There's something being popularized by bloggers (especially those of the mom variety) lately called "30 before 30." It's similar to a bucket list, but with a finite number of goals and a more easily predicted deadline. I thought it would be fun to try and, after showing my list to him, convinced Bryan to try it, too. When I started my list, I saw it as a way to put some things I've been wanting to do down on paper so that I'd remember them and (ideally) actually do them. Looking over the finished list, it looks like I also tried to use it as a way to balance all the parts of my life. :)
Presenting, in no particular order, my 30 before 30:
1. Genuinely surprise Bryan at least once.
2. Record the psalms.
3. Run a sub-2:00 half marathon.
4. Sell at least one thing I've made (at the Farmer's Market or on Etsy).
5. Learn Spanish.
6. Record all 6 cello suites.
7. Sew Christmas and/or Easter dresses for the girls.
8. Minimize (eliminate?) the need for disposable products in our house.
9. Have a compost pile.
10. Play with at least 2 professional orchestras.
11. Go 7 days in a row without letting my temper get the better of me.
12. Make an honest attempt at clean eating/real food.
13. *Skipped because knowledge by some of my readers could skew the results.*
14. Go on an overnight vacation with just our family.
15. Grow a garden.
16. Write a book.
17. Sew a skirt that becomes my favorite.
18. Volunteer to host campout.
19. Go through RCIA.
20. Attend Seekers' Group (similar to RCIA, offered by the Orthodox church in Lima).
21. Complete at least 3 things on my (ever growing) Projects List.
22. Start a soup kitchen.
23. Make pectin-free jam. Make up the recipe.
24. Go on an overnight vacation with Bryan -- no kids.
25. Use up all the coupons Bryan gave me (I still have some from when we were dating).
26. Learn one of the 3 big concertos.
27. Arrange a regularly recurring get-together with the Lima folk.
28. Have a religious conversation with Bryan that doesn't end in tears.
29. Make a new friend.
30. Improve a stranger's day.
31. (Because I thought of one more and it kind of fits in with several of the above goals) Join a co-op.
27 November 2013
24 November 2013
November 17-24
Gretchen has top teeth. They're super tiny and barely poked through, but they're both there.
Something rather big I forgot to mention last week: our freezer is broken. I went to get Gretchen some breakfast from the stash of ice cube purees, and discovered ice cream melting all over everything. I put the veggies and broth in the cooler, moved the meat to the upstairs freezer, tossed two soup bones and a roast in crockpots in desperation, and put everything else in the fridge. Monday night we ate the hamburgers that were in the fridge, Tuesday for lunch we had a ridiculously tender roast (because it had been in a crockpot for over 24 hours), Tuesday night we had friends over to help us eat the sirloin steaks that had been defrosting in the fridge, and Wednesday night we had soup with the broth I'd gotten from the soup bones. Steph and her kids came over and took my cooler full of veggies to their house to live in their deep freezer until we replace ours.
Josef and Alison came to visit last weekend. When we were at Mass on Sunday morning, a woman stopped Bryan and asked if Josef was his brother. She was impressed by their matching "biblical look." We assume she meant their beards. Unless dress pants and dress shirts are biblical. Alison and I about died laughing and spent the rest of the day teasing the boys about their biblical fashion sense.
Olivia had 3.5 accident free days in a row. Thursday morning, I got brave and took her to church in undies (she had been wearing a diaper anytime we left the house). That went fine, but then she peed all over the kitchen floor later that evening. Friday she wore undies for her nap (another new thing), but had another accident in the evening. Still, 2 accidents in the whole week isn't bad.
Pictures and Videos:
Something rather big I forgot to mention last week: our freezer is broken. I went to get Gretchen some breakfast from the stash of ice cube purees, and discovered ice cream melting all over everything. I put the veggies and broth in the cooler, moved the meat to the upstairs freezer, tossed two soup bones and a roast in crockpots in desperation, and put everything else in the fridge. Monday night we ate the hamburgers that were in the fridge, Tuesday for lunch we had a ridiculously tender roast (because it had been in a crockpot for over 24 hours), Tuesday night we had friends over to help us eat the sirloin steaks that had been defrosting in the fridge, and Wednesday night we had soup with the broth I'd gotten from the soup bones. Steph and her kids came over and took my cooler full of veggies to their house to live in their deep freezer until we replace ours.
Josef and Alison came to visit last weekend. When we were at Mass on Sunday morning, a woman stopped Bryan and asked if Josef was his brother. She was impressed by their matching "biblical look." We assume she meant their beards. Unless dress pants and dress shirts are biblical. Alison and I about died laughing and spent the rest of the day teasing the boys about their biblical fashion sense.
Olivia had 3.5 accident free days in a row. Thursday morning, I got brave and took her to church in undies (she had been wearing a diaper anytime we left the house). That went fine, but then she peed all over the kitchen floor later that evening. Friday she wore undies for her nap (another new thing), but had another accident in the evening. Still, 2 accidents in the whole week isn't bad.
Pictures and Videos:
17 November 2013
November 10-17
I don't know if I mentioned this yet... Olivia says "Gretchen." It's quite clear, actually. And she's just starting to say "Olivia," though that one takes a bit more practice to decipher. I am going to be a little sad when she stops referring to herself as "the girl."
And speaking of things I'll miss, I want her to call Bryan's parents Manga and Bahga forever. Grandparents get all sorts of weird names that aren't grandma and grandpa, so why not just teach our kids that they have Oma and Opa and Manga and Bahga?
Gretchen can sit. She got a lot of practice when we were sequestered in the hallway for potty training. I still stay pretty close when I put her down because we do have hard floors and there is a toddler running around... But generally my presence is superfluous, because Gretchen balances just fine. Her biggest problem is her tendency to push all of her toys just out of her reach.
Potty training... Some days seem so promising and then the next day Olivia pees on the floor again. Remember my feelings about regression? She should not be allowed to successfully make it to the potty in time twice (Wednesday!!!) and then go back to not even making it to the bathroom (Thursday). Just when I think she's getting the hang of things, she does something that leads me to believe that she actually has no clue and has just been getting lucky. Olivia is well and truly attached to undies now, though, so there is no going back. This is happening. Hopefully before she marks territory in too many houses. Good thing we're home for a couple more weeks still.
Bryan has begun compiling an Olivia-to-English dictionary:
agalayo = alligator
ahpus = octopus
dagalolo = caterpillar
netano = rectangle
teegle = triangle
innies = undies
Leeba (or Leebya) = Olivia
lololo = roll over
Pictures and Videos:
And speaking of things I'll miss, I want her to call Bryan's parents Manga and Bahga forever. Grandparents get all sorts of weird names that aren't grandma and grandpa, so why not just teach our kids that they have Oma and Opa and Manga and Bahga?
Gretchen can sit. She got a lot of practice when we were sequestered in the hallway for potty training. I still stay pretty close when I put her down because we do have hard floors and there is a toddler running around... But generally my presence is superfluous, because Gretchen balances just fine. Her biggest problem is her tendency to push all of her toys just out of her reach.
Potty training... Some days seem so promising and then the next day Olivia pees on the floor again. Remember my feelings about regression? She should not be allowed to successfully make it to the potty in time twice (Wednesday!!!) and then go back to not even making it to the bathroom (Thursday). Just when I think she's getting the hang of things, she does something that leads me to believe that she actually has no clue and has just been getting lucky. Olivia is well and truly attached to undies now, though, so there is no going back. This is happening. Hopefully before she marks territory in too many houses. Good thing we're home for a couple more weeks still.
Bryan has begun compiling an Olivia-to-English dictionary:
agalayo = alligator
ahpus = octopus
dagalolo = caterpillar
netano = rectangle
teegle = triangle
innies = undies
Leeba (or Leebya) = Olivia
lololo = roll over
Pictures and Videos:
10 November 2013
November 3-10
We visited my family this past weekend. Olivia impressed everyone with her spectacular letter, number, and color skills. Gretchen impressed everyone with her willingness to smile at and be held by people who weren't her parents.
Regression should not be allowed. I'm of the mindset that once a child has mastered a certain skill, then that skill should be a permanent addition to her lifestyle. Especially if said skill has been present for a week or more. Gretchen, I'm looking at you. You are perfectly capable of sleeping all the way from when I put you down at night to when it's time to wake up the next morning. I accept the need for a couple of pacifier reinsertion maneuvers, but that's it. You don't need to be rocked or fed in the middle of the night anymore. We had some beautiful weeks a while ago where you did fine every night, but then you thought maybe you needed to spice life up again. You would be mistaken. Sleeping through the night is possible. Night weaning has happened. If you don't believe me, read my blog. You actually proved my point by having a couple wonderful nights again this week. Keep it up.
Bryan sent me a text that I'd like to share with you: I've created a monster. I started letting Olivia pick the animals while we sang "Old McDonald." She eventually got to "koala." Not knowing what sound a koala makes, I took the lazy way out and said, "with a koala here and a koala there..." This introduced a revolutionary concept: if the word doesn't have an associated sound it makes, you just sing the word again. We've had "pottys here" and "raisins there"... They aren't even all objects anymore. The last one was "a be right back here and a be right back there." It's been a half hour.
The other day I had the car to myself, which meant I had sole control of the CD player. I could listen to whatever I wanted. Amazing. My options were so varied, but the only thing I could think of was "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall..."
Olivia has a performance mode. Her Uncle Brad came to visit briefly, and she stood next to the computer and gave him a recital. As songs came on Pandora, she sang every single one without moving from her spot unless the lyrics told her to. Along the same lines, her word association is pretty spectacular. She listens to conversations until she hears something she can identify, and then she jumps in with a (sometimes relevant) comment about whatever it was.
Last week I was going to write about Olivia's newly perfected tantrums, but this week they were practically non-existent. She was falling apart at every little thing. -- Mommy is going to say the prayer, too? Terrible. It's time for lunch? End of the world. Gretchen is touching something? How does everyone else not notice these atrocities? Mom said to put on a shirt? I can't take this anymore, I'm going to bed. -- Happily, she's been less prone to collapsing in fits of crying this week.
We've entered into hardcore potty training. Olivia has been half potty trained for probably nine months now, but she'd recently fallen off the wagon and regressed back to zero potty training. This, of course, caused her rash to come back and we decided it was finally time to force the issue. On Monday we stuck her in underwear and let thefun puddles begin. After two messes, I closed some door, put up the gate, and confined Olivia, Gretchen, and myself in the little hallway right outside the bathroom. Olivia and Gretchen had a couple of easily washed toys each, and I had a book. Olivia also got a cup of juice, and I had a phone alarm set to go off every 20 minutes and a stash of fruit snack bribes in the bathroom. One fruit snack for sitting, two for going. By the end of the day, she had (accidentally) been successful several times in a row. The rest of the week I didn't require confinement. I discovered that the timer wasn't working, either, so out that went. Instead, I opted for frequent reminders and hoped she would figure out how to tell she needed to go. By Friday, all the puddles happened in the bathroom after she ran in there but couldn't get her undies off fast enough. I'll take it.
Pictures:
Regression should not be allowed. I'm of the mindset that once a child has mastered a certain skill, then that skill should be a permanent addition to her lifestyle. Especially if said skill has been present for a week or more. Gretchen, I'm looking at you. You are perfectly capable of sleeping all the way from when I put you down at night to when it's time to wake up the next morning. I accept the need for a couple of pacifier reinsertion maneuvers, but that's it. You don't need to be rocked or fed in the middle of the night anymore. We had some beautiful weeks a while ago where you did fine every night, but then you thought maybe you needed to spice life up again. You would be mistaken. Sleeping through the night is possible. Night weaning has happened. If you don't believe me, read my blog. You actually proved my point by having a couple wonderful nights again this week. Keep it up.
Bryan sent me a text that I'd like to share with you: I've created a monster. I started letting Olivia pick the animals while we sang "Old McDonald." She eventually got to "koala." Not knowing what sound a koala makes, I took the lazy way out and said, "with a koala here and a koala there..." This introduced a revolutionary concept: if the word doesn't have an associated sound it makes, you just sing the word again. We've had "pottys here" and "raisins there"... They aren't even all objects anymore. The last one was "a be right back here and a be right back there." It's been a half hour.
The other day I had the car to myself, which meant I had sole control of the CD player. I could listen to whatever I wanted. Amazing. My options were so varied, but the only thing I could think of was "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall..."
Olivia has a performance mode. Her Uncle Brad came to visit briefly, and she stood next to the computer and gave him a recital. As songs came on Pandora, she sang every single one without moving from her spot unless the lyrics told her to. Along the same lines, her word association is pretty spectacular. She listens to conversations until she hears something she can identify, and then she jumps in with a (sometimes relevant) comment about whatever it was.
Last week I was going to write about Olivia's newly perfected tantrums, but this week they were practically non-existent. She was falling apart at every little thing. -- Mommy is going to say the prayer, too? Terrible. It's time for lunch? End of the world. Gretchen is touching something? How does everyone else not notice these atrocities? Mom said to put on a shirt? I can't take this anymore, I'm going to bed. -- Happily, she's been less prone to collapsing in fits of crying this week.
We've entered into hardcore potty training. Olivia has been half potty trained for probably nine months now, but she'd recently fallen off the wagon and regressed back to zero potty training. This, of course, caused her rash to come back and we decided it was finally time to force the issue. On Monday we stuck her in underwear and let the
Pictures:
03 November 2013
October 27-November 3
All my faithful readers should thank the internet for being helpful. Blogger had a glitch when I sat down to write this post. For some reason, I could not access my own blog. Justine could access her blog, Justine could access my blog, and I could access the (never used) blog attached to another email address. But I could not get to the page that let me regale my Olivia and Gretchen's fans with the latest Barhorst exploits. Fortunately, after about 7 Google searches, I found a group of people having the same problem (well, a similar problem, but without the fabulousness of Olivia and Gretchen), and someone figured out a way to get all of us into our respective blogs. So here I sit, composing yet another weekly episode in The Lives and Times of Olivia and Gretchen. :)
We had Halloween here last Saturday, so we got the girls all dressed up and I took Olivia to about 6 houses while Gretchen helped Bryan hand out candy. Gretchen was a lion (the costume should look familiar), and Olivia picked out a witch costume at the store. Pictures below.
Sicknessswept crawled through our house beginning the end of last week, and I emerged victorious as the only one who didn't get it. Of course, that left me taking care of a cranky baby, an "I don't know how to be sick, so I'm going to pretend I'm not" toddler, and a sleeping Bryan. We all survived, though, and have (mostly) ditched the germs.
Gretchen's 6-month appointment was Wednesday, and she's definitely smaller than Olivia was. 15 pounds, 7 ounces, and 27 inches long. No mention of starting her on any kind of food, which is funny because Gretchen loves food. The nurse seemed mildly disappointed that Gretchen doesn't sit very well yet, but she doesn't get a lot of practice. I want to know why they always ask the wrong questions at appointments. For Olivia they asked about rolling over (which she couldn't do), but not about sitting (which she could). For Gretchen they haven't asked about rolling over at all, but sitting is suddenly a big deal. If you had hardwood floors and an overly affectionate toddler, would you let YOUR 6-month-old spend a lot of time sitting?
And speaking of overly affectionate toddlers, that's the reason Gretchen doesn't spend much time in the Johnny-jump-up. Sure, we say it's because she doesn't like to jump as much as Olivia, or because it's inconvenient to move the table to the middle of the room all the time now that Olivia plays in the middle of the room... But the main reason I don't get it out is because I'm afraid that Olivia will use Gretchen as a tether ball.
Pictures:
We had Halloween here last Saturday, so we got the girls all dressed up and I took Olivia to about 6 houses while Gretchen helped Bryan hand out candy. Gretchen was a lion (the costume should look familiar), and Olivia picked out a witch costume at the store. Pictures below.
Sickness
Gretchen's 6-month appointment was Wednesday, and she's definitely smaller than Olivia was. 15 pounds, 7 ounces, and 27 inches long. No mention of starting her on any kind of food, which is funny because Gretchen loves food. The nurse seemed mildly disappointed that Gretchen doesn't sit very well yet, but she doesn't get a lot of practice. I want to know why they always ask the wrong questions at appointments. For Olivia they asked about rolling over (which she couldn't do), but not about sitting (which she could). For Gretchen they haven't asked about rolling over at all, but sitting is suddenly a big deal. If you had hardwood floors and an overly affectionate toddler, would you let YOUR 6-month-old spend a lot of time sitting?
And speaking of overly affectionate toddlers, that's the reason Gretchen doesn't spend much time in the Johnny-jump-up. Sure, we say it's because she doesn't like to jump as much as Olivia, or because it's inconvenient to move the table to the middle of the room all the time now that Olivia plays in the middle of the room... But the main reason I don't get it out is because I'm afraid that Olivia will use Gretchen as a tether ball.
Pictures:
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