Jacque came to visit. She was here to pick up some mail that still isn't making it to her new address, but also wanted to visit. She and I geeked out over Music Together things and she held my hand while I ordered props for my classes. She came to the zoo with us on Monday and then returned home from there.
We went bowling as a family one night. One is not a good age for bowling. At first, Matthias was incredibly excited about all the bowling balls. Then he learned that he couldn't move any of them, and he got frustrated. We moved on from that and he recovered completely when he saw the pins. Forget lifting the balls, time to BE a ball! He quickly learned to navigate the two steps down to the wooden floor and spent the rest of the night trying to sneak away from me so that he could make a mad dash down the bowling alley and knock down all the pins. Unfortunately for his ambitions, I'm faster.
The Bossards were here the weekend after Jacque came. Joseph came with the rest of the family this time and we made him play games with us in the evening (beginning with card club the night they arrived). Bryan also took him to play ultimate frisbee on Sunday afternoon. Kaitlyn and Walter continued their happy friendship, and the three big kids played school constantly. Edward wandered between the two groups. We failed again at a happy cousin line up (there's always one kid who doesn't cooperate... usually not the same kid). I'm always hopeful for a repeat of the fantastic ones that were outdated two weeks later due to babies.
In church the week the Bossards visited, Matthias started singing "Amen." Anytime the priest sang a phrase, Matthias was the first one in with "Amen." Never mind that the preceding phrase was sometimes "...we pray to the Lord." During the next week, I noticed that he also says "Amen" after prayers. I can't get him to say it if I'm trying, but he's accurate if I just say prayers normally, so there must be some voice cue that I don't realize I'm giving.
Jillian arrived the day after the Bossards left. Conveniently, the kids and I were already visiting the Kleins, so we just kept heading south to pick her up from the Cincinnati airport. I think I knew that the airport was in Kentucky, but I did not realize that the quickest way there was through a corner of Indiana. We took her to the zoo the day after she arrived (and now we're done with the zoo for a while since we didn't renew our membership). Other than that trip, we haven't seen her a huge amount. She's been in and out of the house -- mostly out as she visits her friends -- but willingly makes an appearance if I specify that I need her to watch kids or run an errand. She's being transported up to Michigan somehow someday soon so that she can make the journey back to college before classes start.
Olivia started soccer and is really enjoying it. Her first game is on Wednesday. She also started school this past week and is "SO EXCITED!" about everything school related. I was pleased to note that there were only two people she cared about meeting at the open house: her teacher and the school librarian. Her favorite day so far was, predictably, library day. Her playground friend Elaine is not only in her class, but at the same little clump of desks.
We had a meeting with the school a week before classes started and they worked very hard to convince us that they had the resources to support Olivia in first grade even though she's already done most of the work. We did think that first grade would be less overwhelming for her, so that's where she is. Thus far she's very happy. :)
Mommy and Gretchen day happened this past Thursday. Where Kaitlyn was a little young and didn't have much idea what was going on, Gretchen is the perfect age for this kind of thing. She and I made a list of things to do over breakfast and then we did them. I took her shopping so that she could spend some of her piggy bank money, we got her ears pierced, we did a coaster painting project in the basement, and we went out for pizza and ice cream. We also bought hair chalk so that she could have rainbow hair, but ran out of time to use it on Thursday. We postponed the hair coloring until Friday.
Miscellaneous kid things:
Kaitlyn talks about "Beauty and the Peas." Even when she sings, we hear about this prince of old who upset a sorceress and was turned into a Peas.
Olivia was telling a story and ended with, "I did not appreciate that." She may have gotten that from me.
Gretchen likes to use the word "embarrassed" but seems to have no idea what it means. She most often uses it instead of the more appropriate "impressed."
Matthias can clap now. He had a couple of weeks where if we clapped he would flap his hands, but if we said "yay" then he would clap. He seems to be all straightened out now, barring the occasional hand-flap-for-reactions. I also forgot to mention in the last post that he knocks on doors.
Kaitlyn's interjection of choice is "Boom!"
Olivia's first sentence on the first day of school: "Can I nap in the car?"
Olivia's first sentence on the second day of school: "I think you woke me up earlier this morning." (It was later.)
Matthias is the best thrower of tantrums we've had thus far. When he's mad he will swat away whatever is in front of him and dramatically fall on the floor, often with a lot of kicking and squirming involved. Sometimes he is vocal about his displeasure, often the really great tantrums are largely silent with the occasional angry grunt as he looks over his shoulder to make sure I see how distressed he is.
Gretchen wears pants and shorts sometimes. She came to me one morning and said, "You know how sometimes grown up girls wear pants? I was thinking I'd do that." I had one pair of size 5 jeans in the basement, so I brought them upstairs and then sent Jillian to buy shorts because we were going to the zoo and jeans are hot. Since then, I've acquired another pair of shorts and a size 6 pair of jeans and now she wears them a couple of times a week.
Pictures:
August 6 trip to the zoo:
The Music Together instruments came in the mail:
Someone's getting into things:
...Literally.
Gretchen's self imposed schoolwork:
A leftover picture of Matthias with Amanda:
Gretchen, being "so tall."
The cousin line up:
Gretchen always does her own hair. This one lasted three days:
August 15 trip to the zoo:
Gretchen was brave long enough to finally get her ears pierced:
Gretchen's self portrait immediately after the ear piercing:
Fun with hair chalk:
1.I love the symmetry of color in the first set of zoo pictures. 2. Kaitlyn's choice of interjections inspired Dad to ask if she was from Venezuela.:)
ReplyDelete3. Jillian spent her first year of school saying "You are always waking me up!"
4. Grandma and Grandpa used to take you kids out shopping one at a time and I seem to remember that the best age for the excursion was 5. I am picturing Justine with her twirly denim jumper and the fabulous heels. :)