A checkup was had. Gretchen is 38 pounds and 40.75 inches. Kaitlyn is 29.2 pounds and 34.5 inches. Both are looking a little bit tall for about half the dresses they picked out during our basement shopping expedition, so I had to go downstairs and swap some out.
Olivia is finished with her kindergarten phonics book, which means she can read words with normal short vowels. She's also about a month away from being done with the first grade book (and normal long vowels). Good thing I picked up the second grade book at the last conference! In other school news, she's progressing well through her math lessons, and I expect we'll be starting subtraction in the next week or two.
Gretchen wants to learn to read. She's actually pretty interested in all of Olivia's school work, choosing to hang around and shout out answers while Olivia works rather than going to play. Since she's showing such interest, I've been working on flashcards with Gretchen to improve her letter recognition. She gets 20-23 letters right on the first try each day, but they're not always the same letters. :-P
Kaitlyn likes to get out the dance recital tutus, put one on, and dance to my video recording of Sweet and Sassy. She's actually not too bad. Unrelated, she has a few phrases I wanted to get down: First, when something that's missing has been found, she says, "There she is!" It doesn't matter if it's a person or an object, the pronoun is "she." I assume this is from us playing peek-a-boo with her when she was smaller. Second, when being buckled into her carseat, Kaitlyn complains that the straps are too tight, saying, "Too more!" or "Too good!" Gretchen always prompts us to pull her straps tighter using the words "more" and "good," so that's probably where Kaitlyn got it. Third, Kaitlyn would make an excellent Latina. Her preposition of choice is "a," pronounced "ah." She uses it mostly instead of "to," as in the following example: "Gretchen give blanket a Kaitlyn." Other times it is just added into a sentence unnecessarily: "Gretchen hit a Kaitlyn head."
Murry offered to watch the girls over Memorial Day weekend, so Bryan and I had Friday afternoon until Monday afternoon without kids. Jacob, Katya, and Zach came down for part of it, and Kara visited as well, so games were played (after everyone slept in sufficiently). Katya and Kara helped me box up dad's "keep" books in the basement according to author, and then we organized tiny shoes onto a shelf so that the next sizes will be readily available. Side note about the shoes: I have approximately twenty pairs of size 8 little girl shoes in my basement right now.
The garden is fully planted. We mulched the strawberries so that there's less weeding to do. I can't tell what baby broccolis (started from seed) look like, so we may be mulching that bed as well if they don't make it clear that they're not weeds soon. Bryan has started building an enclosure to keep bunnies and birds out. He has posts in the ground and now we just need to run clothesline and attach a net.
Upcoming activities: We have a wedding, water safety classes, and VBS in our future. Also trips to Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Oh, and a baby, although that will probably be sometime after the next update. :)
Pictures and Videos:
04 June 2017
31 May 2017
Bonus Post: Sound Bites 20
Jacque: I can't ever have kids. They make me laugh too much.
Olivia: Well, I think you're going to have kids anyway.
Jacque: Why do you think that?
Olivia: Mommy has daughters. And Oma has daughters and sons. Justine has sons.
Bryan: It does kind of run in your family.
Olivia: Grandma has sons. And a daughter. So I think everyone gets some.
Jacque: When will I get mine?
Olivia: On their birthday!
Gretchen: When I grow up and marry a boy, will he be my kids' daughter?
*Note: She immediately corrected this to say "kids' dad," but that's not as amusing.
*With no preceding conversation*
Olivia: Oh no, macaroni and cheese starts with an M!
Me: Yes, it does. Is that a problem?
Olivia: Well, apples are my favorite fruit.
Gretchen, eating boxed cookies: Someone didn't make good cookies.
Olivia, looking at a poster of The Avengers: I like that man's wand.
*She was referring to Thor's hammer.*
Gretchen: Daddy, I want you to beat all the other cars to church.
Olivia: Well some of them don't have children in them, and that's why they beat us.
Olivia: I wonder what her name would be.
Bryan: You should have asked her.
Olivia: No, no, I just wanted to wonder.
Olivia: Well, I think you're going to have kids anyway.
Jacque: Why do you think that?
Olivia: Mommy has daughters. And Oma has daughters and sons. Justine has sons.
Bryan: It does kind of run in your family.
Olivia: Grandma has sons. And a daughter. So I think everyone gets some.
Jacque: When will I get mine?
Olivia: On their birthday!
Gretchen: When I grow up and marry a boy, will he be my kids' daughter?
*Note: She immediately corrected this to say "kids' dad," but that's not as amusing.
*With no preceding conversation*
Olivia: Oh no, macaroni and cheese starts with an M!
Me: Yes, it does. Is that a problem?
Olivia: Well, apples are my favorite fruit.
Gretchen, eating boxed cookies: Someone didn't make good cookies.
Olivia, looking at a poster of The Avengers: I like that man's wand.
*She was referring to Thor's hammer.*
Gretchen: Daddy, I want you to beat all the other cars to church.
Olivia: Well some of them don't have children in them, and that's why they beat us.
Olivia: I wonder what her name would be.
Bryan: You should have asked her.
Olivia: No, no, I just wanted to wonder.
17 May 2017
Bonus Post: Bean Baby Guesses
It's time for baby guesses again! My elaborate points system has fallen a bit by the wayside, so we're not going to complicate matters this time around. For your own personal sense of accomplishment, you may attempt to correctly predict the following:
1. Birth Date
2. Birth Time
3. Gender
4. Weight
5. Length
Feel free to throw in other guesses as well. Will this baby have a lot of hair? Will we make it to the hospital in time, or have a baby on the road (the hospital is in St. Mary's, 30 minutes away)? Will Jillian, who is staying with us this summer, miss any work due to the baby being born? Will our baby make an appearance before either Justine's (due July 2) or Keshia's (due July 17)? If it's a boy, will we use any of the five names we have in mind, or go with something completely different?
1. Birth Date
2. Birth Time
3. Gender
4. Weight
5. Length
Feel free to throw in other guesses as well. Will this baby have a lot of hair? Will we make it to the hospital in time, or have a baby on the road (the hospital is in St. Mary's, 30 minutes away)? Will Jillian, who is staying with us this summer, miss any work due to the baby being born? Will our baby make an appearance before either Justine's (due July 2) or Keshia's (due July 17)? If it's a boy, will we use any of the five names we have in mind, or go with something completely different?
Olivia
|
Gretchen
|
Kaitlyn
|
Bean
|
|
BIRTH DATE
|
August 3
|
April 24
|
March 27
|
|
My Calculated Due
Date
|
August 3
|
April 21
|
April 3
|
July 12
|
Ultrasound Based
Due Date
|
July 30
|
April 15
|
March 31
|
July 11
|
TIME BORN
|
12:58 pm
|
3:29 am
|
5:15 am
|
|
Arrived at
hospital
|
4:00 am, Wed (same
day)
|
3:07 am, Wed (same
day)
|
3:15 am, Fri (same
day)
|
|
GENDER
|
Girl
|
Girl
|
Girl
|
|
Bryan thinks/ thought
|
Girl
|
Boy
|
No strong feeling,
but optimistically saying boy
|
Girl. 100% girl.
|
Johannah thinks/ thought
|
No strong feeling
|
Girl
|
No strong feeling
|
Boy
|
Olivia thinks/ thought
|
N/A
|
No opinion
|
Girl
|
Girl
|
Gretchen thinks/ thought
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
No opinion
|
Girl
|
Kaitlyn thinks/ thought
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
Girl
|
Cravings
|
None
|
Chipotle, pizza
with ranch, both once
|
Chips and salsa
|
French fries and
Little Caesars pizza
|
Aversions
|
Cream of Mushroom
Soup
|
None
|
None
|
Sweets
|
First Trimester
|
Sleepy, never
hungry
|
Starving
|
Hungry, but
nothing sounds good
|
Never hungry
|
Sweet or salty
snacks?
|
Both
|
Sweet during the
day, salty at night
|
Salty
|
|
Fruit or meat?
|
Fruit
|
Fruit
|
Fruit
|
Fruit
|
Weight gain
|
All in front
|
All in front
|
All in front
|
All in front
|
Carrying?
|
Low
|
High
|
Low
|
Low
|
Complaints
|
Pain under right
ribs from 4.5 months, mild heartburn
|
Shortness of
breath from 6 months, mild heartburn (less than Olivia)
|
Pain under right
ribs from 5 months, mild heartburn (less than Olivia, more than Gretchen)
|
First trimester nausea, shortness of
breath and dizziness from 3.5 months, heartburn, mild anemia, random back
spasms
|
WEIGHT
|
8 lbs, 5.8 oz
|
8 lbs, 0.2 oz
|
7 lbs, 9.5 oz
|
|
Johannah weight
@9-11 wks
|
132
|
124
|
128
|
128
|
Johannah weight @
29-31 wks
|
144 (+12)
|
141 (+17)
|
140 (+12)
|
141 (+13)
|
Johannah max
weight
|
148 (+16)
|
144 (+20)
|
148 (+20)
|
|
LENGTH
|
21 ¼ in
|
21 in
|
20 in
|
14 May 2017
April 9-May 14
This baby has kind of been given the name Bean. When we first discussed what to call it, we were in the car and Bryan thought Arby's would be a good name because that's the first thing he saw when he looked out the window. However. The baby has been Bean in my head for a few months, and I'm the one writing the blog, so the name is Bean. It should be noted, though, that this name is not used much at all, and is pretty much for convenience and tradition at this point.
Olivia can tie her shoes. When she moved up to size 12, I decided it was time for tie shoes rather than slip ons. Luckily, I had this conversation with her before we got to the store and realized that casual little girl slip ons are much harder to find after size 11. That first day I spent 15 minutes with her talking her through tying her shoes. I ended up tying them (no surprise), but she helped and at least knew the process now. For the next two weeks, she whined about having to tie shoes. She would try to slip out the door in boots. She would convince Bryan that she had been trying for hours and he should just do it for her. She would tell me that she would do one if I did the other one, but then she would suddenly forget how to work laces. I made a deal with her that she should do the initial cross and then I would do the loops. When she mastered that, I told her she had to make the first loop, and I would run the bunny around the tree. Still she whined about the amount of effort I was making her expend. Then one day, she made the first loop without complaint. When it came time to tie the second shoe, I told her to make the loop and she threw her arms up in exasperation. I turned around to make dinner, telling her to let me know when she was ready for my help. Five seconds later she was scooting out the door with two tied shoes. I exclaimed, "What? You can tie your shoes?!" and she gave me a smirk before disappearing outside. And now she ties her own shoes always.
Kaitlyn is in a big girl bed. The day after Pascha Bryan and I decided that we were ready to fight the bed battle. We put the crib in a different corner of the room and brought up the toddler bed. Kaitlyn was very excited. She's done remarkably well with the new freedom, although she will always visit at least one sister before falling asleep for the night. She also likes to nap on Olivia's bed rather than her own. But she doesn't yell and scream in the doorway like her two sisters did, and she always ends up in her own bed before falling asleep for the night.
Gretchen Bernice had a birthday. She turned 4 on April 24 amid little fanfare. There was more fanfare earlier, when we had a small party for her on April 20. Then she spend the weekend with Grandma, receiving a present every day because that's how Grandma rolls. On her actual birthday, we did make a cake and give her our present. I asked what she wanted for dinner and she said, "Chips." Anything else? No, just chips. I made chalupas and she ate them happily with her chips.
When the weather got warmer, I took the girls down to the basement to go shopping for new clothes. We started by talking about money, and then I gave them each $7 (of play money) to spend. I brought the cash register down to the green room, set up all the dress racks, and told them that dresses were $1 each. They had to pick at least one church dress and the rest could be play dresses. We held dresses up and looked at tags and put back ones that were too short. Then they brought their purchases to me and paid for all of their new finery.
Pascha happened. Jacque and Will came for the weekend, and Kara and Jacob joined us for lunch on Sunday. Olivia and Gretchen slept through the whole midnight service, including the bells and the bright lights. Kaitlyn was awake the entire time, and swung from cuddly to slap happy and back again.
We've been getting together with friends to do school activities. While Olivia does phonics or math pretty much every day, the days with friends are dedicated to more crafty, hands-on activities. Since there are younger siblings involved, ourcarefully planned hastily slapped together ideas usually devolve somewhat. See the picture of cloud dough all over my floor below. We may have taken all of the children outside and sprayed them with a hose afterwards. The kids have fun, though, and we do get to do several things each time.
Olivia took a one woman stand against the English language the other day. She was learning the words as, has, is, and his. I told her as we started that sometimes s makes a z sound, but she declared that she doesn't like the z sound, so she wouldn't ruin s with it. She stubbornly read the words as "hass" and "iss," and no amount of persuading or threatening would make her change her mind. On that day, English was stupid and she was having no part of it. She has since come around to saying the words properly, which is good because spelling and pronunciation only get worse from here.
Things change quickly around here. Olivia's magic number is now 7 and Gretchen's is 100.
Any time someone calls to talk on the phone to one of the girls, Kaitlyn wants to "see the Oma." Never mind that these are normal phone calls, not video calls. Kaitlyn will follow the phone around saying "Kaitlyn want see the Oma." After I explain that not only is it not a video call, but it's not even with Oma, Kaitlyn looks mildly confused and then demands to see the Oma. At the end, though, when it's time to say goodbye, she says, "Oh, bye Keshia."
Gretchen learned that all of the helicopter seeds on our ground would grow into trees if they were in the ground, but would only die if left on the driveway. She began a one woman campaign to save all the maple trees, picking seeds up off the driveway and carefully planting them in the grass.
Kaitlyn has a weird little end of word stutter. It's the slowest stutter in the world, but seems pretty consistent. If she has a question or sentence ending in a consonant (t and s are the worst offenders) that is not immediately answered, she just repeats the consonant several times quietly. For example, "Kaitlyn lock it...t...t...t." Only ever at the end of a sentence; individual words don't suffer from this problem.
The garden is doing pretty well. I weeded a couple of beds (much to the consternation of my chiropractor, who can see our house from his practice) and Bryan weeded the rest. One has strawberries, one has asparagus, one will have broccoli, one will have tomatoes, and one will be for the girls to plant wildflowers. The last bed will probably get a weed mat and mulch so that we don't have to worry about it next spring. The raspberries look great; there are dozens of little shoots coming up, which is very exciting. Our trees look good, too. Correction: six of our seven trees look good. The last one looks dead, which is only a problem because it's either a pear or a plum and is therefore instrumental in pollinating one of the other trees. Unfortunately, we can't tell which tree it is because we forgot to write it down. Being 90% sure it's a plum, we have resigned ourselves to simply reordering both plum trees and simply having an excess of plums. We did also buy a pear that could pollinate either of our existing varieties, just in case. :) Our dead tree does look like it's regenerating from the roots, but that doesn't change our plans much since we bought a dwarf tree, so the one that is growing now is most likely below the graft and therefore not the same variety at all. Of course, we won't know anything for sure for a few years still, when fruit finally starts growing.
Last weekend I cashed in a Christmas present from Bryan and went to Fort Wayne for two days with my friends from church. We stayed with Kara and Jacob, got dressed up for a fancy dinner, went shopping, and saw an illusionist, all with no children attached.
On Monday I was back in Fort Wayne to sell dad's books to unwary seminarians. What didn't sell was donated, and there are many less books in my house than there used to be. Hooray. In order to make the trip, I moved all three girls into the back seat of the car and removed the middle seat. Boxes were stacked two high and toddler mattresses were used as a protective barrier. Now that we're home, I'm thinking I don't want to put the middle seat back in.
Jacque came to visit, ostensibly to help with makeup for the girls' dance recital, but mostly just to visit. She and I took a trip to Fort Wayne (it seems I'm there a lot lately) to meet with hall directors. We had lunch together and chatted about weddings and other things, which was lovely. We also took a trip to JoAnn to browse patterns and fabrics, just in case. :)
Today is the big dance recital. There are costumes and makeup and flowers in the hair. The girls are very excited. I will (maybe) provide more detailsnext week the next time I write.
Look for a Baby Guesses Bonus Post on Wednesday.
Pictures and Video:
Olivia can tie her shoes. When she moved up to size 12, I decided it was time for tie shoes rather than slip ons. Luckily, I had this conversation with her before we got to the store and realized that casual little girl slip ons are much harder to find after size 11. That first day I spent 15 minutes with her talking her through tying her shoes. I ended up tying them (no surprise), but she helped and at least knew the process now. For the next two weeks, she whined about having to tie shoes. She would try to slip out the door in boots. She would convince Bryan that she had been trying for hours and he should just do it for her. She would tell me that she would do one if I did the other one, but then she would suddenly forget how to work laces. I made a deal with her that she should do the initial cross and then I would do the loops. When she mastered that, I told her she had to make the first loop, and I would run the bunny around the tree. Still she whined about the amount of effort I was making her expend. Then one day, she made the first loop without complaint. When it came time to tie the second shoe, I told her to make the loop and she threw her arms up in exasperation. I turned around to make dinner, telling her to let me know when she was ready for my help. Five seconds later she was scooting out the door with two tied shoes. I exclaimed, "What? You can tie your shoes?!" and she gave me a smirk before disappearing outside. And now she ties her own shoes always.
Kaitlyn is in a big girl bed. The day after Pascha Bryan and I decided that we were ready to fight the bed battle. We put the crib in a different corner of the room and brought up the toddler bed. Kaitlyn was very excited. She's done remarkably well with the new freedom, although she will always visit at least one sister before falling asleep for the night. She also likes to nap on Olivia's bed rather than her own. But she doesn't yell and scream in the doorway like her two sisters did, and she always ends up in her own bed before falling asleep for the night.
Gretchen Bernice had a birthday. She turned 4 on April 24 amid little fanfare. There was more fanfare earlier, when we had a small party for her on April 20. Then she spend the weekend with Grandma, receiving a present every day because that's how Grandma rolls. On her actual birthday, we did make a cake and give her our present. I asked what she wanted for dinner and she said, "Chips." Anything else? No, just chips. I made chalupas and she ate them happily with her chips.
When the weather got warmer, I took the girls down to the basement to go shopping for new clothes. We started by talking about money, and then I gave them each $7 (of play money) to spend. I brought the cash register down to the green room, set up all the dress racks, and told them that dresses were $1 each. They had to pick at least one church dress and the rest could be play dresses. We held dresses up and looked at tags and put back ones that were too short. Then they brought their purchases to me and paid for all of their new finery.
Pascha happened. Jacque and Will came for the weekend, and Kara and Jacob joined us for lunch on Sunday. Olivia and Gretchen slept through the whole midnight service, including the bells and the bright lights. Kaitlyn was awake the entire time, and swung from cuddly to slap happy and back again.
We've been getting together with friends to do school activities. While Olivia does phonics or math pretty much every day, the days with friends are dedicated to more crafty, hands-on activities. Since there are younger siblings involved, our
Olivia took a one woman stand against the English language the other day. She was learning the words as, has, is, and his. I told her as we started that sometimes s makes a z sound, but she declared that she doesn't like the z sound, so she wouldn't ruin s with it. She stubbornly read the words as "hass" and "iss," and no amount of persuading or threatening would make her change her mind. On that day, English was stupid and she was having no part of it. She has since come around to saying the words properly, which is good because spelling and pronunciation only get worse from here.
Things change quickly around here. Olivia's magic number is now 7 and Gretchen's is 100.
Any time someone calls to talk on the phone to one of the girls, Kaitlyn wants to "see the Oma." Never mind that these are normal phone calls, not video calls. Kaitlyn will follow the phone around saying "Kaitlyn want see the Oma." After I explain that not only is it not a video call, but it's not even with Oma, Kaitlyn looks mildly confused and then demands to see the Oma. At the end, though, when it's time to say goodbye, she says, "Oh, bye Keshia."
Gretchen learned that all of the helicopter seeds on our ground would grow into trees if they were in the ground, but would only die if left on the driveway. She began a one woman campaign to save all the maple trees, picking seeds up off the driveway and carefully planting them in the grass.
Kaitlyn has a weird little end of word stutter. It's the slowest stutter in the world, but seems pretty consistent. If she has a question or sentence ending in a consonant (t and s are the worst offenders) that is not immediately answered, she just repeats the consonant several times quietly. For example, "Kaitlyn lock it...t...t...t." Only ever at the end of a sentence; individual words don't suffer from this problem.
The garden is doing pretty well. I weeded a couple of beds (much to the consternation of my chiropractor, who can see our house from his practice) and Bryan weeded the rest. One has strawberries, one has asparagus, one will have broccoli, one will have tomatoes, and one will be for the girls to plant wildflowers. The last bed will probably get a weed mat and mulch so that we don't have to worry about it next spring. The raspberries look great; there are dozens of little shoots coming up, which is very exciting. Our trees look good, too. Correction: six of our seven trees look good. The last one looks dead, which is only a problem because it's either a pear or a plum and is therefore instrumental in pollinating one of the other trees. Unfortunately, we can't tell which tree it is because we forgot to write it down. Being 90% sure it's a plum, we have resigned ourselves to simply reordering both plum trees and simply having an excess of plums. We did also buy a pear that could pollinate either of our existing varieties, just in case. :) Our dead tree does look like it's regenerating from the roots, but that doesn't change our plans much since we bought a dwarf tree, so the one that is growing now is most likely below the graft and therefore not the same variety at all. Of course, we won't know anything for sure for a few years still, when fruit finally starts growing.
Last weekend I cashed in a Christmas present from Bryan and went to Fort Wayne for two days with my friends from church. We stayed with Kara and Jacob, got dressed up for a fancy dinner, went shopping, and saw an illusionist, all with no children attached.
On Monday I was back in Fort Wayne to sell dad's books to unwary seminarians. What didn't sell was donated, and there are many less books in my house than there used to be. Hooray. In order to make the trip, I moved all three girls into the back seat of the car and removed the middle seat. Boxes were stacked two high and toddler mattresses were used as a protective barrier. Now that we're home, I'm thinking I don't want to put the middle seat back in.
Jacque came to visit, ostensibly to help with makeup for the girls' dance recital, but mostly just to visit. She and I took a trip to Fort Wayne (it seems I'm there a lot lately) to meet with hall directors. We had lunch together and chatted about weddings and other things, which was lovely. We also took a trip to JoAnn to browse patterns and fabrics, just in case. :)
Today is the big dance recital. There are costumes and makeup and flowers in the hair. The girls are very excited. I will (maybe) provide more details
Look for a Baby Guesses Bonus Post on Wednesday.
Pictures and Video:
26 April 2017
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!
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!
09 April 2017
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:
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:
02 April 2017
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:
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:
29 March 2017
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!
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!
19 March 2017
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:
12 March 2017
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:
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:
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