March 12-19

The girls have an interesting phrase that they use: "Me named ____."  They use it to tell me who's speaking ("No, it was me named Olivia.") and also when playing with dolls ("Me named Amber goes to bed."  "Me named Sofia goes out to play."  "Me named Cinderella says hello.")

We finally got the cat fixed.  We've been meaning to since we got her, but the Humane Society near us never had openings.  About three weeks ago, we had an excess of male cats hanging around again, to the point where it looked like we owned five cats rather than just one.  I looked more diligently into non-Humane Society options and found a low cost mobile spay/neuter clinic that was coming to Wapak this past week.  Close enough.  I made an appointment, and on Wednesday the girls and I packed the cat up in a pillow case and took her in for surgery.  She has since been living a warm and cushy life in the guest bathroom shower while she recovers.

I went to the chiropractor recently for the first time in seven years.  There was a pinched nerve in my back that bothered me enough to make and appointment.  Thankfully, the pain subsided before my appointment came around.  The chiropractor was sad that he couldn't take x-rays, but did as much as he could with a posture analysis and my memory of old chiropractic visits.  He declared that he doesn't like my left hip (the one that was broken) or the middle of my back (my viola muscles).  He also commented on the strength and tightness of my shoulders.  The viola muscles won out against his attempts to crack my upper spine.  His recommendation is to go get a massage and then come see him within a day while my muscles are still loose.  :-P

The girls have been very cultured lately, attending a symphony concert (two for Olivia) and a lunch matinee performance at a dinner theater.  

First I took all five girls to a children's concert by the Lima Youth Symphony in the middle of the week.  While they enjoyed the music, the chairs were more exciting.  It turns out that little legs aren't heavy enough to hold down a typical auditorium chair, so they spent the whole concert bouncing up and down with their feet.  Even more exciting than the chairs was the wind outside.  We had to walk about a block from our parking space to the civic center, and the wind was quite strong.  I held baby hands, three year olds were attached to those, and Olivia was tacked onto one end.  We started as one big line, but the wind blew us into a giant U-shape, and we ended as a stumbling drunken mass of tiny people, laughing hysterically the whole time.  The cars waiting for us to cross the street were very patient.

Next was the Lima Symphony's family concert (I mentioned it last week).  Only Olivia went to this one, although Gretchen probably would have liked it, too.  Our friends, the Hodges, were going and picked Olivia up on the way since I was playing.  Olivia loved the ballet dancers that performed Peter and the Wolf and she excitedly explained every detail to Gretchen and Bryan when she got home.

Then yesterday we went down to La Comedia for their annual children's show.  This one was The Boy Who Cried Wolf.  They served lunch and then we got to watch a musical adaptation of the story.  Kaitlyn stayed home with daddy.  :)  Both Olivia and Gretchen were very excited after the show and spent part of the long car ride home telling each other their favorite parts.

My babysitting stint is officially over.  The last day was supposed to be this past Thursday, but ended up being Tuesday by accident.  I'm looking forward to sleeping in a little more and not having to work my schedule around two extra children.

Kaitlyn does all sorts of things that I documented much better with the other two girls.  Sorry, Kaitlyn.  :/  So, for posterity: She's been weaned forever, since about 19 months.  Maybe 20, I can't remember.  She knows most of her body parts and a lot of animal noises.  She can sing half her alphabet and count kind of.  She runs and jumps and sings and dances and bosses.  She can follow simple directions if she wants to.  Her carseat is still facing backwards, but I anticipate that changing shortly after her second birthday.  We shall see.  She's starting to try to dress herself and has definite opinions about what she wears.  She's still in a crib because we don't trust her to stay out of her sisters' beds.  She climbs a lot.

Pictures and Video:

Vimeo password BarhorstBrewed

More Dancing

A summer zoo picture taken by Kara:

Selfies:

Daddy's girls:

The girls were able to get pig pancakes at Bob Evan's:

Fort Wayne Art Museum pictures from Carrie:

Reading to kids (the spares are Hodges):