February 7-14

I promised you a story about Kaitlyn and her standing skills.  She can indeed stand unassisted for short periods of time.  Whenever we catch her standing, we make a big deal about it and cheer for her.  As a result, she knows that she can stand and that this is something of which to be proud.  She's developed a game of sorts, pulling herself up and then letting go with both hands for a second or two while looking triumphantly at the other people in the room.  After this brief moment of euphoria, she immediately throws her hands back down to safe anchorage.  This will be repeated any number of times in one session.  :)

A common word around our house is "great!"  I don't think Bryan and I use the word great a lot, but perhaps I am mistaken because both Olivia and Gretchen use it on a regular basis.

Kaitlyn seems to have two consistent words.  One is "gog," which means "dog" (or, in one case, "large button that I am going to eat").  The other, more frequently used word is "dada," which means "parental unit."  At first it seemed that just Bryan was Dada, but we have come to realize that Dada also refers to me.

An amusing note: Olivia's most common song of choice when going to the bathroom is "Let It Go."

I went on an organizing spree this week, probably because I didn't really have the time to be organizing and so of course I was motivated.  :/  I've started alphabetizing all the books Dad left here so that I can list some of them for sale and repackage the rest in some sort of easily referenced order.  I also rearranged the workroom-turned-Jacque's-bedroom so that her things and my things are separate and the bed is no longer in the direct center of the room.  I wish I had taken a "before" picture so everyone could properly appreciate the progress.  The picture below DOES have a clearly defined line where the bed used to be, and you'll just have to believe me when I say that there used to be only about a foot and a half of walking space on three of the sides (the last side had no space).  It looks much better now.  :)

Last week, Fr. Mark mentioned in his sermon that happy, well-adjusted children sing.  I decided to try an experiment on myself and sing whenever I wanted to yell at the kids.  I didn't worry about tune or rhyming but instead made it all up as I went, giving them directions in song.  It worked remarkably well, and I sing often enough over the course of the day that the girls didn't even seem to notice that something might be amiss.  The one downside is that once I start singing I find it difficult to stop...

I had an orchestra concert yesterday.  The music was Mendelssohn and Beethoven and it was refreshingly familiar.  :)  Next month is our Star Wars concert, where we play selections from each of the first 6 movies.

Pictures:

Olivia and Gretchen being sweet:

A fraction of my Dad's books, in the process of being organized:

Kaitlyn's fabulous after-pigtails hairdo:

Olivia and Gretchen read together:

My former workroom: