February 16-23

Olivia got a haircut.  Her bangs finally grew out enough that they now reach her chin, so I trimmed the rest of her hair to match.  This haircut went better than her first, but not so well as her second.  She was willing to sit still while I did the right side, but every time I got over to the left, she tilted her head.  Luckily, I was just trying to match up the length with her bangs, so it came out okay.  Also, she's a toddler, so she never sits still enough to tell if it's uneven.  :)

Gretchen is in 12-month clothes.  She's actually been in 12-month clothes for a while now, but I kept forgetting to mention it.  She spent exactly one day in a 9-12 month outfit before I moved her up to just plain 12-month from her previous 6-9 month.  It would appear that 9-12 isn't very much of a size change; what little change there is seems to be mostly width, often at the expense of length.

Olivia likes looking at pictures of herself as a baby.  She THINKS she's looking at pictures of other babies, though.  In her mind, every picture is of a baby she knows who is approximately the same age as the baby in the picture.  We have a lot of pictures of Baby Edward right now.  :)  The same problem occurs with videos; she and I watched the earliest Olivia videos we have, and Olivia kept talking about how she wanted to watch more of Baby Gretchen.  (Side note: Olivia's hair when she was younger was fabulous.  I recommend watching Olivia in the Johnny Jump Up for an example.)

Taxes are done.  I finished the federal and state ones a couple of weeks ago, but city ones took longer because of the work I did with the Lima Symphony.  Federal and state forms handle self employment relatively painlessly, but city forms are less complicated enough that any income that isn't W2 based causes problems.

Pictures and Videos:

February 9-16

Olivia has been accident-free all week.  She's also been diaper-free, even at night.  This is a BIG DEAL.  I do have to remind her periodically to go to the bathroom, because she tends to get too involved in things to worry about paltry details such as her exploding bladder.  Also, I just don't trust her.  So I have a phone alarm that goes off every hour and a half (as much to remind me as her) and she sits on the potty whenever we switch activities and so far we've been dry.

Gretchen is standing.  She seems to prefer standing, actually, although she does NOT like it when whatever she's using for balance moves.  She has also learned to sit back down (hooray, hooray!), although she still looks a little worried about it.  Her 9-month check-up was Monday, and she's 19 lbs, 2 oz.  They told me she's 30 inches long, but I don't believe them.  Babies are measured very imprecisely: the nurse lays Gretchen down, puts a pen mark on the paper at the top of her head, and pulls her leg straight before placing another pen mark.  Then I pick Gretchen up and the nurse measures the space between the marks.  Gretchen was being difficult and wouldn't let the nurse stretch her leg out, so I'm pretty sure she scooted an inch or two during the process.  I measured her at home and only came up with 28 inches.  It will be interesting to see how big she is at her 12-month check-up.  Click here for Olivia's stats, for comparison.

(Aside: I read the post that contains Olivia's stats and was quite pleased with it.  I apologize if some of my more recent posts have been lacking.  I've been putting off writing them until the last minute and then dashing them off in a hurry rather than recording my witticisms as they occur to me.  I shall strive to do better.)

I got to cross something off my 30 Before 30 list on Saturday: I asked Bryan what kind of cereal he wanted for breakfast and he said, "surprise me."  I hid a Quaker Oat Square (three, actually) in his Cheerios.  This was not what I was planning to do to surprise him, but it worked anyway.  :)

Pictures:

February 2-9

Olivia likes to sing.  You know this.  You probably also know that she carries a tune remarkably well for a toddler.  Usually I know what she's singing even if I can't understand the words because the melody is so clear.  In fact, up until recently, I could ALWAYS figure out what she was singing from the tune alone.  About two weeks ago, though, she added a new song to her repertoire.  The tune was... indistinct.  After much careful watching (because this song had motions) and listening, Bryan and I figured out what she was singing: Little Cabin in the Woods.  Apparently she knows most of the words and actions, but has absolutely no idea what the tune is.  Since she likes the song, she sings it anyway, making up her own tune as she goes along.  :)

Gretchen is speeding through developmental milestones.  She started clapping a little bit this week, shakes her head all the time, and blows raspberries with Olivia.  Her favorite thing to do with toys is move them from one basket to another (or, in a pinch, from the floor to the basket and back again).  She crawls on hands and knees now, but only if she's not in a hurry.  She pulls herself up on furniture, much to her sister's dismay, and cruises (cautiously) along the edge.  Since the concept of walking is still difficult, she mostly wobbles along the edge of furniture and hopes her feet will follow.  Currently, her trips back to the floor are terror-filled ordeals that often end in tears, so we're hoping she masters lowering herself down next.  On Saturday I saw her go from hands and knees to sitting for the first time.  I'm not even sure she realized that she did it.

We were with Bryan's parents this week because I had symphony in Lima.  Olivia especially was excited to spend so much time with Grandma and Grandpa.  :)

Did I ever put up more of our family photos?  I know I gave a link that I am assuming worked because no one said otherwise.

Pictures:

Bonus Post: Fun with the Kleins

When we do things with the Kleins, they're much better about taking pictures than I am.  They share them with me periodically and then, months later, I remember to turn all those pictures into a post.  Here we have the first installment of Fun with the Kleins.  I've tried to put them in order and gave a rough date (you can tell how rough by my phrasing) for each set of pictures.

Eva's Baptism (May 2012; I'm her godmother):

Me holding both the girls (mid 2012):

Olivia loves Eva's flying saucer (mid 2012):

Olivia and Eva (mid 2012):

At the zoo (June 2012):

Olivia's 1st Birthday (August 2012):

Olivia photobombing a picture (late 2012):

Eva's 1st Birthday (December 2012):

Shopping with the 2 girls (late 2012 or early 2013, I think):

Olivia and Eli (mid 2013):

At the fair (August 2013; eating a deep-fried oreo, chasing each other around trees...)

Gretchen and Eli (Browns/Vikings game 2013):

January 26-February 2

Gretchen can use a straw now.  Every time I pick something up while holding Gretchen, especially when in the kitchen, she grabs it and puts it in her mouth.  Olivia's water cup was no exception.  Usually I take advantage of the fact that my arms are longer and hold the cup out of Gretchen's reach, but one day her determination and complete lack of regard for her own personal safety won out.  She waited until I had a moment of distraction, then lunged and captured the cup, immediately putting the straw in her mouth.  Though she couldn't figure out how to make the straw work that particular time, I've let her continue to try.  After much spluttering, she has finally mastered the straw and can now get a drink of water whenever I leave a cup within reach.

Gretchen is also able to help out when she's getting dressed.  If I aim her arm towards the correct hole in her shirt, she'll push it through.  Bryan appreciates the fact that she's willing to stick her legs straight out and hold them still while he puts on her pants.  I suppose that is preferable to the kicking and rolling that used to be the norm.  :)

It seems I never have any Olivia news recently.  She's developing new skills, too, just at a slower, less obvious rate.  She picks up new words ("beautiful" and "friends" are her latest vocabulary enhancers) and gets better at things she could already do, but she's in refining mode rather than learning mode.  She and I DID manage to complete a game of Candy Land last week, and the only cheating was when I stacked the deck so that she got the upcoming character cards (and the ones we'd already passed were quietly removed).  She also enjoys playing her Uno Moo game, although she's still a bit fuzzy on the rules.

Keep an eye out for the Bonus Post coming this Wednesday.

Pictures: