Short Update with Pictures

I love fuzzy photos!

Teancom

Teancom has had some monumental events in his life. He turned 1 on Saturday, and we had cake with R & C to celebrate on Friday night. We swam in the pool for a little while, ate cake, and watched a movie. It was great and Teancom loved the cake part as well as the swimming. He seems to love the water and is very comfortable in it. We have a little baby floaty thing that he lounges in. Really, lounges. It's awesome. ... The best part of the night was when we were watching the movie. It was nearing the end and Teancom was up past bedtime a little. R was playing with Elijah (who can get hyper at bedtime, especially with R's help) who was standing just past Teancom. Teancom was standing leaning on my chair. R roared at Elijah to do a cute little scare. Elijah wasn't fazed, but Teancom jumped so much that he fell over! Then he screamed for a few minutes while we all laughed at one of the funniest things we'd ever seen. :)

Teancom is turning out to be a pretty sensitive kid when it comes to noises. Male voices especially. Rob can speak a little louder to Elijah and Teancom will cry. And we found out last night that Teancom has an abject fear of dogs. We went to dinner at someone's house and they had a dog. Teancom was interested in the dog until the dog barked. Then he screamed and climbed up me and clung to my neck for dear life. Poor guy. However, he had the same kind of reaction to the 8-week-old cat we're cat-sitting. Fascinated with it, even wanting to touch it, until the cat walked by and brushed his hand. Then Teancom screamed. Nice.

The second monumental event is he got his first black eye! He crawled over to a chair, stood up using the back of it, and promptly pulled it over on top of himself. I thought he had just scared himself, but no, a nice little black eye. I waited until the next day to take pictures thinking the bruise would be better the next day, but it never really did get black black like it would have had it been me or Elijah with our white skin. Oh well. Took a picture anyway.


Teancom is still crawling, and I don't expect him to walk for another few months. He still has no balance, though he's starting to do a little better. He will walk if we hold his hands (something he wouldn't do a month ago) and he thinks that's funny, and now he'll do it pretty fast. So I'm not worried about it. He'll get there. This picture is of Teancom crawling off the picture. Love it!

Elijah

Elijah is Elijah. He's a good kid. He is pretty much fully potty-trained and I don't even have to worry about accidents any more (except when it's my fault, like we go do errands for a few hours and he has an accident when we get back cause we haven't had access to the bathroom for a long time). Though, there was one time that cracked me up though it made me really mad, too, and he got in trouble for it. He had his best friend over, A. They were playing really nicely and then Elijah comes out of his bedroom, walks up to A and says, "A, I pee in my 'jamas. Ha ha!" and does this victory-dance-type-thing. Oh, that's not cool. To have an accident is one thing. To glory in it, that's quite another. He'd just taken his pants off and peed. A huge puddle on his bedroom floor. ... He got a long timeout for that one.

Miciah

Miciah is awesome. I think adjusting back to just being with Mom all day hasn't been too easy for her, either. But we're getting back into the swing of things and we're all enjoying it. Miciah has been doing art classes with C, and both her and C have been loving that. They've made lots of lovely things and C has introduced her to lots of art concepts that I wouldn't have even thought of. That's why I asked C and didn't try to do it myself (among other reasons like it would stress me out and C thinks it's a treat).

Miciah is also mellowing out in her older years. :) She is reliable and fun and has very few tantrums and fits any more. That's awesome. Rob and I were just talking the other day about the differences between Elijah and Miciah. Miciah doesn't have a temper, she just is high-strung. Elijah has a temper! He's very mellow, but then he'll get mad and he's MAD. We'll have to see how Teancom is when he gets a little older. Though by this time in Elijah's life, we already knew he had a temper. I haven't seen any temper from Teancom, but he's also not high-strung, so we'll have to see what he's like. I'm interested to find out. It's fun to meet your kids in stages.

Rob is still doing school stuff and trying not to be stressed about it. He's working hard and loving it.

I'm me. I've just about got my house put back together and am comfortable with how things are. Though I have yet to adore doing laundry. That might be a life-long quest.

Here are some pictures, again, with more pictures to follow. One is of Teancom in the floaty. One is Miciah being extremely goofy. I've got 7 pictures in a row of her being goofy and they're all lovely. The one of Rob screaming is funny. The misquitos were out that night and so Rob had been swatting them off the kids. This picture was taken just after Miciah slapped him to get a misquito off him. :)

Tamra

Update

Teancom is Army Crawling!

Teancom is army crawling, it's official! On Wednesday 2 important events occured with his army crawling. I was sitting at the computer and he crawled into the other room. I heard the noise coming from the kitchen and then jumped up to get him because we have stairs off our kitchen! He was a foot or two away from them, so I was in time, but it was the first time, so it seemed monumental. I'll be putting up the gate when I get home from my trip, so then he can only stay in the living room, or at least can't fall down the stairs. The second one. I gave him some cheerios to eat on the living room floor. He finished those, then crawled towards me quickly, like he had some purpose in doing so. He wasn't looking at me, but next to me. I looked at where he was looking on the desk and realized he was eyeing the cheerios box. So not only was that crawling, but it was a want he had, and he communicated it well enough that I knew what he wanted! It was a fun moment.

Teancom is still just as sweet as ever, he's just mobile now. He looks like he's swimming across the floor when he crawls. He uses his legs when he crawls, he just won't get up on his knees. Or he'll crawl for about half a crawl and then he's army crawling. He is very fast at it, and I wonder if he'll ever crawl for real, cause he's so fast already that I'm not sure he'll feel he "needs" to. We'll see.

Elijah

Elijah is a blast. The other day he was sitting in the living room with Teancom. He said, "Mom, I share with Tankcom." He had some crackers that he had broken up into small pieces. He then put one in Teancom's mouth and said, "Chew. Chew." How cute.

Miciah

Miciah is Miciah. The cutest story about her is from our traveling yesterday (which I'll mention later in the e-mail). She turned to me an hour and a half into a 4 1/2 hour flight. She said, "How long will it be?" Another 3 hours, I told her. "That's too long! I could throw up on the plane. I could DIE on the plane!" I thought that was funny.

Miciah's last day of pre-school was Thursday. She doesn't do her Kindergarten screening until August, they changed the dates on us. It was supposed to be in June, but that's okay with us, since we're in CA for all of June. ... Miciah and C had set up to do Art Class during the summer, once a week for an hour or so. C made up the whole cirriculum. Then we left for all of June. So they did one class early, last week. Miciah made paper flowers with her. Loved it. Then colored a plastic container with markers to make a vase. She colored the entire thing pink. Then she wrapped it up in her skirt and shirt and so was covered in pink marker. I asked her why she did that and she said, "Cause it makes it look cool!" So I couldn't even yell at her--it was in the name of art! :)

Traveling is Fun

Traveling was fun. We flew from Indianapolis to Chicago, had a 3-hour wait (that was on purpose--if giving a choice between a 45-minute layover and a 3-hour layover, give me the 3 hours for my kids to eat and run around), then flew into San Fran, then another 2-hour drive to Mom's house. We drove to Indy Thursday night and stayed in a hotel not 5 minutes from the airport. This made our morning much nicer, since the flight left at 6 a.m. Friday morning we were arriving at the airport with an hour and 15 minutes til the flight, and as Rob stopped the van to get the parking stub, the car died. Go figure. He had to push the car, with the help of the guy behind us, into a parking spot. Oh well, at least we were there. We were on the wrong side of the airport, though. Luckily Indy is a smaller airport. Found United. Well, apparently showing up with enough time but just enough time isn't a good plan. We got to the front of the line fairly quickly, but then the woman helping us had to go to the gate to help out. She checked in 2 of my 4 bags, told me I was all set, then took off. Shortly thereafter, another woman left for the gates. 20 minutes later, and as I had only 45 minutes and less to get on my plane, I finally asked if I could leave Rob with the bags and go through security. They said that was fine, and it was a good thing I did it, too, cause the security line was getting longer.

Rob got the bags through, said goodbye to me in the line, then left to take care of the car. (He had joked the night before about being able to make it to Indy with a 1/4 tank of gas. I thought he was joking, and apparently he should have been, since we ran out of gas at the airport garage. Luckily, that was ALL that was wrong with the car.) Security was fun. Elijah wasn't really awake, and wasn't happy to be there. I made him get out of the stroller and then he laid on the ground and screamed. When we had to move, I'd literally drag him and then set him back down. The other passengers seemed to be okay with all this, a little amused, a little annoyed. I joked with them about how I'd just roll him through the rest of security. Then a lady 5 people back asked if she could hold the baby. I told her I wouldn't turn that down. So then I just had to worry about dragging Elijah. He still screamed, but at least I was able to get through security. She held Teancom all the way through security, and I was pleasantly surprised they let her do that for me. Fortunately they didn't make Elijah walk through the metal detector by himself, cause it wouldn't have worked (I tried). The lady was the last person on her flight, and I was right on time for my boarding group. This was 15 minutes before the flight was supposed to leave.

Flight #1

The first flight was awesome. Teancom slept the whole time. Elijah woke up a little bit and so wasn't crying and screaming any more, and just laid there the whole time. Miciah was across the aisle from me (it was 2 seats, an aisle, then 2 seats), and she chatted off the ear of the young woman sitting next to her. But the woman gave Miciah some paper and a pen to color with, got her bag for her, did anything Miciah asked her to. I was grateful to her.

The Layover

The layover. We hung out at the next gate. A guy told me, "Young lady, you redefine 'multitasking'." I chuckled with him. The kids got to run around a little. And at about the time they were getting really bored with being there, and Elijah was crying on the floor again, a guy came up with his 9 month old daughter and offered Elijah a balloon (one of those made out of rubber gloves). He then spent the next almost hour with us until we had to board, entertaining my kids. I was grateful to him. Some other people there, about Mom and Dad's age, were smiling at my plight, and I laughed along with them. I even offered them a kid or two, but they declined. :)

Flight #2

The long flight went smootly, too. Teancom and Elijah slept for the first 2 hours of it, and I got some sleep in for an hour or so, too. Miciah chatted with the guy across the aisle from us. She must have asked him about 50 times what time it was. Eventually I told her she couldn't ask him anymore. By the end of the flight she was listening to music on the headsets with him. She'd ask what number he was listening to and then she'd change her number to that one. Once she said, "I'm on number 4, listen to number 4." He changed to that one, listened for a few seconds, then said, "BORING. Listen to number 5. It's better." So she changed to number 5. It went on like that for the last part of the flight. I was grateful to him.

Someone else held Teancom so that Elijah and I could go to the bathroom on the flight. I was grateful to him. They said, "It must be hard traveling with 3 kids." I shrugged. It was easier than travelling pregnant and with 2 kids. Easier BY FAR. Besides, we were making it! It was working!

Arrival at SFO

Then we arrived in SFO and I wasn't dead tired (though I was tired from waking up so early) or done with my kids. I was amazed at how many people had helped make our day good. Like Doug at the gate with the balloons who showed up right on time and was there just the right amount of time. We were looked after and helped out by a lot of people Friday and that was amazing and wonderful. Plus, I was gently amused by the whole situation, and that helped a lot, too. I did it without drugging myself (Advil) or the kids (Benedryl). It was a triumph of a day.

I did crash at 8:30 last night. I fell asleep while still awake, and slept through all kinds of noise and distractions. Usually that's hard for me, but it was NOT hard last night. Teancom fell asleep at 6:30 or 7. Elijah, just after that. So they both woke up early: 6:30 a.m. And even though that was 9:30 my time, it still felt like 6:30. :) Hopefully I will be able to sleep a little bit today.

So here we are. It's nice to be here. I'm looking forward to getting my kids back in schedule and used to the time zone. As well as getting them on track with behavior. I switched forms of formula on Teancom and he doesn't like that yet. And Elijah, after traveling and being in a pull-up all day plus, wet his pants this morning, which is very unusual. Plus, I let him have his binky all day traveling, so he isn't liking giving it back. We'll get it all together in a few days and then we can start really enjoying our trip. :)

Oh, Rob had to walk to a gas station, about 5 minutes walking from the airport. Got a gallon of gas, enough to drive to the gas station and fill up the tank. Then went back to the hotel and slept for almost another 3 hours. Ate breakfast at the hotel and got back to the lab in Cincy by 11 a.m.

FYI, I have our cell phone, not Rob. So if you're trying to get ahold of Rob, you'll have to call the home phone. During the week days, he'll be at the lab, of course. Just in case you need to get ahold of Rob.

Miami Beach Trip

Oh, I guess I didn't update people on our Miami Beach trip. In short: the kids loved staying with other people for a week. Miciah was with M and A, two of her cousins. They made pinatas and she got to wear their clothes and stuff, and she loved it. Elijah and Teancom were with Rob's mom who was sick the whole time, but managed. She got really sick on the day we got back and ended up in the hospital for a week with pnemonia. Yikes! But the boys are healthy and the docs told C that the boys shouldn't get sick if they aren't sick yet.

And of course WE loved the break. Rob learned some good things from the people he met and talked to at the Immunology conference. Gave him some good direction and pumped him up to finish school quickly and move on. I loved hanging around with nothing better to do than take a bath or walk on the beach or read a book. It was a welcome change. We ate out at lots of places and did whatever we wanted. We walked to the south end of the beach. We had been told it would be a 40-minute walk one way. 2 1/2 hours later we were back. I was so tired that I then took a long nap while Rob went and played in the waves at the beach. We both got a little sunburnt, Rob worse than me because I stayed out of the sun for the most part (but the sun on my back itched like crazy for a few days and I used like a whole bottle of lotion to calm that down). The sun is more potent down there, I think. It was a fun trip and I'm glad we did it, especially since now we'll be apart for a month. It was nice to be together, just us, not talking about whose turn it was to change the diaper or whatever, and to remember that at the heart of our marriage is the fact that we really enjoy being together. I remembered all over again why I fell in love with the man. It was awesome.

Tamra