Bonus Post: A Princess Party

I took the girls to a princess party on Sunday.  They got to meet Ariel and Rapunzel (the REAL Ariel and Rapunzel, if Gretchen has any say in it), made crowns, got their nails and faces painted, listened to a story, and had a dance party.  So much excitement.

Gretchen talked to the princesses the whole time.  She will be source of consternation for a teacher someday, I'm sure.  At the end we were putting on coats and she said, "Wait, I have to tell Rapunzel something."  She sprinted toward the back of the room where Rapunzel was just leaving and yelled, "Rapunzel!  I love you!" before coming back.

February 11-25

We went to Fort Wayne for Gwen's baptism on Sunday.  The weather was gross, but roads were driveable.  We weren't even late.  :)  Unfortunately, any view we might have had of the actual baptism from the second to last pew was blocked at the last second by the sponsor.  There are pictures that prove it happened, though, and the girls cared more about the cookies afterwards anyway.  For my part, I enjoyed the familiarity of the traditional Lutheran service.  After a brief basement reception, we headed over to the Eichers' house to visit some more.  The girls made themselves at home playing with the toys, and Matthias tested Gwendolyn's crib.  It is excellent for napping.

Matthias cannot crawl.  However, if on a soft enough surface (like a bed), he will happily roll, half-somersault, faceplant, and heave himself toward his destination.  It would not be a good routine to try on the floor.  He can also, in a new burst of talent, sit himself up.  A few times now I've gone to get him from his playmat (where he had previously been on his stomach) or his bed and found him sitting up.

Gretchen can read.  This came as quite a shock to me, as Olivia did not really start reading until she was almost six.  Now, granted, Gretchen cannot read fluently or well yet, but she CAN read, and she has a much better grasp of sounding things out than Olivia ever did.  We were driving in the car after dropping Olivia off at dance class, and Gretchen told me she wanted to learn to read.  I said that she needed to know all her letter sounds first, and we proceeded to go through the entire alphabet.  She knew them all.  So I sat her down with a beginner reader and we started sounding things out.  Her biggest obstacle right now is that she doesn't recognize all of her lower case letters.  She calls l "a line," i is "a line with a dot," and she mixes up b, d, and p, m and w, and u, n, and h.  I guess we'll need to spend some time on letter recognition.

Kaitlyn sleeps naked.  I first noticed it in Pennsylvania when, despite the frigidness of the attic, she peeled off her pajamas every night before falling asleep.  This would be fine if she used blankets, but she insists on being covered with only her one favorite blanket.  She never seems cold, though, so I guess it doesn't bother her.  I still sneak another one on her when she's asleep.  Anyway, it's getting to a ridiculous point, because she likes the idea of pajamas.  I don't care if she sleeps naked, but she feels the need to put on pajamas so that she can take them off.  She takes off her clothes to go to the bathroom before bed and then says, "Wait, I have to put on pajamas to brush my teeth."  So she puts on pajamas, brushes her teeth, sits with me to say prayers, and then as I'm about to turn off the light (after putting her in her bed and covering her up), she says, "Wait, I have to take off my pajamas."  That done, she of course needs to be covered back up with her one small favorite blanket.

My kitchen sink's hot water is fixed!  It's been little better than a trickle since we moved in over three years ago, and in the recent months it has gotten progressively worse.  Washing dishes is a lukewarm chore.  I finally called a plumber and he was able to come out and switch out a valve and now I have wonderful water pressure in my sink!  I had him check out the perpetually filling toilets as well, and he said it is in all likelihood another valve issue.  A nuisance but not a problem, it's apparently common in manufactured homes.  When we get annoyed enough with it, we can call him and he'll come fix all the toilets as well.

I hosted a Valentine's Day party.  Yes, you read that right.  Go ahead and compose yourself, I'll wait.  ...  Ahem.  I, Johannah Barhorst, hosted a Valentine's Day party.  It started several months ago when Olivia found a Tomie de Paola book about Valentine's Day (thanks, Mom).  As I read it to her, she was really excited about the idea of Valentine's Day in general, and I remember thinking that it wouldn't really be that hard to throw a party for all of our friends.  Knowing that I would willingly forget this idea, I scheduled a text for myself.  Apparently also knowing that if I put it too close to Valentine's Day, I would use the lack of time as an excuse for not holding the party, I made sure to schedule the text for three weeks before the occasion.  Let me tell you, on January 20, my present self was quite annoyed by my past self's foresight.  Having gone to such great lengths to remind myself, I felt it was only fair to actually have the party.  Fine.  I sent out a text to local mothers, inviting about 15 kids to the party (as it was, only seven were able to make it).  I made sugar cookies and cut them all into heart shapes with a knife because I didn't have a heart cookie cutter.  I cut hearts out of painter's tape and stuck them to paper so that the kids could to negative space coloring pages.  I planned a game.  With prizes.  It ended up being a lot of fun.  The girls went through some valentines that I bought on clearance a few years ago and addressed them to all of their friends.  When guests arrived, we decorated paper bags with markers and stickers and then passed out our valentines.  I gave the kids icing and sprinkles and let them flood the cookies (I'd put an icing edge around all of them the night before).  We did the craft, we played the game, and then, having run out of planned things to do, I blew up balloons and everyone had a grand time keeping them off the floor.

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Bonus Post: Sound Bites 29

Gretchen: Mommy, right when I am a grown up I am going to give you a hug and a kiss and say good bye to you so that I can go and find a husband to marry.

Olivia: I will not tell on you if you do not tell on me.

Gretchen: I don't need anybody or anything except for Matthias.  I don't need any kids to take care of me or any grown-ups to take care of me.  I can just take care of me and Matthias all by myself.
Me: Okay.
Gretchen: But you might want to teach me how to call on the phone.

Kaitlyn (beginning a conversation): Right, Mommy?
Me: What's right?
Kaitlyn: No, you don't say that!
Me: Oh.
Kaitlyn: Right, Mommy?
Me: Yes!
Kaitlyn: No!  You can't say yes.
Me: ...What do you want me to say?
Kaitlyn: Say, "That's why Anna is still coming to Elsa's castle."

Gretchen: Will God not let us run into a bear?
Me: WE will not let us run into a bear because we won't go where there are bears.
Gretchen: And God will not let us run into a bear?
Me: Yes.
Gretchen: Because he will be invisible and block us?
Me: ...Yes?
Gretchen: And we will bounce off his back!

Gretchen: Daddy, I want *insert toy* for my birthday.  Will you get it for me for my birthday?
Bryan: Remind me when it is your birthday and maybe I will.
Gretchen: No, if I remind you then I will know what my present is!
Bryan: Oh, you're right.  I will try to remember.
Gretchen: And I will try to forget.

Me, to Matthias: Hello, did you have a good nap?  ...What's wrong with your head?  Is that A&D in your hair?  Kaitlyn, why does Matthias have tufts of diaper cream in his hair?
Kaitlyn: Well, he is a unicorn.

Me: You cannot read to me when we're driving this fast, I can't hear you.
Gretchen: Well speak up!

Gretchen: Olivia is two years older than me, I'm two years older than Kaitlyn, Kaitlyn is two years older than Matthias, Matthias is don't know years older than no one.

Kaitlyn: How can I fly?
Me: You can't fly.
Kaitlyn: Why?
Me: Because you are not a bird.
Kaitlyn: Why I am not a bird?
Me: God didn't make you a bird, he made you a little girl.
Kaitlyn: I will be a bird when I am older.  God will make me a bird.

Kaitlyn: When I am four, I will go to dance.
Me: Yes, when you are four.
Kaitlyn: But I am two so I don't go to dance.  Because Kaitlyns don't go to dance.  But when Kaitlyns are Gretchens then I will go to dance.

Gretchen: Does God make people magic?
Me: I suppose he could, but it's not a common occurrence.
Gretchen: Well I am going to ask him to make me magic.
*thirty seconds later*
Gretchen: I guess he did not do it.

February 4-11

Matthias must have been listening to Dorothea last week, because suddenly he's decided that he has important things to say.  They mostly consist of ba ba ba, but every now and again he slips a da in there.

Ricky stopped by for a visit on his way from thither to yon, and while he was here he set a new wheat grinding record (12 minutes and 15 seconds!) and left us some fresh California oranges.  He and Bryan played Twixt on Saturday night and we all went to Catholic mass on Sunday morning before parting ways for everyone's second church service of the day.

We got a fair amount of snow this week, so I went outside with the girls and helped them build a tiny snow lady.  I said that wrong.  I went outside with the girls and built a tiny snow lady while they watched.  They were really excited about it, though, and helped find pebbles for her face.  Matthias got all bundled up and came outside for a little while, too.

For Christmas, Zach made me a magnetic chess board to hang on the wall next to our magnetic scrabble board.  It looks lovely, but I am awful at chess.  Bryan and I are experimenting with different handicap options so that he has to work a little bit to win.

In dance class this week, Miss Lyn apparently had Gretchen's class plant imaginary flowers.  Using only their imaginations, they planted the seeds and then, according to Gretchen, they grew REAL flowers.  But Miss Lyn got to keep those flowers, and Gretchen wanted to have some of her very own, so I played along and told Gretchen that I had some spare imaginary seeds in my pocket and she could plant those at our house.  Of course then she planted her "imagination seeds" all over the living room and was very upset when I wouldn't let her water them.  That night on the way home from orchestra, I stopped at the store and bought several bouquets of fake flowers and a few bricks of flower foam.  Bryan and I cut the flowers and bricks apart and planed a little imagination garden in the living room.  We also left some flowers in the bathroom, because she'd planted seeds there, too.  Gretchen was beside herself in the morning, and told me, "Mom, my imagination seeds grew!  They grew into real flowers!  You did not think they would, but you were wrong, they did!"

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January 28-February 4

Time to visit the cousins!  Now that the Bossards have moved back to Pennsylvania, Justine and I decided that we needed to get everyone together more often.  This month it was my turn to travel, so I packed up the kids on Sunday afternoon and headed east.  Bryan was originally supposed to come with us, but he had a job interview that got scheduled for Tuesday, so he missed out on all the fun.

When I didn't hit my original goal of leaving by 2, I pretty much gave up on any goal at all, so I think we finally rolled out of the driveway at 4.  This meant, of course, that we had to stop for dinner on the way.  All five of us hopped out of the car for bathroom breaks and happy meals at a McDonald's near the border.  The girls were so excited.  In Gretchen's words, "This is the best day ever!"  We did add an hour to our eta, though, and didn't arrive at the Bossard abode until 9.

The week was noisy.  Justine said that she felt like we were running an orphanage, especially at breakfast time when we served the kids oatmeal.  Olivia and William played Battleship, I played Dragonwood with the older two and Uno with the oldest four, Justine invented card games that were really math facts and played with William and sometimes Olivia.  We accompanied the cousins to a Music Together class on Tuesday, which was fun for the kids.  The girls were unsure in the car whether they even wanted to go, and told me that they would watch but they would NOT sing.  They did sing, though, and danced as well.

Sometime during the drive on Sunday, Olivia developed an intense fear of bears.  No amount of telling her that bears didn't live in the city, and even if they did, they wouldn't be able to climb three stories up the side of the house, and even if they did that, they definitely wouldn't be able to squeeze through the tiny attic window, would convince her that she wasn't going to get eaten by a bear while she was falling asleep.  I made a deal with her and told her that she could stay up until I went to bed, but that she had to do school during that time.  It was magical.  She asked to do school, she was excited to do school, she willingly moved from one subject to another until she was so tired that her poor little brain spaced out completely.  Justine said it's because she thinks she's getting away with something.  It might be worth keeping up at home.

My one mission for this trip was to help Justine find the Joseph tape so that I could transfer it to DVDs to give to everyone.  When we were considering where we should look first, Joseph (Justine's husband) mentioned that he'd seen it -- he remembered because it had his name on it.  He headed to the basement to find it and, much to Justine's relief, discovered it in the top layer of the first box he opened.  Our task the next evening was to transfer it to a DVD.  I had planned to buy a VHS to DVD converter, but it turns out that they had one of those already.  Justine even knew where to find a blank DVD.  So we set to work copying the tape.  We should have started earlier in the evening, but Justine and I (and an exhausted Olivia) sacrificed and stayed up to watch the whole thing to make sure it worked.  It did.  :)  I now have a DVD of Joseph.  Let the copying project commence.

On Thursday morning, the kids finally seemed to have settled in.  I'd been asked at least once each day when we would be going home, but when I announced that we'd be leaving after lunch, I was met with resistance.  Suddenly no one wanted to leave.  Protests aside, we gathered up our things and headed out after an early lunch.  We arrived home just after five and... the power was out.  Bryan took Gretchen to go buy some dinner while I set up candles and cleaned up a bit.  At some point I realized that Bryan probably didn't call the power company and, even though outages have always been reported by the time I call, I should probably do that.  So I called, and was shocked to get an actual person instead of a recording telling me that they already knew about my problem.  As it turned out, we were the only people without power.  I confirmed it by looking out the window and seeing the neighbors' lights on.  The power finally came back on just before 10 after an electric company truck stopped near the pole outside of our house for all of two minutes while one technician made a small adjustment to the wire.  We're not entirely sure what happened to knock our power out in the first place.

On Friday, Olivia had her homeschool enrichment course through the parks department.  She was running around having a good time, but when she found out that she had to go to science class, she developed an instant stomach ache.  I didn't think she was sick, but she thought maybe she wouldn't be able to go to dance, either, so I left her alone.  I did get her up to ride along to take Gretchen to dance class, and by the time we were finished dropping Gretch off, Olivia was feeling much better.  She made a full recovery in the next twenty minutes, so when it was time to pick Gretchen up I just drove straight from there to the parks department.  Olivia didn't know there was an afternoon session as well.  :)  She managed just fine, and even seemed to enjoy the planetarium that they got to explore.

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