January 21-28

Matthias had a checkup: 17 lbs, 7 oz, 27.25 inches.  His various rashes are also looking much better after being on antibiotics for a week.

Bryan and I did an Iron Chef challenge.  For those who don't know what that is (like we didn't), we had to pick a "secret ingredient" and both make a dish with it.  The winner was supposed to be judged using several factors, including budget, time taken, and tastiness of dish.  We just went to a random aisle in Walmart, asked a stranger to help us pick an ingredient (soba noodles), and fed the prepared food to our kids.  The verdict?  We both lost.  :/  Actually, both dishes turned out well, but the kids didn't like them.  Bryan made Asian snot cups (a regular snot cup being a gross looking but allegedly tasty meal that his mom made when he was a kid).  He stuffed bread in muffin tins and then filled it with the noodles, chicken, and broccoli.  I made a basic stir fry, but  added sesame seed oil, which Bryan said was cheating.  He conceded that my dish was better, though, because his noodles got a little crispy while he was toasting the bread cups.

Pictures:

Bonus Post: Sound Bites 28

Jacque: Hi Kaitlyn!

Kaitlyn: Who are you?

Jacque: You know who I am!

Kaitlyn: No, who are you?

Jacque: You know!

Kaitlyn: WHO ARE YOU?

Jacque: I'm Aunt Jacque.

Kaitlyn: Well, where's Uncle Will?

Olivia: We can ask God to do it.
Gretchen: God doesn't always do what we ask.  Remember when I asked God to make my life better so I could be good at listening and he didn't do it?

Me: Kaitlyn, what are you doing on the counter?
Kaitlyn: Well, I just making fire.

Me, dishing out enchiladas: Kaitlyn, do you want a plain one or one with sauce?
Kaitlyn: Um, no.
Me: ...
Kaitlyn: I mean yes.

Olivia: Here is why I think we should play Forbidden Island: I did not do very much school today.
Bryan: You think we should play Forbidden Island because you did NOT do very much school today?
Olivia: Yes.
Bryan: Forbidden Island is not school.
Olivia: No, no, I would do some school while you get it ready.

Kaitlyn to Aunt Jacque when additional Elsa videos were denied : I'm going to go home because you won't let me be happy.

Olivia: When are the Wills coming?

Olivia, squeezing behind me to get through the door: Excuse me, Aunt Jacque.
Me: I'm not Aunt Jacque!
Olivia: Oh, well, excuse me, whoever you are.
Me: I'm mom, you goofy face!
Olivia: ...I think I knew that.

Gretchen, at the doctor's office: We're at the nursery!

Gretchen: Do you know what I want?
Me: What?
Gretchen: What I want is, well, what I really want is...
Me: Tell me Gretchen.  Tell me what you want, what you really, really want.

January 14-21

We spent most of the week in Sidney visiting Bryan's parents.  He had to work in Springfield several days in a row, so the kids and I hung out at grandma and grandpa's house.

Olivia's school self regulation is not improving.  She can whip through her work very quickly when she sets her mind to it, but she is uninterested in taking that initiative.  She also does not want to relinquish her new freedom to choose.  Bryan is frustrated by her since he sees more of her unwillingness to cooperate, but I find myself much less irritated during the day, so I guess that's progress.  :/  On the plus side, she has proved to grandma that she can indeed read, write, and do math, so I get bonus points for successfully providing an education.  :)

Kaitlyn likes to play games where she assigns roles to people.  Some favorites are Kaitlyn is the Elsa, Mommy is the Anna and Kaitlyn is the Mommy, Mommy is the Kaitlyn.  Once she has distributed the parts, breaking character is strictly prohibited.

Poor Matthias has been one big bundle of chapped baby these last few weeks.  Between teething, thumb-sucking, and a diaper rash he's sore and red all over.  I was treating him for a yeast infection, but when that didn't go away and he got red bumps all over his whole upper body, I ended up taking him in to the doctor.  It turns out that he had strep (but not in his throat).  Now a few days in to an antibiotic, he's looking much more comfortable.

All my best updates are Matthias recently.  He grabs things well enough to be dangerous, pulling bowls off tables and knocking mugs of hot liquid away from lips.  He rolls with some purpose, but still not tremendously accurately.  He is quite interested in solid food, and has so far enjoyed sweet potatoes and applesauce.  He has not enjoyed carrots.

Pictures:

January 7-14

Olivia has a new school responsibility system.  Tired of fighting the school battle, I told her that each day I will put out the work that she needs to do and she can choose when to do it.  If it's not done by the time we eat dinner, then she has to miss whatever Bryan does with them for bed to finish it.  So far she's been putting it off as long as possible, but at least we're not arguing about it all day.

Matthias can sit up well enough to be attended by nothing more than a circle of pillows.  He has found his toes, at least while lying down.  He has hilariously bad depth perception, and I often catch him staring intently while trying to grab something across the room.

We saw a guy hamming it up on a cardboard guitar with a picture of a pizza on it outside Little Caesar's and now Gretchen has found her life's ambition.  She's talking about how she can make a guitar just like it, complete with glued on pizza fabric, so that she can practice tricks in case they give her that job.

Reasons Gretchen wouldn't go outside the one day it was 60 degrees this week:
1. Poison ivy.
2. Bees.
3. Thunderstorms.

We found out this week that Cordelia the Cat is actually a boy, so we're searching for a new name.  The current front runner is... Matthias.

Kaitlyn likes to use my skirt as a blanket.  I have a habit of standing over the vent (see story below) and Kaitlyn enjoys lying on the floor and sticking her feet under my skirt.  She pulls the hem up to her shoulders and if I move she starts exclaiming, "My blanket, my blanket!"

When a stuffed animal got left at our house by a visiting child, Gretchen found it and placed it on the heating vent at the end of the counter saying, "Daddy, I will put Simmy's lizard here so that Mommy will see it when she comes home and give it back to him."  The heater is my home base, apparently.

My Christmas letter went out!  There were two versions of the picture, so check below to see if you got the regular one or the photobombed one.  :)

Pictures:

December 31-January 7

Mom and James were here all week.  We enjoyed seeing them without all the craziness of Christmas mixed in.  Matthias and I left the girls with the Weys and drove Mom and James to the airport on Friday.

Olivia and Gretchen love playing legos with Uncle James.  Unfortunately, they do not play the same way he does.  There were many lamentations of too many weddings and not enough wars.  :)  While the children were occupied with lego nuptials, Mom and I affixed some hooks to boards and hung them in the coat space near the back door.  We also put Bryan and Josef to work hanging some new shelves in my laundry room.  They look fabulous (the shelves, that is).

The annual Messiah party was Thursday night.  Mom and James were excited to be able to come sing.  Bryan watched kids, as is his custom.  The kids ate pizza and watched movies, as is their custom.  :)  I played viola and then got to sing Christmas carols.

We have a new cat. Some friends had a relative who was giving away a spare barn cat and now that barn cat is our garage cat.  It looks quite similar to our old cat, and is already out of the kitten stage.  The girls have named it Cordelia.

Olivia lost her first tooth yesterday.  It's been getting progressively looser, and she had me check it in the morning.  I told her it was loose enough that she could yank it out if she wanted to, but she decided to wait instead.  An hour later, Matthias kicked her in the mouth while they were playing and her tooth came out.

Kaitlyn's name, in her own words, is Kaitlyn Elaine Bah-hohs.

Here's Gretchen's original paragraph from this year's Christmas letter.  I can post it even though you haven't received your letter yet because after I wrote it Bryan decided (and I agreed) that it was too negative so I scrapped it and started over.  Negative is unnecessary for the once-a-year Christmas letter, but perfectly acceptable in my blog!  Future Gretchen, this was for posterity:

Gretchen, 4, is our most opinionated child.  That’s not to say that the others aren’t opinionated, it’s just that Gretchen takes it to a whole new level.  She has a particular way that she wants things done and it falls to her less-than-perfectionist parents to try to adequately realize the visions she has in her mind.  Needless to say, she’s often disappointed with our efforts.  She’s learning to handle her disappointment appropriately, though, and is becoming more independent as she takes matters into her own hands.  She’s very deliberate (in a flighty way) in everything she does, which is interesting to watch as she “does school” with Olivia.  She is still enjoying dance class although she often needs to be reminded that it’s worth interrupting playing to attend.  Sweet as ever, Gretchen “loves everyone and everything” and goes out of her way to make sure that her sisters are happy.

Pictures and Videos:

January 1, 2018

Happy New Year!

My house is still full and my Christmas letter has yet to be written.  I do have some video links to share, as well as encouragement to check for backdated posts (possibly as far back as the end of October) this coming week.  I'm hoping to get all of 2017 posted by January 8 at the latest so that I can take advantage of a good coupon for printing my 2017 book.  If you comment before January 9, your comments will make it into the book as well.  :)

Videos (password BarhorstBrewed)
Kaitlyn Eats Corn
Halloween
Being Funny
Caramel Apples
Matthias vs. Blanket
Matthias is Talented
Hershey Kiss House
Bad Guys
More Bad Guys
Matthias is Scared
Kaitlyn Cuts Chicken