October 20-27

We visited Justine, Joseph, and William last weekend.  It was kind of nice to not have any reason to be there except to visit.  Although...  we did bring baby stuff and I made a cake for Justine's birthday.  That was circumstantial, though.  The main reason was to visit.  :)  All the kids did well, and Justine and I got some cute pictures of them playing together.  Gretchen was terrible in the sleeping department, but she did better once we got home, so we're chalking most of her problems up to travelling.

Olivia counts things.  She doesn't just count while she points to things like most toddlers do.  She actually counts.  If she counts something twice or misses something, she starts over.  The only trouble she has is remembering the order of 6-10.  Her counting is usually 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 2, 3, 5!  When I look at her, she'll usually tack on 10 and then glance at me for approval.  We're working on it.  :)  She also labels each of her fingers with a specific number.  Her Uncle Joseph pointed to her thumb and asked if she knew what it was called, and she responded with, "five!"

The other day, I was getting Gretchen's zucchini from the microwave after heating it up a bit.  I stuck the spoon in the container and began walking to the table.  Gretchen, who was in my arms at this point, saw the spoon sticking out of the food and grabbed it, aiming it towards her mouth.  All the zucchini that had been on the spoon ended up on the floor, and the spoon changed course halfway to her mouth and ended up crash landing on her forehead, but it was pretty funny anyway.  Since then, I've been letting her carry her own spoon to the table, making sure to keep anything that might spill well out of range of her flailing attempts to locate her mouth.

One day at lunch, Gretchen was watching me eat and began tipping her head back and opening her mouth as I brought food to my mouth.  Then she started bumping my arm with her hand, apparently (we decided later) trying to get me to drop food in her mouth.  I did drop some, but it landed on her shoulder instead.  As we found a snapkin to clean her up, she threw all subtlety to the wind and lunged forward, managing to grab a fistful of Mexican chicken off my plate before Bryan and I were able to capture her limbs and clean her up.  Perhaps I should put out some steamed veggie sticks or make some of that zweiback that Justine used to give William.

Every now and again, Olivia decides that she's going travelling.  One day after we got out of the car, she gathered her baby into her arms and began walking down the sidewalk.  I asked where she was going, and she replied, "Manga Bahga's house."  For those who don't speak fluent Olivia, that means "Grandma and Grandpa's house."  Usually we're inside when she decides it's time to leave, so she picks up her purse (or some other bag that's lying around), gives kisses all around, and heads to the door.  When we visited Justine and Joseph, she packed some treasures ("Hop on Pop" and a ball) in a lunch box and took off.  Luckily for everyone, she can't reach and/or operate deadbolts, and she always announces when she's leaving.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it on the blog, but Olivia is a very neat toddler.  She might be the tidiest toddler in the existence of toddlers.  Well this is good news for me right now, I see it backfiring later in my life.  Never again will I have a child this concerned about being clean.  I love that Olivia hates being sticky and gross almost as much as I hate her being sticky and gross, and it makes me sad to see her occasional bouts of grossness and know that it's only getting worse from here.

When Steph and I did all that canning a while ago, we put a card table in the kitchen to give ourselves more counter space.  I liked it so well that the card table kept living there even after we were done.  The problem with the card table, though, was that it was a little TOO big.  We couldn't completely open the door where we kept pots and pans, and navigating through the doorway was trickier than we wanted it to be.  Then one day I realized that this is why kitchen islands exist, and I started looking things up.  I needed something affordable, preferably with shelves, that was both large enough to give me some extra counter space and small enough to not be in the way.  I selected my island (which I think was actually referred to as a "baker's rack"), ordered it, waited impatiently for it to arrive at my front door, and put it together in a slightly different way than the manufacturers intended to obtain a perfectly acceptable solution.  :)

Pictures:

October 13-20

Gretchen is smarter about rolling front to back than Olivia was.  Olivia used to prop herself up on her elbows and then tip to one side until she fell over and hit her head.  Then, if she was lucky, she'd wiggle just right and be on her back.  Gretchen puts one arm down against her side, places her head gently on the floor, and begins curling her body up until the curve of her back allows her to gently nudge herself over.  Then she immediately gets interested in something over her shoulder and rolls back to her stomach.  :)

Gretchen's sitting skills are improving.  She's still prone to limb-flailing and sudden balance failures, but she's doing better.  The most important part of being better at sitting, at least from her point of view, is the ability to use a high chair.  This is vital to her plan to be eating all the food in the house by the time she's 7 months old.

You may remember Olivia's first reaction to solid foods.  She made hilariously disgusted faces and spit out all her cereal.  Since she was obviously uninterested, we didn't push the food issue and she gradually just started sampling whatever we were eating until she turned into the woefully picky but generally bribe-able cereal and fruit snacks loving toddler she is today.  Gretchen is completely different.  We're not sure if she just loves the idea of food that much more, or if maybe we just eat around her more than we did around Olivia.  Whatever the reason, Gretchen has been jealously eyeing every bite I've put in my mouth since she was about 4 months old.  I've been waiting to let her start solids until she can sit in a high chair, and that day has now arrived.  She's had green beans and zucchini (as well as bites of our soups and yogurts) and seems pleased to be eating the same way as everyone else.

After re-reading this week's post, I noticed that it's pretty Gretchen-heavy only about Gretchen.  There are some pictures of Olivia below (and also some of Gretchen), and I'll have more Olivia updates next week.

Pictures:

October 6-13

Last Friday, some women from church took the girls and me to see the sunflowers.  I didn't even know we had a giant field of sunflowers.  There was a hailstorm earlier this summer, so the flowers were apparently shorter than usual.  That turned out to be a good thing, though, because they were more Olivia's height.

Olivia knows her ABCs.  I did not realize this.  She listens to them on Pandora, but other than that we haven't really worked on them.  One day, though, she was singing in the stroller, as she is wont to do, and I very clearly heard, "LMNOP Q R S, T U V, W X, Y and Z."  I listened when she went through a second time (which is pretty much inevitable), and she also knew A through H.  I, J, and K simply don't exist in her alphabet.  Anyway.  She practices her ABCs periodically, usually mixed in with Baa, Baa, Black Sheep (but never with Twinkle, Twinkle, oddly enough).  This week I also discovered that she can identify B, D, E, L, M, N, O, R, S, T, and W.  Those are the only ones I tried before she got bored and I ran out of space on my writing surface.  You will notice, though, that using those letters you can spell "Browns," which makes her father happy.  Actually, I'm guessing that one reason she knows B, N, O R, S, and W is because of the large wooden letters on the wall in our room at Steve and Murry's house.  :)

Speaking of Steve and Murry's house, we were there all week.  I had rehearsal almost every night in Lima, so we just moved in with them to cut the driving time in half.  Bryan was able to work from home one day and stayed at our house instead of driving back another night, so that helped with his commute, also.  Everyone had work still, so the girls and I just hung out and pretended we were at our house.  We even made it to the local storytime on Friday.

I'm awarding the points for Gretchen's sleep to Bryan and Stephanie.  10 to Bryan for suggesting that we just keep her up when she's crabby instead of letting her take a late afternoon nap, and 15 to Stephanie for informing me of the day care schedule: wake up, 2 hours awake, nap, 3 hours awake, nap, 4 hours awake, bed.  We don't get the numbers right all the time, but we've found that getting close to the 4 hour mark at night helps significantly.  I feel a little silly awarding points this week since Gretchen's bed-time routine has been pretty lousy because we're not at home and I've left before she goes to bed every night.  We had a good thing going, though, so I'm hoping we can return to it once we're home again next week.

Monday night I left for orchestra a little early so that I would have time to find everything.  I grabbed a couple of runzas on my way out the door, put in a CD that wasn't little kid songs, and munched and sang my way down the freeway.  Traffic was normal except for a tow truck on the side of the road, and I remember passing a police car and thinking, "I hope it's okay to eat and drive at the same time."  This was immediately followed by two thoughts I always have when passing police cars: 1. "Why are people slowing way down?  We're allowed to drive the speed limit.  *checks speedometer*  Only 65 (in a newly 70 mph zone).  I'm good."  2. "What if I got pulled over and the only thing I that came out of my mouth was the lyrics to the song I was singing at the time?"

One minute later, I got pulled over.  On the plus side, I didn't quote song lyrics.  As I waited for the cop to come to the window, I began regretting the runza I'd been eating as I drove past.  Perhaps it wasn't okay to eat and drive at the same time?  He didn't open with the stereotypical "do you know how fast you were going?", but rather with his own oh-so-original variation: "do you want to tell me why you were driving that speed?"  I glanced at my speedometer, as if the needle now resting on zero would somehow provide me with a recollection of blazing fast speeds, and asked, "65?"  Now I was worrying that maybe I'd get a ticket for going too slowly, driving along at the glacial speed of 65 in a 70 zone.  "I clocked you going 87, ma'am."  ... 87?!  87?!!  I don't even know how to drive 87.  It scares me.  It's like being on a roller coaster, only I have to steer, too.  I generally have to expend effort to drive 70, hence the 65 in the 70 zone.  I explained as much, but he insisted that he'd checked my speed "at least 15 times" as I was coming over the bridge (side note: the only bridge at this section of road is one you go under, not over).  Apparently I was passing a semi and that's when I sped up.  He knew because he caught the semi going 55, and I was the only other car there, so I must have been the 87.  I asked if he was sure it was me, thinking maybe he saw some other light-colored minivan, but he thought I was implying that maybe I was going 55 and the semi was the one doing 87, so he repeated his explanation.  I told him that I hadn't passed anyone yet this drive, and that the only time I'd even been in the left lane was when I moved over for the stopped tow truck (and you thought that detail was unimportant!), but he just repeated "15 times."  All the time he kept telling me that I couldn't drive that fast, because "it's just not safe."  (Another side note: I KNOW IT'S NOT SAFE, THAT'S WHY I ONLY DRIVE 65!)  I asked if I could contest the ticket, and he said I could go to court and tell them whatever I want, which filled me with great confidence in our judicial system.  I could tell the truth or not and he didn't care because it wouldn't matter against his radar gun.  He took my license and went back to his car to write a ticket.  I called Bryan and told him I always wondered exactly how a person could prove they weren't speeding if a cop said they were, but I never thought I'd get to figure it out myself.  He told me to ask if they ever checked the calibration of the radar guns.  The cop came back, and I asked about the gun.  He told me he checks it at the beginning and end of each shift.  Then he handed me my license back and said "I'm 99.9% sure it was you, but I only write a ticket if I'm 100% sure.  Your record is clean, so I'm just giving you a warning.  Be safe."  I thanked him and drove away, now making sure to go no faster than 64, just in case.

As I completed my drive, I had a revelation: We have one of those monitoring devices installed in our car for insurance purposes!  Our old one (with All State) didn't tell exact speeds, but it told us the top speed for each trip and made special note of all speeds over 80.  I hadn't logged in to our new one (with Nationwide) yet, but it must have a similar data log.  The next morning, I figured out how to check the data on the new one and looked up my trip.  It turns out that Nationwide's charts and graphs are better and more detailed than All State's, so I know exactly how fast I was going at every minute of my drive.  My top speed?  68.  Take that, Mr. Policeman.  Your 99.9% is looking pretty weak.  Also, I figured out how to prove to a judge that you weren't speeding: have one of these devices.  I think Nationwide only lets us keep it for 6 months, but there are commercial ones you can buy (usually to monitor teen drivers) if your insurance carrier doesn't supply one.  (A bonus to getting it through your insurance: most companies offer a 5-10% discount for the first 6 months just for agreeing to have it plugged into your car.  Your discount for later terms is calculated based on your driving habits and could be as high as 30%.  Even if it's close to zero (like ours is because we drive too many miles over the course of a year), that's still no worse than what you were paying originally.)

End exciting story and shameless product plug.  I should become an insurance agent or something.

Orchestra went well.  I worried at first that I'd be struggling to keep up (for lack of a better term) with all the official, actually-in-the-symphony-and-not-just-subs musicians, especially since I thought my Lima audition was weak.  I'm definitely not the best player there, and there are a lot of performance majors (as opposed to general music majors) with higher degrees than mine from more intimidating schools than Eastern, but I felt like I fit in, especially by the end of the week.  Vaguely related, my stand partner is also a sub and was also at Springfield auditions this year.  She said that she thinks they don't actually have an open viola spot (which would make sense since they already have 7 violists) even though they keep saying they do.  I accept this as an appropriate reason for not choosing me for the (not really existent) spot even though my audition was fabulous.

Pictures:

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.

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