September 29-October 6

Last Friday, Olivia got her second hair cut.  The back of her hair had grown out enough that she was rocking a mullet again, so I got out the scissors.  Since this was the first hair cut I'VE given her (my mom did the last one) and only the second hair cut I've done that didn't involve the buzz cut clippers (ask Jacob how that first one went), I was grateful for the link Stephanie sent me explaining how to cut hair.  I think it turned out pretty cute, although my scissors leave something to be desired.  I didn't take any pictures specifically of the haircut, so you'll have to settle for glimpses pictures of other things.  Jacob, I think we need a do-over now that I kind of know what I'm doing.  What do you say?

The girls and I took a trip to the apple orchard with the Kleins last Saturday.  We took a tractor-pulled wagon ride out to the trees and then enjoyed watching Olivia and Eva help pick apples.  The branches on the apple trees were low enough that the girls could grab apples without being lifted up.  They generally needed two hands, though, and neither one ever really got the hang of twisting the apple off the stem.  Olivia's solution was to pull as hard as she could until the apple shot off the tree and landed on the ground.  Then she'd go pick it up and put it in the bag.  Good thing these apples were slated for applesauce and not for eating.  :)

Saturday night was my Springfield Symphony audition.  It went fabulously.  Everything went just how it was supposed to and I didn't trip over my fingers at all.  I'd put it in my top three auditions ever, with the other two being my first Springfield audition (two years ago when they were looking for a principal as well as section players, so all the section spots went to people who auditioned for principal) and the audition that got me into Civic the first time.  There were only four people auditioning for the open section spot, and none of the other three seemed blow-everyone-else-out-of-the-water amazing.  One of the other violists just got chosen as a Lima sub, same as me.  Anyway.  I went, I auditioned, and I went home to wait for results.  Unfortunately, the results said that they decided not to fill the spot after all.  At least it wasn't just me they didn't like.  I told Bryan that I need to stop wasting all my good auditions on Springfield since I apparently don't have the sound they're looking for.  Oh well.  Maybe next year.

Wednesday was applesauce making day with the Kleins (because of the apples we picked).  All four kids were... less than cooperative.  Add that to the fact that we were canning quarts instead of pints, and we felt remarkably unproductive.  At least we had the spiffy applesauce making machine to speed things along.  And we did end up with 10 quarts of applesauce, which sounds better when you realize that it's 20 pints.  Scott says we should just think of everything in ounces: "Yes, we made 320 ounces of applesauce today.  No big deal."  :)

Gretchen has discovered her hands.  A couple of months ago, she discovered her hands in their capacity as teething toys.  Then she learned that they also make useful toy acquirers and transporters.  This week, she's starting to appreciate their value as modern art.  She will be bopping along, playing with toys or looking around the room, and suddenly she'll catch sight of her hand.  Then she'll hold it up and stare at it.  Sometimes she turns it back and forth to see different angles, sometimes not.  After about two minutes of careful observation and admiration, she will be distracted by something else and move on with her life.

Olivia got a belated birthday present from my grandparents Fenton this week.  They sent two packets of kool-aid and a recipe for playdoh.  On Thursday, Olivia helped me make the playdoh and then spent 45 minutes playing with it.  She sat at the table and kneaded it and broke it up into dozens of little pieces and put it all back together and kneaded it some more...  She didn't want to stop playing with it to do anything else (including eat lunch).  I think I want playdoh for my birthday, too, so that I can give it to Olivia.  :)

Gretchen has been working on pretending she can sit.  Some days go better than others, but she tries.  Her limbs are still a little unpredictably spastic for sitting, and sometimes she just falls over for no apparent reason, but the potential is there.  She'll be sitting sometime soon.

Pictures:
Olivia and Eva dancing:

Olivia participated at story time!  This is when she was dancing (jumping) with her egg shaker:

Bryan went to Cleveland for the Browns game, so the girls and I took pictures to send him:

Olivia and her playdoh:

Gretchen kept trying to take the camera from me: