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

Family Update

November has been a busy, busy month for us. Our weeks and weekends have been filled to the max with things we had to do and things we wanted to do, too. Plus, we've all been sick off and on, so it's made for some interesting times around here.

Rob and Scouts

Rob has been having fun with the Scouts. Two weeks ago he went on a camp out but didn't get to stay overnight cause I was sick. I called him home cause I just wasn't up to watching the kids by myself because of how I was feeling. But the camp out was fun with the usual instances of shaving cream in kids' shoes and on signs, and kids hiding in the van so they didn't have to clean up. It makes me laugh how different the Young Men and Young Women are. Things are about to change in the ward, though, so the scouting program will be changing anyway. Rob will be going to more camp outs from here on out, which will be great fun for him. I'm a little sad he didn't get to stay the whole time this last time, but it couldn't be helped. I don't mind camp outs at all. I know some wives do. But it's only like 20 hours away from Rob and half of that is sleep time. What's wrong with that?

Excuse Me, Could You Pass the Family Sickness, Please?

I was sick this month immediately after Elijah got over the flu. I thought I was getting the flu, too, but apparently not, which is good. It still knocked me out with a variety of symptoms for about a week. I got my sense of taste and smell back just in time for Thanksgiving. Thank goodness! ... Rob, who was spared all month while me and the kids were sick, has come down with the same cold. He'll probably be coming home early cause he feels pretty crummy. Bummer.

Miciah had an ear infection. Elijah had the flu. Elijah is still cranky, which is weird for him.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was great! We spent Thanksgiving Day with R & C and their daughters and their daughters' men. It was way fun. The turkey was EXCELLENT, which is one of the first times I can say I enjoyed turkey. We made pumpkin pies and then ate 2 pies, just Rob and me, in 2 days. Yumm! I think I gained 5 pounds in a single day. :) No holding back this year. Rob had to go into school the day after Turkey Day, so while he was in school the kids and I brought out some Christmas decorations. Miciah and Elijah have been having a grand time playing with the Nativity set we got out. It's my favorite Christmas decoration. We have yet to put up the tree, but that should be happening in the next few days (or Miciah will hurt us!).

CS's Baby Blessing

Saturday we went up to C's house and it was wonderful. Sunday was CS's baby blessing and it was fun to be surrounded by family. I had to take Elijah out in the Primary Room to listen to the blessing cause he was throwing a huge fit. He's still not back to his un-sick self, so he was really really grumpy. He hasn't been napping well since he's been sick, or sleeping well, and it's starting to show. The branch president offered me a piece of candy but said I had to tell him one thing I learned at church today. I told him I learned my kids are better at our own ward than at other people's wards. He said, "Take 3 pieces." :) He's a great man and really really funny. He's the one that always has to tell us as we're leaving the church, "Kids, your parents will give you candy if you cry in the car." Funny.

The Trip Home

We got home last night at 10:00 or so. It was mostly a dang good trip except Elijah was so tired. He woke up in the car about 10 minutes away from home and was out of it. Rob finally took him in the shower and dunked his head in the water so he'd calm down. It worked. But it was a long long 20 minutes of him kicking and hitting and screaming. Elijah has also lost his voice, partly from being sick, and partly from screaming so much. But it's now a cute little raspy voice.

Teancom is an excellent traveller! The 2-hour car ride north was amazing. Teancom didn't sleep for any of it, but he was quiet the entire time! Wow! Teancom is turning into a great baby. Elijah was our good baby before, but I think Teancom is working on stealing that prize. He now goes to sleep on his own. He will get fussy and you can put his binky in, lay him down, and he's asleep in about 5 minutes. It's amazing and wonderful. He doesn't sleep through the night yet, but he sleeps during the night for about a 12 hour stretch. When he's awake he's generally very happy and smiley. He's not an easy laugher, but he'll smile at anything. Teancom also loves to hold his blanket. I wonder if he'll be like Elijah in that regard. I guess time will tell. Teancom is a joy to have and we are grateful he's in our family.

Dates (Woah. Did I say Dates?!)

We went on 2 dates this month without any of our kids! Wow! We haven't been on a date in a long time, especially one without the baby. We went first to see Aida, a musical put on by the Cincinnati School for Creative and Performing Arts. The lead was amazing! And the show was great. I'd never seen it or even heard of it, so it was a pleasure to see. One of the YW in our ward was in it, hence why we went. We saw the closing show, but had we gone earlier, I would have made Rob take me again. It was SO worth it. Rob had seen Aida as an opera in Germany. He saw it in Italian with German subtitles. So I told Rob now he's seen it in 3 languages and 2 genres. How many people can say that?

The other date was a surprise date Rob took me on the day before Turkey Day. He took me out to eat at Panera Bread (my favorite place to eat out at here in Ohio), and then we saw Pirates 2. Sadly, I did not like it near as much as I thought I would for a number of reasons. Rob really liked it, though. I am reserving final judgment on the movie until I see # 3. So for any of you wanting right now to talk me into liking # 2, save it until I've seen # 3. Cause very likely I'll like it after seeing the last movie. But it was nice to go out on a date.

Our next date will be our anniversary date on Dec. 21st. Can you believe it, we've been married 6 years! I'm waiting to see how this year's date will top last year's, though. Last year's ended with Elijah throwing up all over multiple times. Might have been Miciah, too. How do you top that? :) I guess we'll have to see what's in store for us. Rob says he's planning the date and just a few days ago told me we would be going to someone's house to watch BYU play in the Las Vegas Bowl. Wowee! Does my man know how to be romantic or what!? I'm a lucky one.

The Holidays are Upon Us

And then it's the holidays. I can't believe it's almost that time of year again. I feel like I'm just waking up from being asleep for the last year (pregnancy plus recovery), so it's amazing to me the time that feels like it's just slipped away. I have SO MUCH more energy than I used to. I find myself randomly dancing or running, just cause I can and cause I have more energy than what I use up during the day. That's a NICE feeling and a very welcome change.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I talked to a lot of you and told you how grateful I was for each of you (in a very personal way, I've been told ). For those of you I didn't talk to, thank you for being a part of our lives. We love you!

Tamra, Rob, Miciah, Elijah, and Teancom