Mila and Siena turn 6!

 The thing I'll remember most about the girls' sixth birthday is how many people wanted to celebrate them!

They brought treat bags to share with their classmates, and their teacher send me a picture of them at school with birthday certificates.

When I picked them up from school a bunch of other kids were coming up telling them happy birthday.

After school we met up with some church friends to ride bikes and eat cupcakes.  They had a blast, and received a few little gifts which all the kids gathered around to play with.  

Driving home, we passed some friends on our street, so the kids asked to get out of the car and play with them.  One had presents ready for them.

Throughout the day they received calls and messages from family members.

And a few nights after their birthday another neighbor friend rang on the doorbell while we were finishing dinner.  He had brought them each their own Bakugon (a toy they're all obsessed with) and a whole bunch of cupcakes to share.  So we spent the rest of the evening out on the grass playing with friends until the sun went down.  

I wondered if so many people knew about their birthday because there is two of them to spread the news.  But I also think they've just endeared themselves to a lot of people!  They're surrounded by friends.

We chose not to do an official party this year, because of covid awkwardness.  But they ended up having a great day.  Hyrum took the day off work, and we pulled them out of school for lunch.  They chose happy meals that we took to the playground for a picnic.  Then, I took both of them ice skating for the first time.  They've been asking to do it for a few years, since they saw Tiago go.  They both had fun, and were glad to have buckets to hold onto.  But about 15 minutes into our 75 minute time slot Siena asked, "Can we leave now?" I guess she'd had her fill!  I made her stay a while longer.  

For dinner I had asked the girls what they wanted me to make.  Siena first said chikfila.  When I said something I made at home she said 'oatmeal'.  I told her something else, so she said 'ramen noodles?'  I told her that wasn't actual cooking, so she asked for frozen chicken nuggets. I told her she no longer had any input, and concluded that she definitely doesn't appreciate my cooking.  Mila requested breakfast for dinner, so we had pancakes, fruit and eggs.

By that point I think everyone was tired.  No one wanted cake (even though I worked hard on a 3-layer cake!) and they just wanted to race through opening their presents, not acting super excited about them.  Some leaned on the side of practical, but I thought they were still fun!  The next day they seemed more excited.  (They got a watercolor course with supplies, hiking backpacks, hats with their initials, Book of Mormons they can color in, LOL dolls, a game, and headbands.  Actually, the thing they were probably most excited about was a bunch of Sunny D from Costco and mini-muffins. Go figure.)

Tiago put together a candybar poster card and gave it to them first thing in the morning.  That was the best reaction of the day.  They thought it was amazing and he was beaming. 

Sno-vid 2021

The third week of February a snow storm and cold front basically shut down Texas.  In the middle of the previous week temperatures started cooling down, and were freezing by Friday.  Snow was predicted to start on Saturday afternoon (although it ended up being overnight.)  Schools anticipated teaching virtually that week.  (Maybe naively?  No one realized how crazy it was about to get.)

It's unusual to have more than a day of freezing temperatures, so it never occurred to me (or most people) to prep for winter.  In fact, two weeks before I was filling up the water table outside with the hose.  So I had to hurry and unscrew all the hoses and get Styrofoam covers for the faucets.  

The first 'storm' wasn't terrible-- just regular snow fall.  Sunday morning we had a light dusting of snow, but it continued throughout the day and we ended up with about 3".  (Obviously church was cancelled, even before the snow started falling.)  Over the weekend we had the mattress topper in the family room.  The kids had a sleepover and we watched shows on it.

[I should mention we had ice the previous Thursday, which froze, and they cancelled work for Hyrum.  There was an awful accident on one of the highways that morning between Dallas and Fort Worth that still give me nightmares just thinking about it.  There were about 100 cars involved over several miles, leaving 6 people dead.  Surprisingly it wasn't more.  There was a cell-phone video of a semi truck headed straight towards it but he couldn't slow down.  Oh man!)

On Sunday and Monday I had terrible anxiety about pipes freezing.  I didn't actually know where our water shut off valves were, and kept asking friends about their situations and what they were doing. (In short, no one was doing anything.)  Several neighbors had frozen pipes.  We were dripping water all week, and fortunately have most of our water sources on the house's interior.  On Monday I finally called Matt and got some more educated information.  But it didn't resolve my anxiety, only made it worse.  He basically told me we were all screwed.  But he was helpful, and told us to shut off our external water meter, which we have to do at the street because I'm pretty sure there isn't a secondary valve.  (We even contacted the landlord, who was completely unhelpful.)  We borrowed the tool we needed from a neighbor and shut it off.  After that, I was much less anxious, because even if something broke we wouldn't have water everywhere.  (I am pretty sure I know where our inside shut-off valve is.)  I also found out we are one of the only houses in our neighborhood with two separate water meters, which explained why no one else was turning theirs off.  

So instead of waking up at 2 am and laying in bed listening to every little house noise for two hours, completely alert, I got a little better sleep as the week progressed.  It was like we did what we could and it was out of our hands.

Starting early Monday morning a LOT of people lost electricity throughout the state.  In short, Texas has its own power grid. They didn't plan for so many cold days and were short on electricity, compounded by the fact that gas lines froze, solar sources were obviously not generating electricity, and wind turbines were frozen. They said they'd be doing rolling outages, but by the end of Monday they said if your electricity was out, plan on it being out for a long time.  (It ended up being until Thursday, which was sooner than I thought it would be.)  But that's a long time to be without electricity when it was only a few degrees at night.  Our power never went out.  No idea why.  Some people had rolling outages, but for most it was either on, or off.  Very unfortunate!

Gloria, a man in our ward, was without electricity and ended up at our house.  He basically camped in the living room.  Enzo gets along well with him, which was fun to watch.  We were grateful he was able to entertain himself (mostly on his computer, or talking on the phone in french) but after several days it felt a little cramped because the kids were not using the family room at all.  

Despite Hyrum having the entire week off work, it was stressful and we did absolutely nothing productive.  It seemed like a missed opportunity, but in a sense also just felt like survival.  I was so looking forwards to Saturday when the temperature was supposed to FINALLY get above freezing.

The kids enjoyed the snow a little.  The first day, friends were all outside playing in it.  Then people were mostly just cold.  I was able to bring some warm food to a family down the street without power.  We went sledding one day, and nearly froze our butts off.  We obviously don't have sleds, and just grabbed whatever we could find -- cookie sheets and storage containers.  

Friday afternoon the sun came out and things started to melt.  It was like a faucet was on with everything dripping.  

(It was bizarre, because the snow came on Sunday, and just sat. Everyone was asked to stay at home because there's no infrastructure for clearing snow.  Our street was completely snowed over until Saturday.  The main roads got ice, but the city was basically on pause during the whole freeze.) 

Saturday the roads were all clear, and everything was wet.  It felt glorious to go outside and see things come back to life.  We ended up without pipe damage.  Hallelujah.  Several neighbors had frozen pipes, and I saw an insurance person surveying the house next door so they must have had some damage inside.  

By the beginning of the next week we were at the park with weather in the 70's.  Texas is so strange.

They said this is a once-in-a-lifetime storm.  They haven't had weather this cold in over 30 years.  Not glad we were here for it.

The bad aftermath for us was the inability to find milk!  I fortunately bought groceries on Saturday before snow started, but 8 days later we needed more milk.  My walmart pickup order was cancelled, so I went to the stores looking for milk.  Aldi was out.  Target was out.  I finally went inside walmart and found a few gallons left, thank goodness.  No eggs, no meat.  Very empty shelves.  It took several days for food to get back to normal.  

Kids lately

These are things I want to remember about the stage everyone is in.

Enzo is SO particular.  He it always reaching for lids to put them back on.  (OJ container, toothbrush, laundry soap, everything!) He likes to haul things around.  Last week he saw the leaf blower and had a blast with it, until the battery ran out.  So I plugged in the battery, and hid the leaf blower on a high shelf.  Two days later he found it, and about lost his mind. He was furious it didn't work.  When I put the battery in, the whole cycle repeated itself.  He also attached himself to an empty bottle of clorox2, and a blue shovel.  He is obsessed with brushing his teeth, mostly the toothpaste.  He goes in and brushes on his own anytime the other kids are in the bathroom.  

Before naptime I give him a bottle, then rock him for a few minutes and give him a kiss.  Then I ask, "Ready to take a nap?"  Initially he said "yes" but for the last few weeks he's just smiled really big and said, 'no!'--like he's ready to keep playing. Speaking of naps, he's obsessed with drinking his bottle.  He calls it "tete" (short for tetero).  If you ask him, "Tete?" he knows it's time and he runs to the fridge as fast as he can to grab a bottle of milk.  

In the morning he likes to go into Tiago's room and lay on his head while he tries to wake up.  Doesn't seem like a great way to be woken up.  But Tiago wouldn't like to wake up, regardless of the method. 

Hyrum has developed an elaborate bedtime routine, not unlike what he did with the other kids at this age.  Enzo gets a bottle, then brushes his teeth, then reads a book, then turns off the kitchen light, closes the door, points to the picture of Jesus, and then turns off the other lights before going into the crib.  (After brushing his teeth he makes the rounds through the kids bedrooms to blow them a kiss and say goodnight.)

The funniest thing right now about Mila and Siena is they've decided they love sleeping in the same bed.  We told them if they get ready in the morning without any crying, they can sleep together.  So maybe half of the time they do.  It looks incredibly crowded and hot, but they mostly love it. It makes it convenient when guests come over, because Tiago easily takes the top bunk.

There is SO much outdoor play with the bigger kids.  On our street they play with James and Jasper, although they're not always home. It's not unusual for them to knock on our door to show a new toy, and they continue to talk about it until I gently close the door.  Ainsley is a little older but is always outside, and plays well with the girls.  Giselle and Zoey are usually at their grandma's house after school and play outside.  My girls love when they see Zoey at school.  (I think she's in 3rd grade.)  Ethan lives across the street and is always bringing things out of his house to play with -- scooters, bike, table, bucket, etc.  Sophie, Joe, and Thomas live 2 houses away.  The kids love playing in their backyard because they have a big play set and swing.  Sometimes they all sit outside and read together.  Nora and Sloan live in the neighborhood, although not super close.  Sometimes they walk over to play.  And Graham, from Tiago's class, lives a street over and sometimes comes over, too. Having friends around has been the best part of living in Texas.

Yesterday Nora looked around and said, "Where's Tiago?"  I said he was probably at home reading, because Graham had gone home.  Nora, who is in his class at school, said, "Yeah, he really likes sharks and dinosaurs."  It made me laugh that he had such a reputation at school.  She's not wrong.  To that list I would add geology, space, animals, history, and exploration.

We use the library here to the fullest.  My system is to just max out the two library cards we have (I had Tiago get his own, so we could check out 100 books on each.)  When books are due, I grab those plus whatever else fits in my bag and return them, and check out an equal number.  Books get renewed many times. And I usually request a bunch of books so they're waiting on the shelf for me when I get there.  Good news for Enzo, who usually makes as much  noise as he can from the stroller while I gather up books and check out.  I found on the library's website where I can see how many books I've checked out-- 2241 on my older card, and almost 500 on the card I got for Tiago at the beginning of the pandemic.  I would have gotten cards for my girls but we don't have any more space on our bookshelves.  After I get books from the library, the kids spend about an hour after school pouring through them all. 

Each of the big kids now has their own Book of Mormon.  We read with them at night, Tiago separately and the girls together (because they share a room.)  Tiago is almost done with 2nd Nephi and the girls just recently started.  I've been impressed at how quickly the girls picked up reading and are eager to read each night.  Tiago goes through phases of only wanting to read a verse to flying through an entire chapter before I even get into his room.

Tiago loves eating fried eggs lately.  Although he's picky and doesn't always eat a lot, when he decides he's hungry he has an endless stomach.  He drinks so many glasses of milk and loves it. He can make himself oatmeal, and learned how to make fried eggs. (Although he needs practice breaking the egg into the pan without breaking the yoke. He's worried about burning his hand, with good reason; he burned his hand the first time I tried to teach him pancakes.)  I still get frustrated that some nights he will declare my dinner to be the best thing he's ever eaten, and the next time I make it, he won't touch it.

The most reliable dinner I make is "Dennys".  Basically, pancakes, and whatever else -- eggs, bacon, sausage, OJ, toast...  They're always happy to eat.

Hyrum is almost done teaching the girls to read in Spanish.  They probably don't get quite as much one-on-one time doing it as Tiago did, but they're doing great.

Mila and Siena randomly started talking about "Nanny."  I was so confused for about a week and then they explained it was a made-up person.  They talk about it constantly.  I'm still so confused.  

At school Mila has a bit of a boyfriend.  There are twins in their class -- River and Able.  Mila and River used to sit at the same table.  They 'were are in love' and talked about getting engaged.  Apparently River went home and told his parents, and they convinced him to wait until he was in college. (It's hilarious to talk to their mom about it, and hear that side of things.)  But they (the 5-yr-olds) decided they just wanted to be in love, not kiss or anything.  But they were sure they wanted to get married.  Now River and Siena are at the same table, and Mila sits with Able.  What a funny pairing.