May 10-17

I saw Kaitlyn's first smile last week!  She had three or four really good ones on Saturday.  You can see from the pictures below that I was trying to catch one, but failing miserably.  She's still not predictable enough or smiling for long enough to share them with anyone that isn't looking when it happens.

In other Kaitlyn news, she's semi-mobile, but completely unaware.  She definitely does not stay in one spot, but she appears to have no idea that she's wiggling around.  She's also been examining her hands a lot and trying desperately to catch her thumb.  Whenever I come to pick her up after she's been crying, she makes sure to yell especially loudly in my face for a few more seconds, just to make sure I know that she's mad.

Gretchen goes to bed best after little to no nap.  Gretchen alone in her room with the door closed in the afternoon always falls asleep.  We're trying something new here to deal with this conundrum.  On Thursday, Gretchen did quiet time on a couch.  She's less likely to fall asleep that way, but staying on the couch for a prolonged period of time is a foreign concept.  So far I've been just staying close enough to the couch to discourage her when she tries to leave.  Not much of a quiet time for me, but I'm hoping it's a temporary thing since the only time I interact with her is when I tell her to get back on the couch.

My garden beds have dirt!  Our friend Josh took his pickup truck to the local dirt and mulch place to pick up 1.5 cubic yards of soil for me.  Then he unloaded it into my two garden beds and put the excess over by my raspberries so that I can dig up the grass and spread better dirt around.  I'm hoping to get a few plants in the beds early next week.  :)

We're traveling beginning Thursday, so next week's post will likely be late.  To tide you over, though, I have another bonus post!  This one is interactive, so be sure to check in and test your Gretchen knowledge!

Pictures and Videos:

Bonus Post: Sound Bites 3

Olivia: I don't like pickles.
Bryan: That's celery.
Olivia: I don't like celery-pickles.
Bryan: Try it anyway.
Olivia (putting the celery in her mouth and making a face): But I don't like pickles.

Albie (Bryan's former roommate), upon hearing the news of Kaitlyn's birth: I know before you started having kids you were hoping for a football team, but it looks like you're going to have to gun for a cheerleading squad.

Olivia, in a menacing voice while playing with her dolls: Looks like you taked a wrong turn, princess.

Gretchen: *takes Bryan's slippers, opens the back door, throws slippers out into the rain, and closes door*
Gretchen: Uh-oh, daddy's slippers!
Bryan: Daddy's slippers?
Gretchen: Daddy's slippers wet!
Bryan: Well why did you throw them out in the rain?
Gretchen: Uh-oh, slippers wet!

Bryan: Olivia, stop whining.
Olivia (still whining): It's what I do.

Olivia: You used to have a baby in your tummy but then she comed out.  Now you have a drink in your tummy.

Olivia, with exasperation on a particularly gassy day: Ugh!  'Scuse me!  Why's my butt do that?

Gretchen: Ready breakfast.
Me: This will be lunch.
Gretchen: Oh.  Ready breakfast lunch.
Me: Just lunch.
Gretchen: Ready dinner.
Me: Lunch.
Gretchen: No, ready breakfast.

Bryan, when Gretchen started getting into things: Is the movie over already?
Me: No, but I opened the door and she followed me in here.
Bryan: Hmm.  She's like a moth.

Olivia: Mommy, I stepped on one of the ants so it couldn't move anymore.  But there are some more coming up, but I am not going to step on them today.  I will step on them tomorrow.
*Note: Use of the word "ants" may not be accurate.  I don't know what kind of bug (or worm) she actually squished.*

Gretchen: Want more chips.
Me: Can you ask nicely?
Gretchen: Please have more.
Bryan gives Gretchen a chip.
Gretchen: *bursts into tears* No, want more that!
Bryan: More dinner?  Here, more chalupas.
Gretchen sobs uncontrollably.
Bryan: Do you want your chalupas?
Gretchen, still crying: Yes.
Bryan: Do you want them on a chip?
Gretchen, continuing to cry: No.  No want chips.  Want dinner.
Bryan removes the chip from Gretchen's plate and eats it.
Gretchen calms down, picks up her fork, and looks at her plate.
Gretchen: Need chips.

May 3-10

Happy Mothers' Day!

We've been talking with Olivia lately about how sometimes people have to do things they don't want to do.  She seems to be fully embracing this philosophy.  For example, on our walk one day, we passed several people who said hello to us.  Olivia proceeded to inform me that she is "shy about big people" and I told her that she could say hello anyway.  The next time we passed someone, she called out, "Hello!  Hello?  Hello... big man.  Hi."  The normal sized man did not seem to hear her, so her first experiment with unnecessary social interaction fell rather flat.  Oh well.  The same philosophy has been working at dinner, though, where she often says, "I do not like this, but I'm going to eat it anyway."  I'll take it.

Kaitlyn has begun experimenting with her vocal cords and it's fun to hear her trying out sounds that aren't cries or grunts.  Olivia especially likes the way Kaitlyn "talks" and will lie down next to her and make cooing noises in an attempt to elicit conversation.  Sometimes it works, and sometimes Kaitlyn just looks at her like she's a bit nuts.

The whole family (or, in Olivia-speak, "famiwy" -- not sure why she can't say that particular L since she says things like "Lolly" just fine) has been in Sidney since Wednesday night.  Bryan had to work in Springfield on Thursday and he and I are going to a dinner theater south of Sidney tonight, so we decided to visit Grandma and Grandpa ("and Uncle Bread!" says Gretchen) for a bit.  The girls had fun playing with their other toys and enjoying the nice weather in the sandbox and on the trampoline.  On Thursday we decided to go for a walk to find a mailbox.  This was accomplished with the help of my wrap for Kaitlyn and a wagon for the older girls.  I got quite a workout pulling the wagon up the very large hill that separates Steve and Murry's cul-de-sac from the rest of Sidney.  Halfway up the hill, Olivia thought maybe she needed to stop and rest.  I laughed and told her that SHE wasn't the one hauling 70 pounds up a hill backwards (80, if you count Kaitlyn strapped to my chest).

And speaking of workouts, I've started running again.  Not very far or very fast yet, partly because I remember the slow start necessary the last time I started running after having a baby, and partly because Kaitlyn keeps waking up partway through my run.  I'm hoping to progress a bit more quickly soon, though, and have my eye set on a 5k this coming Saturday.  We shall see.

Look for another bonus post this Wednesday.  Actually, if I stay on top of things then my faithful readers will be positively spoiled with bonus posts in the coming weeks.  Justine and Jacque, if we work together then we could get a post up every day but Saturday one week.  :-P

Pictures:

Bonus Post: Cousin Line-Ups

I think the last one is my favorite.

We told them to stand by the door and smile:

Lining everyone up on the blanket so that Kaitlyn could participate:

The blanket pictures:

Now against the wall:

Edward kept leaving:

And Kaitlyn spit on me, prompting everyone to turn and see what was going on:

April 26-May 3

Gretchen had a birthday last Friday that I completely neglected to mention.  She's now two years old and as opinionated as ever.  She copies Olivia some of the time, comes up with "great ideas" that Olivia copies the rest of the time, and wants to do everything herself.  "Gretchen do it" and "I do it self" are common phrases around here (and not ones that I remember hearing from Olivia).

Kaitlyn's baptism was on Sunday and I will have a bonus post with pictures as soon as I get pictures (Jacob?).  We had it at the Orthodox church here in Lima and my whole family -- including Grandma and Grandpa A -- was in attendance.  Bryan's parents made it as well and then we invited the whole church over to our house for lunch afterwards.  Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, and the kids stayed until Sunday afternoon before heading back to Michigan.  Justine and Joseph and their boys stayed overnight until Monday morning, and Jacque hung out with me all day Monday before flying home that evening.  :)

Two little boys from church got caught stripping down in the backyard after lunch.  When questioned as to their motives, they said they were playing baptism.  Why were they taking off their clothes?  "Kaitlyn didn't wear any clothes when she was baptized."  ...  At least we know they were paying attention.  Their mothers tell me that they've also been performing baptisms on their dolls (now named Kaitlyn Elaine) all week.  :)

After about three quarters of the people were gone on Sunday, a small stray dog showed up near our house.  He was immediately named Fake Kevin because he looked just like Keshia's dog, Kevin.  Bryan put him inside the gate and told me we had to keep him overnight so that I could take him to the pound in the morning.  I was displeased, especially when the dog ended up in the garage overnight.  Also when I had to put him in my car the next morning.  Fake Kevin was well-behaved, though, and we made it to the dog warden without incident.  He's up for adoption now, if anyone is interested in a five pound dog.

Funny aside: The Dog Warden (or a representative thereof) showed up on my front porch on Friday.  I panicked a little, thinking they brought the dog back to me even though that's not how things are done.  As it turned out, the previous owners of our house had a history of dog tag delinquency and he was just checking up on them.  What great timing, though.

Tuesday we had check-ups and everyone is fine.  Gretchen is 27.5 pounds and 3 feet tall.  I question the height measurement a bit, though, since they still do them lying down at age 2.  Also, Eli is the same age and was only measured at 34 inches at his appointment, but we had them back to back and there's hardly any difference between them.  Kaitlyn is 9 pounds, 9 ounces and 21.75 inches long.  It amazes me that she's a month old and there are babies that are born bigger than she is right now.  Olivia's measurements have to wait until her 4 year old check-up in August.

Raspberries and rhubarb are in the ground!  Mom brought me six raspberry transplants (actually, there are more than six plants, but they came in six pots...) to go with the one I bought from Lowe's and I planted them in the awkward chunk of space to one side of our driveway.  We have a section of land between our driveway and our neighbor's property that ranges from one foot wide to about six feet wide depending on how our driveway is curving at each point.  This space is now home to raspberries and will eventually be the most delicious land we own.  :)  I also planted two rhubarb plants among the perennial shrubs along the side of our house.  As the rhubarb gets bigger, we'll take out the shrubs we don't like.  Actually, I'm hoping to replace said shrubs with ones that produce fruit.  We're thinking blueberries.  :)

My garden is also on its way to being a reality.  Jacque helped me pick up 20 cinder blocks from Lowe's and then Lowe's employees took pity on my three-children-and-two-carts self and got me another 20 blocks later in the week (they even loaded them into the car for me).  I now have two 4x8 garden beds in the front yard.  They don't have soil yet because I'm planning to buy that by the cubic yard and need to wait for my friend with a pickup truck to be available.  In the meantime, I'm planning what to plant and dreaming of the day when Bryan agrees to some fruit and nut trees as well.  :)  He did score a victory on the chickens and goats issue because the township has told me I can't have livestock on less than an acre...

Bonus post on Wednesday with photos of the cousin line-up!

Pictures:

April 19-26

Kaitlyn is very well taken care of here.  Olivia makes sure to keep her well supplied with toys and Gretchen always brings a blanket to cover her up.  :)

Gretchen has named all of her baby dolls "Baby Kaitlyn."  She carries them around (usually one at a time), changes their diapers, and burps them regularly.

We've had a lot of trouble with monsters lately.  I am happy to report, though, that all our monsters currently appear to work normal days and therefore only show up during daylight hours.  This makes them much easier to evade.  If we're in the car then the girls will exclaim that we have to drive faster.  Most of the time they accept the answer "I'm going as fast as I can."  If they don't, then we tell them to hide.  The proper way to hide from monsters?  Cover your face.  We're working on keeping them from protecting Kaitlyn from monsters...

Gretchen goes to bed again!  Bryan broke her a couple of months ago and had her to the point where she needed to be rocked to sleep every night.  Over the past two weeks, though, circumstances have conspired to return her to normal.  Bryan was sick, then he had to work late a few nights, then Gretchen was sick, then she skipped her nap a couple of days and fell asleep at the table, then he had to work late again...  All in all, I think Bryan only had to stand firm one night in the past two weeks and the rest just took care of itself.

Gretchen is struggling to find her bedtime balance.  By this I mean that Bryan and I are struggling to find Gretchen's bedtime balance.  If she doesn't nap at all then she goes to bed well, but she's also cranky from about 4:00 on and I don't get any quiet time.  If she naps then everyone is happy, but she doesn't fall asleep until 10 or 10:30.  The late bedtime is becoming less of an issue now that she's doing better going to bed, but we're still trying to find some middle ground.  The current solution is to wake her up from her nap (which usually just consists of me letting Olivia go check on her) if she's been asleep for more than an hour and a half.

We got another shelf for our playroom closet so that the boxes of toys are easily accessible.  They used to all be stacked on top of each other and the girls never got to play with the bottom boxes because their mother didn't feel like rearranging the stacks.  Then their father would feel sorry for them and open ALL the boxes at the same time, citing lack of use as an excuse for the mess.  So I bought a bookshelf.  My organizational sense is pleased and my mother is proud.  :)

Everyone is in town this weekend for Kaitlyn's baptism.  When I listed the names of all the people showing up on Saturday, Olivia exclaimed, "yes, they are all coming to see my new trampoline!"  Priorities.

Pictures:

April 12-19

Things we learned at the Pascha service last week:
-Olivia has more sense than eight other kids put together.  We arrived at church just before 11 pm.  Olivia saw the dark church, the cushioned pew in the back, and her blanket that we'd brought with us and immediately decided it was time to go to sleep.  She made herself comfortable and missed the whole service.
-Gretchen runs out of batteries at 1:30 am.  The girls didn't fall asleep before it was time to wake them up to get ready for church, and Gretchen did not think that sleeping on a pew was a valuable use of her time when there were candles and lights and bells happening.  She was clearly tired but fought it until she finally succumbed (unwillingly) out of sheer exhaustion.
-Kaitlyn doesn't mind lights or singing, but sudden bells bother her.  Every time people started ringing bells, she would start squirming and whining before settling back into nap.  The same thing happened the next day at vespers.

We spent a lot of the week in various states of illness.  :(  Bryan and Olivia were recovering on Saturday and then we went to a midnight service, causing small setbacks for both of them.  I had a fever Monday night, recovered for 36 hours, and then got sick again on Wednesday night.  Gretchen was pretty mopey for a day in there and had a fever, but has been since.  Side note: Gretchen is much more cooperative for pictures when she's not feeling well.

Kaitlyn had her three week growth spurt near the end of this week.  She outgrew newborn outfits seemingly overnight and decided that hunger was her constant companion.  On Friday she nursed every half hour from 5:30 pm to 11 pm.  Then Bryan fed her 4 oz of formula before she finally allowed us to put her down for bed.  Thankfully, she spent the next six hours sleeping off her binge before waking to eat again.  I'm hoping that she will return to her previously agreeable schedule in a day or two -- though I wouldn't mind keeping the six hour chunk of sleep at night.  :)

The highlight of the week?  We got a trampoline.  Bryan put it on a list of things to save for a while ago, and we were about three quarters of the way there so when the house sold we bought it.  Now we have a 12-foot trampoline (complete with net enclosure) in our backyard.  The girls are very excited and Olivia hopes that "the big man [who] brought the mail" visits more often since he is apparently the one who anticipated her need for a trampoline.  :)

Pictures:

Bonus Post: Sound Bites 2

Olivia: I love big hill!
Me: Did you just say, "I love a cow?"
Bryan: She said, "I love big hill."
Olivia: I love a cow, too.
Bryan: I love your mom, too.
Me: Hey!
Gretchen: Mooo!

Gretchen: Please have eat banana.

(Gideon borrowed a pair of Olivia's underwear after staying overnight at our house one day)
Me: Okay, pull up your undies.
Gideon: Actually, this is Olivia's underwear.
Me: ...You're right.  Pull up... Olivia's undies.

Me: Are you my little snuggle bug?
Gretchen: No, I penguin.

Murry: Your baby's going to be here soon!  Are you excited?
Olivia: No, Grandma, the baby is in mommy's belly.
Murry: I know, but he's going to come out soon.  He can't stay in there forever.
Olivia: Yes he can!

Olivia: Where's Grandma?
Me: She's at work.
Olivia: Grandma cannot go to work, she is a girl!

Olivia (talking on a toy phone): Hello?  Yes?  I have a Gretchen sister and my baby's going to come next year.

Olivia: Next time it is raining we need to bring an umbrella so that we can be on top of things.  We were not on top of things.

Gretchen: A B C H K L Ba P Q S Double X Y Z.  Now I ABC, next time won't sing me.

Olivia (poking my stomach three days after Kaitlyn was born): What's still in here?
Bryan: I think your three-year-old just called you fat.

Gretchen: Daddy go work?
Me: Yes, Daddy is working downstairs.
Olivia: Yes, but we only go downstairs to get things, we don't go to work because we are girls.  Only boys go to work.
Me: What do girls do?
Olivia: Play.  But I do have a work computer.  But it is just pretend.
Me: What do grown-up girls like Mommy do?
Olivia: Well, someday I will have a sewing machine and then I will make dresses like Mommy.

April 5-12

Happy Pascha!  Christ is Risen!

(Due to technical difficulties, those of you who receive my blog via email may be getting this post twice.  Sorry.)

Kaitlyn's post went up.  It's dated March 27.

Details from last week:

-Superficial thrombophlebitis is a blood clot that isn't considered dangerous.  Pregnant women are more susceptible to clots (usually in the legs), as are people who spend a lot of time in bed (those who have recently given birth), and people who have had an IV.  Doctors keep an eye out for clots because a deep vein clot could dislodge and work its way up to a vital organ, causing a whole host of problems.  A superficial clot is in a surface vein and is too small and remote to be worrisome.  My clot was right where I had the IV, and the emergency room doctor assured me that I was fine.

-Bryan and I gave Kaitlyn formula for three bottles and then pumped milk for three bottles to confirm that she was indeed spitting up blood that she got from me and not her own blood from some problem with her insides.  After seeing no more blood, we let her start nursing again and she's been fine ever since.

Moving on:

Mom, Jillian, and James came down to visit on Sunday evening and stayed until Tuesday morning.  Jillian held Kaitlyn, James amused Olivia, and Mom helped me in the kitchen.  :)  We had a good time visiting with them.

Our mailbox lost a battle with the rain and ended up on our driveway, mail strewn everywhere.  Mom and the kids rescued it as they left Tuesday morning and set the mail out to dry on the counter.  Everything either survived or was not important, but Kaitlyn's social security card and our new mortgage payment booklet are on excitingly wavy paper now.  Bryan fixed the mailbox the next day, nailing it more firmly to its post.  Unfortunately, he realized when he was done that he nailed it on backwards.  He is still deciding if he is embarrassed enough to go turn it around.  The mailman does not appear bothered by the backwards-ness of it (there are doors on both ends), but he no longer puts the flag down after picking up mail.  :)

All Olivia's dresses are too short this year and the new ones that can be found in the store aren't much better, so I decided to make some.  Mom suggested that I get some t-shirts and attach skirts to them, so I picked out three t-shirts and took Olivia fabric shopping with me.  All three dresses are now done and she seems to like them.  :)  There's a picture of one below.  I'm sure the others will show up in later posts.

We've had church every night since this was Holy Week.  Kaitlyn has been sleeping through services like a champ and Olivia and Gretchen have been doing remarkably well given how much extra church they've been to.  They did miss Tuesday, but made it to all the other services.  At the writing of this post, how they manage at the Vigil service on Saturday night remains to be seen.

On Thursday I got to try making pysanky, which are blown-out eggs decorated with wax before being dyed.  It's a fun process, although drawing with wax takes a little practice.  There's a picture below of one that I dropped before it was done.  :(  Maybe I'll have pictures of the successful ones next week.

Bryan got sick with something on Thursday night and spent all day Friday in bed.  Olivia also spent most of Friday in bed, complaining of not feeling well, although she never actually got sick.  Small mercies.  Gretchen and I bopped around the quiet house and enjoyed the peacefulness of everything.

Pictures:

March 29-April 5

The week in brief:

Happy Easter!  Or Happy Palm Sunday!  Pick your week, I guess.  :)

It seems I inadvertently lied about the Kaitlyn post.  Hopefully this week I'll get around to it.

Everyone was home on Sunday.  The girls (Gretchen especially) love holding Kaitlyn and giving her kisses.

Superficial thrombophlebitis in my arm.  Apparently nothing to worry about, but we did make a trip to the ER on Sunday night just in case.

Kaitlyn had a doctor appointment on Tuesday.  She had to get blood drawn because there was blood in her spit-up that morning.  Her bloodwork came back normal and the pediatrician thought maybe she was swallowing blood while nursing and then spitting that back up.  Bryan and I did an experiment to verify that hypothesis.

Since this is a brief post, I just want to reiterate that EVERYONE IS FINE.  Please don't freak out.  I will elaborate when I have more time.  :)

On Friday we sold our Springfield house!  We are now down to one house again and have already planned several projects now that we have some extra money each month.

The weekend was spent at Bryan's parents' house for Easter.  Bryan and I went to the vigil service and then on Sunday we all drove back in time for Orthodox Palm Sunday.

Tonight some of my family will be here to visit for a few days since they're on spring break.  We are looking forward to that.  :)

Pictures: