May 18-25

Funny things Olivia says:
-I will right be back.
-That's why... -- Used in place of "because."  For example: "Why are your pants wet?"  "That's why I peed in them."
-Again some more again.
-It's darkin.  -- Instead of "It's dark in there," she says, "Uh-oh, it's darkin in my room!"
-He/she/we  -- Still some problems with pronouns.  His/hers/ours are not part of her vocabulary.  Him and her have found limited space.

Gretchen is in 18 month clothes.  I finally got around to bringing the box down from the attic, and the bigger size fits her perfectly.  It doesn't seem like that long ago that Olivia was wearing some of these, though!

Bryan's Great Aunt Katie played baseball for the All American Girls' Baseball League back during World War II.  Now that her baseball days are long gone, she's opened a restaurant where she showcases all her memorabilia.  I also had a Great Aunt (Peggy Fenton), as well as a more distant relative, Dottie Schroeder, who played baseball.  When we visited Aunt Katie's Restaurant last week, I found the baseball cards for Peggy and Dottie and took pictures for my dad.  Since Katie and Dottie were on the same team for a few years, I was able to find a few team pictures of Dottie as well.  All the pictures I took are below for those who are interested.

Steph and I created an Etsy shop to try to sell some of the things we make.  Last Friday, I got my first order!  Someone wanted the matching squares that I made William for Christmas.  As a bonus, this means that I can cross something off my 30 Before 30 list.  :)  You should go check out our shop.  Feel free to share the link with others: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SewingAlong2

I realized when rereading the Bonus Post that I made a passing reference to a new grill.  I meant to explain this new grill thing in last week's post, but forgot.  So anyway, we have a new grill.  Our old grill was just a little camp grill that Bryan got during college.  He's been wanting a real grill for some time, but hasn't gotten around to getting one.  A couple of weeks ago, though, the t-bird that he's been driving around watching sit in front of our house finally got a death sentence.  The mechanic was willing to pay us for the scrap metal, essentially, so Bryan took him up on his offer and used the money to buy his fabulous new grill.  It has five burners, a "stovetop" section on the side, and a bottle cap opener.  What more could a man ask for?

With Yellow Duck on the way, we've decided to move the girls in together so that they have time to adjust to the change and so that we have a playroom for a few months.  I'm excited because this means that most of the toys will stay confined to not-my-living-room.  I hope.  Steph and her kids were over Thursday, so she helped me rearrange rooms.  We moved all toys out of Olivia's room and put Gretchen's crib and changing table into Olivia's room.  The new playroom still needs a little organizing, but it's looking pretty good.  The girls' room looks great.  Thursday night, we put the girls down for bed in the same room.  They've slept in the same room a few times before, but usually I put some sort of barrier between them so that Gretchen can't see Olivia.  There is no barrier in the new room.  Also, Olivia has taken to turning the light on to go to sleep (again).  We swapped out her bulb with a 25 watt pink party bulb earlier this week and she's been content.  We figured our biggest problem on Thursday would be with Olivia, who is pretty anti-change (I can't imagine who she gets that from!).  This was a bad assumption, apparently.  Olivia was fine and dandy with Gretchen being in her room.  Gretchen, on the other hand, was distracted: Olivia was RIGHT THERE!  The light is pink!  And on at night!  Is that a water cup?!  Even though Gretchen naps in daylight (not darkness) and has successfully napped with others (Eli) in the room, she was not able to do the bedtime thing.  After half and hour, we gave up and put her in a pack and play in her old room.  We'll try again next week.

Pictures:

Bonus Post: (Another) Day in the Life

I did a Day in the Life post ages ago when Olivia was younger than Gretchen is now.  It seemed about time for another one.  :)

6:45 am - I roll out of bed and go for a short run (outside because it's been so beautiful!), getting back before everyone wakes up.

The light is so bright...

7:15 am - I do not, however, make it into the shower before Gretchen starts whining.  She often wakes up happy, but not this morning.  I am pleased to note that her tone gets much more pleasant as soon as I walk into the room.  This could be a not-cranky day yet.  :)

7:25 am - As I feed Gretchen, I hear Olivia scampering out of her room.  That's her preferred method of waking up lately: hit the ground running as soon as she hears others moving around (and then she tries to laze around in her pajamas all day, as if the running at the beginning was proof enough that she's awake).  She pokes her head into Gretchen's room to ask if Daddy can turn on Old MacDonald for her.  Having obtained my consent, she heads off to browbeat Bryan into also letting her watch the pictures (I usually just turn on the sound).

7:45 am - Gretchen is fed, changed, and dressed.  She's a much happier camper than she was half an hour ago.  Olivia is comatose in front of the computer.  I'm cleaned up and dressed and Bryan's on his way out the door for work.  Kisses for everyone and then he's gone.  Gretchen plays in the toy kitchen while I clean up a little and open all the windows in the whole house.

8:00 am - Olivia's done watching videos and is getting dressed before we eat breakfast.  She and I have some philosophical disagreements about whether leggings count as pants and whether underwear is more comfortable when worn forwards or backwards.  Olivia tries to make that case that her underwear is not, in fact, on backwards, but she's absolutely wrong on that one.  Can't argue with facts.  Meanwhile, Gretchen is also attempting to (re)dress herself.

8:15 am - Downstairs for prayers, upstairs for breakfast.  Olivia wants Kix and Cheerios mixed together.  Gretchen doesn't care what she gets as long as she gets it soon.  I put oatmeal in the microwave, and come back when it beeps to find that I overestimated the size of the bowl and the cereal overflowed.  *sigh*  At least that's better than yesterday, when Olivia accidentally dropped her bowl of mixed cereal all over the floor on the way to the table.  What a feast the girls had while we picked that one up.  :-P

9:15 am - Gretchen is cranky, so she goes down for a nap.  Olivia and I head to the kitchen to attempt to make pop-tarts with some of the excess jam that we have.  After the first batch is so sticky that it doesn't come off the mat neatly, we put handfuls of flour down and try again.  The dough rolls out much better, but we make a huge mess with the flour.  Olivia's main job is to put the filling in before I put the lids on and we poke the edges together.


11:05 am - Gretchen wakes up from her nap.  Olivia goes to visit her while I clean up the kitchen from the flour we got everywhere.  I tell Olivia not to climb into the crib with Gretchen.

11:10 am - Much laughter coming from Gretchen's room, accompanied by sounds of jumping.  Olivia's in the crib.  I go in to get both of them out.

11:12 am - Olivia begins her chorus of "It's warm outside, we can go play."  I point out that, while it might be warm, it is also wet.  She disagrees, but loses the argument because of those pesky facts again.  She suggests that maybe we should all go sit on the porch swing to wait for Daddy to come home for lunch.  Motion carried.

11:15 am - The girls wait by the door for me to be ready to go outside.  Olivia unlocks the screen (because she can) and must accidentally loosen the latch, because a few seconds later Gretchen leans on the door and it starts to open.  Olivia hastily pulls the door shut and relocks it before patting Gretchen patronizingly on the shoulder and saying, "No, you can't go outside without we.  No, Gretchen, you can't go outside without Mommy and Olivia."

11:20 am - We bring books outside and sit on the swing to read.  We're not there very long before Daddy comes home!  Everyone heads inside for lunch.

12:05 pm - Bryan heads back to work, and the girls and I clear off the table.  Gretchen plays in the kitchen while I decide to start rearranging rooms.  Olivia decides to help me.  We've been meaning to put the girls in a room together and turn the extra room into a playroom, but haven't gotten around to it yet.  Now that Yellow Duck is on the way, though, we need to get the girls into the same room anyway, so we might as well have a playroom while they adjust.  We've decided to put both girls in Olivia's room and to turn the middle room into the playroom.  Olivia and I take books off shelves and move a bookshelf into the closet to hold all the board games.  It looks better already.

1:40 pm - Gretchen's getting cranky again.  Time for naps.  I change Gretchen and put her down.  Olivia sheds her clothes in favor of her polka dot jammies and goes to find two books for me to read.  Books read, I leave her to her quiet time and flop down in front of the computer, deciding that I don't care about being productive right now.  It's amazing how many afternoons I come to that conclusion.  :/

3:00 pm - I feel guilty for not being productive, especially since Olivia is actually napping today.  I write a large chunk of this blog post (up to this point) and work on finding hymn links for Jacob.

4:20 pm - The girls are still sleeping, so Jacob gets a second lengthy email full of links.  I suppose I should go fold clothes.

4:45 pm - I never did fold those clothes.  Gretchen is awake and happy, so I go to rescue her.  While I'm getting her, Olivia stumbles into the room, looking somewhat ruffled after her nap.  I bribe Olivia into clothes by telling her she can listen to more Old MacDonald.  We have another philosophical disagreement about what constitutes a dress and what is really only a long shirt.

4:50 pm - While Olivia gets dressed and Gretchen bops around in the play kitchen, I move grown-up books from the shelves in the middle room to the shelves near the fireplace.

5:10 pm - We go outside to check the mail, and Olivia grabs our books from earlier so that we can sit on the swing to wait for Daddy to come home again.  It would seem that he came home while we were getting the books, because he suddenly walks around the side of the house and tells us to come with him to look at the garden.

5:15 pm - We (Bryan and I especially) are all excited at the actual plants poking out of the dirt in my garden.  Zucchini and beets are coming up, as well as one bean plant.  It all seemed rather sudden, especially the zucchini, which was non-existent when I checked after my run and is now about the size of a quarter.  What a difference 11 hours makes!

5:30 pm - The rain chases us inside, and Bryan gets tackled by the girls while trying to change out of his work clothes.  Gretchen promptly dismantles his wallet, and then steals his phone.  Olivia finishes the job on the wallet before joining the pile.

5:45 pm - Bryan gets his little grill out on the porch to make one last meal on it.  Both girls decide they need to help.  I stay inside to get potatoes ready (and finish moving some books).

5:50 pm - Good thing we have a new grill.  The little grill is refusing to work, so the hamburgers get tossed into a frying pan instead.  I'm now in charge of dinner again.  Gretchen wanders about the house while Olivia and Bryan sit outside to watch the monsoon that is developing.

6:15 pm - Dinner is ready.  Olivia eats an entire hamburger and asks for more.  We are shocked.  Gretchen devours almost all of the potatoes by herself.  We are less shocked.

6:50 pm - After dinner, Olivia talks Bryan into letting her watch more videos online.  Gretchen impresses everyone with her itsy-bitsy spider skills.  The girls play for a while, and Bryan and I hijack Olivia's videos to watch Silly Songs with Larry.  She doesn't seem to mind.  We realize that the Silly Songs with Larry repertoire has increased dramatically since we last kept up with it, but do manage to find one amusing song: Monkey.  Where Have All the Staplers Gone? isn't too bad, either.

Kisses goodnight.

7:45 pm - Bryan heads off to game night with some coworkers, and the girls and I go downstairs for prayers.  Then it's upstairs for bed.  They brush teeth and get jammies on and by 8:10 I'm in the kitchen doing all the things I ignored during naptime.  Dishes don't take too long, though, once I get going, and the laundry does itself as long as I remember to press buttons.  I still haven't folded clothes, but if I did that now then what would I do tomorrow?  :)



More Pictures and a Video:

May 11-18

This is where we see how efficient the grapevine is.  Last Sunday, we made an announcement to (mostly) family and (a few) friends.  Bryan and I have a system.  He gets to choose how to spread the word about the odd numbered babies and I get to do the even numbered ones.  Bryan's method is simple: blurt out the news as soon as possible.  :)  So last Sunday, after taking a positive test Saturday, we started letting people know that baby number 3 will be arriving in mid to late January.  If you're just finding out now, I apologize, because somehow you are woefully out of the loop.  If you bring it to my attention, we will attempt to fix it for next time.

We told Olivia that she was going to have a new brother or sister.  Upon hearing this news, she said, "Yes, a sister would be fine."  The next day, her grandma asked, "Are you going to have a new baby?" and Olivia replied, "A sister."  When it comes time to make predictions, keep in mind that Olivia has thrown all her resources into making sure this baby is another girl.  :)

Another day, we asked Olivia if she had any ideas for names.  Her front runners:  For a girl - Doggie, Yellow Duck.  For a boy - Gretchen.  We told her we'd take her ideas into consideration.  :)

It makes it easier to discuss the baby if we have a name for it.  I was just going to go with boring Number 3, but then we got name suggestions from Olivia.  Henceforth, this baby shall be referred to as Yellow Duck, or perhaps just Duck for short.

Gretchen talks.  A lot.  There are very few distinguishable words, but she likes to make the sounds.  She looks so serious when she talks, like she fully expects us to know exactly what she's saying.  As far as "might be actual words" go, "bye" seems pretty consistent, as does "mamamamama" and "yeah".  She also sings along to Old MacDonald, chiming in with her (slightly mangled) version of EIEIO.  It was recently discovered that Gretchen also participates in The Itsy-Bitsy Spider when that song is sung.

Olivia takes full advantage of the fact that one of Gretchen's only understandable words is "yeah."  We do think Gretchen actually means "yeah" most of the time, and that it's not just a filler sound, but she's also at the age where she'll answer "yeah" to pretty much anything.  Olivia has begun asking Gretchen questions, usually phrasing them carefully so that Gretchen eagerly agrees to whatever nonsense Olivia is suggesting.  Then Olivia turns to me and says, "Mom, Gretchen said yeah."  As if that's all the explanation required when I discover her trying to pick Gretchen up and/or take Gretchen's toys.

I have a garden!  And things are growing in it!  Bryan built me a box to put on the driveway (since that's the only place that gets consistent sunlight).  I filled it with dirt and, utilizing the Square Foot Gardening method, planted zucchini, green beans, peas, carrots, and beets.  I already have sprouts of everything except carrots.  :)  I still need to buy green pepper and tomato plants.  

Bonus post on Wednesday!

Pictures and Video:

May 4-11

Gretchen hated shoes for about a day and a half.  At some point, though, she realized that shoes were something big people wore, so she started trying to put Olivia's shoes on her own feet.  ...She was much more successful at putting them on her hands.  Ever since that revelation, though, Gretchen has willingly accepted wearing shoes (which is good, because Olivia requires them of Gretchen).  Many times she even brings me her shoes to put on her feet.

Since we light candles in our chapel twice a day, we tend to burn through (haha) a lot of votive candles.  When they get too low to light comfortably, we toss them in a box and get some new ones.  Bryan wanted to throw them out, but I kept saying that I'd melt them together to make new candles.  I finally got around to doing that.  Olivia and I braided some embroidery floss into wicks, made a double boiler using a tin can, melted candles, and poured new ones.  No report yet on how well they work; we have to wait for our current candles to burn down.

I bought a wheat grinder.  It was necessary, seeing as I recently purchased a significant amount of wheat berries.  Now we can grind wheat to make cream of wheat and/or flour.  I have not tried to make enough for bread, yet, mostly because I still have wheat flour available.  The girls and I did grind some cream of wheat, though, and it shows some promise.  :)

Our piano came with a cover, perhaps to keep the keys from getting dusty when it is not in use.  Recently I realized, however, that the cover was really just keeping us from playing.  One day when Olivia remembered that the piano existed, she pulled the cover off and asked me to turn it on for her.  I decided to put the cover away for good, and she has decided to play the "peeteeoh" (I have no idea why she has trouble with the word "piano") every day since then.  :)

One of the highlights of the convention I went to was a booth where they were handing out free finger-topper space guys.  I don't even know what the actual purpose of the booth was, but my friends and I all snagged two space guys and we've been sending periodic pictures of them doing things.  My space guys made candles, ground grain, and played the piano.  Jacque, maybe you should get some space guys (or something similar) and take pictures around New York to post on your blog.  You might not have cute kids, but you do have a pretty famous city.  Think of the adventures they could have!

Pictures:

April 27-May 4

Two weeks ago, I promised more information about the weekend with Oma and Opa.  Then last week was ridiculously busy and my belated post had no reference to any time spent in Michigan.  So.  Here's a quick version of what happened in Michigan:

-The girls and I went to the Good Friday service and Olivia broke the solemn silence at the very end by saying, "Are we done now?" quite clearly.  5 bonus points to anyone in the church who didn't have to stifle a laugh.  Dad finished taking off his vestments and then came to find Olivia and inform her that yes, we were done now.
-I helped Mom cook all sorts of delicious things for after Easter.  We also dyed eggs.  Still no luck on getting nice red ones.  Apparently onion skins are supposed to be good for getting red?  Mom, we should try this next year (there are two links).
-The vigil started at 9, so the girls went in pajamas.  We brought Olivia's pillow and blanket, so she immediately set up a bed on the chairs and fell asleep.  Gretchen, not so much.  She played in the back, looking progressively more drunk as the service progressed.  Getting braver while simultaneously getting less coordinated leads to a lot of bumped heads.  Bryan finally wrestled Gretchen to sleep around 11, I think.  Luckily, both girls transferred to their beds after the service without too much trouble.  Church did look a little bit like a crime scene, though, with all the small bodies strewn about.
-Bryan wanted to bring sandwiches for after the service, because every Christmas and Easter we just fill up on a lot of sweet stuff in the middle of the night.  This was a fantastically well-received idea, and we should make a point to get a couple of party subs from Subway every year.
-After the Easter morning service, we went out to see Uncle Ted and Aunt Ruth.  The food was good, the company was fun, and the egg hunt was warm and suitably easy for the girls and hard for the big kids.  The chocolate chips did melt in the eggs, though.
-Gretchen did a practice cake-smash at Ted and Ruth's.  After we gave her a bite of cake, she happily picked it up and managed to stay pretty clean.  Then she put it down and whined a bit about the frosting all over her hand.  ...Until she noticed that there was FROSTING ALL OVER HER HAND!!!  She licked the frosting off, getting it all over her nose and cheek in the process.  Jacob took pictures, which I will steal and put up someday.  Probably.
-Rachel and Gretchen share the same birthday, so we made Rachel smash a piece of cake, too.  She obliged the crowds by lifting her plate and plastering the cake against her face.  A bit of a waste of a piece of cake, but the pictures should be great and the reaction was priceless.
-We left Ted and Ruth's and stopped at Bryan's parents' house for an hour or so on our way home.  As we left, Olivia told my mom that she was going to "go to Grandma's house and lie down on the couch and watch Scooby Doo."  She wasn't wrong.  We did also convince her to sit outside in the beautiful weather for a little bit.

On Sunday (the most recent one, now), Gretchen got to do another cake smash.  She was a little warier this time, needing to be coaxed into picking up the cake.  She did pick it up enough to get her hand messy, but then noticed that there were enough potentially sympathetic faces around for whining to have a chance.  Sure enough, as soon as she started whining pitifully, several people stepped forward to assist by feeding her the rest of the piece.

Jacque came to visit us overnight before I took her to the airport the next day.  Funny story: Keshia and Tyler, Steve, and Jacque were all flying from Dayton to Chicago on Monday afternoon.  In fact, Steve and Jacque were originally on the same flight.  Anyway.  Bryan and I brought out the game Jacque had given us for Christmas, and the three of us enjoyed several rounds of Scribbo, which is essentially Bingo meets Scrabble.  Bryan and I have played Scribbo almost every day since Jacque left.  On Monday afternoon, I dropped Jacque off at the airport with her bags and some apple butter (since she loved the jar I sent so much) and then turned around to head home.  Halfway home, I talked to her on the phone: the security agents confiscated her (sealed!) apple butter and tossed it in the trash.  Sad day.  :(  Mom thinks maybe somebody rescued it later to have a tasty treat to take home.  Jacque, I will make more apple butter this summer and you can take home as much as you can carry.

Gretchen had an appointment Monday morning.  She is 20 lbs, 12 oz, and 30 inches long.  It would appear that she is actually 30 inches this time (as opposed to at her last appointment, when they said she was 30 but she was really only about 28).  This was the one-year appointment, so she had to get 4 shots and a blood draw.  In an unfortunate development for Gretchen, she seems to have inherited my difficult veins, so they had to poke around for quite some time during the blood draw before the needle would go in.  One is a terrible age.  Luckily, she'll never be one again (she will be five someday, though, and that will be similarly awful).

Gretchen made our wall!  We went for her one-year-old pictures on Wednesday and I had the difficult decision of narrowing down which one to order.  I chose one, but was hoping I could show Bryan (and my faithful readers, of course!) some of the other ones when we got home.  Two days later, having still not received the link that they usually send, I called to find out what had happened.  It turns out that they changed their policy, and in order to get a link to their product ordering page you now have to buy a package that contains a CD.  Fine.  The one I picked is great anyway.  :)

Pictures and Videos: