Health and Fitness Challenge
Well, Rob and I finished our Health and Fitness Challenge last Sunday. It was a wonderful 12 weeks of pushing ourselves to do better with our bodies, and make better choices. The challenge included putting in $25 per person into a pot at the start. The pot will now be split 2 ways: 2/3 to the winning team and 1/3 to the winning individual. From the beginning, I was pretty sure Rob would win the individual category. I don't know why I thought that. First off, because he had weight to lose, and that gives you points. Second off, Rob is insanely dedicated. He put in a near-superhuman effort and it paid off. He lost 23 lbs. and over 11 inches in 3 months! That's incredible. I also assumed when we started that I would win nothing. I have no weight to lose, though I did lose 3 inches. But apparently having a near-superhuman partner forces you to put in at least a really good effort. I did really well, too, and it ended up that Rob and I won the top team. That was actually shocking to me, but what a nice payback! Rob and I are pretty happy with the results, including the lifestyle changes it's helped us make.
We've made up our own type of challenge, including other areas of our lives. We've cut back on the exercise and eased up on the stricter eating plans, and added scripture reading and prayer. There's no money involved this time, but it's suprised us both that simply writing down what we've been doing is helpful to us. So on to more adventures!
We've made up our own type of challenge, including other areas of our lives. We've cut back on the exercise and eased up on the stricter eating plans, and added scripture reading and prayer. There's no money involved this time, but it's suprised us both that simply writing down what we've been doing is helpful to us. So on to more adventures!
Rob in San Diego, Miciah at Miami
Rob is in San Diego for an Immunology Conference until Thursday morning at 1 am when he should plop back in bed here, exhausted. I went to this conference with him last year, but it's kind of fun to be here with the kids, all by myself. I probably think it's fun so far because I'm 1 kid short. Miciah went up to be with ML (soon to be Thacker) at Miami U for Kidfest. It's a little sibling weekend and since M has no little siblings, she asked Miciah to come as her stand in. Miciah was SO excited, and she's loved it. I go to pick her up soon.
Then it'll be all of us at home. :) Sometimes it's not too easy for me to be alone with the kids. But it's funny how easy it can be to step up when needed. Though I should probably hold my opinion on all this until Friday. I think the hardest days will be Thursday and Friday, when Rob is home but has to go in to school.
No real news to share, so we'll do more stories.
Then it'll be all of us at home. :) Sometimes it's not too easy for me to be alone with the kids. But it's funny how easy it can be to step up when needed. Though I should probably hold my opinion on all this until Friday. I think the hardest days will be Thursday and Friday, when Rob is home but has to go in to school.
No real news to share, so we'll do more stories.
Teancom
Teancom is talking up a storm and it's really cute it's the learning to talk stage where they say things half right and half not. One of my favorite things he says is "bird". It sounds something like "burd." He also decided for fun yesterday that birds should be scary, so he'll say "bird" and then do a fake scream as he runs away.
Teancom is also obsessed with dogs, though he's scared to death of most of them. He doesn't like things that bark or move quickly or unexpectedly. However he loves dogs. How does that work?
We've just had to move Cleo's food and water bowls onto the freezer because Teancom made a daily game of dumping her food into her water or her food and water on the floor or any other wonderful combination.
Teancom is also obsessed with dogs, though he's scared to death of most of them. He doesn't like things that bark or move quickly or unexpectedly. However he loves dogs. How does that work?
We've just had to move Cleo's food and water bowls onto the freezer because Teancom made a daily game of dumping her food into her water or her food and water on the floor or any other wonderful combination.
Elijah
Elijah is now a very capable train track builder. Well, he's always been pretty capable, but it seems like his skills have vastly improved lately. I'll include some pictures about his latest non-train track track. You know, the kind made out of the stuff from my living room. The last one was pretty impressive and included the dining room chairs that he made into a "bridge." Nice.
Today Elijah and I built a train track. He decided we should both be Thomas trains while we played. He was the big Daddy Thomas train and I was the kid Thomas train. I got to call him Daddy and he got to call me Sweety. 'Cept he can't say Sweety very well, so I was Fweety. And that's dang cute.
I realized, as we were playing, that I call him Sweety a lot. All my kids. "Are you hurt, Sweety?" Because he was saying just that to the Fweety train. "Are you okay, Fweety?" and "Fweety, I'll be right there!" It was comforting to know that it was a positive word and not something like, "Loser" or "Idiot." Not that I call my kids those things. I don't. But it was just nice in an unexpected, reassuring sense. One of those, "Oh, I'm doing things alright. That's nice" moments. Everyone can use a few of those.
Elijah has taken to saying, "That's it, Mom!" He'll get upset at me for telling him the way things are. You know, something like, "No, Elijah, you can't watch a movie right now." He'll scowl at me, stomp his feet, and say, "That's it, Mom! I'm taking a nap!" I respond how any mother would to such a threat: "Okay, Elijah." Then he'll stomp off to his room and slam the door. He'll spend a few minutes in his room, then come out and move on with his life. It's pretty funny. Alternate threats are, "I'm going to bed!" or "I'm never watching a movie again!" or "I'm throwing my toys away!" Empty threats, but it makes for an exciting day.
On Friday night Rob took Elijah to the store to buy a treat just because. Miciah wasn't around, so it was a fun daddy-son thing to do. On the way to the store, they passed McDonald's and Elijah asked if he could go. My kids typically call McDonald's "Old McDonald's" or something like that, but this time Elijah decided to call it "Chicken Noodles." That makes me laugh for some reason. On Saturday morning I had decided I would take the boys to McDonalds for lunch as a special treat. I asked Elijah if he would like to go. He said, "Yeah! Hey! I was just thinking about that last night in Daddy's car!" Then, "I'll go eat chicken noodle. No! They don't have chicken noodle." And then he laughed. It cracked me up.
Elijah is also very into pretend these days. He's still obsessed with Spider-Man, but thankfully he's moved on to include just about any superhero. He'll be Spider-Man or Super Man or the Avatar. Sometimes all of those at the same time. We had to buy Elijah new pants because he's grown, and while we were there we "had" to buy him a Spider-Man T-shirt. He doesn't actually have a Spider-Man T-shirt, just pajamas. He also saw Spider-Man swim trunks, so he got those, too. So all he wore for the first 2 days was those trunks, that shirt, and a hat we bought him. We were sitting down to dinner (where he has learned he can't wear his hat, and we've had no fights about this) and he was excited about something and telling me to call him Spider-Man and let me tell you this and what about all that. I turned to him in the middle of all his talking and said, "Spider-Man, would you like some green beans?" He stopped talking and got this big grin on his face. Then he giggled a little and said, "Thanks, Mom," like me calling him Spider-Man just made his year.
Elijah is still rambuncious, but as sensitive as ever. He's hard to discipline when he needs to be, so it's good that he only needs it about once a month. After disciplining Miciah, I never thought I'd think it was hard to discipline a child who was sensitive (why would that be bad? I would have paid MONEY for that with Miciah!). Turns out it's every bit as hard, just in different ways. Thankfully, Elijah isn't as full-time as Miciah was, but that's about the only difference.
Now that it's warmer, Elijah thinks he should be visiting all our neighbors. It doesn't help that R & C are 2 doors down, so he thinks he should be able to walk to any house on the street any time he wants. :) He has spent some time with R these days, which both of them have missed, I think. Elijah will walk down there and, once they open the door, he'll walk into the house like he owns it. The other day he walked down and R played with him for almost 2 hours. R said, "I fed him balogney because "it's his favorite." Then I fed him crackers because "it's his favorite." Then we played a hunting game." He also mentioned to Elijah about his pajamas. Funny enough, I never even notice when Elijah's in pajamas these days, he's in them so often. Someone will say, "That's cool Elijah's in his pajamas," and I'll typically respond with something like, "He is? Oh, right." Anyways, on that day R said, "Nice pajamas, Elijah," and Elijah said, "Yeah, they're AWESOME! But they're a little itchy," and proceeded to scratch his bum. And while that's funny, not sure how I feel about that.
Elijah has taken to saying, "That's it, Mom!" He'll get upset at me for telling him the way things are. You know, something like, "No, Elijah, you can't watch a movie right now." He'll scowl at me, stomp his feet, and say, "That's it, Mom! I'm taking a nap!" I respond how any mother would to such a threat: "Okay, Elijah." Then he'll stomp off to his room and slam the door. He'll spend a few minutes in his room, then come out and move on with his life. It's pretty funny. Alternate threats are, "I'm going to bed!" or "I'm never watching a movie again!" or "I'm throwing my toys away!" Empty threats, but it makes for an exciting day.
On Friday night Rob took Elijah to the store to buy a treat just because. Miciah wasn't around, so it was a fun daddy-son thing to do. On the way to the store, they passed McDonald's and Elijah asked if he could go. My kids typically call McDonald's "Old McDonald's" or something like that, but this time Elijah decided to call it "Chicken Noodles." That makes me laugh for some reason. On Saturday morning I had decided I would take the boys to McDonalds for lunch as a special treat. I asked Elijah if he would like to go. He said, "Yeah! Hey! I was just thinking about that last night in Daddy's car!" Then, "I'll go eat chicken noodle. No! They don't have chicken noodle." And then he laughed. It cracked me up.
Elijah is also very into pretend these days. He's still obsessed with Spider-Man, but thankfully he's moved on to include just about any superhero. He'll be Spider-Man or Super Man or the Avatar. Sometimes all of those at the same time. We had to buy Elijah new pants because he's grown, and while we were there we "had" to buy him a Spider-Man T-shirt. He doesn't actually have a Spider-Man T-shirt, just pajamas. He also saw Spider-Man swim trunks, so he got those, too. So all he wore for the first 2 days was those trunks, that shirt, and a hat we bought him. We were sitting down to dinner (where he has learned he can't wear his hat, and we've had no fights about this) and he was excited about something and telling me to call him Spider-Man and let me tell you this and what about all that. I turned to him in the middle of all his talking and said, "Spider-Man, would you like some green beans?" He stopped talking and got this big grin on his face. Then he giggled a little and said, "Thanks, Mom," like me calling him Spider-Man just made his year.
Elijah is still rambuncious, but as sensitive as ever. He's hard to discipline when he needs to be, so it's good that he only needs it about once a month. After disciplining Miciah, I never thought I'd think it was hard to discipline a child who was sensitive (why would that be bad? I would have paid MONEY for that with Miciah!). Turns out it's every bit as hard, just in different ways. Thankfully, Elijah isn't as full-time as Miciah was, but that's about the only difference.
Now that it's warmer, Elijah thinks he should be visiting all our neighbors. It doesn't help that R & C are 2 doors down, so he thinks he should be able to walk to any house on the street any time he wants. :) He has spent some time with R these days, which both of them have missed, I think. Elijah will walk down there and, once they open the door, he'll walk into the house like he owns it. The other day he walked down and R played with him for almost 2 hours. R said, "I fed him balogney because "it's his favorite." Then I fed him crackers because "it's his favorite." Then we played a hunting game." He also mentioned to Elijah about his pajamas. Funny enough, I never even notice when Elijah's in pajamas these days, he's in them so often. Someone will say, "That's cool Elijah's in his pajamas," and I'll typically respond with something like, "He is? Oh, right." Anyways, on that day R said, "Nice pajamas, Elijah," and Elijah said, "Yeah, they're AWESOME! But they're a little itchy," and proceeded to scratch his bum. And while that's funny, not sure how I feel about that.
Miciah
I don't usually have stories about Miciah, cause she doesn't say or do cute things any more. The things she does are now more sophisticated compared to the little 'uns. The other night her and Rob had a cute moment where he decided to tell her some real jokes. Usually the jokes we tell are lame stupid kid jokes. But this time Rob adapted some adult jokes a little and told them to her. She was laughing her head off and it was the cutest thing ever. She relayed one joke to me, or at least the jist of it, and said, "And I got it, Mom. I really did get it." :) She's been asking Rob to tell her more jokes ever since.
She's reading like a madwoman these days. It's awesome to send her off to reading time before bed and have her come and report what she read. She'll tell us her favorite parts. Rob suggested she take a pencil with her so she could mark any words she didn't know or couldn't sound out herself. So she'll come the next day and ask about a word or two. It's a fun stage to be in.
She's also spelling creatively. I wrote down some examples, because they were cute:
She loves doing chalk drawings on the front porch. On some morning, I walked out the door and looked over at what she'd drawn and this was written: "I hope you like my pikshrs. I like my pikshrs. Do you? Miciah"
For those of you who can't sound out phonetically, pikshrs is pictures.
She wrote herself this note to herself apparently to remind herself that she was going to the Children's Museum for a field trip. (I helped her with spelling part of children's and museum.):
"I am going to the childrin's museum today. from Miciah to Miciah." (then in a box:) "I rile am going to it."
Rile is really.
When I was cleaning the toy room downstairs I found these paper "pillows". They were pieces of paper folded over and stapled on the edges, with paper inside them to make them like pillows. They had things drawn on them from a stencil and then things written beside it. Like so:
A picture of a cat. "This livs in Egipt."
A picture of an owl. "I like ols becus thay go hoot hoot."
A picture of a butterfly. "This livs in r stat. I like butrflis."
(This one I wondered about for a while. It says This lives in our state.
And lastly, she drew a picture of a character from Avatar. Honestly, I don't know how to spell his name. Haru, maybe? Anyways, she drew the picture that I've attached to this e-mail (if you know the show, you'll recognize the character), and then on the back she wrote in a big heart:
"I love you To Hroow From Ktra."
Ktra is Katara, another character from the show.
She's reading like a madwoman these days. It's awesome to send her off to reading time before bed and have her come and report what she read. She'll tell us her favorite parts. Rob suggested she take a pencil with her so she could mark any words she didn't know or couldn't sound out herself. So she'll come the next day and ask about a word or two. It's a fun stage to be in.
She's also spelling creatively. I wrote down some examples, because they were cute:
She loves doing chalk drawings on the front porch. On some morning, I walked out the door and looked over at what she'd drawn and this was written: "I hope you like my pikshrs. I like my pikshrs. Do you? Miciah"
For those of you who can't sound out phonetically, pikshrs is pictures.
She wrote herself this note to herself apparently to remind herself that she was going to the Children's Museum for a field trip. (I helped her with spelling part of children's and museum.):
"I am going to the childrin's museum today. from Miciah to Miciah." (then in a box:) "I rile am going to it."
Rile is really.
When I was cleaning the toy room downstairs I found these paper "pillows". They were pieces of paper folded over and stapled on the edges, with paper inside them to make them like pillows. They had things drawn on them from a stencil and then things written beside it. Like so:
A picture of a cat. "This livs in Egipt."
A picture of an owl. "I like ols becus thay go hoot hoot."
A picture of a butterfly. "This livs in r stat. I like butrflis."
(This one I wondered about for a while. It says This lives in our state.
And lastly, she drew a picture of a character from Avatar. Honestly, I don't know how to spell his name. Haru, maybe? Anyways, she drew the picture that I've attached to this e-mail (if you know the show, you'll recognize the character), and then on the back she wrote in a big heart:
"I love you To Hroow From Ktra."
Ktra is Katara, another character from the show.
Miciah does more artwork than I can keep on top of or reasonably save. It's fun to have her be doing so much.
Oh, I thought this was cute. She always does a calendar at school. For March, they put on the calendar a list of things to look for as signs of Spring. She misplaced the calendar for a while, and I found it when I was cleaning yesterday. Miciah called from M's because she was feeling a little homesick. Her voice sounded so pathetic as she told me she missed me. I knew she was having a good time, of course, so I wasn't too concerned. To try to get her mind off the topic, and to try to cheer her up, I told her I'd found her March calendar. She replied in the same pathetic I miss you voice, "Mom?" And I thought she hadn't even heard what I'd said. "Mom? Can you put a check mark next to "buds on trees" and "flowers"? Because I've seen those." :)
Now I am off to pick up Miciah and bring her home!! Yea!
Enjoy the pictures. There'll be a series of them.
Teancom in Miciah's fuzzy winter hat. Since Elijah got his hat, Teancom's been wearing hats non-stop, too. Funny.
Here's Elijah blowing out the candles on his cake:
We buzzed the boys heads. They look pretty cute. Rob now calls Teancom his bald little monkey.
After we buzzed the boys' heads, Elijah chased Teancom around saying, "He looks funny! He looks funny!" We reminded Elijah that he had the same haircut. But Elijah said he didn't. Elijah had an Aang haircut, and Teancom looked like Conner (their cousin who does indeed have the same haircut). After a day or two, though, Elijah decided that Elijah looked like Aang and Teancom was "Aang baby." :)
The other day Elijah played hard with his best friend, Andrew. We came home and I had to make dinner. Elijah was sitting on the kitchen floor being whiny, but I wasn't really paying attention. Suddenly, I realized he wasn't being whiny any more. I looked down and there was Elijah, fast asleep, in his coat, face down, on the kitchen floor. I got out the camera and not only took pictures, but took a video, too, because the situation was so funny to me that I was in full dinner prep, stepping around a sleeping little boy.
Tamra and family
Oh, if anyone needs any baby guppies, we now have 9 of them.
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