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!