Last weekend was spent in Michigan with my parents. It was a remarkably calm and quiet time. Apparently when you remove more than half the family things get much less hectic. Who knew?! Anyway, Olivia got to watch Frozen with Aunt Jillian (twice!), Bryan and I got to play cards, and everyone had a grand time watching Josef's reaction to Dad discovering Google hangouts.
While at mom and dad's, we were gifted several large tubs of dress-up clothes from Athena and her kids. The girls' excitement knows no bounds. I spent one day sorting out all of the princess dresses, shoes, and crowns that would actually fit them and the rest of the week constantly helping them change their outfits. Olivia, especially, delights in all aspects of poof, glitter, high heels, and feathers, while Gretchen is quite impressed by the shoes and purses.
This week has finally been back to normal. Gretchen is coping well with the loss of her pacifier, although she's back to waking up once or twice every night for a drink of water or new diaper. We're giving her a few weeks to finish adjusting before we swap out her bed on her. :-P Olivia has been reading books to Gretchen (usually with the help of her fabulous MeReader). She also does a lot of puzzles and playing with dolls. I've got my meal plan back on track and my brain calendar working for me again, so everything seems properly balanced. :)
Have I mentioned that Gretchen can eat using utensils? At mealtimes, she opens the silverware drawer, pushes up a chair, and selects a fork for herself (unless she is specifically instructed to get a spoon). She's good enough with a spoon that she even gets milk in her cereal.
A while ago, Olivia started pretending to fall asleep in the car whenever we arrived at a destination. It got to the point where she'd close her eyes when she though we were getting close and then she'd call from the back seat, "Uh-oh, Olivia is asleep again!" Gretchen thought this was great, and started chiming in with, "Uh-oh, Kiki sleep!" The difference was that Gretchen's eyes were seldom closed. She would just wait until the side door opened and then she'd let her head flop sideways with her eyes wide open, a little like a dead fish. :-P Both girls would spend their sleeping moments informing their apparently unobservant parents that they were, in fact, sleeping. If only they fell asleep so willingly at night... Olivia's interest in the game has since waned, so now she only plays occasionally. Gretchen, on the other hand, continues with great delight, chattering about how "Lolly fast asleep, Kiki fast asleep."
Pictures:
01 February 2015
28 January 2015
Bonus Post: Pictures from Gretchen's Baptism
May 5, 2013
Since Gretchen was baptized at the Easter Vigil service, no one really took pictures. We also didn't hang around after the service to pose for pictures because it was so late. Emily Harju took a few, though, and sent them to me. Candle-lit proof that it happened:
Since Gretchen was baptized at the Easter Vigil service, no one really took pictures. We also didn't hang around after the service to pose for pictures because it was so late. Emily Harju took a few, though, and sent them to me. Candle-lit proof that it happened:
25 January 2015
January 18-25
Gretchen's words: goose (as in "silly goose"), birds, papi (which used to mean Grandma), Gramma, Yiayia (for the priest's wife at our church), kiss, hug, push, pray down ("pray and get down").
Gretchen talks like a first grade reader. "Daddy. See Daddy. See Daddy's water." She should write books. :) Her sentences are beginning to move past this stage, and the effect is diminishing as she strings words together with less obvious pauses between words. I've been neglecting to mention this habit, though, and don't want to forget before she stops doing it.
We took Gretchen's pacifier away last week. More accurately, I cut the tip off her pacifier and she decided she didn't need it anymore. It was much easier than trying to explain to her that her pacifier was missing. After a couple of rough nights (only one of which was rough in the middle of the night) and a few more rough naptimes, Gretchen has accepted her pacifier-less state. She does seem to take longer to fall asleep, but I think that's mostly because we can hear her babbling now.
Bryan's 12th day of Christmas present ended up being a little late. Fortunately for his wife, Old Calendar Christmas exists, so he just got a 10th day of Old Calendar Christmas gift instead. I wanted to make him a double-layered hooded robe for his commute (and for working in our still unheated basement), but I had to get the pattern from Justine when we were all in Michigan, and then I got sick, and then I was catching up with other things after being sick... But it finally got done, and he says that it is wonderfully warm. :)
Our house is on the market! Yes, we moved four months ago... We lived close enough to go fix things up, though, but not close enough to get it done in a timely manner. And after we got things repainted, we weren't back in Springfield to sign papers for the realtor for another month. All the papers have been signed now and the keys have been given to the proper people, so it's just a matter of waiting for someone to come buy it.
When we visited the Kleins on Thursday, Steph helped me give Gretchen her first haircut. And when I say "Steph helped me," I mean that Steph cut Gretchen's hair and I kept Gretchen looking the correct direction most of the time. :) All we did was trim off the mullety look that most toddler girls apparently get as their heads and hair grow at different rates. She took her first haircut much better than Olivia took hers (unfortunately, I can't find the post about Olivia sobbing through her first haircut, or I'd link to it for you). Found it.
Olivia is still here, too, but apparently she didn't do anything new or exciting this week. :-P
Pictures:
Gretchen talks like a first grade reader. "Daddy. See Daddy. See Daddy's water." She should write books. :) Her sentences are beginning to move past this stage, and the effect is diminishing as she strings words together with less obvious pauses between words. I've been neglecting to mention this habit, though, and don't want to forget before she stops doing it.
We took Gretchen's pacifier away last week. More accurately, I cut the tip off her pacifier and she decided she didn't need it anymore. It was much easier than trying to explain to her that her pacifier was missing. After a couple of rough nights (only one of which was rough in the middle of the night) and a few more rough naptimes, Gretchen has accepted her pacifier-less state. She does seem to take longer to fall asleep, but I think that's mostly because we can hear her babbling now.
Bryan's 12th day of Christmas present ended up being a little late. Fortunately for his wife, Old Calendar Christmas exists, so he just got a 10th day of Old Calendar Christmas gift instead. I wanted to make him a double-layered hooded robe for his commute (and for working in our still unheated basement), but I had to get the pattern from Justine when we were all in Michigan, and then I got sick, and then I was catching up with other things after being sick... But it finally got done, and he says that it is wonderfully warm. :)
Our house is on the market! Yes, we moved four months ago... We lived close enough to go fix things up, though, but not close enough to get it done in a timely manner. And after we got things repainted, we weren't back in Springfield to sign papers for the realtor for another month. All the papers have been signed now and the keys have been given to the proper people, so it's just a matter of waiting for someone to come buy it.
When we visited the Kleins on Thursday, Steph helped me give Gretchen her first haircut. And when I say "Steph helped me," I mean that Steph cut Gretchen's hair and I kept Gretchen looking the correct direction most of the time. :) All we did was trim off the mullety look that most toddler girls apparently get as their heads and hair grow at different rates. She took her first haircut much better than Olivia took hers (unfortunately, I can't find the post about Olivia sobbing through her first haircut, or I'd link to it for you). Found it.
Olivia is still here, too, but apparently she didn't do anything new or exciting this week. :-P
Pictures:
18 January 2015
January 11-18
This week's post actually begins with Saturday, January 3. You may recall that the Kleins were visiting. They stayed overnight on Friday and presumably left sometime on Saturday. Unfortunately, I was not able to see them off because I caught a stomach bug and was busy recuperating on the couch. :(
By Sunday I was feeling better, so we traveled to Sidney to spend a couple of days there. Bryan had to work in Springfield on Monday and the girls and I were going to run errands. Gretchen got sick Sunday night, though, so we canceled our plans. Bryan was needed back at the office a couple of days later, which led to us extending our stay a bit. He and Olivia both got sick Tuesday. :( We were all feeling most of the way better by the time we went home Wednesday evening. It would appear that we only went to Sidney to spread our sickness around.
On Sunday there was snow on the ground and the temperature was high enough that we decided to go sledding. Both girls thought that was fun, although I think we spent more time bundling up than we did actually sledding. Bryan was pleased with how much they enjoyed the experience, though, so we will be doing that more as they get older.
The end of this week was busy for me since I had an orchestra concert. Bryan and the girls got to spend a lot of time together every evening and then most of Saturday. Everything's done now, though, and I have a musical break until March.
Olivia, as you may know, loves to watch Scooby Doo at Grandma and Grandpa's house. (Lesser known fact: Gretchen also appreciates "Dooby Dooby Doo.") One of the episodes Olivia watches is about a mummy, which seems pretty normal. Olivia apparently doesn't know the word "mummy," though, so whenever this episode comes on, she talks about how "it's the one with the scary mommy!"
Gretchen's words are hardly worth noting anymore since she repeats everything she hears and has a specific sound for pretty much anything she wishes to discuss. Whether or not I can interpret those sounds is a different matter... She has begun saying pacifier (instead of plug), as well as talking frequently about whether it is "Lolly's turn" or "Kiki's turn." She also says share, most often in a context similar to "Kiki share Mommy's cookie." Oh, and she learned "vroom!" from her cousins. :)
Around the middle of November, I noticed a curious thing about nighttime: Gretchen was no longer waking us up. She's been night-weaned forever and sleeping through the night relatively well, but most nights she still needed some sort of parental involvement for a few seconds. Perhaps her pacifier got lost or she needed a drink of water or a new diaper... Whatever the reason, I was still making a brief nightly trip to her room. And then suddenly all of that stopped. I didn't even notice until the third or fourth night in a row. :-P The traveling and sickness have upset Gretchen's fabulous sleeping and she's been up again, sometimes multiple times. Happily, getting back to our normal routine straightened her out.
Pictures:
By Sunday I was feeling better, so we traveled to Sidney to spend a couple of days there. Bryan had to work in Springfield on Monday and the girls and I were going to run errands. Gretchen got sick Sunday night, though, so we canceled our plans. Bryan was needed back at the office a couple of days later, which led to us extending our stay a bit. He and Olivia both got sick Tuesday. :( We were all feeling most of the way better by the time we went home Wednesday evening. It would appear that we only went to Sidney to spread our sickness around.
On Sunday there was snow on the ground and the temperature was high enough that we decided to go sledding. Both girls thought that was fun, although I think we spent more time bundling up than we did actually sledding. Bryan was pleased with how much they enjoyed the experience, though, so we will be doing that more as they get older.
The end of this week was busy for me since I had an orchestra concert. Bryan and the girls got to spend a lot of time together every evening and then most of Saturday. Everything's done now, though, and I have a musical break until March.
Olivia, as you may know, loves to watch Scooby Doo at Grandma and Grandpa's house. (Lesser known fact: Gretchen also appreciates "Dooby Dooby Doo.") One of the episodes Olivia watches is about a mummy, which seems pretty normal. Olivia apparently doesn't know the word "mummy," though, so whenever this episode comes on, she talks about how "it's the one with the scary mommy!"
Gretchen's words are hardly worth noting anymore since she repeats everything she hears and has a specific sound for pretty much anything she wishes to discuss. Whether or not I can interpret those sounds is a different matter... She has begun saying pacifier (instead of plug), as well as talking frequently about whether it is "Lolly's turn" or "Kiki's turn." She also says share, most often in a context similar to "Kiki share Mommy's cookie." Oh, and she learned "vroom!" from her cousins. :)
Around the middle of November, I noticed a curious thing about nighttime: Gretchen was no longer waking us up. She's been night-weaned forever and sleeping through the night relatively well, but most nights she still needed some sort of parental involvement for a few seconds. Perhaps her pacifier got lost or she needed a drink of water or a new diaper... Whatever the reason, I was still making a brief nightly trip to her room. And then suddenly all of that stopped. I didn't even notice until the third or fourth night in a row. :-P The traveling and sickness have upset Gretchen's fabulous sleeping and she's been up again, sometimes multiple times. Happily, getting back to our normal routine straightened her out.
Pictures:
11 January 2015
January 4-11
The title lies. This is, in fact, a recap of December 21-January 4. I'll lump this past week in with next week's post.
We spent six days with Bryan's family, visiting from the weekend before Christmas until Christmas Day. I had two Etsy orders to finish (done in time to go out with Monday's mail!) and two and a half Christmas presents to complete (done by Wednesday, I think, except for the snaps on Justine's...). They didn't take me much time, but did allow me the occasional break from pre-Christmas craziness.
We went to Mass on Saturday night with the girls and then left them sleeping at Grandma and Grandpa's while Bryan and I went to midnight Liturgy in Lima. Gretchen decided to participate a little extra in Mass (you know, because it's Christmas) and proceeded to read rather loudly from her book during the Gospel. Then she spent the sermon singing the song "Singing in the Shower" (from my fabulous birthday present) at progressively higher pitches. Delightful. She read some more during the Eucharistic prayer and then settled down to listen during the actual hymns. As we sang "Silent Night," she caught the words "Jesus, Lord" (Jesus, Lord at thy birth...) and began pointing to pictures of Jesus Lord in church. This was great, until she realized the the large statue of Jesus Lord at the back of church was *gasp* naked! Then she spent the rest of the service proclaiming, "Jesus nanake!"
Christmas morning was everything Murry could have wished as the girls gazed with wide, excited eyes at the presents awaiting them under the tree. Gretchen opened a tea set and Olivia opened a set of books with an electronic machine to read them to her (books on tape sure have come a long way), and they were good to go. We got some presents out of boxes right away and put the rest aside to open at a later date. They've been discovering these other presents a little at a time over the past few weeks. Our house has never been so full of anticipatory excitement. :)
After festivities were done, we began packing the car to head to Michigan. We made a brief stop at our house to drop off presents and pick up things for the Michigan folk before continuing on our way and hit the chaos just before 7.
Thursday through Tuesday were spent visiting with my family. The girls ran around with their cousins, re-learning from William how much fun it is to just run around being crazy. :) At one point, Joseph was letting William, Olivia, and Gretchen run at him one at a time. He would catch the runner, lift him high in the air, and then put him down and await the next toddler. After Joseph (or perhaps his arms) tired of this game, he told the kids to amuse themselves and left the room. Apparently the three decided to continue the game without an adult, taking turns being the catcher. What resulted was them running full speed and smacking into each other. They made it a few rounds before bumped heads ended the game in tears.
My dad, loving the fact that Gretchen calls herself Kiki, set out on a mission to get her to refer to herself as "Opa's Kiki." This plan worked... mostly. Gretchen says Opa's Kiki, but we're pretty sure that's her name for dad, not for herself. :) One night after the girls were in bed, dad was talking in the living room. There's a fan on in the bedroom, so sounds are muffled, but apparently Gretchen heard his voice, because she immediately shouted, "OPA KIKI!" The whole living room erupted in laughter. Dad told her to go to sleep, to which she replied, "NO! OPA KIKI!" She did settle down shortly after that, though.
Bryan worked from my parents' house on Monday and Tuesday, but then we needed to head home. After dinner on Tuesday, we packed up the car and began the trip back to Lima. We arrived at the not-unreasonable hour of 9:30, put the girls in bed, unpacked the car into the dining room, and fell into bed.
Wednesday morning was spent beginning to unpack and find homes for new belongings. That afternoon I had a rehearsal, followed by an evening concert, so I didn't get too much done the rest of the day. Thursday was a day off for Bryan, so we all hung out and continued the quest to find the floor. By Friday morning most of the things were at least contained, which was good because the Kleins were coming to visit that afternoon. Steph and I ditched the men with the kids and headed off to a Messiah party (where a bunch of people get together for a laid-back singing of select parts of Handel's Messiah). Unbeknownst to Scott (Steph's husband), Bryan had volunteered to babysit all the church kids while their parents attended the festivities. Scott and Bryan ended up with 9 kids ranging in age from 1 1/2 to 5 and one elderly dachshund. They were hailed as brave heroes at the party, and it would seem that by all accounts they did splendidly. :)
We spent six days with Bryan's family, visiting from the weekend before Christmas until Christmas Day. I had two Etsy orders to finish (done in time to go out with Monday's mail!) and two and a half Christmas presents to complete (done by Wednesday, I think, except for the snaps on Justine's...). They didn't take me much time, but did allow me the occasional break from pre-Christmas craziness.
We went to Mass on Saturday night with the girls and then left them sleeping at Grandma and Grandpa's while Bryan and I went to midnight Liturgy in Lima. Gretchen decided to participate a little extra in Mass (you know, because it's Christmas) and proceeded to read rather loudly from her book during the Gospel. Then she spent the sermon singing the song "Singing in the Shower" (from my fabulous birthday present) at progressively higher pitches. Delightful. She read some more during the Eucharistic prayer and then settled down to listen during the actual hymns. As we sang "Silent Night," she caught the words "Jesus, Lord" (Jesus, Lord at thy birth...) and began pointing to pictures of Jesus Lord in church. This was great, until she realized the the large statue of Jesus Lord at the back of church was *gasp* naked! Then she spent the rest of the service proclaiming, "Jesus nanake!"
Christmas morning was everything Murry could have wished as the girls gazed with wide, excited eyes at the presents awaiting them under the tree. Gretchen opened a tea set and Olivia opened a set of books with an electronic machine to read them to her (books on tape sure have come a long way), and they were good to go. We got some presents out of boxes right away and put the rest aside to open at a later date. They've been discovering these other presents a little at a time over the past few weeks. Our house has never been so full of anticipatory excitement. :)
After festivities were done, we began packing the car to head to Michigan. We made a brief stop at our house to drop off presents and pick up things for the Michigan folk before continuing on our way and hit the chaos just before 7.
Thursday through Tuesday were spent visiting with my family. The girls ran around with their cousins, re-learning from William how much fun it is to just run around being crazy. :) At one point, Joseph was letting William, Olivia, and Gretchen run at him one at a time. He would catch the runner, lift him high in the air, and then put him down and await the next toddler. After Joseph (or perhaps his arms) tired of this game, he told the kids to amuse themselves and left the room. Apparently the three decided to continue the game without an adult, taking turns being the catcher. What resulted was them running full speed and smacking into each other. They made it a few rounds before bumped heads ended the game in tears.
My dad, loving the fact that Gretchen calls herself Kiki, set out on a mission to get her to refer to herself as "Opa's Kiki." This plan worked... mostly. Gretchen says Opa's Kiki, but we're pretty sure that's her name for dad, not for herself. :) One night after the girls were in bed, dad was talking in the living room. There's a fan on in the bedroom, so sounds are muffled, but apparently Gretchen heard his voice, because she immediately shouted, "OPA KIKI!" The whole living room erupted in laughter. Dad told her to go to sleep, to which she replied, "NO! OPA KIKI!" She did settle down shortly after that, though.
Bryan worked from my parents' house on Monday and Tuesday, but then we needed to head home. After dinner on Tuesday, we packed up the car and began the trip back to Lima. We arrived at the not-unreasonable hour of 9:30, put the girls in bed, unpacked the car into the dining room, and fell into bed.
Wednesday morning was spent beginning to unpack and find homes for new belongings. That afternoon I had a rehearsal, followed by an evening concert, so I didn't get too much done the rest of the day. Thursday was a day off for Bryan, so we all hung out and continued the quest to find the floor. By Friday morning most of the things were at least contained, which was good because the Kleins were coming to visit that afternoon. Steph and I ditched the men with the kids and headed off to a Messiah party (where a bunch of people get together for a laid-back singing of select parts of Handel's Messiah). Unbeknownst to Scott (Steph's husband), Bryan had volunteered to babysit all the church kids while their parents attended the festivities. Scott and Bryan ended up with 9 kids ranging in age from 1 1/2 to 5 and one elderly dachshund. They were hailed as brave heroes at the party, and it would seem that by all accounts they did splendidly. :)
04 January 2015
December 21-January 4
Just pictures again this week. I'll get some words to you next week. :)
Pictures:
Pictures:
28 December 2014
We are traveling, traveling...
Check back next week for your regular installment of Barhorst Brewed. :)
21 December 2014
December 14-21
Two weeks ago, especially the second half of the week, was ridiculously busy.
You may recall that Steph and I started an Etsy shop. Well, said Esty shop exploded in business over the last month, presumably because of the holiday. We nearly doubled our total orders in the time from Thanksgiving until we went on vacation December 15. Because of this, I had 13 sets of snapkins, 6 car roll-up travel maps, and 1 custom Pomeranian golf club cover to make. I sewed and sewed and sewed, only taking breaks for all the other things that were happening in my life.
What other things? Let's see... The church had a cookie walk, for which I baked 32 dozen Spritz cookies and 40 dozen Austrian chocolate balls. I also helped roll 50 dozen gingerbread men and 40 dozen rum balls. The cookie walk took place on Saturday, December 13, so I was at church all morning arranging tables and selling cookies. Then I had to leave for rehearsal because my concert was the same day.
Yes, the Lima Symphony Christmas Concert is the same day as the cookie walk. A bit of poor planning on the part of the cookie walk, since I'm not the only member of our (rather small) parish that is in this concert. That's the best day for it, though, so Elesha and I just leave the cookie walk early for rehearsal. I had a rehearsal Friday night, another Saturday afternoon, and then a concert Saturday night. All went well and I happily went to bed that night knowing that the only thing left to do was sew.
...Except that we didn't have enough cookies to cover all the preorders that were made. Sunday afternoon and evening were spent spooning out 12 dozen lemon ricotta cookies and rolling approximately 700 buckeyes. Monday was dipping buckeyes in chocolate and packaging preorders until they were finally done. THEN back to the sewing. ...With a brief hiatus Tuesday afternoon to babysit Carrie's three boys while she dropped off preorders at local businesses, because it's quicker to do all that running in and out without three carseat-dwellers in tow. :)
In the midst of all this craziness, Jacque came down to surprise me for my birthday and stayed for a couple of days. She and I chitchatted when she wasn't being required to dance or read or play hide-and-go-seek with her nieces. She was instantly accepted by the girls as one of their own (although Gretchen had a change of heart for part of the second day) and Olivia gave her the tour of the house. By the way, the "house" according to Olivia apparently consists only of the playroom. Jacque painted Olivia's nails and watched Tangled with her, thus further cementing her favorable position in Olivia's eyes. Gretchen spent the first lunchtime trying to convince Jacque that she was actually Billy and then, having finally accepted the fact that this was, in fact, Jacque, spent the rest of the visit saying, "Not Billy. Jacque." and laughing to herself.
Bryan and the girls gave me Blue Moo for my birthday. It's a compilation of Sandra Boynton songs, complete with pictures, lyrics, music, and a CD. If you don't own it, you're missing out. This CD has been the only thing playing in our car since I opened it a week ago and it is fabulous. I'd list our favorite songs, but that's practically the whole album, so you should just check out the link. Click on the picture of the cover to look inside. You will not be disappointed.
Gretchen's most recent words: backpack, candle, Jacque, Justine, please, booger brain, ate well, candy, lunch, juice, grapes, wand, raisins. Gretchen is one of those children who repeats every word she hears, so she says a lot of things once, but not all of them stick. Olivia didn't repeat things this much, so I was beginning to think that the constant repetition was a bit of hyperbole used when stereotyping toddlers. It's not.
A lesson learned: The best mode for taking pictures of toddlers is Sports mode. The pictures don't try so hard to focus and generally come out less blurry.
A fun thing to do: Watch two 3-year-olds and a 5-year-old try to assemble Mousetrap.
Now we're at Bryan's parents' house for the holidays. We'll be here until Christmas Day, when we travel up to Michigan to visit my parents for a few days. Let the craziness begin!
A few pictures:
You may recall that Steph and I started an Etsy shop. Well, said Esty shop exploded in business over the last month, presumably because of the holiday. We nearly doubled our total orders in the time from Thanksgiving until we went on vacation December 15. Because of this, I had 13 sets of snapkins, 6 car roll-up travel maps, and 1 custom Pomeranian golf club cover to make. I sewed and sewed and sewed, only taking breaks for all the other things that were happening in my life.
What other things? Let's see... The church had a cookie walk, for which I baked 32 dozen Spritz cookies and 40 dozen Austrian chocolate balls. I also helped roll 50 dozen gingerbread men and 40 dozen rum balls. The cookie walk took place on Saturday, December 13, so I was at church all morning arranging tables and selling cookies. Then I had to leave for rehearsal because my concert was the same day.
Yes, the Lima Symphony Christmas Concert is the same day as the cookie walk. A bit of poor planning on the part of the cookie walk, since I'm not the only member of our (rather small) parish that is in this concert. That's the best day for it, though, so Elesha and I just leave the cookie walk early for rehearsal. I had a rehearsal Friday night, another Saturday afternoon, and then a concert Saturday night. All went well and I happily went to bed that night knowing that the only thing left to do was sew.
...Except that we didn't have enough cookies to cover all the preorders that were made. Sunday afternoon and evening were spent spooning out 12 dozen lemon ricotta cookies and rolling approximately 700 buckeyes. Monday was dipping buckeyes in chocolate and packaging preorders until they were finally done. THEN back to the sewing. ...With a brief hiatus Tuesday afternoon to babysit Carrie's three boys while she dropped off preorders at local businesses, because it's quicker to do all that running in and out without three carseat-dwellers in tow. :)
In the midst of all this craziness, Jacque came down to surprise me for my birthday and stayed for a couple of days. She and I chitchatted when she wasn't being required to dance or read or play hide-and-go-seek with her nieces. She was instantly accepted by the girls as one of their own (although Gretchen had a change of heart for part of the second day) and Olivia gave her the tour of the house. By the way, the "house" according to Olivia apparently consists only of the playroom. Jacque painted Olivia's nails and watched Tangled with her, thus further cementing her favorable position in Olivia's eyes. Gretchen spent the first lunchtime trying to convince Jacque that she was actually Billy and then, having finally accepted the fact that this was, in fact, Jacque, spent the rest of the visit saying, "Not Billy. Jacque." and laughing to herself.
Bryan and the girls gave me Blue Moo for my birthday. It's a compilation of Sandra Boynton songs, complete with pictures, lyrics, music, and a CD. If you don't own it, you're missing out. This CD has been the only thing playing in our car since I opened it a week ago and it is fabulous. I'd list our favorite songs, but that's practically the whole album, so you should just check out the link. Click on the picture of the cover to look inside. You will not be disappointed.
Gretchen's most recent words: backpack, candle, Jacque, Justine, please, booger brain, ate well, candy, lunch, juice, grapes, wand, raisins. Gretchen is one of those children who repeats every word she hears, so she says a lot of things once, but not all of them stick. Olivia didn't repeat things this much, so I was beginning to think that the constant repetition was a bit of hyperbole used when stereotyping toddlers. It's not.
A lesson learned: The best mode for taking pictures of toddlers is Sports mode. The pictures don't try so hard to focus and generally come out less blurry.
A fun thing to do: Watch two 3-year-olds and a 5-year-old try to assemble Mousetrap.
Now we're at Bryan's parents' house for the holidays. We'll be here until Christmas Day, when we travel up to Michigan to visit my parents for a few days. Let the craziness begin!
A few pictures:
14 December 2014
10 December 2014
Bonus Post: 30 Before 30 Update
A record of my 30 Before 30 progress thus far.
1.Genuinely surprise Bryan at least once. February 15, 2014
2. Record the psalms. --Siblings, when are we going to do this?
3.Run a sub-2:00 half marathon. April 6, 2014. 1:54:30
4.Sell at least one thing I've made (at the Farmer's Market or on Etsy). --May 17, 2014. Steph and I set up an Etsy account and my first order was for the matching squares that I made William for Christmas.
5. Learn Spanish. --I listen to Spanish CDs while I run on the treadmill, so I'm making progress here. --Progress has slowed since my race in April ended my daily treadmill runs. I need to get motivated to keep learning. --Progress has picked up again, thanks to smartphones and the duolingo app.
6. Record all 6 cello suites.
7. Sew Christmas and/or Easter dresses for the girls. --I have patterns! I'm waiting until the girls are bigger to make them.
8. Minimize (eliminate?) the need for disposable products in our house.
9.Have a compost pile. --We have a bucket that we've begun collecting scraps in and the pile is growing.
10. Play with at least 2 professional orchestras. --I play with Lima, and I'm looking for auditions with other orchestras.
11.Go 7 days in a row without letting my temper get the better of me. February 14-21, 2014 I'd gotten 6 days in a row a couple of times and then finally made it 7 (nine, actually). I'm finding it easier to take deep breaths and move on, and I have a chart to keep track of my progress. Next goal: three weeks. That's how long it takes to form a habit, right?
12.Make an honest attempt at clean eating/real food. I've done some research and tried some substitutes and reached a comfortable point. Do I care enough to use butter instead of margarine? Yes. Do I care enough to buy coconut oil regularly? No. Whole grain noodles and brown rice most of the time? Yes. Completely eliminate sugar? No. Homemade bread? Yes. Whole wheat bread? Sometimes. But often I appreciate the airiness that I can only achieve with a little bit of white flour.
13. *Skipped because knowledge by some of my readers could skew the results.* April 5, 2014
14. Go on an overnight vacation with just our family.
15.Grow a garden. My garden is progressing nicely, although technically we haven't seen any actual vegetables yet since they still have a month or so before they reach maturity. The leaves look beautiful and healthy, though!
16. Write a book.
17. Sew a skirt that becomes my favorite.
18. Volunteer to host campout. --We tried to do this for 2016 campout (and even thought we'd succeeded), but apparently we didn't tell all the right people, so someone else is doing 2016. We will be trying again for 2017. :)
19. Go through RCIA. Edit: Arrange to talk to a Catholic priest several times. RCIA won't answer the questions I have.
20. Attend Seekers' Group (similar to RCIA, offered by the Orthodox church in Lima). --Bryan and I are attending this every Tuesday and I have no reason to believe we'll quit before it's finished.
21. Complete at least 3 things on my (ever growing) Projects List. --I think I finished one, but now I can't remember what it is!
22. Start a soup kitchen.
23.Make pectin-free jam. Make up the recipe. --August 18, 2014. I made peach jam with almond and nutmeg.
24.Go on an overnight vacation with Bryan -- no kids. --September 25-28, 2014
25. Use up all the coupons Bryan gave me (I still have some from when we were dating). --Slowly but surely coming along.
26. Learn one of the 3 big concertos. --I have music for two of these. Now I just have to practice. --Practice is not happening as much as it should. :(
27.Arrange a regularly recurring get-together with the Lima folk. --Second Thursday of each month is "go to Lima" day. We've successfully done this two months in a row, so I'm crossing it off.
28.Have a religious conversation with Bryan that doesn't end in tears. --July 27, 2014. Nothing was solved, but I didn't cry.
29. Make a new friend.
30. Improve a stranger's day.
31. (Because I thought of one more and it kind of fits in with several of the above goals) Join a co-op.
1.
2. Record the psalms. --Siblings, when are we going to do this?
3.
4.
5. Learn Spanish. --I listen to Spanish CDs while I run on the treadmill, so I'm making progress here. --Progress has slowed since my race in April ended my daily treadmill runs. I need to get motivated to keep learning. --Progress has picked up again, thanks to smartphones and the duolingo app.
6. Record all 6 cello suites.
7. Sew Christmas and/or Easter dresses for the girls. --I have patterns! I'm waiting until the girls are bigger to make them.
8. Minimize (eliminate?) the need for disposable products in our house.
9.
10. Play with at least 2 professional orchestras. --I play with Lima, and I'm looking for auditions with other orchestras.
11.
12.
13. *
14. Go on an overnight vacation with just our family.
15.
16. Write a book.
17. Sew a skirt that becomes my favorite.
18. Volunteer to host campout. --We tried to do this for 2016 campout (and even thought we'd succeeded), but apparently we didn't tell all the right people, so someone else is doing 2016. We will be trying again for 2017. :)
19. Go through RCIA. Edit: Arrange to talk to a Catholic priest several times. RCIA won't answer the questions I have.
20. Attend Seekers' Group (similar to RCIA, offered by the Orthodox church in Lima). --Bryan and I are attending this every Tuesday and I have no reason to believe we'll quit before it's finished.
21. Complete at least 3 things on my (ever growing) Projects List. --I think I finished one, but now I can't remember what it is!
22. Start a soup kitchen.
23.
24.
25. Use up all the coupons Bryan gave me (I still have some from when we were dating). --Slowly but surely coming along.
26. Learn one of the 3 big concertos. --I have music for two of these. Now I just have to practice. --Practice is not happening as much as it should. :(
27.
28.
29. Make a new friend.
30. Improve a stranger's day.
31. (Because I thought of one more and it kind of fits in with several of the above goals) Join a co-op.
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