Me: Don't make a mess.
Kaitlyn: But I want to make a mess.
Me: No, don't make a mess.
Kaitlyn: I want to dump them everywhere.
Me: Please DO NOT make a mess.
Kaitlyn: Well, I will hide so you can't see me dump them.
Gretchen: Eek! My house is haunted!
Me: What makes you think it's haunted?
Gretchen: I saw an ant.
Olivia: What is Kaitlyn doing?
Me: She's using her plastic snack cup like a kazoo.
Kaitlyn: I'm making the food dance!
William: Dorothea is one!
Me: Yes, she's so old.
Gretchen: She is not so old! You are not so old until you are 31.
Kaitlyn: When I'm a baby then I am so whiny.
Jacob: When are you going to be a baby?
Kaitlyn: When I grow up.
Kaitlyn: I want to go over another bridge.
Me: I will let you know if one comes up.
Kaitlyn: And we can see the water.
Me: I don't know if there will be any more bridges.
Kaitlyn: Are you sure?
Me: I am sure that I don't know if there will be bridges.
Kaitlyn: No, are you SURE?
Me: Yes.
Kaitlyn: Then don't even bother me about bridges.
Instances of "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means"
-My blanket is so spicy.
-I don't like walking on the grass; it's spicy.
-Are we almost there? I'm getting too comfy.
-I don't want to be comfy.
25 July 2018
01 July 2018
June 10-July 1
The older girls had VBS June 11-15. They learned about being superheros for God (I think?) and now we have a new Bible bop CD to go with our one from last year. Kaitlyn was very sad that she didn't get to go.
Matthias is scared of the DVD player. He likes to stand next to the xbox and push the green button to make it turn on and off, but every now and again he hits the eject button. The DVD tray shoots out, and Matthias plops to the floor and cries. He has a similar relationship with the printer. He once made it copy a blank page 11 times and the resulting output was terrifying.
The baby cage is officially a baby cage again. It began life as a cage to keep Olivia in, but then evolved into a cage to keep Gretchen (and then Kaitlyn) out. A few weeks ago I moved it from the playroom to the living room and put all of Matthias's toys and books in it so that he can be contained sometimes. He knows how to work the latch, so he's only stuck if someone locks it. He is often content to play in there, slightly removed from the chaos but still able to see everyone.
I forgot to mention in the last post that Gretchen had a tick. We get the big dog ticks, not the little deer ticks, but that doesn't make them any less gross. The tick story is pretty predictable until the end when I didn't know what to do with it (crushing it in a kleenex didn't work), so I put it and its kleenex in a glass bowl and set it on fire. Justine told me afterwards that I could just flush it down the toilet, but that doesn't sound nearly as fun. Anyway, Gretchen has now added ticks to her list of reasons to not go outside.
We visited Cleveland for Rudy's birthday last weekend. It was spa themed, and the girls got sparkly fingernails and fancy temporary tattoos. We tried to do animal inspired little kids face masks with them, which turned out okay. They were funny, but also kind of terrifying. Pictures below. After Cleveland we swung around to Pittsburgh and visited the Bossards for a few days. The kids spent a lot of time playing outside and the adults played board games every evening. :)
Olivia has turned into a reader. She is seldom found without a book nearby. She usually claims to just be looking at the pictures, but she knows little bits about the stories, so I know she's reading some of them. Kara gifted us some American Girl books (including two full sets), and those were the most exciting things ever. We're reading the Samantha series together, but Olivia is reading some of the other ones by herself. Olivia also likes to draw pictures andwrite dictate her own books. I made a cover for one once and wrote "by Olivia Barhorst" under the title, which was game changing. She's written three books since then and always asks me to write "by Olivia" on them.
I've been noticing recently that Gretchen is getting very responsible and grown-up. It's harder to notice with the second child since there's a first child around being older, but Gretchen has matured a lot these past few months. She's very helpful and often does things without being asked. She does still need to be reminded to stay on task for a lot of things, but every now and again she gets super intensely focused on whatever it is that she's doing. She helps Kaitlyn with little chores and is often instrumental in making sure Kaitlyn is ready when we need to go out the door. She plays with Matthias to make him happy and is delighted to sit and feed him at the table. Gretchen is very concerned with being stylish, and she's constantly designing the perfect dress/shoes/hair accessory.
Kaitlyn is getting better about playing with Matthias. I think the main difference is that he's getting bigger, actually. He fights back, and she lets him (actually, his first steady steps were made in an attempt to pull her hair). They have a lot of giggly times together; I recently heard them laughing from the kitchen while I was in the bedroom putting clothes away. Then I began hearing the fridge water running in between bouts of laughter. I came out to a pretty big mess and a soaking wet Matthias. In other news, Kaitlyn desperately wants to be one of the big girls. She is insistent that she can do anything they can. She plays pretty well in their games until she gets mad that no one will take her bossing seriously. She has learned to ride a bike (with training wheels) and loves to spend time outside riding on the blacktop.
Matthias points at things. He does not clap, despite efforts to teach him. He can use a sippy cup and a squeezy pouch (with supervision), but not a straw. He is very interested in using a real cup, but he dribbles a lot. His favorite toy currently is his set of stacking cups (nesting cups?) which he happily unnests and renests. He attempts stacking, but they fall down a lot. He has also tried to stack mason jars that he found in the kitchen. He is interested in cupboards and is confused by the few that are babyproofed. He likes chasing a ball around and he also enjoys wrestling.
The biggest news on the Matthias front is that he can walk! I'm putting it at eleven and a half months, which is the earliest any of our kids have walked. He's been taking steps here and there since ten months, but he didn't really get confident until we returned from our trip to Pittsburgh on the 27th. As of this writing, he can get to standing in the middle of the room by himself, and he walks about half the time, reverting to crawling only if he wants to get somewhere quickly. He's got a cute little rolling swagger that looks very unstable and makes every completed journey seem somewhat miraculous.
Pictures:
Matthias is scared of the DVD player. He likes to stand next to the xbox and push the green button to make it turn on and off, but every now and again he hits the eject button. The DVD tray shoots out, and Matthias plops to the floor and cries. He has a similar relationship with the printer. He once made it copy a blank page 11 times and the resulting output was terrifying.
The baby cage is officially a baby cage again. It began life as a cage to keep Olivia in, but then evolved into a cage to keep Gretchen (and then Kaitlyn) out. A few weeks ago I moved it from the playroom to the living room and put all of Matthias's toys and books in it so that he can be contained sometimes. He knows how to work the latch, so he's only stuck if someone locks it. He is often content to play in there, slightly removed from the chaos but still able to see everyone.
I forgot to mention in the last post that Gretchen had a tick. We get the big dog ticks, not the little deer ticks, but that doesn't make them any less gross. The tick story is pretty predictable until the end when I didn't know what to do with it (crushing it in a kleenex didn't work), so I put it and its kleenex in a glass bowl and set it on fire. Justine told me afterwards that I could just flush it down the toilet, but that doesn't sound nearly as fun. Anyway, Gretchen has now added ticks to her list of reasons to not go outside.
We visited Cleveland for Rudy's birthday last weekend. It was spa themed, and the girls got sparkly fingernails and fancy temporary tattoos. We tried to do animal inspired little kids face masks with them, which turned out okay. They were funny, but also kind of terrifying. Pictures below. After Cleveland we swung around to Pittsburgh and visited the Bossards for a few days. The kids spent a lot of time playing outside and the adults played board games every evening. :)
Olivia has turned into a reader. She is seldom found without a book nearby. She usually claims to just be looking at the pictures, but she knows little bits about the stories, so I know she's reading some of them. Kara gifted us some American Girl books (including two full sets), and those were the most exciting things ever. We're reading the Samantha series together, but Olivia is reading some of the other ones by herself. Olivia also likes to draw pictures and
I've been noticing recently that Gretchen is getting very responsible and grown-up. It's harder to notice with the second child since there's a first child around being older, but Gretchen has matured a lot these past few months. She's very helpful and often does things without being asked. She does still need to be reminded to stay on task for a lot of things, but every now and again she gets super intensely focused on whatever it is that she's doing. She helps Kaitlyn with little chores and is often instrumental in making sure Kaitlyn is ready when we need to go out the door. She plays with Matthias to make him happy and is delighted to sit and feed him at the table. Gretchen is very concerned with being stylish, and she's constantly designing the perfect dress/shoes/hair accessory.
Kaitlyn is getting better about playing with Matthias. I think the main difference is that he's getting bigger, actually. He fights back, and she lets him (actually, his first steady steps were made in an attempt to pull her hair). They have a lot of giggly times together; I recently heard them laughing from the kitchen while I was in the bedroom putting clothes away. Then I began hearing the fridge water running in between bouts of laughter. I came out to a pretty big mess and a soaking wet Matthias. In other news, Kaitlyn desperately wants to be one of the big girls. She is insistent that she can do anything they can. She plays pretty well in their games until she gets mad that no one will take her bossing seriously. She has learned to ride a bike (with training wheels) and loves to spend time outside riding on the blacktop.
Matthias points at things. He does not clap, despite efforts to teach him. He can use a sippy cup and a squeezy pouch (with supervision), but not a straw. He is very interested in using a real cup, but he dribbles a lot. His favorite toy currently is his set of stacking cups (nesting cups?) which he happily unnests and renests. He attempts stacking, but they fall down a lot. He has also tried to stack mason jars that he found in the kitchen. He is interested in cupboards and is confused by the few that are babyproofed. He likes chasing a ball around and he also enjoys wrestling.
The biggest news on the Matthias front is that he can walk! I'm putting it at eleven and a half months, which is the earliest any of our kids have walked. He's been taking steps here and there since ten months, but he didn't really get confident until we returned from our trip to Pittsburgh on the 27th. As of this writing, he can get to standing in the middle of the room by himself, and he walks about half the time, reverting to crawling only if he wants to get somewhere quickly. He's got a cute little rolling swagger that looks very unstable and makes every completed journey seem somewhat miraculous.
Pictures:
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