March 16-23

Last week's post finally made it up.  Check it out here.

Gretchen cut another tooth last week, bringing her total up to 7.  She would love to get some molars, if only so that she can better chew all the food that she eats.

Olivia has graduated to using a regular cup all the time (except for by her bed).  She only spills if she's not paying attention and drinks too fast.  She tries to drink one handed and/or while walking, but her mother usually spoils her fun and requires her to stop moving and use two hands.

Possession is apparently a verbally difficult concept.  Here are some Olivia sentences from this last week:

"Leeba will pick up my shoe and the girl will put it on."

"She wants she's blanket."

"We got to get in we car."

Olivia sings songs about her daily routine.  The other day, she came up with this one about the chapter books that she's supposed to leave on the shelf: "Don't touch the books, don't touch the books.  High ho the dairy-o, don't touch the books.  But I want to read a book, I want to read a book.  High ho the dairy-o, I want to read a book."  She also made up a song when Josef and Alison visited about how you have to say your prayer before you get up from the table.  It even had an Amen chorus.

I didn't know it at the time, but it turns out that I married Bryan for his Excel prowess.  I've been looking into buying some food in bulk and have been checking prices at various places.  I had a messily written, scribbled all over piece of paper with prices on it and decided to organize it into an Excel sheet.  I figured that I could manage the function that would calculate the price per pound of everything for me, but I wanted to have my sheet automatically tell me which store had the lowest price (and update itself if I changed anything).  Not knowing if this was even possible, I asked Bryan.  He told me it was incredibly quick and easy, sat down at the computer, typed in some complicated formulas like they were no more than the ABCs, and voila.  Then he decided to add colors, as well as an automatically generated shopping list off to the side, complete with a "Create Shopping List" button that I can click whenever I update something.  It's so cool.  :)

Our attic has been getting progressively more cluttered.  Part of the problem is that we keep getting more stuff, but most of the problem is that we just put new items in the first available spot instead of organizing them.  During Gretchen's nap on Friday, Olivia and I went upstairs to tackle the second part of the problem.  Our attic is now organized and open again.  :)

I recently convinced Bryan to join me in a wardrobe downsizing challenge (side note: it turns out that the way to improve your chances of getting Bryan on board with a project is to present it as a challenge).  We're keeping enough clothes to make it through at least a week, but no more than fit in half a dresser each.  The rest of the clothes are being boxed up and put in the attic for when we wear out what we have.  The extra dresser we free up by doing this will either go to the girls or up in the attic to be saved for the girls.  I'm also hoping that this exercise will enable us to share a closet so that we can use the remaining closet for other things.

Pictures and Videos:

March 9-16

Last Friday, the girls and I piled into the van and abandoned Bryan for a week to visit my family.  We were feeling a little under the weather, but I was assured that James was also coughing out his lungs and that Justine's boys were similarly afflicted, so we decided to go share the germs.  Besides, I had plans!

Jacob and I spent the whole week working on getting the hymns for Holy Incarnation done.  They like to have musical accompaniment for the hymns they sing, but the availability of said accompaniment is spotty.  I had been manually transcribing hymns into Finale (a music writing program), emailing them to dad, and then waiting to hear back about any problems.  This project started out well, but I got behind when Gretchen was born and gave up instead of recovering.  :/  The last time I visited, I though of a plan: record the hymns on my viola.  I talked Jacob into donating his Spring Break to my cause, and we were in business.

Recording went well.  Jacob and I went to church every day, locked ourselves in our makeshift recording studio, and played.  Well, I played.  Jacob listened and manned the computer.  Justine was able to help with some of the recording at the end of the week in order to provide variation.  We did about 80 hymns completely from scratch and found the rest of the hymns on a website that specializes in providing canned music for small churches.  Now we just have to finish editing the ones we found online...

The girls survived my absence all week, although Olivia did shut herself in her room all day on Tuesday so that she could alternately look forlornly out the window and lie on the bed staring at the ceiling.  It didn't help that she wasn't feeling well AND woke up especially early that morning.  We finished recording a little sooner than planned and took Wednesday off so that everyone could recover.

Wednesday was a snow day for all the school-goers (which was especially upsetting since Tuesday was beautiful, run outside, all you need is a light jacket weather), and Justine and her boys had arrived the previous evening, so the house was a zoo.  Olivia appreciated having William and James to keep her company, Gretchen appreciated the fact that Edward is smaller than her, and both girls became confident enough in my continued presence that they finally let go of me and went off to play.

I disappeared again on Thursday, but not for nearly as long, and the presence of their cousins helped both girls cope.  Friday and Saturday went quickly as well, and Jacob and I declared the recording studio closed.  We took down the "Do Not Enter" sign and everything.

Sunday afternoon, we packed everything back into the van and retraced our steps.  We got home around 7:15 and Olivia and Gretchen were oh-so-happy to see their Daddy again.  :)

And speaking of Bryan, he was apparently bored after about 11 waking hours of "Bryan time."  Luckily, he worked all week, so that kept him busy while we were gone.  He claims that he also managed to get ridiculously good at his latest favorite computer game.

Pictures:

March 2-9

Early Monday morning (about 4 am, to be more precise), Bryan propped himself up in bed and said, "Olivia, go back to bed."  At first I thought he was talking in his sleep, but that's not really something Bryan does.  Then I heard some movement, and a small voice said, "I went potty in the potty."  I hopped out of bed and went to go convince Olivia that she was fabulously talented, but still needed more sleep.  When we got back to her room, she began talking in a borderline-hysterical voice about a "clouda pillow."  Noticing the abundance of stuffed animals on her bed, I assumed she meant "crowded pillow" and cleared some of them off.  She still refused to get into bed, continuing to carry on about the "clouda pillow and the blankets."  Maybe she was cold and needed another blanket?  No.  I finally convinced her to climb into her bed, but as soon as she got there, she started looking around on her pillow and under her blankets.  Maybe she was looking for a specific blanket (she's been switching up the blankets she uses recently)?  No.  Suddenly, it clicked.  "Clouda pillow" was "caterpillar."  She must have had a dream about a caterpillar on her blankets.  As soon as I verbalized this, she got noticeably calmer.  We finally came to the conclusion that the caterpillar was gone (that was my contribution), and that she would be safe if she put her pillow on the other end of the bed (that was Olivia's contribution).  Having flipped all of her bed parts around, she curled up under her blankets and went back to sleep.  I went to bed, amused that caterpillars were the stuff of nightmares.  I guess I can't talk much, though, because my parents used to have to chase chipmunks and dogs out of my room in the middle of the night.

Gretchen likes baths.  It happened gradually, but she now enjoys sitting in the tub and playing with toys, especially if Olivia is present also.  I'm not sure she'll ever like them as much as Olivia does, but she's content to be bathed several times a week.

Josef and Alison came to visit for our card club last week.  Alison and I took turns training on my treadmill while Bryan schooled Josef in old video games.  We also played cards, although it was a close thing.  The night before our card club was scheduled, one of our couples called in sick.  Since card club is dependent on a specific number of people, we began scrambling to find replacements.  As it turned out, everyone we knew was already busy and/or unable to make it.  Bryan finally found some people from work (who have been over for nerdier game nights before) who were willing to come even though they didn't know how to play euchre.  One crash course later, we successfully started and finished a card club.  :)

On Friday, the girls and I headed to MI for a week with my family.  Jacob and I have grand plans to work on a hymn project for the church.  I'm also hoping to get some psalm recording in with Justine and Josef.  Mom is babysitting all the little ones for us so that we can get lots done.  :)

Pictures:

Bonus Post: 30 Before 30 Update

A record of my 30 Before 30 progress thus far.

1.  Genuinely surprise Bryan at least once.  February 15, 2014
2.  Record the psalms.  --I'm heading to MI next week to get a start on this.
3.  Run a sub-2:00 half marathon.  --Alison and I are training and it's going well.  Race day is April 6.
4.  Sell at least one thing I've made (at the Farmer's Market or on Etsy).
5.  Learn Spanish.  --I listen to Spanish CDs while I run on the treadmill, so I'm making progress here.
6.  Record all 6 cello suites.  --I'm hoping to start this one when I'm recording things with Jacob next week.
7.  Sew Christmas and/or Easter dresses for the girls.  --I have patterns!  I'm waiting until the girls are bigger to make them.
8.  Minimize (eliminate?) the need for disposable products in our house.
9.  Have a compost pile.
10.  Play with at least 2 professional orchestras.
11.  Go 7 days in a row without letting my temper get the better of me.  February 14-21, 2014  I'd gotten 6 days in a row a couple of times and then finally made it 7 (nine, actually).  I'm finding it easier to take deep breaths and move on, and I have a chart to keep track of my progress.  Next goal: three weeks.  That's how long it takes to form a habit, right?
12.  Make an honest attempt at clean eating/real food.  I've done some research and tried some substitutes and reached a comfortable point.  Do I care enough to use butter instead of margarine?  Yes.  Do I care enough to buy coconut oil regularly?  No.  Whole grain noodles and brown rice most of the time?  Yes.  Completely eliminate sugar?  No.  Homemade bread?  Yes.  Whole wheat bread?  Sometimes.  But often I appreciate the airiness that I can only achieve with a little bit of white flour.
13.  *Skipped because knowledge by some of my readers could skew the results.*  --Still a work in progress.
14.  Go on an overnight vacation with just our family.
15.  Grow a garden.
16.  Write a book.
17.  Sew a skirt that becomes my favorite.
18.  Volunteer to host campout.
19.  Go through RCIA.
20.  Attend Seekers' Group (similar to RCIA, offered by the Orthodox church in Lima).
21.  Complete at least 3 things on my (ever growing) Projects List.
22.  Start a soup kitchen.
23.  Make pectin-free jam.  Make up the recipe.
24.  Go on an overnight vacation with Bryan -- no kids.  --Scheduled for our 4th anniversary.
25.  Use up all the coupons Bryan gave me (I still have some from when we were dating).  --Slowly but surely coming along.
26.  Learn one of the 3 big concertos.  --I have music for two of these.  Now I just have to practice.
27.  Arrange a regularly recurring get-together with the Lima folk.
28.  Have a religious conversation with Bryan that doesn't end in tears.
29.  Make a new friend.
30.  Improve a stranger's day.
31.  (Because I thought of one more and it kind of fits in with several of the above goals)  Join a co-op.

February 23-March 2

Olivia has started using the word "friends" to refer to any group of dolls/stuffed animals/action figures that is too large to be named individually in a timely manner.  She talks about how she's going to put all her friends in her bed, or how first she needs to get her friends.  Then she walks by with her arms full to bursting and her friends spilling out over the edges.

Last Saturday, Olivia came to get us in our bedroom.  It was 8:05 am when she came to wake us up, and I immediately noticed 4 important things about this: 1. It was 8:05 and Gretchen had not woken up yet.  2. Olivia's clock turns green at 7:30 and remains that way until 8:30.  This means that she either slept until her clock was green, or she played quietly in her room until it was green.  I'll take it.  3. Olivia wasn't wearing pants, which means she stripped down before coming to get us, so she either stopped in the bathroom or was already wet and fixed the problem.  4. She WAS wearing the same underwear that she went to bed in, which means she wasn't wet.  She must have stopped in the bathroom before coming to get us, which implies that she discerned that she needed to go to the bathroom and took care of the problem all by herself.  Saturday was a good morning.  :)

Gretchen has a rash similar to the one Olivia used to get.  After consulting Steph and my mom, I decided a buildup of diaper cream on my diapers was at least part of the cause.  Gretchen ended up in disposables for a week in an attempt to clear her up, and I started stripping diapers.  Stripping diapers consists of soaking them in Dawn dish soap and then rinsing.  And rinsing.  And rinsing.  My washing machine has been doing nothing but rinsing all week.  :/  Gretchen is looking better, though, and I'm about done, so hopefully we'll be able to get back to normal soon.  :)

If you find the prospect of completely ignoring recipes uncomfortable, you may want to skip this next paragraph.  :-P  It turns out that I am not someone who is bothered my recipe alterations.  In fact, this week Bryan told me that if someone gave me a recipe for a singing football (we have one that plays music when you press a button), I'd produce a knife block (full of knives, of course) instead.  Equally good, but not what the recipe had in mind.  I'd argue that a fully loaded knife block is, in fact, infinitely better than a singing football, so I don't see me changing my recipe-altering ways anytime soon.  Anyway.  I found a recipe for some fabulous looking mint oreo brownies.  I actually did follow that recipe ...mostly.  They were every bit as delicious as we had hoped, but there was one problem: the frosting recipe makes 3-4 times more frosting than is really necessary.  The frosting layer was as thick as the brownie layer, and was pretty much all sugar (especially since I didn't have enough powdered sugar, so I made my own by blending regular sugar with cornstarch (it's a real thing, I promise), but my blender got tired before everything was powdered, so it was still kind of grainy), so Bryan and I started scraping it off before eating the brownies.  Not wanting to waste all of the mint flavored sugar, I decided to make a cake using the frosting as a substitute for sugar.  I pulled out my standard chocolate cake recipe and set to work.  One cup of frosting for one cup of sugar, no problem.  But then...  I was out of cocoa powder.  Turns out there's an alteration listed for those who want to make Devil's Food chocolate cake instead.  I started following that version because it called for baking squares instead.  Only my baking squares are from Aldi, and Aldi breaks their squares into 0.4 oz sections (even though all the recipes ever call for multiples of 0.5 oz squares), so I didn't use exactly the right amount.  I kept mixing stuff together, though, and the batter tasted fine.  I decided not to frost the finished product, but I did dust it with powdered sugar, which was immediately absorbed by the top of the cake.  It is delicious.  If it wasn't more time, effort, and ingredients than I care to dedicate, I'd make my chocolate cake this way all the time.

Bryan and I found a ballroom dance club nearby-ish, so on Wednesday we went to check it out.  With the exception of one other couple, we were the youngest ones there by about fifty years, but we had a blast.  There were more males than females, so I got to dance pretty much the whole time, even when it wasn't swing dancing.  All the old men asked Bryan's permission when they came to get me for a dance.  He felt very important.  :)  There was a live band, so when they found out that we knew predominantly swing dance, they modified their set to include more of those.  When they took a break, someone led a mini lesson on the Charleston, so now we're learning that.  This is apparently a weekly thing, so we'll definitely be going back.

I've been chipping away at my 30 Before 30 list.  I have a bonus post with an update scheduled for this Wednesday.

Josef and Alison came to visit for our Happy March card club this weekend.  More on that next week...

Pictures and Videos:

February 16-23

Olivia got a haircut.  Her bangs finally grew out enough that they now reach her chin, so I trimmed the rest of her hair to match.  This haircut went better than her first, but not so well as her second.  She was willing to sit still while I did the right side, but every time I got over to the left, she tilted her head.  Luckily, I was just trying to match up the length with her bangs, so it came out okay.  Also, she's a toddler, so she never sits still enough to tell if it's uneven.  :)

Gretchen is in 12-month clothes.  She's actually been in 12-month clothes for a while now, but I kept forgetting to mention it.  She spent exactly one day in a 9-12 month outfit before I moved her up to just plain 12-month from her previous 6-9 month.  It would appear that 9-12 isn't very much of a size change; what little change there is seems to be mostly width, often at the expense of length.

Olivia likes looking at pictures of herself as a baby.  She THINKS she's looking at pictures of other babies, though.  In her mind, every picture is of a baby she knows who is approximately the same age as the baby in the picture.  We have a lot of pictures of Baby Edward right now.  :)  The same problem occurs with videos; she and I watched the earliest Olivia videos we have, and Olivia kept talking about how she wanted to watch more of Baby Gretchen.  (Side note: Olivia's hair when she was younger was fabulous.  I recommend watching Olivia in the Johnny Jump Up for an example.)

Taxes are done.  I finished the federal and state ones a couple of weeks ago, but city ones took longer because of the work I did with the Lima Symphony.  Federal and state forms handle self employment relatively painlessly, but city forms are less complicated enough that any income that isn't W2 based causes problems.

Pictures and Videos:

February 9-16

Olivia has been accident-free all week.  She's also been diaper-free, even at night.  This is a BIG DEAL.  I do have to remind her periodically to go to the bathroom, because she tends to get too involved in things to worry about paltry details such as her exploding bladder.  Also, I just don't trust her.  So I have a phone alarm that goes off every hour and a half (as much to remind me as her) and she sits on the potty whenever we switch activities and so far we've been dry.

Gretchen is standing.  She seems to prefer standing, actually, although she does NOT like it when whatever she's using for balance moves.  She has also learned to sit back down (hooray, hooray!), although she still looks a little worried about it.  Her 9-month check-up was Monday, and she's 19 lbs, 2 oz.  They told me she's 30 inches long, but I don't believe them.  Babies are measured very imprecisely: the nurse lays Gretchen down, puts a pen mark on the paper at the top of her head, and pulls her leg straight before placing another pen mark.  Then I pick Gretchen up and the nurse measures the space between the marks.  Gretchen was being difficult and wouldn't let the nurse stretch her leg out, so I'm pretty sure she scooted an inch or two during the process.  I measured her at home and only came up with 28 inches.  It will be interesting to see how big she is at her 12-month check-up.  Click here for Olivia's stats, for comparison.

(Aside: I read the post that contains Olivia's stats and was quite pleased with it.  I apologize if some of my more recent posts have been lacking.  I've been putting off writing them until the last minute and then dashing them off in a hurry rather than recording my witticisms as they occur to me.  I shall strive to do better.)

I got to cross something off my 30 Before 30 list on Saturday: I asked Bryan what kind of cereal he wanted for breakfast and he said, "surprise me."  I hid a Quaker Oat Square (three, actually) in his Cheerios.  This was not what I was planning to do to surprise him, but it worked anyway.  :)

Pictures:

February 2-9

Olivia likes to sing.  You know this.  You probably also know that she carries a tune remarkably well for a toddler.  Usually I know what she's singing even if I can't understand the words because the melody is so clear.  In fact, up until recently, I could ALWAYS figure out what she was singing from the tune alone.  About two weeks ago, though, she added a new song to her repertoire.  The tune was... indistinct.  After much careful watching (because this song had motions) and listening, Bryan and I figured out what she was singing: Little Cabin in the Woods.  Apparently she knows most of the words and actions, but has absolutely no idea what the tune is.  Since she likes the song, she sings it anyway, making up her own tune as she goes along.  :)

Gretchen is speeding through developmental milestones.  She started clapping a little bit this week, shakes her head all the time, and blows raspberries with Olivia.  Her favorite thing to do with toys is move them from one basket to another (or, in a pinch, from the floor to the basket and back again).  She crawls on hands and knees now, but only if she's not in a hurry.  She pulls herself up on furniture, much to her sister's dismay, and cruises (cautiously) along the edge.  Since the concept of walking is still difficult, she mostly wobbles along the edge of furniture and hopes her feet will follow.  Currently, her trips back to the floor are terror-filled ordeals that often end in tears, so we're hoping she masters lowering herself down next.  On Saturday I saw her go from hands and knees to sitting for the first time.  I'm not even sure she realized that she did it.

We were with Bryan's parents this week because I had symphony in Lima.  Olivia especially was excited to spend so much time with Grandma and Grandpa.  :)

Did I ever put up more of our family photos?  I know I gave a link that I am assuming worked because no one said otherwise.

Pictures:

Bonus Post: Fun with the Kleins

When we do things with the Kleins, they're much better about taking pictures than I am.  They share them with me periodically and then, months later, I remember to turn all those pictures into a post.  Here we have the first installment of Fun with the Kleins.  I've tried to put them in order and gave a rough date (you can tell how rough by my phrasing) for each set of pictures.

Eva's Baptism (May 2012; I'm her godmother):

Me holding both the girls (mid 2012):

Olivia loves Eva's flying saucer (mid 2012):

Olivia and Eva (mid 2012):

At the zoo (June 2012):

Olivia's 1st Birthday (August 2012):

Olivia photobombing a picture (late 2012):

Eva's 1st Birthday (December 2012):

Shopping with the 2 girls (late 2012 or early 2013, I think):

Olivia and Eli (mid 2013):

At the fair (August 2013; eating a deep-fried oreo, chasing each other around trees...)

Gretchen and Eli (Browns/Vikings game 2013):

January 26-February 2

Gretchen can use a straw now.  Every time I pick something up while holding Gretchen, especially when in the kitchen, she grabs it and puts it in her mouth.  Olivia's water cup was no exception.  Usually I take advantage of the fact that my arms are longer and hold the cup out of Gretchen's reach, but one day her determination and complete lack of regard for her own personal safety won out.  She waited until I had a moment of distraction, then lunged and captured the cup, immediately putting the straw in her mouth.  Though she couldn't figure out how to make the straw work that particular time, I've let her continue to try.  After much spluttering, she has finally mastered the straw and can now get a drink of water whenever I leave a cup within reach.

Gretchen is also able to help out when she's getting dressed.  If I aim her arm towards the correct hole in her shirt, she'll push it through.  Bryan appreciates the fact that she's willing to stick her legs straight out and hold them still while he puts on her pants.  I suppose that is preferable to the kicking and rolling that used to be the norm.  :)

It seems I never have any Olivia news recently.  She's developing new skills, too, just at a slower, less obvious rate.  She picks up new words ("beautiful" and "friends" are her latest vocabulary enhancers) and gets better at things she could already do, but she's in refining mode rather than learning mode.  She and I DID manage to complete a game of Candy Land last week, and the only cheating was when I stacked the deck so that she got the upcoming character cards (and the ones we'd already passed were quietly removed).  She also enjoys playing her Uno Moo game, although she's still a bit fuzzy on the rules.

Keep an eye out for the Bonus Post coming this Wednesday.

Pictures: