs 11 ozs to 8 lbs 15 ozs.

Camilla nearing 4:

• Most likely to get into mischief--first girl of four to cut her own hair in February
• never passes on a chance to dance to good music--and doesn't forget to pose at the end
• often sings phrases from pop songs or Primary songs throughout the day
• happily plays on her own for quite a while
• very concerned that her baby monkey is "cold" each night and needs to have "her" own spot under the covers
• minimal tantrums-majority of the time when she doesn't get her own way she sulks and pouts with her eyes and lips, crosses her arms and then thinks for a minute. Then she sighs and says "FINE!" (only recently she has thrown a couple of tantrums with full out screaming and kicking)
• makes us laugh:
• the other day we went to Costco and I put Sarah's car seat in the cart. Camilla told me "We're going to buy Sarah!" with this coy smile to prove she was making a joke.
• I was cleaning a cut that one of the girl's friends got on the swing set and said to the friend, "does that hurt, honey?" Camilla says to me, "Mommy, you know she's not one of your daughters?!?" with a decided tone of disapproval and reprimanding glance for using an endearment.

Kayla at the end of Kindergarten:

• Academically: she has done well learning her sight words--she had learned all the kindergarten sight words by the end of March with 2 1/2 months to go in the year (only 4 other kids in her class beat her at that milestone). She has now memorized all but a couple sight words for 1st and 2nd grade. Writing is more of a struggle since she wants to know how to spell all the words instead of trying to sound them out so it takes her a long time.
• still having difficulty saying her "r" sounds--ex. Abri sounds like Ah-blee, though the speech therapist said she is still considered in the normal range of development
• Concerned about celebrating/remembering others' birthdays: For example, her Kindergarten teacher had her birthday on the 28th of April. Kayla told me about it when she came home that Friday. That Sunday, she spent lots of time making her a birthday card, and asked me to make cupcakes to go with the card. (All of these were done with no reminders on my part.) We had a similar situations with a few of her friends' birthdays-i.e. she was very excited to give them a card/gift to celebrate even when they weren't actually having a party that she needed to take something to.

 Abrianna

• Loves to read but math "is not her friend." (Her grades in math are high A's but it isn't interesting for her.) She particularly likes books that combine drawing with paragraphs such as Bad Kitty, Dork Diaries, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Beach Mouse. If I had to pick her profession today it would be comic book artist. She wants to write a book someday.
• She had a space party this summer for her birthday. Not your typical princess party, right? She really gets into the planets and she made awesome hand colored planets on Styrofoam balls that we hung from the ceiling. She loves art and her painting was featured in the District Art Show this past spring.
• She loves all things rainbow. She dreams of a rainbow canopy, loves not just a single color but the full spectrum of the rainbow.

Emma

What type of candy are you??

We had a funny conversation at the dinner table the other night. We were trying to decide what type of candy best described each of us. Here is the consensus in order that we decided them:

• Emma: M&Ms, easy because she has the m's in her name. She wasn't sure if she wanted to be plain or peanut though, but we settled on plain since she didn't want to be referred to as nutty. [Note: when she grows up she's going to make an M&M that has bubble gum in it. I won't tell her that then she might be said to be full of air.]
• Daddy: PayDay (his suggestion, not ours)
• Kayla: Hershey's Kisses because she loves giving and receiving kisses.
• Mommy: Smarties (I said I only wish that applied more often.)
• Abri: Mr Goodbar because she's done so well in school this year. {She didn't believe this was an actual candy until she was looking thru some candy at the store and saw one and then she actually believed us.)
• Camilla: took quite a bit of debate. Originally we said Whatchamacalit because we were so undecided. I suggested Sour Patch Kid because she's a little sour and a lot sweet, but then we decided on SweetTart. You can tell we are in the terrible two stage with her.

Girls in front of San Antonio Temple in April

Here are some highlights on Emma, Abri and Kayla since I put some things on Camilla already for her birthday.

Emma is definitely the oldest child. She helps me all the time. I love when she helps get Camilla to bed, since she is a toddler whisperer after all, and  tells me often, "Thanks for all that you do." She loves doing what is right, gets excited about doing things as  family, and loves organizing things.

Abrianna is a great reader, both out loud and silently. I hear her pronouncing all sorts of words that would seem a lot older than first grade that she doesn't hesitate to sound out and usuallys gets right. She was a diligent student this year with all As and mostly 100s, even on report cards. She loves movies/TV and dreams of being an artist one day.

Kayla is a hopeless romantic already. She talks more about love and marriage than I've ever hear Emma or Abri talk about them combined. She loves looking pretty and often makes little poses.

Mormon Message

A recent photo of Abrianna I took at the Alamo in April.

Abrianna LOVES movies or TV. If we take a vote on what our family activity for the night will be, hers is always for one of those. (By contrast, Emma will choose a game, and Kayla will choose to play the Wii. Makes voting interesting.) Last Sunday, Todd was watching some Mormon Messages on his laptop when we got home from church. Abri heard the sounds so she went in to see what he was watching. She immediatley sat down and attentively watched several with him, then remarked--"I like Mormon Messages. They're like conference, only shorter." I love Mormon Messages too--such touching and poignant videos to remind us of the simple things. I put a link below of just one example of a Mormon message that touched me tonight.

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/mormon-messages?lang=eng&id=2012-01-008-rescued-by-christ#2012-01-008-rescued-by-christ 

Bless You Daddy

In January, we hit a milestone in our family. We had our first trip to the emergency room, thanks to our dear fourth child. It turns out that if your 2 year old runs in the tiled entry way of the church and loses her footing, she can hit the corner of the tiled floor runner and split her forehead open. Six stitches, three hours from arrival to departure, and one episode of Dora on the Child Entertainer's Iphone, left us with an appreciation that we haven't had to do it before now, but grateful that we went to a Children's hospital for treatment.

The sweetest part of it all, though, was our little girl, sitting weakly but surprisingly alert in her car seat as we made the frantic 20 minute drive to the hospital. Sometime during that anxious ride, Todd sneezed and she looked at him, her bandage seeped with blood across her forehead, not even crying with pain, to reply, "Bless You Daddy." It brought tears to my eyes.

Happy Birthday Camilla! 3 years old

It's been a busy year for this little girl. On the list:
Talking lots and lots
Driving her mom a little crazy
Running her grandmother ragged
Seeing just how many ways she can look cute to get what she wants, ha ha.
We sure do love having her in our family, though.
Here are some things about her that always make me laugh, in random order:

• She loves blackberries--can't get enough of them.
• She hates naps.
• She can get up before any of the other girls and go to bed later than them--showing no signs of stopping.
• She won't eat donuts or cake--only lick every bit of frosting off that she can and leave the rest.
• She loves books. She will just sit and look at them on her own and doesn't have to have them read to her, though she will often ask.
• She loves Phantom of the Opera music.
• When she loves a song, she just can't sit still. She gets up and starts moving her arms in the air and striking semi-ballet poses and positioning her head "just so" as she "feels" the music. This includes, but is not limited to, during sacrament meeting at church--in the aisle no less, local musical theater presentations, or the movie theater aisle. Below: Cami dancing to the music at Sea World.

• She always has to say good-bye to me in the mornings now before I go to work. If I leave and she wakes up when the door closes (it rarely doesn't wake her up) she gets up and runs out the front door literally crying, WAIT!! WAIT!! I want to say goodbye!
• She loves the "Rock Song" for her choice of bedtime song. The words of the lyrics: "The wise man built his house upon the rock, [repeat], and the rains came tumbling down, [repeat], and the floods came up, the rains came down and the floods came up, [repeat] and the house on the rock stood still."
• She loves to say/do things to make you laugh. It's not unusual for her to say, "Hi Grandma Mommy" and wait for me to say I'm not. . . and then laugh and laugh.
• She remembers where she puts things hours and hours later. I've asked her where things are, and she'll go directly to it without searching. It's not 100% but at least 90% of the time, and it surprises me.
• She really loves baths, not washing her hair so much, but she loves the play time.

Lessons from a Road Trip

• Audio books are amazing. Who needs a TV/DVD player in the car after all? Four Junie B Jones Books, and Mr. Popper's Penguins [the classic story] made 8 hours go by pretty fast.
• Emma learned that she loves drawing comic strips. She wrote "The Fly," "Tree," and "Lunch Ladie." [though she admits that it doesn't actually have to do with a lunch lady after all, just lunch].

• We left for the mall but arrived at the zoo. [Avoid Memorial City Mall on Memorial Day. BAD IDEA. As if you can actually say that you are celebrating the holiday better by hanging out there.] You can barely make out Camilla as she heads into the castle. . .and this still doesn't do justice to the number of kids there.

• My girls LOVE Phantom of the Opera, or as Camilla says, An-toe Oh-pa, that made for another time killer of 2 hours.  Camilla was the most frequent requestor of the soundtrack-especially once I realized what she was asking for.