March 1-8

Continuing from last week...

On Friday the Klein kids were still here.  We made it through breakfast and I realized that the reason large families work is because parents get tired of dealing with every little issue, so they just don't.  I was not taking anything from anyone, and all four kids adjusted after about two minutes and continued on with their lives in a much less obnoxious manner.  Olivia spent her day perfecting the phrase "I just need some time by myself," much to Eva's dismay.  Of course, as soon as Olivia opened her bedroom door to rejoin the world, Eva's face would be right there waiting eagerly at the crack.  Olivia's eyes would get wide and she'd immediately close the door again, causing Eva to blink in consternation and inform me that "Olivia shut her door again."  Eva and I had a talk about how she had to give Olivia space to emerge, Olivia and I had a talk about how once she came out she needed to stay out for a little while, and Gretchen and Eli happily ignored the drama in favor of dumping out boxes of toys in the playroom.  At quiet time we broke out the first movie of the week and the girls watched happily while the babies slept.  Around 5, Bryan came home (he left Springfield early) and entertained kids while I took a short break.  Scott arrived at 5:30 to pick up his kids.  Eli was ready to go, Eva wanted to stay, and Olivia worried aloud that Eva might not ever leave.  Eventually the Kleins did head back home, though (apparently both kids fell asleep on the way to dinner and then woke up for the long drive home), and we got ready to head out the door.

By 6:30, we were on the road to Michigan for the weekend.  I don't recall anything particularly exciting happening over the weekend.  It was a peaceful trip to see my family, and we did all the typical things we do when visiting: church, cards, church, movies, church...  Olivia and James played a lot of dress-up with the one box that the was still there.  Gretchen found a Jasmine wig and thought it was Oma's hair.  :)

That gets us through February 22.  The following week was rather uneventful as we tried to get back to normal.  The girls and I went to a children's museum with the Kleins on Thursday (right before our membership expired!).  Gretchen's favorite parts were the animals: she saw a turtle walking and a meerkat came right up to the window to have a conversation with her.  Olivia liked playing in the pretend store and pizza kitchen.  I got to go down a long twisty tube slide to rescue Gretchen after she chickened out a third of the way down and used her hands and feet to get herself stuck.  :-P

On Friday afternoon, the girls got an unplanned vacation to Grandma and Grandpa's for a day.  They stayed there while Bryan and I prepared for our annual Happy March Card Club on Saturday.  Card club was a success (if I do say so myself), and a lot of fun.  Due to the fact that we actually had the right number of people AND managed to finish because of a complete lack of babies, it did run pretty late.  Our first attempt at the chocolate fondue fountain finally began fountaining properly about an hour before we ended, but we did somehow come up with the magical ratio for chocolate chips and milk.

On Sunday we woke up bright and early to go fetch the girls from Sidney in order to be back in time for church.  The bad weather that had been promised actually happened, so roads were slow and the hill down to Steve and Murry's house was completely unplowed.  We parked on a side street at the top and Steve used their Jeep (equipped with four-wheel drive) to ferry us down and back.  The freeway wasn't bad, so we weren't even very late to church.

Sunday afternoon was the Lima Symphony's Family Concert.  The theme was "Down on the Farm" and concert dress was "blue jeans country look."  Luckily, I was able to borrow a country-ish maternity shirt from my friends here in Lima and pair it with some jeans and two braids instead of my normal one.  The girls especially loved my two braids, and I had to wear them again Monday.  Olivia has also been wearing two braids since then.  Olivia attended the concert with Gideon and his mother and appeared to enjoy it.  There were square dancers, cloggers, and a singer to keep the kids amused when we weren't playing music they recognized.

At this point, we are finally to the beginning of this post.  :)  This week has been completely back to normal.  The Weys visited to play on Monday and the girls and I went to storytime on Friday.  Wednesday was spent doing lots of laundry after Gretchen threw up on two of the three beds we use.  It appeared to be a one day bug, though, and she was back to her usual happy self on Thursday.  Olivia had a cold, but once I was able to get her up and moving each day she managed to power through.  Our weekend is excitingly NOT busy, so we are staying at home for most of it.  We will be making a trip to Sidney tonight to drop the kids off so that Bryan and I can go to a dinner theater.  :)

The big news for this week is Gretchen's bed.  We decided that it was time to free her from the crib, so we put up and old crib with a hole cut in the side.  She is quite good at getting in and out, but is also getting better at staying in when she's supposed to.  One interesting thing to note: When William was released from his crib, he ran around the room in crazy circles for a month, reveling in his freedom.  When Eli was released from his crib, he explored the room, learned to open doors, and discovered that a couple of well-placed kicks would knock down a gate.  When Gretchen was released from her crib, she spent the first night crying.  This is eerily similar to Olivia's reaction to a lack of crib.  What do my children have against freedom?  Luckily, Gretchen seems to be adjusting better than Olivia did, and has been happily sleeping in her new bed ever since.  We're now working on getting her to go to sleep well rather than standing at her gate talking.

Pictures

Olivia and Gideon paint while Gretchen and Ephraim assuage their jealousy with coloring books:

Olivia's braids: