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. :)
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