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

Fun Update

Things are still the same here since I wrote last. But I have some fun stories to share.

Miciah

Last week we went to eat at McDonald's. Miciah always wants a milkshake with her meal. So we got her a milkshake and she was downing that instead of eating her other food. Finally I took the milkshake from her and said, "You have to eat something else before you can have more. You haven't even TOUCHED your hamburger." She looked at me, reached over, and put her hand on top of her hamburger. I turned to Rob and said, "I'm going to pretend I don't see that." She then said, "Did you mean touch it with my MOUTH?" :)

Miciah has been very into asking what things mean, especially phrases that don't really mean what they say. For instance, the above story--I didn't really want her to touch her hamburger. I wanted her to eat it. The other day Uncle B said, "Twist my arm" when I offered him a cookie. Miciah looked at him really strangely and wanted to know why I would want to hurt him. So he explained what the phrase meant and why he used it at that time. ... What a fun stage.

The other story about Miciah involves our cat and our neighbor, C. Ceasar has decided that their yard is his property. Well, their granddaughter, E, who is 7 (I think) is afraid of the cat, apparently. Ceasar was following her (she thought chasing her), so E ran screaming behind the screen door. Ceasar then plopped down on the porch waiting for her to come out (or just claiming the space as his, whichever). So C opened the door and tried to shoo him away. It wasn't working, so she got some water and sprinkled some on him to get him to move. ... Well, apparently E told this to Miciah because a few days later, Miciah went up to C and said, very seriously and slowly, "I don't like water on my cat." :) C told this to me and I just laughed. Oh, my Miciah.

Miciah did have an ear infection a while ago. We took her in to the doctor after being up half the night with a hurting Miciah. They put her on amoxicillan. Well, about a week later she woke up saying her pajamas were itchy. I ignored the comment cause "itchy" is code-word around here for "I don't want to wear it." She was having trouble with the zipper, so I undid it for her and was shocked at what I saw. Her entire torso was red with hives! But then I thought for a moment and remembered Elijah's amoxicillan reaction. And the next few days went exactly how Elijah's experience had. All over her torso, changing places, on her head, especially behind her ears. She was pretty miserable for a while, but Benadryl helped, thankfully. And it was nice to have had one kid already go through it, cause I knew what it was and what to expect. So no more amoxicillan for Miciah or Elijah. ... Makes me wonder what Teancom's experience will be.

(I wrote some of this e-mail about a week ago, and now I'm finishing it.) Miciah's ear infection was back full force on Sunday. She was miserable. We couldn't do anything about it cause we were up north visiting family. So we got a pillow out of our car and she slept on the floor of the church for a few hours. We came back home and had JR (our medical student/will-be-official-doctor-in-2-weeks friend) look in her ears. Definitely an ear infection. We thought we'd try to wait out the infection, since we'd already been through the hard day, right? Well, Monday wasn't any better. Rob was trying to reason with her, which she does quite well usually, and I looked at him and said, "She's not a 5-year-old today. She's a 3-year-old. Remember that." But we got tired of toughing it out and went to the doctor today. Of course the infection was still there. They prescribed her something else and within 4 hours we had Miciah back. And that was nice. Hurray for medicine!

Elijah

And then there's Elijah. Elijah is so full of energy and fun! He's jumping and dancing and running around crazy! It's fun to watch (makes me tired just watching him, but I love it). He jumps down out of the van now, and then he'll hop halfway across the parking lot (which makes things a little difficult when I'm trying to go fast), just loving it. It's fun to watch him learn to master his body and learn what it can do. So this morning he was getting himself dressed, which he does all the time now. He was very insistent that he wanted to wear swim trunks with a collared shirt. The kid's already got style! :) Anyways, he came to me so I could help him put on his underwear, but then he wouldn't stand still. He was hopping around everywhere. I finally was getting his underwear on and he said, "Mom, let go. Gotta dance!" It made me smile.

We did have Elijah's 3-year check-up, and the doc told us Elijah is healthy and right on track with everything. We already knew that, but it's always nice to hear it validated.

Elijah's new phrase is now, "I don't WANT TO!" He's wanting to be more and more independent, which is great. He's picking out all his clothes (which I mentioned above), changing them about 3 times a day, insisting on what to eat or watch on TV or what to play with. It's great to see him become a person instead of just my baby boy. And he's still cuddly and sweet, so I don't lose that part.

Today at dinner I was talking to Miciah about school. She said she'd go to Kindergarten, then 1st grade, then 2nd, etc., etc., all the way up to 12th grade. Then she said, "What will I do after that?" I told her then she could go to college if she wanted. At the sound of that, Elijah started nodding vigorously. I turned to him and said, "Do you want to go to college?" He said, "No, not yet." Okay, good answer, I thought. Then he finished, "I eat first." I laughed.

With summer almost upon us, the kids are playing hard during the day. Elijah is needing naps during the day, which is weird to be back to nap time, but it's better than dealing with monster Elijah when he's too tired. ... But because of all the extra sleep, I think, he was up today at 4 a.m. thinking it was morning. Ick. We set him on the couch with a movie and went back to bed. I don't know if he slept more or not. But I did! :)

Teancom

Teancom is trying hard to crawl. He does this get on his tip toes thing and try to scoot/crawl/army crawl. It's cute. Not quite crawling, but he'll make it there soon, I think. He's still just as cute and charming as ever. A healthy, happy kid with 2 fingers in his mouth.

Rob and Tamra

Rob went on a campout this past weekend with P, our nephew, and the scout troop Rob is over. They went caving in Carter Caves, if anyone knows where that is--somewhere in KY. He said it was fun. The best part of the trip is that it took them 2 1/2 hours to get there and the way home took them almost 4 hours because they took a "shortcut" home. ... I think I'm going to buy the scoutmaster a map and lecture him about being prepared. :)

We also entertained B, Rob's little brother, who is out here in Ohio for a little while. He was supposed to already be home, but he had knee surgery on Monday (yesterday) instead. So last week we brought him down to our house where we played Nintendo a lot and kept him from being too bored out of his mind. Then we sent him home with the Nintendo so he could play that while recovering.

We went up Friday to M's house and hung out there for 2 days. We went to a little lake by their house for the kids to play. That was fun. We had half a scary moment when Elijah tripped in the water and kersplatted into it. The water was only maybe a foot and a half deep. It was comical to watch him face plant in the water, but then he wasn't getting up, and suddenly it wasn't comical. It hadn't occured to me that it would be hard to get up out of the water like that. Luckily B was standing right there and pulled Elijah up. Elijah was scared and the second day he wouldn't get any further in than getting his toes wet. :) At this point of his life, being a little afraid of the water is just not a bad thing.

... And it's been really hard to focus this week for many reasons, not the least of which is our trip on Thursday. We have babysitters lined up and Rob and I are going to hang out at Miami Beach for a few days. Rob has a scientific convention there, and I'm tagging along. So it's not all pleasure, but there will be time to play. ... I'm excited, more than anything, to be on the plane and be able to read a book! :)

Then we'll come back next week, and the kids and I will turn around on June 1st and fly out to California. We'll come back July 4th. Somewhere in that time I'll be driving out to Utah with my Mom and the kids and we'll get to see lots of people, I'm sure. That will be fun.

Okay, that's the update. Hope all is going well for you all!

Tamra and family