August 23-September 27

Theodore words: Mama, thank you, more, boom, uh-oh, bye, amen. He will repeat most sounds, but these are the words he uses consistently. He calls Bryan "Mom" very consistently, much to Bryan's chagrin. Despite an apparent willingness to repeat words back to us, Theodore refuses to use "Dad" for Bryan.

Theodore had a swimming crawl for a long time, but he did finally figure out regular crawling. He now uses that almost exclusively, although if he needs to get somewhere while holding something in each hand then he will revert to the swim. He can stand fabulously and cruises quickly along furniture, but is too chicken to actually take independent steps. His current attempts at walking are really just forward trust falls.

Kaitlyn has started learning to read and is doing quite well. She can sound out any three letter short vowel word now. She's also breezing through writing practice. Soon she'll have covered proper letter formation for all the letters and will be on to copy work of some sort to hone her skills.

Matthias is happily tagging along with Kaitlyn's school. He can identify all his capital letters and some of his lowercase letters. He knows that the letters make sounds, but is only correct on three of them (M, R, and S). He's been listening to Kaitlyn sound out words, though, and seems likely to catch on fairly quickly when his turn comes.

Kaitlyn and Gretchen started gymnastics and they are loving it. Kaitlyn has a beautiful cartwheel now and is hoping to learn something new soon. I bought some tumbling mats to put down in the living room so that she doesn't crack her head open trying to do handstands. Gretchen has a less beautiful cartwheel. She has been working on it, though, and the improvement is obvious to those of us who saw her first attempts. She gets both feet off the ground now.

Soccer season is almost over. Gretchen's pickup soccer games ended this past Thursday. Olivia has another week and a half. Olivia's team has been playing very well. I believe they have tied or won every game so far. Olivia had an assist once, although it sounds like it may have been an accident. Bryan says her aggression is lacking. Actually, what he said was, "I love her, but as a little girl soccer player she could be replaced by a traffic cone. But only if the traffic cone was afraid of the ball."

School continues to be held in person. Gretchen did get sent home one day because she had a headache, a sore throat, and a temperature of 98.9. The nurse said if I gave her any medication at all then she would have to stay home for 24 hours, so I did not treat her headache. It may not have mattered anyway, because she complained of neither a sore throat nor a headache all day. She returned to school the following morning. Other than that hiccup, everything has been fine.

I don't think I've mentioned yet, but we have new and improved back steps. Sometime over the summer Bryan took it upon himself to rebuild the steps (again; he's done this before). This time he made them extra long and extra wide. They are wonderful and I don't have to worry about Theodore falling out of the door or sitting down too close to the edge of the step.

Another rather inconsequential thing I haven't mentioned: We have an apple corer. This normally would not be noteworthy. However. Matthias refers to the hole in a cored apple as a tunnel. Now everyone asks for apples with tunnels. The kids don't normally finish an entire apple each, so I've been cutting the cored apples in half. This lends itself to two options: two halves with short tunnels, or two halves with half tunnels (halfpipes? perhaps we should have gone the skateboarding route...). Originally there was great debate over which kind of apple was best, the short tunnel or the half tunnel. We gradually started calling the half tunnel apples rainbow tunnels, because they look like rainbows. This of course increased the desirability of the half tunnel apples. And then... Uncle Will's band sings a song called Rainbow Tunnel and now, because of our apple corer, all the kids have heard this song and sing it when they ask for rainbow tunnels. No one ever chooses short tunnel apples anymore. And there's a lot more Rainbow Tunnel in all our lives.

Theodore had a birthday. Our baby is 1! He was probably our best cake smasher to date. After a very tentative check of the frosting, he was all in. With both hands. I used my springform layers that Bryan got me to make a three layer cake, so I was able to just remove the small top portion and let Theo have a grand old delicious time.

Brad and Shantelle got married on September 5 and the whole family was in the wedding. Everything went well and we all managed to pull of our respective reception dances. We did not manage to get a photo of just our family, but we are all in some of the group shots of the wedding party.

The boys had check-ups. Matthias is 36.5 pounds and 38.25 inches tall. Theodore is 21 pounds, 7 ounces, 30 inches tall, and has 9 teeth.

We also had eye doctor appointments. Kaitlyn and Matthias still look good. Gretchen's prescription improved slightly and the doctor said she could wear her glasses just for reading. I said that if it wouldn't ruin her eyes to wear them all the time then she was still going to do that. All I need is for Gretchen to have multiple reasons per day to remove her glasses. I'd spend a fortune on glasses. Olivia was ecstatic to learn that her eye drops are no longer necessary. Her lazy eye has been corrected enough that they are content to just use glasses to keep it in line now. Both girls got to pick out new frames which should arrive this week.

Olivia has started piano lessons. We got a real piano because her teacher said that better habits and technique will be formed on a real piano than on the weighted electric piano we already had. So now we have two pianos. She is enjoying her lessons and thus far has been very willing to practice.

We've seen Joe and Angelina a couple of times since they moved to Columbus a month ago. It's been very exciting. Jacque, Will, and Julian also made it down to visit for a week, which was quite enjoyable. Since everyone is working virtually, longer midweek visits are suddenly a possibility. :)

Bryan and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary on Friday! We thought about getting a sitter and going out to eat, but then decided it would be more pleasant to stay home and watch Brooklyn 99, so that's what we did. We are planning to take a trip to Niagara (the American side) at the end of October.

I have pictures coming soon, I promise. I'm on Instagram now and post pictures there periodically if you don't want to have to wait.

Bonus Post: Sound Bites 53

Kaitlyn: Mom gave me medicine and it made my throat gone.

Me: M for Mmmatthias. G for Gggretchen.

Matthias: U for William?

Me: U for Uuuncle.

Matthias: L.

Me: L for Ollllivia. L for Kaitllllyn. L for Willlllliam.

Matthias: L for Feeeeedore.

Me: No. L for Wallllter.

Matthias: F! For Feeeeedore?

Me: No. Well... Yes, I suppose.

Olivia: It's not MY fault I didn't get out of bed yet!

Kaitlyn: Matthias is going to be a ring bear.

Matthias: I want to be a ring lion.

Gretchen: No, he's going to be a ring barrier.

Olivia: True or false, Piper's last name is Knight.

Gretchen: True.

Olivia: False.

Gretchen: I was close.

Matthias: I don't like to sleep on Theodore's team so Theodore will cry and wake me up.

Kaitlyn: Gretchen, here's the embarrassing thing: I have THREE mosquito bites.

Gretchen: That's not embarrassing. That's-- Mom, what does astonishing mean?

Me: Astonishing means very surprising.

Gretchen: Oh, that's not astonishing, either.

Kaitlyn: Aren't you supposed to get out of bed when that timer goes off?

Me: That's Daddy's timer.

Kaitlyn: Wait, that's Daddy's box of time?!

July 12-August 23

I'm going to hit the highlights and hopefully (maybe) flesh things out in a later post. Hah.

Kaitlyn and Matthias can both ride bikes without training wheels. I don't remember the exact timetable, but Kaitlyn was not yet successful at the writing of my last post (July 10, most likely) and Matthias was beginning by the time Mom and James arrived. Kaitlyn learned first. So sometime between July 10 and 14, both Kaitlyn and Matthias graduated to big kid bikes. By the end of July they had both mastered starting, stopping, and steering as well.

Matthias had a birthday. He turned 3 on July 11. We had a blue birthday cake because he's been talking about his "big blue birthday" for the better part of a year.

Olivia had a birthday. She turned 9 on August 3. She's old enough to understand fasting, so she accepts that she needs to pick two birthday dinners: a fasting one for her actual birthday and whatever she wants for the first available day after the Dormition fast ends.

My whole family came to visit. The first arrivals were Mom and James on July 14. People trickled in until July 26 when the Smiths arrived last (only slightly behind Jacob and Rachel). Then we were all together until Dad, Jacob, and Rachel had to leave on the 31st. Dispersing was a much quicker process, and we bid farewell to Mom and James on August 4.

I bought a new viola! Mom and I went down to Baroque Violin Shop in Cincinnati and took over a room in their warehouse for a few hours so that I could try violas as they brought them to me. I got to take two home for an extended trial. A few weeks later I called them to find out how to keep one and how to send the other one back. It's all taken care of now. :)

Olivia and Gretchen started soccer. Gretchen's is technically just well organized play dates in the park ("wear your soccer clothes") because her league got canceled. Olivia's team practices three times a week and starts games tomorrow.

Kaitlyn decided that she'd rather do gymnastics than dance, so we checked out a gym. She starts on September 8 and is working on her cartwheel. Gretchen is going to start as well, despite some reservations on both our parts. Her cartwheel is progressing much more slowly. Olivia is hoping to be allowed to join her sisters once soccer is finished for the season.

School started on Wednesday. As of now it is completely in person, all day, every day. Masks are required and distancing is practiced. From what the girls have told me, the school has found a good balance between practical health measures and overkill. Class sizes at the school are in the 15-20 students range and Allen County isn't exactly a coronavirus hotspot, so things look okay right now. The school also has all of the kids working on individual devices in Google classrooms, both to avoid sharing supplies and to make a potential transition home easier.

My Music Together summer session was outside -- in our gaga pit. It went quite well. If Ohio winters weren't a thing, I'd be thinking about having it in the gaga pit all the time. I'll be holding my fall session there as well until the weather gets too unpleasant.

Related, we have a gaga pit. I had never heard of Gaga Ball until the girls went to St Charles, but it's apparently a nationwide thing. It's basically enclosed, below the waist dodgeball. Gretchen thought it would be fun to have our own pit, so she and Bryan built one. It's a little smaller than most, but that's okay because we don't have as many people using it.

Bonus Post: Sound Bites 52

Gretchen, giggling: Would you rather eat jam on ham or a boy named Sam?

Matthias, rummaging around in the corner of my room: Can I have this?
Me: No?
Matthias: But I need what I need.

Bryan, dishing out Chinese food: What do you want on this?
Gretchen: Ketchup!

Matthias: Dad, look at your ears!
Me: Can you look at your ears?
Matthias: No.
Me: Why not?
Matthias: Because my head is on.

Gretchen: When I grow up I'm going to be a saint. And if I can't be a saint then I'll be a ninja. And if I can't be a ninja then I'll be a pop star.

Me: What do your turtles eat?
Kaitlyn: Grass.
Me: Where do you get all the grass?
Kaitlyn: Oh, in Aprica. But we don't live in Aprica, so we have to drive there to get it.

Gretchen: Do you think Daddy knows how to spell Punxsutawney?
Me: Definitely not.
Gretchen: Oooooh, if Daddy was in second grade at St Charles and got all his regular words right so he had the bonus list then he would get one wrong!
Bryan: ...I'm so embarrassed.

Oma: Get dressed.
Matthias: No, I do not wear dresses! Olivia and Gretchen and Kaitlyn wear dresses. Me and Theo wear clothes. And Dad wears clothes.

Walter: What kind of juice are you drinking?
Matthias: The juice that you drink when you are dying.

June 7-July 12

Whoever coined the term ankle biter may have had a baby like Theodore. He seems to have developed a fondness for sneaking up on unsuspecting feet and chomping down on the nearest part, which often happens to be the ankles. We warn anyone who's in danger, but Theodore is lucky he hasn't gotten accidentally reflex kicked in the face.

We took a trip to visit the Kleins back at the end of May. The whole family went down and we stayed overnight. On the way, Matthias had to go to the bathroom and, due to a lack of available facilities, discovered the joys of peeing on trees. Now on long car trips he periodically says, "I have to pee on a tree." Fantastic.

In mid June I took the kids to Pittsburgh to visit the Bossards while Bryan stayed home and led the fabulous bachelor life. We usually sleep in the attic, which gets quite hot in the summer. Luckily, Justine and Joseph had considered this and had an air conditioning unit arriving on Tuesday. Unluckily, we showed up on Monday. Everyone survived though, and by Wednesday evening it was pleasant enough even during the day.

All the cousins paired off during the visit and had a grand old time. Olivia, William, Gretchen, and Edward spent most of their inside time planning hide and seek. They all walked around with modern magna doodles making lists and drawing diagrams of the perfect hiding places in each room. The lists and diagrams were top secret and had to be protected from the other pair at all costs. Justine and I are pretty sure that over the course of the week they never actually got around to hiding. :)

All the kids spent a fair amount of time outside, taking turns riding the various wheeled things. Walter allowed the pedals to be taken off his bike so that Gretchen could practice balancing, which she did for several days. When we came home she was riding her own bike with pedals and without training wheels in ten minutes. This gave Kaitlyn renewed enthusiasm, and we took her pedals and training wheels off for her to learn as well. A week later we ended up putting them all back on.

Josef and Angelina came to visit over Father's Day weekend. They were moving Angelina's mother to Cleveland and then went to Columbus to check out apartments before coming to stay with us for a couple of days. It was fun to see them and we're looking forward to this fall when they live closer.

We've been to Steve and Murry's a couple of times now, and we've been taking the kids' bikes so that we can go on family walks/rides down the bike path. I do appreciate the walking and riding opportunities there. We should probably invest in a bike rack since the only other way to bring all the bikes is by taking an extra vehicle.

Murry wanted to have some time with each kid, so she came and got them one at a time for 24 hours. They did all sorts of things and there was a bonus post this past Wednesday with pictures. When Matthias was gone, I was reflecting on how much more peaceful it was when just one child was missing. Then Matthias came back and Gretchen left and suddenly it wasn't peaceful anymore. Which child is missing definitely matters. Due to ages and temperaments, the worst one to be missing right now is definitely Gretchen. Matthias is probably the best one, but only because Kaitlyn doesn't require me to constantly entertain her.

All the kids had some of their own money to spend a couple of months ago, and they carefully selected items from Amazon. Matthias bought matchbox cars, Kaitlyn bought polly pockets, Olivia bought a necklace (that still hasn't arrived), and Gretchen bought a birdhouse with a window on the back. We didn't read the description carefully enough, though, because the window is not a two way mirror like we though it was. It's just plexiglass. Much to Gretchen's delight, a bird moved in within a week. The bird was less delighted once it realized that giant heads kept popping up to look at it. We bought a camera that connects to an app so that we could watch the bird without scaring it.

Keshia's daughter, Rudy, turned five at the end of June. She had Kaitlyn over for a sleepover; they were so excited to see each other again. Kaitlyn was a little sad that it was only for one day, but she was happy to get to spend time at Rudy's by herself.

Theodore is pulling himself up on things. He spent a day panicking about being stuck once he got to standing and another day practicing plopping down on his bum. He still gets himself stuck at an awkward angle every now an again, but he's improved greatly. Now he's cruising slowly along the edge of furniture and is quite pleased with himself. He also discovered the card catalog drawers, so we've put our elegant baby proofing fence back up.

Well visit stats:
Theodore, 9.5 months -- 19 pounds, 4 ounces; 28 inches
Kaitlyn, 5 years and 2 months -- 43.4 pounds, 42.5 inches
Gretchen, 7 years and 1 month -- 49 pounds, 48.25 inches

Pictures:

Bonus Post: Alone with Grandma

Just a lot of pictures of time spent with Grandma.

Bonus Post: Sound Bites 51

Matthias: *burps* I burped.
Me: What do you say when you burp?
Matthias: ... Buuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrp.

Kaitlyn: I made this for you.
Justine: Is this a drawing of me?
Kaitlyn: Yes!
Justine: I'm... an angry tornado.
Kaitlyn: You're a happy heart!

Gretchen: Does Pennsylvania have monsters like the Pennsylvania in the movie?
Me: That's Transylvania.

Me: We're on the road!
Matthias: Yeah, but not on the grass. Or the trees.

Me: I need you to get the little broom and sweep up your fingernail clippings so that Theodore doesn't eat them for a snack.
Olivia: Aww, why can't we just put them under something?

Me: I like your haircut. Grandma did a good job.
Matthias: Yeah, and you do a bad job.

Kaitlyn: It's a Google Home Minion!

Angelina: You get cuter every time I see you, do you know that?
Matthias: Yeah.
Kaitlyn: He doesn't know very much.

James (a friend, not the uncle): I'm happy!
Kaitlyn: You wouldn't be happy if your whole body was covered with fire.

May 10-June 7

You can tell things are getting busier around here again because my blogging has taken a hit. It was not destined to last. We've started interacting with people again. Our in person game nights are still fewer than they used to be, but we have had a couple. The biggest difference right now from pre-coronavirus is that we're not going to public things, which is absolutely fine with me. At this point in the year normal daily obligations would have been finished anyway since school and dance both wrap up in May. We attended Catholic Mass in person last week as a family. We also got permission from the Orthodox Bishop to have up to 25 people at a service, so we were able to go to Liturgy this weekend.

Theodore says Mama. He's been playing with different sounds for a while now, but we're pretty sure Mama actually means me. At least sometimes. He says dadadada, but doesn't mean Bryan yet. His favorite noises are a high pitched happy screech and a tongue clicking sound.

Matthias's potty problems are improving. He takes a low dose of daily Miralax to help him and has finally been convinced that sitting on the potty isn't in and of itself painful. We've talked a lot about how he has special juice to make his poop feel better because his Miralax was always in kool-aid. Now that we've run out of kool-aid we just use water and he still calls it juice. Except that it's been a bit mangled in translation, so when he sees me preparing his glass he excitedly exclaims, "Is that juice to feel my poop?!" Yes. Yes, it is.

We finally went back to the store. The last time I went grocery shopping was March 20. Bryan went on March 29. And then we waited. At some point it became more of a challenge then anything else. We emptied the deep freezer and defrosted it. We ground the last of our wheat. We finished off several of those bulk food buckets I keep in the pantry. I made some interesting dinners that were just random ingredients thrown together. I learned that you have to substitute 1 3/4 cups of powdered sugar to replace 1 cup of regular white sugar. We have chocolate granola now because I used chocolate syrup to provide the sweetness. We had originally planned to try to make it until June. I thought we'd get there. But Bryan got tired of oatmeal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and some variation of rice and beans for dinner. So he snuck out of the house with Matthias before I woke up on Saturday, May 23, and went to Walmart. Each of the kids got a solo trip with dad to the grocery store. We made it one day shy of eight weeks. In fairness, our meals did improve in quality. I went to Aldi to fill in the gaps on the 28th. Now we're probably back to a somewhat regular grocery shopping regimen.

Olivia had an eye doctor appointment and with her glasses on she can read the 20/20 line with her bad eye! They told her she has to keep using the eye drops for the next three weeks, but if she can still read 20/20 at her next appointment then she's done. She was disappointed to still need the drops, but is happy to have an end in sight. She is a little worried that she'll have to give up her glasses once her eye is fixed. I guess she's attached to them by now. :)

Matthias runs around in bare feet all the time. All the kids do, actually, which baffles me because I don't even walk around the house in bare feet. I wear shoes. Always. The kids have nicely calloused feet, though, and have to be reminded to put on shoes if we're going somewhere where they might be expected to get out of the car and walk into a public building. Anyway, Matthias managed to get a series of splinters in his feet and they were buried deep enough that we couldn't get them out. I took him to the doctor (and found out that he's 36 pounds) and they dug/cut three splinters out of his poor little feet. He's better now, and they recommend foot wear.

Pictures:

Bonus Post: Sound Bites 50

Olivia: What can I read?
Me: *suggests looking up Beverly Cleary since she just finished Ramona*
Olivia: None of these look good.
Me: *looks up lists online and feeds her titles one at a time to search*
Olivia: These don't look like ones I would like.
Me: What about them is something you don't like?
Olivia: I don't know.
Me: What about Harry Potter? Your friend Elaine is reading that.
Bryan: I think you'd like Harry Potter even more than you like Pokemon.
Olivia: Well I don't want to read it if I'll like it more than Pokemon.
Me: ...

Matthias, holding a 5: Mom, when I flip this over it turns into a 2! Wait, I will get a 3 and turn it into a 4!

Me: Kaitlyn, stop whining. You do not need glasses to do that trick. You could just hang the turtle on your ear.

Matthias: My pants are wet and my feet are wet.
Me: Do you need new pants?
Matthias: Yeah. And new feet.

Gretchen: Anything is possible for God?! That means he can make unicorns real!

Matthias: My food goes to my feet and my water and juice and milk go to my belly.

Gretchen: Mom, know what I want to be when I grow up? A saint.

Kaitlyn: I'm telling the truth of this. Gretchen was on my bed and we were playing happily, but she got her foot on my blankie and made it stinky.

Matthias: When I am bigger I will go to school and play the monster game and play Pokemon!

April 26-May 10

I was looking through old blog books and remembering all the things I used to do with the kids. It would appear that in 2015 I had a garden that actually grew vegetables, not just weeds. And Olivia and Gretchen helped me make lots of applesauce and apple pies. As I wistfully wish for what once was (ignoring the fact that there were fewer children, as well as the realization that I documented more high points than low points), I am reminded of something that I heard a homeschooling mom say in a talk at a conference once. Loosely paraphrased: You don't have to do fun (impressive, fabulously educational, etc) things all the time. Just make sure that when you do you document them well and take lots of pictures. :-D

Matthias has a sing song voice now and it is super annoying. You didn't get me. I got the blue plate. Kaitlyn is a meany head. I have Gretchen's yo-yo. Ugh.

Theodore's chew toy of choice is a thin band of plastic. A bracelet, the ring that holds the baby keys, one of those plastic links. He doesn't like the fatter, softer teethers as much.

Bryan and I bought a learn new dance moves mini-series of classes to work through, but so far we've been so busy with game nights that we haven't had a chance to try more than one. On the flip side, we have been pleasantly occupied by virtual game nights. :)

Theodore is a problem. He army crawls everywhere. He enters a room that's been swept twice and picks up little things that only he can see. Then he puts them in his mouth where they become dust bunnies and pieces of paper. I've set up the baby cage in the dining room. Sometimes he doesn't mind being in there. Sometimes he can be lured in by a series of strategically placed toys. Sometimes he hates it. Kaitlyn and Matthias are strangely drawn to the baby cage, whether Theodore is in it or not.

I've been taking the time to sit with Theodore in his cage, which makes him happier to be contained. I am reminded of how I used to sit with Olivia, back when she was the only one and I had no one else's needs to consider. Theodore gets me when the other kids are occupied, but I often try to sneak out when he's not looking. Olivia and I spent entire afternoons in her cage, all of her toys stacked in one tasteful box and all of her books on one tiny shelf. I'd bring a book or magazine and read while she played contentedly. As I write this, I'm in Theodore's cage with him, watching him shove his toys out through the bars and then struggle to get them back.

Beautiful weather has brought lots of outdoor time. Poor Matthias has a ring of unsunburned flesh around each eye. He looks like a goofy raccoon. He needs about a gallon of sunscreen every time he looks out the window, but he gets none. His mother should maybe try being less forgetful and distracted.

Kaitlyn knows all of her letters and we've moved on to purposeful study of letter sounds. She's even tried sounding out a few words, but the concept of stringing the sounds together eludes her. She is very excited to be a little closer to reading. She also writes all of the letters now. She's the first one of the kids to write with a mix of capital and lowercase letters from the beginning, I think mostly due to Gretchen's tutelage.

Matthias recognizes all the letters except V and Z. And he calls D T and G R. If I call him out on the D and G he can concentrate and usually come up with the right answer, but his gut reaction is T and R.

We're in the home stretch for school. I picked up the last packets for the girls on Monday and they finish up on May 22. Gretchen remains highly motivated but more distracted. Olivia finds everything "apparently boring." She sounds like a teenager, but with a worse grasp on what the words she uses actually mean.

We've started reading at the dinner table. Bryan and I always finish eating well before the kids do and then spend the rest of the meal trying to think of conversation topics until we get antsy enough to declare the meal close enough to over. Keeping that in mind and also trying to think of ways to trick Olivia into trying new books, I decided to start reading when I'm finished eating. We're about a third of the way through the first Harry Potter book now. Except Olivia -- she checked it out from the library on the second night and now has to spend dinners reviewing the story and working to contain the spoilers built up inside her head.

Theodore discovered a clucking noise at dinner last night and is very pleased to hear people clucking back at him. He also likes to shake his head and watch people shake their heads back.

Pictures: