Elijah
Washing Hands
Elijah is getting a lot better at doing everything he needs to do all by myself. Dressing, potty, that kind of stuff. Still, he often insists on me helping him dress, which annoys me. Totally goes against my independent spirit. And against my lazy tendencies ("Can't you do it yourself? I'm busy playing a game!").
I'm happy, of course, that he's getting the potty thing down, all by himself. We're still trying to get him to wash his hands every time. I was thinking we were doing pretty good in this category, but a few weeks ago Rob said, "Elijah doesn't wash his hands. He just makes the sound of the water and then walks out." I'd never seen Elijah do that, and I thought Rob was crazy. Rob asked Elijah about it, and Elijah said that he always washes his hands. Pat ourselves on the back, right? Of COURSE he ALWAYS washes his hands. We've been training him.
Well, last night Elijah said, "We always need to wash our hands, huh, Mom?" Yep. "Sometimes I forget, though, and then I make the water sound." ...
They Had Problems
Yesterday afternoon the weather was fantastic, so Elijah sat outside on the back deck to eat his lunch. Well, randomly two people ran through our backyard. From what I can tell, they hopped the fence on one side. A girl was running and a guy eventually caught up to her and grabbed her (not meanly) by the arm and then directed her back to the road. They exited through the gate. The whole time Elijah was shouting at them, "Hey! What are you doing?"
Anyways, it was a little weird, but whatever. Elijah came back inside and said, "Mom, there were people in our backyard." Right then I was glad I'd seen it, too, or else I would have thought he was lying. I said, "Oh yeah?" "Yeah," he continued, "Do you know why they were there? They had problems." Oh.
Miciah
The only Miciah update is about her Parent Teacher Conference. It went well, of course. And I say of course because, if you don't know, Miciah is pretty smart. We usually keep that on the down low, since we don't want people to think that we're bragging about her. We don't want to be one of Those Parents, you know? But the other day Miciah's teacher told her that she's the best reader in all of 1st Grade, and I figure that if the teacher can tell Miciah, if she thinks Miciah's mature enough to handle that kind of information, then I can tell my friends, right?
We're pretty proud of Miciah. She learns really quickly and really well. She has yet to come to a concept that she can't figure out in about 2 seconds. But she's not cocky, either, and that's always a question we ask. Her teacher says that she's very willing to help the other kids, and she'll coach them through stuff, instead of just giving them the answers or having an air of "I SO already know this."
The teacher is working on challenging Miciah with harder stuff, particularly in reading. We are all for that. She says that Miciah is the brightest child that she's taught in her 8 years of teaching. That's flattering, but we try to take it with a breezy air. You know like, "That's nice. Last night at dinner we ate fish sticks and they were pretty tasty." Aware of her talents but nonchalant in a good way. ... Not sure we (or that sentence about fish sticks) pull it off.
So, hurray for Miciah! We hope that she'll continue to enjoy school, and that she'll continue to wear her talent with such ease.
Teancom
Nap Time
Teancom's napping is back under control. After he tried to convince me that he didn't need naps, and I believed him for a few weeks, he started having night terrors mid-day. He'd be fine for a large part of the day, and then around 4 pm he'd crash, sleep for a half hour to an hour and wake up SCREAMING. He'd scream (and pound the ground and flail around and hit me in the face, etc.) for another half hour to an hour. ... Elijah did night terrors, so we're used to them, but when they happen at midnight, they're SO MUCH easier to handle than at 5:00 in the afternoon.
After a few episodes like that, I started praying to know what to do about his naps. Cause I am unable to handle night terrors mid-day. I will go crazy. And the next day he was tired at 12:30 pm. I laid him down, he slept for 2 1/2 hours, and woke up perfectly happy, just like normal. THAT'S our Teancom. And that's our answer to prayer. So Teancom is back to napping, and nap time is now more structured than it has been since he was a tiny baby.
You Took My Cookie
Teancom is developing his attitude. It's hilarious. The other day he became convinced that I had taken his cookie. He walked into the kitchen with a very serious look on his face, planted both his feet on the ground deliberately (almost stomping his feet), pointed straight at my face and said, "Did YOU take my cookie?" I told him I did not. And he said, "You did! You took my cookie!" I giggled at this little boy, completely serious, chewing me out for taking his cookie, when I didn't actually do it. I told him again that I didn't take his cookie, so he moved on to Rob, standing beside me. He pointed at him: "Did YOU take my cookie?"
After Teancom left, Rob and I couldn't help laughing about it. Rob said, "I felt like I was getting interrogated!"
Valentine's Day
Our Valentine's Day plans were totally ruined when our kids got a stomach bug that lasted just long enough to ruin our plans. Figures. ... But it's a good reminder, right? I mean, Rob and I met, we fell in love (insert kissy noises here), and then we got married and had kids and that's real life. Love is not as sappy as it used to be. But it's more substantial somehow. I'll take the trade-off.
So instead of our fun plans of alone time, we took down the wallpaper in our kitchen. Or at least started it. And the Home Project was launched. ... It was about 11:15 p.m. and I went to the closet to get the vacuum so that we could clean up, when I looked in the bedroom. Rob had made the bed (I'm not so good at doing that everyday), and on my pillow was a package of Milano cookies (my favorite), 2 glasses, sparkling cider, and a homemade valentine. How cute is that? Rob can be very cute sometimes. ... Of course, it was so late, and we were so tired from the project, that we ate a cookie or two, drank the cider, and went straight to sleep. How's that for romance? Keeping that fire burning!
Lisa Weekend
This last weekend we went up North to see Aunt Lisa. Hung out at M&K's with C and Mom and Dad and all the kids. So many kids these days. It's lovely. Used to be utter chaos, but it's managable as they get older. Anyways, it was fun to see Lisa. She treated us to lunch at a cute little mom and pop restaraunt. And she bought Lucky Charms for Elijah, so Elijah loves Lisa forever. Lisa thinks Elijah is hilarious. Truly Elijah's facial expressions are pretty dang funny. He's overly expressive, and almost everyone we meet comments on his expressions. I'll have to take a video of Rob doing his Elijah impression. It's pretty funny, and spot-on.
The Home Project
is another update altogether. The most I'll say about it here is that on Saturday, two days from now, we're taking out the wall. It'll be fun! And Rob's dad is coming down to help us, which is fantastic. I think he had other plans for the weekend, but as his wife said, "He just couldn't stay away from taking a wall out!"
Random Game
If you have a few seconds and you want to test out how good you are at eye balling angles and stuff, check out this game:
http://woodgears.ca/eyeball/
Rob's Calling
Of note is how we're doing with Rob's time-consuming church calling. It's been about a year now, and it's been a long learning process. Not sure I have anything concrete to offer for what we've "learned", but we've become better at trusting each other, respecting each other, and balancing our time and committments.
This weekend we went to church up North. Rob and I sat next to each other. We held hands. We attended Sunday School class together. We arrived together. We left together. ... I cried several times, just holding his hand. But they weren't sad tears or bitter tears. They weren't even tears over the knowledge that next week it would be back to normal. It was just nice to hold his hand for a minute. I thought about how lucky I am to be married to such a good man. A man so willing to serve and give of himself. And tears were tears of gratitude and love.
And I can't explain that. But the tension surrounding Rob's calling has gone away and been replaced with a quiet. It's not a calm feeling, because calm implies that there are memories of a storm just passed. It's a quietness. It's simple, deep, and powerful. I know this feeling didn't come from inside me, because I'm pretty convinced that on my own I am altogether incapable of such a feeling. It came from Heavenly Father, and I consider it a rare and precious gift.
For instance, last week Rob skipped his Tuesday night meeting so that he could fix our ceiling. Months ago I would have said, "You will call Tim (our Bishop) and tell him that you WILL NOT be there tonight, and if you won't call, then I will. And if he has a problem with it, he can just deal." Not only would I have said that theoretically, I HAVE said that. But now it's different. I started with, "Rob, you should skip your meeting, and if you don't call Tim then I will." But it didn't have the same weight. It was playful. And I followed it with, "Rob, I think your highest priority is to stay home and put up the ceiling. But I don't know what's going on with your calling, so you need to tell me where you're most needed."
In short, we're in a really really good place with Rob's calling, and that's lovely.
And that's life here.
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