June 16-July 21

The garden is doing poorly. :( Despite our prediction, the zucchinis have not managed to rise to the occasion, and instead appear to be alive but stunted. The same is true of the tomatoes, which have not died since being transplanted, but also steadfastly refuse to grow a single inch, let alone a flower. The beans and cucumbers have completely given up. The broccoli and peas were actually flourishing for a while there, which is unusual. I harvested more peas this year than in the previous seven years combined. I also blew Kaitlyn's mind a little bit when I opened a pea pod to show her what was growing inside. :) My most promising broccoli chose to reach maturity while we were traveling and flowered before we came back. The remaining broccolis are languishing in the oppressive heat and seem to have lost all will to grow.

Poor Kaitlyn is struggling with the difference between movies and real life. When we visited the zoo, there were divers cleaning fixtures in the coral reef tank. All of the children thought the divers were as exciting as the fish, if not more so. It seemed a little weird to have them watch divers, but I guess they don't get to see those ever, either. Anyway, Kaitlyn was very resistant to leaving. When questioned, she said it was because she wanted to see them catch a fish and take it to their dentist, like in Nemo. I finally convinced her that these particular divers were not there to catch fish and we were able to move on. A little later, we made it to the gorilla enclosure. We got to see a mother gorilla trying (and failing) to get a baby to take a nap. We also got to see one gorilla tackle another one after some insult was given. Alas, Kaitlyn could not find what she was looking for: Tarzan.

Kaitlyn likes to visit the gazebras at the gazoo.

Perler beads are our girls' equivalent of Legos. Whenever they want to do something small and fidgety with their hands (which is almost always), they turn to perler beads. Or sometimes to cutting up large pieces of paper into millions of smaller pieces. But mostly to perler beads. On a related note, buy stock in perler beads.

About a week after returning from Pittsburgh, I noticed some spots on Olivia's arm. Since Walter had Lyme disease while we were there, I was aware that bullseye spots were a possible indicator. Unfortunately, Lyme disease is not a thing that exists in Ohio, so our doctors were less aware. I ended up taking Olivia to urgent care on Sunday and was told that it couldn't possibly be Lyme disease because the tick was no longer present and because it should be one spot getting larger, not a spreading rash of spots. Since they couldn't think of anything else to diagnose, though, they did prescribe a one day dose of the appropriate medication. The pharmacy didn't stock the medicine (see note above about the presence of Lyme disease in Ohio) and had to order some for the next day. On Monday I called the pediatrician and asked if they had anyone on staff who lived/studied/had a residency anywhere east of Ohio. The answer was no, but a receptionist noted my concerns and said she'd call back after talking to our doctor. I contacted Justine and had her put me in touch with a pediatrician friend in Pittsburgh, just in case. After seeing pictures, the Pittsburgh pediatrician told me it looked suspicious for Lyme disease and she would recommend treating it. Luckily, our pediatrician called back with the same conclusion. A full ten day dose of medicine was called in to the pharmacy. Of course, they couldn't fill it because the one day dose had just been filled and insurance was confused. To top it off, we were supposed to go to Sidney the next day. I called the Sidney Wal-Mart, had them request the prescription from the Lima Meijer, told them that they'd need to order it because it wasn't in stock, and assured them that I would be there the following afternoon to retrieve it. Everything worked out, Olivia got her medicine, and she is now safe from later effects of Lyme disease.

Bryan was making fun of how the underbelly of my shirt got wet while I was washing dishes because I was resting it on the counter. This in and of itself is not unusual or noteworthy. The next morning, however, I was changing and Matthias wandered in and saw my stomach. He immediately started jumping and pointing excitedly while yelling, "Belly! Belly, belly, belly!" Then he ran over and poked it, exclaiming reverently, "Looooook, beeelllly!" Bryan was beside himself with laughter, especially given the timing.

Murry finally decided enough was enough and dedicated a week to teaching Matthias that Steve is named Grandpa. The initial result of this was that Matthias still called Steve Boo Boo Butt, but he referred to Murry as Grandpa. After a little more time, he began calling both of them Grandpa, so Murry started working on Grandma. Currently they're both Grandma.

Olivia is trying to make nicknames stick. She calls Gretchen "Gro-co" sometimes and Matthias "Momo" often. Must be a weird seven-year-old thing.

Jacque and Julian came for a brief visit near the end of June. I was able to put the finishing touches on a nursing dress during their visit and, since my model was here, I even tailored it to fit her a little better. I'm especially proud of this dress since I modified a non-nursing pattern in order to make it work. All four of my kids thought Julian was just great and wanted to be in his face talking to him all the time. Julian, for his part, seemed mildly overwhelmed. On the plus side, though, tummy time has never been so fun! Matthias wanted to hold the baby a lot, which was made funnier by the fact that the baby is over half his size. We did learn that he is completely unfazed by babies crying. He just sits there contentedly gazing at the baby's face and says, "Baby crying." If an adult comforts the baby, Matthias immediately demands that the baby be given back.

Bryan had to be in Springfield for a week, so we took up residence in Sidney so as to be able to see him in the evenings. Murry took the girls to see Toy Story 4 at a drive in movie, which was very exciting. We also got to spend our afternoons enjoying the pool. All of the girls are more comfortable in the water now, and Olivia has a pretty reliable doggy paddle down. She still won't get her face wet, so we need to work on that. Gretchen is working on not tensing up while doing a backfloat. It's a work in progress.

We spent a day in Columbus for Rudy and August's birthday party. Keshia and Tyler moved to Columbus a few months ago and have been working on getting their house ready for visitors. They're still remodeling some parts, but the pool was ready to go so we went and swam and ate cake. Kaitlyn was thrilled to see Rudy again. She'd been missing her since the move (previously Keshia and the two kids had lived with Steve and Murry for several months).

Bryan and I ditched the kids with Murry and went to Sacramento for Jacob and Rachel's wedding. It was a pleasant trip, although everything in California happens too late for this eastern time zoner. I did feel like it was impossible to be tardy for any event, though, so there's that. :) We did wedding stuff, enjoyed the pleasant weather, and on our last night visited The Dive Bar, where a real live mermaid made an appearance in the tank over the bar. It was ridiculous, Bryan can't recommend it highly enough. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was fun. The kids are looking forward to meeting Aunt Rachel next week. :)

Matthias had a birthday! He turned two, and was very confused by it. He sang Happy Birthday to himself, and his standard reply to "Happy Birthday Matthias" was "Happy Birthday [name of person who just talked to him]." He has no idea how old he is, but he was excited to open presents and he blew out his candles like a pro.

Back near Christmas, we asked Murry if she wanted to paint the kids' rooms. She did, but said to wait until the weather got warmer. Spring came, but she had other pressing projects, so we put it off some more. She finally decided that July was the month it would happen. The good news about all of this is that she didn't paint before we rearranged the room setups. We're moving all three girls into the playroom (the former guest room) together and putting the playroom back in its old spot. In preparation for painting, the entire contents of our playroom have migrated to our dining room table. What was supposed to be a beginning of July project has become an end of July project, though, so now we've just been avoiding our dining room for nearly a month. Now that some paint has made it onto the walls, the playroom is also off limits, which is a little frustrating. We have a long folding table set up in the living room with chairs for the kids. Bryan and I get the couch.

Matthias says enough words now that they're not worth listing. His big thing recently has been repeating whatever anyone says in his vicinity. He's a fabulous parrot. He also has a sense of humor, because if you ask him to repeat a specific word, especially someone's name, there's about a 50% chance that he will give the wrong answer and then grin like he's the funniest person he knows.

Matthias is at that inconvenient age where he wants to do everything himself but isn't actually capable of doing much of anything. It's not a matter of me being patient while he struggles with his socks for twenty minutes before finally triumphing, because a day and a half later he still won't have figured out how the tiny tubes of fabric should magically adorn his feet.

Lionel has personal space issues. This baby does not like being touched (or perhaps he likes being touched too much?). Whenever something presses on my stomach, he is fighting back. This has been very exciting for the kids, because they can always feel the baby kick. This has not been exciting for my sleep, since there is no way to lie down without creating some pressure somewhere on my stomach, to which Lionel takes vigorous exception for about half an hour before resigning himself to his slightly squished fate.

Pictures next week because there are so many. And also because then I can feel like I successfully posted twice in a row. :)