We took a trip to visit the Kleins back at the end of May. The whole family went down and we stayed overnight. On the way, Matthias had to go to the bathroom and, due to a lack of available facilities, discovered the joys of peeing on trees. Now on long car trips he periodically says, "I have to pee on a tree." Fantastic.
In mid June I took the kids to Pittsburgh to visit the Bossards while Bryan stayed home and led the fabulous bachelor life. We usually sleep in the attic, which gets quite hot in the summer. Luckily, Justine and Joseph had considered this and had an air conditioning unit arriving on Tuesday. Unluckily, we showed up on Monday. Everyone survived though, and by Wednesday evening it was pleasant enough even during the day.
All the cousins paired off during the visit and had a grand old time. Olivia, William, Gretchen, and Edward spent most of their inside time planning hide and seek. They all walked around with modern magna doodles making lists and drawing diagrams of the perfect hiding places in each room. The lists and diagrams were top secret and had to be protected from the other pair at all costs. Justine and I are pretty sure that over the course of the week they never actually got around to hiding. :)
All the kids spent a fair amount of time outside, taking turns riding the various wheeled things. Walter allowed the pedals to be taken off his bike so that Gretchen could practice balancing, which she did for several days. When we came home she was riding her own bike with pedals and without training wheels in ten minutes. This gave Kaitlyn renewed enthusiasm, and we took her pedals and training wheels off for her to learn as well. A week later we ended up putting them all back on.
Josef and Angelina came to visit over Father's Day weekend. They were moving Angelina's mother to Cleveland and then went to Columbus to check out apartments before coming to stay with us for a couple of days. It was fun to see them and we're looking forward to this fall when they live closer.
We've been to Steve and Murry's a couple of times now, and we've been taking the kids' bikes so that we can go on family walks/rides down the bike path. I do appreciate the walking and riding opportunities there. We should probably invest in a bike rack since the only other way to bring all the bikes is by taking an extra vehicle.
Murry wanted to have some time with each kid, so she came and got them one at a time for 24 hours. They did all sorts of things and there was a bonus post this past Wednesday with pictures. When Matthias was gone, I was reflecting on how much more peaceful it was when just one child was missing. Then Matthias came back and Gretchen left and suddenly it wasn't peaceful anymore. Which child is missing definitely matters. Due to ages and temperaments, the worst one to be missing right now is definitely Gretchen. Matthias is probably the best one, but only because Kaitlyn doesn't require me to constantly entertain her.
All the kids had some of their own money to spend a couple of months ago, and they carefully selected items from Amazon. Matthias bought matchbox cars, Kaitlyn bought polly pockets, Olivia bought a necklace (that still hasn't arrived), and Gretchen bought a birdhouse with a window on the back. We didn't read the description carefully enough, though, because the window is not a two way mirror like we though it was. It's just plexiglass. Much to Gretchen's delight, a bird moved in within a week. The bird was less delighted once it realized that giant heads kept popping up to look at it. We bought a camera that connects to an app so that we could watch the bird without scaring it.
Keshia's daughter, Rudy, turned five at the end of June. She had Kaitlyn over for a sleepover; they were so excited to see each other again. Kaitlyn was a little sad that it was only for one day, but she was happy to get to spend time at Rudy's by herself.
Theodore is pulling himself up on things. He spent a day panicking about being stuck once he got to standing and another day practicing plopping down on his bum. He still gets himself stuck at an awkward angle every now an again, but he's improved greatly. Now he's cruising slowly along the edge of furniture and is quite pleased with himself. He also discovered the card catalog drawers, so we've put our elegant baby proofing fence back up.
Well visit stats:
Theodore, 9.5 months -- 19 pounds, 4 ounces; 28 inches
Kaitlyn, 5 years and 2 months -- 43.4 pounds, 42.5 inches
Gretchen, 7 years and 1 month -- 49 pounds, 48.25 inches
Pictures:
Making faces at Theodore:
Cousins minus Julian:
The twins and the babies:
A silly picture from the top four:
Someone is very proud of his chalupa mess. The only reason his stomach looks so clean is because I'd already removed his completely caked outfit:
Babies and bubbles:
These two boys were up too early one morning:
This is from Gretchen's first grade journal. I thought the story was funny.
Olivia and I talked contracts. It's not working 100%, but it's better than anything else we've tried to get work done without a ton of nagging.
An excess of makeup:
Catboy helmet and shark sunglasses:
Gretchen reads:
This is how Matthias wears his glasses:
I ordered a second level for my game shelf and it finally came!
Olivia and Theodore:
Theodore makes friends with Joseph Wey. Joseph is three and a half months older, but decided to flop down on his belly to be like Theo. :)
Kaitlyn teaches Irene the perfect pose:
So much makeup. They look abused:
Causing problems:
Theodore plays piano with me:
Kaitlyn, attending Rudy's birthday sleepover:
Pictures from Uncle Josef:
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