There are some birthday pictures up on the July 28-August 4 post. We also took a video, but I'm having trouble getting it to upload...
Tim Horton's is up and running. Just in time for the FAB Fun Run. In case visiting us and running wasn't enough, there's coffee just down the street. We can incorporate a stop into the run if need be. :)
There are a few ladies at the church we go to that tend to tell the same stories every week, pretty much word for word. I assume it's because they don't remember that we've already heard these stories so many times that we could recite them back. Or, in the case of one woman who is a native Greek speaker, perhaps these are the only stories she knows in English. Also, her accent is so thick that the first dozen or so times I heard her stories, I caught a few more details each time. Thursday I had a new experience. The Greek woman pulled me aside after church and I knew I was going to hear her favorite story again. Only this time, she seemed to also forget that I don't speak Greek. I heard the whole thing in Greek! She uses the same inflections and hand motions no matter which language she's speaking, so I knew which answers were appropriate. I felt like I really understood what she was saying. :)
Google is taking new street view pictures in our neighborhood. I've now seen four of the street view cameras mounted on cars (splashed with the Google Maps logo, which is how I know what they are) as I walk around. Does this mean that when the website gets updated I'll be in four places at once?
Olivia can count to ten with a little help. Actually, she can count to 9, and then puts 30! on the end. As a stalling/waiting technique, she and I count to thirty a lot, and she says thirty for me when I pause at the end. Of course, now she thinks 30 comes after 9... Some days she does better than others with the whole counting thing. Often she counts like the king in Monty Python: 1, 2, 5! Oh well. She also knows that two is more than one, so she sounds very smart when she's talking about seeing two trucks or having two monkeys. Unfortunately, I've come to the conclusion that she doesn't really know how many two is; I'm pretty sure two just means "not one."
My motivation for running has been lacking since I ran the half marathon. I was afraid that might happen. I know myself well enough to realize that I need something to work toward in order to keep working. That's why I don't tend to just walk around the block (or around the mall in the winter). I need to be going somewhere. My motivation is certainly not helped by the fact that the days are getting shorter so my morning runs are getting darker. No one wants to get up when it's still dark out...
Gretchen is a spectacular sleeper. She's also a great napper. Unfortunately, she's not so hot at actually falling asleep. We've been trying to find the optimal bedtime lately, but no matter how early or late it is, she sleeps for 30-60 minutes and then wakes up. Bryan thought maybe she was taking a nap and then needed to be up for a bit, so we tested that theory. Her normal naps are at least an hour, though, and she wakes up happy. This pre-sleep nap is shorter and she wakes up cranky. She's cranky if we get her up, she's cranky if we leave her down... She fusses for 1.5-3 hours and then goes down for good. It's like she knows it's coming, too, so some nights she'll fight the pre-sleep nap as well. Those of you who were at camp know how well Gretchen goes down for daytime naps: put her down, stuff a pacifier in her mouth, cover her with a blanket, give her something to hold so she doesn't grab the pacifier, and she's good to go. Light and noise don't bother her and she's similarly unfazed by toddlers peeking over the edge of her bed to see if she's really asleep. At night time, though, she stiffens her limbs, bites her pacifier, and makes terrible noises that sound like an alien might come bursting out of her belly at any moment. We're going to keep working on this. Twenty-five points if you suggest a working solution before I think of it myself.
Pictures and Video:
The girls:
Olivia plays with stickers:
Sing her to sleep while holding her and rocking/bouncing back and forth...then lay her down when she's asleep
ReplyDeleteTried this last night. The only problem was that she decided to yell instead of falling asleep. :-P I'll give you 5 points for the suggestion, though.
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