Gretchen has been getting better at grabbing things, although she still has problems letting go when she wants to. We put rattles in her hand and she waves them around, trying to drop them and wondering why her silly parents think this qualifies as "playing." Monday she grabbed the duck hanging on her carseat and started pulling all by herself, though! I almost didn't notice, because Olivia can also reach the duck from HER carseat, but then I realized that the rattling sounded a little weak for Olivia's practiced hand. A quick check in the mirror confirmed my suspicions.
Gretchen has been trying to roll over. I'm not sure she wants to be on her stomach; I think she's more just curious about what might be over her shoulder. She's made it to her stomach from her back a couple of times now, but always flops right back because both her arms are caught on the same side of her chest.
Tuesday through Thursday we went to Indiana for the Aufdemberge family campout. Wednesday was wet, but the other two days were quite nice. Though we had enough pack and plays, we convinced Olivia to sleep in the bottom bunk of the bunk bed in our cabin. She had no trouble with this at all, perhaps because she was so exhausted every night. Olivia thought the slide on the playground and the race car game (in the rec hall on Wednesday) were pretty nifty. She practiced her sharing skills with (second cousin once removed) Camden, which means she used one of his trucks and generously let him keep the other one. She also allowed him to play with her stacking giraffe, so long as she wasn't using it. Her camp gift was a tutu, which she calls a "toot", from Elisa. The toot was such a big hit that Olivia even wore it for naptime on Thursday. Wednesday morning was a long (2.5 ish miles) fun run, and I won a prize for picking the most berries during the race. One simply cannot pass up good blackberries for the sake of a better time. :) Thursday was the short (1 mile) run/walk and as I put Gretchen in the wrap and started walking, Olivia decided to follow me. Bryan caught up with us, and the four of us took a rather large short cut (so as not to be walking all day) and finished in about 20 minutes. Since all of the little kids ended up accompanying their parents on the short run/walk, the mini walk (1/8 mile) was canceled.
Thursday night we left for my parents' house, backtracking only once to retrieve the diapers (clean and dirty) that we'd forgotten. Luckily, mom caught us before we were too far down the road. Olivia didn't fall asleep until Ypsilanti, which was unfortunate considering that Ypsi was 2.5 hours in to the 3 hour trip. To continue the "sleeping in a real bed" trend, we put Olivia on a mattress in Jillian's room. That went fine until about 6:00 Friday morning, when I heard yelling and poked my head in to check on Olivia. ...There was no Olivia. The yelling was definitely coming from that room, though, so I moved the mattress (that, incidentally, was right up against the edge of the bed) and discovered a left heel. I rescued Olivia from under the bed and convinced her to lay back down, but she never really went back to sleep.
Saturday was Olivia's birthday, so mom made a cake. That was pretty much the extent of the celebrating since Bryan was at a bachelor party all day. We did some gifts Sunday before piling back into the car for the trip home.
Pictures:
04 August 2013
28 July 2013
July 21-28
Last week's post has pictures now. You should check them out. The post from two weeks ago still has 8 points up for grabs. Next week's post might be late again. Vacations get in the way of my blogging. :)
Gretchen is beginning to understand and utilize the strengths of a younger child. Recently I watched as Olivia approached the swing where Gretchen was beginning to fuss. As Olivia approached, Gretchen eyed her apprehensively. Olivia reached her arm forward and Gretchen let out a loud cry. Normally, I would assume that Olivia had been too rough. This time, however, I clearly saw that Olivia had not yet touched Gretchen. Sneaky, Gretchen.
The original bedroom plan was to have the girls share a room and maybe turn the middle room into a playroom. Since Gretchen was born, she's been sleeping in a little crib in the middle room so that she wouldn't wake Olivia up in the middle of the night. She's outgrown the little crib, though, so we decided to move her to the big crib. The only problem with this plan is that Olivia sleeps in the doorway of that bedroom, so if Gretchen were to wake up in the middle of the night then I wouldn't be able to get her without stepping on Olivia. On to plan B. I moved the crib and the changing table into the middle room and the baby cage (with all of Olivia's toys) into Olivia's room. Meanwhile, I've been moving my desk and other things out of the middle room and into the corner of the great room where my drafting table is set up. Mostly I've managed to make a spectacular mess, but I have hopes that it will get better. Someday.
I came across the idea of a quiet book one day and thought it sounded neat but never did anything about it. Then my friend, Steph, said that she was making one for her daughter using mostly felt and embroidery floss and that it was actually pretty easy. I decided to get some pages done for the Traverse City trip and then add to them as I had time. So far I have seven pages done and ideas for about 15 more. :-P
Gretchen is not very discriminating when it comes to thumb sucking. Olivia was on the floor next to Gretchen and started petting Gretchen's cheek. The next thing we knew, Gretchen was sucking Olivia's thumb. Olivia of course thought this was highly amusing and wanted to see if Gretchen would also suck on her other fingers (she would).
Usually when I come back from a run I walk past Olivia's door on my way to take a shower and she notices me and wants to get up. Not so last Wednesday. She was still fast asleep when I walked past. She must have woken up while I was in the shower, though, because as I was drying off I heard, "rawr! rawr! rawr rawr rawr!" Since that morning, she periodically runs around the house practicing her dinosaur noises.
We've got peaches on sale here, so I decided to make jam. I've been trying to make jam all summer (pretty much every time peaches go on sale), and Justine keeps telling me to wait until later in the season when the peaches are sweeter. I decided this was late enough, though. Besides, I had the sale and the time and they might not coincide again. So Steph and her kids came over and we turned 16 pounds of peaches and 4 pounds of plums into jam. For the die-hard Sure Jell users out there, we tried out Ball Pectin and it works fine. The trick is to add the pectin to the fruit, bring it to a boil, and THEN add the sugar and bring it to a boil again. We also used the low-sugar version, which allows you to put in only as much sugar as you want (because this pectin binds to the calcium rather than binding to the sugar like regular pectin does). All our jams look good and the ones in my fridge are delicious.
Olivia used to flail all of her limbs in excitement when she heard me coming into her room to get her. Gretchen does that to some extent, but more often she waits until she can see me and then starts doing crunches. She'll lift her head (and sometimes her feet) off the mattress in an effort to make sure I understand that she wants to be picked up.
The First Annual Barhorst Fun Run will take place over Labor Day weekend (August 30-September 2). The exact date will be determined when we know what works best for those who plan to come. In addition to the half marathon, we hope to have a 10K, a 5K, and a 1-mile run measured out. ...Also 2.8 miles, because 6.2, 3.1, 2.8, and 1 add up to 13.1. :) Bryan wants to design a course that runs past the house several times so that he can cheer from the porch. I'm rooting for a bike path course, because that means no stoplights, no repetition, and no need to run up the large hill near our house. We'll probably let participants help decide that, too. If you're interested, let me know!
Pictures and Video:
Gretchen is beginning to understand and utilize the strengths of a younger child. Recently I watched as Olivia approached the swing where Gretchen was beginning to fuss. As Olivia approached, Gretchen eyed her apprehensively. Olivia reached her arm forward and Gretchen let out a loud cry. Normally, I would assume that Olivia had been too rough. This time, however, I clearly saw that Olivia had not yet touched Gretchen. Sneaky, Gretchen.
The original bedroom plan was to have the girls share a room and maybe turn the middle room into a playroom. Since Gretchen was born, she's been sleeping in a little crib in the middle room so that she wouldn't wake Olivia up in the middle of the night. She's outgrown the little crib, though, so we decided to move her to the big crib. The only problem with this plan is that Olivia sleeps in the doorway of that bedroom, so if Gretchen were to wake up in the middle of the night then I wouldn't be able to get her without stepping on Olivia. On to plan B. I moved the crib and the changing table into the middle room and the baby cage (with all of Olivia's toys) into Olivia's room. Meanwhile, I've been moving my desk and other things out of the middle room and into the corner of the great room where my drafting table is set up. Mostly I've managed to make a spectacular mess, but I have hopes that it will get better. Someday.
I came across the idea of a quiet book one day and thought it sounded neat but never did anything about it. Then my friend, Steph, said that she was making one for her daughter using mostly felt and embroidery floss and that it was actually pretty easy. I decided to get some pages done for the Traverse City trip and then add to them as I had time. So far I have seven pages done and ideas for about 15 more. :-P
Gretchen is not very discriminating when it comes to thumb sucking. Olivia was on the floor next to Gretchen and started petting Gretchen's cheek. The next thing we knew, Gretchen was sucking Olivia's thumb. Olivia of course thought this was highly amusing and wanted to see if Gretchen would also suck on her other fingers (she would).
Usually when I come back from a run I walk past Olivia's door on my way to take a shower and she notices me and wants to get up. Not so last Wednesday. She was still fast asleep when I walked past. She must have woken up while I was in the shower, though, because as I was drying off I heard, "rawr! rawr! rawr rawr rawr!" Since that morning, she periodically runs around the house practicing her dinosaur noises.
We've got peaches on sale here, so I decided to make jam. I've been trying to make jam all summer (pretty much every time peaches go on sale), and Justine keeps telling me to wait until later in the season when the peaches are sweeter. I decided this was late enough, though. Besides, I had the sale and the time and they might not coincide again. So Steph and her kids came over and we turned 16 pounds of peaches and 4 pounds of plums into jam. For the die-hard Sure Jell users out there, we tried out Ball Pectin and it works fine. The trick is to add the pectin to the fruit, bring it to a boil, and THEN add the sugar and bring it to a boil again. We also used the low-sugar version, which allows you to put in only as much sugar as you want (because this pectin binds to the calcium rather than binding to the sugar like regular pectin does). All our jams look good and the ones in my fridge are delicious.
Olivia used to flail all of her limbs in excitement when she heard me coming into her room to get her. Gretchen does that to some extent, but more often she waits until she can see me and then starts doing crunches. She'll lift her head (and sometimes her feet) off the mattress in an effort to make sure I understand that she wants to be picked up.
The First Annual Barhorst Fun Run will take place over Labor Day weekend (August 30-September 2). The exact date will be determined when we know what works best for those who plan to come. In addition to the half marathon, we hope to have a 10K, a 5K, and a 1-mile run measured out. ...Also 2.8 miles, because 6.2, 3.1, 2.8, and 1 add up to 13.1. :) Bryan wants to design a course that runs past the house several times so that he can cheer from the porch. I'm rooting for a bike path course, because that means no stoplights, no repetition, and no need to run up the large hill near our house. We'll probably let participants help decide that, too. If you're interested, let me know!
Pictures and Video:
21 July 2013
July 14-21
This past week, we took a vacation to Traverse City with my family to celebrate my parents' 30th wedding anniversary. Allow me to chronicle our adventures for you.
First, the trip up to my parents' house. It was largely uneventful, but I must note that I made Olivia a fabulous quiet book (details next week) for her to use in the car. That's only important because it comes up later.
Saturday morning, Jacob and I went running and learned that Jacob is an old man. He made it, though. :) After mass, Justine and I took the girls to Aldi to grab a few things (like 10 boxes of cereal) and then returned home to make squeezy pouches for the babies to eat during the week. Mom and the kids packed, and by 2:00 mom, Jacob, Jillian, James, the girls, and I were on our way. After I set off towards I-75, I got a phone call informing me that the route I was taking didn't have a northbound entrance ramp. I turned around and managed to rejoin Jacob a short time later, arriving at the entrance ramp only two cars behind. By the time I actually got ON 75, however, Jacob was nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile, my GPS (code name: Tango) was trying to take us off at the first exit; it seemed he wanted to go sightseeing at The Henry Ford. I called mom, and confirmed that I was indeed supposed to be on 75 for quite some time.
Sunday we went to church, and we turned on Tango to make sure we were headed the right direction. It's a good thing we turned him on, because we'd accidentally overshot our first turn. We were berating his directional choices (he's been having a midlife crisis (see the above paragraph), so the suspicion wasn't entirely unwarranted on our part) when he dumped us back on the road we should have been on all along. Apologies were made. We arrived at church, participated in the entirely English service (in a Greek church, no less!), stopped at a local store for lunch supplies, and allowed Tango to lead us home. Everything was going well until I missed a turn. As punishment, Tango had me make a sharp left and took us down a well-packed dirt road. We reached the main road again, and resumed previous conversations. Then I passed another turn. Having learned my lesson the first time, I turned around in a driveway before I could be chastised. It did no good. Our next turn was a smaller, hillier dirt road that we're pretty sure led directly through a jungle. We bumped along, hoping that no cars would come from the other direction and force us to back up all the way to the main road to let them pass. Finally we made it onto our road, and our destination (according to Tango) was... a patch of trees. Luckily, mom knew what to look for (little green men with orange flags), and we spotted our actual destination about a quarter of a mile down the road.
On Monday afternoon, we made a meal plan and shopping list, all the while wondering why we hadn't done that before we left. Mom, Gretchen, and I took it upon ourselves to go grocery shopping, and we ended up at Meijer after hearing from people at one of the higher-priced local stores that one existed in Traverse City. Mom and I were disappointed that we couldn't find something even cheaper, like Aldi, but decided that Meijer wouldn't be too bad. As mom went through the checkout two hours later, I went to the car to feed Gretchen. Through the open window, I heard a woman say to her friend, "You sound like you'd like that new Aldi place." Such sadness. :( Well, now we know for next time.
Olivia spent much of her time at the cabin under the impression that "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine, too," so she hurried around the house protecting all the toys (even William's) from William. She would patiently shove William's three acknowledged belongings -- his pacifier, his blanket, and his sippy cup -- in his face while blocking the way to all other items. Fortunately, William was less interested in material goods than in experiences, so he happily crawled around, exploring the ramp, the stairs, and the ability of his cousin to be a useful thing to pull himself up on. Olivia, to her credit, stood very still during the latter explorations, although she did have a rather confused and disdainful look upon her face. In not-William-related impressions, Olivia thought the water was great. In excellent proud daughter fashion, she decided that all watercraft of any sort (including the giant trampoline) were "daddy's boat." She also enjoyed looking for rocks with Aunt Jillian (and piling them everywhere -- on the bench, in her lawn chair's cup holder, against the gate inside the house...), tossing her doll down the playground slide (but not going down herself), subsisting solely on graham crackers, and seeing if she could get out the screen door and onto the back porch without anyone noticing.
Gretchen's reactions were less obvious than Olivia's. She pretty much behaved like she always does. William found her especially interesting, but is still working on the concept of "gentle," so whoever was holding her had to keep an eye (and a hand) out for William. To add to his interest, Gretchen's pacifier matched one of the ones that William brought, so he thought maybe it was his and tried to take it a couple of times.
The boys were all in tournament mode, so they set up a shuffleboard tournament and a euchre tournament. My shuffleboarding got off to a shaky start as I lost to dad in about a minute and a half, but I improved enough to make it to the bronze medal match. Unfortunately, although I had a much better showing (again against dad), I lost and had to settle for fourth place. I believe Bryan got second after losing a hard-fought match against Josef. Euchre went better for me as Jacque and I took the title, beating out "Team Apathy" (my mom and Joseph) in the most relaxed championship game anyone has ever seen.
Wednesday was Dunesday, which was perhaps a poor decision as there was a heat advisory (and a "tropical" dewpoint) that day. The weathermen promised storms the rest of the week, though, so it was Wednesday or not at all. We ended up going in two groups since my girls decided to sleep late that morning. It worked out well because we needed to take two vans anyway, so the big people took off while Justine, mom, James, the babies, and I left a little later in the baby bus. When we arrived, the woman in the booth warned us about the heat advisory and told us to make sure we wore shoes (so our feet wouldn't blister) and carry lots of water ("lots" being defined as "at least 2 liters per person"). We found out later that the same warning had not been given to the first group, so they went trekking to Lake Michigan with three and a half bottles of water and two pairs of shoes between the seven of them. The baby bussers climbed about a quarter of the way up the big dune at the entrance and then wandered down a bike path before coming back to sit at a table and eat apples while waiting for the more adventurous types to return. James made several trips up and down the dune just for fun while Olivia zealously protected her sippy cup from William's eager grasps. Being only almost two and not yet in possession of all her logical brain cells (we hope), she failed to realize that William's reach was a good six inches shorter than hers and that she could easily thwart him by leaving the cup up on the table. Her solution was instead to get it down off the table and hug it against herself, putting it within easy reach of William. We finally saw the first group bounding down the final dune ("bounding" is not an exaggeration; Josef looked like a gazelle), accompanied by Jacob's yells of "hot, hot, hot!" James decided to join them in their frantic race to the bottom, and ended up landing face first in the sand, much to the amusement of those watching. Meanwhile, dad and Joseph, the owners of the aforementioned two pairs of shoes, picked their leisurely way down the slope to join the rest of us at the bottom so that we could regroup and go back to the cabin.
Friday was the trip to the beach, mostly so that Jacque could stick her toes in Lake Michigan. We went to Grand Traverse Bay, and Jacque decided that was good enough. The water was cold, but Olivia didn't care. She was all set to march right in, until she noticed that her feet had an unfortunate habit of disappearing beneath the sand. After this minor setback, she waded happily for a while and then wandered up into the sand to play with William. We had a picnic lunch, changed the clothes of the wet and sandy babies, and the baby bus went home. The other group went shopping, and Bryan came home with souvenirs: a snow globe for Gretchen, a rock (what else?) for Olivia, a t-shirt for me (because I keep losing mine to Gretchen's spit), and a lighthouse shaped bottle opener for himself. Lest you think Bryan completely forgot himself, Olivia's rock was a Petosky stone, not just some random rock off the street. :)
Saturday we all headed back to my parents' house. Olivia decided to make the trip more exciting by making herself so mad (about riding in our car instead of my mom's car, we think) that she threw up. What a good way to start the drive. Other than that, the trip was uneventful. We stayed with my parents overnight and headed home the next day at naptime.
As we drove the final leg of our trip home (the hour from Bryan's parents' house to ours), Olivia finally snapped. She'd been doing okay in the car up until that point, but somewhere in the hours of car seat naps, she finally lost it. She wasn't bad, just incredibly obnoxious. Let me set the scene. In the driver's seat (for the first time all week), Bryan. In the passenger seat, Johannah, holding a giant zucchini, compliments of my mother-in-law. In the back, a tired Olivia, holding her quiet book and two plastic stacking rings, and a sleeping Gretchen. Action. Olivia dropped her rings on the floor and began chanting "rings, please! rings, please!" over and over. At least she's polite. I picked them up and handed them back, whereupon she immediately threw them down again. I picked up one, but could not reach the other. The chant changed to "more rings! more rings!" I explained that I couldn't reach the other ring ("daddy more rings!"), that daddy was driving and therefore couldn't be called upon to retrieve rings, and that I only pick up deliberately thrown toys once anyway, so she got a one ring bonus. Raise your hand if you've ever successfully used a logical explanation on a two-year-old. Me either. To distract her from the rings, I had her open her book. She found a cat and changed her tune. "Meow. Meow. Meowmeow. Meowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeow meowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeow!" After two minutes of "meow"s, we turned the page. One of Olivia's favorite pages is the fishing page; she likes the octopus. She dug said octopus out of its pocket and shouted "octopus! Mommy octopus!" I dutifully took the octopus and put it on my lap. "No octopus down! Mommy octopus!" I picked the octopus up and said, "I'm going to put it right here next to the zucchini." "Zucchini! Octopus!" Then followed the most fabulous conversation of the whole trip. Olivia would yell "Octopus!" and I would yell "Octopus!" back, holding up the octopus. Then "Zucchini!" "Zucchini!". "Octopus! (octopus!) Zucchini! (zucchini!)..." Bryan started laughing and said he wished he could record this so that whenever I was having a bad day he could just show me the clip of myself holding an octopus in one hand and a zucchini in the other while shouting back and forth with my toddler. Octopus zucchini, indeed.
It should be noted that "octopus zucchini" sounds more like "ow-puss na-nini" when Olivia says it. Also "more" is "mo'" and "please" is "pee."
Oh, we DID finally make it home. :)
Pictures:
First, the trip up to my parents' house. It was largely uneventful, but I must note that I made Olivia a fabulous quiet book (details next week) for her to use in the car. That's only important because it comes up later.
Saturday morning, Jacob and I went running and learned that Jacob is an old man. He made it, though. :) After mass, Justine and I took the girls to Aldi to grab a few things (like 10 boxes of cereal) and then returned home to make squeezy pouches for the babies to eat during the week. Mom and the kids packed, and by 2:00 mom, Jacob, Jillian, James, the girls, and I were on our way. After I set off towards I-75, I got a phone call informing me that the route I was taking didn't have a northbound entrance ramp. I turned around and managed to rejoin Jacob a short time later, arriving at the entrance ramp only two cars behind. By the time I actually got ON 75, however, Jacob was nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile, my GPS (code name: Tango) was trying to take us off at the first exit; it seemed he wanted to go sightseeing at The Henry Ford. I called mom, and confirmed that I was indeed supposed to be on 75 for quite some time.
Sunday we went to church, and we turned on Tango to make sure we were headed the right direction. It's a good thing we turned him on, because we'd accidentally overshot our first turn. We were berating his directional choices (he's been having a midlife crisis (see the above paragraph), so the suspicion wasn't entirely unwarranted on our part) when he dumped us back on the road we should have been on all along. Apologies were made. We arrived at church, participated in the entirely English service (in a Greek church, no less!), stopped at a local store for lunch supplies, and allowed Tango to lead us home. Everything was going well until I missed a turn. As punishment, Tango had me make a sharp left and took us down a well-packed dirt road. We reached the main road again, and resumed previous conversations. Then I passed another turn. Having learned my lesson the first time, I turned around in a driveway before I could be chastised. It did no good. Our next turn was a smaller, hillier dirt road that we're pretty sure led directly through a jungle. We bumped along, hoping that no cars would come from the other direction and force us to back up all the way to the main road to let them pass. Finally we made it onto our road, and our destination (according to Tango) was... a patch of trees. Luckily, mom knew what to look for (little green men with orange flags), and we spotted our actual destination about a quarter of a mile down the road.
On Monday afternoon, we made a meal plan and shopping list, all the while wondering why we hadn't done that before we left. Mom, Gretchen, and I took it upon ourselves to go grocery shopping, and we ended up at Meijer after hearing from people at one of the higher-priced local stores that one existed in Traverse City. Mom and I were disappointed that we couldn't find something even cheaper, like Aldi, but decided that Meijer wouldn't be too bad. As mom went through the checkout two hours later, I went to the car to feed Gretchen. Through the open window, I heard a woman say to her friend, "You sound like you'd like that new Aldi place." Such sadness. :( Well, now we know for next time.
Olivia spent much of her time at the cabin under the impression that "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine, too," so she hurried around the house protecting all the toys (even William's) from William. She would patiently shove William's three acknowledged belongings -- his pacifier, his blanket, and his sippy cup -- in his face while blocking the way to all other items. Fortunately, William was less interested in material goods than in experiences, so he happily crawled around, exploring the ramp, the stairs, and the ability of his cousin to be a useful thing to pull himself up on. Olivia, to her credit, stood very still during the latter explorations, although she did have a rather confused and disdainful look upon her face. In not-William-related impressions, Olivia thought the water was great. In excellent proud daughter fashion, she decided that all watercraft of any sort (including the giant trampoline) were "daddy's boat." She also enjoyed looking for rocks with Aunt Jillian (and piling them everywhere -- on the bench, in her lawn chair's cup holder, against the gate inside the house...), tossing her doll down the playground slide (but not going down herself), subsisting solely on graham crackers, and seeing if she could get out the screen door and onto the back porch without anyone noticing.
Gretchen's reactions were less obvious than Olivia's. She pretty much behaved like she always does. William found her especially interesting, but is still working on the concept of "gentle," so whoever was holding her had to keep an eye (and a hand) out for William. To add to his interest, Gretchen's pacifier matched one of the ones that William brought, so he thought maybe it was his and tried to take it a couple of times.
The boys were all in tournament mode, so they set up a shuffleboard tournament and a euchre tournament. My shuffleboarding got off to a shaky start as I lost to dad in about a minute and a half, but I improved enough to make it to the bronze medal match. Unfortunately, although I had a much better showing (again against dad), I lost and had to settle for fourth place. I believe Bryan got second after losing a hard-fought match against Josef. Euchre went better for me as Jacque and I took the title, beating out "Team Apathy" (my mom and Joseph) in the most relaxed championship game anyone has ever seen.
Wednesday was Dunesday, which was perhaps a poor decision as there was a heat advisory (and a "tropical" dewpoint) that day. The weathermen promised storms the rest of the week, though, so it was Wednesday or not at all. We ended up going in two groups since my girls decided to sleep late that morning. It worked out well because we needed to take two vans anyway, so the big people took off while Justine, mom, James, the babies, and I left a little later in the baby bus. When we arrived, the woman in the booth warned us about the heat advisory and told us to make sure we wore shoes (so our feet wouldn't blister) and carry lots of water ("lots" being defined as "at least 2 liters per person"). We found out later that the same warning had not been given to the first group, so they went trekking to Lake Michigan with three and a half bottles of water and two pairs of shoes between the seven of them. The baby bussers climbed about a quarter of the way up the big dune at the entrance and then wandered down a bike path before coming back to sit at a table and eat apples while waiting for the more adventurous types to return. James made several trips up and down the dune just for fun while Olivia zealously protected her sippy cup from William's eager grasps. Being only almost two and not yet in possession of all her logical brain cells (we hope), she failed to realize that William's reach was a good six inches shorter than hers and that she could easily thwart him by leaving the cup up on the table. Her solution was instead to get it down off the table and hug it against herself, putting it within easy reach of William. We finally saw the first group bounding down the final dune ("bounding" is not an exaggeration; Josef looked like a gazelle), accompanied by Jacob's yells of "hot, hot, hot!" James decided to join them in their frantic race to the bottom, and ended up landing face first in the sand, much to the amusement of those watching. Meanwhile, dad and Joseph, the owners of the aforementioned two pairs of shoes, picked their leisurely way down the slope to join the rest of us at the bottom so that we could regroup and go back to the cabin.
Friday was the trip to the beach, mostly so that Jacque could stick her toes in Lake Michigan. We went to Grand Traverse Bay, and Jacque decided that was good enough. The water was cold, but Olivia didn't care. She was all set to march right in, until she noticed that her feet had an unfortunate habit of disappearing beneath the sand. After this minor setback, she waded happily for a while and then wandered up into the sand to play with William. We had a picnic lunch, changed the clothes of the wet and sandy babies, and the baby bus went home. The other group went shopping, and Bryan came home with souvenirs: a snow globe for Gretchen, a rock (what else?) for Olivia, a t-shirt for me (because I keep losing mine to Gretchen's spit), and a lighthouse shaped bottle opener for himself. Lest you think Bryan completely forgot himself, Olivia's rock was a Petosky stone, not just some random rock off the street. :)
Saturday we all headed back to my parents' house. Olivia decided to make the trip more exciting by making herself so mad (about riding in our car instead of my mom's car, we think) that she threw up. What a good way to start the drive. Other than that, the trip was uneventful. We stayed with my parents overnight and headed home the next day at naptime.
As we drove the final leg of our trip home (the hour from Bryan's parents' house to ours), Olivia finally snapped. She'd been doing okay in the car up until that point, but somewhere in the hours of car seat naps, she finally lost it. She wasn't bad, just incredibly obnoxious. Let me set the scene. In the driver's seat (for the first time all week), Bryan. In the passenger seat, Johannah, holding a giant zucchini, compliments of my mother-in-law. In the back, a tired Olivia, holding her quiet book and two plastic stacking rings, and a sleeping Gretchen. Action. Olivia dropped her rings on the floor and began chanting "rings, please! rings, please!" over and over. At least she's polite. I picked them up and handed them back, whereupon she immediately threw them down again. I picked up one, but could not reach the other. The chant changed to "more rings! more rings!" I explained that I couldn't reach the other ring ("daddy more rings!"), that daddy was driving and therefore couldn't be called upon to retrieve rings, and that I only pick up deliberately thrown toys once anyway, so she got a one ring bonus. Raise your hand if you've ever successfully used a logical explanation on a two-year-old. Me either. To distract her from the rings, I had her open her book. She found a cat and changed her tune. "Meow. Meow. Meowmeow. Meowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeow meowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeow!" After two minutes of "meow"s, we turned the page. One of Olivia's favorite pages is the fishing page; she likes the octopus. She dug said octopus out of its pocket and shouted "octopus! Mommy octopus!" I dutifully took the octopus and put it on my lap. "No octopus down! Mommy octopus!" I picked the octopus up and said, "I'm going to put it right here next to the zucchini." "Zucchini! Octopus!" Then followed the most fabulous conversation of the whole trip. Olivia would yell "Octopus!" and I would yell "Octopus!" back, holding up the octopus. Then "Zucchini!" "Zucchini!". "Octopus! (octopus!) Zucchini! (zucchini!)..." Bryan started laughing and said he wished he could record this so that whenever I was having a bad day he could just show me the clip of myself holding an octopus in one hand and a zucchini in the other while shouting back and forth with my toddler. Octopus zucchini, indeed.
It should be noted that "octopus zucchini" sounds more like "ow-puss na-nini" when Olivia says it. Also "more" is "mo'" and "please" is "pee."
Oh, we DID finally make it home. :)
Pictures:
14 July 2013
July 7-14
Next week's post will be late since we'll be vacationing with my family. There will be one describing all of our adventures, it just won't go up on Sunday.
Gretchen is officially in 3-6 month clothes. I got the tub down and the clothes looked far to large for her, but when I put them on they fit fine. A little roomy since she's not as chunky as Olivia was, but they don't look too big at all. The timing is a little inconvenient, though, since I'm trying to switch out her entire wardrobe as I pack.
Gretchen has a move that I like to call "the flying squirrel." Sometimes when I pick her up she throws all of her limbs out like she's leaping from tree to tree. I'm assuming it's something that all babies do, but I don't remember it from when Olivia was little. It seems to be mostly a startled reflex that is accentuated by the fact that she doesn't have full control of her extremities yet.
With both girls in diapers and currently residing in separate rooms, my biggest problem was making sure I had enough wetbags to go around even when I was doing laundry. To further complicate the logistics of the situation, the waterproofing in my two big wetbags has lately been looking tremendously unhealthy. One tends to doubt the effectiveness of waterproof material that is covered with little cracks. Rather than buying a new wetbag, I decided to just make my own. After all, I made the one in the kitchen to hold snapkins, and it works fine. So I bought a yard of orange PUL and a yard of brown PUL and made two fabulously large wetbags. I even have some PUL left over, should I want more small wetbags later.
Last Sunday, we managed to be ready for church half an hour earlier than necessary. (How does that even happen?) Since it was a nice day, we decided to walk to church. We set off (dressed in our church clothes, obviously) with Olivia in the stroller and Gretchen in the wrap. As we turned onto the main road, we saw a parade of people headed the other direction carrying signs. It turns out that the local Baptists also decided to walk to church and they were organized enough to have banners inviting others to join them. The obvious discussion ensued: Why didn't we think to bring OUR signs? We continued our sign-less walk and managed to stop traffic with our adorable family. As we crossed the street, a car stopped in the intersection so that the driver could tell us how wonderful we looked and what a great picture we would make. Similar sentiments were expressed by a walker that we passed a little later. Bryan and I decided that, while our family IS adorable and picture worthy, the most probable reason for people stopping us was the fact that the Baptists were out in force and were just excited to see people who looked like they were going to church on Sunday morning. It should be pointed out, though, that neither comment was from people in the Baptist parade.
One of my four tomato plants has one flower! Hooray! Also, my plants are big enough that I had to stake them upright to keep them from falling over. Of greater note, though, is the fact that I also have carrots sprouting in my garden. As I finished off a bag of carrots a couple of weeks ago, I saved the ends. I generally toss produce scraps out the kitchen window anyway, so I figured I might as well put dirt over these scraps and see what happened. After all, isn't that how the school project where you grow carrots in a cup works? What happened is carrots! They're little still (judging from the leafy part sticking out of the ground), but they look promising. :)
Pictures:
Gretchen is officially in 3-6 month clothes. I got the tub down and the clothes looked far to large for her, but when I put them on they fit fine. A little roomy since she's not as chunky as Olivia was, but they don't look too big at all. The timing is a little inconvenient, though, since I'm trying to switch out her entire wardrobe as I pack.
Gretchen has a move that I like to call "the flying squirrel." Sometimes when I pick her up she throws all of her limbs out like she's leaping from tree to tree. I'm assuming it's something that all babies do, but I don't remember it from when Olivia was little. It seems to be mostly a startled reflex that is accentuated by the fact that she doesn't have full control of her extremities yet.
With both girls in diapers and currently residing in separate rooms, my biggest problem was making sure I had enough wetbags to go around even when I was doing laundry. To further complicate the logistics of the situation, the waterproofing in my two big wetbags has lately been looking tremendously unhealthy. One tends to doubt the effectiveness of waterproof material that is covered with little cracks. Rather than buying a new wetbag, I decided to just make my own. After all, I made the one in the kitchen to hold snapkins, and it works fine. So I bought a yard of orange PUL and a yard of brown PUL and made two fabulously large wetbags. I even have some PUL left over, should I want more small wetbags later.
Last Sunday, we managed to be ready for church half an hour earlier than necessary. (How does that even happen?) Since it was a nice day, we decided to walk to church. We set off (dressed in our church clothes, obviously) with Olivia in the stroller and Gretchen in the wrap. As we turned onto the main road, we saw a parade of people headed the other direction carrying signs. It turns out that the local Baptists also decided to walk to church and they were organized enough to have banners inviting others to join them. The obvious discussion ensued: Why didn't we think to bring OUR signs? We continued our sign-less walk and managed to stop traffic with our adorable family. As we crossed the street, a car stopped in the intersection so that the driver could tell us how wonderful we looked and what a great picture we would make. Similar sentiments were expressed by a walker that we passed a little later. Bryan and I decided that, while our family IS adorable and picture worthy, the most probable reason for people stopping us was the fact that the Baptists were out in force and were just excited to see people who looked like they were going to church on Sunday morning. It should be pointed out, though, that neither comment was from people in the Baptist parade.
One of my four tomato plants has one flower! Hooray! Also, my plants are big enough that I had to stake them upright to keep them from falling over. Of greater note, though, is the fact that I also have carrots sprouting in my garden. As I finished off a bag of carrots a couple of weeks ago, I saved the ends. I generally toss produce scraps out the kitchen window anyway, so I figured I might as well put dirt over these scraps and see what happened. After all, isn't that how the school project where you grow carrots in a cup works? What happened is carrots! They're little still (judging from the leafy part sticking out of the ground), but they look promising. :)
Pictures:
07 July 2013
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:
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:
30 June 2013
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. Oliviawas 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:
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
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:
23 June 2013
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:
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:
16 June 2013
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. :)
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...
09 June 2013
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:
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:
02 June 2013
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 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:
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| I want this spot for my garden. |
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.
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