June 28-July 5

The bunk bed seems to have helped solve several of our sleeping woes.  All three girls now take nap/quiet time in the bedroom, which is nice for me.  The bunks keep Olivia and Gretchen in their own beds rather than running around the room, Kaitlyn is useful in keeping the older girls quiet since they don't want to wake her u, and the presence of her sisters is enough to keep Gretchen from napping unless she really needs to sleep.  Bedtime has also become a smoother process, partly because Gretchen is regulating her naps better and partly because the bunks keep the girls from interacting as much as they used to, so they don't keep each other up.  All in all a good thing.  :)

And speaking of good things, Kaitlyn has been doing at least one eight-hour night a week for a bit now.  Usually she still sleeps in chunks of four to five hours at night, but once or twice a week she'll throw in an eight hour segment (and once she did ten!), which keeps her mother from getting too cranky.

Our rainy season is finally tapering off (at least, that's what we hope!) and we've had enough sunny days in a row that the swingset and trampoline dried off.  The water in our new wading pool has warmed up, too, so Olivia and Gretchen have been outside a lot.  The downside to the pool is that I can no longer just shoo them outside by themselves since Gretchen is drawn to the water like a moth to light.

Kaitlyn has mastered the art of grabbing things.  She has not, however, figured out how to let go voluntarily, so she spends a lot of time accidentally attached to things.  Usually it's not a big deal; she just hangs out, pretending she's holding on for a reason, until her hand happens to let go.  Once, though, she grabbed her own hair.  She pulled furiously, trying to get her hand away from her head, all the time yelling about the awful person who was mean enough to pull her hair.

Bryan discovered the wonders of siphons this week.  The entryway to our basement was full of water so that every time it rained water was getting into the basement under the door.  Such polite water we have here, entering through the door rather than seeping up through the floor.  However, even polite water is unappreciated in the basement, so Bryan set out to dry up the little pond under our basement stairs (and found a very large toad in the process!).  He decided on a siphon and sent the water running through a clear hose over the door jamb and into the sump pump.  Physics is so cool.  Since solving that problem, he's been using the siphon to empty the pool periodically, which is much easier than trying to tip it over.

Elesha and I have been running several days a week and yesterday we ran in a local 5k.  Our time was only 28:15, but we had a good run anyway.  The highlight of the run, though, was actually on the way back to Elesha's house to pick up my car.  We passed a garage sale and I got a Cinderella Barbie, a doll baby carrier/carseat, some muslin, and two bookshelves.  My mom is so proud.

Pictures:

Gretchen and Kaitlyn:

Kaitlyn was getting tired by the time Olivia joined us: