May 10
Everyone,
Happy Birthday to Butterfly! I don’t know why, but it seems her birthday is kind of different than the boys’ birthday. Oh sure, on the boys birthday I became a mother to multiples, but on Butterfly’s birthday, I became a mother.
And after years and years of TRYING to have a kid, it was a big day. Today is Tuesday. Butterfly was born on Tuesday. We’ve now come full circle to that day. The significance is not lost on me today.
Here are 6 things that I love about my newest 6 year old!
- I love how kind she is to others. Always. She is always helping someone. She always thinks the best of people. When other kids are mean to her (I see it rarely), she is never mean back. In fact, she doesn’t even realize that they are being mean to her. She just doesn’t see it. That is a rare quality in a person and one I hope she never looses.
- I love how full of life she is. She is almost always happy and skipping around. She is loud, full of vigor and strength. I look at her often and think that she comes from good pioneer stock. I could totally see her walking behind a covered wagon for miles and miles. She is one strong, exuberant girl. And she normally likes to be in the lime light. But today, she had a rough day at school because people kept saying happy birthday to her. Sad to cry at school on her birthday. And over such a fun thing too!
- I love her eyes. And her 7 tiny freckles sprinkled on her nose. I love how she has a cow lick right between her eyebrows and how tiny her mouth is when it’s shut. That is a rare thing. I love her dimple. Love it. It seriously makes me smile every time I see it flash. I love that she has my hands and my feet.
- I love how giving she is. She is always wrapping up pretend presents for me and leaving them for me to find or giving them to me in a big flourish. Sometimes several times in a row. I love that she always wants to draw pictures for other people. I love that she started the trend in her classroom to draw picture presents for her friends and now everyone does it. I love that she gives her extra time in the classroom (which she has a lot of, not surprising) to a friend who is struggling to read. She walks him through his sounds and congratulates him when he sounds out a hard word. I love that by doing that, she sounds just like me.
- I love that she is playful. She is always playing with things or telling stories to herself in her head. I love that she has kind friends who are happy to go along with her hugely detailed and entertaining stories. I love that her brothers perk up considerably when she is home and she allows them to play with her. Most of the time. I love her love of movies and the fact that she combines her stories from those of movies and makes “the story better.”
- I love that she makes friends where ever she goes. We went out to lunch today for her birthday during her lunch/recess hour. She chose to go to McD’s and get a toy. Okay. I picked the one that has a play place in it and let them play more than they ate. (Because the boys had to come too!) She instantly made a friend with another boy who was there and had him, his 2 little sisters, and the boys all following her around in some elaborate chase game that I did not understand. They had a ball. She gave this boy a hug and wanted to know if we could play with him again another day. I got his mom’s info while they were playing and so we might! She makes friends, and helps me make friends too.
I think 6 is going to be an amazing year!
Safire
SafireButterfly birthdays birthdays, Butterfly
May 09
Everyone,
Happy Mother’s Day (yesterday) to Juice’s Mom, Gma! Gma, you are always so giving of your time, your knowledge, and your self. I can only aspire to do the things you have done in your life.
Happy Mother’s Day (yesterday) to my awesome Mom! I got really blessed in the mom department. And Mom, I hope you like your hair thing-y when I send it to you. 
You are patient, kind, loving, fun to be with, and thoughtful. I know I can always talk out my many (many many many) schemes with you. And you help me see all sides. Thanks!
And a Happy Last Day of Being 5 to the girl who made me a mother. I am so lucky to have this girl in my life. What a beautiful, happy, tender hearted little Miss. I can’t believe she will be 6 tomorrow!
Safire
SafireButterfly birthdays, Mother's Day birthdays
May 10
Everyone,
Today our big girl Butterfly turned 5 years old. She is now one whole hand! I asked her today if she feels any different than she did yesterday and she said, “Of course! Now I’m 5 and am going to school! I get to be a big girl!” She is very happy to be starting kindergarten in the fall (August 30th!) and I am anxious. I’ve never had a kid in school. I’m not sure what to expect. Although everyone survives it and she will love it.
Her favorite color is in flux right now. She has loved blue for over a year. But then it changed to orange, then red, then pink, then purple. She’s loving hearing all the stories about her when she was a baby. One of the stories she wants me to tell her over and over is the one where every color was purple. This story has made her change her mind from blue to purple as her favorite color.
She loves to eat (except when she’s sick, which she is tonight!) Her favorite foods are pizza, macaroni and cheese, and Doritos. If she doesn’t like it, she still has to eat 4 bites before she leaves the table. It was because she was 4 years old. Now I guess we’ll do 5 or none at all. Not sure how to proceed with this one because 4 was a struggle.
The past 2 weeks or so she has been asking me to wake her brothers up during their naps so she can play with them. She LOVES to play with other people. In fact, she’d rather play with people now rather than by herself with toys. She’s cross and pouts at the park if there are no kids to play with. She’s not shy about introducing herself to other girls and I think she’ll make friends easily at school.
It’s a good thing she makes friends easily because she also loves to boss people around. Me included. I feel like my house is run by a small empress with an iron fist. She is opinionated, bossy and loud all day long. I swear my ears will start to bleed some days with the noise level she brings to the house. I feel for her teachers.
She knows her address, her phone number, and can spell her name forwards and backwards. She chooses to write it backwards on most things lately. She starts with the y and ends with the B. But it all ends up in the right place. It’s like she’s writing from right to left so that things are read left to right. Does that make sense? She is not reading much, but can recognize a lot of words and has whole books memorized. She even has whole movies memorized.
Speaking of movies, I think they are her most favorite things in the whole wide world. She would rather watch a movie than do anything else. Last night, for a big birthday treat, we stayed up past her bedtime and watched a PG movie together with popcorn. This is one of her first PG movies ever. She LOVED Enchanted but hid all through the end. She also told me that she only liked the beginning where the animals talked. She still doesn’t like live action movies as much as cartoons. And her favorite thing to watch is Voltron. Thank you Netflix streaming for allowing me to share my childhood cartoons with my own children. (Seriously, Voltron is the same story over and over. Didn’t catch that one when I was little!)
So to celebrate my baby girl’s birthday and her most favorite thing, I have a $25 AMC Theater gift card to give away. That way you too can go see a movie that you’ve never seen before either! Take a blanket to hide under if you think it might be too scary. Or cold.
To enter, just leave me a comment! For an extra entry, you can follow me on twitter and tweet about the contest, including @safirecat in the tweet (so I can count them). Tweet and comment as many times as you would like. The contest ends one week from today and will be open until then.
Check out yesterday’s giveaway as well and make sure you comment there! That book is really really good.
She opened family presents today. She got a big kid bike from us and a helmet from Nana. Also, a horn and training wheels from the boys. And Uncle MusicMan and family gave her a fun magnetic dress up doll. She is in heaven. We tried to go out to dinner “by the lake” and get something chocolate but the restaurant was closed due do some structural problem. Bummer. We went to a pizza joint instead. Service was SLOW. And Butterfly threw up promptly when we got home. Poor girl. I hope she gets better soon. (Pirate also threw up again today, but while we were at McD’s in the middle of my errands. Needless to say, we left very promptly and did not run my errands.) Please pray that we will all be better in time for Butterfly’s party on Saturday!
Safire
PS- Here’s the legal stuff that says that I am in no way affiliated with AMC. I’m just being nice with the gift card.
Safirebikes, blog contests, Butterfly, Butterfly birthdays, giveaways, reviews, Uncategorized
May 12
Everyone,
Now that all birthdays are done until next year (except my own, but that’s low key) I thought I’d talk about the parties.
Let’s start with the boys’. It was a great party, although stressful at the beginning. (There was a food issue. As in, the lady who took my food order forgot about it. It all worked out though and there was too much food!Yay for leftovers!) Because of the food problem, we didn’t get started until later than I wanted. The weather was perfect and we had so much fun visiting with friends. Thanks to my good friendLolli for taking these pictures so that I could enjoy their party. The boys each got their own 1 year old shirt to wear (Butterfly had one for her birthday too). Pirate’s was blue. It says, “I think it’s been a good year. But I don’t have anything to compare it to.” 
And Professor’s was yellow. It says, “Put down the cake. This is my first one and it looks like you’ve had plenty.”
They each had their very own cake to smash compliments of my good friend Lavender. Pirate’s was blue and Professor’s was yellow. 
Professor dug right into it. Pirate took his own sweet time. But in the end, they got cake all over themselves like they were supposed to. I had everyone sing happy birthday to each of the boys individually. Pirate first, and then Professor. It was somewhat emotional for me to see these boys sitting up so big in their chairs getting sung to.
After everyone ate sandwiches and had cake (it was really good cake! I recommend Safeway bakery.) we moved inside for presents. They boys were very spoiled and got some great gifts! It was also really fun to haveLolli’s kids help me open all the toys and take out all the little twisty ties, etc.
We got them the little people pirate ship (for Pirate, of course) and Noah’s ark (for Professor). Both were a big hit, especially with Butterfly. She asked to sleep with them the 3 weeksin between her birthday and theirs. They also got some crayola stuff from Lolli’s family, a tug boat and a train and cups from my parents, cars from Grandma and Grandpa, a fish bowl and a drum from Butterfly, a shape sorter fromLala and her family, dump trucks from Anie and her family, $20 each from Nana and Papa Great (which went into their college fund), trucks from Uncle MusicMan and Aunt Angel.
We had a great time and I can’t believe they are 1 year old!
Butterfly’s party was fun. I made a bunch of pizza crusts in small baking pans and had all sorts of toppings on the table. The kids were able to make their own pizzas with their own toppings. Butterfly put a ton of cheese on and some pineapples. One of our friends put a bunch of mushrooms on (which she then picked off). Each one was really unique. We played a few games (freeze dance andSimon says) while the pizzas were cooking. Mostly everyone wanted to play with Butterfly’s toys and go down our indoor slide. That slide was a huge hit. At one point, there were 3 on the slide and 4 waiting to go down.
Once we had lunch (pizzas and fruit salad) we had Butterfly’s ice cream cake. She wanted Cinderella on it because Cinderella is blue. After cake, we played a very fun treasure hunt game where I hid little toys around the house and took pictures where I put them. This was fun except Butterfly INSISTED on getting all the blue stuff (see a theme here?) and that caused all her friends to want blue stuff too. I had 7 little things and I think it was a little too many. Or I would just take the blue stuff out of the pile and then there wouldn’t be a problem.
We opened presents next and she got some really fun things! She got 2 horses, an I Spy game, Little Miss Giggles book, and a princess magnet booklet thing.
On her actual birthday, we had fruit tart (which we sang and blew out candles again), and she opened all the presents from her family. From us she got an electronic work book, from Pirate a singing dog, from Professor a little people van and twin boys, from Nana and Grandpa a little people camping set, birthday motorcycle set, and a cup, from Grandma and Grandpa a magnetic fish puzzle, from Uncle MusicMan and Aunt Angel a sing along book, from Lavender a princess towel, a pink piggy bank, and a princess car toy tote. (My personal favorite present…thanks Lavender!)
4 years old is turning out to be great! Easier than 3.
All in all, I think the birthdays were a hit. Butterfly has been sleeping with ALL her presents for the past few days. She is very entertained and I’ve been able to get some emailing done. But for now, I’m glad I have one whole year to enjoy these kids and plan the next parties.
Safire
Safirebirthday parties, Butterfly birthdays, P and P birthday
May 10
Everyone,
My sweet baby girl is 4 years old today. She is a master staller and will say, “Wait, I haven’t finished!” for everything. Eating, playing or pottying…she hasn’t finished! This is espeically true when we are going to bed. She hasn’t finished doing whatever it is she wanted to do before we send her to bed.
She is all about the “most” right now. Like Vinny is her bestest bestest friend or “I have been waiting for this my WHOLE LIFE.” That’s what she said about most of her presents she opened today. “This is my WHOLE LIFE!” It’s really very funny.
She is very cuddly. She loves to give hugs and be as close to anyone as possible. Something that gets her in trouble with everyone sometimes, but espiecally her friends. They do not always appriciate her need to be next to a living person at all times. In addition to her being so cuddly, she can’t do anything by herself. As in, you have to be in the room with her or she’s upset. She won’t eat alone, won’t pee alone, etc. While it’s very nice to have a shadow, I don’t want to be that shadow. She does still take a nap alone (although we call it quiet play time in bed since she sleeps maybe one day a week). Her brothers do not count as people yet.
Speaking of her baby brothers, she plays with them sometimes. She bullies them sometimes (they don’t know it…they just look at her and smile because she is amazing!) and she loves them sometimes. She really really wants to play with whatever the boys are playing with, and sometimes snatches it out of their hands. They cry, she gets in trouble, and she cries. She tries to hide her toys from them by only playing with them on the couch (we have this big sectional couch and often you can’t sit down for all the toys on it) but that doesn’t always work since Professor can now climb up on the couch. She does love to play with them when they are in good moods and lately has watned to feed them and eat exactly what they are eating. I keep having to remind her to use her utensiles because she is a big girl.
She builds these big elaborate “sets” with her toys. Mostly her little people or her ponies. They have to be set up a specific way and she gets upset when a baby crashes through them. Sometimes she screams, “Oh no! Giant baby! Ahhh!” and helps the boys push over everything. She’ll then sigh and say, “Well. Looks like we’ll have to rebuild,” and gets to work. It’s so adorable.
She is loving stories and loving reading still. She wants to talk about her stories all the time, which are mostly princess stories. She loves to watch her movies while the boys are taking their first naps and will act out her current movie of the day, week, or month. Yes, she has watched the same movie every day for a month. That was Chicken Run. I finally made her pick a new movie and we watched Pocahontas for close to a month. When I asked her to pick a different one, she asked me if she could watch Chicken Run again “Because it’s been a LONG time since I’ve watched that one. And it’s my bestest bestest movie of all!” Uh, no. We watched something else. We still don’t let her watch anything PG and she only wants to watch cartoons. She is not at all itnerested in live action stuff.
Her current favorite color is blue because she wants to be just like Mommy. This little fact got her in trouble at her birthday party because she only wanted the blue toys and didn’t get a blue straw and threw a fit. She only wants the blue cup (we only have one so that’s a problem) and cries whenever the boys or I are wearing something blue and she is not. I got her pink sandles for the summer and she cried so hard that they were not blue I sent them back and got her blue ones.
She is loving her swim lessons. I think mostly she loves them because she gets to be with her bestest bestest friend Vinny before and after the lessons. She is by far the biggest kid in her class and I imagine that will not change for most of her life. She is the biggest kid in my moms group too. So tall! Yesterday we went to a party and everyone kept asking what grade she was in. No grade, just 4 years old.
Speaking of grades, we have decided not to send her to preschool in the fall. Honestly, I think she would love it and do great with it. But the logistics/money aspect of it really just wasn’t worth the hassle. I am toying with a few different ideas (doing preschool with a few moms from church, doing a home school type approach) and trying to find things to keep her busy in the fall. I may continue swim lessons through the winter. I may sign her up to start violin lessons sooner than I thought. I’m just not sure how to keep her sharp mind occupied. Although she takes care of that herself.
Wow does she have an imaginiation. I often hear her adding, “she said” or “she cried” or “the end” to all of her play. She talks like she’s living in a book. It’s very funny.
She recognizes all the letters and can write them all. (Although they aren’t always in a line and range from being huge to being tiny.) She can count to 30 and to 100 by 10s. She is ALL about the rules and directions right now. She got a bunch of new toys for her birthday and she had to read the direction sheet first to find out “how best to play with them mommy.” She can dress herself, do buttons by herself, put her shoes on (no ties, just velcros), and get her coat on and zipped up all by herself. She can set the table, clear her dishes, and pick up her toys at night. I think now that she is 4 I’m going to give her a specific cleaning job beyond her toys but I’m not sure what yet.
She is sweet, sassy, bossy, moody, lovable, and oh so vibrant. I just love her so much. Happy Birthday Baby Girl!
Safire
SafireButterfly birthdays
May 09
Everyone,
One busy day followed by a frustrating night has given me an enormous headache. So bad that I am having a hard time focusing and my stomach is a little upset. Gah…I need sleep.
So, one picture of Butterfly at her party and a nice long post about her tomorrow for her actual birthday. Promise.
Safire
SafireButterfly birthdays
May 08
Everyone,
Wrapping up our birthday months is Butterfly’s birthday on Sunday. Today was her party. 7 little kids, 4 babies, 6 moms, 1 dad: party fun.
There was pizzas to be made. Toys to be played with. Slides to slide down. Candles to blow out. Cinderella to eat. Toys to be found. We had a ball.
But I’m seriously beat. More information tomorrow!
Safire
SafireButterfly birthdays
May 07
Everyone,
Things I have done today in list form because that’s all the brain power I have.
- baked 9 small round pizza crusts and one full pan for the party tomorrow
- went to the resource center and let the kids play…felt like a good mom
- went out to lunch, had a great time
- talked to my BFF Mink for 2 hours while everyone napped
- wrapped presents while talking to her
- cleaned some (not a lot) while talking to her…current topic: what to do when our parents are old and need 24 hour care (random I know but seriously, we talk about strange things and love it which is why she is my BFF)
- made broccoli salad for the first time for a church function tonight
- had 2 people ask me for the recipe which I amazingly remembered but still can’t finish a sentence if I wanted to
- went to the store for party food stuffs and our week’s worth of groceries
- picked up Butterfly’ birthday cake for tomorrow and a fruit tart for her actual birthday on Sunday
- enjoyed previously mentioned church function and didn’t learn a thing…which is good. I’m on the right track I think.
- lost my camera battery charger and went digging through the whole house for it
- Juice found it under my camera bag, after tearing up the whole house for it
- he ran into a moldy banana in the diaper bag and was TOTALLY grossed out for touching it…oops, I forgot that was in there
- tried to clean some tonight and gave up
- reminded myself that Juice has the day off tomorrow and can help me clean before the party in the afternoon
- going to bed later than I wanted to
- charging my camera battery! Yay pictures
Safire
SafireButterfly birthdays, camera stuff, cleaning, cooking, daily list, Mink and Spider
Jun 24
Everyone,
I think I am sleep deprived because I’m not sure if I updated you on Butterfly’s 3 year old stats. Probably not since they came almost a month later. When she turned 2, we were in Disneyland and I didn’t get home until a month later. The peditrician’s office wouldn’t schedule something within the calander year because insurance doesn’t always pay for it. So we went around June 3rd.
Butterfly is a big girl. She is as big as a 5 year old. Seriously. She is 45 lbs and 47 inches. (I can’t find my little book they wrote it down in so we’re going by my seriously lacking sleepless brain here.) She wears size 4-5 clothes, no more in the toddler sizes! She also wears a size 10 toddler shoe. I think this fall I will probably have to buy her regular kid shoes because she is so big. She is going to be so tall!
She has a memory like a steel trap and cries if she remembers something that we didn’t do. She is also throwing tantrums if something happens that isn’t in her time line. Like today, Flower went up to Butterfly’s room to get the ponies. Butterfly played down here for a few minutes, and then went to go up to get something. On the way up, she met Flower coming down with the ponies. Apparently that was not in order and she broke down and cried. Arg…it’s so frustrating sometimes.
I love that she loves to play so much. I love that she is a great eater and I never worry if she’s getting enough. I love that she only wants Pirate to sit next to her in the van. I love that she is so active and so loving.
Here is her 3 year old slide show. It’s pretty long so I understand if only my parents watch it. Enjoy Mom and Dad!
Safire
SafireButterfly birthdays, Butterfly videos
May 10
Everyone,
Butterfly is 3 today. 3! 
I can’t believe it’s been 3 years since she came into our lives. She has grown up so much. It’s interesting to have newborns again and think that this time 3 years ago, we had another newborn. She was so small. She was so new. And we were new to parenting. While we didn’t know what to expect (because what brand new parent does?) we were so ready for her to join us.
Because it took us so long to have her in the first place, I suppose it’s fitting that today was our annual baby reunion with our infertility clinic. They have a big party every year for those who have had success with them. They have clowns, face painting, pictures, and balloons. Butterfly got a purple dog balloon from the clown Bubbles. Everyone oohed and ahhed over the boys, and Butterfly ran around having fun with her dog on a leash. We also had yummy lunch and I got to talk to all my old work buddies.
When we got home from the party, Juice took a nap and Butterfly and I played with her new cars and new tea set from Nana and Grandpa. Dinner happened, and then cake. We ordered her an ice cream cake and I got to enjoy some this time! Yum! She was having a hard time blowing out the candles because she was blowing over them and not on them. Very cute. We each had 2 pieces of cake (except Grandpa who only had one) and opened a few presents.
Juice and I got her a little laptop of her own. It has Cinderella on it and you can use a magic wand to make the choices, or use the glass slipper mouse to move the cursor around. It is SO CUTE and you should have seen the look on her face. Oh wait, I think I have it on camera. 
She loved it and I’m expecting to be annoyed with in by this time next week. Good times.
I still can’t believe she is 3 years old. Where does the time go? She can count to twenty (although she thinks that 1100 is right after 20 and the end of counting), she knows most of the shapes, most of the colors, and can recognize her name. Her friend from my mom’s group sent her a few little books and by the end of reading them, she could recognize the word ‘woof’. She runs, she jumps, she pretends like there is no tomorrow and all she wants to do is play. She says, “aww, a baby!” every time I pick one of her brother’s up. She thinks every dress she puts on is a dancing dress and has to have music. Although not the same music that she likes for every day. She likes faster songs for every day, and only likes to listen to classical music if she has a dress on. Go figure.
I think she is having a harder time adjusting to the brothers than she always lets on. The past couple of days she has not been her usual cheerful self. She is crying more often. I can tell it’s a fake cry, but she is crying none the less. She also bit Juice this afternoon. We had our new stroller out with the boys at the party today and she wanted to help push it. Fine. Except it has a tendency to tip backward and she was pulling on it. I finally told her she couldn’t push it if she kept pulling it down. So she stopped and started to cry. We needed to get home so Juice just picked her up and we headed out to the car. She cried she wanted to get down. He told her he would put her down when she stopped crying and would walk. Her answer to that was to bite him. Boy did she get yelled at. And then she cried harder because she was in trouble. Ugh. 3 is turning out to be harder than 2.
But it’s amazing to be able to have a chance to parent someone who is 3 and a new big sister. I hope that we will be able to do a good job. Juice said that he remembers things when he was 3 years old, so I’m hoping that we are making good memories for her. I wish I could have given her a birthday party with all her friends, but it’s just too hard with the boys to do that. I’m hoping a cake, some presents and then a trip to the ‘pond restrant’ will be a good birthday memory.
Happy Birthday Baby Girl. Oh, sorry, Big Sister. Or Baby Red Bird. Or Honey. Or one of the other terms of endearment we have for you. Because you are endearing. Very. Love you!
Safire (and Juice and the Brothers and Soot)
SafireButterfly birthdays
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