January 17-24

Kaitlyn can turn off light switches, though it takes her a small eternity to do so.  She has also developed a fabulous stiff-arm which she uses to great effect on her older sisters when they try to crowd her.  She excels in the balance department but is lacking courage and thus is not standing unassisted much yet.  Unfortunately for cruising along furniture, she decided to skip the "move your feet" step of learning to walk and is now discovering the hard way that one shouldn't cut corners if one has no idea what one is doing.  She might be mine.

Gretchen wants to do everything that Olivia does.  She eats the same breakfasts (mostly cereal), dislikes the same vegetables (all of them), prefers the same colors (green and orange), plays the same games, reads the same books, loves the same princesses, says the same words...  There are times when we are able to remind her that she is her own person (who actually likes eggs and bacon for breakfast, doesn't mind vegetables much at all, and shows a preference for pink and purple), but for the most part she is content to echo Olivia.  She's been enjoying galloping around since Edward visited and showed her how.  Also, Gretchen knows that two choices amounts to no choices.  There is no pacifying her need for independence by giving her two acceptable options, thereby tricking her into thinking she's making important decisions about her own life.  She's on to our game and can see through the deception.

Olivia has a construction paper crown that Grandma made her.  It's green and says "Princess Olivia."  Shortly after it came home over a year ago, I covered the whole thing with packing tape so as to not be constantly patching rips.  It would seem that she now thinks that this crown is a hair accessory.  She wears it every day and if I ask what she is going to wear to keep her hair out of her face she looks at me like I'm a bit off my rocker and says in a patronizing tone, "I'm going to wear my crown!"   Long able to spell her own name, Olivia can now spell Gretchen's name as well.  We have a song we sing when spelling names, so that helps.  Unfortunately for me, she has developed the unsettling habit of needing to be inside my personal space bubble anytime she talks to me, which means she's often playing with my braid, stroking my arm, and/or breathing in my ear.  It drives me nuts.

Marshmallows in our house are called shmarshmallows.  The girls are not, as far as I can tell, being goofy; they legitimately think that's what they are called.

We spent some time in Sidney this week so that Bryan could go to Springfield for work and the girls and I could go to Dayton for Eva's birthday party.  The Kleins visited us while we were in Sidney, and Steph and I took the kids downstairs to play foosball and pool.  A note about foosball tables: those rods are right at two-year-old eye level.  Only two kids got hit, though, and we enjoyed quite an exciting game of foosball.  None of the kids were able to maneuver the players very well, and Eli and Gretchen had to stand on a trampoline if they wanted to see inside.  I was playing one handed while holding Kaitlyn.  I think Eva was the only child who understood what we were trying to accomplish (get the ball in the goal), but she was occasionally fuzzy on which goal.  At one point, though, Steph missed a block with the goalie, allowing me to score, and Eva said, "Here, Mom, let me show you how."  :)

Bryan had an interview in Columbus on Thursday for a contracting job with the Columbus Crew.  For those of you that don't know, the Crew is a professional soccer team.  Bryan contacted the owner (manager?) once about applying some analytic analysis to the team (similar to the movie Moneyball) and has been talking back and forth with him since then.  He's had several meetings and has now been offered a one-time job with the possibility of future work depending on their needs.  He is excited to be officially working for a professional sports team, though he says he'd be just as happy getting paid in "season tickets and soccer balls."

Pictures:
Kaitlyn climbed on the table:

Tired mornings:

The girls play piano:

Peekaboo!