Bonus Post: Sound Bites 59

Matthias: Theo is awake. Can I get him out? Because Kaitlyn and me are on a team to get him out. I get in the crib and grab his butt and put him in Kaitlyn's hands.

Olivia: What's an inventor called?
Me: An inventor.

Matthias: When I am dead then I am going to move right away. If I can.

Matthias: I need a drink because my tummy is spicy.

Gretchen: 11

Olivia: Is that pancakes?

Gretchen: No. 12.

Olivia: Is that pancakes?

Gretchen: No. 14.

Olivia: Pancakes?

Gretchen: Yes.

Olivia: I knew it.

Kaitlyn is writing in her diary, but she can't spell, so she comes to me for help.

Kaitlyn: How do you spell "what if my mom and dad were nice"?

Kaitlyn: Did you ever do gymnastics with a hurt toe?

Me: I ran a cross country race with a broken hip, does that count?

Kaitlyn: I don't think so.

Matthias: Hey Aunt Jillian, wanna see what I can also do? *does a 310 degree turn jump on the trampoline*

Jillian: Oh cool! You're so talented!

Matthias: Do you know where I teached that at?

Jillian: No, where?

Matthias, enthusiastically: My mind! I made it up!!

Kaitlyn: When people get bigger, they get weaker.

March 21-April 11

Kaitlyn turned 6 a couple of weeks ago! She requested a birthday cake with “ruffles” and had a birthday dinner of spaghetti shells (shell pasta and spaghetti sauce) and brussels sprouts. Her cousin, Rudy, was able to come visit for the day, which made Kaitlyn very happy.

Now that Kaitlyn is 6, we’re thinking about how fast first grade is coming up. I turned in her application a few weeks ago and on Wednesday she got to have a shadow day at St Charles. She went to virtual church, watched half a movie, did a bunny craft, and made one friend whose name “is Sophia, I think… it at least starts with an S.” She was very relieved that she did not have to take a spelling test (apparently Gretchen shadowed on spelling test day and it’s just coming out now). Kaitlyn had a great time and can’t wait for fall to get here so that she can go to school every day.

The kids and I spent Easter weekend at the Bossards’. The girls were on Easter break, so we took the opportunity to visit the cousins and left Bryan in peace. He did his own Easter thing and ate all the meat he could before we brought back the vegetables and sadness on Tuesday.

And speaking of vegetables and sadness, Bryan thinks the meals haven’t been so bad thus far. We made it a full two and a half weeks before he decided it felt like Lent, and that was only because we had beans several days in a row. I just have to intersperse the vegetables with the sadness, I guess. Related, does this make beans “sadness”?

When we returned home on Tuesday, we were just in time to welcome Jacque, Julian, and Samuel. They stayed to visit for a couple of days before heading back home. Theodore and Julian enjoyed following each other around and played very nicely when no toys were involved. Kaitlyn took charge of entertaining Samuel and spent all of her time loving him -- more gently than she loved Theodore at that size.

Our basement is coming along nicely. The kids and I go downstairs almost every day to check on the progress after the workers have left. The electrical work days are not very exciting, but framing and drywall were both quite satisfying. Right now they’re taping and mudding the drywall and we’re waiting to see if painting will happen before the ceilings and floors or after.

Pictures:

March 14-21

Theodore had a checkup a couple of weeks ago. He's 26 pounds, 5 ounces and 34.5 inches tall. He says yes (as an interjection, not as an affirmative), jump, big throw, drink, water, please, and something I can't make out that means "I need that food."

Bryan, in his usual early spring enthusiasm, has made gardening decisions. He’s planning to grow beets this year and has already planted them. We’ll see if they come up after the hail and sleet we had this week.

Gretchen had a book report to do this past month and it had a project component. The project choice was very open ended and up to her, and she tossed around several ideas before I showed her my little toothpick and embroidery floss dolls that I made when I was younger. Upon seeing them, she was sold, and she made two to go with her report. Having survived the experience, I have decided to reintroduce the concept in 3-5 years with the hope that she’ll enjoy making them again, this time without driving her mother up a wall. I forgot to take a picture of her finished dolls, but I’ll try to get one when they come home.

Lent has finally started for the Orthodox, so this week was a lot of church. The kids did okay, especially considering services didn’t start until 7 pm. We made it to every other day. Olivia and Gretchen are old enough to settle into the service quite well when they put their minds to it. Both helped me chant a verse during the canon. Their reading is good and their chanting is decent, but their volume leaves a little to be desired. We’ll have to work on that for another time.

Matthias is super into dinosaurs these days. He’s been into dinosaurs since just before his third birthday, but I’m not sure I’ve mentioned it. He has a small army of dinosaurs and they attack each other frequently. He also has a couple of books, one of which has sound buttons that name the dinosaurs and then roar. We’re getting quite good at long dinosaur names over here. Theodore has picked up on the dinosaur and roaring hype and carries around small plastic animals roaring softly at everything in sight. His roar is adorable and quiet and not ferocious in the least.

Matthias wants very badly to have his whole calendar of events planned out in his head, but he’s three so he’s bad at time. Several times a week we have to go through all the major events in our family’s life (birthdays and holidays mostly) until we get to Christmas. I am curious to see how far in advance we’ll have to plan once we pass some of the beginning milestones. Will he notice when Kaitlyn’s birthday drops off and make us continue through the next one, or will he neither notice nor care until we pass his birthday?

Olivia has been learning cursive in school and her handwriting is suddenly beautiful.

I’ve started saying, “No, no, not for babies” to Theodore when he gets into things he shouldn’t have. Bryan has picked it up as well and now Theodore hears “not for babies” all the time. He has, in his baby fashion, imitated this as well as he can, and now runs around the house hollering, “No babies!”

Pictures:

Bonus Post: Sound Bites 58

Matthias: I don't want to be dead.
Me: So don't be dead.

Matthias: But I don't want to be FAT and dead.

Me: When will you be fat and dead?

Matthias: I don't know. Afternoon?

Playing Dr Mario.

Kaitlyn: Grandma, these extra viruses are coming down.

Kaitlyn: Grandma, are you doing that?

Grandma: Yes.

Kaitlyn: Grandma, that's not very helpful.

Grandma, laughing: It's helping you.

Kaitlyn: It's making me lose.

Matthias: My hand hurts.

Bryan: Why does your hand hurt?

Matthias: Because I accidentally eated it a little.

Bryan: Oh?

Matthias: But I didn't eat the whole thing, so I will be okay.

Me: Mommies can always break wizards.

Me: These boots are size 11.

Kaitlyn: I'm 11.

Matthias: No, you're 5.

Kaitlyn: I'm 11 feet tall.

Me: Your feet are size 11.

Kaitlyn: Yeah, my feet can count to 11.

Kaitlyn: Be careful because my throat is usually by my belly but today my throat is in my neck and it makes my voice crooked.

Bryan: It'll be done in eight minutes.

Kaitlyn: One, two, three, four...

Bryan: Minutes, not seconds.

Kaitlyn: Oh, oh. One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi...

Kaitlyn, to Oma: Oh, just so you know, don't call me Gretchen. I'm Kaitlyn. Oh, but I don't want to boss you around.

March 7-14

We made our own maple syrup! Last year we attended the local maple festival in early March and Bryan came home determined to attempt this magical feat of producing syrup from trees himself. He bought five spiles on Amazon, put four of them in a safe place, and kept one out for the kids to use when playing doctor. Fast forward to this March… We have a friend who works for the parks department, which is probably how we ended up at the maple festival in the first place. Bryan invited Dan and his family over for dinner and dragged Dan outside in the dark to identify which of our trees, if any, were maples. The good news: we have five maple trees. The bad news: Bryan lost the four spiles that he put in a safe place. Not to be deterred, he tapped one tree anyway, rigging an old juice container with wire and a nail in place of a bucket. The next day he found his remaining spiles and tapped two more trees using an oil container and a small pop bottle. Note to our next March selves: we need bigger containers. Maple sap season, as it turns out, is very short, especially if you have silver maples like we do. Our containers collected sap for about a week and then the trees stopped flowing. I boiled down two large pots, each half full of sap, for a long time. Then I dumped the remaining liquid in the smallest pot I own and boiled some more. When it got all bubbly on top like hard candy, I stopped. And voila, syrup. Actually, I might have let it go a little too long, because our ¼ cup of syrup has some crystalized bits in it. Brimming over with enthusiasm, Bryan wants to buy half a dozen sugar maples to plant in our front yard, so I guess I’ll have time to perfect my method in the coming decades.

Theodore loves being outside. He’s a little bit of a problem about it, though, because he’s getting big enough to do things. He learned how to climb the ladder inside the clubhouse and proceeded to climb all the way to the very top rung and get stuck. This wouldn’t be so bad if the top rung didn’t happen to be only inches below the top of the wall. Also, there’s the whole gaping hole thing. Since Theodore is an acknowledged dum dum who frequently makes poor life choices, we decided something had to be done. Bryan built a trap door to cover the hole, and now, providing his siblings remember to put the lid back on after they climb through, Theodore climbs up as high as he can and yells while he tries to shove his head through the space where the ladder still exits the hole. Problem solved?

In an effort to encourage more frequent practicing, or, at the very least, more frequent touching of instruments, I’ve started having Kaitlyn and Olivia send Marco Polos of their progress to Oma. Grandma A recently downloaded Marco Polo, so she’s had a video or two as well. If anyone else needs/wants to be on the Marco Polo Practice list, let me know. :)

An unprecedented thing happened at card club last week: Bryan lost. Now, Bryan doesn’t always win, but he often does and when he doesn’t he’s at least in the top half. He doesn’t lose. Except this time. And whether there were extenuating circumstances or not (alleged misplays by partners who should have known better), the fact remains that he had the least number of points and this will live in everyone’s memory (or at least mine) forever. We usually deem ourselves ineligible to win our own prizes, but for the loser prize everyone agreed that Bryan could claim it. He is now the proud owner of a pair of fish flops that is a little too small. We have a gift receipt so that he can exchange them for the proper size, but when he saw how much the kids loved them he decided to just keep the too small ones.

Our basement renovation is officially started! We have the contractor, we have the loan, and "Mr Basement Guy" has popped in and out several times now. Lines have been drawn on the floor for walls and a lot of alarming noises have been issuing forth under my feet. I believe they've rearranged some of the plumbing pipes down there and we're well on our way to a dedicated HVAC system. Theoretically they'll be completely done at their previous job soon and then we'll see a lot more people a lot more often.

Jacque sewed some snuggets when she was here a few years ago. For those who haven't seen this completely made up product, it's like a Snuggie meets a chicken nugget. ... Kind of. It's a fleece blanket poncho. When we visited the Smiths for Samuel's baptism, I was reminded of the existence of snuggets and spent my entire time (except for the service, of course) wearing one. Upon returning home, I immediately set out to make my own. Well. First I bought too little fabric. Then I was busy doing other things and didn't get around to realizing my mistake for several weeks. By the time I went to remedy the situation, JoAnn was sold out of the original print. Bryan and I looked at solid colors to match, but decided that would be less than ideal. We scoured the shelves for a new Johannah-ish fabric. Bryan tried to pick the most "vegetables and sadness" looking fabric he could find, which turns out to be a surprisingly good benchmark for whether I will like it. Then I noticed that precut blanket panels were significantly cheaper than fleece by the yard, so Bryan had to summon all his energy and caring to look through all of those. He was less inspired by this point, and mostly just suffered through my enthusiasm. I found something okay, but then... I found fabric with a full size princess dress printed on it. It's almost the least vegetables and sadness print there is. After some debate between the okay print and the princess print, I decided on the princess. This was, apparently, quite the upset. I finally got around to sewing my princess dress snugget and it is fabulous. The dress print is my size, so I look like I'm wearing a ball gown when I'm really just snuggled into a pocket of warmth. And it's reversible, with a pink dress on one side and a purple one on the other. My children are so jealous. Now all I need is a couple of snaps on each side to bustle it up when I want to walk. Oh, and a tiara. I'll probably have to get a tiara. :)

Pictures:

Bonus Post: The Absent Pictures

When I wait so long between posts, I have to separate out the pictures from the words. These appear to range from just before Christmas to midway through February. They're loosely organized from newest to oldest.

Pictures:

February 21-March 7

February started out very cold and Bryan despaired of getting his one basketball game in for the month. However, after a ferocious two weeks of winter, spring decided to start making itself known and we had enough consecutive days in the 40s to melt the snow on the driveway. A few brave souls bundled up (and one foolish soul (Bryan) wore shorts) and played a gratuitous game of basketball at 5:30 on a warmer-than-the-rest-of-the-week Thursday. Now it's a year round basketball league.

In the midst of the snow, school got canceled several times. There was one week where the girls only went two days, and one of those was a two hour delay. The school has used up 8 of its 5 allotted calamity days so far this year. To compensate, they've added three days to the end of the school year and have started having virtual learning days instead of canceled days. We've only had to do virtual learning once, and it went reasonably well. Third grade was very well prepared for this -- they have chromebooks on which they access Google classrooms regularly at school, so they all know what to do. Second grade was less well prepared, but Gretchen and I muddled through finding her assignments and getting them properly submitted.

Kaitlyn went to Rudy's house for a sleepover one day and then got an extra day as a bonus because of the snowstorm happening right when we were supposed to pick her up. She was very excited and told Keshia, "It's like I live here now!" We did get her back eventually.

Theodore knows a few more words than last reported. I don't think he's really acquired any new ones, I just forgot to record these: tickle, hot, ow, ball, open.

Theodore is in the shoes and buckles age. He spends much of his day wandering around in shoes several sizes too large and buckling all the buckles he can find (generally the two booster seats) as often as he can get someone else to unbuckle them for him. I dug out the buckles from underneath the changing table pad and he also buckles that while I change his diaper. He likes being outside, especially if it involves a basketball or soccer ball. Oh, and his answer to every question is, "Mmnope."

Kaitlyn has kind of sort of started violin. She came into my room one afternoon with one of our tiny violins and declared that she was going to practice with me. I showed her how to hold the violin (like I've showed three of her siblings before her) and rather than being discouraged and giving up (like the aforementioned siblings), she spent about 10 minutes practicing open strings with me. So I taught her the string names and told her which string to play while I put down fingers so that Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star issued forth from the instrument. This served to increase her excitement and now we try to work on a little bit every day. I ordered her a shoulder rest, a new set of strings, and a bow with all its hair, and we're off.

The weather has been in the 30s-50s most days recently. It tends to bounce back and forth. I was able to take the little kids to the zoo on Wednesday and we had a lovely time wandering around looking at animals. It was warm enough for spring coats, but cold enough for hats and gloves. Masks are useful for keeping faces warm in the cooler weather. :)

We sent the kids to Sidney this weekend. We get them back today and tonight is our Happy March card club.

Pictures:

December 27-February 21

Early one morning I was wrenched out of a deep sleep by shrieks of "No! No! Theo! No!" The clock read 4:34 as I leapt out of bed and scampered through the house. The lights in the boys' room were on and there were two boys in the baby crib. Matthias was huddled in the corner yelling while Theodore rolled over and tried to take a bite out of Matthias's leg. I wondered loudly what was going on, and Matthias answered, "It's morning time." Having been informed that it was NOT, in fact, morning time, Matthias meekly retired to his own bed muttering, "well, I thought it was morning time." I asked if he had woken Theo up. He had. I asked if Theo was trying to bite him. He was. And then, with a lack of caring that can only be achieved at 4:30 in the morning, I said, "That's what happens when you wake people up and climb in their beds. Let this be a lesson to you." I calmed the boys down, turned off the light, turned on the noise canceling fan (although for what, I don't know, since all the noise was coming from within the room), and went through the bedtime routine again. Then, with a firm admonishment to Matthias to not bother Theodore again until actual morning time, I departed for my own bed. Both being rather awake still, the boys chatted for half an hour or so before I finally heard the noises on the monitor diminish and we all drifted off to sleep.

Theodore has lots of words now. He mostly repeats what other people say, so he doesn’t always use his new words correctly independently, but he’s trying. My favorite new one is “away!”, often accompanied by a hand shoving a too close sibling out of his face. Oh, and “noom!” I don’t know what word Theodore is going for with “noom,” but it means television. Specifically the one in our bedroom. He also says hello (mostly to phones), hi (mostly to people), bye, okay, no, cheese, up, down, amen, bobby (belly), go, mommy, daddy, more, uh-oh, grandma, grandpa, help, thank you, and baa do do doo (baby shark).

Matthias excels at the associative property. You know, the one that says that an item is what it is. He was most persistent about it at the zoo when he overheard a little girl questioning whether he knew what a tiger was (“I do know! A tiger is a tiger!”), but he likes to bring it out at other times as well.

Kaitlyn lost her first tooth on Christmas Eve. She has since lost one more.

Funny things Matthias says:
Gruffalo instead of burrito.
Ungorilla instead of umbrella.
Aunt Jujillian.
Except instead of especially (I love everything in the world except mom and dad).
I smell like instead of I smell (I smell like chocolate).

For posterity:
-We have a cleaning lady. Deb comes once a month to mop floors and deep clean the bathrooms and kitchen. Kaitlyn and Matthias follow her around the house to help her and to make not-so-subtle comments about how WE never clean. Which, for the record, we do. I guess Kaitlyn and Matthias need more chores.
-We have a television in our bedroom. Because Bryan said, “If you’re going to fall asleep watching TV anyway, wouldn’t you rather not have to move to the bed when the show is done?” Given the fact that Bryan grew up with a television in his room, I’m somewhat amazed we made it ten years before buying one.
-Gretchen pulled out of gymnastics. She was enjoying it, but the stress of getting ready, the lateness with which we got home, and her tendency to hurt herself caused her too much stress. We had to give one month notice, but she decided not to attend any of those last few weeks, either, and has been much happier on Thursdays. We’re trying to make sure she has a dedicated arts and crafts time during that hour instead.
-We’re finishing our basement. We started the process of getting a home equity line of credit back in October, but had trouble with banks being willing to cover our manufactured home. We finally found a credit union willing to take us, signed the papers, and set about waiting for our contractor to finish up the job he was working on. Then a bunch of snow came and pushed everything back a couple of days. BUT. Now he’s ready and he should be starting this week!

Angelina and Josef came to visit one weekend and told the kids there are unicorns at the Columbus zoo. Josef even produced a picture. Now all the kids think that the Columbus zoo is the best, most magical zoo and they keep asking to go there. Matthias inquires almost daily if I think this or that animal (real or imagined) is also at the Columbus zoo with the unicorns.

We looked up what all our names mean for some reason that now escapes me.
Olivia Helen - Peace (or Ancestor’s Descendant), Light
Gretchen Bernice - Pearl, Brings Victory
Kaitlyn Elaine - Pure, Shining Light
Matthias Edward - Gift of God, Wealthy Guardian
Theodore John - Divine Gift, God is Gracious
Bryan Edward - Noble, Wealthy Guardian
Johannah Helen - (Name not found in database) God is Gracious, Light

Kaitlyn and Matthias are enjoying Catechesis very much. Their teacher says that Kaitlyn is a very helpful leader and that Matthias has improved noticeably in several skill areas since the beginning of the year.

Kaitlyn is now in set 4 of her phonics books. She’s working on consonant blends and two syllable words. She doesn’t enjoy reading very much yet, but she does a good job anyway. Matthias has been listening very carefully as she sounds out words and is now insisting that I work with him as well. He has read a couple of pages of the first book and is very proud of himself.

Olivia has finished multiplication in school and moved on to division. She has enjoyed both of those and thinks maybe she does like math after all. This is in stark contrast to her opinions on estimation.

Gretchen is learning cursive and is very excited to be able to use it more regularly. She does not approve of the steady pace with which they learn new letters. She compensates by making all her printed letters extra curly and flowery.

We saw the Bossards and the JA Fentons for Christmas. Annemarie perfected crawling out of her pack and play while she was here (a skill which she transferred to her crib as well) and now the Bossards won’t visit again until she’s fixed all her sleeping woes. Conveniently, that should line up with our new guest suite being available. Our visit to the Barhorst side for Christmas was postponed due to potential covid exposure, so we had that celebration in mid January instead. Our game shelf (which I had just organized and labeled) is no longer big enough. We saw the JA Fentons again at the end of January, because why not?! And then in the beginning of February Bryan and I left the kids with Steve and Murry and drove to Chicago for Samuel’s baptism. Despite having attended close to 20 Orthodox baptisms at this point, this was the first one in which we were godparents.

Bonus Post: Sound Bites 57

Me: Gretchen, what's that cup up by your bed?
Gretchen: ...Science.

Matthias: The bubbles from the ginger beard are inside me fighting my belly.

Kaitlyn: Theodore, you make me so angry!

Gretchen: Well you make me angry! You said that to a one year old!

Kaitlyn: Yeah, well... We ALL make mom angry!

Gretchen: That's true.

Matthias: I can see our house.

Kaitlyn: No you can't.

Me: Kaitlyn, just pretend he can. Say, "What good eyes you have."

Matthias: I CAN see our house.

Kaitlyn: What good eyes you have.

Matthias: It's because they're blue.

Me: *opening a chocolate bar*

Gretchen: What's that?

Me: If I tell you it's Brussels sprouts, will you not want it?

Gretchen: Yes.

Me: It's Brussels sprouts!

Gretchen: How many seconds until we get home?

Me: 660.

Gretchen: How many minutes?

Me: 11.

Matthias: How many clock?

Bryan, displaying suckers: There's cherry, blue raspberry, co--

Matthias: I know, I know what they are. Watermelon (actually cherry), blueblerry (blue raspberry), butter splatch (cotton candy), different watermelon that's yummier (fruit punch), and I don't know this last one (there's the watermelon!).

Matthias: What are you doing?

Me: Trying to have quiet time.

Matthias: Well... Is it loud time yet?

Matthias: Daddy, we're being bakeries!

Bonus Post: Sound Bites 56

Me: Say "please mom."

Matthias: Please Mom.

Me: "I love you madly."

Matthias, looking sad: WHY?!

Kaitlyn: How did you decide which ones were girls and which ones were boys?

Me: We could tell when you were born.

Kaitlyn: How could you tell?

Me: How could we tell?

Kaitlyn: Because the girls had long hair?

Me: No, all babies are born with short hair or no hair.

Kaitlyn: Oh, because the boys were wearing pants!

Olivia: Everyone point at Daddy and say, "Fixer Man!"

Everyone: Fixer Man!

Olivia: Everyone point at Mommy and say...

Olivia: ...

Matthias: Washer Lady!

Everyone: Washer Lady!

The teller at the bank gave the kids Spongebob stickers.

Kaitlyn: Wait, are these cheese persons?!

Me: Good night, boys. Sleep well.

Matthias: Don't tell me to sleep well. I won't sleep well because I don't like oatmeal.

Bryan did a card trick for the kids.

Bryan: Kaitlyn, is this your card?

Kaitlyn: Yes! How did you do that? 

Gretchen: Is the card warm because Kaitlyn touched it?

Bryan: No, that's not it.

Matthias: Maybe you put your eyeball in Kaitlyn!

Gretchen: Are we cleaning up because people are coming over?

Bryan: Yes. It's called shame cleaning.

Matthias: Mom. Don't watch.