Bonus Post: Sound Bites 19

Me: I'll say it and then you say it.  'You did descend from on high, oh merciful one.'

Olivia: You did descend from Ohio, oh merciful one.

Kaitlyn: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 13, 13...

Gretchen, in a goofy voice: Mmm, this is so good!  I will not absolutely kill you when I'm done.

Olivia: We are five, but when the two babies come out of mommy's belly then we will be seven.
Me: There's only one baby in mommy's belly.
Olivia: Well, I just think there are two.

Olivia: Gretchen and I decided we are going to start a club when we are older.

Gretchen: I did not do it.  Myself made me do it!

(Kaitlyn knows several state names because of a song we listen to during breakfast every morning.)
Kaitlyn: Excuse me, mommy.
Me: What, baby?
Kaitlyn: Please Michigan and a movie?
Me: You want Michigan in a movie?
Kaitlyn: Yes! I want it!
Me: I don't have Michigan.
Kaitlyn: Oh no! Michigan all gone!

Olivia: How can we follow Jesus?  We don't even know where he is!

Gretchen: Sometimes the food that I eat goes into my forehead and my dinner tonight went to my forehead and now my forehead hurts.

Olivia: Everywhere I go on my unicorn, I pretend there are rainbows all over me to help me.
Bryan: That is the most little girl thing I have ever heard you say.

Gretchen: This is how we get spankings: 5, 2 --
Olivia: No!  5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0
Gretchen: BOOM!

Olivia: Hey!  Hey girls!
Gretchen: My name is Cordelia.
Olivia: Cordearlia!  That's a wonderful name.
Gretchen: Cordelia has pink hair.
Olivia: Hey, girl with purple hair, what's your name?
Gretchen: Carrots!
Olivia: Girl with the green hair, what's your name?
Gretchen: Peaches.
Olivia: Good name!

April 2-9

A story from Wednesday:
Kaitlyn was dressed in her own dress for a little while this morning.  She took it off and put on my skirt.  Took that off and put on a pair of Bryan's boxers.  Panicked when they got tangled, started hollering.  Finally removed those and put on one of Olivia's socks.  Rolled around on the floor yelling "no sock!" but refused to let me take it off.  I got it anyway, and was scolded for my efforts.  She went after the sock, saw her dress on the floor, and put that back on.  Got mad at the sleeves when thy didn't cooperate.  Spent two minutes crying about how her sleeves weren't right (they were).  Calmed down when Jacque called and I put the phone on speakerphone.  Is now playing nicely on the floor like she didn't just endure the biggest crisis of her life so far.  After breakfast update: Kaitlyn is naked again, but at least seems happy about it this time.

Kaitlyn is front facing in the car now.  She was getting to the point where she pushed her feet obnoxiously against the seat back while I was trying to buckle her, making it difficult to pull her straps tight.  Once we overcame that obstacle each trip, she seemed content to be facing backwards still.  She has also been trying to climb into her own seat lately, and that is easier when the seat is forwards, so I flipped her around shortly after her birthday.  The first forward facing car ride was one of wonderment as she noticed every detail through the front window.

Gretchen is getting quite independent.  Suddenly she can get her own drinks and find her own clothes in a basket of laundry.  If I can ensure that she's listening, she follows directions relatively well.  She takes care of Kaitlyn, watching to make sure she's not wandering away.  She stands up to Olivia's bossiness and isn't afraid to walk away if the game they're playing isn't worth it anymore.  She has ideas and stories and opinions of her own, and she will voice them.  Loudly.

Olivia can do double digit math.  It started as a game, one in which she tried to come up with a math problem that was hard for me to solve.  I was making her write all the problems down on a white board as she asked them, to help her practice writing double digit numbers.  After giving me a few problems, she asked Bryan one, and he promptly walked her through the steps of solving it herself.  She's to the point now where she can independently solve a simple double (or triple) digit addition problem as long as someone (or some graph) helps her line up the numbers vertically.  She can carry with assistance, but doesn't always get that part right if she's on her own.

Olivia is quite annoyed at the fact that she cannot see Hokya (Gretchen's imaginary friend).  She is constantly trying to pressure and/or trick Gretchen into admitting that Hokya is pretend.  Gretchen firmly stands her ground, stubbornly repeating that Hokya is NOT pretend, even though no one, including Gretchen, has ever seen her.

Ten is a magic age in our house.  All the best skills will magically be obtained at ten.  Shoes will be tied, bikes will be ridden without training wheels, games will be instantly playable.  Ten also comes with responsibilities.  It is that magic age when the girls will no longer forget to make their beds, when they will be able to listen to Mommy and Daddy the first time, when they will clean up without being asked.  I can hardly wait for ten to get here.

Kaitlyn pronunciations I want to remember:
Olivia: Olulah
Excuse me: Cue mes

Pictures:

March 19-April 2

We are very concerned with seeing underwear over here.  Seen underwear is both embarrassing (when it's your own) and hilarious (when it's someone else's), and slight measures are taken to ensure that one does not have underwear showing while changing.  "Slight" entails hiding behind a pillow and chastising others when they look, but does not ever extend to going into a less public room, preferably one with a door.  No measures are taken to ensure that underwear is not seen while sitting in decidedly un-ladylike ways.  Does this count as modesty?

Kaitlyn is capable of opening doors, but our house has unusually high doorknobs and she cannot reach them.  This has been great for keeping her out of (some) places she doesn't belong.  However.  This past week we left a chair too close to a door and she realized that she could push the chair against the door and then open the door.  I'm actually surprised that it took her this long; she's been pushing chairs around the kitchen to get up on the counters for months.  Regardless, it took until this week for her to realize she had this power, but now no door is safe.  Luckily for the rest of the family, chairs are generally inconveniently far away from doors and she doesn't feel like putting forth the effort to get them most of the time.

Gretchen has an imaginary friend named Hokya.  It took us a few weeks to realize this because Hokya first appeared immediately after the girls met Jacob's girlfriend, Katya.  We figured that Olivia and Gretchen were just incorporating a slightly mangled version of Katya's name into their play.  My pronunciation has been corrected several times, though, and Gretchen refers to Hokya as a separate (pretend) being rather than as whichever Barbie she is playing with at the time.  When asked to describe Hokya, Gretchen says that she is just pretend.  Upon further questioning, I have learned that Gretchen pretends that Hokya looks like Gretchen.

Olivia has grown a lot this winter.  All her winter dresses are several inches short in the sleeves, and her size 6 leggings that I thought would made it to summer are suddenly hovering above her ankles.  I finally went out and bought some size 7 leggings for her and the smallest dresses got passed down to Gretchen.

Bryan's work has a recognition system that allows managers to award points for good work.  The points can then be spent on various items.  From what I understand, it's pretty arbitrary.  It's also being discontinued, so Bryan's manager has been handing out his allotted points freely in order to use them all up before the program ends.  As a result, Bryan was recently awarded more points than he's ever had before and was able to spend them on a Barbie Jeep for the girls.  They somehow failed to notice the giant box in our TV room, so they were surprised and delighted when they came out from playing to discover a fully assembled miniature car taking up most of the floor.  ("They" in this case refers to Olivia and Gretchen; Kaitlyn "helped" Bryan and me put the jeep together.)  We let them play together in it indoors for a few days before installing the battery and moving it outside.

Kaitlyn had a birthday!  She's two now, which means very little in terms of, well, anything, but we celebrated anyway.  Olivia in particular was disappointed by Kaitlyn's unchanged appearance on the morning of her birthday.  Apparently she was expecting a dramatic change.  :)  Kaitlyn has no idea that she's two, despite our attempts to coach her.

Pictures:

Bonus Post: Sound Bites 18

Gretchen: I always call Mommy "Cupcake Sleeping Beauty."

Olivia, hearing sirens: What are the police officers for?
Me: I'm not sure.
Gretchen: They're probably to hang up hangers.

Gretchen: What is Lent?
Olivia: Lent is a period of sadness and waiting.

Olivia: You should not ask me to do hard things, then I would listen better.

Gretchen: I'm Gretchen Bernice Barhorst, just a human.

Me, hearing Olivia berating her sisters: Olivia, please speak nicely.
Olivia: But I'm being the mommy.

Kaitlyn, to Bryan in a sweet voice: Daddy, movie please?
Bryan, to me: How do I say no to that?
Me: Just say, "No, Kaitlyn, no movie right now."
Kaitlyn, to me in an angry voice: No!  Not talking you!  Talking Daddy!
Kaitlyn, to Bryan in a sweet voice: Daddy, please Barney?

Me: I love you.
Gretchen: Well, I love Daddy best.
Bryan: Gretchen, it's not very nice to say that.
Gretchen: But I love everybody and everything!

Gretchen: When I smelled this tag it feeled yucky.

Gretchen: Olivia can you teach me to read?
Olivia: Yes!
*Relevant side note: Olivia does not know how to read.*

Me: Olivia, you need to get dressed.
*Olivia hears nothing*
Bryan: Girls, time for lunch.
*Girls are too busy playing to listen*
Me: Who's going to help me clean the playroom?
*crickets*
Bryan, in a whisper: Want to let them watch a movie?
Olivia, two rooms over: Movie?  I want to watch!
*TV room couch is suddenly overrun with girls*

Olivia: Is Kaitlyn two already?
Me: Yes, today is her birthday, so now she is two.
Olivia: But she is still a baby!

March 12-19

The girls have an interesting phrase that they use: "Me named ____."  They use it to tell me who's speaking ("No, it was me named Olivia.") and also when playing with dolls ("Me named Amber goes to bed."  "Me named Sofia goes out to play."  "Me named Cinderella says hello.")

We finally got the cat fixed.  We've been meaning to since we got her, but the Humane Society near us never had openings.  About three weeks ago, we had an excess of male cats hanging around again, to the point where it looked like we owned five cats rather than just one.  I looked more diligently into non-Humane Society options and found a low cost mobile spay/neuter clinic that was coming to Wapak this past week.  Close enough.  I made an appointment, and on Wednesday the girls and I packed the cat up in a pillow case and took her in for surgery.  She has since been living a warm and cushy life in the guest bathroom shower while she recovers.

I went to the chiropractor recently for the first time in seven years.  There was a pinched nerve in my back that bothered me enough to make and appointment.  Thankfully, the pain subsided before my appointment came around.  The chiropractor was sad that he couldn't take x-rays, but did as much as he could with a posture analysis and my memory of old chiropractic visits.  He declared that he doesn't like my left hip (the one that was broken) or the middle of my back (my viola muscles).  He also commented on the strength and tightness of my shoulders.  The viola muscles won out against his attempts to crack my upper spine.  His recommendation is to go get a massage and then come see him within a day while my muscles are still loose.  :-P

The girls have been very cultured lately, attending a symphony concert (two for Olivia) and a lunch matinee performance at a dinner theater.  

First I took all five girls to a children's concert by the Lima Youth Symphony in the middle of the week.  While they enjoyed the music, the chairs were more exciting.  It turns out that little legs aren't heavy enough to hold down a typical auditorium chair, so they spent the whole concert bouncing up and down with their feet.  Even more exciting than the chairs was the wind outside.  We had to walk about a block from our parking space to the civic center, and the wind was quite strong.  I held baby hands, three year olds were attached to those, and Olivia was tacked onto one end.  We started as one big line, but the wind blew us into a giant U-shape, and we ended as a stumbling drunken mass of tiny people, laughing hysterically the whole time.  The cars waiting for us to cross the street were very patient.

Next was the Lima Symphony's family concert (I mentioned it last week).  Only Olivia went to this one, although Gretchen probably would have liked it, too.  Our friends, the Hodges, were going and picked Olivia up on the way since I was playing.  Olivia loved the ballet dancers that performed Peter and the Wolf and she excitedly explained every detail to Gretchen and Bryan when she got home.

Then yesterday we went down to La Comedia for their annual children's show.  This one was The Boy Who Cried Wolf.  They served lunch and then we got to watch a musical adaptation of the story.  Kaitlyn stayed home with daddy.  :)  Both Olivia and Gretchen were very excited after the show and spent part of the long car ride home telling each other their favorite parts.

My babysitting stint is officially over.  The last day was supposed to be this past Thursday, but ended up being Tuesday by accident.  I'm looking forward to sleeping in a little more and not having to work my schedule around two extra children.

Kaitlyn does all sorts of things that I documented much better with the other two girls.  Sorry, Kaitlyn.  :/  So, for posterity: She's been weaned forever, since about 19 months.  Maybe 20, I can't remember.  She knows most of her body parts and a lot of animal noises.  She can sing half her alphabet and count kind of.  She runs and jumps and sings and dances and bosses.  She can follow simple directions if she wants to.  Her carseat is still facing backwards, but I anticipate that changing shortly after her second birthday.  We shall see.  She's starting to try to dress herself and has definite opinions about what she wears.  She's still in a crib because we don't trust her to stay out of her sisters' beds.  She climbs a lot.

Pictures and Video:

February 19-March 12

Also words from January 29-February 19.

Eva had a gymnastics birthday part at the end of January, so I took the girls to the Kleins' for an overnight visit.  At the party (which Kaitlyn and I watched from the observation deck), I learned that Olivia is timid, but not afraid of heights.  In direct contrast, Gretchen is bold, but terrified of being up high.  Olivia walked the balance beam and then patiently waited for someone to hold her hand while she jumped into the foam pit.  Gretchen scooted along the balance beam on her rear until the instructor stood her up, and which point she inched along (millimetered along?) while clinging like a leach to the poor woman's arm.  Both muddled happily through the various gym games, and Gretchen was very content when the instructor finally gave up on attempting to have her do the height related things.

February 2 was a feast day, but our priest was on vacation.  The girls and I had an outing with the Hodges in Fort Wayne for liturgy and a visit to the art museum.  The art museum was, sadly, undergoing renovation and/or exhibit rearrangement.  Very little was open.  We walked through two exhibits, though, and then found a kid section where they could color with markers and build with blocks.  This made the 7 and under crowd happy, so we hung out there for a while before heading home.  Olivia and Gretchen were inspired to paint, so we broke out the easel, a couple of canvasses, and the paint (pictures in last week's post).  It was all very exciting.

We took a trip to Fort Wayne a few weeks ago to visit the Eichers.  Olivia and Gretchen absolutely loved the hand puppets that Kara had.  Since the girls had been traveling in their sleep a lot lately, we decided to stay the night in the apartment.  All was well until Kaitlyn woke up at 6:06 (her usual wake up time is about 7:15).  She was happy to snuggle with me on the air mattress until Gretchen said something in her sleep, and then Kaitlyn just had to talk to Gretchen.  Olivia made the mistake of telling Kaitlyn to be quiet because she was trying to sleep, and then Kaitlyn was talking to Olivia, too.  All being awake at this point, we got up.  Bryan went out to find breakfast and the girls got to play quite a bit before we finally rolled leisurely out the door at 8:25.  That was a full half hour before our assumed best case scenario.

Kaitlyn can climb out of a pack and play.  At first we thought she was grabbing a nearby bedspread and pulling herself out, but when we moved the pack and play she still escaped.  We considered turning it over on her, but they collapse when you do that.  We ended up barricading her behind the pack and play to keep her in one place for the night.  On a later date, I put her in a pack and play so that we could watch the process, and she immediately swung her little foot up to the top edge and hauled herself over.

I've been saving our bits and pieces of broken crayons for years, and a couple of weeks ago I decided to turn them into usable crayons again.  I tried the muffin tin crayons when Olivia was little, but none of the kids really like them, so I went looking for a crayon mold.  Crayola sells one for not too much and when it arrived in the mail Gretchen and I happily melted and molded all the broken pieces into new crayon shaped crayons.

I will only be babysitting Sophia and Evalynn until the end of March.  Near the end of February I decided I'd had enough and that the stress of extra kids (especially an extra almost-two-year-old) wasn't worth it.  I gave their parents until the end of March to find a new sitter.  Due to illness in our family and theirs, I got an unexpected week off immediately after making this announcement, and it only reinforced my belief that this is the right thing to do.

I missed the February orchestra concert due to the minor plague that swept through our family.  It was just a cough and mild fever, but it managed to knock me out for two days and the cough is still lingering (although it has improved) several weeks later.  I also had no singing voice for about a week after the fever disappeared.  Thankfully, the girls just got the cough, and Bryan managed to avoid sickness altogether.

This weekend is the family concert, so we're playing Heroes and Villains music.  Peter and the Wolf, Casey at Bat, The Tortoise and the Hare, and some stuff from movies.  Surprisingly, there will be no Star Wars at this concert.  Not to worry, John Williams is still well represented in Harry Potter and Superman.

We had our yearly Happy March card club and it was a success.  Child interruptions were at a minimum, and we decided before starting to only play one time around each table, so we were done at a reasonable time.

Pictures:

Bonus Post: Sound Bites 17

Me, to Olivia after she wrote a page of zeros: Which one do you think is the best zero?
Olivia: I like the one that looks like a banana.
Me: It does look like a banana, but it does not look like a zero.
Olivia: Well, it is my best one.

Olivia: All my humans keep falling down the hole!

Kaitlyn, running toward the curtains: Hiding!  Daddy, hiding!
Me: She's hiding, you have to start counting.
Bryan, covering his eyes: Oh.  1, 2, 3...
Kaitlyn, covering her eyes: 3, 4.  Found you!
Bryan: ...
Me: You're so bad at this game.

Gretchen: This looks weird to my mouth!

Olivia: Want to play mommy and daddy?
Gretchen: Of course!

Gretchen: Mommy, is Jesus real?
Me: Yes, he's real.
Gretchen: Why does he not do the things I ask him to?
Me: What did you ask him to do?
Gretchen: I asked him to turn this Barbie's dress purple.

Olivia:  I am not going to be 100, I will stop at one of the other numbers.
Gretchen: You will be 100!  Mommy, can we be 100?
Me: If you have enough birthdays, you will be 100.
Olivia: But I am not going to keep getting older, I am just going to get presents.

Kaitlyn: What is daddy?
Me: I don't know, what is daddy?
Kaitlyn: A spoon.

Gretchen: Daddy, you are a tired old man.

January 29-February 19

A strictly visual post this week.

Pictures and Videos:

December 11 (2016)-January 29

I used to be so on top of blog updates...  Ah well, life happens.  Sound bite and pictures are the most important things to me right now, so I try to get those up once a month or so.  I would also like to periodically note things the girls are doing, though.

If you didn't get a Christmas letter yet, it's coming.  My blog is not the only place I'm behind.  :)  The letter is written, addressed, and (hopefully, by the time this post goes live) stamped and mailed.

Here are some long overdue updates.

Kaitlyn:
-She talks all the time now.  All of what she says is understood by her.  75% of it is understood by me.  25-50% is understood by others, depending on their toddler-speak skills.
-Words worth noting: bless you, you're welcome, hey! (always in an offended what-do-you-think-you're-doing tone), I want to!, hold you, my turn
-She runs and plays and interacts with the big girls.  She whines and tattles like one twice her age.
-She dislikes being told "no," and will preemptively tell me to "go play!" when she thinks I'm going to stop her from doing something fun.
-If I can catch her in the right mood, she'll make faces with me, one of us mirroring the expressions of the other one.
-She's very interested in the potty.  She sits probably five times a day, but so far hasn't performed.  Any attempts to catch her in the act in order to put her on the potty just result in her freezing up and then filling a diaper past capacity twenty minutes later.  :/

Gretchen:
-She has two pairs of sunglasses that she likes to wear.  One pair is her seeing glasses, the other is her sunglasses.  Often both pairs are worn together.
-She enjoys her alone time.  At least once a day I find her playing happily by herself, despite her sisters' best efforts to draw her into their games.
-She's very interested in knowing the proper names for things.  Olivia will just describe things (the thing that I got for Christmas, that game where our humans run and punch), but Gretchen learns the names (iPad and Raskulls, for the above examples) and uses them.

Olivia:
-She's getting pretty good at games.  She knows several card games and recently learned a real live video game in which she can almost beat her mother.
-She discovered legos.  She got two lego building sets for Christmas and put them together all by herself.  Bryan is very happy/proud and a little bit teary/sentimental.
-I made a number line on the floor out of masking tape and she can add using the line.  We're working on subtracting, but she doesn't quite have the terminology yet.
-She is very frustrated by Gretchen's solo play.  When Sophia is here it doesn't matter as much, because Sophia and Olivia can play together.  At other times, though, if Gretchen isn't willing to play then I have to deal with Olivia whining about how no one will play with her.

What we've been up to:
-The cookie walk happened.  I think I even mentioned it.  We baked a lot of cookies, we sold a lot of cookies, we're done until next year.  :)
-Orchestra took over my life for a little while there.  I had four concerts in December and just finished up a January one.  Now I'm back to the usual one a month.
-Christmas was busy.  The whole family (plus Zach) came for a week and our house was delightfully full.  The normal number of people for dinner was 18, although it fluctuated due to extra visitors that stopped by to visit everyone.  One night mom and I made a quadruple batch of Mexican Chicken to feed 28 mouths.
-Sarah, Elesha, and I got together one Sunday afternoon to prep crockpot freezer meals.  Each of us now has 20 crockpot meals in the freezer waiting to be used.  Well, less than twenty, because we've been using them.  :)  It went really well, and only took us 5 hours from arrival to departure, including clean-up, dinner, and three minutes of a football game.  That comes out to 15 minutes per meal, which isn't bad at all, especially considering that this was our first try.  We already have ideas for improving our efficiency.  We're hoping to find some lent-friendly recipes for next time.

Miscellaneous other stuff:
-We borrowed a scale to weigh boxes of books for dad, and the girls love it.  Olivia is 44 pounds, and she's very disappointed that it's always the same.  Gretchen weighs 35 pounds, but the scale almost always registers 33 and then 35, so she proudly proclaims that she's 3-3-5!  Kaitlyn weighs 27 pounds.

Pictures:

Bonus Post: Sound Bites 16

Olivia: Last night I had a dream that I picked Kaitlyn up by her feet and dropped her and then her face turned into paper.  Sometimes I dream when I am awake.  When I am awake and I dream that there is a spider then it goes into my heart, but when I am asleep it is just a dream.

Kaitlyn: I want Let It Go!
Me: I'm coming.
Kaitlyn: I need Let It Go!
Me: This IS Let It Go.  Be quiet and don't mess up your jam!
Gretchen: Jam?!
Olivia: What is jam?
Me: In this case it's music, but normally it's jelly.
Bryan: English is stupid.
Me: It could also be a traffic blockage!

Olivia: The snow got tired of standing, so it decided to lay down and fell on the ground.

Toddler/Preschool Questions that I stole from Justine:
~What is your name?
O: Olivia
G: Gretchen
~How old are you?
O: 5
G: 3 (free)
~When is your birthday?
O: Um, I don't remember, mommy.  I keep forgetting my birthday.
Me: Do you know what month?
O: August?
Me: It is August.  Do you know what number?
O: 12?
Me: 3.
G: Three.
~How old is Mommy?
G: 5? 9?  I don't know.
O: 9.
Me: 9?!
G: 28.
O: 30.
G: Twentythirty.
O: No, 30!
G: Mommy, you are twentythirty, right?
Me: No, I'm just 30.
O: I was right!
G: Oh, yeah.
~How old is Daddy?
O: 30!
G: 30!
~How old is Kaitlyn?
G: 1
O: 1
~What is your favorite color?
G: Blue
O: Pink
G: All the colors!  My favorite color is blue, pink, red...
O: Wait, *singing* Red, pink, yellow, orange, blue...  *speaking* That's a good song.
~What is your favorite food?
O: Macaroni and cheese.
G: Macaroni and cheese.
~Who is your best friend?
O: Eva and Sophia
G: Sophia
~What is your favorite movie?
O: I do not know what my favorite movie is yet.  I will tell you when I know.
G: My favorite movie is Cinderella.
O: My favorite movie is Sleeping Beauty.
G: Mine, too!
O: You said Cinderella.
G: No, I have a favorite movie that is Cinderella AND Sleeping Beauty.
~What is your favorite song?
O: *sings the Ariel song* Ah ah aah, ah ah aah...  Ariel's!
G: *imitates Olivia*
~What is your favorite animal?
O: I don't know.
G: Giraffe.  And my favorite animal is camel!
O: Bird.
Me: A particular kind of bird, or just any bird?
O: Just any bird.
~What makes you happy?
O: Don't know.
G: A camel would make me happy and excited.
Me: Anything else?
G: ...And a giraffe would make me happy and excited.
O: Going to grandma and grandpa's house.
G: What else would make you happy.
O: Only one thing makes me happy.
G: Everything makes me happy.
~Where is your favorite place to go?
O: Don't know.
G: Grandma and Grandpa's!
O: Going to the zoo.
G: Olivia likes grandma and grandpa's.
O: I like both.
~What do you want to be when you grow up?
O: For Halloween?
Me: No, when you are a big person like mommy and daddy.
G: Um, I want to be a giraffe for Halloween.
O: I want to be a ballet teacher.  Gretchen, you actually have to pick what you're going to be when you grow up, not for Halloween.
G: A giraffe for Halloween!
O: That wasn't what she was talking about!
Me: Gretchen, what do you want to be when you're big like mommy and daddy?
G: A lion.
O: Ugh!  You could be a doctor.
G: No, a lion.
O: It's not supposed to be an animal.  You're supposed to be something like a teacher, or a ballet teacher, or a doctor, or a store guy.
G: Don't tell me what I can be!
O: I'm just trying to give you ideas.
G: *covers her ears*
O: Actually, I'm not going to be that.  Uh, I'm going to be a store guy instead.
~What is the meaning of love?
G: *laughing* I don't know.
O: I don't know what that means.
Me: What do you think love means?
O: I don't know!  You have to find a prince you love.  Is that what it means?
Me: Hmm, what does it mean that mommy loves you?
O: I don't know.  That you would keep me?
Me: I would keep you.  That's not really what it means, though.
O: This is a hard question.
Me: How do you know that mommy and daddy love you?
O: I don't know.
G: Because... I know!  Daddy told me that he loves me and that you love me.
Me: Do you love mommy and daddy and your sisters?
O: Yes.
G: Yup.
Me: How do you know?
O: 'Cause I just do!
Me: How do you show it?
O: 'Cause I just do!