Happy Birthday Sophia

Sophia turned 6 years old this week.  It seems like yesterday that it was just me, Rick and Sophia living in our condo on Southport.  We used to walk down the street with little Sophie stopping to smell the flowers outside of stores while she said "hi" to every Cubs fan and Streetwise vendor we passed.   She was always outgoing and friendly and still is.  

I am so proud of her and the girl she is becoming.  At times she is definitely 6 going on 16, but in a good way most of the time.  There is plenty of sass, but it's always with a little smile.  She is a big help to me when we're all out.  She is also the social coordinator for the girls.  She's great at getting them together to play school (she's always the teacher) or sports class.  We were joking last night that Ceci and Katie know all the school rules and will be totally prepared for Kindergarten.  Sophia reads to them while she has them sitting cross-legged in front of her and makes sure they raise their hands to ask questions and wait to be called on before speaking. 

She had a whole week of parties beginning with a family dinner with her cousins and ending with a pizza party at Whole Foods with friends.

For our little family dinner on her actual birthday I let her pick anything she wanted for dinner and she selected the gourmet meal of hotdogs.  I got cupcakes which were the highlight.  I was going to put one candle in Sophia's but when I turned my head she stuck in six which worked just fine.

Sophia's pizza party at Whole Foods was a lot of fun.

You can see Rick in the background reading a book.  He found making pizzas and sundaes less fun than the six year olds.

Stamps

Taking Ceci and Katie to various gym and art classes I've learned something about them I didn't know before. They are OBSESSED with stamps! Not the postage kind, but the stamp pad and ink kind. They both sit patiently after the other children walk away happy with a stamp on each hand and get stamped on their:

feet (top and bottom)
knees
shins
hands (top and bottom)
wrists
tummies

Today they both asked for stamps on their faces but the Gymboree teacher Miss Gina wouldn't go there.

I have visions of them as eighteen year olds lined up at the tattoo parlor asking for just one more butterfly on their wrists. I just hope that their stamp obsession isn't going to translate into ninjas riding giant tigers on their backs in 17 years.

Brrrrr

The weather has not been kind the last two weeks. First we got a couple feet of snow and then below zero temps (with windchill in the negative 20's).  This is the time of year when Rick reminds me multiple times a day of the temperature in California and I remind him that we don't have wildfires, mudslides or earthquakes here and call him a wimp. 

The girls however are enjoying the snow.

Ella looks a bit uncomfortable here because she's wearing Katie's snow suit and Sophia has on Ella's snowpants.  Guess who dressed them?

Here they are the next day after mom dressed them:

This weather has led to a lot of inside play time.  

Making brownies:

And playing dress up:

Wicked

Rick and I took Sophia to see the musical Wicked last week for her birthday.  We all loved it. At one point she looked up at me and whispered "If this is my birthday present, this is a BIG present!"

The next day there was a new theme to dress up:

Notice who got to be Glenda and who was the Wicked Witch.

Christmas

I'm finally posting some Christmas photos.  

Here's the gang on the stairs waiting to go down and if Santa made it to our house this year. Katie and Ceci were jumping around excited but just because Ella and Sophia were. They really didn't get it that Santa was bringing gifts.

Sophia got Samantha the American Girl doll which was at the top of her list.  The marketing geniuses at Mattel "retired" her right before Christmas so my mom had to find her on ebay since the estimated delivery date for Samantha is now May.

All Ella wanted was Dora roller skates and she almost broke her neck but she was happy:

Katie and Ceci were most excited about the candy in their stockings:

Here are our four little rudolphs:

Grocery shopping

A number of people have asked me how I go to the grocery store with all four. 

Here's how we roll:

Ella actually walks but on the way out she wanted to hop in the cart once we were bagged up.  I end up with a couple open boxes at the checkout but it's worth it to have occupied kids.  The major hazard is the candy display at the checkout.  I wait back with the cart until we're clear to go through to the bagger and we zip past faster than little hands can grab M&M's.  

The Christmas wrapping paper was 80% off!

Seeing Eye Mom

When I'm alone in public with all four girls I'm starting to think I should wear a sign that says "Mom at work please do not engage" similar to the ones you see on seeing eye dogs "at work".  

At the mall yesterday Rick was going to the bathroom and I had all four free ranging. Twins not in the stroller in an open place at naptime is a recipe for disaster.

A very nice young couple started asking questions about how much help I have..."um, my husband", THE weddings, etc.  All of a sudden the woman looked over my shoulder and said.  "We should let you go..." and they strolled away with their one toddler shaking their heads.

I turned to see Ceci yelling "POTTY!  POTTY! POTTY!" with her pants around her ankles dangerously close to the wishing well while her big sisters were laughing and egging her on. 

Tooth

Guess who lost her first tooth on Christmas Eve:

We were concerned about the Tooth Fairy bumping into Santa but the night went without incident.  Sophia swallowed her tooth by accident and decided to write a very sweet note explaining to the Tooth Fairy that she thought it was a seed and swallowed it while eating an orange.  She was also concerned that the tooth fairy may eat Santa's cookies but I assured her that it was obvious that they were intended for Santa.

Legoland

Legoland was our second visit to an amusement park in California and this time we brought Katie and Ceci.  We learned pretty quickly that there is not a lot of flexibility at Legoland.  In fact, we observed that on the spectrum of amusement park regulation it is the exact opposite of Kiddieland where anything goes.  We all had fun but because they wouldn't let even Sophia ride most rides without an adult we had to skip a lot of the more fun attractions.  At a couple rides the operators felt sorry for our kids who looked heartbroken when we got to the front and they were turned away.  A worker would volunteer to go on with one of the girls but that still left Sophia waiting for us since we needed four adults for the kids to all ride.  We kept trying to play dumb and get them on the rides but they'd measure each girl and there was zero flexibility.

Here is the one ride they could all go on and had a blast:

Ella had to be four to ride this one and I was surprised they didn't ask me to see her birth certificate.  Rick was on a ride with Sophia and Katie, Ceci and I watched Ella while the girls yelled "Horsey! Ella! Horsey! Ella!" and "MY turn next!" 

Here is evidence that we in fact brought Ceci and Katie: