D Went Home
D went home Monday morning, and the house feels very, umm, ... lacking. :) She was never loud, but the house is now quieter and I feel like I can do lots and lots of things because, for the mornings, I only have 2 kids around! Wow! The first day I ran errands and then I cleaned up the kids' room (it had a sleeping bag on the ground for the whole 4 plus weeks D was here). ... It's nice to have the house a little cleaner and quieter and back to normal. But at the same time, I miss D. She was fun to have around. It's especially good for Elijah, I think, for D to be gone. Cause Elijah was in need of some serious alone time.
Cheerios on the Floor and Other Craziness
Last week was a fun week! Mondays Rob is at class until 9 pm or later. Right around dinner time I got a phone call. I was downstairs, so I answered it down there, which meant it wasn't a portable phone. I was on the phone for about 20 minutes and when I went back upstairs, Elijah had dumped an entire box of Cheerios all over the house! It took me over half an hour to clean that one up. Mid-cleaning, I called up R and asked if he wanted to keep a little boy occupied for about half an hour. He asked what I was getting ready to do. I told him I was getting ready to kill a little boy! :) So I took him over there and finished cleaning up the house. It was nice to just not have to look at him for a little while. He's not a bad kid, he's just 3 and sometimes I have to have some time when he's not in my face looking so cute and innocent and mischevious about the messes he makes. ... But when Rob got home the house was clean!
Then Tuesday. Rob came home early to do yardwork. It's been so cold that there wasn't a really good day to do it for a while, plus Rob's been pretty busy. He did all the yardwork and then I started doing some work in the garden. Rob took Elijah to McDonalds for a little date. Then Rob went off to Young Mens and I stayed home with the kids. Well, I had laid Teancom down for a nap, but turns out he wasn't tired, he was hungry. He was screaming by the time I picked him up. But then he was so upset that he wouldn't eat for a little while. So I put him back down for a minute. I was trying to get dinner for the kids this whole time and the girls are asking to do all kinds of things. During all that Elijah decides he has to go potty and needs me in there the whole time. So I'm in the bathroom, listening to the girls being crazy on one hand and Teancom screaming on the other. By now I'm feeling just about crazy. Finally Elijah was done. I got dinner for the girls and fed Teancom. I then walk into my bedroom and the laundry basket full of folded clothes is all over the floor! I said, "What happened?!" Elijah, very calmly, walks up behind me and says, "I did it." You did THIS? Why? He says, "I look for socks." Ugh.
That night ended with me almost falling asleep on the couch, holding Teancom, counting down minutes until Rob got home.
Of course, I called my mom a few days later to tell her about the days and she just laughed at me. I think that's why I call her to tell her, so we can laugh together. I need that. Every mom has had days like that and it helps to laugh about it together.
Parley P. Pratt Conference
Last weekend we left our kids with friends and went to a Parley P. Pratt academic conference in Arkansas. That was a lot of fun. It was a 13-hour drive one way, so it was a little long, but we weren't feeling that until the last of the drive home. Rob and I got to talk in the car without any kids and that was awesome. We picked up my Dad in Memphis on the way and we had a good time with him. ... In Memphis we were thinking, since we had about an hour to kill, we'd just drive by Graceland (it's about 5 minutes from the airport). Well, we weren't sure quite where to go, so we parked. It was $6 to just park our car there. Anyways, we went to just see if we could walk on the property or something short, and it was $25 per person just to get on the property! So we just hung out in the gift shop and looked at pictures of Graceland. So $6 to look at pictures. Oh well, it was time to kill, and the pictures were actually pretty cool.
"Just" 3 Kids
... This week I've spent some time feeling like I wasn't sure what to do. Before, with 4 kids around, I didn't have any time to waste. But now, with just one less, I have time again and I've felt like I didn't know what to do at times. I don't know what's worse, to not have any time, or to feel like you've just wasted the whole day. :) But by the end of the week I felt like I had it pretty much back together and I've even felt ambitious enough to take on a project or two. Course, my kids aren't used to that, so we'll have to get back in the swing of things in that way.
The Scrapbooking Trip
This weekend has been a blast! A crazy, fun blast! I took 3 friends with me up to P to a day of scrapbooking with LB. Course, she's just Aunt L to me, a normal person, so it was way weird to see her being mobbed by scrapbooking women. It was awesome to see her in her element. It was fun to make the trip, a little girls' weekend, and it was fun to get to know the three women a little better.
Family-ness
We came back to Cincy and all Rob's family was here--all his available siblings, including Bryant from Utah, Mom and Dad, all the grandkids, and then eventually L made it back down, too. Sunday (today) we all went to church together and that was fun--chaos, but fun. We ate lunch with Bryant, Mom and Dad, L, and then my uncle R and his daughter C. C brought her little dog over (she looks like Wishbone) and the dog and Elijah became best friends. :) Elijah so needs a dog or a big brother. He loves to run around and be crazy and be physical. ... We were invited to dinner at a friend's house this last week. Rob hometeaches them. They have 7 kids, 3 of which are still living at home (4 were there that night). One is 10 or so, then 16, 23, and 27--something like that. Anyways, Miciah took a liking to the 23-year-old and he read books to her, let her go with him on a walk with the dog. She didn't let him out of her sight. Then the mom wanted to hold Teancom most of the time. And Elijah was in heaven with the 10 and 16-year-old. The boys chased him, let him chase them, threw balls to him, to each other, all those things boys like to do. Elijah LOVED it and didn't want to go home. I told them we're calling them next time we need a babysitter.
Okay, so that's life events here.
Miciah
Miciah is getting so much bigger and even more aware of what's going on around her. I just decided this last week that Miciah and I are forming a partnership at our home. She's going to be "in charge" and help me make decisions about our time and our home. Miciah doesn't like to be told what to do. Not at all. In fact, the idea dawned on me when she wanted to play with a flashlight. Of course, it was the same flashlight she had taken away from Elijah earlier because flashlights aren't toys. So I told her she also couldn't play with one. She said she NEEDED one for her train show, to be the spotlight. I told her that she was smart, she should come up with an acceptable alternative. She thought for a minute and said, "I know. You could cut out two yellow circles to be the spotlight." I told her I could do that. She said, "Yeah, but I should think more about it and write down some ideas." So she marched outside with pen and paper, took a chair to the middle of the backyard, and sat there for like 20 minutes coming up with "ideas". It was so cute. ... But it dawned on me that, given a little bit of freedom and time, she could basically run her own show. She's amazing at doing that. So why not let her. Most of the time, it's just me being lazy anyway, so I just have to discipline myself to be a better mother. That would be a worthwhile thing to do.
Elijah
Elijah is still sweet Elijah. He's been a little clingy lately, and a little tired. I think he's been a little clingy cause I've been gone a little more than usual. I went somewhere last weekend and this weekend. He's started saying, "Don't leave," while hugging my legs as tight as possible. He sometimes hugs me so tight that it knocks me over. I love his affection, but when he's clingy it's a little smothering. ... His scar is healing nicely. I think it's going to be pretty noticable for a while, but I'm not too worried about it. He likes to tell people that he got an "owie at mommy's house."
Teancom
And Teancom. He is rolling and scooting and eating a ton. He's trying to get ready to crawl. He'll get up on his hands and knees and look like he wants to start moving. He'll bob back and forth but doesn't actually move anywhere that way yet. He can move in a complete arc and scoot backwards and get to about anything he wants to get to. ... A couple weeks ago Rob and I had a good laugh watching Teancom trying to get something in front of him. He saw a toy in front of him that he couldn't reach (it was several feet away). He'd look at it, then roll across the living room one way to try to get to it. He'd reach the end, look at the toy again, decide he wasn't any closer, so he'd roll all the way back across the living room. He'd look again, decide he wasn't any closer still, and roll all the way back. He did this about 6 times back and forth before he finally started getting upset about it. We got the toy for him and praised him for the effort. :) It was cute. ... Now Teancom can do more than roll and I'm finally needing to make sure nothing at all is on the floor, not just not in his area. It's good to see him so active.
We Need a New Doctor
He's still happy as ever. We did get the iron test back. All the other tests came back normal, but his iron is borderline low: 10.4 if that means anything to you. Anyways, they gave us some iron for him to take. They said they'll check his iron again at 12 months and see if it's improved at all. As for his developmental progress, he's still behind a little. They want him at least crusing along furniture by 12 months. The doc said, and I quote, "If he's not, we'll have to try something different." I thought, "Like What? Baby exercise classes? Protien shakes?"
Rob
As for Rob, he's doing good. He's getting excited about where he is in school. He's started writing his first paper for publication and that's exciting to be at that stage. Almost all his experiments he needs to run are done, and so it feels a little more like the end is near. ... It does not feel like we've already been here 3 years, but it will be 3 years in June. Woah.
Tamra's New Church Calling
My exciting news is that I got a new calling at church. Rob and I both had youth callings, and that was working great until we had 3 kids instead of 2. The last few months Rob's been even more involved as YM President, which is great, but the situation caused so much contention in our home that it became a liability instead of a blessing. So I asked to be realeased and I got a new calling, and I'm excited about that. I'll miss my girls, but I'm glad it all happened how it happened.
So there's our update for now. Hope all is well with everyone.
Tamra, Rob, Miciah, Elijah, and Teancom
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