April 20-27

Sorry that this post is late.  Last Monday and Tuesday we had church in the mornings and I had a rehearsal and a concert at night.  Wednesday we spent visiting the Kleins and Thursday I left for an overnight conference in Cincinnati.  Friday was a rehearsal dinner, Saturday was a wedding, Sunday was Gretchen's birthday party, and Monday was doctor's appointments and taking Jacque to the airport.  More about Sunday and Monday in next week's post.  This one should get you through the wedding, though.  :)

On Thursday, Gretchen turned ONE!  Bryan and I got lots of texts (which made us feel very popular, even though they were for Gretchen) and there were even a couple of phone calls.  When I let Gretchen field her own calls, Olivia was immediately jealous and stated that it was her birthday, too.

Gretchen plays peek-a-boo regularly now.  She used to require a prop such as a blanket or towel to assist her, but now she has learned that people will react if she puts her hands in the general vicinity of her face and then pulls them away triumphantly.  She also waves good-bye deliberately.  I wasn't sure a few weeks ago if she was waving or not, but this week I know she means it.

In yet more Gretchen news, she's standing all the time.  She pulls herself up on things, lets go, and grins at everyone in the room as if to say, "See how talented I am?  I can do this standing trick!"  I've also watched her get to standing in the middle of the floor (with nothing to pull up on), which was THE major turning point in Olivia's walking progress.  No steps yet from Gretchen, but we can tell they're coming soon.  :)

Olivia spends her time narrating the day in song.  Also making sure I stay on task, as illustrated by this recent conversation:

Olivia: "Mommy, where are we going?"
Me: "To the store."
Olivia: "Yes, we need bananas.  We better go to the store to get bananas."
Me: "We can get some bananas."
Olivia: "And milk.  We don't have any milk."
Me: "Yes, we will also get milk."
Olivia: "Uh-oh!  And we don't have any cereal!  We better get some cereal."
Me: "Actually, there's more cereal downstairs."
Olivia: "Oh.  Okay, we will go to the store to get bananas and milk."

We have a swingset (I think I mentioned that last week) that Olivia loves, and this week we got a swing for Gretchen so that she can enjoy it as well.  Olivia delights in pushing Gretchen in the swing.  Bad news for Olivia, though: she's 2, and therefore doesn't always think things through.  She was pushing Gretchen one day and stopped to examine a bug that had appeared near her foot.  While she was crouched down, Gretchen's swing made its way backwards (as is to be expected) and destroyed Olivia.  She got a bit of a fat lip and a small cut on her mouth.

My conference on Thursday was the Great Homeschooling Convention in Cincinnati.  Much to Bryan's dismay, I think I found my people.  After I got past the fundamentalists and even-more-socially-awkward-than-me types, of course.  My friends from Lima went, too, and it was nice to get to hang out with them.  Most of the sessions that I attended were applicable to parenting as well as homeschooling, so I was able to learn from them but Bryan still has reason to hope that I might not be totally sold on the whole homeschooling idea.  :)

I left the conference early on Friday because I had to make it back in time to pick up my family and head to a rehearsal.  Bryan's sister, Keshia, got married on Saturday, and we all had a part to play.  Bryan was a groomsman, as well as official escort to the two adorably poufy flower girls (one of whom *cough Gretchen cough* couldn't walk yet).  I was the music, and Jacque came in to be the cantor.  Olivia had a hair appointment on Saturday morning, and I painted her nails to match her dress while she waited for her turn.  Two hours later (after they'd finished the bride and bridesmaids), Olivia sat very still in the chair and DID NOT CRY (although she didn't look particularly pleased with the situation) while all of her hair was curled to look like Shirley Temple's.  She even got a little braid like the big girls to hold it out of her face.  Both girls did well for the service, Olivia had a blast dancing in her big dress at the reception (until the actual dancing started, and then she decided it was too crowded), and I'm sure there's a picture of them somewhere.  :-P  When I find it, I'll put it up.

Pictures:

April 13-20

Happy Easter!

Did you catch the Bonus Post?

This was a pretty busy week because of all the Holy Week services, but since we were in church all the time, we don't really have any adventurous stories.  Here's a quick update on everyone, Justine-style.

Gretchen:
-Had a couple more teeth poke through this week, so she's up to 9.
-Has been experimenting with sounds, which makes her quite amusing to listen to.
-Missed her morning nap most of the week, but usually made up for it with her afternoon nap.  I expect she'll try to drop it completely soon.
-Made friends with the old Greek lady at church while I chanted.
-Has been doing more standing recently.  She's quite proud of this newly acquired talent.

Olivia:
-Loves to run.  And jump.  And twirl in circles.  But mostly run.
-Is very excited for the warm weather and all the outside opportunities it presents.
-Thinks "birdhouse" is a synonym for "building."  For example, when we drop Bryan off at work, she talks about how he "went in the big birdhouse."
-Helps chant "Lord, have mercy" and "Kyrie Eleison" with me.  Also "Alleluia."

Bryan:
-Built (put together) a swingset in the backyard so that Olivia has something else to explore this summer.

Johannah:
-Fixed the sink.  It had stopped draining, but a Google search revealed that it's easy enough to check and empty the p-trap before calling a plumber.
-Has a plan for a garden this year!  It involves boxes on the driveway...

We went to Michigan this weekend to spend Easter with Oma and Opa.  More on that next week.

Pictures from the last two weeks:

Bonus Post: Flashback -- April 16, 2010

Useful to know: By 2010, Bryan and I had both graduated.  He was living with his parents in Ohio, and I had just moved into an apartment near the Eastern Michigan campus.

It was Friday, April 16, 2010, and my roommate, Danielle, and I were just settling down to a late dinner and a movie on the couch.  It had been a long week.  Suddenly, Danielle received a phone call and, as was her habit, jumped up to take it in her room (actually, part of me remembers her usually taking phone calls wherever she happened to be at the time, but she must have taken them in her room often enough that it didn't strike me as odd in this particular instance).  She came back a few minutes later and said that it had been our friend, Antoine, on the phone.  Apparently he and his on-again/off-again girlfriend were off-again.  I asked if he needed ice cream, and she said he was already walking to Starbucks to meet us.  (No, Starbucks doesn't have ice cream, but it does have strawberry smoothie frappes of deliciousness.)  I went to find my shoes.

Two minutes later, we were booking it across campus (because, as anyone who has walked with Danielle knows, she only has one speed, and it's fast) to the Student Center Starbucks and complaining that Antoine could have picked a slightly warmer day to fall apart.  As we passed through University Park, someone came up the steps from the lake.  This is not an uncommon occurrence, so my eyes had already moved on before my brain realized that this particular person deserved a second look because he was wearing a tuxedo.  That IS uncommon.

The person in the tuxedo was Bryan.  I went over to say hello, and Danielle turned and started to walk away.  There was some major confusion on my part as Bryan said, "Thanks, Danielle," Danielle said, "No problem," and I said, "What about Antoine?"  Danielle walked away, looking back over her shoulder to say that she'd made up the part about Antoine.  I found out later that the earlier phone call was from Bryan, and he was telling her to get me over by the park without alerting me to the fact that he was involved.  Apparently the story about Antoine was the first thing she came up with.

Bryan and I went walking back down the steps towards the lake.  When we reached the bottom, he took a deep breath and began singing As We Stroll Along Together.  Bryan never sings (at least, he didn't then; now he sings all the time because Olivia requires it).  By this point, I knew what was going on.  We walked to the middle of the bridge, and he got down on one knee to propose.  After I said yes, he finished his song.  We walked back to my apartment while calling our families to share the news.

This is where the story gets hilarious:  Danielle had NO IDEA what was happening.  She left me with Bryan and walked back thinking, "Aw, I wish I had a boyfriend who would come surprise me wearing a tuxedo."  When she got back to the apartment, she got another phone call, this one from Antoine (really, this time).  He started asking if she was anywhere near us and if she was getting a good picture.  Danielle finally realized that Antoine was apparently lurking in the bushes near University Park, but had missed the actual proposal.  This led to a second realization: THERE WAS A PROPOSAL HAPPENING!  And she had also missed it.  She immediately started jumping up and down in the kitchen and excitedly waited for us to get back.  When we did, she took the only engagement picture we have.

We gathered a group of friends together and went out to Bubble Island (a bubble tea/smoothie place) to celebrate.

This is the only engagement photo we have.  It was taken by Danielle in my apartment about 20 minutes after Bryan proposed.

Danielle took photos of my ring the next day:

April 6-13

Last Saturday, we took Olivia to a bounce house.  It was inside a giant indoor amusement park that made Alison, Stephanie, and me cringe as we walked through and caused Bryan to get excited about the prospect of bringing older children to try out all the other cool stuff available.  There was a toddler section of the bounce house, so we took the kids back there and let Eva and Olivia run around and have a grand old time.  Eli cared less, and Gretchen didn't even acknowledge the presence of bouncy things because there were other toys to explore.  Afterwards we all went to lunch and decided that this was an outing that could be repeated.

Side note: We went to Chipotle for lunch and three kids' meals were purchased.  Eva and Eli split one, Olivia ate about half of one, and Gretchen ate her entire meal and part of mine.  :-P

On Sunday, Alison and I ran a half marathon.  Our goal was to beat two hours.  The weather was cool, but sunny, so we didn't have to get ridiculously bundled up.  The sun was especially appreciated since the whole end of the previous week had been rainy.  About three miles in, Alison got a bad cramp and told me to just go on without her, so I let all my racing instincts take over and picked people off for the next ten miles.  I finished in 1:54:30 and then walked back along the course to stretch a bit and sprint the last quarter mile in with Alison.

I have been told that my Uncle Jon ran a half marathon the same day but finished 9 minutes faster than I did.  After much consideration, I've decided that it wasn't a fair race since I didn't know he was running.  Also, I would have been almost done with my race by the time his even started, so there's an obvious advantage to him.  Perhaps we need a rematch.  :-P

Backing up to when Alison arrived at our house...  She got in late Thursday night.  Olivia was already asleep, so we figured that she'd just notice Alison in the morning like she usually does.  At two in the morning, I was awakened by wailing.  I walked through the living room, tripping over something on the floor, and made my way to Olivia's room.  She started babbling about how she needed her dog, no not THAT dog, the one in the living room.  Ali had it, apparently.  Confused as to how she even knew Ali was here, I went back to the living room and located the giant dog.  It turns out that the dog was what tripped me as I stumbled through the first time.  I returned the dog to its home in Olivia's room and went back to bed.  Fifteen minutes later, I had to go back and put the dog back in the living room.  Ten minutes after that, Bryan had to go move Olivia's stuffed monkey to the living room to join the dog.  It's a wonder Alison got any sleep at all.

In the morning, we heard Alison's side of the story.  Apparently she woke up to a scraping noise as the chair by the computer desk moved.  She saw a two headed shadow, and turned on the lamp to better illuminate her hallucination.  Olivia was standing by the computer, clutching her dog (this dog is bigger than Olivia, by the way; I'll have to take a picture).  Alison said something, and Olivia walked over to the couch, threw the dog on top of Alison, and ran back to her room.  Alison pushed the dog onto the floor, thus setting up the trap that I would walk into, and turned off the lamp.  Cue Olivia's wailing.

Okay, back to updates.

Gretchen knows the song "If You're Happy and You Know It."  Whenever Olivia starts singing, Gretchen starts clapping her hands.  Then she skips the foot stomping to go straight to shouting hooray.  She throws her hands in the air and says, "aah."  The following minutes are spent alternating between clapping and shouting hooray.  :)

One of Gretchen's favorite games recently is "liquid."  She finds a relatively soft spot (the couch is perfect, a bed will work, and the bounce house had some toys that were adequate) and begins flopping around like a fish out of water.  She doesn't check to make sure a parent is watching her edges, so she's going to hurt herself one of these days if she ever gets up to a soft spot unsupervised, but for now, she loves it.  She stands and flops and rolls and crawls and face-plants and giggles and generally has a fantastic time.

And a quick update about Olivia: Olivia understands "first" and "second."  ...I think.  She uses them correctly, so I assume she knows what they mean.  She can also count to 13 and she's started doing puzzles (although she needs help with the latter).  She makes up songs about everything she does and is often a whirlwind of crazy two-year-old energy.

We're with Bryan's parents this week since I have symphony.  This means that I have no pictures to share with you right now.  I'll add some once we get home, though, and remind you next week that they exist.  :)

March 30-April 6

March madness is happening, which means the Barhorsts (yes, all of us) filled out brackets.  The event was not as involved as last year, mainly because Olivia is old enough to talk and Gretchen is less methodical in her selection of Cheerios than Olivia was.  It took us several days, but the beauty of letting little kids fill out brackets is that they don't pay attention to the games, so you can spill over into the tournament a bit and it doesn't matter.  Bryan and I were very careful to let them choose whichever teams they wanted, even if those teams had already lost.  :-P

My mother tells stories of how I used to put plaid shirts with striped shorts and justify it by pointing out that "they both have pink."  Olivia did something similar the other day, except her justification was even more sketchy: she showed up in a shades-of-pink camo skirt and a long-sleeved, red and purple striped shirt, and said, "Look, this has buttons and this has a button."  We then had a talk about how having buttons in common didn't mean they matched.

Gretchen has reached the age where she travels around and looks for small things to pick up off the floor.  More often than not, her first instinct is to put said small things directly in her mouth.  If I'm paying attention, though, I can hold out my hand and she'll bring whatever she picks up over and give it to me.  When we're downstairs in the chapel, this second scenario happens more often.  In fact, Gretchen seems to have devised a game which consists of her crawling over to the corner, pretending to pick something up, crawling back, and depositing a small pinch of air into my waiting palm.  She also has moments when she enjoys pretending to pick something up and then looking at me as she puts her fingers in her mouth.  Most of the time her sleight of hand is indiscreet enough that I can tell she didn't even touch the ground when she "picked up" whatever it was she found.  :)

My mom makes blankets for all the grandbabies.  The blankets are colorful on one side and soft on the other, with little tufts of yarn poking up all over the place.  They're like the ones she made for Justine and me when we were small.  Back when Olivia was favoring snapkins and kleenex over blankets, mom made a small matching square of the same material for Olivia to carry around.  Since then, each baby gets a normal sized blanket and a travel sized blanket.  :)  Gretchen's blanket material was bought before mom made Olivia's little square, so she started with just a normal sized blanket.  Then, when mom went back to the store, it was discovered that Gretchen's material had been discontinued.  After much discussion, mom and I decided to get a similar material and just use that for Gretchen's square.  Of course, other things came up and the material sat around gathering dust...  So finally mom sent it home with me, in hopes that I'd finish the square before she would.  After three months of letting it gather MY dust, I finally made the square.  Mom, this project is complete (except for the yarn tuft in the middle of the square, which you'll have to add the next time we visit).  :)

Pictures: