November 16-23

You may not know this, but our house came with 7 locks and only 4 keys.  We had 2 deadbolts, but zero deadbolt keys, and none of the doorknob locks matched each other.  Bryan released his inner handyman this week and fixed our doors so that now we have one key that opens the knobs and deadbolts on both the front and back door!  The next project (postponed for the time being) is to replace the lock in the sliding door with one for which we have a key.  :)  This weekend Bryan also spent time with his dad finishing some walls in the basement so that we can get an electrician to come outfit his office with light and heat!

More news in Bryan's life: He got older!  His birthday was Friday and he's now only two years away from 30.  Also, we've entered the brief window of time during which I can tease him about how much older than me he is.

Words not mentioned in previous posts that Gretchen says now, either because she already knew them (and her mother forgot to list them earlier) or because she learned them this week: coat, boot, ribbit, work, milk, more, baby, sock, belly, eye, potty, hello, peekaboo, up, down, look, see, want, plug, fork, plate, hot, book, oatmeal, crown, stroller, ice cream, phone, ball, thank you, please, Scooby Doo, open, Lolly (Olivia), doing, big, barbie, oh.

Phrases Olivia uses (one from me and one that she still says wrong):
"You're a silly goose!"
"You need to talk about Gretchen." -- meaning that I need to talk TO Gretchen.

We're at a tough developmental stage right now.  Gretchen is into parallel play, so she will happily go off by herself and play quietly.  She likes to be in the same room as others, but doesn't require it.  Olivia, however, is a copycat, and thinks that everyone else's ideas are the best.  Unfortunately, this means that Olivia follows Gretchen around the house, stealing her toys and taking over her games.

Gretchen has a dish and utensil at every meal now.  Her preferred use for the utensil is to hold it in her right hand while she puts food in her mouth with her left hand, but she's improving.  Her coordination is better with a fork than with a spoon, mostly because I don't give her very many spoonable foods to feed herself.

Gretchen has begun potty training.  It's going very slowly and thus far she has not produced anything while actually sitting on the potty.  She wants to sit, though, so sit she does.  A plus to potty training this time around is that Gretchen says "potty" very clearly, so I always know what she means.  Olivia's word for potty was "dobby," which was the same word she used for pretty much everything else in her life at the time.

Olivia has elaborate conversations with her dolls and stuffed animals.  During quiet time, which is one of the only times she's not following Gretchen around, I listen to her make up stories and scenarios to keep Barney and her babies amused.  She's also started projecting her wants onto her playthings, as if the fact that Barbie wants a piece of cake might trick me into leaving a piece of cake unattended on the table.  :)

Pictures:
Pictures from Josef and Alison's visit (photos by Alison):

Sisters playing dress-up:

Hiding in the curtains:

Going outside after the first lasting snow: