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Nearly Nine
Avey will turn nine later this week, a terrifying result of having been born nearly that long ago. Although I deny that time actually passes, she decided that she’d prefer to do most of the celebrating over this past weekend (because next weekend is General Conference and, therefore, already spoken for).
In lieu of a cake this year, she requested her favorite dessert: chocolate crinkle cookies. She had fantasies of binge-eating them until she burst or passed out, and also wanted to share the treat with her friends, so I doubled the recipe. She wanted to eat four for breakfast on Saturday morning: a request that Kira granted. Luckily, Avey forgot her plan long enough for me to make her an egg, which she also ate.
She opened a couple of presents, but will do most of that on her actual birthday. One of her requests for the day was to see a movie in 3D. She and Kira went to a matinee of the new film, Storks, which was reportedly quite entertaining. Avey enjoyed the 3D experience very much.
Our afternoon was spent at a nearby park to which Avey had invited several friends to play as an informal party. The friends also brought their siblings, who made for some good playmates for our younger boys.
We finished the day off with some cheeseburgers and, once the boys were in bed, Avey finished her night with a Harry Potter film and a new puzzle game from one of her friends. We cannot [refuse to] believe that Avey is so big! We are so proud of the girl she is. We were excited (but not at all surprised) when she brought home a note from her teacher explaining that she had excelled at a math test that week and has been grouped with the advanced math kids to go to special sessions each week. She also recently began orchestra at school, so we are anxious to see how her skills improve.
In other news, Hakan seems to have reduced his efforts to be a mini-Carver. It used to work when Carver would show Hakan that he was eating or getting dressed and Hakan would come following after, but now Hakan has mostly decided that he is his own man. He likes to dress himself early in the day, rather than staying in pajamas until 3 p.m. or whatever. He also plays more independent games, but that may also be the result of Carver’s waning patience with his little brother.
Carver was doing very well without naps for a couple of weeks. It’s been a very long time since he regularly napped, even though he obviously needs them. However, there were a couple of weeks where he seemed to do just fine. No more, unfortunately. He is back to his cranky, exhausted self around midday until getting a rush of adrenaline at 4 or so. Maybe as a teenager he will finally learn the value of sleep.
Merritt is a champ at just about everything but his sleeping lately. He spoiled us rotten for too long, apparently, because now he wakes Kira around 3 a.m. most nights for a feeding. He’s making up for it with rolling over skills and, most recently, sitting up. He needs some more practice, but he’s impressing us all. He seems to be spurred on by the examples of his rough-and-tumble, if-I-stop-moving-I-will-die older brothers. He is anxious to join in their shenanigans, and if Avey’s 9 years are any indication, his growth will seem like the blink of an eye.