Lots of pictures, because I don't post as regularly anymore...
31 December 2019
29 December 2019
December 15-29
I have to get this post done so that I can order my 2019 blog book...
Notes from the last two months:
The younger kids and I have been to the Toledo zoo a few times since Theodore was born. We drop Olivia and Gretchen off at school and then head off to see the polar bears. And some other animals, usually, but mostly the polar bears. Luckily for us, the polar bear exhibit is at the front of the zoo, so we can always stop and see them on either the way in or the way out. They're right next to the seals, which is another crowd pleaser. Kaitlyn's dearest wish is that the zoo would move the (invisible to her) partition between the polar bears and the seals. She knows that polar bears eat seals and she just wants to see the catching and devouring process. I assume mostly the former, but you never can be too sure with Kaitlyn.
I am generally the sole alto voice in church, but the girls match pitch with me and I end up creating my own little alto cohort. It's not generally a problem unless our strongest soprano is missing. If I can't hear the soprano line then I'll switch, because (if the girls are all singing) the four of us overpower the others a bit. Most times the girls dutifully follow the switch without even realizing it. I tend to be back and forth between the lines at the beginning of most pieces anyway, so they are used to the jump between alto and soprano. One week we were missing two sopranos, so I spent most of the service on soprano. For the Lord's Prayer, however, I dropped to alto out of habit. Since we strongly encourage participation in the Lord's Prayer, all three girls were singing and dropped to alto with me. I immediately realized what I'd done and switched back. But -- and here's the point of this rambling story -- Olivia didn't. I sang soprano and Olivia stood next to me and held down the alto line all by herself! Gretchen and Kaitlyn faltered a bit, and then stuck with Olivia since that part was more familiar to them. The three of them made it through the whole prayer singing alto together, even getting the moving notes at the end while the soprano holds a note. It was very exciting to me and they have no idea that they even did it. :-P
Kaitlyn and Matthias like to eat apples. They used to like them cut up into slices, but recently they've decided that they want to each have their own whole apple. Unfortunately, they eat until they get to the core and then give up on the other half. So I bought an apple corer. Now we have "apples with tunnels" and I don't find half eaten apples on the counter anymore. :)
I took the kids to Pittsburgh at the beginning of November. It was originally going to be a trip with just the younger children, but then Bryan had to go into the office and wasn't available to drop off and pick up the older girls from school. They had no school on that Monday, so I pulled them out early on Friday and we took off for the weekend. We had a good time visiting the Bossards and got to go trick-or-treating on a quite pleasant Saturday afternoon. This was popular because our Thursday trick-or-treating had been canceled due to inclement weather. As it turns out, the Pittsburgh cul-de-sac was the ideal trick-or-treating experience. I believe those pictures are in a previous post. We drove home Monday afternoon.
Matthias has claimed starting the dishwasher as his special job. Obviously someone else has to load it, but once it's ready to go then Matthias gets to put the soap in and press start. He gets quite irritated if you forget and do it for him.
Justine and I, in our infinite wisdom, decided that potty training two toddlers at once would be the perfect Thanksgiving exercise. I started Matthias on Monday, putting him in underwear and giving him a toddler potty and lots of juice. Forty-five minutes later nothing had happened and I had to go nurse Theodore. Somehow during that time, Gretchen and Kaitlyn managed to get him to pee in his little potty twice. I guess my six and four year olds are now in charge of potty training. :-D When I told Justine, she said that Dorothea was also beginning potty training and that Gretchen and Kaitlyn could help her as well. And so it was decided. There were ups and downs and I regret to say that we were still potty training two toddlers at once with only slightly better success rates when Christmas rolled around.
Thanksgiving was us, the Bossards, Bryan's parents, and Joseph's parents and brother. We managed to get all of the food cooked in time and most of it was still warm when it was supposed to be. :)
Theodore moved into the boys' room after the Bossards left, but when he wakes up in the middle of the night I transfer him to our room. He continues to do poorly with sleeping, which does not bless his mother. Now that we have a house full of people he's back in our room for the time being. I guess we'll see what happens when everyone leaves.
Gretchen and Kaitlyn danced in The Nutcracker All Jazzed Up. Kaitlyn was a little angel (her part, not her temperament) and Gretchen was a soldier. There's a bonus post with Bryan's play-by-play. Kaitlyn has better balance than either of her sisters did at this age and paid attention to Miss Lyn quite well for her one dance. Gretchen was in two longer dances and would probably be dishonorably discharged from the armed forces for lack of both ferocity and rigidity. She kind of marches like a duck. Truth hurts, future Gretchen. You have talents, but marching stiffly in step is not one of them.
Matthias suddenly knows almost all of his colors. I'm not sure how that happened, but he went from calling everything green to correctly identifying the whole rainbow plus "browns."
Christmas happened quietly and calmly. We celebrated at church on Sunday because that's when the priest was there. As a result, there was no midnight service to attend. I will be sad to see that return once we do have a priest. On Wednesday we woke up a little late, attended Catholic Mass, and then came home for fancy nachos and our first present. Gretchen has a Kindle now and her reading list has jumped accordingly.
The Bossards arrived yesterday, just in time for the sibling/spouse/second cousin secret santa gift exchange. We are thankful for the mute function on group video chats, and for the Wisconsin contingent's quick thinking with signs and hand signals.
On the fifth day of Christmas (that's today, for those who don't want to count) we gave our kids and niblings a trip to The Hero Day, a giant indoor bouncy castle wonderland. We're headed there this afternoon. Four adults, ten children, and an hour of bouncing and loud music. Wish us luck.
The Smiths arrive on Tuesday to contribute to the chaos. Hooray, hooray! Anything else that I was supposed to mention but forgot will have to be immortalized in 2020. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
Notes from the last two months:
The younger kids and I have been to the Toledo zoo a few times since Theodore was born. We drop Olivia and Gretchen off at school and then head off to see the polar bears. And some other animals, usually, but mostly the polar bears. Luckily for us, the polar bear exhibit is at the front of the zoo, so we can always stop and see them on either the way in or the way out. They're right next to the seals, which is another crowd pleaser. Kaitlyn's dearest wish is that the zoo would move the (invisible to her) partition between the polar bears and the seals. She knows that polar bears eat seals and she just wants to see the catching and devouring process. I assume mostly the former, but you never can be too sure with Kaitlyn.
I am generally the sole alto voice in church, but the girls match pitch with me and I end up creating my own little alto cohort. It's not generally a problem unless our strongest soprano is missing. If I can't hear the soprano line then I'll switch, because (if the girls are all singing) the four of us overpower the others a bit. Most times the girls dutifully follow the switch without even realizing it. I tend to be back and forth between the lines at the beginning of most pieces anyway, so they are used to the jump between alto and soprano. One week we were missing two sopranos, so I spent most of the service on soprano. For the Lord's Prayer, however, I dropped to alto out of habit. Since we strongly encourage participation in the Lord's Prayer, all three girls were singing and dropped to alto with me. I immediately realized what I'd done and switched back. But -- and here's the point of this rambling story -- Olivia didn't. I sang soprano and Olivia stood next to me and held down the alto line all by herself! Gretchen and Kaitlyn faltered a bit, and then stuck with Olivia since that part was more familiar to them. The three of them made it through the whole prayer singing alto together, even getting the moving notes at the end while the soprano holds a note. It was very exciting to me and they have no idea that they even did it. :-P
Kaitlyn and Matthias like to eat apples. They used to like them cut up into slices, but recently they've decided that they want to each have their own whole apple. Unfortunately, they eat until they get to the core and then give up on the other half. So I bought an apple corer. Now we have "apples with tunnels" and I don't find half eaten apples on the counter anymore. :)
I took the kids to Pittsburgh at the beginning of November. It was originally going to be a trip with just the younger children, but then Bryan had to go into the office and wasn't available to drop off and pick up the older girls from school. They had no school on that Monday, so I pulled them out early on Friday and we took off for the weekend. We had a good time visiting the Bossards and got to go trick-or-treating on a quite pleasant Saturday afternoon. This was popular because our Thursday trick-or-treating had been canceled due to inclement weather. As it turns out, the Pittsburgh cul-de-sac was the ideal trick-or-treating experience. I believe those pictures are in a previous post. We drove home Monday afternoon.
Matthias has claimed starting the dishwasher as his special job. Obviously someone else has to load it, but once it's ready to go then Matthias gets to put the soap in and press start. He gets quite irritated if you forget and do it for him.
Justine and I, in our infinite wisdom, decided that potty training two toddlers at once would be the perfect Thanksgiving exercise. I started Matthias on Monday, putting him in underwear and giving him a toddler potty and lots of juice. Forty-five minutes later nothing had happened and I had to go nurse Theodore. Somehow during that time, Gretchen and Kaitlyn managed to get him to pee in his little potty twice. I guess my six and four year olds are now in charge of potty training. :-D When I told Justine, she said that Dorothea was also beginning potty training and that Gretchen and Kaitlyn could help her as well. And so it was decided. There were ups and downs and I regret to say that we were still potty training two toddlers at once with only slightly better success rates when Christmas rolled around.
Thanksgiving was us, the Bossards, Bryan's parents, and Joseph's parents and brother. We managed to get all of the food cooked in time and most of it was still warm when it was supposed to be. :)
Theodore moved into the boys' room after the Bossards left, but when he wakes up in the middle of the night I transfer him to our room. He continues to do poorly with sleeping, which does not bless his mother. Now that we have a house full of people he's back in our room for the time being. I guess we'll see what happens when everyone leaves.
Gretchen and Kaitlyn danced in The Nutcracker All Jazzed Up. Kaitlyn was a little angel (her part, not her temperament) and Gretchen was a soldier. There's a bonus post with Bryan's play-by-play. Kaitlyn has better balance than either of her sisters did at this age and paid attention to Miss Lyn quite well for her one dance. Gretchen was in two longer dances and would probably be dishonorably discharged from the armed forces for lack of both ferocity and rigidity. She kind of marches like a duck. Truth hurts, future Gretchen. You have talents, but marching stiffly in step is not one of them.
Matthias suddenly knows almost all of his colors. I'm not sure how that happened, but he went from calling everything green to correctly identifying the whole rainbow plus "browns."
Christmas happened quietly and calmly. We celebrated at church on Sunday because that's when the priest was there. As a result, there was no midnight service to attend. I will be sad to see that return once we do have a priest. On Wednesday we woke up a little late, attended Catholic Mass, and then came home for fancy nachos and our first present. Gretchen has a Kindle now and her reading list has jumped accordingly.
The Bossards arrived yesterday, just in time for the sibling/spouse/second cousin secret santa gift exchange. We are thankful for the mute function on group video chats, and for the Wisconsin contingent's quick thinking with signs and hand signals.
On the fifth day of Christmas (that's today, for those who don't want to count) we gave our kids and niblings a trip to The Hero Day, a giant indoor bouncy castle wonderland. We're headed there this afternoon. Four adults, ten children, and an hour of bouncing and loud music. Wish us luck.
The Smiths arrive on Tuesday to contribute to the chaos. Hooray, hooray! Anything else that I was supposed to mention but forgot will have to be immortalized in 2020. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
25 December 2019
Bonus Post: Dance Recital Notes
Gretchen and Kaitlyn had a dance recital, and you all know what that means... It's time for Bryan's Play-By-Play!
Question: How do you make the most wonderful time of the year even more wonderful? Answer: Sit down to a 3 hour little girl dance recital, of course! It's the 2019 Miss Lyn's Jazzed Up Nutcracker and the house is packed with semi-obligated-to-watch parents and grandparents. Luckily for those of you without a ticket, I'm here for the play by play. Option #1 is don't go. #2 is drink myself stupid. But as I'm a semi-obligated parent and have to drive my kids home after this, option #3 is to make everyone else share a fraction of my misery. Now shut up, it's starting.
False alarm, turns out this is just pre-show Christmas hype music. Ironically this song and the still drawn curtain is probably the best performance I'll get to witness today.
Act 1 is in the books. You really forget how bad these are in the six months between sitting down for them...
Song 2 and I have no idea what I just watched. Nine year old dresses up like reindeer-elf and does the drunken robot? Thankfully the speakers they're using were installed in 1972, so I can just give her the benefit of the doubt and say it was in time to the music.
We have a Gretchen sighting! She is standing way too close to the girl next to her. Also, they're going for the oompa loompa up and down bob move, and I'm not sure when people become capable of that, but can now say with confidence that it comes after the age of 6.
There is some dad in a silver cape that keeps coming on stage and awkwardly carrying girls away. If this were anything buy a dance recital someone would have called the cops by now.
Dance fight! The classic rivals, mice vs nutcrackers. I'll let you know who wins.
...Yikes. So the mouse gets stabbed and her mouse friends cry over her dead body and they played the "Fatality" sound bite from Mortal Kombat. When the DVD comes later we might have to fast forward through that so Kaitlyn doesn't get nightmares.
The preschoolers, perennial favorites, so much to unpack. One girl does nothing the whole song. Another hides in her hands cuz she's scared, but also kind of does her dance. But easily the best, one girl has her own big girl assigned to her to keep her from wandering away. It only kinda works. Brava, preschoolers, brava.
Song 15, called in the program "Snowflakes a Flutter." Could have just as easily been titled "Arm Flapping in Tutus set to Acoustic Guitar."
Sassy bumblebees dance to hip-hop remix of Jingle Bells. I do not remember that from the original Nutcracker. I also don't remember the Arabian belly dance number. (*Carroll supplies link of Arabian belly dance in original Nutcracker*) Lol, well color me wrong. By the way, belly dances can be done by 5 year olds because it's hilarious and adorable, or adult women because it's sexy. When 14 year old girls do it it's just awkward all around. Nobody wins.
The youngins are back and basically just doing jumping jacks to the one recognizable song from the Nutcracker. Super glad I paid like $300 for my girls to be a part of this. (Carroll: *enrolls Genevieve in MMA*) I do take some solace in knowing I'm no longer the only one with daughters... (Alan: *Sends gif of happy Bender dancing).
So they almost always do this running leap thing and this one poor girl... She ran and thought about leaping but hesitated, so ran some more, but hesitated, then needed speed for her leap... But was out of room. Ended in a sad hop. Very disappointed in herself. Her moment was too big for her. There's always next year, little girl.
It is the 30th song today with sparkles and twirling, so I will take this moment to mention that Kaitlyn did come on right after the preschoolers but was disappointingly pretty good. She can off-balance foot stomp with the best of them.
Man, I need to watch the original before I come to another one of these, because ten little girls just ran out from a big girl's skirt that's the size of a tent and I'm just lost. I am not picking up the narratives being laid down.
They're bringing them all back out for the 10 minutes long "take a bow" dance. With this one wrapping up, I'm left with one final thought. For all the effort I put into keeping my commentary fresh, you must remember that every dance could really be boiled down to the same four words: Glitter skipping and suck. That'll do it for me, gents. See you on Mother's Day. And Alan, may God bless you with nothing but granddaughters.
And some notes from Johannah at the second show:
1. You forgot to mention how interminably long the snowflake dance was.
2. Did the disco ball keep flashing right in your eyes?
3. Weird chipmunk laughing noises during the love duet?
4. My little angels (the tiny tots) got distracted by the gold glittery stuff on the floor. At least three grabbed fistfuls before finding their spots.
5. The belly dancer is super athletic.
6. Gretchen is not. I'm currently wondering if she even knows how to run.
Question: How do you make the most wonderful time of the year even more wonderful? Answer: Sit down to a 3 hour little girl dance recital, of course! It's the 2019 Miss Lyn's Jazzed Up Nutcracker and the house is packed with semi-obligated-to-watch parents and grandparents. Luckily for those of you without a ticket, I'm here for the play by play. Option #1 is don't go. #2 is drink myself stupid. But as I'm a semi-obligated parent and have to drive my kids home after this, option #3 is to make everyone else share a fraction of my misery. Now shut up, it's starting.
False alarm, turns out this is just pre-show Christmas hype music. Ironically this song and the still drawn curtain is probably the best performance I'll get to witness today.
Act 1 is in the books. You really forget how bad these are in the six months between sitting down for them...
Song 2 and I have no idea what I just watched. Nine year old dresses up like reindeer-elf and does the drunken robot? Thankfully the speakers they're using were installed in 1972, so I can just give her the benefit of the doubt and say it was in time to the music.
We have a Gretchen sighting! She is standing way too close to the girl next to her. Also, they're going for the oompa loompa up and down bob move, and I'm not sure when people become capable of that, but can now say with confidence that it comes after the age of 6.
There is some dad in a silver cape that keeps coming on stage and awkwardly carrying girls away. If this were anything buy a dance recital someone would have called the cops by now.
Dance fight! The classic rivals, mice vs nutcrackers. I'll let you know who wins.
...Yikes. So the mouse gets stabbed and her mouse friends cry over her dead body and they played the "Fatality" sound bite from Mortal Kombat. When the DVD comes later we might have to fast forward through that so Kaitlyn doesn't get nightmares.
The preschoolers, perennial favorites, so much to unpack. One girl does nothing the whole song. Another hides in her hands cuz she's scared, but also kind of does her dance. But easily the best, one girl has her own big girl assigned to her to keep her from wandering away. It only kinda works. Brava, preschoolers, brava.
Song 15, called in the program "Snowflakes a Flutter." Could have just as easily been titled "Arm Flapping in Tutus set to Acoustic Guitar."
Sassy bumblebees dance to hip-hop remix of Jingle Bells. I do not remember that from the original Nutcracker. I also don't remember the Arabian belly dance number. (*Carroll supplies link of Arabian belly dance in original Nutcracker*) Lol, well color me wrong. By the way, belly dances can be done by 5 year olds because it's hilarious and adorable, or adult women because it's sexy. When 14 year old girls do it it's just awkward all around. Nobody wins.
The youngins are back and basically just doing jumping jacks to the one recognizable song from the Nutcracker. Super glad I paid like $300 for my girls to be a part of this. (Carroll: *enrolls Genevieve in MMA*) I do take some solace in knowing I'm no longer the only one with daughters... (Alan: *Sends gif of happy Bender dancing).
So they almost always do this running leap thing and this one poor girl... She ran and thought about leaping but hesitated, so ran some more, but hesitated, then needed speed for her leap... But was out of room. Ended in a sad hop. Very disappointed in herself. Her moment was too big for her. There's always next year, little girl.
It is the 30th song today with sparkles and twirling, so I will take this moment to mention that Kaitlyn did come on right after the preschoolers but was disappointingly pretty good. She can off-balance foot stomp with the best of them.
Man, I need to watch the original before I come to another one of these, because ten little girls just ran out from a big girl's skirt that's the size of a tent and I'm just lost. I am not picking up the narratives being laid down.
They're bringing them all back out for the 10 minutes long "take a bow" dance. With this one wrapping up, I'm left with one final thought. For all the effort I put into keeping my commentary fresh, you must remember that every dance could really be boiled down to the same four words: Glitter skipping and suck. That'll do it for me, gents. See you on Mother's Day. And Alan, may God bless you with nothing but granddaughters.
And some notes from Johannah at the second show:
1. You forgot to mention how interminably long the snowflake dance was.
2. Did the disco ball keep flashing right in your eyes?
3. Weird chipmunk laughing noises during the love duet?
4. My little angels (the tiny tots) got distracted by the gold glittery stuff on the floor. At least three grabbed fistfuls before finding their spots.
5. The belly dancer is super athletic.
6. Gretchen is not. I'm currently wondering if she even knows how to run.
15 December 2019
October 27-December 15
Quick things, mostly about the two boys:
-A Theodore post went up, backdated to his birthday.
-Theo's last checkup -- 12 lbs 3 oz, 23.25 in
-The kids and I went to visit the Bossards at the beginning of November. Their trick-or-treating was Saturday, so we went with them.
-I have not mentioned it in a blog post, but Theodore is very spitty. I would say he's worse than Gretchen, but that could just be because he's the one currently being messy.
-If you ask Matthias what color something is, it's green.
-Theo found his hands on or around November 21.
-Matthias began potty training on November 25.
-The Bossards came here for Thanksgiving.
-We celebrated Christmas with Bryan's family this past weekend. Bryan and I alternate calling it "Grandma's Christmas" and "Present Day."
-Theodore has rolled from front to back several times. They were all on the same day, though, and he hasn't exhibited any similar talents since then.
-Theodore was a fabulous sleeper for five weeks -- from the middle of October until the end of November. At the beginning of those five weeks he would sleep from whenever he finally went down at night (usually by 9:30) until about 7. By the end of the five weeks his bedtime was pretty consistently in the 6:30-7 range. Then he broke, and he is no longer a fabulous sleeper. Sad day.
-Matthias calls his brother Feedoor John.
-Olivia has completed a round of swimming lessons. She needs to work on putting her face in the water, but has been promoted to the next level class. We currently have no plans to continue the lessons before summer arrives.
Pictures:
-A Theodore post went up, backdated to his birthday.
-Theo's last checkup -- 12 lbs 3 oz, 23.25 in
-The kids and I went to visit the Bossards at the beginning of November. Their trick-or-treating was Saturday, so we went with them.
-I have not mentioned it in a blog post, but Theodore is very spitty. I would say he's worse than Gretchen, but that could just be because he's the one currently being messy.
-If you ask Matthias what color something is, it's green.
-Theo found his hands on or around November 21.
-Matthias began potty training on November 25.
-The Bossards came here for Thanksgiving.
-We celebrated Christmas with Bryan's family this past weekend. Bryan and I alternate calling it "Grandma's Christmas" and "Present Day."
-Theodore has rolled from front to back several times. They were all on the same day, though, and he hasn't exhibited any similar talents since then.
-Theodore was a fabulous sleeper for five weeks -- from the middle of October until the end of November. At the beginning of those five weeks he would sleep from whenever he finally went down at night (usually by 9:30) until about 7. By the end of the five weeks his bedtime was pretty consistently in the 6:30-7 range. Then he broke, and he is no longer a fabulous sleeper. Sad day.
-Matthias calls his brother Feedoor John.
-Olivia has completed a round of swimming lessons. She needs to work on putting her face in the water, but has been promoted to the next level class. We currently have no plans to continue the lessons before summer arrives.
Pictures:
11 December 2019
Bonus Post: A Sibling Photo Shoot
Murry needed an updated picture for her foyer (the current one is missing both boys), so we had a photo shoot. Rudy joined in the fun, too.
Pictures:
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