May 17-24

The week in brief:

Gretchen runs.  I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but she's quite good at it now.  She still can't jump yet, though.  Her current attempt is to roll up onto her tippy toes.

You haven't seen dancing until you've seen Olivia's martial-arts-dance to Be A Man from Mulan.

Kaitlyn now has times where she's awake but not eating.  No one, Kaitlyn included, really knows what to make of these times.

I'm sporting two wonderful wounds on my leg, courtesy of the treadmill.  This is what happens when you make bad decisions (trying to fix a ponytail while running) on a treadmill.

The 5k I was hoping to run didn't happen.  Elesha, Jon, and I showed up, but the rest of the run didn't.  :/  The three of us held a poorly measured Lima Symphony 5k without the Lima Symphony.

Bryan's office is one step closer to complete.  An electrician came on Wednesday to wire the roughed in office for lights, outlets, and heat.

Gretchen doesn't bump her head, she bonks it.

Our quiet time experiment has been ...going.  Gretchen often doesn't nap, which means her bedtime goes more smoothly.  Of course, she's not very good at quiet time yet and she gets cranky due to lack of nap, so I'm often more frazzled by the time everyone is in bed.  :/

On Thursday we left for Wisconsin to attend Kara and Jacob's wedding.  News of that trip next week.

Did you see the Bonus Post this past week?  Head on over and take a quiz about Gretchen's current life...

Pictures and Videos:

Vimeo Videos (Password: BarhorstBrewed).  Yes, the videos are working properly.  I used black screens and recorded myself singing the songs I made up for each of my children.
Olivia Helen
Gretchen Bernice
Casey Frances
Kaitlyn Elaine

Kaitlyn is unimpressed with my efforts to catch a smile on camera.  I did get one small one, though:

Olivia gets her toes painted by Grandma:

Gretchen is hiding.  She's poking her hand out (and saying, "I'm poking my hand out!") to help me find her.  She was so proud when I succeeded:

Bryan wrote a short letter to Gretchen in response to the picture of her hiding:

Dear 15 Year Old Gretchen,

I'm sorry I don't always treat you like you're as old as you are.  But this is how I knew you first and some part of me always will.  I'll work on remembering you're not two anymore.

Loved you then and love you still,

Dad