December 23-30

Merry Christmas!

Bryan had the whole week off work, so we spent our time visiting friends and family.  Last Saturday we decorated our Christmas tree while Olivia napped and then headed to Bryan's parents' house.  Olivia was excited to see the tree and said "uh-oh" every time we tried to turn off the lights.

We stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Barhorst until Tuesday and then headed up to see my parents on Tuesday night.  Oma and Opa and all the aunts and uncles were excited to see us; Olivia reserved judgement until she re-remembered who everyone was.  She decided she's okay with everyone except Oma.  For some reason, Oma is not a person to be acknowledged.

Wednesday we met some friends from school and caught up over a quick lunch.  Then it was back to my parents' for the rest of the week.  The Bossards came to visit, too, and Olivia had a good time policing Justine's treatment of William.

Saturday we left to catch dinner with Bryan's family before finally making it back home to sleep in our own beds again.  Some more friends came to stay Saturday night, and tonight we'll have even more since it's our annual Eve of New Year's Eve party.

I have no pictures right now since I'm typing this post on a borrowed computer, but when I get back to my own computer and have some time I will put up the pictures that I took, as well as any I can get from my family.

Pictures:

December 16-23

Last weekend we were at Bryan's parents' house.  On Saturday I participated in a cookie walk while Olivia stayed with Grandma.  I'm told they made Christmas cookies and had a blast doing so.  :)  There's picture proof below.  Apparently they also went roller skating that afternoon.  Bryan skated around, pushing Olivia in her umbrella stroller.  No one thought to get a picture of that, though.

Olivia is generally more cooperative when asked to do something.  If she's whining to be picked up, I can ask her to carry a piece of paper (to the recycling bin) or a spice (from the cabinet to the counter) or a spoon (to the table for breakfast) and she'll immediately reach out her hand and head off in the appropriate direction with a cheerful "okay!"  It doesn't ALWAYS work, but I'd probably put the success rate at about 92%.

I don't remember if I mentioned that Olivia can find her belly.  Only if she pulls up her shirt, though.  This week, she was also able to find her head, ear, and nose.  Her first response upon being asked to find her nose is to start sniffing and snorting, as if to demonstrate what her nose can do, and then she usually reaches up and squeezes it closed (which impedes her sniffing and snorting just a bit).  Sometimes she'll open and close her mouth repeatedly when asked where it is, but other times she ignores that question.

This weekend we began our holiday travels, starting with Bryan's family.  We'll move on to my family late Christmas day and be there the rest of the week before returning home on Saturday.

More Pictures:

December 9-16

I noticed something this week: Olivia reads books right side up.  She's reached a point where she will look at the pictures in her books without requiring me to be reading them to her.  It used to not matter which way the book faced, but she has recently (or perhaps not so recently, and I just noticed now) begun turning her books so that the pictures are appropriately oriented.  Along similar lines, when she puts her flash cards away in their bucket, she often takes care to position them with the picture facing her in whichever way she has deemed to be upright (the seal, for instance, is always upside down; it makes sense if you look at it).

My sewing machine is dying a slow and painful death.  It will be sewing along just fine and then all of a sudden... not.  The top thread is loose on the underside of the material.  Changing the tension doesn't help.  The best I can do is rethread both needle and bobbin and hope it fixes itself.  :(

I read once that taste buds change over the course of about 7 years.  This study is obviously not done on toddlers.  Olivia no longer has any interest in pickles, Cheerios are only so-so, cottage cheese is not only edible but delicious, and this whole week she chose lentil soup over pears and plums.  Lentil soup.  Full of veggies.  Over a fruit puree.  Two months ago we had to trick vegetable purees into her mouth and she'd spit out any whole veggies she could.  This week, though, it was lentil soup all the way.  I'm hoping this lasts until the end of Advent, as I have a couple more lentil dishes planned still.

And speaking of Advent meals, I decided to try something this year.  We are attempting to go all of Advent without repeating a single meal.  I've been wanting to try some new vegetarian recipes anyway, so this works out well.  In fact, when I sat down and wrote out my MONTH-LONG MENU (!!!), I didn't even get to put some of our more common vegetarian meals on it.  I listed them down the side in case we needed to turn to an old standby.  We did have hot tuna casserole already (for my birthday, of course) and this week did spaghetti for when Bryan's guys came over for man night, so that's two easy meals down.  But we've also tried three new recipes and look strong going into the second half of the month.  :)

Jacob's gift arrived in the mail on Wednesday.  It came all the way from China but did not have any Chinese stamps on the package.  :(  It DID, however, have the little customs slip that has to be filled out when things are shipped overseas.  I saved that to give to Jacob.  I'm also posting a picture here so you can see it.  I'd be worried about Jacob finding out what his gift is, but I think the only accurate information on the whole thing is our address.  Sorry, Jacob, you are not getting a 0.01 kg household lamp from us.


I introduced Olivia to the wonders of sitting on the heating grate and now she sits on it all the time (even when it's not blowing warm air).  It reminds me of when we used to sit on the radiators in the Zion house.  There are two downsides to her new perch: one, it has holes, so sometimes she drops things in it.  It does come up, but only if we move the television, so retrieving things is a bit of a pain.  Two, I can no longer stand over the grate because Olivia is busy sitting on it.  Luckily for me, we have other grates.  :)

One of the churches we attend semi-regularly (the Orthodox one we go to when we stay with Bryan's parents) is having a cookie walk on Saturday.  I decided to contribute some spritz cookies.  I used one of my half days off to get the kitchen to myself while Bryan and Olivia had a daddy-daughter day out.  This was necessary so that Olivia didn't eat all my batter before it became cookies.  ...Or all my cookies after they became cookies.  Anyway.  In the course of making 22 dozen cookies (that's one batch of chocolate and one of vanilla), I learned some things about spritz cookies.  Someone remind me that this list exists next December when I do this again.
-Cooking spray is NOT your friend.  I always figure it can't hurt to spray the pan.  With spritz cookies, it turns out that it CAN hurt.  If the cookies don't stick a little bit, they don't come cleanly off the press.  There's enough butter in the batter to ensure that they don't stick after baking.
-The square is impossible.  I tried and failed at about 5 cookies before giving up on the square shape and moving on to other choices.
-The ugly three-pointed shape is the easiest.  It's ugly, but works well and comes off cleanly almost every time.
-The ugly three-pointed shape is significantly less ugly in green.  I decided to make some green Christmas trees with the end of my vanilla batter.  After I got tired of fighting with the trees, I used the ugly shape to finish.  I had to fight with that one, too, but in green they look kind of like holly leaves, so they're not so ugly.
-Food coloring is exciting, but does strange things to the batter.  I don't think the 4 green drops I used should have changed the consistency of the batter, but suddenly the cookies no longer came off the press without a LOT of coaxing.  Even the ugly ones.
-Vanilla works better than chocolate.  It's also tastier.  At least this year.
-The press works better if you get most of the air bubbles out of the batter.  That's probably why the chocolate recipe suggests rolling the batter into a log before putting it in the press.  I shoved it in with a spoon, which worked just fine (especially when I started leaving the presser part most of the way down to start and slowly using batter to force it back up the tube), but I did feel a little like the boys in October Sky as they try to add rocket fuel without introducing air pockets.  Unfortunately, I can't find a youtube clip that shows that part of the movie.

More pictures:

December 2-9

Last weekend we visited my parents.  Olivia is more pleasant every time we visit, which could mean she's remembering my family and has resigned herself to the fact that she's related to these people and will thus see them approximately once a month.  Or it could mean that she's getting better at ignoring the chaos of constantly having at least five people sitting around her watching her every move and imitating her every sound.  Just the usual paparazzi, no big deal.

Remember the doll we gave Olivia for her birthday?  The one she used to make me hold while she played?  This doll is now one of her favorite belongings.  In the past week and a half, Olivia has decided she must have her baby (one of her semi-distinct words) whenever she remembers that said baby exists.  It came with us to drop Bryan off at work, it's been to Wal-Mart at least once, she occasionally holds it during meals, and she took it to bed one night.  She looked quite adorable as she insisted on holding her doll even as she lay in her crib at bedtime.  Of course, she sleeps on her stomach, which makes it harder to hold a baby, so when we went to check on her later that night we discovered (after a significant amount of searching for the apparently missing baby) that she fixed this problem by sleeping on top of her doll.  I can't imagine that having the hard plastic head digging into her chest was particularly comfortable, but she seemed fine with it.  One can only hope that she will think of a better method of sleeping with a baby before she accidentally smothers an actual child.

Olivia has two more distinct (to everyone, not just me!) words: "uh-oh" and "okay".  I think it's especially cute when I hand her something and ask her to hold it for me and hear her little voice respond, "okay!"

Along similar lines, the pediatrician asked us at Olivia's 15-month appointment if Olivia was removing clothes by herself yet.  (The pediatrician also wanted to know if Olivia had about 6 understandable words yet; that's why this paragraph is along similar lines.)  At the time, Olivia was only removing socks by herself.  Now, however, she has moved on to shirts.  She doesn't do it often, but every now and again I'll walk into her room after her nap and she'll be missing her shirt.  Uh-oh.

Continuing the list of newly discovered talents, Olivia has developed a penguin walk.  For what reason, we know not, but she does a little side to side strut quite deliberately.  I make fun of her for it and then imitate it long enough for her to start again.

A couple of weeks ago, Bryan looked at me and said, "I love you.  And I love Olivia.  And I love Reginald."
...
...
...
"Who's Reginald?" I asked.  His response: "That's what I decided to call him."

So, although we will NOT be naming this baby Reginald, no matter the gender, it is currently being referred to as Reginald and/or Reggie.

And speaking of Reggie, the 20 week ultrasound was on Tuesday.  Everything looks good, the gender was not accidentally revealed to us, and there are a few more pictures below.  Bryan took the ultrasound print of Reggie flexing his/her muscles to work and I have a profile on my planner.

Due to baby-sitter issues, Justine and William came to visit in time to watch Olivia during Reggie's ultrasound.  Yes, it's a long drive just to baby-sit.  They stayed for a few days, though, and we had fun hanging out.  Olivia handled William just fine, although she was very concerned about Justine's suitability as a mother.  What kind of mother just puts her baby on the floor under an arch and leaves him there?!  Every time Justine put William down, Olivia would start pointing and saying, "uh-oh!", as if to remind Justine that, "Hey, lady, you dropped your baby!"

I added a few new pictures to the July 29-August 5 post.

More pictures:

November 25-December 2

On Sunday, Bryan decided to get rid of his beard.  Of course, he had to play with it while he shaved it off.  Olivia spent all of twenty seconds being concerned about the guy who sounded just like Daddy but didn't look like him before she decided it was safe to give him a hug.  ...Or at least safe to let him give her a hug while she stood there smiling at him.

"Spot of tea, anyone?"  (Bryan demanded this edit while lamenting his lack of monocle.)

Olivia is beginning to try to put shapes back into her shapes ball (instead of haphazardly scattering said shapes about the house).  She's pretty good at circle, octagon, and pentagon so far.  Less round shapes are more difficult since the corners get stuck, and there's just no hope for the scalene triangle.  ...I should note that she doesn't find the holes herself yet.  She can put shapes in if I rotate the ball to the correct hole and (for the harder shapes) orient the hole to match the way she's holding her shape.

I have an actual helper when cooking now.  I used to have a helper who would hold onto my legs and taste my batter, but did nothing else.  Now, though, Olivia will carry ingredients for me and has mastered turning a full measuring cup (or spoon) over to put ingredients into the batter.  Her aim isn't great yet, so I have to make sure I hand her the cup well over the center of the bowl.  Also, if I don't get out of the way quickly enough, I end up with a full cup of flour on my sleeve.  :)

A week or so ago, Olivia jumped.  By herself.  Without falling over.  Exactly once.  She was mad at me, and did it without even realizing that something had happened.  I noticed, though, and was impressed at her exasperation-inspired balance.

Bryan's days off used to roll over from year to year, but this year that changed.  He has to use all his days off by the end of December or else they expire into thin air.  This would not be a problem, except that he gave some of his days off to me and I've been hoarding them.  In mid-October, his boss mentioned to the department that they'd really like to have the rest of the days off for the year scheduled, so that they could plan big projects around who would be gone when.  I began looking for opportunities to use my days off, and even had one scheduled for Halloween before it got hijacked.  Then Bryan's department was reorganizing, so he needed to be there every day for the first three weeks of November while the transition took place.  Then Thanksgiving happened, and he already had a couple days off that week.  And Bryan had also already taken off the last week of December for Christmas vacation.  So there I was looking at my calendar, trying to find 3.5 days off that didn't conflict with Bryan's work schedule, Olivia's doctor appointments, my doctor appointments, or previously scheduled vacation days.  Since I like my days off spread out and spaced over several days, I decided to take mostly half days off, on Tuesdays and Thursdays in December.  The upshot of all of this?  Bryan didn't/doesn't have to work a full week from November 18 through the end of the year.

I recently rediscovered Demetri Martin's Jokes With a Guitar, which led me to remember Rob Paravonian's Pachelbel Rant.  Go ahead and watch (or rewatch) those two links; the blog will still be here when you finish.  :)

Okay, now that you're back...  I noticed one common thing about the above links:  Both comedians are playing the guitar.  This caused me to hypothesize...  Maybe I prefer comedy that has a guitar element?  Bryan decided to test this theory by having me listen to another comedian who plays guitar.  I can't remember his name, and his stuff wasn't really my thing, but I have to admit that it WAS better than it would have been if it had been presented without the guitar.  So my very scientific conclusion is as follows: All jokes are funnier when set to guitar.

More Pictures:

November 18-25

We spent most of the week visiting Bryan's family.  We left Tuesday night and Olivia and I hung out with them while Bryan worked Wednesday.  Wednesday night was Thanksgiving with family, Thursday was Thanksgiving with different family, and Friday we stopped to visit the Kleins and then came home.  Saturday we had a wedding to attend (I think we're done for this year, though), so that took up most of our day.

On Thursday, Olivia got into a fight with the sidewalk.  The sidewalk won.  Since it was so beautiful outside, we decided to go for a walk.  Bryan had never been for a walk with a one-year-old in which said one-year-old is allowed to be walking and not riding.  We meandered along, stopping to examine piles of dirt and pick up rocks.  We even had an occasional moment where we came to a complete stop and sat in the middle of the sidewalk (to examine our rocks, of course) before standing up and moving on.  After about ten minutes of this, though, it was decided by our walk coordinator that we should run.  Or at least walk as fast as the coordinator could go.  Unfortunately, the sidewalk sloped downward slightly and the coordinator is still a little lacking in coordination.  Olivia now has a lovely series of war wounds on her nose.  I think she looks a bit like a bruised fruit.

Olivia can push up her sleeves now.  She has trouble with stiff sleeves like the velvet ones on her Sunday dress, but she's pretty good at knit sleeves.

We have four molars now!  I spotted the bottom two when Olivia was yelling at me for not doing something she wanted.

Bryan declared Olivia's first official word on Saturday: "Amen."  She has several words and phrases that we can understand, but you really have to be listening just right to catch them.  "Amen" is the first word that she says clearly and distinctly as well as at appropriate times.

More Pictures:

November 11-18

Did you catch the Bonus Post on Wednesday?  I forgot to warn you that it would be coming...

Some things I forgot in last week's update:
-Olivia can use a fork if I spear the food for her.  The actual mechanics of getting food on the fork elude her.
-Spoons, on the other hand...  She can't use those at all.  She actually eats off forks by turning them tines down most of the time, but the same technique does not work for spoons.
-She's taller than the table (just barely).  She can reach things on the edge, and frequently puts her sippy cup back up there even when she's not eating.
-In addition to walking forwards, she can also walk backwards and sideways.

About a month ago, I had a video of Olivia that I couldn't upload.  I finally found a work-around, so it's now where it belongs.  Check out the October 7-14 post for a video of Olivia on a mission.

Some of you may know that all our computer cords are stored neatly in a box next to the computer.  The lid of the box is taped down so that Olivia can't get into the box and turn off the surge protector.  Recently, though, she's decided that the box is her own personal seat/stool.  As it is only a cardboard box, it has been showing signs of strain due to this new and different usage.  Bryan decided that he would make a wooden box to take its place.  The box is done except for drilling holes for the cords to go through (he needs a bigger spade bit for that part).  Of course, Olivia has been mostly ignoring our cardboard box since Bryan decided to make a wooden one...


Tuesday I tried pulling Olivia's hair back with a couple of barrettes.  It looked really cute for the three seconds she left the barrettes in.  Oh well.  On Wednesday, she decided to wear my headscarf to church.  I grabbed another one and she left hers on until communion.  I don't know how the headscarf is better than a barrette.  I think it makes her look a little like a medieval knight, though.  :)


Olivia started drawing with a pencil and paper when we were out on Sunday, so on Tuesday we pulled out the crayons and I let her draw a picture.  Mostly she just wanted to collect as many crayons as possible in one hand, but I did persuade her to put some actual marks on a piece of paper and we hung it on the fridge.

On Wednesday, Olivia discovered her nose.  I think she already knew she had a nose, but Wednesday she started squeezing it while she was breathing, just to see what happened.  She's not a very good squeezer, so she still breathes just fine with her nose "plugged," but the look on her face as she experimented was pretty funny.

I finished my first skirt this week (and yes, I used our television as a mirror to take the picture; don't judge).  I had planned to finish the brown one a long time ago, but I broke two rufflers in the process and JoAnn's won't let me return any more of them.  Since all but a little bit of the last tier is ruffled, I kind of need a ruffler to finish that skirt.  Luckily, Stephanie is allowed to buy and return rufflers, so she got me one so that I can finally finish my brown skirt.  For the tan one I just gathered by hand.

Incidentally, did you know that there's an easier way to hand-gather than by pulling on a basted stitch?  When I took my machine in to make sure it wasn't the fault of the machine that the ruffler was breaking (it wasn't; seems the ruffler is just not great), the ladies that looked at it told me to zigzag stitch over a piece of heavier thread and pull on that.  I used embroidery floss (in fun contrasting colors so it was easier to see!) and it worked spectacularly.  Why did no one let me in on this secret before?!

Pictures and Video:

Bonus Post: Halloween 2012

Olivia Paints A Pumpkin:

In Daddy's t-shirt:

Gathering the paints:

Olivia Paints a Pumpkin

Showing off the painted pumpkin while in costume:

More costume pictures:

The Spider Costume  Sorry that this one is sideways.  My work-around for uploading videos doesn't let me rotate them.  :(

Too fast for the camera:

Sharing the spider hat:

November 4-11

I can't remember what I've mentioned and what I haven't, so here is the most recent Olivia Update:
-She can walk very well now.  Still no running, though.
-She's developed some great new dance moves.  A few head nods, some arm action, and a little bit of shoulder motion.  No video of them yet, but maybe I'll catch her doing them on camera someday.
-She has 10 teeth (2 are molars) and I spotted another one just starting to poke through yesterday.
-She no longer minds getting her nails clipped, provided I'm willing to spend 20 minutes taking turns between her nails and mine.
-Baths are still super fun.  She attacks the water with both hands and laughs in surprise when it splashes up and hits her in the face.  Every time.  She tried to take a bite out of the water a couple of weeks ago and got slightly wetter than she bargained for.
-Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  She eats about three times as much as I do at breakfast, but ingests amounts more suitable to her smaller size at lunch and dinner.
-Fruit is delicious.
-Vegetables are okay.  Sometimes.  They're better from my plate than from a jar, and worth another try when stuck to the underside of a lid.  They're also more acceptable if taken between bites of fruit.
-She has a small but persistent diaper rash that only clears up when we let her sleep naked.
-She's a big help around the house.  She unloads the silverware from the dishwasher everyday (and hands it to me to put away... she's too short to reach the drawer), helps put her toys away at night, finds her socks each morning, pushes my laundry baskets full of clothes from the basement door to the couch, is better than I am at rescuing the dryer balls from a completed load of clothes, and follows directions reasonably well.
-Froot Loops (well, the Aldi brand ones) are delicious, and anyone who says otherwise obviously hasn't tried them.
-Lucky Charms (well, Marshmallow Treasures) must be eaten in two phases.  The first phase being the "prejudice against everything not marshmallows" phase, followed by a 5 minute intermission, followed by the second "I suppose these have sugar on them, too" phase.
-She talks a lot, and has a few words that we recognize, including "thank you," "the end," "Jesus," "good-bye,"and "you're welcome."  She says "ah dee" a lot, but it refers to many things, not just daddy.  I'm not sure what word it's supposed to be, but it essentially means "look at this over here!"  I sometimes think I hear her say "Olivia," although it comes out more like "Leah."
-She has an excellent high five.  We're now working on fist bumps.
-She likes watching videos of herself, although I'm not sure she knows that she's the one starring in them.
-The left hand is inferior.  She will not use it to eat, instead tucking it down by her left leg.  She will use it to drink if she feels it would be easier.  She cannot turn off lights with it, although her right hand is now a quite proficient light turner-offer.
-She's 23 lbs, 6 oz and 31.5 inches tall.
-She can climb stairs.  We've been practicing when we bring laundry up from the basement.  I still don't trust her to not try to sit down on the stair, though.
-She knows to climb off couches feet first.  Her sense of edge is a little fuzzy still, though, so sometimes she sits or rolls too close to the edge in her attempt to get her feet to the right position and I have to catch her.

We need a security system in our house so that I can have recordings of all the good moments and share them with you.  On Thursday afternoon, I was making runzas while Olivia played in the kitchen.  Since she was occupying herself well, I paid very little attention to her.  However, I did occasionally glance around to see her doing various interesting things: flat on her belly to examine the space under the fridge, standing in the middle of the room with her arms crossed while she lectured her koala, unnesting the bowls into a line, swinging a pair of bright pink slipper socks above her head like a lasso...  I thought about getting the camera, but figured that would remind her I was in the room.  When my preparations took me into the dining room, though, I grabbed the camera, only to discover that the battery was dead.  Oh well.

A few weeks ago, Olivia saw her first Ohio snow.  She was confused at first, and then didn't care.  It wasn't sticking, so mostly she just saw white raindrops.  Her first snow-sighting ever was last December when we went to the Grand Canyon.  It DID stick there, but she was too young to be impressed.  Since our snow, the weather here has been quite nice.

October 28-November 4

I meant to write this post on Saturday, but our plans changed suddenly.  I'll add words (and probably more pictures) during Olivia's nap on Monday or Tuesday.  Here are some pictures to hold you over in the meantime.  :)

Okay, here it is:

Last weekend, Olivia and I traveled up to see my parents while Bryan stayed home to give candy to trick-or-treaters.  We went to the regional cross-country meet and watched Jillian and Jacob run.  Olivia was just a little face all bundled up and sticking out of my coat.  :)  Since Jacob ran at 10:30 and Jillian ran at 2:30, we went with my family to an apple orchard in between races.  There were no apples to pick, but we did get to wander through the strangest little zoo ever: a llama, three goats, two mules, a pig, a calf, and an ostrich.  Olivia liked watching the ostrich and was excited when the calf licked her fingers.  James picked out a small pumpkin for Olivia when we left, which we took home with us so that Bryan could help with it.

Wednesday was supposed to be one of my days off, but Bryan's boss needed him for a project.  His boss felt bad, so he gave Bryan the morning off (without him having to use any of his time for it).  We made eire kuchen for breakfast and hung out in the house.  Olivia likes eire kuchen and she like applesauce, but she wouldn't eat them in the same mouthful.  At one, we took Bryan to work and went to run some errands.  At 2:50 I got a phone call...  Turns out the project he was supposed to help with wasn't ready for his particular part, so he got the rest of the day off, too.  Olivia and I picked Bryan up from work at 3 and headed home.  That evening we painted her pumpkin.  Pictures to come in their own post sometime.

Saturday we went to visit Bryan's parents.  He helped his dad fix the stair up to their attic and we all watched a lot of football.  Olivia and grandma played in Olivia's new kitchen (her favorite part? stirring in a bowl with her plastic wooden spoon).

An interesting phenomenon occurred when Olivia started walking: she got smaller.  Since birth, she's been growing and getting bigger.  She learned to play with toys, to sit up, roll over, crawl, and stand (she sounds a bit like a dog...).  With each accomplishment, she seemed to get bigger and we marveled at the strides she'd made in the past month/week/day.  And then Olivia started walking, and suddenly she seemed smaller again. Bryan thinks it's because she's "like a little person" now.  When she started walking like an adult, it became easier to see how tiny she still is.  :)

Pictures:

Bonus Post: Olivia Quiz Answers

Answers have been posted to the right.  Hooray to everyone that participated.  I'll update your points soon.

The scores are as follows:

Justine- 9
Jillian- 8
Alison- 7
Norie- 6
Jacque- 6
Stephanie- 5
Julie- 3
Kara- 2
Josef- 2

Feel free to double check your score if you wish.  I was looking at a lot of letters.

October 21-28

My grandparents came to visit from Tuesday to Wednesday.  Olivia was wary at first, but warmed up to them after a bit.  Wednesday morning (after raspberry pancakes, which Olivia destroyed), grandpa taught Olivia to wipe the noses of all her animals.

There's a site called kickstarter.com that allows you to post projects you are working on to get community funding from people who might be interested.  There's a reward system set up by each poster that gives perks and/or free products to different donor levels.  Pledges are made, but the site does not collect any money unless the stated goal is met.  It seems pretty neat, and Bryan decided to take a run at listing a video game he and some friends are working on.  They're hoping that with funding they'll be able to justify spending the extra time to make it really good.  Anyway, here's a link to the project: http://kck.st/XRHpEa.  Go check it out at least, and see what you think.  If you like it, you can choose to donate money, but don't feel obligated.  Even if this kind of game isn't really your style*, share the link with anyone you know who might appreciate it and/or want to help fund it.  We're hoping interest will spread.  :)

*Although video games aren't really my thing, tower defense games like this one are actually really fun.  If you're wondering what a tower defense game is, go to Bryan's website and play the first tower defense game he made.  Feel free to poke around on the site and try some other games while you're there.  :)

Did you take The Olivia Quiz yet?  You have until Wednesday, October 31 to get your answers in.  Everyone gets points!  If you've already taken the quiz, here's a chance to get more points:  Below are the number of points already earned by each person.  If you are dissatisfied with your score, you may elect to take the quiz again, changing as many or few answers as you wish.  HOWEVER.  I will not tell you which questions you got right or wrong AND (this is important) the last score counts.  Unless I'm feeling especially benevolent when I post the answers on Wednesday (don't count on it!), there will be no "best of" scoring.  The most recent answers I have for each person will be the ones used.

A couple hints: 

-The same letter does not ever appear as an answer in consecutive questions.

-Everyone so far has missed 4, 7, 11, and 15.

Retake at your own peril.  :)  Here are the scores so far:

Jacque: 6

Jillian: 5

Josef: 2

Julie (Oma): 3

Norie (Grandma/Just Lazy): 6

Stephanie (kleins): 5

Pictures and Videos:

October 14-21

Since we didn't make it to Michigan this weekend, Bryan's dad came over and they finished putting up all the drywall in the basement.  Now we just need to tape and mud and paint...  Someday.  It's a project to keep us busy.  :)

Sunday afternoon we all went to the local Applebees to catch the fourth quarter of the Browns' game.  We left home with the Browns losing 14-13.  We arrived at Applebees with the Browns winning 20-14.  Then the Browns scored 14 points in 7 seconds while we watched on TV and ended up winning 34-24.  Yay!  Especially since this is their first win this season!  And against the Bengals (the other Ohio football team)!  Bryan and Olivia happily watched until the end of the game (I couldn't see the television due to our need for a table short enough for a high chair) and then high-fives were exchanged all around.  Multiple times.  Olivia was so eager to give high-fives, we decided she must know the significance of what had just happened.  Stephanie, when you read this, make sure you tell Scott about this paragraph.  Scott, Bryan wants to make sure you understand what's going on here: His daughter high-fives people when the Browns win.  Because the Browns won, not just because she sees Bryan being excited and thinks that high-fives go with excitement.  Eva, you have work to do.

Olivia no longer walks like a zombie unless she's holding something or trying to go fast.  She's comfortable enough with walking now that it looks to me more like the goofy walk Jacque did in one of her plays when she was the not-very-bright servant.  I think.  Jacque, 12 points if you recreate this walk and send me a video for me to post so that those who didn't follow your high school acting career can see what I'm talking about.

Many of you know that my main source of news is Time Magazine, and that I'm generally 6-8 issues behind in my reading.  Between being busy and having library books with due dates (how inconvenient!), I tend to put off reading my magazines.  This week, however...  I finally caught up!  I've been making slow but steady progress for about a month now, and by the time this week's issue came on Saturday, I had only two pages left in the previous week's issue.  I finished those two pages and read my new issue on Sunday.  Now I have no Time Magazines to read.  And I won't get a new one until Saturday.

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Bonus Post: The Olivia Quiz!

In the right sidebar, right above "Points that Don't Matter," you'll find some new links.  One is "Home," which is just the regular blog.  The other is "The Olivia Quiz," which is today's bonus.  If you click on that link, you'll be able to take a quiz all about 14-month-old Olivia.  You can list your answers in a comment (make sure you leave a name!) and I'll check them and award points when I put the answers up in a couple of weeks.  I'll aim for October 28, although it might be later (but certainly not earlier).  You have until I get the answers up to take the quiz.  Most of the answers will be guesses for almost everybody, so don't worry about others copying your answers.  No one knows who knows what and who's just a good/bad guesser!

October 7-14

Justine has a purse that I like, so a while ago I decided to try to make one for myself.  While I was visiting her several months ago, I borrowed her purse and took measurements.  When I returned home, I made one for myself.  It turned out really well, so Bryan encouraged me to make a few more so that I could try to sell them at the farmer's market.  The farmer's market came and went this summer without my participation, but I did make several purses in preparation for next year's farmer's market.  This last Saturday, I went to a craft sale type thing (which turned out to be more of a independent consultant type thing) at a relative's house and sold my first (and only) bag!  Most of the people there (by which I mean all of them except Murry, Keshia, and me) were independent consultants for various sell-from-your-home businesses, so I was actually surprised to sell anything.  I have renewed hope, though, for sales in a market more geared towards what I make.

Bryan says we're doing this parenting thing all backward.  I didn't ever buy baby food for Olivia, figuring she could just eat what we're eating.  We were mostly unworried about allergies or blended foods and just fed her bits and pieces of whatever we had for dinner.  This system actually works remarkably well, although it does backfire a bit when you have an opinionated one-year-old who knows where the Froot Loops are kept.  (I've since moved the Froot Loops to a different, more secret location, because I'm opposed to Olivia eating them for EVERY meal, even if they ARE packed with vitamins and nutrients under all that sugar.)  At some point, I became the owner of 13 of those new squeezie pouches -- essentially baby food in a capri sun juice pack.  We would allow Olivia to eat one every now ad again, especially if we were short on fruits and vegetables.  We had to ration them, though, because we only had 13.  I thought about buying more, but they cost more than I'm willing to pay.  If I'm going to buy baby food, the jars hold more and cost less.  We picked up a few more pouches when they were on sale, but by and large our supply of pouches was slowly but surely dwindling.  It was when we got down to one pouch that Olivia went on strike.  She decided that she would eat predominantly saltines and froot loops, and nothing else.  In a quest to get more (and varied) fruits and vegetables into her, I broke down and bought about thirty jars of baby food.  None of the gross ones, though, gross being defined as the whole meal pureed into one jar.  I couldn't handle buying "complete turkey meal with gravy," especially as the label had a picture of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and a vegetable.  Anyway.  Olivia now has the stage 1-3 baby foods (basics, two flavor blends, and more exciting blends), classified as the ones for babies up through the "crawling" stage.  She had steak before she ever tasted pureed peas.

Olivia has been battling a cold on an off for about a month now.  I assume it's mostly related to the fact that she's getting her molars.  I'm still not exactly sure why teething (especially molars) often causes colds and/or fevers.  I heard it theorized that it's because teething babies have their hands in their mouth exponentially more.  And that teething toddlers cutting molars have their hands touching EVERYTHING else when ever they're not crammed in their mouths.  It makes sense to me.  Bryan and I have been steadfastly resisting catching Olivia's bug(s).  Until this week.  Wednesday night I started to feel sick and by Thursday I'd definitely caught whatever it is.  Mostly a runny nose and general congestion, although I get a periodic sore throat from drainage, too, since I'm better than Olivia at keeping my snot from just dripping freely from my nose all day.  It remains to be seen how long Bryan will last before he, too, succumbs.

Thursday night, Olivia developed a loud, barking cough.  I took her to the pediatrician on Friday, and she was diagnosed with croup and a mild ear infection.  We canceled our original plans to visit Michigan this weekend (which is a bummer, because everyone, including Justine, Joseph, and William, was going to be there) and stayed home to recuperate.

I had a video this week, but something is wrong with the video card on our computer and it won't upload.  When we get that fixed, I'll upload the ever so exciting video of Olivia resolutely carrying her toys one at a time from her toy box to the laundry basket across the room.

The correct number of weddings was 6.  I was in Justine's and Amanda's, Bryan was in Phil's and Derek's, and we also went to Amber's and Matt's.  I loved Jillian's guess, though.  Jillian, you must think we do nothing but go to weddings!  :)

Check in later this week (probably Wednesday) for a special Bonus Post involving up to 15 points to be earned per person!

Finally got that video to upload!
On a Mission

September 30-October 7

Last Friday I had the 10 week ultrasound for baby number 2.  It's amazing how much ultrasound technology has improved in just a few years.  The office got new equipment between the 10 week and 20 week ultrasounds for Olivia, and the change in quality is amazing when you compare this most recent one with Olivia's first.  Olivia was a little jelly bean with a blinking heartbeat.  This was a discernible baby with kicking feet and waving arms.  Go here to see Olivia's 10 week ultrasound (for comparison).

Last Saturday we were home on the weekend for the first time in a month.  We went to check out a few local garage sales and lucked out big time at the first one, which was a collection of all the baby stuff that one couple had gathered from all their children and grandchildren.  We got a nice (long-sleeved) winter dress, a couple of long sleeved shirts, and a coat for Olivia.  The coat might be too big this year since it's a 4T, but it will fit next year!

Saturday afternoon we went to yet another wedding.  3 points if you know the total number of weddings we've attended since our own.  Here's a hint: This was only the second wedding in which neither Bryan nor I was a participant.

Olivia walks all the time now!  Her arms are still up in the air most of the time, raised in a perpetual surrender to an unseen enemy.  She has little use for crawling, though, and happily stomps around the house all day.  She does seem a bit sad at times with her inability to go faster.

Friday I discovered 2 molars in Olivia's mouth.  One had just barely broken through and could have come in that day.  The other has obviously been there for a while.  I'd feel worse about not noticing if checking for molars didn't come with the risk of losing fingers.

My two orchestras (Monday and Thursday nights) are playing one of the same pieces this concert period.  Luckily, I like the piece, so I generally don't mind rehearsing it twice a week.  It's a little interesting trying to remember which conductor wants what, though.  It took me a while to figure out that I was playing the same piece twice, because one is Dvorak's Symphony No. 4 in G Major and the other is Dvorak's Symphony No. 8 in G Major.  Different names means different music, right?  Wrong.  It turns out that Dvorak stole an entire symphony from himself.  Actually, as it turns out, there is another Symphony No. 4 (in d minor), but Dvorak suppressed his earliest symphonies because he didn't think they stylistically matched his later works.  Because of this, the later symphonies were traditionally known by lower numbers, and it just so happens that Symphony No. 8's traditional number was 4 until we learned that there were earlier works and had to reorder the whole mess.  You learn something every day.

More Pictures:

September 23-30

Olivia keeps me on task.  If I'm doing something productive and interesting (making cookies), she wants to help.  If I'm doing something productive and boring (folding laundry, peeling potatoes), she will find something properly destructive helpful to do, such as rearranging my cupboards, racing to unload a basket before I can fold all its contents, removing all the diapers that are not folded to her satisfaction (that's all of them) from the diaper basket, reorganizing the bookshelves, etc.  For the most part, though, she'll let me do whatever I'm doing without interruption.  If I'm doing something UNproductive, though...  Reading a book and working on the computer are not allowed.  She will immediately come over and try to sit on my lap.  Then she will either take my book and close it or turn off the computer monitor.  Time wasting will not be tolerated!  Strangely, reading a magazine is generally considered productive.

A few weeks ago, Chipotle sounded absolutely delicious.  Since I am not known for my cravings during pregnancy, Bryan leaped at the chance to satisfy anything even remotely resembling a craving.  On his way to Chipotle and back, he composed the following song to the tune of "Goin' to the Chapel":

_________________________________________________________________________

Goin' to Chipotle, to get

Food for the pregnant wifers.

Goin' to Chipotle, to get

Food for the pregnant wifers.

Gee she's really cravin' for that,

Mexican ha-a-a-ven

Goin' to Chipotle for love.

I-i-its

Three A.M.

I-I was

Woken up

To get up

and

drive cross town.

To spend four bucks

on a taco

That she won't even

want when I get home...

Because I'm, goin' to Chipotle....

________________________________________________________________________

And, in case you had trouble following the tune the way Bryan wrote the lyrics, I've put the real lyrics in front of each line to help you out:

(Goin' to the chapel and we're) Goin' to Chipotle, to get

(Gonna get married) Food for the pregnant wifers.

(Goin' to the chapel and we're) Goin' to Chipotle, to get

(Gonna get married) Food for the pregnant wifers.

(Gee I really love you and we're) Gee she's really cravin' for that,

(Gonna get married) Mexican ha-a-a-ven

(Goin' to the chapel for love) Goin' to Chipotle for love.

(Spring is here) I-i-its

(The-e-e) Three A.M.

(Sky is blue) I-I was

(Whoa-o-o) Woken up

(Birds are sing-) To get up

(-in' as) and

(if they knew) drive cross town.

(Today's the day) To spend four bucks

(We say I do) on a taco

(And we'll never be) That she won't even

(Lonely any more) want when I get home...

Because I'm, goin' to Chipotle....

__________________________________________________________________________

Olivia has a doll that we got her for her birthday.  It is very similar to the dolls that my siblings had when we were younger.  Most of the time it lives in a little bassinet that my grandparents gave Olivia.  Since the bassinet is next to Olivia's bookshelf, the doll is very accessible.  Whenever we're in the baby cage playing, one of the first things Olivia will do is take out the doll and hand it to me.  I must hold the doll for the duration of playtime.  She expects me to hold it properly, too.  I can't just let it sit awkwardly on my lap.  It must be cradled in my arms or on my shoulder.  Once the proper position has been achieved, I am free to otherwise ignore the doll and read a magazine or do some other thing while Olivia plays.  If I put the doll down, however, Olivia will stop what she's doing, pick it up, and hand it back to me.

As we were driving to visit friends last Friday, I heard squawking from the backseat.  Here are pictures explaining the problem.  The first is the normal view, the second is the noisy view.  Poor baby was stuck and I had to stop and rescue her.  Anyone recognize what she has on her head?  5 points to the first person who can tell me exactly what it is.

After visiting friends, Olivia and I had an adventure.  My phone had died that afternoon, but I was not overly worried because I was only driving to Bryan's parents' house and I knew the way.  Bryan was coming straight from work (driving a car we had borrowed from his parents for a couple of weeks and were now returning to them) and would meet us there.  I successfully navigated through the tricky getting-out-of-an-unfamiliar-town part and reached the freeway.  As I merged, I noticed the time and wondered if Bryan was ahead of us or behind us.  I made a note to keep and eye out for him as we drove.  A few minutes into my ruminations, the car started behaving oddly.  Little coughing sounds were coming from the engine and it was getting harder to maintain my speed.  I scooted over to the right lane and turned on my emergency flashers.  I'd passed an exit a few miles back and was hoping to make it to the next one.  Of course, I was on a portion of the road where exits were every 5 miles or so instead of every one mile.  Suddenly, my speed became impossible to maintain.  We were slowing down, and we weren't going to make it to the now visible exit.  I pulled off onto the shoulder and turned off the car.  We have a car charger for our phones, but I couldn't get the car to stay on long enough to turn my phone back on, so there we were...  Dead phone, dead car, and no idea where Bryan was.  As I pondered my options, the most viable of which was to grab Olivia and begin the trek to the exit and a phone, I saw a car stop about 200 yards in front of us and a figure started jogging towards us.  It was Bryan!  He'd noticed us sitting there as he drove by and came to help.  Together we moved a few things from one car to the other and drove to the exit to call a tow truck.  As we were walking, three separate vehicles stopped and asked if we needed help, so I no doubt would not have had to walk all the way to the nearest gas station to find a phone to borrow.  We assured them we were fine and continued on our way.  After several phone calls and some help from a policeman (who was apparently in the middle of an investigation, but was willing to help Bryan anyway), we found a tow truck and followed our poor green car to the shop.  As it was after 7 on a Friday, they told us they'd look at it first thing Monday and let us know what was going on.  We hopped back into the T-bird (boy, that made Olivia happy, especially since I had to maneuver her in horizontally over the front seat, slide her under the seatbelt, and then hang over the seat to buckle her in upside down) and drove to Steve and Murry's.

The result of all of this was that this Wednesday we ended up selling our green car (goodbye car, we loved you!) and buying a minivan.  We'd been meaning to buy a minivan in the next few months anyway, we were just hoping to put it off a while longer.  So now we have a new van, a 2004 Dodge Caravan, that runs fine as well as we can tell, has no creases in the sides, has matching sideview mirrors that aren't taped on, and that doesn't make funny noises when we start it.  It's pretty exciting to have a working vehicle.  :)

Since Olivia likes carrying around squares of fabric, Oma made her a square that matched her blanket.  I attached a couple of snaps in the corners so that we could hook it onto things.  Thus far, she's mostly used it as a bandanna.  :)

Tuesday was our anniversary.  Murry came over to watch Olivia (a surprise that I should have anticipated) and Bryan and I went out and ran errands.  How romantic.  We didn't even buy anything we went out for because we were saving money for the van.  :)

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