Barhorst Brewed: March 22-April 5

A scene:

Picture Matthias in the pink motorized jeep that we have. He sits in the passenger seat, water gun clutched firmly in his right hand. With his left hand he works the lever that changes the car from drive to reverse, preferring to keep it in reverse, but reluctant to believe that it will stay that way without his constant interference. One pudgy foot edges across the divider to press the pedal and (backwards) movement is achieved. He appears to not even consider utilizing the steering wheel, content to wave his gun and go where he may. But, what's this? The radio is right in front of him! The joy is indescribable. He presses the button, foot still on the pedal, water gun still in hand, and does a little dance as he careens backwards toward the basketball hoop. And then... His foot gets tired, he releases the pedal, and glides gently to a stop, reveling in the wonders of being two.

When Gretchen was two, I wrote a story about her being terrorized by a bug. Since then, we've had the occasional brief panic, but nothing too bad. Until Friday. I had just settled into my rocker to nurse Theodore and put him down for a nap. Suddenly, Olivia burst into the room. I asked what was wrong and she said, "Gretchenisalarmedbyabugonhersweater." Understanding nothing other than "Gretchen," I made her repeat herself. "Apparently Gretchen is very alarmed by a bug on her sweater." At that moment, panicked shrieks wafted into the bedroom. I informed Olivia that I was busy with Theodore, but that she should try to help Gretchen and I would be there as soon as I could. Olivia left and Kaitlyn came in. "Gretchen is screaming about a bug." Yes, yes, I could hear her now. The neighbors probably thought she was dying a painfully bloody death. Kaitlyn was sent to deliver the same calming message as Olivia. The screaming continued. Olivia returned, and I sent her out to use a stick to brush the bug off Gretchen. This was unacceptable to Gretchen, as then the bug might fall on Gretchen's feet. The screaming rose in pitch. I rushed Theodore through his routine as well as I could with the interruptions, deposited him unceremoniously in his bed, and left the bedroom to find an eerie silence. Gretchen was curled up in a ball on the corner of the couch, tears streaming silently down her cheeks. She told me she had finally screamed loudly enough that the bug fell off and then she ran inside. I calmed her down and we talked about bugs. Did she move around at all to try to get it off? No. Did she wave her arms at it? No. Did she flick it off with a finger or a stick? No. She just screamed and hoped. Oh, and looked at it, because if she had looked away then it might have disappeared to who knows where. We're working on bug coping strategies, but I have a feeling that the bug panic in her poor brain will overwhelm any solutions she might know.

Kaitlyn had a birthday! She turned five with little fanfare because of the coronavirus. She was handling it quite well, telling everyone that "You can't come to my birthday because there's going to be a VIRUS." On her actual birthday, though, she did say that it was a sad birthday because she couldn't see anyone. :( She got to video chat with a bunch of people, though, and I made her pizza and a tiered strawberry cake, and she got Anna and Elsa polly pockets as a gift. And now she's five, of which fact she is quite proud.

Theodore is working hard on his two top teeth. They are almost poked though the gums, but not quite. In an effort to encourage them, he bites everything he can get his little mouth on. He also leads with an open mouth for every encounter with, well, everything.

Theodore has achieved purposeful movement. He's been rocking on hands and knees for about a week now, but hasn't quite figured out how to get all his parts moving together. He HAS figured out how to do a rather spectacular face plant. I'm not convinced he can get exactly where he wants to get, especially in a high pressure situation such as desperately needing to traverse those two inches to mom so she can pick him up, but he will spin in circles on his belly to chase a toy and he will roll across the floor in an effort to catch up with a ball. He's quite good at going backwards in his attempts to crawl, and manages to cover great distances, albeit in the wrong direction.

We've been melting wax this week. One day was spent melting down all our old candle stubs and pouring them into candle holders. I have leftover wicks from a beeswax candle rolling craft, so I've been using those in my new candles. They work much better than braided embroidery floss. The sight of the melted wax triggered Olivia's memory, and she hauled out our crayon melting machine. It came with two molds, one for crayon shapes and the other for ring shapes. You can guess which one is more popular. Conveniently, the more popular shape is also more durable. We now have a quite extensive collection of marbled crayon jewelry.

Olivia is lacking in ambition. She will do exactly what is asked and not one single step more. Bryan says she gets that from him. She certainly doesn't get it from me. "Don't you want to take a few more Accelerated Reader tests? You've already read the books, you might as well take the tests." No. She does not want to, because she's already reached her goal. She also does not think it sounds like fun to fit as many spelling words as possible into one sentence. Some things about this child I can claim, but not this. I managed to fit all her spelling words (15 of them) into three sentences and she was merely tolerant rather than inspired. If I'd thought about it longer, I bet I could have fit them into two.

Gretchen is the opposite. She has loads of ambition. She always has ideas and is going above and beyond. Unless she gets distracted, in which case it doesn't get done at all. Oh well. Yesterday she designed her own sewing project. She was inspired by a piece of fabric, decided to make a crown, and set to work. She cut the pieces and sewed them. She accidentally cut one in half and modified her design so that it would still work. Then she realized that she'd forgotten to put the right sides together, and she learned the valuable lesson of how to use a seam ripper. She resewed them properly, flipped them, stuffed them, closed them, and... decided to turn them into a butterfly instead because that's what they looked like to her. So she sewed a butterfly. I did help tie two knots during the hand sewing process, but the rest she did all by herself.

School is coming along. We're officially out of school and locked down until the beginning of May now. Bryan and I prepared the girls for the probability that they would not get to go back to school during this school year, so they're taking it well. We have a routine now, and things get done when they need to get done. Tomorrow I have to go into the school to turn in their finished packets and pick up new ones. Kaitlyn sometimes does school with the big girls, writing letters and working on some color by letter sheets. Matthias plays a lot of Spot It, which is an I Spy kind of game. He also likes to put the pegs in Mastermind, which we pulled out and taught to the big girls. It's quite popular over here right now. Contrary to the news in my last post, Gretchen is not learning cursive. After her initial interest she forgot about it completely, and we have enough other things going on that I haven't reminded her. She does continue to be interested in sewing (see above). Olivia has done some sewing with me, but needs a new project in order to keep going. She's also done some coding with Bryan and has made a couple of levels in her very own video game.

We have been trying to set up one-on-one video chats for the kids. They've all gotten to talk to someone, although Matthias is really wanting a two-year-old to talk to. Maybe Dorothea will oblige. He's jealous that his sisters get to take my phone into their room and talk to their friends. We have discovered that even for talking to grandparents or cousins, one-on-one for about 15 minutes is ideal. Having everyone try to talk at once is just a noisy, silly mess.

Yesterday as I got some flour from our basement stash of food, I saw a mouse skitter across the floor. Great. The good news is that I saw the mouse, so we were able to set a trap and move all of our not canned food upstairs. We lost two bags of chips, a small bag of beans, and the chocolate chips that I was saving for Gretchen's birthday cake. Not too bad, except for the chocolate chips. I think I have enough sitting in the pantry to still make the cake she wanted, though, and she has backup plans upon backup plans if I don't. All the bagged and boxed food is upstairs now, and as an extra precaution I packed it into plastic tubs so that if a mouse should find its way into the main house there won't be any convenient smorgasbords.

Pictures:
Baby boys at church. Abram (4 months), Theodore (6.5 months), Joseph (10 months).