Update From This End

Well, it's been almost a full month since I've sent out a word update. I've sent plenty of pictures, so you aren't lacking there. ... Here's the update.

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?" I think I'm going to switch to another less jumpy doctor. This doctor is nice, but he's inexperienced and obviously has no kids. He doesn't listen well and gets a little freaked out by my overly happy child who is a little developmentally behind. I don't need that. I need a doctor who will look at him and say, "He'll probably get there in another 3 months, don't worry about it."

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

Pictures of D's Burn

I took some pictures of D's burn.



Yesterday I had just taken out some pizza from the oven and the pan was on top of the stove, with the pan's edge barely off the edge of the stove. Miciah and D came into the kitchen and Miciah was behind D pushing her (it wasn't a mean push, it was a "go this direction" push). Well, Miciah pushed her into the pan and D got that look on her face that you only get when you get a burn. It wasn't a horrible burn--no hospital visits for us. But it's good enough to send a picture showing it off. :)

Tamra

More Pictures

An Update on Elijah's Birthday

Today is Elijah's 3rd Birthday! I keep asking him if he knows what today is, just to hear him say it's his birthday, cause I'm not sure he knows what that means. But at least he'll tell me that it is his birthday. He got a card from Grandma, and that made him happy. He didn't care about the money (he doesn't know what it is), but he loved the note she wrote and has been carrying it around with him. Cute. He's also been singing happy birthday to himself, but also to me and to Rob, so again, not sure he gets it. :)

Elijah's Injury and Other Elijah Things

Update on Elijah's head. It's fine. Stitches are gone.

He pulled the bottom one out himself on Saturday, and we took the other two out on Monday. They say stitches on the face are supposed to only stay in 3 - 5 days to minimize scarring. Now he just has a nice scab there. The scab is starting to come off and soon we'll be putting sunscreen and bandaids on it so that it won't scar too horribly in the summer sun. They gave him antibiotics to take as a precautionary measure so that he wouldn't get an infection. And he's now done with those, too. So the only thing still lingering from this experience is the fact that I almost fell apart when I saw his wound, and that's still bugging me. I'll have to work on being calm under pressure in the future.

Sticking with Elijah, since it's his birthday. Elijah is doing pretty good potty training. We still have to stay on top of him going every 2 hours, but he's not fighting us on it, and that's nice. He still thinks it's more fun to hide and have accidents every now and then, which we don't think is fun at all. But we're realizing it's at the same time most days, so we'll have to preempt them in the future.

And Elijah is still the sweetest kid ever. We adore him. ... Some stories. He listens when I tell him no (something Miciah never really did), and when he doesn't like that I told him no, he'll do one of a couple things. He might just walk away upset and forget about it a second later (which is what he usually does). Or he'll Care Bear stare me or cast a spell on me or something like that. Or, my new personal favorite: he'll say, "Sorry, Mom" as he's doing it anyway. He'll say it in that tone of voice that says, "Sorry, Mom, but you lost. I'm doing it anyway and you'll just have to be okay with that." I think it's pretty funny, but I keep a straight face and get "upset" with him.

D at Our House

Having D here has been a pleasure. She's a doll and she keeps Miciah entertained and out of trouble. Miciah goes to preschool in the morning 4 days a week, so D's bored in the mornings, but once Miciah comes home they don't stop. D has started talking to me when Miciah's not around, which has only taken a week to come about.

D and Miciah are hams together, and it's fun to watch. I brought out the camera the other day and took pictures of the two of them doing their "cute" faces. I told them to look cute, and they both did these posing faces, D with her hands on her chin, Miciah with her head cocked to the side. Funny. They also spent about half an hour yesterday "introducing" themselves to the backyard. Miciah would shout out something like, "And now here comes the swimsuit rockstar girls!" and they'd walk down the deck stairs, and then dance and strutt and "spose" as D said (translate to pose). Then they'd walk back and do it all over again. It was funny, and man, D has some poses!

D fell yesterday and skinned her knees. One of them she skinned pretty bad, but she was pretty brave as I cleaned it out (I only used water cause it wasn't too dirty). It reminded me of old times when I would skin my own knees.

The differences between Miciah and D are pretty huge. D is gentle and sweet and Miciah is independent and in-your-face. Not that Miciah is mean or that D is a ball of mush. Anyways, it's just funny. If Miciah wants something, like she's hungry, she'll come up and ask for something, more demand something and then stick around for the next 10 minutes bugging me until it's ready. D will come up and say very quietly, "Um, Tamra? Could I have something to eat?" I'll say sure and so she'll walk away. If I don't have it ready in like 20 minutes she'll come back and say just as sweetly, "Tamra? Did you get me something to eat?" or "Did you forget to get me something to eat?" It makes me want to be extra speedy cause she's so nice.

Today, actually, D decided she wanted chocolate milk. She started talking to Miciah about what they wanted to drink. Miciah decided she wanted water and then promptly decided she wanted to play downstairs. D followed Miciah saying, "Shouldn't we ask for something to drink?" They never did ask me, and I have a rule that I don't get something unless specifically asked for it. So D came to me about an hour later and said, "Tamra, did you forget to get me chocolate milk and Miciah water?" I told her I didn't forget, but that they didn't ask. She said, "Oh." and started walking away. I followed it with, "D, you can ask me and I'll get it for you." She responded with, "I'm going to go tell Miciah that we forgot to ask." 30 seconds later Miciah was forcefully requesting chocolate milk and water. It was interesting.

And, my favorite D story so far. D and Miciah decided they wanted hot chocolate. I got it for them and they were drinking it at the table as asked when D accidentally spilled her drink on her clothes, the table, and the floor. I reacted in a way I typically react to Miciah. I gave the "I am annoyed that I have to clean that up" look and said, "If we can't be careful, we can't have hot chocolate any more." And sweet D started crying! I was appaled. I felt like the lowest, crappiest person ever to walk the earth. I then reacted to her how she needed in the first place. I hugged her, told her it was okay, that I knew she didn't mean to do it. ... What a scum I am. It's just that Miciah would have looked at me and said, disgustedly, "I didn't MEAN to do it, Mom. Gosh!" ... D is a lamb.

Teancom

Teancom is doing great. I still haven't called about the test results, but I have to call and make his 9-month appointment anyway. Teancom has his first tooth. And he's rolling a ton and eating anything in his reach, including paper, the vaccuum cord, Cheerios, and pickles. He's still happy, happy. And apparently he looks like a girl. When I take him out in public to places where people don't know him, everyone calls him a girl. Which is interesting to me because they don't even ask if he is a girl, they just assume he is one. So he must look like a girl to them, and they must be pretty certain. If I take him out in white, yellow, or green, he's a girl. Yesterday it was the cashier and he was wearing a dinosaur green shirt and STILL got called a "pretty girl." :) I keep looking for it, but he still looks like a boy to me. Maybe it's the cute eyelashes and pretty eyes. ... Though I have decided it's better for a boy to look like a girl than the other way around. We'll take a "pretty" boy.

And that's life here. Tonight we're having R & C over for cake and ice cream, as well as Elijah's buddy A. It'll be fun to celebrate Elijah.

Take care everyone!

Tamra and family

News Here

Spring Weather!

It's finally warming up! Yea! We had a great warm week, then it froze again for a week, and now it's back up to like 65. ... I've played in my garden, weeding it out and stuff (which has been MUCH easier than last year, the first spring in this house. It was a weed patch then and took me HOURS and HOURS to weed out). Anything to get outside. The kids have enjoyed playing outside, too. Miciah asked to play outside with her friend who was over. I said sure. She came inside and said, "We need to wash our hands." I said okay and glanced over and their hands weren't dirty, they were COVERED AND DRIPPING WITH MUD. Oh well. They must have had fun.

Rob

Rob is still Rob. He's been doing a lot more lately as Young Men's president in our ward, which is fun. He went last Friday to do a "Shredding Party" with the Priests (16-18 year olds). He took our paper shredder and they shredded stuff, just cause the YM thought it was cool. ... I don't get it. Probably because I'm female. But they had a good time. Rob got home past midnight and had nothing but good to say about the activity. Rob seems to be really jelling in his calling, and that's fantastic. It's running smoothly and isn't stressing him out like it used to. It's all going well.

Next week Rob starts some other classes at school. One is every Monday night for 10 weeks. He won't be home until like 9 those nights. It'll be an adjustment for me. But, it's on Mondays, and those are my best days, so I'm not too worried about it.

Miciah

Miciah is doing soccer this spring. That'll be fun. Her first practice is this Saturday, so it'll be fun. I hope she enjoys it. Miciah and I just went to pick up D, my neice, who will be staying with us for a little bit. Miciah and D hugged each other for about a minute with huge grins on their faces when they first saw each other. It was cute. I haven't seen them at all since D's been here cause they've been having so much fun playing together. It's been great. They play really well together.

Elijah

Elijah is still cute as can be and happy. We're mid-potty training with him. It's going alright. Not great, but not horrible, either. He's getting it and we're excited to only have one kid in diapers!

Some cute Elijah stories. Elijah was being crazy the other day. He loves to be pushed and tickled and manhandled. So he was running around in circles and asking me to push him down and stuff like that. He then starts telling me things that I smell like. He says, "You smell like poop." I said, "I smell like poop?" He answered, "You smell like poop and cheese." It made us laugh so hard that we didn't even tell him it's not nice to tell someone they smell like poop.

Elijah is addicted to pancakes. I don't know why, he just is. He was begging me for them the other morning. So back and forth it went: "Mommy, you make pancakes a-me." "You make pancakes for me!" "No, YOU make pancakes a-ME." I then told him I'd make pancakes for him if he made pancakes for me. Just to see what he'd do. He's looking a little frustrated and he runs over to my bed. I'm thinking he's going to hit the bed, since he hits objects when he's frustrated. But instead he fiddles with his hands, reaches out towards me, hands palm-up, and says, "Here. Pancakes!" It was so cute that he "made" pancakes for me. Of course I went and made some pancakes for him.

And the last story, courtesy A who was watching Elijah and Teancom so I could go pick up D. I was dropping him off in the morning. He was acting a little sad and mopey, like he didn't want me to leave. He didn't want to give me his binky. He didn't want to go play downstairs with K or watch Finding Nemo, even though he loves K and Finding Nemo. I gave him a hug and was being really soft with him. Elijah's a really sensitive kid and I just thought he needed some extra time to be comfortable. Anyways, I walked out the door, and A says that as soon as I shut the door, Elijah said, "Ha, ha," threw his binky on the floor and ran downstairs to play. ... What a little jerk! I was floored. My sweet little Elijah. Well, then. :)

Teancom

That only leaves Teancom. Teancom is the world's best baby, which I might have mentioned before. I feel very lucky to be his mother. I don't know what kind of deal I made with God, but I would recommend making the same sorts of deals. He's amazing. ... In terms of his health. We got him in to the doctor to get a referral to Children's Hospital so they could do some blood work. It was a long 2 hours at the doctor for a referral. But we got it and went in last Monday for the bloodwork. They said it would take a week, so I guess I could call my doctor's office and get the results from it. The office said if the results were abnormal, they'd call me, but I don't know how on top of things they are. So maybe I should call them.

Anyways, when I went in he was happy and active. His activity level has skyrocketed in the last 2 weeks. He's rolling across the floor, grabbing toys, he doesn't sit still very much. So when I took him in, I told them he wasn't really rolling still. But instead of saying that he wasn't very strong and to keep an eye on that, the doctor just said, "Some babies just aren't interested. He's obviously active." So that was nice. I told the office that I was told Teancom was anemic. The two nurses and two doctors that saw him were almost shocked. It was interesting to see their reaction. One of them said, "Who? HIM?" They said his coloring is great, he doesn't look pale or anything (he's so dark, it'd be hard for him to look pale), plus he's active and happy. All good things to hear.

Teancom has been sick for the last little bit. Starting Friday he started throwing up and diarrea-ing. He didn't keep much down all weekend, and he didn't want any solids. Tuesday night he finally acted hungry for something other than formula, which I thought was great! He was fine yesterday, and that's good, too. He's back to being happy and smiley and so I think the sickness is mostly past us. ...

And I'm doing okay. Life is good and I can't complain.

Hope all is well for everyone!

Tamra, Rob, Miciah, Elijah and Teancom (with assorted fish (though they're slowly dying off) including our baby, Lucky who is still alive, and our two cats, Cleo and Ceasar)

Elijah's black eye

Elijah incurred a black eye yesterday and I thought we'd show it off. The first black eye is always something to showcase. :)


Also, Mom cut Elijah's hair today and it's a cute picture.




Miciah and D've been having a great time together. They've been playing really really well, and we like that. So I thought I'd send a picture of them together, cheesy smile and all.





Plus, Miciah was sad because D was in the bathroom. It might have been something else equally as traumatizing, though. Anyways, it's a classic face.


Tamra

Feeding the Deer

Miciah and 'D' feeding the deer. They loved it. Grandpa, Mom, and C went with us and it was a blast.

Rub a dub dub

Pictures of the two cute girls. I'm enjoying being a mommy to twins for a while! Makes me never want to have twins for real, but I want to keep D! It's a treat.

Enjoy the pictures.