Bonus Post: (Another) Day in the Life

I did a Day in the Life post ages ago when Olivia was younger than Gretchen is now.  It seemed about time for another one.  :)

6:45 am - I roll out of bed and go for a short run (outside because it's been so beautiful!), getting back before everyone wakes up.

The light is so bright...

7:15 am - I do not, however, make it into the shower before Gretchen starts whining.  She often wakes up happy, but not this morning.  I am pleased to note that her tone gets much more pleasant as soon as I walk into the room.  This could be a not-cranky day yet.  :)

7:25 am - As I feed Gretchen, I hear Olivia scampering out of her room.  That's her preferred method of waking up lately: hit the ground running as soon as she hears others moving around (and then she tries to laze around in her pajamas all day, as if the running at the beginning was proof enough that she's awake).  She pokes her head into Gretchen's room to ask if Daddy can turn on Old MacDonald for her.  Having obtained my consent, she heads off to browbeat Bryan into also letting her watch the pictures (I usually just turn on the sound).

7:45 am - Gretchen is fed, changed, and dressed.  She's a much happier camper than she was half an hour ago.  Olivia is comatose in front of the computer.  I'm cleaned up and dressed and Bryan's on his way out the door for work.  Kisses for everyone and then he's gone.  Gretchen plays in the toy kitchen while I clean up a little and open all the windows in the whole house.

8:00 am - Olivia's done watching videos and is getting dressed before we eat breakfast.  She and I have some philosophical disagreements about whether leggings count as pants and whether underwear is more comfortable when worn forwards or backwards.  Olivia tries to make that case that her underwear is not, in fact, on backwards, but she's absolutely wrong on that one.  Can't argue with facts.  Meanwhile, Gretchen is also attempting to (re)dress herself.

8:15 am - Downstairs for prayers, upstairs for breakfast.  Olivia wants Kix and Cheerios mixed together.  Gretchen doesn't care what she gets as long as she gets it soon.  I put oatmeal in the microwave, and come back when it beeps to find that I overestimated the size of the bowl and the cereal overflowed.  *sigh*  At least that's better than yesterday, when Olivia accidentally dropped her bowl of mixed cereal all over the floor on the way to the table.  What a feast the girls had while we picked that one up.  :-P

9:15 am - Gretchen is cranky, so she goes down for a nap.  Olivia and I head to the kitchen to attempt to make pop-tarts with some of the excess jam that we have.  After the first batch is so sticky that it doesn't come off the mat neatly, we put handfuls of flour down and try again.  The dough rolls out much better, but we make a huge mess with the flour.  Olivia's main job is to put the filling in before I put the lids on and we poke the edges together.


11:05 am - Gretchen wakes up from her nap.  Olivia goes to visit her while I clean up the kitchen from the flour we got everywhere.  I tell Olivia not to climb into the crib with Gretchen.

11:10 am - Much laughter coming from Gretchen's room, accompanied by sounds of jumping.  Olivia's in the crib.  I go in to get both of them out.

11:12 am - Olivia begins her chorus of "It's warm outside, we can go play."  I point out that, while it might be warm, it is also wet.  She disagrees, but loses the argument because of those pesky facts again.  She suggests that maybe we should all go sit on the porch swing to wait for Daddy to come home for lunch.  Motion carried.

11:15 am - The girls wait by the door for me to be ready to go outside.  Olivia unlocks the screen (because she can) and must accidentally loosen the latch, because a few seconds later Gretchen leans on the door and it starts to open.  Olivia hastily pulls the door shut and relocks it before patting Gretchen patronizingly on the shoulder and saying, "No, you can't go outside without we.  No, Gretchen, you can't go outside without Mommy and Olivia."

11:20 am - We bring books outside and sit on the swing to read.  We're not there very long before Daddy comes home!  Everyone heads inside for lunch.

12:05 pm - Bryan heads back to work, and the girls and I clear off the table.  Gretchen plays in the kitchen while I decide to start rearranging rooms.  Olivia decides to help me.  We've been meaning to put the girls in a room together and turn the extra room into a playroom, but haven't gotten around to it yet.  Now that Yellow Duck is on the way, though, we need to get the girls into the same room anyway, so we might as well have a playroom while they adjust.  We've decided to put both girls in Olivia's room and to turn the middle room into the playroom.  Olivia and I take books off shelves and move a bookshelf into the closet to hold all the board games.  It looks better already.

1:40 pm - Gretchen's getting cranky again.  Time for naps.  I change Gretchen and put her down.  Olivia sheds her clothes in favor of her polka dot jammies and goes to find two books for me to read.  Books read, I leave her to her quiet time and flop down in front of the computer, deciding that I don't care about being productive right now.  It's amazing how many afternoons I come to that conclusion.  :/

3:00 pm - I feel guilty for not being productive, especially since Olivia is actually napping today.  I write a large chunk of this blog post (up to this point) and work on finding hymn links for Jacob.

4:20 pm - The girls are still sleeping, so Jacob gets a second lengthy email full of links.  I suppose I should go fold clothes.

4:45 pm - I never did fold those clothes.  Gretchen is awake and happy, so I go to rescue her.  While I'm getting her, Olivia stumbles into the room, looking somewhat ruffled after her nap.  I bribe Olivia into clothes by telling her she can listen to more Old MacDonald.  We have another philosophical disagreement about what constitutes a dress and what is really only a long shirt.

4:50 pm - While Olivia gets dressed and Gretchen bops around in the play kitchen, I move grown-up books from the shelves in the middle room to the shelves near the fireplace.

5:10 pm - We go outside to check the mail, and Olivia grabs our books from earlier so that we can sit on the swing to wait for Daddy to come home again.  It would seem that he came home while we were getting the books, because he suddenly walks around the side of the house and tells us to come with him to look at the garden.

5:15 pm - We (Bryan and I especially) are all excited at the actual plants poking out of the dirt in my garden.  Zucchini and beets are coming up, as well as one bean plant.  It all seemed rather sudden, especially the zucchini, which was non-existent when I checked after my run and is now about the size of a quarter.  What a difference 11 hours makes!

5:30 pm - The rain chases us inside, and Bryan gets tackled by the girls while trying to change out of his work clothes.  Gretchen promptly dismantles his wallet, and then steals his phone.  Olivia finishes the job on the wallet before joining the pile.

5:45 pm - Bryan gets his little grill out on the porch to make one last meal on it.  Both girls decide they need to help.  I stay inside to get potatoes ready (and finish moving some books).

5:50 pm - Good thing we have a new grill.  The little grill is refusing to work, so the hamburgers get tossed into a frying pan instead.  I'm now in charge of dinner again.  Gretchen wanders about the house while Olivia and Bryan sit outside to watch the monsoon that is developing.

6:15 pm - Dinner is ready.  Olivia eats an entire hamburger and asks for more.  We are shocked.  Gretchen devours almost all of the potatoes by herself.  We are less shocked.

6:50 pm - After dinner, Olivia talks Bryan into letting her watch more videos online.  Gretchen impresses everyone with her itsy-bitsy spider skills.  The girls play for a while, and Bryan and I hijack Olivia's videos to watch Silly Songs with Larry.  She doesn't seem to mind.  We realize that the Silly Songs with Larry repertoire has increased dramatically since we last kept up with it, but do manage to find one amusing song: Monkey.  Where Have All the Staplers Gone? isn't too bad, either.

Kisses goodnight.

7:45 pm - Bryan heads off to game night with some coworkers, and the girls and I go downstairs for prayers.  Then it's upstairs for bed.  They brush teeth and get jammies on and by 8:10 I'm in the kitchen doing all the things I ignored during naptime.  Dishes don't take too long, though, once I get going, and the laundry does itself as long as I remember to press buttons.  I still haven't folded clothes, but if I did that now then what would I do tomorrow?  :)



More Pictures and a Video:

May 11-18

This is where we see how efficient the grapevine is.  Last Sunday, we made an announcement to (mostly) family and (a few) friends.  Bryan and I have a system.  He gets to choose how to spread the word about the odd numbered babies and I get to do the even numbered ones.  Bryan's method is simple: blurt out the news as soon as possible.  :)  So last Sunday, after taking a positive test Saturday, we started letting people know that baby number 3 will be arriving in mid to late January.  If you're just finding out now, I apologize, because somehow you are woefully out of the loop.  If you bring it to my attention, we will attempt to fix it for next time.

We told Olivia that she was going to have a new brother or sister.  Upon hearing this news, she said, "Yes, a sister would be fine."  The next day, her grandma asked, "Are you going to have a new baby?" and Olivia replied, "A sister."  When it comes time to make predictions, keep in mind that Olivia has thrown all her resources into making sure this baby is another girl.  :)

Another day, we asked Olivia if she had any ideas for names.  Her front runners:  For a girl - Doggie, Yellow Duck.  For a boy - Gretchen.  We told her we'd take her ideas into consideration.  :)

It makes it easier to discuss the baby if we have a name for it.  I was just going to go with boring Number 3, but then we got name suggestions from Olivia.  Henceforth, this baby shall be referred to as Yellow Duck, or perhaps just Duck for short.

Gretchen talks.  A lot.  There are very few distinguishable words, but she likes to make the sounds.  She looks so serious when she talks, like she fully expects us to know exactly what she's saying.  As far as "might be actual words" go, "bye" seems pretty consistent, as does "mamamamama" and "yeah".  She also sings along to Old MacDonald, chiming in with her (slightly mangled) version of EIEIO.  It was recently discovered that Gretchen also participates in The Itsy-Bitsy Spider when that song is sung.

Olivia takes full advantage of the fact that one of Gretchen's only understandable words is "yeah."  We do think Gretchen actually means "yeah" most of the time, and that it's not just a filler sound, but she's also at the age where she'll answer "yeah" to pretty much anything.  Olivia has begun asking Gretchen questions, usually phrasing them carefully so that Gretchen eagerly agrees to whatever nonsense Olivia is suggesting.  Then Olivia turns to me and says, "Mom, Gretchen said yeah."  As if that's all the explanation required when I discover her trying to pick Gretchen up and/or take Gretchen's toys.

I have a garden!  And things are growing in it!  Bryan built me a box to put on the driveway (since that's the only place that gets consistent sunlight).  I filled it with dirt and, utilizing the Square Foot Gardening method, planted zucchini, green beans, peas, carrots, and beets.  I already have sprouts of everything except carrots.  :)  I still need to buy green pepper and tomato plants.  

Bonus post on Wednesday!

Pictures and Video:

May 4-11

Gretchen hated shoes for about a day and a half.  At some point, though, she realized that shoes were something big people wore, so she started trying to put Olivia's shoes on her own feet.  ...She was much more successful at putting them on her hands.  Ever since that revelation, though, Gretchen has willingly accepted wearing shoes (which is good, because Olivia requires them of Gretchen).  Many times she even brings me her shoes to put on her feet.

Since we light candles in our chapel twice a day, we tend to burn through (haha) a lot of votive candles.  When they get too low to light comfortably, we toss them in a box and get some new ones.  Bryan wanted to throw them out, but I kept saying that I'd melt them together to make new candles.  I finally got around to doing that.  Olivia and I braided some embroidery floss into wicks, made a double boiler using a tin can, melted candles, and poured new ones.  No report yet on how well they work; we have to wait for our current candles to burn down.

I bought a wheat grinder.  It was necessary, seeing as I recently purchased a significant amount of wheat berries.  Now we can grind wheat to make cream of wheat and/or flour.  I have not tried to make enough for bread, yet, mostly because I still have wheat flour available.  The girls and I did grind some cream of wheat, though, and it shows some promise.  :)

Our piano came with a cover, perhaps to keep the keys from getting dusty when it is not in use.  Recently I realized, however, that the cover was really just keeping us from playing.  One day when Olivia remembered that the piano existed, she pulled the cover off and asked me to turn it on for her.  I decided to put the cover away for good, and she has decided to play the "peeteeoh" (I have no idea why she has trouble with the word "piano") every day since then.  :)

One of the highlights of the convention I went to was a booth where they were handing out free finger-topper space guys.  I don't even know what the actual purpose of the booth was, but my friends and I all snagged two space guys and we've been sending periodic pictures of them doing things.  My space guys made candles, ground grain, and played the piano.  Jacque, maybe you should get some space guys (or something similar) and take pictures around New York to post on your blog.  You might not have cute kids, but you do have a pretty famous city.  Think of the adventures they could have!

Pictures:

April 27-May 4

Two weeks ago, I promised more information about the weekend with Oma and Opa.  Then last week was ridiculously busy and my belated post had no reference to any time spent in Michigan.  So.  Here's a quick version of what happened in Michigan:

-The girls and I went to the Good Friday service and Olivia broke the solemn silence at the very end by saying, "Are we done now?" quite clearly.  5 bonus points to anyone in the church who didn't have to stifle a laugh.  Dad finished taking off his vestments and then came to find Olivia and inform her that yes, we were done now.
-I helped Mom cook all sorts of delicious things for after Easter.  We also dyed eggs.  Still no luck on getting nice red ones.  Apparently onion skins are supposed to be good for getting red?  Mom, we should try this next year (there are two links).
-The vigil started at 9, so the girls went in pajamas.  We brought Olivia's pillow and blanket, so she immediately set up a bed on the chairs and fell asleep.  Gretchen, not so much.  She played in the back, looking progressively more drunk as the service progressed.  Getting braver while simultaneously getting less coordinated leads to a lot of bumped heads.  Bryan finally wrestled Gretchen to sleep around 11, I think.  Luckily, both girls transferred to their beds after the service without too much trouble.  Church did look a little bit like a crime scene, though, with all the small bodies strewn about.
-Bryan wanted to bring sandwiches for after the service, because every Christmas and Easter we just fill up on a lot of sweet stuff in the middle of the night.  This was a fantastically well-received idea, and we should make a point to get a couple of party subs from Subway every year.
-After the Easter morning service, we went out to see Uncle Ted and Aunt Ruth.  The food was good, the company was fun, and the egg hunt was warm and suitably easy for the girls and hard for the big kids.  The chocolate chips did melt in the eggs, though.
-Gretchen did a practice cake-smash at Ted and Ruth's.  After we gave her a bite of cake, she happily picked it up and managed to stay pretty clean.  Then she put it down and whined a bit about the frosting all over her hand.  ...Until she noticed that there was FROSTING ALL OVER HER HAND!!!  She licked the frosting off, getting it all over her nose and cheek in the process.  Jacob took pictures, which I will steal and put up someday.  Probably.
-Rachel and Gretchen share the same birthday, so we made Rachel smash a piece of cake, too.  She obliged the crowds by lifting her plate and plastering the cake against her face.  A bit of a waste of a piece of cake, but the pictures should be great and the reaction was priceless.
-We left Ted and Ruth's and stopped at Bryan's parents' house for an hour or so on our way home.  As we left, Olivia told my mom that she was going to "go to Grandma's house and lie down on the couch and watch Scooby Doo."  She wasn't wrong.  We did also convince her to sit outside in the beautiful weather for a little bit.

On Sunday (the most recent one, now), Gretchen got to do another cake smash.  She was a little warier this time, needing to be coaxed into picking up the cake.  She did pick it up enough to get her hand messy, but then noticed that there were enough potentially sympathetic faces around for whining to have a chance.  Sure enough, as soon as she started whining pitifully, several people stepped forward to assist by feeding her the rest of the piece.

Jacque came to visit us overnight before I took her to the airport the next day.  Funny story: Keshia and Tyler, Steve, and Jacque were all flying from Dayton to Chicago on Monday afternoon.  In fact, Steve and Jacque were originally on the same flight.  Anyway.  Bryan and I brought out the game Jacque had given us for Christmas, and the three of us enjoyed several rounds of Scribbo, which is essentially Bingo meets Scrabble.  Bryan and I have played Scribbo almost every day since Jacque left.  On Monday afternoon, I dropped Jacque off at the airport with her bags and some apple butter (since she loved the jar I sent so much) and then turned around to head home.  Halfway home, I talked to her on the phone: the security agents confiscated her (sealed!) apple butter and tossed it in the trash.  Sad day.  :(  Mom thinks maybe somebody rescued it later to have a tasty treat to take home.  Jacque, I will make more apple butter this summer and you can take home as much as you can carry.

Gretchen had an appointment Monday morning.  She is 20 lbs, 12 oz, and 30 inches long.  It would appear that she is actually 30 inches this time (as opposed to at her last appointment, when they said she was 30 but she was really only about 28).  This was the one-year appointment, so she had to get 4 shots and a blood draw.  In an unfortunate development for Gretchen, she seems to have inherited my difficult veins, so they had to poke around for quite some time during the blood draw before the needle would go in.  One is a terrible age.  Luckily, she'll never be one again (she will be five someday, though, and that will be similarly awful).

Gretchen made our wall!  We went for her one-year-old pictures on Wednesday and I had the difficult decision of narrowing down which one to order.  I chose one, but was hoping I could show Bryan (and my faithful readers, of course!) some of the other ones when we got home.  Two days later, having still not received the link that they usually send, I called to find out what had happened.  It turns out that they changed their policy, and in order to get a link to their product ordering page you now have to buy a package that contains a CD.  Fine.  The one I picked is great anyway.  :)

Pictures and Videos:

April 20-27

Sorry that this post is late.  Last Monday and Tuesday we had church in the mornings and I had a rehearsal and a concert at night.  Wednesday we spent visiting the Kleins and Thursday I left for an overnight conference in Cincinnati.  Friday was a rehearsal dinner, Saturday was a wedding, Sunday was Gretchen's birthday party, and Monday was doctor's appointments and taking Jacque to the airport.  More about Sunday and Monday in next week's post.  This one should get you through the wedding, though.  :)

On Thursday, Gretchen turned ONE!  Bryan and I got lots of texts (which made us feel very popular, even though they were for Gretchen) and there were even a couple of phone calls.  When I let Gretchen field her own calls, Olivia was immediately jealous and stated that it was her birthday, too.

Gretchen plays peek-a-boo regularly now.  She used to require a prop such as a blanket or towel to assist her, but now she has learned that people will react if she puts her hands in the general vicinity of her face and then pulls them away triumphantly.  She also waves good-bye deliberately.  I wasn't sure a few weeks ago if she was waving or not, but this week I know she means it.

In yet more Gretchen news, she's standing all the time.  She pulls herself up on things, lets go, and grins at everyone in the room as if to say, "See how talented I am?  I can do this standing trick!"  I've also watched her get to standing in the middle of the floor (with nothing to pull up on), which was THE major turning point in Olivia's walking progress.  No steps yet from Gretchen, but we can tell they're coming soon.  :)

Olivia spends her time narrating the day in song.  Also making sure I stay on task, as illustrated by this recent conversation:

Olivia: "Mommy, where are we going?"
Me: "To the store."
Olivia: "Yes, we need bananas.  We better go to the store to get bananas."
Me: "We can get some bananas."
Olivia: "And milk.  We don't have any milk."
Me: "Yes, we will also get milk."
Olivia: "Uh-oh!  And we don't have any cereal!  We better get some cereal."
Me: "Actually, there's more cereal downstairs."
Olivia: "Oh.  Okay, we will go to the store to get bananas and milk."

We have a swingset (I think I mentioned that last week) that Olivia loves, and this week we got a swing for Gretchen so that she can enjoy it as well.  Olivia delights in pushing Gretchen in the swing.  Bad news for Olivia, though: she's 2, and therefore doesn't always think things through.  She was pushing Gretchen one day and stopped to examine a bug that had appeared near her foot.  While she was crouched down, Gretchen's swing made its way backwards (as is to be expected) and destroyed Olivia.  She got a bit of a fat lip and a small cut on her mouth.

My conference on Thursday was the Great Homeschooling Convention in Cincinnati.  Much to Bryan's dismay, I think I found my people.  After I got past the fundamentalists and even-more-socially-awkward-than-me types, of course.  My friends from Lima went, too, and it was nice to get to hang out with them.  Most of the sessions that I attended were applicable to parenting as well as homeschooling, so I was able to learn from them but Bryan still has reason to hope that I might not be totally sold on the whole homeschooling idea.  :)

I left the conference early on Friday because I had to make it back in time to pick up my family and head to a rehearsal.  Bryan's sister, Keshia, got married on Saturday, and we all had a part to play.  Bryan was a groomsman, as well as official escort to the two adorably poufy flower girls (one of whom *cough Gretchen cough* couldn't walk yet).  I was the music, and Jacque came in to be the cantor.  Olivia had a hair appointment on Saturday morning, and I painted her nails to match her dress while she waited for her turn.  Two hours later (after they'd finished the bride and bridesmaids), Olivia sat very still in the chair and DID NOT CRY (although she didn't look particularly pleased with the situation) while all of her hair was curled to look like Shirley Temple's.  She even got a little braid like the big girls to hold it out of her face.  Both girls did well for the service, Olivia had a blast dancing in her big dress at the reception (until the actual dancing started, and then she decided it was too crowded), and I'm sure there's a picture of them somewhere.  :-P  When I find it, I'll put it up.

Pictures:

April 13-20

Happy Easter!

Did you catch the Bonus Post?

This was a pretty busy week because of all the Holy Week services, but since we were in church all the time, we don't really have any adventurous stories.  Here's a quick update on everyone, Justine-style.

Gretchen:
-Had a couple more teeth poke through this week, so she's up to 9.
-Has been experimenting with sounds, which makes her quite amusing to listen to.
-Missed her morning nap most of the week, but usually made up for it with her afternoon nap.  I expect she'll try to drop it completely soon.
-Made friends with the old Greek lady at church while I chanted.
-Has been doing more standing recently.  She's quite proud of this newly acquired talent.

Olivia:
-Loves to run.  And jump.  And twirl in circles.  But mostly run.
-Is very excited for the warm weather and all the outside opportunities it presents.
-Thinks "birdhouse" is a synonym for "building."  For example, when we drop Bryan off at work, she talks about how he "went in the big birdhouse."
-Helps chant "Lord, have mercy" and "Kyrie Eleison" with me.  Also "Alleluia."

Bryan:
-Built (put together) a swingset in the backyard so that Olivia has something else to explore this summer.

Johannah:
-Fixed the sink.  It had stopped draining, but a Google search revealed that it's easy enough to check and empty the p-trap before calling a plumber.
-Has a plan for a garden this year!  It involves boxes on the driveway...

We went to Michigan this weekend to spend Easter with Oma and Opa.  More on that next week.

Pictures from the last two weeks:

Bonus Post: Flashback -- April 16, 2010

Useful to know: By 2010, Bryan and I had both graduated.  He was living with his parents in Ohio, and I had just moved into an apartment near the Eastern Michigan campus.

It was Friday, April 16, 2010, and my roommate, Danielle, and I were just settling down to a late dinner and a movie on the couch.  It had been a long week.  Suddenly, Danielle received a phone call and, as was her habit, jumped up to take it in her room (actually, part of me remembers her usually taking phone calls wherever she happened to be at the time, but she must have taken them in her room often enough that it didn't strike me as odd in this particular instance).  She came back a few minutes later and said that it had been our friend, Antoine, on the phone.  Apparently he and his on-again/off-again girlfriend were off-again.  I asked if he needed ice cream, and she said he was already walking to Starbucks to meet us.  (No, Starbucks doesn't have ice cream, but it does have strawberry smoothie frappes of deliciousness.)  I went to find my shoes.

Two minutes later, we were booking it across campus (because, as anyone who has walked with Danielle knows, she only has one speed, and it's fast) to the Student Center Starbucks and complaining that Antoine could have picked a slightly warmer day to fall apart.  As we passed through University Park, someone came up the steps from the lake.  This is not an uncommon occurrence, so my eyes had already moved on before my brain realized that this particular person deserved a second look because he was wearing a tuxedo.  That IS uncommon.

The person in the tuxedo was Bryan.  I went over to say hello, and Danielle turned and started to walk away.  There was some major confusion on my part as Bryan said, "Thanks, Danielle," Danielle said, "No problem," and I said, "What about Antoine?"  Danielle walked away, looking back over her shoulder to say that she'd made up the part about Antoine.  I found out later that the earlier phone call was from Bryan, and he was telling her to get me over by the park without alerting me to the fact that he was involved.  Apparently the story about Antoine was the first thing she came up with.

Bryan and I went walking back down the steps towards the lake.  When we reached the bottom, he took a deep breath and began singing As We Stroll Along Together.  Bryan never sings (at least, he didn't then; now he sings all the time because Olivia requires it).  By this point, I knew what was going on.  We walked to the middle of the bridge, and he got down on one knee to propose.  After I said yes, he finished his song.  We walked back to my apartment while calling our families to share the news.

This is where the story gets hilarious:  Danielle had NO IDEA what was happening.  She left me with Bryan and walked back thinking, "Aw, I wish I had a boyfriend who would come surprise me wearing a tuxedo."  When she got back to the apartment, she got another phone call, this one from Antoine (really, this time).  He started asking if she was anywhere near us and if she was getting a good picture.  Danielle finally realized that Antoine was apparently lurking in the bushes near University Park, but had missed the actual proposal.  This led to a second realization: THERE WAS A PROPOSAL HAPPENING!  And she had also missed it.  She immediately started jumping up and down in the kitchen and excitedly waited for us to get back.  When we did, she took the only engagement picture we have.

We gathered a group of friends together and went out to Bubble Island (a bubble tea/smoothie place) to celebrate.

This is the only engagement photo we have.  It was taken by Danielle in my apartment about 20 minutes after Bryan proposed.

Danielle took photos of my ring the next day:

April 6-13

Last Saturday, we took Olivia to a bounce house.  It was inside a giant indoor amusement park that made Alison, Stephanie, and me cringe as we walked through and caused Bryan to get excited about the prospect of bringing older children to try out all the other cool stuff available.  There was a toddler section of the bounce house, so we took the kids back there and let Eva and Olivia run around and have a grand old time.  Eli cared less, and Gretchen didn't even acknowledge the presence of bouncy things because there were other toys to explore.  Afterwards we all went to lunch and decided that this was an outing that could be repeated.

Side note: We went to Chipotle for lunch and three kids' meals were purchased.  Eva and Eli split one, Olivia ate about half of one, and Gretchen ate her entire meal and part of mine.  :-P

On Sunday, Alison and I ran a half marathon.  Our goal was to beat two hours.  The weather was cool, but sunny, so we didn't have to get ridiculously bundled up.  The sun was especially appreciated since the whole end of the previous week had been rainy.  About three miles in, Alison got a bad cramp and told me to just go on without her, so I let all my racing instincts take over and picked people off for the next ten miles.  I finished in 1:54:30 and then walked back along the course to stretch a bit and sprint the last quarter mile in with Alison.

I have been told that my Uncle Jon ran a half marathon the same day but finished 9 minutes faster than I did.  After much consideration, I've decided that it wasn't a fair race since I didn't know he was running.  Also, I would have been almost done with my race by the time his even started, so there's an obvious advantage to him.  Perhaps we need a rematch.  :-P

Backing up to when Alison arrived at our house...  She got in late Thursday night.  Olivia was already asleep, so we figured that she'd just notice Alison in the morning like she usually does.  At two in the morning, I was awakened by wailing.  I walked through the living room, tripping over something on the floor, and made my way to Olivia's room.  She started babbling about how she needed her dog, no not THAT dog, the one in the living room.  Ali had it, apparently.  Confused as to how she even knew Ali was here, I went back to the living room and located the giant dog.  It turns out that the dog was what tripped me as I stumbled through the first time.  I returned the dog to its home in Olivia's room and went back to bed.  Fifteen minutes later, I had to go back and put the dog back in the living room.  Ten minutes after that, Bryan had to go move Olivia's stuffed monkey to the living room to join the dog.  It's a wonder Alison got any sleep at all.

In the morning, we heard Alison's side of the story.  Apparently she woke up to a scraping noise as the chair by the computer desk moved.  She saw a two headed shadow, and turned on the lamp to better illuminate her hallucination.  Olivia was standing by the computer, clutching her dog (this dog is bigger than Olivia, by the way; I'll have to take a picture).  Alison said something, and Olivia walked over to the couch, threw the dog on top of Alison, and ran back to her room.  Alison pushed the dog onto the floor, thus setting up the trap that I would walk into, and turned off the lamp.  Cue Olivia's wailing.

Okay, back to updates.

Gretchen knows the song "If You're Happy and You Know It."  Whenever Olivia starts singing, Gretchen starts clapping her hands.  Then she skips the foot stomping to go straight to shouting hooray.  She throws her hands in the air and says, "aah."  The following minutes are spent alternating between clapping and shouting hooray.  :)

One of Gretchen's favorite games recently is "liquid."  She finds a relatively soft spot (the couch is perfect, a bed will work, and the bounce house had some toys that were adequate) and begins flopping around like a fish out of water.  She doesn't check to make sure a parent is watching her edges, so she's going to hurt herself one of these days if she ever gets up to a soft spot unsupervised, but for now, she loves it.  She stands and flops and rolls and crawls and face-plants and giggles and generally has a fantastic time.

And a quick update about Olivia: Olivia understands "first" and "second."  ...I think.  She uses them correctly, so I assume she knows what they mean.  She can also count to 13 and she's started doing puzzles (although she needs help with the latter).  She makes up songs about everything she does and is often a whirlwind of crazy two-year-old energy.

We're with Bryan's parents this week since I have symphony.  This means that I have no pictures to share with you right now.  I'll add some once we get home, though, and remind you next week that they exist.  :)

March 30-April 6

March madness is happening, which means the Barhorsts (yes, all of us) filled out brackets.  The event was not as involved as last year, mainly because Olivia is old enough to talk and Gretchen is less methodical in her selection of Cheerios than Olivia was.  It took us several days, but the beauty of letting little kids fill out brackets is that they don't pay attention to the games, so you can spill over into the tournament a bit and it doesn't matter.  Bryan and I were very careful to let them choose whichever teams they wanted, even if those teams had already lost.  :-P

My mother tells stories of how I used to put plaid shirts with striped shorts and justify it by pointing out that "they both have pink."  Olivia did something similar the other day, except her justification was even more sketchy: she showed up in a shades-of-pink camo skirt and a long-sleeved, red and purple striped shirt, and said, "Look, this has buttons and this has a button."  We then had a talk about how having buttons in common didn't mean they matched.

Gretchen has reached the age where she travels around and looks for small things to pick up off the floor.  More often than not, her first instinct is to put said small things directly in her mouth.  If I'm paying attention, though, I can hold out my hand and she'll bring whatever she picks up over and give it to me.  When we're downstairs in the chapel, this second scenario happens more often.  In fact, Gretchen seems to have devised a game which consists of her crawling over to the corner, pretending to pick something up, crawling back, and depositing a small pinch of air into my waiting palm.  She also has moments when she enjoys pretending to pick something up and then looking at me as she puts her fingers in her mouth.  Most of the time her sleight of hand is indiscreet enough that I can tell she didn't even touch the ground when she "picked up" whatever it was she found.  :)

My mom makes blankets for all the grandbabies.  The blankets are colorful on one side and soft on the other, with little tufts of yarn poking up all over the place.  They're like the ones she made for Justine and me when we were small.  Back when Olivia was favoring snapkins and kleenex over blankets, mom made a small matching square of the same material for Olivia to carry around.  Since then, each baby gets a normal sized blanket and a travel sized blanket.  :)  Gretchen's blanket material was bought before mom made Olivia's little square, so she started with just a normal sized blanket.  Then, when mom went back to the store, it was discovered that Gretchen's material had been discontinued.  After much discussion, mom and I decided to get a similar material and just use that for Gretchen's square.  Of course, other things came up and the material sat around gathering dust...  So finally mom sent it home with me, in hopes that I'd finish the square before she would.  After three months of letting it gather MY dust, I finally made the square.  Mom, this project is complete (except for the yarn tuft in the middle of the square, which you'll have to add the next time we visit).  :)

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March 23-30

One beautiful day last week, we decided to go to the playground.  It was, predictably, swarming with children (because who wants to be cooped up with their kids at 5:15 on a Friday that also happens to be the most spectacular day we've had since last fall?).  The last time Olivia went to the playground, she still required help climbing up things and coaxing to come down.  Not so anymore.  She was a whirlwind.  Her feet hit the ground running and she spent an hour racing from one slide to the next, climbing the plastic rock pile, and riding the dinosaur individual see-saw things.  She even tried hanging from the monkey bars for about a second and a half before deciding they weren't for her.  Bryan hung back a good six to ten feet (a distance that makes us all so proud, especially given that some parents were right up in the faces of their four-year-olds, narrating every move), just walking around and keeping Olivia in sight, and Gretchen and I sat off to the side and picked up all the grass and dirt that had the temerity to stick out from under our blanket.  Gretchen tried to sample the grass and dirt as well, but her mother took mean pills that morning and wouldn't let her eat the local flora.

Do all children sleep folded in half, or is it just mine?  Olivia slept flopped in half with her head next to her feet all the time.  I remember trying to get pictures, but being unsuccessful due to the darkness of her room.  Gretchen does not prefer this sleeping position nearly as much, but sometimes when she is sitting up and looking for her pacifier, she will just collapse forward (instead of laying back down) when said pacifier is reinserted.  It looks incredibly uncomfortable, but both girls seem to sleep fine...  (Side note: Olivia does not sleep like this anymore.  It must only be comfortable when your legs are short enough that your feet are pressed up against your cheeks.)

Gretchen has learned that the best way to convince me that she's really ready to get up is to hand me her pacifier.  What better proof than to voluntarily relinquish the plug?  Sometimes she'll just spit her pacifier into her crib as I get closer, but most of the time she takes it out of her mouth and holds it up to me when I reach down to pick her up.  If she's in an especially good mood, she'll wave it at me as I come through the doorway.

And speaking of waving, Gretchen does.  I guess we don't do a lot of waving in our house, because I hadn't noticed her doing it, but one of the ladies at church has been waving at her during the weekday services, and Gretchen waves back.  She has a very similar motion that we think is her version of crossing herself.  Waving is horizontal, crossing is more vertical.  :)

My choir is finally up and running!  I've been drafted (for lack of a better word) into the position of choir director at church.  Never mind that I have two small children or that we miss one Sunday a month, minimum (to visit my family).  They know I'm musically competent, they know I care enough to like having a choir, and they appear to only even attempt to organize one on the days that I'm at church.  So I finally took it upon myself to start making things better.  I reorganized the books so they're more intuitive, I found music that had printed notes instead of hand-scribbled ones, and I made sure all the books were fully equipped with English, Greek, and phonetics.  After several weeks of false starts (because we didn't have enough people, because the organist was late, because the sky wasn't quite the right shade of blue that day...), I finally got people to come stand in the front with me and tossed them in.  Baptism by fire, that's my method!  "Here are the new books, sing in English instead of Greek, and oh, by the way, it's Lent, so half your music is wrong anyway."  We struggled through the service and then had a rehearsal on Wednesday to iron some things out.  Now that I've got the choir going, I plan to be there one more Sunday and then abandon them for four weeks in a row...

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