October 19-26

I'm drawing a blank on the things I wanted to mention this week, so this entry is rather short.  Perhaps I'll remember for next week.

Gretchen's new vocal talents include "Amen", elephant sounds, monkey sounds, "bowl" (which means plate), "spoon" (which means fork), and the word "poop."  The latter is generally not in context; I think she just likes to say it.  She's also started counting: "two, two, two, two, two."

Olivia discovered this week that if she turns in circles, "the house moves!"  Gretchen thought this was a brilliant discovery, and they've been making themselves, I mean the house, dizzy.

When asked what she wanted to be for Halloween, Olivia gave her standard answer: "I don't know."  Bryan and I decided that she wanted to be a fairy princess.  In green, of course.  I bought the materials and Olivia pestered me about turning them into a dress for two weeks.  When I finally produced the dress, she put it on immediately.  At the writing of this blog post, she has worn the dress non-stop for three days.  I do make her get dressed in real clothes in the morning, and she usually wears the dress over them.  She's also not allowed to wear dress-up clothes to the store.  Other than those restrictions, though, the dress has been her constant companion.  Good thing it's washable.

Pictures:

October 5-19

Last week's post was not written during the week like they usually are because I had orchestra rehearsals and Etsy orders and people visiting...  I was planning to write it after my concert on Saturday night, but Bryan thought I should skip it to watch a movie with him and eat chips instead.  Peer pressure prevailed, hence the description of the reason for my delay.

The orchestra season started two weeks ago, so I had rehearsals and concerts.  We performed with a group called Cirque de la Symphonie, so we were the background music to acrobatics and juggling.  Judging from the sounds coming from the audience, the performers were quite entertaining.  Unfortunately for the musicians, circus music is fast and flashy, so we had no time to stop and watch the show.

On Sunday morning we drove up to Michigan for dad's ordination to Archpriest.  Everyone except dad knew what was going to happen, and he was quite surprised.  I think the rest of us were surprised that he didn't find out ahead of time by accident.  We just stayed to visit for the day and then drove home at bedtime.  Jacob followed us home so that he could see our new house and spend some time de-stressing.

While Jacob was here he took lots of pictures.  A sampling is below.  He also caught a bee in a parmesan cheese jar.  The bee deserved it, as it was terrorizing us while we tried to enjoy the lovely weather.  It probably did not deserve the shaking that Gretchen gave it when it was her turn to hold the jar.  :/  The girls, Olivia especially, liked looking at it up close, though.  Also while Jacob was here, I decided to hire him as my personal car babysitter.  Small errands go so much more quickly when I can just run in without taking the girls!  Unfortunately, he has prior commitments.  Some nonsense about college classes, campus photography, and a capella, I think.  We here in the Barhorst household shall be patiently waiting for the day he comes to his senses and realizes that this would be a better gig.  :)

This weekend I was at a craft show but had a pitifully small amount of inventory due to the fact that people keep buying things off the Etsy site.  It's like they don't know I'm trying to build my inventory for a show!  I guess there are worse problems to have.  :)

Gretchen's update:
Gretchen has several recognizable words now (more than several if you're her mother and speak semi-fluent Gretchen!).  I was surprised by her mastery of blends; she uses the sounds sh, bl, and pl consistently.  She has recently started singing along with Olivia and her favorite words to sing appear to be "la" (on most songs) and "shapes" (for one shapes song).  Occasionally the shapes song morphs into one about shoes, because Gretchen loves shoes and can remember that word.  :)  Other recent skills include being able to crawl under Olivia's legs, putting on a headband, and identifying people in pictures.  The last one is less impressive than it sounds because Gretchen declares all the people in every picture to be "mama" (or, on a rare occasion, "dada").

Olivia's update:
I taught Olivia to use a computer mouse, and she's scarily good at it.  Good thing she can't type yet, or I'd never be able to curb her computer habits.  She is, however, able to pick her own songs when listening to music, which keeps me from having to come back to the computer every time she changers her mind.  She has also discovered that if she clicks through songs enough then eventually a full episode of Barney or Sofia the First will present itself for her viewing pleasure.  Olivia's other big thing right now is playing games.  She loves pulling out the games in our cupboard and trying to play them.  She does not love it when Gretchen interferes.  :/

I have a set of girly girls here.  Important things this week include shoes and nail polish (of course), strollers and babies, hair accessories, and purses.  Olivia has an old Easter hat and a small purse from Jillian that she wears across her body.  Gretchen prefers to carry a baby doll and the Jenga container.  :)  Both girls insist on hair accessories.  Lately they've been favoring headbands.

We have the occasional fruit fly in our house, and Bryan and I will try to catch them as they fly around the table.  As those of you who have tried to catch fruit flies before may know, the approved method is to clap your hands and then examine them for the fruit fly before deciding that it has escaped and looking around the room to relocate it.  Olivia realized we were trying to catch bugs, and started spotting a bug, clapping, and looking around.  Her sense of range is a little off, though, so we watched in amusement as she clapped at bugs that were halfway across the room.  The best part came afterwards, though, when Gretchen decided this looked like a great game.  Clearly having no clue that she is hunting bugs of any sort, Gretchen will clap once and immediately look at the ceiling for a few seconds before grinning triumphantly at her laughing audience.

Pictures:

October 5-12

This entry postponed due to movie and chips.  We will return to your regularly scheduled program next week.  Or possibly later this week, if I'm feeling on the ball.  :)

September 28-October 5

Our Cincinnati trip last weekend was wonderful.  We accidentally themed it around food because the only concrete plans we made before going had to do with places we wanted to eat.  Conveniently, the rest of Cincinnati (well, Newport, KY, actually) fell neatly into line with our plans.  We visited the Newport Aquarium, the Casino, Eden Garden, a bowling alley, and a putt-putt place.  We also got fantastic grilled cheese (Tom and Chee), heard dueling pianos (Gangsters Dueling Piano Bar), tried Bavarian food (Hofbrauhaus), and had a fancy four course dinner (Nicola's) where we couldn't finish the tiny portions because we were too full from all our previous meals.  At Hofbrauhaus I noticed a sign that said "1 liter of beer = 3 12-oz bottles."  I hurried back to the table to tell Bryan, whereupon he looked at me with wide eyes and said, "I just ordered a liter."  We took our time eating an appetizer while he nursed his liter of beer.  :)  At Nicola's -- a restaurant where we were asked what kind of water we wanted (tap, bottled sparkling, or bottled still) -- we split all the courses, and Bryan accidentally tricked me into eating raw fish because the first course was sashimi (raw fish) in a mushroom broth.  The menu talked up the mushroom; the sashimi not so much.  :-P  On the way home after church on Sunday, we stopped at Jungle Jim's -- a huge store full of all sorts of weird things -- to get some kangaroo and rabbit meat.  We also got two pounds of assorted Jelly Bellys.

While we were in Cincinnati, the girls had a grand old time at Grandma and Grandpa's.  They ate hamburgers and pancakes, watched Scooby Doo on constant loop, and also played outside a fair amount.  :)  Murry kept them too busy to mind that we were gone, although they did seem pretty happy to see us when we got back.

Then it was back home to sleep in our own beds and spend the week unpacking some more.  I've been making pretty good progress this week, and even managed to unpack a few things in my workroom, which is by far the least unpacked room in the house.  Maybe I'll get around to taking some pictures this next week.

Bryan and his dad bought wood for the basement office, and Bryan set up a card table down there in the meantime so that he could spread out and use all of the computer monitors he is used to using at work.  He is apparently much more productive now than he was on the floor in the chapel, so that's good.  Now he just needs to get the office actually built and wired for electricity (and heat!) before winter arrives.

We have the Sandra Boynton book Tickle Time that is a favorite of both girls.  In case you haven't read this book, it is all about tickling (surprise!) and all the characters are cats.  We have another book about baby animals that Gretchen likes to read, especially now that she can do the sounds for dog, duck, horse, and cow.  She also thinks she can do cat: they say "tickle tickle tickle!"

Pictures: