June 30-July 7

Recently, Olivia was put on an antibiotic to help clear up her persistent rash.  I thought the doctor told me that he ordered grape-flavored medicine, but he must have just told me to make sure I asked for flavoring.  I sent Bryan to pick up the prescription without including this bit of information, so when the pharmacist asked if he wanted the medicine flavored, Bryan declined.  Apparently the pharmacist was quite persistent in his attempts, pointing out that this medicine has a particularly bad taste, but Bryan stood firm.  He figured we could always mix it into yogurt if we had problems.  Given this and the fact that the bottle/box/instructions mention the bad taste more than once, we were a little worried that Olivia would reject her medicine and we'd have to figure out how to get her to take it.  She usually likes antibiotics (seriously, we've used the promise of medicine to get her to finish her dinner before), so we decided to try it straight before mixing it in something.  She downed it like a champ and then asked for more.  Olivia 1, Clindamycin 0.  Can we get her to try a bite of carrot soup, though?  Of course not.

Gretchen's neck muscles are strong enough that they're almost not worth mentioning anymore.  She has some trouble still, and tends to launch herself backwards and forwards rather unexpectedly, but she can hold her head up.  She's also managed to capture her hands, and now spends most of her increasingly frequent waking hours with said hands shoved in her mouth.

Bryan wanted Olivia to experience exciting stuff on the 4th of July, so he bought a few little things for her to try.  After the first smoke ball sent all of its smoke to follow her as she backed away, she got a little nervous and stood as far away as possible when Bryan lit the next ones.  She liked watching them, but didn't want to be engulfed by smoke.  :-P  She was unimpressed with the sparkler and got rid of it as soon as it stopped sparking.  Her favorite by far were the pop-its.  She took great delight in throwing them on the ground to explode.

Although I am successfully running again, I will not be running the Springfield half-marathon in August.  One, I have yet to run more than 5 miles.  Two, I don't want to pay $55 to run.  I DO want to run a half-marathon sometime, though, so Bryan said he'll make one up and won't charge me to run it.  :)  We're going to host the First Annual Barhorst Half-Marathon.  It'll be in the fall and I might be the only one running it (although I welcome running buddies/competitors).  You should think about coming.  Details some other week.

Pictures and Video:

June 23-30

When my parents came to visit, they brought with them a toddler bed that they'd found.  We set it up where the crib used to be and moved the crib to the other side of the room.  Olivia was excited to climb in and try it out.  Then naptime happened, and she spent the first half hour diligently relocating every book from the middle room bookshelves to her bed.  She ended up in her crib, and that night we bought a gate.  The gate turned out to be unnecessary, because Olivia refused to sleep anywhere but her crib for the next few nights.  Then one night, she thought she might give the bed a try.  Bryan sat in her room with her until she fell asleep.  Around 3 in the morning, she woke up scared.  I calmed her down, but she wouldn't let me leave.  Finally I brought some blankets and pillows into her room and set up camp on the floor, where she promptly joined me.  When I left to go take care of Gretchen, Olivia fell asleep on the pile of blankets on the floor.  Since then, she's been adamantly against the crib and equally adamantly against the bed.  She used to accumulate all of her things in a pile by the gate and fall asleep there, but Bryan didn't like her sleeping on the hard floor, so we moved the blanket bed to right in front of the gate so that she's at least comfortable.  Bedtime is routine again, and I don't have to stay in the room until she falls asleep, but we definitely have an almost two year old who thinks the proper place to sleep is on blankets in front of her doorway.

Last weekend we visited Bryan's sister and her fiance in Cleveland.  While there we went to a water park.  Olivia was hesitant at first, but accepted all of the water as the day went on.  She reluctantly tried a couple of slides in the kids' pool, and then decided they weren't so bad.  At least, they weren't so bad when she was in the process of going down or once she'd reached the bottom.  At the top, they were pretty terrible.  Bryan coaxed her past the edge every time, though, and she happily slid down into my arms.  We did a lazy river ride that Olivia seemed to enjoy, and she also played in the fountains squirting up from the pavement.  I think her favorite part of the water park was her life jacket, though.  She had to put one on for the lazy river and didn't want to take it off, even when it was time to go home.

I don't really remember consciously teaching Olivia to say any words.  We just talked to her and she picked them up.  Recently, though, we've made an effort to teach her to say the word "up" so that she doesn't just stand there and whine when she wants to be picked up.  Olivia's rendering of this word comes out as "upt," but it's pretty adorable and serves its purpose.  :)

Gretchen had her two-month checkup on Monday.  She measured 12 lbs, 2 oz and 25 inches long.  She's one pound lighter and half an inch longer than Olivia was at the same age.

Gretchen is very smiley lately. Olivia was is often accused of being crusty, but Gretchen is (at least for the present) rather sociable and happy most of the time.

Recently Olivia has developed a quieter side.  She's also working on her noisy side ("nononononono" shrieked at the top of her lungs is a good example), but that's always been present.  Now, however, she'll sometimes just shake or nod her head.  Especially at nighttime after we turn off the light, she's more apt to pat the blanket where she wants me to sit than to yell "dit!" at me.  If I ask a question, she'll turn her solemn little face towards me and shake her head.  It's a nice change of pace.

Pictures and Videos:

June 16-23

You're so jealous of my new meal planning calendar.  I bought a regular K-2 change the date calendar, made my own cards, and voila!  I wrote meals on one side of cards (a different color for each kind of meat and green for veggie) with ingredients listed on the back so that I know what I have to buy.  I put the cards in with the ingredients showing and when I have everything then I flip them around and Bryan can rearrange if he wants to.  When we're done with the leftovers, the cards go to pockets at the bottom of the chart so that we don't reuse the same meal a bunch of times.  I also made taller cards with numbers on them to let me know if we're having company (+1 to +a crowd) and cards that let me know when we're traveling and don't need a meal.

One of my garage sale finds this week was a little slide.  Check another thing off of Bryan's "fulfilled childhood" list.  Olivia thinks it's pretty much the greatest thing ever and refers to it as "guul liie."  She's always sad when we make her get off her liie so that she can come in to eat dinner.




Last weekend was the parish picnic at Bryan's home church, so we went to his parents' house to join in the festivities.  There was a kids' tent where Olivia won some prizes by picking rubber ducks from a wading pool, pulling suckers out of styrofoam, and playing plinko.  The ducks were her favorite until she learned how plinko worked.  Her biggest prize was a beanie baby (remember when those were supposed to be huge collector's items?) that she got because the end of her sucker had a dot on it.  Bryan wisely steered her away from that game afterwards so that she wouldn't be sad the next time she pulled a sucker out and wasn't allowed to choose a stuffed animal.  There was also a balloon man (the same one that was at the wedding), and he made Olivia another swan hat.  Bryan just asked him to make his favorite hat, and that's what he gave her.  Olivia was thrilled.

My parents stopped through to see us a couple of times on their way to and from Louisville for a conference.  That was fun, and Olivia enjoyed reading books and coloring with Oma.  My mother's reaction to seeing my meal calendar in person was everything I had hoped it would be.  :)

Pictures:

June 9-16

We went to another wedding last Saturday, and Olivia was tearing up being super cute on the dance floor.  Bryan's sister, Keshia, was at this reception with us and she and Murry were dancing with Olivia.  Olivia was copying everything that Aunt Keshia did, although she was only able to do either arm movements OR leg movements, not both.  Next wedding I'm going to remember a video camera.  To add to the excitement, Murry took both girls over to the guy making balloon animals and got them hats.  Olivia was a swan and Gretchen was a duck.  :)

Not to be left out in the moving and shaking department, Gretchen moves and shakes.  Well, at least moves. She scoots on her back and can also rotate in a circle.  Little (if any) of it is intentional.

I've been wanting to start running again, but lacking the little push to actually get going.  When I visited my parents last, though, I found out that Josef and Alison are going to run a half marathon this October.  I've always wanted to run a half marathon!  Push found.  ...Until I discovered that their half marathon cost $95 to enter.  Curious as to how this compared to other half marathons in other parts of the country, I did some searching.  What did I find?  Springfield is having a half marathon at half the price!  The bad news: it's in mid-August.  That doesn't seem like nearly enough time to get ready.  I did some more looking.  Eight-week training plans for beginners are abundant.  It's fate!  I came home, bought running shoes, and began running.  Two days later I had to stop because of knee pain.  Apparently all joints loosen up during pregnancy and can take up to 4 months to get back to normal.  Longer if you're nursing.  How am I supposed to be ready for a half marathon by mid-August at this rate?!  After calling my running experts (mom and dad), I took a few days off and started again at a painfully slow pace with hardly any mileage.  It's going well so far, though, and mom thinks building up my distance shouldn't be too hard providing I can get my knees in a cooperative mood first...

Bryan took some videos of Olivia dancing (not her wedding moves, unfortunately).  Apparently she had some really good dances going BEFORE he pulled out the camera.  He claims you could actually tell that she was doing "Five Little Monkeys" and "I'm a Little Teapot."  In the videos we have, though... not so much.  Listen carefully for the words and then maybe you'll be able to see what the actions are supposed to be.  :)

I should try to get videos of Olivia singing sometime.  She sings along with several songs, either when she's watching videos or when we're singing with her.  Her pronunciation is actually pretty good when she sings; maybe she should sing all the time instead of talking.

A couple of weeks ago, Bryan got put on a daily 5:00 phone meeting.  Now instead of being home by 5:15 every day, he's home at 6, 6:30, 7:10...  It really depends on the day, and he's got this meeting on his calendar for the foreseeable future.  It makes my whole "dinner at 6" plan a little more exciting.  The nice part is that he's been able to take more leisurely lunches to compensate.  He also has to work the occasional late evening (going in between 9 and 11) and sometimes Saturdays.  This added complication managed to keep him from visiting my parents with the girls and me last time we went up.  It's a bummer, but he can't really get out of any of it.  His boss says all the extra work he's been having to do is good leverage for the raise he asked for, though...

Pictures and Videos:

June 2-9

The girls and I went up to visit my parents last weekend.  Bryan was supposed to come with us, but ended up having to work Friday night.  He was also told he'd have to work Saturday, but then didn't have to go in. More on that whole situation next week.  Anyway.  Olivia, Gretchen, and I went up Friday afternoon and left Monday morning, so we got a few more hours to visit with people.  We also got to see my dad's parents, who were happened to be visiting at the same time.

Olivia refers to herself as "the girl."  Whenever she wants to do something or needs to take her turn (she's all about taking turns and making sure everyone gets their chance -- even Gretchen), she talks about the girl and points to herself.  Meet the Barhorsts: Mama, Dedah, Bebe, and Girl.  :)

Gretchen apparently has exactly five states of being: Bebe nees (sneeze), Bebe pit (spit), Bebe appy (happy), Uh-oh Bebe, and Shh Bebe.  Actually, that seems about right.

This week I got an actual smile from Gretchen!  Just a little one, but I smiled at her and she smiled back.  :)  Also, she's beginning to make happy baby noises.

Gretchen has a bad case of baby acne.  I remember Olivia getting the little pimples around 6 weeks old, but I don't remember it being this bad.  I think Gretchen's skin issues are aggravated by her spit.  Imagine being allergic to your own spit.  :(

Friday I convinced Olivia to wear a ponytail so that she could be "like mama."  After getting the back of her hair into the ponytail, I still had to use a barrette to keep her bangs out of her eyes.  She looked super cute, though.  Pictures below.

Another wedding this weekend, and then we're wedding-free until August (but only because we have to miss one in July).

Pictures:

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: