June 7-14

Bugs are Gretchen's kryptonite.  They are the most terrifying creatures on the planet and render her completely immobile.  Take, for example, our recent car trip to Toledo: As we were driving through a construction zone (fewer exits and no shoulders to stop on), Gretchen began freaking out in her carseat.  I asked her what was wrong and she managed to squeak out, "Bug on me!  Bug on my arm!"  Glancing in the rear view mirror, I spotted a small fly on her arm.  I told her to move her arm, I told her to blow on the bug, I told her to wave the bug away with her other hand...  Gretchen continued to sit in petrified terror, making movement with nothing other than her increasingly panicked vocal cords.  Nevermind that the slightest twitch on her part would have taken care of her bug problem.  I attempted to calm her while waiting for a place to pull off the road.  Finally we found an exit, pulled into a gas station, and stopped the car.  The bug may have given up by this point, but I got out anyway and made vague waving motions in the direction of Gretchen's afflicted arm.  We spent about five minutes attempting to lure the fly out of the car, but it buzzed around happily, deciding it liked the infamy that accompanies the prestigious title of Terror of the Van.  Finally we opened all the windows and continued on our merry way, making sure to wave our arms periodically to scare off any bugs.

One night a few weeks ago, we heard Olivia crying over the monitor.  This is an unusual occurrence, so I went to check on her.  As I walked to the room, I guessed that she had fallen out of bed and simply needed someone to cover her back up.  Sure enough, her blankets were on the floor and she was sitting on the edge of her bed.  She was still screaming, though, which seemed odd.  I looked more closely and noticed that her nose was bleeding.  Fantastic.  She bloodied her nose falling out of bed at 2 in the morning.  I hurried her into the bathroom and began the process of cleaning her up.  Unfortunately, she does not handle nosebleeds as well as her cousin, and she violently resisted my attempts to stanch the flow of blood.  According to Olivia, the correct response to a nosebleed is to flail all your limbs while screaming bloody murder.  Mom is probably definitely trying to murder you by holding that cloth over your nose.  She took to tipping her head back with equal grace.  :/  Despite it all, we managed to get the blood stopped and she climbed back into her newly stripped bed while I found clean blankets.

Gretchen has a distressing habit of removing all of her clothes at night, including her diaper.  Cloth diapers are trickier to remove than disposables because of the snaps, but she's got those figured out now.  I tried putting a cover on backwards so that the snap angle was worse, but that didn't slow her down at all.  She spent a few nights gorilla-taped into her diaper before we reached an understanding and she stopped removing it before falling asleep.  Pajamas, yes, diaper, no.  On Friday morning she appeared diaperless in my room (having removed it after waking up) and I was just rolling with it until I discovered the puddle on the playroom carpet.  Back to the gorilla tape.

Kaitlyn is officially in 3-6 month clothes.  Her toes have been looking a bit squished in her sleepers lately, so I got the new boxes from the basement and switched out her entire wardrobe on Thursday.  Her legs look more comfortable, but now I have to roll the sleeves up about an inch.  :)

We're coming up on a busy week.  Today is Keshia's baby shower, then we're going to Michigan to visit my parents for a week.  Saturday is the parish picnic at Bryan's old church (where he can catch up with all his friends from high school) and then next Sunday we're in Toledo for a baptism.  That said, the post may be late.  :)

Pictures:

Princess pictures at the wedding (pictures from Jacque):

The Dr. Seussy playscape thing from the Toledo Art Museum (pictures from Jacque):

Kaitlyn:

Gretchen fell asleep behind the chair in her room.  I heard Darth Vader's breathing coming over the monitor and went in to see how close she actually was since her bed is on the other side of the room.  You can see the monitor in the background of the picture.  She was facing the monitor when I first came in and then turned her head:

Olivia and Gretchen in the pool that Grandma brought: