Indeed, it is time for an update. It's been a month.

Well, life is life here. It's busy and unrelenting, and that's how it should be. I had a realization a few days ago. After weeks of being unable to keep the house clean, the dishes done, dinner made, or the laundry done, it dawned on me that this was not a deficiency in me. I have 3 kids and one of them is 3-months-old. I have had this verified by several other mothers of 3 + kids and this makes me feel better. I still would like to be more on top of things, and this is a noble goal. But I have stopped apologizing to Rob when he comes home and the house is dirty. This is a nice freedom I have given myself (and that Rob has allowed me to have without complaining).

I have mastered the store with 2 kids (Elijah and Teancom), but have yet again to brave the store with 3 kids. Still going to the store for longer than 5 minutes is a gamble and I'm learning to have a good sense of humor about it, even when it's happening. And that's been a nice thing. Most of my days are chaos until noon and then it's better after that. I don't know why noon is the breaking point, but it is. I still take naps most days for a good part of the afternoon. This offsets at least a little bit the fact that Teancom still doesn't go to bed before midnight most nights and isn't consistent about his 5 - 6 hours of sleep. Some nights it's 5 and some it's 2 or 3. Naps are good. :)

Rob is still enjoying his research. I still understand very little about what he does.

Miciah's 5th Birthday

Miciah had her birthday parties. That was fun and chaos! We had 20 kids over, with their parents, so our house was overflowing with people. Feeding all the kids cake and icecream was overwhelming, but only lasted like 20 minutes, and the rest of the party was a break from kids. They were all downstairs and the adults were all upstairs. It was great. Miciah got lots of great toys and was spoiled rotten, of course. Elijah was also in heaven because all Miciah's friends brought their little sisters or brothers, most of whom are Elijah's age. He thought it was his birthday party, too. We let him open one gift during a small party with R & C and he was happy. Still, if you say, "Elijah, was it Miciah's birthday party?" he will reply, "MY birthday party!" It's cute. We got it on video.




Elijah

Elijah is talking up a storm and showing off his 2-year-old attitude. It's incredible. He's cute and lovable and a little sassy. I'll say something like, "Elijah, eat that." He'll reply with, "YOU eat it." Very nice. He is back to spitting and hitting and scowling. Well, he's always scowled. But he's delightful, even when he's talking back. Potty training is still potty training, and I wish I could say it's going so smoothly it's the easiest thing I've ever done. Yeah, right. Miciah was much easier. But it's going well enough, I suppose. We don't worry too much about when it doesn't, and Elijah gets M&M's when he does it right, and that's really good motivation for him.

Teancom

Teancom is growing like a weed and it's great. He's starting to get pretty smiley and happy when he's awake and is going to sleep better, fighting it less. He's sleeping longer (sometimes) and getting bigger and what else could we ask for? He's also making eye contact better. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't have great eye sight. He has just now started to make eye contact and still doesn't like people to be too close to him, or else he avoids their face. He will turn away from them. Someone today suggested that maybe he's near-sighted or whatever. I guess we'll have to see as he gets older. Certainly he's not developmentally behind, but it's something we're keeping an eye on.

Almost Halloween

And that's life here. Next order of business is making Miciah's costume for this Friday's celebration at the church building. They want the kids to dress as scripture characters, and Miciah said she wanted to be the Nile River. What kind of kid WANTS to be the NILE? Whatever. So she's going as the Nile. I bet she'll be the only one there who is a body of water. :) It'll be cute.

Take care everyone. Have a great Halloween! We'll send pictures when we get them.

Tamra and family