May 26-June 2

Olivia can use a spoon.  She still has a tendency to spill a bit, especially liquids, but this is easily solved by tying a towel around her neck.  So every morning I put cereal and milk in a bowl, tie a towel around Olivia's neck, and hand her a spoon.  She's good enough that as long as she has a towel I don't have to change her clothes after she eats breakfast.  This newfound talent has made her more insistent that she feed herself (except for when she's being difficult and requires that someone else feed her), which is nice for freeing up my hands during meals.

I want this spot for my garden.

I want a garden, but don't really have much sunlight in my yard.  I have lovely trees, but very little sun.  My in-laws were over a few weeks ago to hang out and help with yard work.  Steve told me I should be able to put flowers in the corner in front of my house and tomatoes along the side of the shed in the back.  I'm skeptical, but who am I to argue with the son of generations of farmers?  So after we planted the ten flowers that Murry brought for Olivia's gardening pleasure, I bought some perennial dianthus and a hydrangea.  Both tags said partial shade was okay.  I also bought 4 tomato plants (their tags did NOT say shade was okay!).  All my plants are in the ground and getting... hardly any sun at all.  We shall see how this goes.  I think next year I'll just talk to my neighbors and ask if I can plant a garden in the nice sunny section on their side of our shed.

Gretchen was one month old last week, and I forgot to mention it!  This week she hit 5 weeks (less exciting, but more on time as posts go).  She's getting bigger and staying awake more, although she still doesn't do anything when she's awake.  Babies are kind of boring...  :)

...But getting less boring!  Gretchen has reached the point where some of her smiles are trying to be real ones!  Most of them are still gassy smiles and/or in her sleep, but every now and again she has a little tiny real smile.  :)

When Gretchen was first born, we noticed that she had a dimple on the back of each ear.  Bryan and I went through our relatives, trying to figure out whose ears Gretchen had.  As it turns out, neither of us pays much attention to the ears of others.  :-P  I felt the back of my ears, and asked Bryan if Gretchen's ears were like mine.  He checked, and assured me they were not.  Thus the hunt began.  We asked my family, we asked Bryan's family...  No one could place Gretchen's ears.  Until Saturday.  On Saturday, I was discussing this with Murry, and happened to brush my hair over my ear with my hand.  She looked at me and exclaimed, "Gretchen has YOUR ears!"  Mystery solved.  Also, a lesson was learned: Bryan's powers of observation need work.

Last Saturday we went to a wedding.  The last time we went to a wedding, Olivia was just barely walking and was generally content to be held during the reception.  Eight months later, Olivia is a walking pro and has places she needs to be!  Namely, the dance floor.  After being coaxed onto the floor the first time, she didn't want to leave.  Her dance moves aren't tremendously diverse yet: mostly she spins in circles until she gets so dizzy that she falls down.  Occasionally she runs in slightly larger circles.  Every now and again she would sway her hips and/or throw her arms up in the air.  And once she saw a little boy jump into the air and kick his feet, so she jumped (without leaving the ground) and then marched in place, which I guess is as close as she could come to kicking.  It was spectacular to watch.

Olivia desperately wants to help with Gretchen.  When Gretchen cries, Olivia puts her pacifier back in (usually upside down), covers her with a blanket (but not the face!), and tries to get her to hold the toy keys Bryan bought for Gretchen to play with.  The other day, Gretchen was crying and Olivia went through her routine.  The problem?  The closest blanket was under Gretchen.  Olivia tried to pull it out from underneath her sister so that she could cover Gretchen up.  Good thing I was watching, or Gretchen would have face-planted on the kitchen floor.  Also, twice I've caught Olivia trying to pick Gretchen up; guess I can't leave both of them out of my sight at the same time.

Pictures:

May 19-26

The building that got torn down is being rebuilt as a Tim Horton's.  Dad, you should come visit more often.  We (will soon) have a Tim Horton's within walking distance.

It was suggested that I get a video of Olivia saying some of her new words.  Unfortunately, videos have become harder since Olivia started wanting the camera.  I managed, though.  Below are a couple of videos, though they're more audio than video since I had to keep the camera out of her visual range in order to get her to perform.  :)

Gretchen is in 0-3 month clothes.  Some of the newborn stuff would still fit, I think, but it was getting too hard to snap sleepers at the bottom, especially over cloth diapers in the dark.  A couple of the roomier sleepers engulf her, but for the most part she doesn't look like her clothes are too big.  Onesies and pants are a good choice, because even if the onesie is a little big, the pants cover up the extra length.  :)

And speaking of Gretchen, she's a pacifier baby.  At least for now.  Olivia used a pacifier occasionally for about 2 months and then didn't bother anymore.  Gretchen, though, has been trying to suck her thumb since she was born and is perfectly content to take a pacifier, at least until she can get those pesky hands to stay in her mouth where they belong!  Olivia helpfully tries to put the pacifier back in Gretchen's mouth (albeit upside down) when it falls out, although she's not above claiming it for her own mouth if Gretchen refuses to accept it too many times.

Since Olivia was born, Bryan and I have been eating dinner after she goes to bed.  It's just easier to prepare a meal without her help.  When she started eating solids, we started making sure we put some of each meal aside for her to eat for dinner the next night.  I knew I'd eventually have to start having dinner ready at an earlier time, but I figured it'd be a few years.  However.  Bryan comes home from work starving, we don't have quick, easy snacks in our house, Olivia likes to sample whatever anyone around her is eating, and dinner is so much less exciting when one could have cheese and crackers or jelly sandwiches every single night.  We tried moving Olivia's dinner up and turning the "snack" into dessert (back when we had pudding around), but that didn't work so well.  And Bryan didn't like the idea of waiting to eat his snack until Olivia goes to bed.  So this week I told him I'd have meals ready by 6, if he thought he could wait the hour without expiring.  It's been going pretty well, especially if I can find a way to get Olivia involved (one night I had her break up all the spaghetti noodles into little pieces while we waited for water to boil -- keeps us from having to cut her spaghetti for her and keeps her busy for a long time).

Pictures and Videos:

May 12-19

When our friends the Kleins had their second baby, they mentioned that Eva looks like a giant.  I've decided that while Olivia does look rather large compared to Gretchen, she doesn't seem really any bigger than usual.  She does, however, look OLDER to me.  Overnight she turned from a baby to a little kid.

Gretchen seems calmer than I remember Olivia being.  This could be because Olivia never got a chance to prove how calm she was because we were able to pick her up anytime she started fussing.  Or it could be because the Olivia that is at the forefront of my memory these days is a whirlwind of toddler activity, which is pretty much the definition of "not calm."  OR, it could be because Gretchen has quickly learned that she should make as little noise as possible lest she incur the tender ministrations of the aforementioned whirlwind.  Whatever the reason, Gretchen seems like a very agreeable and easily placated baby, for which I am grateful.  :)

I've updated my bracelet to include Gretchen.  :)  April is a pretty boring month as birthstones go, but I added a crystal birthstone bead (because diamonds don't come at knock-off prices) and a letter G.  Also, sparkly bracelets don't apparently take very good pictures.  Especially when the camera is really a phone.  Oh well.



There's a building near our house that recently got demolished.  It was a nice enough building, so Bryan and I assume that someone bought the property and wanted to put something else there.  Regardless, the machinery was out and the building is now gone.  This construction site is along one of the paths I normally take when walking with the girls, so we've seen various types of machinery out every day.  It turns out that Olivia is very excited to see the big trucks.  We stood on the sidewalk and just watched them work for about 20 minutes one day.  That was the day the excavators were out (I was calling them backhoes, but they didn't have the plow part), clearing the rubble and putting it in dump trucks.  Another day we saw bulldozers and road rollers (I think they were tandem rollers) pushing dirt into the hole where the building had been and smoothing it down.  As you can see, I've been researching my construction machinery.  Who knew I'd need that knowledge with girls?!

For Mothers' Day this year, Bryan added himself to our family.  A couple of years ago he got me a willow tree figurine of a mother holding a child.  For Fathers' Day that year I looked for a dad to add to our mantle, but couldn't find a male without a child attached.  Now that we have Gretchen, though, we need another child anyway.  :)  Bryan and Olivia picked out the Father and Daughter figure to add to our little family group.  The bad news?  I need to think of another gift for Fathers' Day...


Pictures and Video:

May 5-12

Gretchen Bernice
Baptized Saturday, May 4, 2013 (Easter Vigil service)
Sponsors: Keshia Barhorst and Josef Fenton
Patron Saint: St. Berenice of Syria (October 4)
http://oca.org/saints/all-lives/2013/10/04
http://www.catholiconline.com/saints/saint.php?saint_id=2957

Bryan's workplace is running a survey.  It's short and easy.  If you get a chance, go to this link and when it asks (in one of the last questions) who referred you, put Bryan Barhorst in the box.  Everyone who fills it out and lists him as the referrer gives him another entry in a drawing for $50.  If you fill out the survey, let me know in a comment and I'll give you 5 points.  Everyone wins!  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NXNHDDC 

Olivia's vocabulary has exploded recently.  Just this past week or two she's picked up book, eat, not, more, feet, fork, duck, chalk, bread, sit, food, and koala.  She has a word for "empty," but it doesn't sound like empty.  Maybe she's saying "nothing"?  Also, Bryan says she told him, "stay there, be right back" the other day.  Most of her new words are relatively indistinct still, so we rely on context clues, but they're definitely consistently there.  Her toddler dialect doesn't pronounce the letters f and s (weird, since she can say both those sounds), so it took me a while to figure out why she kept grabbing Gretchen's toes and saying, "deet."  We also have "cork" (fork), "dood" (food), and "dit" (sit).

Gretchen had her "somewhere between one and two weeks old" checkup on Monday.  The doctor said we were aiming to have her back at her birth weight of 8 lbs by that day.  The little fatty was 8 lbs, 8 oz.  No worries about weight gain here.  It also means that I don't need to be stressed about the fact that she occasionally spits up what appears to be an entire meal (or perhaps everything she's eaten for the past two days).  Obviously she's retaining enough.  :)

And speaking of spitting up meals...  I was so hopeful that Gretchen was learning to regulate her intake at the end of my last post.  In the two days after I wrote that post, she spit up large amounts three separate times, managing to get (1) Bryan, me, Josef's bed (2) Jacob, my Grandma and (3) her carseat.  She's since been better, but I hesitate to be too openly optimistic, lest I set her off again.

Olivia got her first haircut while we were visiting my parents.  My mom trimmed the back of Olivia's hair while Olivia put her head on my shoulder and sobbed.  I'm relatively certain the sobbing had less to do with the loss of hair and more to do with the fact that we made her sit mostly naked on a stool while said hair was removed.  She also got her bangs trimmed, although that was harder because my mom didn't want to accidentally poke out Olivia's eye.  The resultant look works better with the shorter-than-normal-because-she-pulled-them-out sides and is pretty cute, if I do say so myself.  :)

Pictures:

April 26-May 5

Happy Easter to my Orthodox readers!  Happy almost Ascension to everyone else!

Be sure to check out the post about Gretchen's birth if that kind of stuff interests you.

Points were awarded for Baby Guesses.  Nobody got enough right to earn any bonus points, but William got the randomly generated bonus:
Jillian - 2
William - 7
Alison - 2
Justine - 2
Norie - 2
Olivia - 2
Eva - 2
Kara - 2
Jacque - 4
Bryan - 4
Scott - 3
Julie - 2
Steph - 2

Olivia hardly ever spit up.  She drooled like a champion, but wasn't very spitty.  Gretchen, on the other hand...  She spits up like it's her job.  In fact, she should ask for a raise.  In fairness, she's getting better at regulating her intake appropriately as she gets older.  The end of the week was much less wet than the beginning.

I mentioned that Olivia learned the word "no."  This week she perfected it.  She used to be so agreeable, saying "okay" for everything.  Now there are days when I don't hear more than two "okay"s the whole day.  :(  Her "no" is super cute, but it gets old after about 12 times and then is just obnoxious for the next 97...

This post is post number 100!  Some of them don't have much in them because they're posts I added after I technically started the blog.  Nevertheless, yay for post 100!  To celebrate, I'm giving 10 points to the reader who made the 100th comment (which was way back in September): Congratulations, Jillian!

These past two weeks, Olivia has been showing interest in dressing herself.  By which I mean she demands that I let her choose her own clothes.  I can sometimes convince her to pick from the choices that I select, but sometimes not.  The result is rather interesting.  I particularly like the polka dot turtle neck with the tight teal argyle stretch pants.  Mom tells me that I used to wear horizontal stripes with vertical stripes and claim it was okay because they were both stripes.  Or I'd wear stripes with polka dots and point out that both had pink in them.  As far as I can tell, Olivia does not put that much thought into her choices.  I may be selling her short; perhaps she IS putting that much thought into it and simply cannot verbalize it.

On Tuesday, my grandparents came down to Springfield and on Wednesday they took the girls and me up to Michigan for Holy Week.  We spent the week visiting with family, which was wonderful.  Bryan joined us on Friday night.  Gretchen was baptized at the Easter Vigil service on Saturday night (pictures next week), Sunday was more family, and then we were on our way home.

Pictures:

April 21-28

Olivia says "oval."  I'm not sure she'd recognize an oval if it bit her, but she knows how to say it.  She's also begun to attempt other words that we say, although if we ask her if she can say a specific word, she just replies with, "okay."

Oh, and she says "no."  It's still pretty cute when she says it, although I'm sure we'll get sick of hearing it soon enough...

Singing in the car is required (won't that make our trips up to see my parents even better...).  It starts with a request for "wah wah wah" from the back seat, which means Wheels on the Bus.  Actually, "wah wah wah" is what the babies say in Wheels on the Bus, but she wants the whole song.  From there I usually get to choose whatever song I want, as long as I accept the veto when it comes.  It comes often, but I refuse to sing the Wheels on the Bus more than once an hour.  I hit on a pretty good alternate the other day: If You're Happy and You Know It.  With a little creativity, one can make up endless verses to that song and the toddler gets practice following directions.  It's brilliant.

Tuesday our basement drain started backing up.  I called my mother (of course), and she said to get a plumber out to our house to snake the drain as soon as possible.  When Bryan came home from work, we talked about it and decided to see if one could come out that night.  You never know when you might not be able to let someone in because you're busy having a baby.  Someone showed up at our house to fix the problem around 9 and he was gone by 11:30 (although apparently if he'd run into serious problems he could have been there up to seven hours...).

Good thing we got the plumbing taken care of when we did, because Tuesday night we made a trip to the hospital so that Gretchen could be born in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.  Watch for a back-dated bonus post about that exciting adventure.  :)

On Wednesday, Olivia came to see us in the hospital.  She liked petting Gretchen and even held her for a minute or so before hopping off the bed, saying, "bye bye baby," and proceeding to check out the room.  She thought the buttons that raised and lowered the bed were pretty cool.  We did get a couple of cute pictures, and then Olivia went to Grandma's house to stay until we got home.

Thursday we were allowed to leave the hospital, so we were home around dinnertime.  Grandma and Grandpa brought Olivia to us and we all hung out for a while before bed.  Olivia was at least accepting of the fact that the baby apparently lives at our house now.  She tried to share her chicken nuggets with Gretchen, and when we said prayers that night, Gretchen had to kiss every icon (a couple of Olivia's stuffed animals have also kissed every icon).

Friday was Gretchen's first doctor appointment.  She's doing well and they want to see her again next week to make sure she gains back the weight that she lost.  Olivia panicked a little when the doctor came in the room, but we assured her that this visit was not for her and she calmed down.  We spent the rest of Friday letting Olivia smother Gretchen with love while trying to make sure she didn't actually smother her.  Truth be told, Gretchen was in more danger of getting her head accidentally bashed in by Olivia's typically toddler complete lack of body/limb awareness.  Smothering was less of a problem.

Thursday night Gretchen was up about every hour and a half to eat, but on Friday night she slept much better.  After being fussy from 11 to 1, she slept from 1-5 and then ate and slept until 7:30.  !!!  Probably a fluke, but I'll take it.  Of course, Saturday morning, she required constant holding until about noon.  As I told Bryan, I'll hold her all day if it means I get to sleep at night.  :)

On Saturday, Olivia and I did dishes and made bread.  Bryan had to finish the bread while I fed Gretchen, so Olivia showed him what to do.  Once the broom came out to sweep up the flour that had fallen on the floor, Olivia confiscated it and proceeded to sweep the great room.  It looks like we brought Gretchen home and put Olivia to work.  :)

Olivia is adjusting well.  She loves to give kisses to Gretchen and to help me pat Gretchen's back to burp her.  She gets sad when Gretchen is sad (which is better than making Gretchen sad) and is irritated when we won't let her hold Gretchen (although that's diminishing already as she learns that there are some things she can't do).  She shares her things well, so Gretchen was gifted a book to read while I changed her diaper the other morning, and she's had several toys thrust at her when she's fussing.

Pictures:

Bonus Post: Introducing...

Gretchen Bernice Barhorst

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

3:29 am

8 pounds, 0.2 ounces

21 inches

Sunday, April 21, I reached my due date.  With still no baby in sight and beautiful weather outside, Bryan, Olivia, and I went walking.  It worked with Olivia.  :)  Still nothing, though.  Jillian informed me that I was to do no more walking until Tuesday, and then I was to walk six miles (the library and back, plus a little) so that the baby would follow in Olivia's footsteps and be born the following day.  Someone must have picked Wednesday as the due date.

Monday I had an appointment and the doctor was getting antsy.  After all, according to his charts, I was now at 41 weeks and they like to induce between 41 and 42.  I talked him into waiting until the next Monday to induce, and he agreed after discovering that I was already 4 cm dilated and 90% effaced.  That's good, for those of you that don't know.  :)  He seemed sure that this baby was pretty much going to fall out.  Nevertheless, I did have to schedule an ultrasound for Wednesday, a non-stress test for Friday, and an induction for Monday morning.

Tuesday came, and Olivia and I walked to the library for storytime.  Jillian was pleased, although I'm sure she wanted me to get another mile in, just to be safe.  Mom told me that Jillian would be less pleased if said walking didn't produce a baby within 36 hours.  Tuesday afternoon I discovered water in the basement.  Our drain was backing up, so we called a plumber.  That night I called my mother to inform her that we'd followed her advice and were having our drain issues cleared up as we spoke.  Both Jillian and Dad were excited by the phone call, and Mom kept saying, "It's just about a plumber."  I assured everyone that, similar to last time, Bryan would send a text when we were at the hospital and the expected phone call would come some hours later.  When the plumber left, I went to bed.  Bryan stayed up to play a computer game and crawled into bed around 1:30, waking me up enough to send me to the bathroom before I went back to sleep.

I didn't go back to sleep.  I blame Bryan for this, as he was saying prayers and specifically mentioned the desire that our coughs clear up (we've been afflicted with persistent coughs as of late), especially his wife's, as "she will be going into labor soon, we hope."  Not ten minutes later, at 1:40, I had a contraction.  As I'd had several days of mild contractions that were few and far between, I didn't think much of it.  At 1:45, there was another one.  Two in a row isn't really enough to call a babysitter, though, so I rolled over and waited.  1:50 and along came the next one.  I got up to walk around for a bit.  Bryan was asleep, and I figured I'd get through the first hour or so alone before waking him up.  I went to the kitchen, thinking I'd make a batch of bread or something.  That bread never did get made.

By about 2:05, I'd decided contractions were strong enough and consistent enough to call a babysitter for Olivia.  So much for waiting an hour.  I woke up Bryan and told him I was going to call his mother after the next contraction.  Of course, the next one took longer to come since I'd made my decision.  :-P  At 2:12, I called Murry and told her I'd been having contractions for about half an hour.  She said she'd take the dogs out, grab her stuff, and be on her way.  I assured her that we could wait the hour it takes to arrive from Sidney.  At 2:27, she texted to let us know she was on her way.

2:40 rolled around, and the contractions were strong enough that Bryan and I decided maybe he should call someone in Springfield to come stay with Olivia until his mom arrived.  I let him make that phone call and tossed a few remaining things in my bag.  I had a few more increasingly stronger contractions on the couch while waiting for a lady from church to dash across town.  She arrived just before 3, and then things started getting interesting.  A side note: I went to bed wearing purple striped fuzzy socks.  I apparently found it very important that I not wear said socks to the hospital.  Bryan found me a pair of plain black sweat socks to wear instead.

Pretty much as soon as Beka walked in the door, I had another contraction, only with this one, I felt like I needed to push.  I said as much, and Bryan said, "no you don't, no you don't!"  Beka told me to breathe through it, they got my shoes on, and we were out the door.

At 3:07, we got to the hospital.  In the middle of the night, you go to the emergency room entrance, so we walked in and told the nurses there that I was in labor (Bryan said he's not going to know what to do if we ever go to the hospital during the day).  Bryan mentioned my urge to push, and they offered me a wheelchair, but I told them I was happier walking.  They summoned another nurse and she allowed me to walk to the birthing center, though not without much trepidation.  She was very concerned that I might have the baby on the floor in the hallway.  She delivered us to the labor and delivery desk with a sigh of relief.

The nurses at the L&D desk were much less concerned.  They had me fill out a sheet listing vital information.  Bryan says he tried to fill it out for me and I waved him off.  I have no recollection of this, although in hindsight, it was a wise move on my part because he didn't know many of the answers anyway.  We moved down the hall to triage so the nurse could check my progress.  She gave me a hospital gown and left the room to get something.  I remember having a contraction and complaining to Bryan, "Why won't anyone listen to me, I have to push!"

The nurse came back, checked me, and said, "Yep, you're complete."  She stuck her head out the door, grabbed another nurse, and went to find the doctor and an empty delivery room.  They covered me with a sheet and wheeled me down the hallway to the last empty room.  Apparently it was a big night for babies.  The doctor joined us, jogging next to the bed and pulling on gloves.  I felt like I was in a scene from a movie.

They weren't sure they'd be able to get me onto the delivery bed in time, but they managed between contractions.  No time for an IV, though, let alone an epidural.  Just time for a couple of pushes and then Gretchen was born.  3:29 am.  Talk about cutting it close.  They plopped her on my chest, let Bryan determine the gender and cut the cord, and proceeded to do all sorts of after-the-birth stuff.

After Gretchen was cleaned and weighed (8 pounds, 0.2 ounces), I was issued my patient bracelet.  The nurse noted as she put it on that Gretchen was an official patient of the hospital about 15 minutes before I was.  :)  I apologized for making their last 45 minutes so frantic, they joked that next baby we should just live in the parking lot for a few days, and then they left to let us get some sleep.  We called parents and Bryan sent out a mass text letting people know that Gretchen was born.  So much for my earlier assurances that a text would come first.  :)

A few hours later as she wheeled us to the recovery room, the nurse said she needed to fill out some paperwork.  Even if it was too late for some of the questions.  Was I strep B positive?  Didn't matter, the baby was born.  Did I want an epidural?  Irrelevant, for the same reason.  I spent the next couple of days with various people coming into the room to tell me that for some reason they didn't have this or that form.  When I mentioned that it was probably because we didn't have time to fill any out, they'd double check my name on the sheet and say, "oh, you're THAT patient."  Bryan asked one nurse what the fastest labor she'd experienced was, and she replied, "you mean besides this one?"  I'm a legend.

Excitement aside, Gretchen and I (and Bryan and Olivia) are doing well.  We checked her crib card when she was brought back, and she's 21 inches long.  She scored well on all the tests they did and she's just as beautiful and perfect as Olivia was, albeit with slightly less hair.  :)

April 14-21

My Blogger dashboard thinks that 119260 people +1'd my March Madness post.  I think that my Blogger dashboard is mistaken.  Unless my 30 or so authorized readers just REALLY love March Madness.  :)

The lost remote control has been found!  It's been missing for months.  I looked in all the usual hiding spots, moved all the furniture in the living room (I felt very clean and accomplished after that day), and finally gave it up as lost for good.  Then...  Tuesday night Bryan and I sat down on the couch to watch a movie.  As I squirmed around trying to get comfortable, there was a thunk.  Followed by three more thunks.  Bryan started laughing, because he thought I'd knocked over my glass of water.  I had not.  When we looked behind the couch, though, there was the remote!  Also Olivia's cell phone (my old phone), a bouncy ball, and a doll bottle.  Olivia shoves things in the crack in the back of our couch.  Since we have the kind of couch with recliner pieces attached, most stuff falls right through to the rug pad underneath.  Periodically I fish around behind the cushions (which are not removable) to see if there's anything else in there.  She must have gotten these four things really wedged in well, though, because they've been missing for a long time.  And it's not like we never use this couch.  They fell out of my spot.  I have no idea how they managed to stay hidden for so long.  Anyway.  The toys were returned to her bin for her to discover in the morning, and the remote now has a velcro strip on the back to keep it attached to the top of our TV when we're not using it.

Olivia can say "bubble", "apple", and "bowl" now.  All three sound very much like "blue."  She's not very distinct with her words yet.  Maybe if she picked a few that were composed of different sounds...  :)  Also, I've recently heard her say "happy" when reading a book about Elmo being happy.

Last week I made a sling with which to carry Reggie.  I was going to get one online, but they didn't have good reviews and I figured I could make one for less money.  Justine was nice enough to lend me the one someone made for her and after getting some swimsuit fabric and borrowing a walking foot from Steph, I was good to go.  Once I had all the proper supplies, it was really pretty quick and easy.  I used the leftover fabric to make a sling for Olivia to use with her dolls.  Partly because I didn't feel like messing with measuring her, and partly because she'll grow (and dolls don't get bigger, wiggle, or get hurt if you drop them), I made her sling with some snaps on it so that it's adjustable for when she gets bigger.  :-D  I'm so proud.  We don't use our slings yet, as there's no baby for me to carry and Olivia doesn't know what to do with hers, but when we do start using them, I'll post pictures.

Still no Reggie as of the writing of this post (Friday afternoon), but it should be soon!  The doctor is getting impatient, especially since the ultrasound-based due date was this past Monday.  I'm doing pretty well since the due date I've had in my head the whole time is April 21.

Pictures:

April 7-14

Olivia has at least one eye-tooth coming in (I know, it's short for incisor, but eye-tooth is so much more fun and the internet accepts it, I checked).  It's hard to tell if the other three are also coming in since she doesn't hold still long enough for me to check.  In a related side note, she can identify her teeth by name.  Also her fingers, weirdly enough.  Other body parts, not so much, although she can locate most of them if asked.

Bryan has decided that there are certain things that are vital to a complete and fulfilling childhood, so one day last week we set out to find a cozy coupe (the official name of the little red and yellow car) and some sidewalk chalk.  We also had a brief discussion about how some people *cough his wife cough* manage to have a complete and fulfilling childhood without some of these items.  He understands, but thinks they're nice to have around.  :)  Anyway.  The cozy coupe has some assembly required, so Bryan set out to put it together while Olivia, Murry, and I played with chalk.  Once the cozy coupe was almost done, Olivia happened to glance back and recognize that this thing behind her was A CHILD SIZED CAR!!!  Oh, the excitement.  She eagerly "helped" Bryan finish and then climbed inside.  She then proceeded to drive backwards, because that's the only correct way to drive one of those cars.  Otherwise you scrape your heels.

A moment of brilliance during chalk time: Olivia can identify E, O, and T.  I haven't tried giving her too many choices mixed in, but when presented with only those three letters, she knows which is which consistently.  Also, she was playing with my phone one day and happened to press the 0 button.  When the 0 appeared on the display, she excitedly looked at me, pointed to the 0, and said, "O!"  She's so smart.  Also also, when we sing the Phonics Song, she can make the sounds for B, C, D, G, and H and sometimes A, E, F, S, and T.  When we sing the Letter Sounds Song, she can do G, N, and U.

Wearing a winter coat and carrying a one-year-old tends to disguise a pregnancy a bit (although I didn't think it was disguised THAT much as my pea coat has been getting rather snug lately -- I can still button it, but only if I haven't eaten recently!).  With warmer weather, though, the coat came off.  Add to that the fact that I've been letting Olivia walk in stores and parking lots more (she needs the practice!), and suddenly my pregnancy becomes much more obvious.  I've had probably two strangers comment on my expectant state in the whole 8 1/2 months so far, and then on Tuesday I had no less than 7 separate people say something to me.  I only went to three stores.  :)

I realized after my appointment this week that Reggie will be here soon.  Somehow that slipped my mind.  :-P  I've discovered that while I feel calmer and less anxious about this baby, I'm way less prepared than I was for Olivia.  Except not really, because we already have a lot of the basics.  Of course, the clothes and diapers are still in the attic rather than down in the nursery where they belong.  By 38 weeks with Olivia, I was ready to have the baby.  I was bored and uncomfortable, the nursery was ready, the hospital bag was packed, Bryan and I talked about how soon we'd be a family of 3...  With Reggie, not so much.  I blame the one-year-old running around, taking up everyone's attention.  I'm not bored, I'm not uncomfortable (that's good, though), my hospital bag is... half packed, kinda.  Bryan and I don't so much talk about how there will be two children soon as have sudden realizations that, hey, in a couple of months there will be two of them.  Except it's a couple of weeks now, and we haven't adjusted our mindsets.  :)

And speaking of Reggie, he can't come until Wednesday.  Or at least Tuesday afternoon.  Wednesday or later would be better, though.  I have things to do!  My calendar looks so full; there's no room for a baby on there!  Luckily, most of it won't suffer from being put off indefinitely, and we are excited to finally meet Reggie.  Just not until Wednesday.  Seriously.  (I told this to Bryan, and he asked if I'd informed Reggie.  He though the least I could do was send an email memo or something.)

More pictures:

March 31-April 7

Olivia can open doors.  Sometimes.  Her grandparents have a few doors with horizontal handles, and she got a couple of those open last weekend when we were visiting.  We have regular knobs at our house (old ones), and apparently she opened the bathroom door on Thursday night and almost escaped teeth-brushing. Bryan caught her in time, which wasn't a problem because she actually likes to brush her teeth.  He was surprised, though, and I'm now wondering if I should invest in door knob covers and/or little hooks.  I'll probably do the latter, since we don't have a lot of doors she isn't allowed to go through (partly because about a third of our doors don't even close completely).  Mostly I don't want her getting outside or into the basement or attic without me knowing.

We had some exciting moments this past week as the Klein baby prepared to make an appearance.  I was the on call babysitter for their toddler, so Olivia and I were packed and ready to go at any time.  Easter weekend was filled with false alarms, but I was able to stay and visit with Bryan's family the whole time.  Olivia and I finally went out Monday night just before bedtime and her friend Eva had a new baby brother by lunch the next day.  Olivia and Eva had a good time alternately playing with each other and ignoring each other.  Occasionally they'd gang up on the dog, sending him back an forth between his bed and the couch.  I think he was more relieved than I was when naptime arrived.

Tuesday night, my parents and James came to visit.  They all have the week off school, so they went touring, stopping to visit Justine, Joseph, and William before coming to our house.  Bryan entertained them Tuesday night (since I was still babysitting).  I hear that there were several games of darts, at least one of which was won by James.  On Wednesday, Olivia and I came home and spent the next two days enjoying their company.  Olivia was pleased to discover that both Oma and Opa would read her books for as long as her little heart desired.  She also had fun playing with Uncle James, although she wasn't always sure that she liked him being in charge of picking the activity.  Later in the day, Mom and I went shopping for material (so that I can make a sling for Reggie) and Easter candy (because it's on sale), leaving Dad and James deeply engrossed in a series of epic battles involving x-box racing games while Olivia napped.  Thursday was nice enough for a walk, albeit a chilly one, and then they took off after lunch.

Pictures and Video: