Olivia knows eight animal sounds now. In the order she learned them, they are as follows: lion, monkey, dog, sheep, cat, horse, duck, cow. We didn't catch sheep right away, since she has a gentle lion and an aggressive sheep, making them sound very similar. My siblings were quite dedicated in teaching her horse and duck while we were visiting last weekend. My favorite noise that she makes is monkey; Bryan's favorite is cow (and it became even more of a favorite when I commented that it sounds a bit like a steamboat). There are videos below which document her talents.
There's also a video below where she shows all the body parts she knows. Right now we're working on leg, as she recently discovered that she has two of them.
Olivia no longer pulls hair out of the top of her head! Unfortunately, she now pulls it out over her ears, so the mullet look has actually gotten worse. :( I asked the pediatrician about it the last time we were in, and he said to distract her whenever she's pulling on her hair. That would be great, except she only pulls it out in her crib at night. Right now we're hoping she'll grow out of this phase completely once the hair above her ears gets too short to pull.
Every now and again, Olivia decides that she is going to use her own utensils. This means she takes longer to eat, since she won't let us help her but still isn't very good with a fork. At our house we have toddler sized forks to use and she'll spend the entire meal trying to stab food, getting food about one in every ten tries. Whether said food stays on the fork long enough to make it to her mouth is an entirely different matter. Eventually she gets frustrated and/or hungry enough that she'll let us feed her, so she doesn't starve. At my mom and dad's this last weekend, James couldn't find any Olivia sized forks, so he provided her with only a spoon. Of course, this caused problems: her spoon skills are worse than her fork skills, she wouldn't accept a big fork, and this was one of the times she was determined to feed herself. So there she sat, valiantly trying to stab her egg noodles with a spoon. :)
I have decided that kids should be like software upgrades. Reggie should be just like Olivia, only with fewer glitches. It sounds good to me. All the good, and less of the bad (not that Olivia has ANY bad, of course... :-P). Bryan thought this was a great idea, pointing out that by kid eight we should have a professional athlete who cures cancer. Then we were struck by a sobering thought: on kid 9, there will be a total interface overhaul. We'll know the upgrade is supposed to be better, but we won't know why and we won't be able to figure out how to work it.
Pictures and Videos:
03 February 2013
27 January 2013
January 20-27
A while ago, Olivia suffered a stair regression. She was perfectly capable of climbing stairs, but refused to do so, preferring to be carried. I am pleased to report that in the last few weeks, she has reremembered how to climb stairs and now does so willingly.
Olivia is officially drinking milk. I let her try a glass back when she first turned one, but she had issues with it, so we went back to just water. This last week, though, we've been giving her a glass of milk with dinner every night and she's been fine. I guess her system just needed to mature a bit more. Friday we moved her milk time to breakfast instead so that she can finish it later in the day if necessary.
On Tuesday, Olivia helped me unload the dishwasher the way she usually does. Generally she unloads the silverware one piece at a time and hands it to me to put away. About a month ago, I tried putting out the fork and spoon bins for her to put silverware into, and she just picked out all of HER silverware and walked away. Tuesday, though, I tried again, and Olivia sorted forks and spoons into their proper containers as she unloaded them. She got them all right until she got impatient with the last handful and just shoved two forks and two spoons sideways into the spoons bin.
We have names! Bryan and I do, I mean. Olivia calls me mama and she calls Bryan deeda. Whenever she says "deeda," I say "daddy," and then she refers to him as "dada" for a while instead. Her default name for him, though, is deeda. Olivia doesn't really use either name to get our attention, but when she sees pictures, those are the names she uses.
We have a bathroom cupboard that is just Olivia's size. In it is the trash can and various extra bathroom supplies. Usually Olivia leaves this cupboard alone, but the other day I discovered her diligently pulling things out. 3 points to the person who can tell me what she got into. There's a picture below; don't forget the brand! After the first incident, I put our supplies in plastic tubs. It slowed her down a bit, but she did figure out how to get one lid off (that's the second pictures below). Luckily, there's not really anything that's a problem in that cupboard.
Last Saturday we visited the Kleins to help them rearrange rooms in anticipation of their little one's arrival. The boys carried furniture while us girls went shopping. :) In fairness, it was easier to move things without the babies underfoot, and we needed to go to the store to get ingredients for lunch. When we got to Kroger (side note: They have the most amazing Kroger I have ever seen. I have Kroger envy.), we decided to put the little girls in one of those car carts instead of pushing two separate carts around the store. They were super cute, and even made it through the whole trip with no problems. Eva did bend down too far in the checkout line, getting her head stuck under her steering wheel, and we heard a chorus of "uh-oh!"s as Olivia tried valiantly to rescue her by pulling on Eva's jacket.
This week our dishwasher played "washing machine" (it's a common game; I'm surprised you haven't heard of it) and stopped draining. Bryan ladled the water out, looked stuff up online, tinkered around a bit, and thinks it might be fixed. Unfortunately, we have to run it to find out, so I'm saving that for next week's project and just did dishes by hand for a few days.
Pictures:
Olivia is officially drinking milk. I let her try a glass back when she first turned one, but she had issues with it, so we went back to just water. This last week, though, we've been giving her a glass of milk with dinner every night and she's been fine. I guess her system just needed to mature a bit more. Friday we moved her milk time to breakfast instead so that she can finish it later in the day if necessary.
On Tuesday, Olivia helped me unload the dishwasher the way she usually does. Generally she unloads the silverware one piece at a time and hands it to me to put away. About a month ago, I tried putting out the fork and spoon bins for her to put silverware into, and she just picked out all of HER silverware and walked away. Tuesday, though, I tried again, and Olivia sorted forks and spoons into their proper containers as she unloaded them. She got them all right until she got impatient with the last handful and just shoved two forks and two spoons sideways into the spoons bin.
We have names! Bryan and I do, I mean. Olivia calls me mama and she calls Bryan deeda. Whenever she says "deeda," I say "daddy," and then she refers to him as "dada" for a while instead. Her default name for him, though, is deeda. Olivia doesn't really use either name to get our attention, but when she sees pictures, those are the names she uses.
We have a bathroom cupboard that is just Olivia's size. In it is the trash can and various extra bathroom supplies. Usually Olivia leaves this cupboard alone, but the other day I discovered her diligently pulling things out. 3 points to the person who can tell me what she got into. There's a picture below; don't forget the brand! After the first incident, I put our supplies in plastic tubs. It slowed her down a bit, but she did figure out how to get one lid off (that's the second pictures below). Luckily, there's not really anything that's a problem in that cupboard.
Last Saturday we visited the Kleins to help them rearrange rooms in anticipation of their little one's arrival. The boys carried furniture while us girls went shopping. :) In fairness, it was easier to move things without the babies underfoot, and we needed to go to the store to get ingredients for lunch. When we got to Kroger (side note: They have the most amazing Kroger I have ever seen. I have Kroger envy.), we decided to put the little girls in one of those car carts instead of pushing two separate carts around the store. They were super cute, and even made it through the whole trip with no problems. Eva did bend down too far in the checkout line, getting her head stuck under her steering wheel, and we heard a chorus of "uh-oh!"s as Olivia tried valiantly to rescue her by pulling on Eva's jacket.This week our dishwasher played "washing machine" (it's a common game; I'm surprised you haven't heard of it) and stopped draining. Bryan ladled the water out, looked stuff up online, tinkered around a bit, and thinks it might be fixed. Unfortunately, we have to run it to find out, so I'm saving that for next week's project and just did dishes by hand for a few days.
Pictures:
20 January 2013
January 13-20
I forgot to mention in one of my Christmas time posts... Olivia won an ugly Christmas sweater contest (in her age group) at the Barhorst Christmas party. This would be fine, except she wasn't wearing an ugly Christmas sweater. She wasn't even wearing a Christmas themed shirt. Poor Olivia won while wearing her cute little koala shirt. :( In her defense, she was the only baby/toddler that walked, so she kind of won by default. She generously gave up her prize to a second cousin who was at least dressed in some sort of Christmas outfit.
Last Friday, tragedy struck. My washer stopped spinning. This doesn't seem so bad until you realize that I wash diapers twice a week. And a load of towels every other day (since Olivia has been sleeping naked). And clothes at least once a week. Then it gets a lot worse to have a broken washing machine. We tried to check and make sure nothing was caught in the basket, but washing machines are magical contraptions that cannot be taken apart. All their screws are inaccessible. We were out of town visiting Bryan's parents over the weekend, so Monday I called repair people, and by Wednesday our machine was fixed. The problem? Apparently the factory doesn't put locktite (glue, as close as I can figure) on after the nut that holds all the important parts in place. I guess only about half the machines they sell have problems with things falling apart because of this. As our machine was in that half, our pulley was loose and the belt fell off (at least, that's what the repair invoice says). Luckily, it's an easy fix, and the repairman secured everything with locktite when he was done. I threw in a load of diapers as soon as he walked out the door, and we were back on track. :)
Shortly after moving into our house, we bought a coat tree to put near our front door. Actually, I seem to remember carrying the coat tree in one hand and Olivia in the other, so it must have been a little later in the year. Probably closer to winter, when our coats would have made an appearance. Regardless. We had a coat tree. Several months ago, one of the branches on our tree broke off. No problem, we have five more. Then another one fell off last month. And then suddenly, our branches were dropping off like leaves in the autumn. We decided to replace our denuded tree with a much more practical coat rack. Did you know that coat racks are incredibly hard to come by? After searching area stores with no luck, Bryan said he'd make one. We went to Home Depot to buy wood and lo and behold, they had an 8 hook coat rack that you can hang on the wall. It would have cost more to buy hooks and make it ourselves, so we bought theirs. It's less intrusive than the tree and looks like it should last longer. I don't know why we didn't think of this in the first place, but I blame my family and their beautifully sturdy coat tree (that they replaced with 2 coat racks apparently sometime after we bought our tree).
Pictures:
Last Friday, tragedy struck. My washer stopped spinning. This doesn't seem so bad until you realize that I wash diapers twice a week. And a load of towels every other day (since Olivia has been sleeping naked). And clothes at least once a week. Then it gets a lot worse to have a broken washing machine. We tried to check and make sure nothing was caught in the basket, but washing machines are magical contraptions that cannot be taken apart. All their screws are inaccessible. We were out of town visiting Bryan's parents over the weekend, so Monday I called repair people, and by Wednesday our machine was fixed. The problem? Apparently the factory doesn't put locktite (glue, as close as I can figure) on after the nut that holds all the important parts in place. I guess only about half the machines they sell have problems with things falling apart because of this. As our machine was in that half, our pulley was loose and the belt fell off (at least, that's what the repair invoice says). Luckily, it's an easy fix, and the repairman secured everything with locktite when he was done. I threw in a load of diapers as soon as he walked out the door, and we were back on track. :)
Shortly after moving into our house, we bought a coat tree to put near our front door. Actually, I seem to remember carrying the coat tree in one hand and Olivia in the other, so it must have been a little later in the year. Probably closer to winter, when our coats would have made an appearance. Regardless. We had a coat tree. Several months ago, one of the branches on our tree broke off. No problem, we have five more. Then another one fell off last month. And then suddenly, our branches were dropping off like leaves in the autumn. We decided to replace our denuded tree with a much more practical coat rack. Did you know that coat racks are incredibly hard to come by? After searching area stores with no luck, Bryan said he'd make one. We went to Home Depot to buy wood and lo and behold, they had an 8 hook coat rack that you can hang on the wall. It would have cost more to buy hooks and make it ourselves, so we bought theirs. It's less intrusive than the tree and looks like it should last longer. I don't know why we didn't think of this in the first place, but I blame my family and their beautifully sturdy coat tree (that they replaced with 2 coat racks apparently sometime after we bought our tree).
Pictures:
13 January 2013
January 6-13
A friend recently asked if I've noticed any difference between this pregnancy and the last one. After a moment of thought... no. However, I have noticed things that I forgot about returning to haunt me once again. For example. About halfway through my pregnancy with Olivia, I was thrashing squirming about one night trying to get comfortable. Bryan asked what was wrong and I told him that my legs were too awake for me to sleep. He suggested that I do a couple rounds of 6 inches to tire them out. This worked, but took longer (and more ab muscles) than I wanted. After that, I took to doing a few squats by the side of the bed whenever my legs bothered me. As I was generally up to go to the bathroom at some point anyway, I'd just toss in between 10 and 20 squats before climbing back into bed. With Reggie, the restless legs hit last week. I had forgotten about them, but the memory quickly returned. In an attempt to stave off the need for 3 am squats, I added them to my tooth brushing routine. You should have seen Bryan's face the first time he saw me doing squats while I brushed my teeth. :) I told him about my restless legs, and he, too, had a moment of recognition. My squats were approved as a suitable solution, and he decided it wouldn't hurt for him to do some, too. So now squats are the exercise of choice during tooth brushing. You should try it. As an added bonus, you can tell if you brushed long enough by how sore your thighs are the next morning. :-P
Olivia is now as close to running as short toddler legs with a diapered behind can get. She walks very fast, and it's not exactly the same motion as her normal walk. As a result of all her movement, Olivia is losing her baby fat. We can't tell when we look at her (especially right after a meal -- she's still small enough that you can tell if she's eaten or not just by looking at how fat her belly is), but she definitely looks fatter in pictures from a few months ago.
At what age do kids start posing for pictures? I didn't think it was until later, but Olivia is to the point where I can tell her to hold still and smile for the camera and she will. She's not old enough to have a goofy smile yet, either. See below for a posed picture or two.
I am now the inferior parent. I used to be the favorite, but now I am associated with only bad things. Diaper changes? Mom's domain. Bedtime? All mom. Not letting kids do fun things like eat crayons, have cookies for dinner, or climb on the back of the couch? Mean mommy strikes again. Bryan, on the other hand, is associated with playtime. When he comes home for lunch or at the end of the day, Olivia immediately brightens up and runs (or crawls) to the door, screeching excitedly. When I'm gone for a day and come home, I get greeted with "meehhh." No, you probably didn't say that right. Try again, with more whine in your voice. I regain my favored status at church on Sunday, when I am the only correct choice and must hold Olivia for at least 85% of the service. It must be in the fine print of my contract.
Olivia has this thing she does: if she's no longer satisfied with the food that is being offered for a meal, she shakes her head and imperiously points towards the kitchen. The implication being, "go find me something more worthy of my consumption, minion!" Sometimes it works (mostly when dad is home), sometimes it doesn't (more often when mom is in charge). She tries anyway, though, in hopes that she won't have to eat whatever she has deemed inedible.
Pictures:
Olivia is now as close to running as short toddler legs with a diapered behind can get. She walks very fast, and it's not exactly the same motion as her normal walk. As a result of all her movement, Olivia is losing her baby fat. We can't tell when we look at her (especially right after a meal -- she's still small enough that you can tell if she's eaten or not just by looking at how fat her belly is), but she definitely looks fatter in pictures from a few months ago.
At what age do kids start posing for pictures? I didn't think it was until later, but Olivia is to the point where I can tell her to hold still and smile for the camera and she will. She's not old enough to have a goofy smile yet, either. See below for a posed picture or two.
I am now the inferior parent. I used to be the favorite, but now I am associated with only bad things. Diaper changes? Mom's domain. Bedtime? All mom. Not letting kids do fun things like eat crayons, have cookies for dinner, or climb on the back of the couch? Mean mommy strikes again. Bryan, on the other hand, is associated with playtime. When he comes home for lunch or at the end of the day, Olivia immediately brightens up and runs (or crawls) to the door, screeching excitedly. When I'm gone for a day and come home, I get greeted with "meehhh." No, you probably didn't say that right. Try again, with more whine in your voice. I regain my favored status at church on Sunday, when I am the only correct choice and must hold Olivia for at least 85% of the service. It must be in the fine print of my contract.
Olivia has this thing she does: if she's no longer satisfied with the food that is being offered for a meal, she shakes her head and imperiously points towards the kitchen. The implication being, "go find me something more worthy of my consumption, minion!" Sometimes it works (mostly when dad is home), sometimes it doesn't (more often when mom is in charge). She tries anyway, though, in hopes that she won't have to eat whatever she has deemed inedible.
Pictures:
06 January 2013
December 30-January 6
On the 1st day of Christmas... We opened presents with Bryan's family. Bryan got tools, I got cooking things, and Olivia got toys. She also got a new carseat, which was my favorite gift because she's just about grown out of her old seat.
On the 2nd day of Christmas... We drove up to visit my family and also managed to catch brunch with friends. Olivia was displeased that she was required to SIT (in a chair, no less) during meals. Presents were opened later in the day. Movies, more cooking supplies for me (my kitchen will explode), and some books for Olivia. Bryan and I enjoyed seeing if our predictions of excitement levels were accurate for each gift.
On the 3rd day of Christmas... We hung out with my family. Lots of movie watching and game playing. I also took my sewing machine to a shop to see if they knew what was wrong with it. They're going to get back to me someday. In the meantime, I am sewing-machine-less.
On the 4th day of Christmas... Mom, Justine, and I went shopping for granola ingredients (there's no bulk foods store conveniently close to me) and a new crib mattress for Reggie (also no Babies'R'Us, and I had a coupon). We left the babies at home with the daddies and all survived.
On the 5th day of Christmas... Justine and I got to play duets, Alison graced us with her presence (probably due to Bryan's incessant nagging), and Olivia felt under the weather. That evening, we came home. Seth and Amanda stopped by our house on their way back to Virginia, bringing their golden retriever, Apollo, with them.
On the 6th day of Christmas... Apollo came with me to get Olivia from her crib in the morning. Much excitement (Olivia's) and apprehension (Apollo's) ensued. The emotions reversed when Olivia was down on the ground and realized how big Apollo was. Our annual Eve of New Year's Eve party happened, and we got together with friends to play games.
On the 7th day of Christmas... We slept. And lounged around, refusing to leave the house.
On the 8th day of Christmas... Bryan and I accidentally celebrated the New Year at midnight because we were both used to being up late from the last few days. I was reading and he was on the computer when suddenly we heard... fireworks? Here? Oh, yeah, it's the New Year. We felt old and went to bed. After sleeping, we headed to church and then to the store to get Olivia a toy box of sorts to hold all her new toys.
On the 9th day of Christmas... Bryan went back to work. Olivia noticed that we still had unopened presents under our tree and decided it was probably her job to remedy this. Willshe the remaining presents make it the last 3 days?
On the 10th day of Christmas... I finally mailed our Christmas letter. It was written on the 21st of December this year, and some people even received their copies BEFORE Christmas (shocking, I know), but I didn't make it to the post office until today. The plus side to doing it this way is that I only had to buy 12 stamps, because we'd seen all our other letter recipients during the holidays.
On the 11th day of Christmas... Olivia got a new book from Fr and Presbytera (at the Greek church) that quickly became her favorite. She actually got it yesterday, but it didn't ascend to favorite until today. Where's Spot? by Eric Hill. Best book ever. She's very careful as she opens the flaps to look at each animal. She's also learning what sound monkeys make. Bryan says, "ooh ooh aah aah" and Olivia replies with, "ooh eee ooh eee." Okay, maybe she's learning what sound daddies make.
On the 12th day of Christmas... I finally finished catching up on dishes and laundry from our vacation. I would have been done two days ago, but the 11th day was my normal laundry day and it was time to wash diapers again. Olivia finally caught on to our "move the wisemen one step forward" routine and didn't try to exile the wiseman she was moving.
I added pictures to last week's post. I could use some from our visit to my family (hint hint, siblings). I also updated two of the earliest posts, July 31-August 7 and August 7-14, so feel free to go check those out.
Pictures:
On the 2nd day of Christmas... We drove up to visit my family and also managed to catch brunch with friends. Olivia was displeased that she was required to SIT (in a chair, no less) during meals. Presents were opened later in the day. Movies, more cooking supplies for me (my kitchen will explode), and some books for Olivia. Bryan and I enjoyed seeing if our predictions of excitement levels were accurate for each gift.
On the 3rd day of Christmas... We hung out with my family. Lots of movie watching and game playing. I also took my sewing machine to a shop to see if they knew what was wrong with it. They're going to get back to me someday. In the meantime, I am sewing-machine-less.
On the 4th day of Christmas... Mom, Justine, and I went shopping for granola ingredients (there's no bulk foods store conveniently close to me) and a new crib mattress for Reggie (also no Babies'R'Us, and I had a coupon). We left the babies at home with the daddies and all survived.
On the 5th day of Christmas... Justine and I got to play duets, Alison graced us with her presence (probably due to Bryan's incessant nagging), and Olivia felt under the weather. That evening, we came home. Seth and Amanda stopped by our house on their way back to Virginia, bringing their golden retriever, Apollo, with them.
On the 6th day of Christmas... Apollo came with me to get Olivia from her crib in the morning. Much excitement (Olivia's) and apprehension (Apollo's) ensued. The emotions reversed when Olivia was down on the ground and realized how big Apollo was. Our annual Eve of New Year's Eve party happened, and we got together with friends to play games.
On the 7th day of Christmas... We slept. And lounged around, refusing to leave the house.
On the 8th day of Christmas... Bryan and I accidentally celebrated the New Year at midnight because we were both used to being up late from the last few days. I was reading and he was on the computer when suddenly we heard... fireworks? Here? Oh, yeah, it's the New Year. We felt old and went to bed. After sleeping, we headed to church and then to the store to get Olivia a toy box of sorts to hold all her new toys.
On the 9th day of Christmas... Bryan went back to work. Olivia noticed that we still had unopened presents under our tree and decided it was probably her job to remedy this. Will
On the 10th day of Christmas... I finally mailed our Christmas letter. It was written on the 21st of December this year, and some people even received their copies BEFORE Christmas (shocking, I know), but I didn't make it to the post office until today. The plus side to doing it this way is that I only had to buy 12 stamps, because we'd seen all our other letter recipients during the holidays.
On the 11th day of Christmas... Olivia got a new book from Fr and Presbytera (at the Greek church) that quickly became her favorite. She actually got it yesterday, but it didn't ascend to favorite until today. Where's Spot? by Eric Hill. Best book ever. She's very careful as she opens the flaps to look at each animal. She's also learning what sound monkeys make. Bryan says, "ooh ooh aah aah" and Olivia replies with, "ooh eee ooh eee." Okay, maybe she's learning what sound daddies make.
On the 12th day of Christmas... I finally finished catching up on dishes and laundry from our vacation. I would have been done two days ago, but the 11th day was my normal laundry day and it was time to wash diapers again. Olivia finally caught on to our "move the wisemen one step forward" routine and didn't try to exile the wiseman she was moving.
I added pictures to last week's post. I could use some from our visit to my family (hint hint, siblings). I also updated two of the earliest posts, July 31-August 7 and August 7-14, so feel free to go check those out.
Pictures:
30 December 2012
December 23-30
Merry Christmas!
Bryan had the whole week off work, so we spent our time visiting friends and family. Last Saturday we decorated our Christmas tree while Olivia napped and then headed to Bryan's parents' house. Olivia was excited to see the tree and said "uh-oh" every time we tried to turn off the lights.
We stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Barhorst until Tuesday and then headed up to see my parents on Tuesday night. Oma and Opa and all the aunts and uncles were excited to see us; Olivia reserved judgement until she re-remembered who everyone was. She decided she's okay with everyone except Oma. For some reason, Oma is not a person to be acknowledged.
Wednesday we met some friends from school and caught up over a quick lunch. Then it was back to my parents' for the rest of the week. The Bossards came to visit, too, and Olivia had a good time policing Justine's treatment of William.
Saturday we left to catch dinner with Bryan's family before finally making it back home to sleep in our own beds again. Some more friends came to stay Saturday night, and tonight we'll have even more since it's our annual Eve of New Year's Eve party.
I have no pictures right now since I'm typing this post on a borrowed computer, but when I get back to my own computer and have some time I will put up the pictures that I took, as well as any I can get from my family.
Pictures:
Bryan had the whole week off work, so we spent our time visiting friends and family. Last Saturday we decorated our Christmas tree while Olivia napped and then headed to Bryan's parents' house. Olivia was excited to see the tree and said "uh-oh" every time we tried to turn off the lights.
We stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Barhorst until Tuesday and then headed up to see my parents on Tuesday night. Oma and Opa and all the aunts and uncles were excited to see us; Olivia reserved judgement until she re-remembered who everyone was. She decided she's okay with everyone except Oma. For some reason, Oma is not a person to be acknowledged.
Wednesday we met some friends from school and caught up over a quick lunch. Then it was back to my parents' for the rest of the week. The Bossards came to visit, too, and Olivia had a good time policing Justine's treatment of William.
Saturday we left to catch dinner with Bryan's family before finally making it back home to sleep in our own beds again. Some more friends came to stay Saturday night, and tonight we'll have even more since it's our annual Eve of New Year's Eve party.
I have no pictures right now since I'm typing this post on a borrowed computer, but when I get back to my own computer and have some time I will put up the pictures that I took, as well as any I can get from my family.
Pictures:
23 December 2012
December 16-23
Last weekend we were at Bryan's parents' house. On Saturday I participated in a cookie walk while Olivia stayed with Grandma. I'm told they made Christmas cookies and had a blast doing so. :) There's picture proof below. Apparently they also went roller skating that afternoon. Bryan skated around, pushing Olivia in her umbrella stroller. No one thought to get a picture of that, though.
Olivia is generally more cooperative when asked to do something. If she's whining to be picked up, I can ask her to carry a piece of paper (to the recycling bin) or a spice (from the cabinet to the counter) or a spoon (to the table for breakfast) and she'll immediately reach out her hand and head off in the appropriate direction with a cheerful "okay!" It doesn't ALWAYS work, but I'd probably put the success rate at about 92%.
I don't remember if I mentioned that Olivia can find her belly. Only if she pulls up her shirt, though. This week, she was also able to find her head, ear, and nose. Her first response upon being asked to find her nose is to start sniffing and snorting, as if to demonstrate what her nose can do, and then she usually reaches up and squeezes it closed (which impedes her sniffing and snorting just a bit). Sometimes she'll open and close her mouth repeatedly when asked where it is, but other times she ignores that question.
This weekend we began our holiday travels, starting with Bryan's family. We'll move on to my family late Christmas day and be there the rest of the week before returning home on Saturday.
More Pictures:
16 December 2012
December 9-16
I noticed something this week: Olivia reads books right side up. She's reached a point where she will look at the pictures in her books without requiring me to be reading them to her. It used to not matter which way the book faced, but she has recently (or perhaps not so recently, and I just noticed now) begun turning her books so that the pictures are appropriately oriented. Along similar lines, when she puts her flash cards away in their bucket, she often takes care to position them with the picture facing her in whichever way she has deemed to be upright (the seal, for instance, is always upside down; it makes sense if you look at it).
My sewing machine is dying a slow and painful death. It will be sewing along just fine and then all of a sudden... not. The top thread is loose on the underside of the material. Changing the tension doesn't help. The best I can do is rethread both needle and bobbin and hope it fixes itself. :(
I read once that taste buds change over the course of about 7 years. This study is obviously not done on toddlers. Olivia no longer has any interest in pickles, Cheerios are only so-so, cottage cheese is not only edible but delicious, and this whole week she chose lentil soup over pears and plums. Lentil soup. Full of veggies. Over a fruit puree. Two months ago we had to trick vegetable purees into her mouth and she'd spit out any whole veggies she could. This week, though, it was lentil soup all the way. I'm hoping this lasts until the end of Advent, as I have a couple more lentil dishes planned still.
And speaking of Advent meals, I decided to try something this year. We are attempting to go all of Advent without repeating a single meal. I've been wanting to try some new vegetarian recipes anyway, so this works out well. In fact, when I sat down and wrote out my MONTH-LONG MENU (!!!), I didn't even get to put some of our more common vegetarian meals on it. I listed them down the side in case we needed to turn to an old standby. We did have hot tuna casserole already (for my birthday, of course) and this week did spaghetti for when Bryan's guys came over for man night, so that's two easy meals down. But we've also tried three new recipes and look strong going into the second half of the month. :)
Jacob's gift arrived in the mail on Wednesday. It came all the way from China but did not have any Chinese stamps on the package. :( It DID, however, have the little customs slip that has to be filled out when things are shipped overseas. I saved that to give to Jacob. I'm also posting a picture here so you can see it. I'd be worried about Jacob finding out what his gift is, but I think the only accurate information on the whole thing is our address. Sorry, Jacob, you are not getting a 0.01 kg household lamp from us.
I introduced Olivia to the wonders of sitting on the heating grate and now she sits on it all the time (even when it's not blowing warm air). It reminds me of when we used to sit on the radiators in the Zion house. There are two downsides to her new perch: one, it has holes, so sometimes she drops things in it. It does come up, but only if we move the television, so retrieving things is a bit of a pain. Two, I can no longer stand over the grate because Olivia is busy sitting on it. Luckily for me, we have other grates. :)
One of the churches we attend semi-regularly (the Orthodox one we go to when we stay with Bryan's parents) is having a cookie walk on Saturday. I decided to contribute some spritz cookies. I used one of my half days off to get the kitchen to myself while Bryan and Olivia had a daddy-daughter day out. This was necessary so that Olivia didn't eat all my batter before it became cookies. ...Or all my cookies after they became cookies. Anyway. In the course of making 22 dozen cookies (that's one batch of chocolate and one of vanilla), I learned some things about spritz cookies. Someone remind me that this list exists next December when I do this again.
-Cooking spray is NOT your friend. I always figure it can't hurt to spray the pan. With spritz cookies, it turns out that it CAN hurt. If the cookies don't stick a little bit, they don't come cleanly off the press. There's enough butter in the batter to ensure that they don't stick after baking.
-The square is impossible. I tried and failed at about 5 cookies before giving up on the square shape and moving on to other choices.
-The ugly three-pointed shape is the easiest. It's ugly, but works well and comes off cleanly almost every time.
-The ugly three-pointed shape is significantly less ugly in green. I decided to make some green Christmas trees with the end of my vanilla batter. After I got tired of fighting with the trees, I used the ugly shape to finish. I had to fight with that one, too, but in green they look kind of like holly leaves, so they're not so ugly.
-Food coloring is exciting, but does strange things to the batter. I don't think the 4 green drops I used should have changed the consistency of the batter, but suddenly the cookies no longer came off the press without a LOT of coaxing. Even the ugly ones.
-Vanilla works better than chocolate. It's also tastier. At least this year.
-The press works better if you get most of the air bubbles out of the batter. That's probably why the chocolate recipe suggests rolling the batter into a log before putting it in the press. I shoved it in with a spoon, which worked just fine (especially when I started leaving the presser part most of the way down to start and slowly using batter to force it back up the tube), but I did feel a little like the boys in October Sky as they try to add rocket fuel without introducing air pockets. Unfortunately, I can't find a youtube clip that shows that part of the movie.
More pictures:
My sewing machine is dying a slow and painful death. It will be sewing along just fine and then all of a sudden... not. The top thread is loose on the underside of the material. Changing the tension doesn't help. The best I can do is rethread both needle and bobbin and hope it fixes itself. :(
I read once that taste buds change over the course of about 7 years. This study is obviously not done on toddlers. Olivia no longer has any interest in pickles, Cheerios are only so-so, cottage cheese is not only edible but delicious, and this whole week she chose lentil soup over pears and plums. Lentil soup. Full of veggies. Over a fruit puree. Two months ago we had to trick vegetable purees into her mouth and she'd spit out any whole veggies she could. This week, though, it was lentil soup all the way. I'm hoping this lasts until the end of Advent, as I have a couple more lentil dishes planned still.
And speaking of Advent meals, I decided to try something this year. We are attempting to go all of Advent without repeating a single meal. I've been wanting to try some new vegetarian recipes anyway, so this works out well. In fact, when I sat down and wrote out my MONTH-LONG MENU (!!!), I didn't even get to put some of our more common vegetarian meals on it. I listed them down the side in case we needed to turn to an old standby. We did have hot tuna casserole already (for my birthday, of course) and this week did spaghetti for when Bryan's guys came over for man night, so that's two easy meals down. But we've also tried three new recipes and look strong going into the second half of the month. :)
Jacob's gift arrived in the mail on Wednesday. It came all the way from China but did not have any Chinese stamps on the package. :( It DID, however, have the little customs slip that has to be filled out when things are shipped overseas. I saved that to give to Jacob. I'm also posting a picture here so you can see it. I'd be worried about Jacob finding out what his gift is, but I think the only accurate information on the whole thing is our address. Sorry, Jacob, you are not getting a 0.01 kg household lamp from us.I introduced Olivia to the wonders of sitting on the heating grate and now she sits on it all the time (even when it's not blowing warm air). It reminds me of when we used to sit on the radiators in the Zion house. There are two downsides to her new perch: one, it has holes, so sometimes she drops things in it. It does come up, but only if we move the television, so retrieving things is a bit of a pain. Two, I can no longer stand over the grate because Olivia is busy sitting on it. Luckily for me, we have other grates. :)
One of the churches we attend semi-regularly (the Orthodox one we go to when we stay with Bryan's parents) is having a cookie walk on Saturday. I decided to contribute some spritz cookies. I used one of my half days off to get the kitchen to myself while Bryan and Olivia had a daddy-daughter day out. This was necessary so that Olivia didn't eat all my batter before it became cookies. ...Or all my cookies after they became cookies. Anyway. In the course of making 22 dozen cookies (that's one batch of chocolate and one of vanilla), I learned some things about spritz cookies. Someone remind me that this list exists next December when I do this again.
-Cooking spray is NOT your friend. I always figure it can't hurt to spray the pan. With spritz cookies, it turns out that it CAN hurt. If the cookies don't stick a little bit, they don't come cleanly off the press. There's enough butter in the batter to ensure that they don't stick after baking.
-The square is impossible. I tried and failed at about 5 cookies before giving up on the square shape and moving on to other choices.
-The ugly three-pointed shape is the easiest. It's ugly, but works well and comes off cleanly almost every time.
-The ugly three-pointed shape is significantly less ugly in green. I decided to make some green Christmas trees with the end of my vanilla batter. After I got tired of fighting with the trees, I used the ugly shape to finish. I had to fight with that one, too, but in green they look kind of like holly leaves, so they're not so ugly.
-Food coloring is exciting, but does strange things to the batter. I don't think the 4 green drops I used should have changed the consistency of the batter, but suddenly the cookies no longer came off the press without a LOT of coaxing. Even the ugly ones.
-Vanilla works better than chocolate. It's also tastier. At least this year.
-The press works better if you get most of the air bubbles out of the batter. That's probably why the chocolate recipe suggests rolling the batter into a log before putting it in the press. I shoved it in with a spoon, which worked just fine (especially when I started leaving the presser part most of the way down to start and slowly using batter to force it back up the tube), but I did feel a little like the boys in October Sky as they try to add rocket fuel without introducing air pockets. Unfortunately, I can't find a youtube clip that shows that part of the movie.
More pictures:
09 December 2012
December 2-9
Last weekend we visited my parents. Olivia is more pleasant every time we visit, which could mean she's remembering my family and has resigned herself to the fact that she's related to these people and will thus see them approximately once a month. Or it could mean that she's getting better at ignoring the chaos of constantly having at least five people sitting around her watching her every move and imitating her every sound. Just the usual paparazzi, no big deal.
Remember the doll we gave Olivia for her birthday? The one she used to make me hold while she played? This doll is now one of her favorite belongings. In the past week and a half, Olivia has decided she must have her baby (one of her semi-distinct words) whenever she remembers that said baby exists. It came with us to drop Bryan off at work, it's been to Wal-Mart at least once, she occasionally holds it during meals, and she took it to bed one night. She looked quite adorable as she insisted on holding her doll even as she lay in her crib at bedtime. Of course, she sleeps on her stomach, which makes it harder to hold a baby, so when we went to check on her later that night we discovered (after a significant amount of searching for the apparently missing baby) that she fixed this problem by sleeping on top of her doll. I can't imagine that having the hard plastic head digging into her chest was particularly comfortable, but she seemed fine with it. One can only hope that she will think of a better method of sleeping with a baby before she accidentally smothers an actual child.
Olivia has two more distinct (to everyone, not just me!) words: "uh-oh" and "okay". I think it's especially cute when I hand her something and ask her to hold it for me and hear her little voice respond, "okay!"
Along similar lines, the pediatrician asked us at Olivia's 15-month appointment if Olivia was removing clothes by herself yet. (The pediatrician also wanted to know if Olivia had about 6 understandable words yet; that's why this paragraph is along similar lines.) At the time, Olivia was only removing socks by herself. Now, however, she has moved on to shirts. She doesn't do it often, but every now and again I'll walk into her room after her nap and she'll be missing her shirt. Uh-oh.
Continuing the list of newly discovered talents, Olivia has developed a penguin walk. For what reason, we know not, but she does a little side to side strut quite deliberately. I make fun of her for it and then imitate it long enough for her to start again.
A couple of weeks ago, Bryan looked at me and said, "I love you. And I love Olivia. And I love Reginald."
...
...
...
"Who's Reginald?" I asked. His response: "That's what I decided to call him."
So, although we will NOT be naming this baby Reginald, no matter the gender, it is currently being referred to as Reginald and/or Reggie.
And speaking of Reggie, the 20 week ultrasound was on Tuesday. Everything looks good, the gender was not accidentally revealed to us, and there are a few more pictures below. Bryan took the ultrasound print of Reggie flexing his/her muscles to work and I have a profile on my planner.
Due to baby-sitter issues, Justine and William came to visit in time to watch Olivia during Reggie's ultrasound. Yes, it's a long drive just to baby-sit. They stayed for a few days, though, and we had fun hanging out. Olivia handled William just fine, although she was very concerned about Justine's suitability as a mother. What kind of mother just puts her baby on the floor under an arch and leaves him there?! Every time Justine put William down, Olivia would start pointing and saying, "uh-oh!", as if to remind Justine that, "Hey, lady, you dropped your baby!"
I added a few new pictures to the July 29-August 5 post.
More pictures:
Remember the doll we gave Olivia for her birthday? The one she used to make me hold while she played? This doll is now one of her favorite belongings. In the past week and a half, Olivia has decided she must have her baby (one of her semi-distinct words) whenever she remembers that said baby exists. It came with us to drop Bryan off at work, it's been to Wal-Mart at least once, she occasionally holds it during meals, and she took it to bed one night. She looked quite adorable as she insisted on holding her doll even as she lay in her crib at bedtime. Of course, she sleeps on her stomach, which makes it harder to hold a baby, so when we went to check on her later that night we discovered (after a significant amount of searching for the apparently missing baby) that she fixed this problem by sleeping on top of her doll. I can't imagine that having the hard plastic head digging into her chest was particularly comfortable, but she seemed fine with it. One can only hope that she will think of a better method of sleeping with a baby before she accidentally smothers an actual child.Olivia has two more distinct (to everyone, not just me!) words: "uh-oh" and "okay". I think it's especially cute when I hand her something and ask her to hold it for me and hear her little voice respond, "okay!"
Along similar lines, the pediatrician asked us at Olivia's 15-month appointment if Olivia was removing clothes by herself yet. (The pediatrician also wanted to know if Olivia had about 6 understandable words yet; that's why this paragraph is along similar lines.) At the time, Olivia was only removing socks by herself. Now, however, she has moved on to shirts. She doesn't do it often, but every now and again I'll walk into her room after her nap and she'll be missing her shirt. Uh-oh.
Continuing the list of newly discovered talents, Olivia has developed a penguin walk. For what reason, we know not, but she does a little side to side strut quite deliberately. I make fun of her for it and then imitate it long enough for her to start again.
A couple of weeks ago, Bryan looked at me and said, "I love you. And I love Olivia. And I love Reginald."
...
...
...
"Who's Reginald?" I asked. His response: "That's what I decided to call him."
So, although we will NOT be naming this baby Reginald, no matter the gender, it is currently being referred to as Reginald and/or Reggie.
And speaking of Reggie, the 20 week ultrasound was on Tuesday. Everything looks good, the gender was not accidentally revealed to us, and there are a few more pictures below. Bryan took the ultrasound print of Reggie flexing his/her muscles to work and I have a profile on my planner.Due to baby-sitter issues, Justine and William came to visit in time to watch Olivia during Reggie's ultrasound. Yes, it's a long drive just to baby-sit. They stayed for a few days, though, and we had fun hanging out. Olivia handled William just fine, although she was very concerned about Justine's suitability as a mother. What kind of mother just puts her baby on the floor under an arch and leaves him there?! Every time Justine put William down, Olivia would start pointing and saying, "uh-oh!", as if to remind Justine that, "Hey, lady, you dropped your baby!"
I added a few new pictures to the July 29-August 5 post.
More pictures:
02 December 2012
November 25-December 2
"Spot of tea, anyone?" (Bryan demanded this edit while lamenting his lack of monocle.)
Olivia is beginning to try to put shapes back into her shapes ball (instead of haphazardly scattering said shapes about the house). She's pretty good at circle, octagon, and pentagon so far. Less round shapes are more difficult since the corners get stuck, and there's just no hope for the scalene triangle. ...I should note that she doesn't find the holes herself yet. She can put shapes in if I rotate the ball to the correct hole and (for the harder shapes) orient the hole to match the way she's holding her shape.
I have an actual helper when cooking now. I used to have a helper who would hold onto my legs and taste my batter, but did nothing else. Now, though, Olivia will carry ingredients for me and has mastered turning a full measuring cup (or spoon) over to put ingredients into the batter. Her aim isn't great yet, so I have to make sure I hand her the cup well over the center of the bowl. Also, if I don't get out of the way quickly enough, I end up with a full cup of flour on my sleeve. :)
A week or so ago, Olivia jumped. By herself. Without falling over. Exactly once. She was mad at me, and did it without even realizing that something had happened. I noticed, though, and was impressed at her exasperation-inspired balance.
Bryan's days off used to roll over from year to year, but this year that changed. He has to use all his days off by the end of December or else they expire into thin air. This would not be a problem, except that he gave some of his days off to me and I've been hoarding them. In mid-October, his boss mentioned to the department that they'd really like to have the rest of the days off for the year scheduled, so that they could plan big projects around who would be gone when. I began looking for opportunities to use my days off, and even had one scheduled for Halloween before it got hijacked. Then Bryan's department was reorganizing, so he needed to be there every day for the first three weeks of November while the transition took place. Then Thanksgiving happened, and he already had a couple days off that week. And Bryan had also already taken off the last week of December for Christmas vacation. So there I was looking at my calendar, trying to find 3.5 days off that didn't conflict with Bryan's work schedule, Olivia's doctor appointments, my doctor appointments, or previously scheduled vacation days. Since I like my days off spread out and spaced over several days, I decided to take mostly half days off, on Tuesdays and Thursdays in December. The upshot of all of this? Bryan didn't/doesn't have to work a full week from November 18 through the end of the year.
I recently rediscovered Demetri Martin's Jokes With a Guitar, which led me to remember Rob Paravonian's Pachelbel Rant. Go ahead and watch (or rewatch) those two links; the blog will still be here when you finish. :)
Okay, now that you're back... I noticed one common thing about the above links: Both comedians are playing the guitar. This caused me to hypothesize... Maybe I prefer comedy that has a guitar element? Bryan decided to test this theory by having me listen to another comedian who plays guitar. I can't remember his name, and his stuff wasn't really my thing, but I have to admit that it WAS better than it would have been if it had been presented without the guitar. So my very scientific conclusion is as follows: All jokes are funnier when set to guitar.
More Pictures:
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