Eva had a gymnastics birthday part at the end of January, so I took the girls to the Kleins' for an overnight visit. At the party (which Kaitlyn and I watched from the observation deck), I learned that Olivia is timid, but not afraid of heights. In direct contrast, Gretchen is bold, but terrified of being up high. Olivia walked the balance beam and then patiently waited for someone to hold her hand while she jumped into the foam pit. Gretchen scooted along the balance beam on her rear until the instructor stood her up, and which point she inched along (millimetered along?) while clinging like a leach to the poor woman's arm. Both muddled happily through the various gym games, and Gretchen was very content when the instructor finally gave up on attempting to have her do the height related things.
February 2 was a feast day, but our priest was on vacation. The girls and I had an outing with the Hodges in Fort Wayne for liturgy and a visit to the art museum. The art museum was, sadly, undergoing renovation and/or exhibit rearrangement. Very little was open. We walked through two exhibits, though, and then found a kid section where they could color with markers and build with blocks. This made the 7 and under crowd happy, so we hung out there for a while before heading home. Olivia and Gretchen were inspired to paint, so we broke out the easel, a couple of canvasses, and the paint (pictures in last week's post). It was all very exciting.
We took a trip to Fort Wayne a few weeks ago to visit the Eichers. Olivia and Gretchen absolutely loved the hand puppets that Kara had. Since the girls had been traveling in their sleep a lot lately, we decided to stay the night in the apartment. All was well until Kaitlyn woke up at 6:06 (her usual wake up time is about 7:15). She was happy to snuggle with me on the air mattress until Gretchen said something in her sleep, and then Kaitlyn just had to talk to Gretchen. Olivia made the mistake of telling Kaitlyn to be quiet because she was trying to sleep, and then Kaitlyn was talking to Olivia, too. All being awake at this point, we got up. Bryan went out to find breakfast and the girls got to play quite a bit before we finally rolled leisurely out the door at 8:25. That was a full half hour before our assumed best case scenario.
Kaitlyn can climb out of a pack and play. At first we thought she was grabbing a nearby bedspread and pulling herself out, but when we moved the pack and play she still escaped. We considered turning it over on her, but they collapse when you do that. We ended up barricading her behind the pack and play to keep her in one place for the night. On a later date, I put her in a pack and play so that we could watch the process, and she immediately swung her little foot up to the top edge and hauled herself over.
I've been saving our bits and pieces of broken crayons for years, and a couple of weeks ago I decided to turn them into usable crayons again. I tried the muffin tin crayons when Olivia was little, but none of the kids really like them, so I went looking for a crayon mold. Crayola sells one for not too much and when it arrived in the mail Gretchen and I happily melted and molded all the broken pieces into new crayon shaped crayons.
I will only be babysitting Sophia and Evalynn until the end of March. Near the end of February I decided I'd had enough and that the stress of extra kids (especially an extra almost-two-year-old) wasn't worth it. I gave their parents until the end of March to find a new sitter. Due to illness in our family and theirs, I got an unexpected week off immediately after making this announcement, and it only reinforced my belief that this is the right thing to do.
I missed the February orchestra concert due to the minor plague that swept through our family. It was just a cough and mild fever, but it managed to knock me out for two days and the cough is still lingering (although it has improved) several weeks later. I also had no singing voice for about a week after the fever disappeared. Thankfully, the girls just got the cough, and Bryan managed to avoid sickness altogether.
This weekend is the family concert, so we're playing Heroes and Villains music. Peter and the Wolf, Casey at Bat, The Tortoise and the Hare, and some stuff from movies. Surprisingly, there will be no Star Wars at this concert. Not to worry, John Williams is still well represented in Harry Potter and Superman.
We had our yearly Happy March card club and it was a success. Child interruptions were at a minimum, and we decided before starting to only play one time around each table, so we were done at a reasonable time.
Pictures:
Goofy girls:
Goofy daddy:
Goofy Gretchen:
Posing for the camera:
Kaitlyn's ponytail:
Accurate representation of me, according to Gretchen:
We've been using slinkies wrong all our lives:
The Breakfast Club (with the Weys) has grown in the past two years:
Daddy takes pictures:
Painting (also, Bryan wants you to look at Gretchen's ponytail, I think):
Kaitlyn ...dances? Flaps around like a chicken? I'm not sure exactly what she was doing here:
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