Barhorst Brewed: October 15-November 12

A month of information and activities in no particular order:

Orchestra happened. Possibly twice. I had a week of rehearsals in October and then Bryan's mom watched the girls and Sarah watched Matthias during a Friday morning concert. I hurried down to Sidney to grab the girls before dance class, but they ended up missing class anyway because Olivia was sick (we found out at her yearly checkup that she had strep throat but it just wasn't bothering her). I had another concert that Saturday evening. Our theme was space and we played two contemporary pieces in addition to Holst's The Planets. One of the new pieces was written by our conductor and it was... an adventure. He described it as "chaos written down," which was quite accurate. Then at the beginning of November I had a week of rehearsal and another concert. I was quite relieved to see that the music featured in this concert was by a bunch of old dead composers. Hooray for Beethoven, Brahms, and Mozart.

Kaitlyn is potty trained. Mostly. She can be potty trained if she wants to be. She wears underwear all the time and for the most part will use the toilet. She dislikes putting any effort into pooping, though, so she tends to wait until it's falling out of her and then we have to clean poop out of her underwear. Gross. She also periodically decides that she doesn't want to be potty trained anymore and fights any attempt to sit her on the potty. She's been my easiest to train because she pretty much did it herself when I wasn't paying attention, but also my hardest because when she decides she doesn't want to sit on the potty then there's a lot of fighting and yelling and crying and wet underwear. She's consistently dry enough at night that we don't bother with diapers at night, but I am resigned to an unscheduled washing of her bedding about once a week.

Some Disney princesses came to the zoo in mid-October, so we all went as a family to see them. The girls wore dress-up dresses, but the day was quite toasty so Kaitlyn and Olivia ended up taking them off. Gretchen resisted all attempts to persuade her to lose the long sleeves. The zoo also had trick-or-treating stations, so we visited those. Very few animals were out. :( We stood in long lines for pictures with Cinderella and Moana, got candy in our buckets, and visited the fish in the aquarium.

Pinkeye went through our house. It started with Kaitlyn and then spread to Gretchen and Olivia. Bryan and I never got it, and Matthias only had it for about a day. Since his fingers aren't in his eyes much, he only needed one dose of drops to help his eyes clear up. When I took the girls in to get a prescription, Olivia still wasn't showing any symptoms, so they said I could call when her pinkeye appeared and they'd order a prescription for me. I was back at the pharmacy within 24 hours for her drops.

Olivia and Matthias had regular check-ups, and then Gretchen and Kaitlyn got checked when they had pinkeye, so I have stats for everyone! Unfortunately, they don't seem to get heights for pinkeye visits, so I only have weights for the two middle kids. Olivia: 45 pounds, 47 inches tall. Gretchen: 39 pounds. Kaitlyn: 31 pounds. Matthias: 15.1 pounds, 25.25 inches long.

Olivia has a loose tooth. One day about a month ago she complained that her tooth was hurting when she ate. Since then she has been telling everyone that she has a tooth that is "about to fall out." To practiced teeth losers, however, it's still pretty firmly attached, so we shall see when it actually happens.

Matthias can roll from back to front. He was trying very hard to make it over on Wednesday, October 25, while the girls and I cheered for him, but never succeeded in getting his elbow out from underneath him. Then on Thursday (10-26) he figured it out, and now his favorite thing to do is roll over and then yell about how someone had the audacity to put him on his stomach. He did roll one week earlier than Kaitlyn, who rolled about 3-10 days earlier than Gretchen. He can also roll front to back, though that's a more recently developed skill that he utilizes less frequently.

Matthias is in 6-9 month clothes. He has also started to appreciate his flying saucer. He does not yet reach for toys, but he likes chewing on bibs and burp cloths and he catches his own hands frequently. He is quite upset that someone keeps sticking thumbs in his mouth (spoiler: they're Matthias's thumbs) and he also panics at night when hands come bursting out of his swaddle sack to attack his face (another spoiler: they're Matthias's hands).

Olivia has started working on spelling. She now has five regular subjects that we work on: Math, Phonics, Handwriting, Reading, and Spelling. Some progress faster than others.

We had a discussion in the car recently about the timelessness of God. Olivia wanted to know if we are in heaven before we are born as babies. I don't know about all the theology of that, but if God works outside of time and we are in heaven after we die I don't see why we couldn't also be there before we're born. In a "time means nothing to God" kind of way. We also talked about how in heaven we will be able to see and hear Jesus, but on earth he is invisible even though he's always with everyone. Kids have a much easier time accepting all of this than adults because their brains don't have trouble with reconciling the concept of God being omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, and outside of time with human limitations like time and location. They just accept that some "people" (God) can do that.

We took a vacation to Castaway Bay with Bryan's family. The girls had a great time splashing in the water. Olivia and Gretchen took a tour of some bigger water attractions, but returned to the toddler pool to play. Kaitlyn happily got as wet as she was allowed. There was an arcade there, as well, which was exciting, and a kid's club where they decorated cookies and watched a movie.

Halloween happened. We dressed up. Olivia wanted to be a unicorn and Gretchen was a dragon. Normally I like to make things for them, but I just don't care about Halloween that much. The supplies for costumes would have cost almost as much as fully assembled store costumes, so we just bought costumes. They were cute. Kaitlyn wore our standard two-year-old girl costume, which is a witch. She had a grand time being a "good little witch," a concept from her current favorite Sofia the First episode. Unlike Olivia and Gretchen before her, Kaitlyn found the broom both exciting and necessary. Matthias was a lion -- the first male to wear our male lion costume. :)

I've been visiting the chiropractor quite regularly in an attempt to fix my lower back. He has me walk on a treadmill using a spinal remodeling brace, which I think is great because I get a walk in AND I can read at the same time. I have some stretches I've been doing, too. I think the biggest benefit so far is that I'm more aware of my posture. I think my standing posture is improving (although it is hurt by the fact that I still carry Matthias around and I lean my hips forward and my shoulders back to do that), but my sitting posture needs a lot of work still.

I discovered that the new(ish) next door neighbors have a teenaged daughter, so I asked her to come over some afternoons to watch the kids. Sierrah now visits 1-2 times a week and keeps everyone happy for an hour while I sew and/or practice viola.

Grandpa Aufdemberge died early on Tuesday, November 7. It was both sudden and not sudden, and the weekend before was filled with phone calls and prayers and a lot of waiting for news. I tried to explain to the girls what happened, but their concept of death is a bit fuzzy (see the God discussions above). Since I don't see Grandpa that often, it hasn't really hit me yet, but I imagine the funeral will be a rather wet, emotional affair. Matthias and I will be flying out in a week.

Pictures:
An old Halloween picture of Fenton and Gross cousins as the 7 dwarves: