Chicken in Salt with Fennel, Thyme and Lemon

Holiday season 2007. I decided that it was time to finally make a chicken the way I'd seen it made on The Tonight Show. The Naked Chef showed up and made this chicken completely entombed by salt. I was watching it going, "No way! It'll taste terrible!" But then it got done through the magic of television and Jay Leno couldn't stop eating the chicken! I thought then and there that I needed to make this chicken.

It took me years to get on top of it, though, cause that's how I work. I decided I wanted to make it for Rob's family over Christmas. But I had to make it myself first, just to see how it turned out. It took a while to make, but once it was cooking, WOW it smelled great! And it tasted good, too! Very moist and tender. So good.

We ended up making it for Rob's family, which required making 3 chickens at once. It was crazy, but so yummy! I suggest this recipe to anyone who wants to put in the time (and expense--fennel is really costly!). And if you make a slightly bigger chicken, you can have leftovers for chicken sandwiches.

Jamie Oliver's recipe for
Chicken in Salt with Fennel, Thyme and Lemon
from his book "Happy Days with the Naked Chef"

3kg/7lb coarse rock salt (or kosher salt)
8 heaped teaspoons whole fennel seeds, cracked
2 eggs, beaten
2 lemons, halved
1 tablespoon peppercorns
1 bunch fresh thyme
Olive oil
1 x 2kg/4 1/2lb organic chicken
1 bunch fresh parsley, ripped
8 cloves garlic, skins left on, squashed

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas6.

Put all the salt into a bowl with the fennel seeds, eggs, lemon juice (keep the skins), peppercorns, and a wine glass of water and mix together. Bash up the thyme in a pestle and mortar and add a couple of good lugs of olive oil. Scrunch it up and rub this flavoured oil all over your chicken, finally pushing any excess inside the cavity along with your parsley, garlic, and squeezed lemon halves. The idea here is to tightly pack the cavity so it bulges and no salt can get in.

Get 4 long pieces of tin-foil and put them on top of each other to make a large square sheet, around a metre/39 inches square. Lay on 1/3 of the salt, making it around 2cmn/three quarters of an inch thick. Put your chicken on top, then pack the rest of the salt around it. Because the salt is slightly wet it should stick to the chicken - make sure that the chicken's skin hasn't been pierced. Carefully fold up the sides of the foil and scrunch it at the top. You can rip off any excess foil - basically the foil is there to hold the salt together until it hardens.

Place the chicken in the preheated oven and cook for 2 hours, then remove from the oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Take it to the table with 1 or 2 really nice salads, some bread, and a bottle of white. Rip open the foil and crack the salt crust. It will fall apart easily and reveal the fantastic-smelling chicken. Pull the skin away and tear the meat from the thighs and the breast - absolutely pukka. This is gorgeous served with horseradish mixed with creme fraiche or with some homemade basil mayonnaise.

Tamra's tips from making this recipe:
1 - We decrease the amount of fennel. We use about half the amount the recipe calls for. Mostly because it cuts down on expense.
2- We increase the amount of salt a little. We get the salt in 3-lb. containers, so we use 9 lbs. per recipe instead of 7.
3- We cook the chicken for the 2 hours the recipe calls for and then leave the chicken in a just-barely-warm oven for another hour. It seems to be the moistest this way. And so long as you don't break the shell, the chicken will keep its heat for quite a while. You have to eat it pretty fast after you start cutting into it, though, cause it loses its heat quickly, too. We usually put it in a shallow dish and cover it with foil to try to maintain the heat a little.

Good News!

We have some good news to report and it makes me happy that we have any real news to report at all. :)

Rob's Post-Doc

First, as some of you know, Rob has secured his post-doc! Rob met with Dr. Bob Colbert at Cincinnati Children's Hospital yesterday. Dr. Colbert has the space and money for Rob to come into his lab if Rob wants, and Rob told him he wanted to. Apparently there isn't too much formality for a post-doc, so this is about as formal as it's going to get. Rob will be funded by a training grant that requires us to stay for at least 2 years and not longer than 3 (that's when the training grant runs out). We are excited to be staying in Cincinnati and all the good things that means. Rob really likes Dr. Colbert's lab and the people in it, and he has heard nothing but good things about Dr. Colbert. Dr. Colbert seems like he will be another good mentor for Rob. He promised to expect a lot from Rob and help him stretch and grow (including helping Rob write his first grant and get his own funding), which is perfect. He said he understands about family obligations and is willing to be flexible with Rob's time, so long as Rob has a good balance. All in all, this is a great opportunity and we're looking forward to the next stage.

Someone in Dr. Colbert's lab said that to do a competitive post-doc with the intention of going into academics (something Rob may or may not do), you have to work 70 - 80 hours a week. That's double the time Rob's putting in now, and that's insane to expect of anyone, I think. When Rob met with Dr. Colbert, he said that he of course DIDN'T expect Rob to be working 80 hours a week, since Rob has a family. That was a relief to me. I don't mind Rob putting in more hours than he is now, but 80 hours a week is more than I want him to work. I would like to see Rob every now and then.

Teancom is Walking

The other exciting news is that Teancom is now walking!!! This is fabulous news as he is approaching 17 months and we were starting to get a little worried. Walking is still not his primary mode of transportation, but he can walk about as far as he wants to. He's a little wobbly still, but he can manoveur around objects and turn around and stuff like that. Awesome! So we're excited about that. A woman at church looked at me and said, "Is he walking?" I told her that he was but that he's just walking. She said, "oh." Like, oh, okay, good to know. Then I said, "Yeah, at 17 months." She then said, "OH!" :) It cracked me up how different the response was when I said his age. Another friend of mine said, "Though I don't know why we're encouraging you to walk, since you'll be a terror soon when you're walking." I said, "Yeah, but if he doesn't walk soon, we have to worry about if he might be retarded. So walking at this point is good."

He has also started talking a lot more. He will repeat lots of things you say, though I don't think his vocabulary has increased. He can repeat, "Oh, yeah" (which is DANG cute), "please", "thank you", and "you're welcome". He does more readily say ma ma and da da and bye bye, and they're becoming more understandable. He definitely says juice, which sounds something like "gunk gunk".

Teancom just isn't a very active child compared to most kids his age. He's getting more curious about things and more determined to do what he wants to do, but he's still really mellow. It is a wonderful baby characteristic to have. ... We went over to a friend's house so she could teach me how to make gingerbread (more on this story later), and she said, "Teancom's pulling on his ear. Does that mean he's got an ear infection or that he's tired?" I told her that it just means he exists. To which, in the retelling, my uncle quipped, "I have an ear, therefore I am." :) Teancom is ALWAYS sucking on two fingers and holding his ear with his other hand. This is part of the reason he's so calm. If he's bored, he'll suck on his fingers and hold his ear. If he's getting tired, he'll suck on his fingers and hold his ear. If he's hurt, ... you get the point. So he rarely cries and if he does, it doesn't last long. I think that while this is nice now, it will be hard to break him of the habit later. I'm not looking forward to that.

Elijah's Binky

Speaking of habits to break, how long has Elijah not had his binky? A few months now? Well, while playing in the basement two weeks ago, he found a straggler. He brought it upstairs and said, "Mommy, look! My binky!" He hadn't put it in his mouth, but he was intent on holding it and claiming it as his. Rob was wanting to take it away. He asked Elijah to throw it away. Elijah refused. I told Elijah to just go downstairs with it, which he did. To my amazement, he never did put it in his mouth, but for the next several days he was asking for his binky again. We'd say, "Elijah, you don't have a binky any more." He'd say, "Yes, I do! It's downstairs!" Funny. (Yes, it has been thrown away by now.)

Miciah

Miciah is still Miciah. She is loving to do her hair now (she did it the other day for like half an hour) and she gets pretty creative with it. This is good for me, cause I have no idea how to do hair and I don't care much about it. Miciah LOVES it, and I would also love for her to learn how to do it herself. It is odd to me that she is so into it. This is a foreign thing to me. She's much more girly than I ever have been (not hard to pass that mark). But it's also fun for me to be forced to like those things a little. If it were up to Miciah, though, we'd paint our fingernails every night and do our hair all fancy every morning. Since it's up to me, those things hardly ever happen, so I'm glad she's taking her own initiative.

She is also very creative with paper. She spends probably an hour or more every day doing a "project". She colors a ton and makes cards. And these aren't just normal cards. She makes cards with hidden pull-outs and cards with 4 pieces of paper and cards with an envelope on the inside. I'm continually amazed with what she comes up with on her own. Some of the things she makes I know she's seen before, but most of those things she hasn't. I scrapbook, but I prefer to do it alone (Miciah tries to take over projects, which I can't stand: is it my time/project or isn't it?), so she has seen me do very little scrapbooking or card-making. We have a collection of cards that I can't bring myself to throw away. They're so cute, and she takes a lot of effort to try to make us feel special with them. She'll also make cards for us from Elijah: she'll ask Elijah what he wants on the card, write his name on it, and then let him color some of it. She's even made us a card from Teancom! Her thoughtfulness blows me away. Almost every day I have a "surprise" waiting for me, usually a beautiful card. It's a fun thing and it certainly adds love and light to our home.

Miciah is an asset to our home.

Though she is getting much "better" at skillfully lying. She won't deny the truth, she'll just shade it differently. Like this story. It's a combination Miciah and Elijah story. Elijah is getting into EVERYTHING lately. He makes "mountains" out of couch cushions or out of the things that go on their beds (plus anything he can find on their floor). He takes everything out of the kitchen cabinets that he can reach. He pulls all the video games, videos and DVDs out of their spots and puts them all over the living room floor. And he does all these things on the same day. This is mildly amusing to me and I don't worry too much about it. Often it means Rob comes home to a house that is trashed, but it makes me think that someday I'll be wishing I had little ones trashing my house, so I can be amused about it while I can. (Though I must admit, it does not encourage me to clean my house. I find I clean my house less and less these days.)

The Wire Whisk Incident

So the other day Elijah was releiving the kitchen drawers of their utensils and spreading them throughout my house. Like normal. But this time he decided to throw the wire whisk at Miciah. I don't think it hit her, but it definitely came close. So she threw the egg beater whisk thing back at him. (Of course this happens while I'm on the phone, but if you're a mother, you KNOW that's when things like this happen. It's some sort of unwritten rule.) They both got time-outs in separate rooms. I went into Elijah first and talked to him about how it's not good to throw kitchen utensils, or anything else, at your sister, or anyone else. He was quick to say he was sorry (he usually is) and was out of his time-out. I went into Miciah next. She was by this time (maybe 5 minutes?) crying and fussing like a baby. This is her new tactic, though I have no idea why she thinks it should be effective. I asked her why she got a time-out. She said, "Because I dropped the thing and then slid it across the floor." Wow. That's a pretty skillful lie, I thought. She wasn't denying she did SOMEthing with the utensil, but she just gently slid it across the floor. Right. I said, "No you didn't, you threw it at Elijah." I had watched the whole thing happen, so I knew and she couldn't re-write that much. She said, "Well, I threw it, but I threw it at the ground, not at Elijah." :) Pretty clever, I thought. Don't deny the whole truth, just tweak it a little. I told her she could stay in her time-out until she was ready to admit she threw it at Elijah.

So round 2. I gave her another few minutes and went back into her room. We'll try the same question: "Miciah, why are you in a time-out?" She says, "Because I threw that thing at Elijah." "Yes. Yes, you did. Now why did you throw it at Elijah?" I realize the answer is obvious, so I quickly form it as a question, "Beause he threw something at you?" She says, "Yeah, and it hit me RIGHT HERE!" and points at her neck. "No he didn't, Miciah. He threw it near the ground." She says, "Well, he hit me right here!" and points to her knee. I start repressing a smile and I look at her with that "you better start telling the truth pretty quickly because I'm done with this crap" look that only moms can pull off. She then says, "Well, it hit me SOMEwhere!" And I lost it. I cracked up. Pretty soon we were both laughing. She still got the same lecture: be nice, don't throw things, even if he throws something at you. But we got a good story out of it!

I attached a few pictures. One is of our cool gingerbread house! There is a family in our ward that makes gingerbread houses every year (one year they made Hogworts castle. No joke) and they invited us over this year to make them for a fun family night. They had it down, but we have never made a real gingerbread house. They had the gingerbread all made and cut out, so we just had to assemble it. It turned out AWESOME! So we took pictures. I returned yesterday so she could teach me how to make the gingerbread. It's a tradition that we plan on incorporating into our family Christmas celebration from here on out. Rob really grooves on gingerbread houses, actually. I never thought I liked the taste of gingerbread, but apparently I'd just never had fresh gingerbread or something. Because it was good. So now I theoretically know how to make gingerbread and icing. I'm going to attempt a batch this week and see if I can make some gingerbread people.



The other is of Teancom "cooking." We had left some mugs and other things on the table, and Elijah had brought out a wooden spoon. Rob walked into the dining room to see Teancom stirring with the wooden spoon in the mug. Cute.


And the last picture is of Rob's creation. :) Last night Rob and I went to the annual Christmas party for his department. We didn't go last year for some reason now lost to me. Anyways, they have a contest for the best ornament made with all lab supplies. It's a fun contest and they give a little prize for it. Anyways, this is what Rob came up with. Pretty creative, I thought, and so did everyone else, because he won the prize. The girl who got second place (she made a really pretty snowflake made with slides and sucrose (sugar) glued to the slides with silicone stuff) was upset because hers was actually a hanging ornament and Rob's was a decoration, not an ornament. :) Last night Rob took pictures of it on our tree, and he says that, even though he has to return a lot of the supplies to the lab, we can keep it around this Christmas. It's actually pretty cool, though something about it makes me shake my head.


Hope you are all doing well! We love you all.

Tamra, Rob, Miciah, Elijah, Teancom, and Cleo

Oh, we think we're going to keep Cleo around. Her ringworm is gone and she's doing really really well in our home. She's happy here and everyone in our home is happy to have her back, even me. Turns out having only one cat isn't near as hard on the house and everyone else as two cats was. Cleo's also a slightly different (and better) cat by herself. Plus, Elijah the other day was petting her, looked at me and said, "Mommy, Cleo is my best friend." How do you argue with that?

One Tooth Less, and Adventures in Young Mens

My updates usually feel like non-updates, and this one is no exception. And I don't even have pictures to send out to make me feel better about sending out nothing important. :) Oh well. This is the update.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving week was crazy and fun! It started with Rob's brother and his fiance (G and M) plus Rob's mom coming down on Monday night. Tuesday was Grandparents Day at Miciah's school. C had a great time with Miciah and it made Miciah feel special. Before school they had a great time making up stories and drawing pictures together. At school the Kindergarteners sang a few songs for the grandparents and then Carolyn got to check out Miciah's classroom and play games with her. Miciah LOVED it.

After school we left and drove up to P to spend the rest of the week with family. We played games, talked together, and had some great food. Yea for Thanksgiving food! Leftover turkey on leftover rolls. What's better than that?

A Wedding

Friday night we went to a wedding. D & N, two grad students in Rob's program. They are both beautiful people and her dress was GORGEOUS. It was a very fancy ordeal and it was fun to attend. We left when the party was really getting started--about 11 pm. Our kids were being watched overnight at a friend's house, and we thought, why would we stay at a public party and watch people become increasingly intoxicated, when we can go home and do whatever we want. So we went home. It was fun to wake up Saturday morning to a quiet house. A little strange, but fun.

Miciah's Tooth

Then Saturday night was fun. Around 6 p.m. Miciah started screaming about her tooth that hurt. We've known she's had a cavity for almost 2 months. We saw a hole in her tooth at the beginning of October. She had a scheduled cleaning for mid-October. At the cleaning, the dentist obviously saw the hole, too, and scheduled a return date of the beginning of November. They had to cancel that one, and the next time we could get in was mid-November. After waiting in the waiting room for 2 hours, the dentist told us that the hole was bigger than she thought and we'd have to come back another time when she had more time. That was scheduled for December 5th. Still a week away.

Anyways. Back to Saturday. Rob started checking out her tooth and noticed a huge bulge in her gum above her tooth. Bummer. So we gave Miciah some Ambesol and some Childrens Motril and started making phone calls. We called our dentist: no emergency line, of course. We called a nurses' hotline for our insurance. They suggested calling our pediatrician. We spoke to a nurse and then a doctor at our pediatrician's office. The doc said it probably was an absess tooth as we thought, but he didn't feel comfortable giving a prescription for an antibiotic until someone looked at it. So to the Emergency Room we went at 8:00 p.m. Fun times! We got in really quick. It was funny to see people's reaction when we told them what we were there for. It was a funny situation. A dental problem that was now a medical problem, too. Anyways, after fearing they would turn us away with some cop out answer like, "We can't do anything for a dental problem," the doctor was really nice and said it was an absess tooth and gave us the antibiotic we needed.

But we still have to take care of the tooth. On Tuesday we called our dentist's office, told them they were fired for not getting this taken care of in a timely manner, and then called Children's Dental Clinic. It's attached to Children's Hospital and they have a really great reputation. They also have a really long waiting list to get in. We weren't hopeful. But they got Miciah in THE NEXT DAY. Wow. So Wednesday morning Miciah went in to see what needed to be done about the tooth. Turns out that without us knowing or being able to see, her tooth had decayed away. Rob said there was a quarter inch gap between the top and bottom of the tooth. Eww. And of the 3 roots the tooth has, there was only 1 left. So they pulled the tooth. But Miciah did really really well and in a near-miraculous feat, she didn't even know they gave her a shot until I told her a few hours later. That's amazing! She stayed home from school Wednesday. Not because she couldn't go, she had just already been through a lot. So we let her chill at home.

But, for amazing feat #2 for Children's, there was a cancellation on Thursday morning, so Miciah was able to get in the next day for a new patient check-up! Wow. She was a little afraid to go back, but I promised they wouldn't pull any more teeth. They found another 3 little bitty cavities that aren't a big deal. Miciah goes back in January to fix those and also to get a spacer put in her mouth so that her teeth will still grow in the right way. The tooth that got pulled was a molar and it was supposed to stick around for another 4 years before she lost it naturally. Bummer. ... They also mentioned that Miciah doesn't have much space for her bottom teeth, so those will probably come in crooked. I told them that sounded familiar. That's my teeth, and that's what braces are for.

So it's nice that even though it wasn't a fun resolution for Miciah, we're at least now in good dental hands. Elijah will go there from now on, too. Who knows what his teeth are like. I hope he gets Rob's teeth, not mine.

So that was one adventure for this week.

Youth Fireside

Sunday was a second adventure. Sunday was the youth fireside where they basically have a Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, all that stuff, plus pies. Me and Rob and the kids all ate, then I went home with the kids and Rob finished the fireside. Not so much an adventure, really, until that night. Rob's stomach started bothering him right before we went to bed. And then from 1 in the morning until 6 in the morning Rob was up on the toilet cleaning out his system. He woke up at 9 or so the next morning feeling awful, not only because of the awful experience, but also because he hadn't slept all night. He stayed home and slept until almost 1 p.m. Wow. My system wasn't happy with me, either, but I didn't get sick like that.

The next day I asked a friend who was also at the dinner, "You guys weren't by chance sick yesterday, were you?" Yep, they were, too. None of the kids were (though Teancom did have a gross diaper on Wednesday--but that was 2 days after everyone else got sick), thankfully. Rob went to Young Mens Tuesday night and started asking around. All but 4 or 5 people got sick, most of them up through the night like Rob had been. :) They never did pinpoint what it was that got everyone sick (though the stuffing was a likely culprit, all information gathered), but it was a fun sharing experience anyway.

Pink Eye

And for our last adventure of the week, Elijah has pink eye. Not much else to say about that. I was hoping he'd get what I call his vampire eyes, just like last time. But they're just pleasantly pink instead of blood red like they were when he got them last. We called the doctor's office and they called in a prescription for us without making us come in. Yea! Her instructions were, "Try to keep him from rubbing his eyes." I laughed over the phone. Right. He's 3. She said, "It is highly contagious." Yes. Yes, I know. So we might be in for a longer adventure. Who knows? Cute little pink eyes.

Miciah is doing well. She watched the newest Barbie movie (we borrowed it from a friend) about 10 times in the week we had it. I now have most of the songs memorized. Elijah is still obsessed with Spider-Man. Miciah was watching the movie, and there's a lullabye in it. It talks about night time coming by saying, "Stars begin to climb." Elijah looks at me and says, "Mom, Spider-Man cwimb?" Yes, Spider-Man climbs. "Stars don't cwimb." No. Stars don't really climb. Cute.

Elijah also still likes playing pretend. Miciah still likes this, too, but Elijah is getting more and more into it. The other day we were in the car and Elijah said, "I play pretend. I be Spider-Man. And you, Ciah. You be Ciah." I thought that was awesome.

Teancom

Teancom is doing good. He's still not walking, but every now and then he thinks about it. The day before Thanksgiving he surprised us by walking about 10 steps. But he can't do it consistently and he refuses to try most of the time. I still swear that his left leg doesn't move straight. I call it his peg leg. :) He'll walk eventually. He is getting much more curious and that's fun. It's weird to me to think that he's almost a year and a half old. Because he's still very much a baby, not a toddler. He doesn't walk, he's still not really talking, and he's still very cuddly. Rob always says that he'll come home, and every time, within seconds, Teancom will crawl over to him and want to be held. It's cute. But it's weird to see other babies that are much further along and that are also younger than him. :) Teancom will get there. And I've no complaints.

Rob's Paper is Submitted!

OH!! There is one exciting update! Rob submitted his first paper for publication!!! That's AWESOME. I'm going to have Rob send out an e-mail explaining what it's all about. So be looking for that. We're celebrating tonight with a bottle of sparkling cider. Thought about a last-minute date, but with pink eye in the house, uhh, right. But, congrats to Rob!

Post-Doc Search

We also are getting a little further in figuring out where we'll go for his post-doc. It's been an interesting process. We will probably stay in Cincinnati (if it works out with the person he's negotiating with right now. They meet next week and so hopefully we'll know better by then), which is what we originally thought, but I'm glad the process has gone how it has. At first it was about staying here because we're comfortable here. Then we wanted to leave because it was Rob's career dream to go to the NIH. And then things started coming into focus. This is the first decision of this nature where we've had to worry about balancing work AND family. And it just gets harder, I think, to make these sorts of decisions from here on out. Because more and more factors will be added. Anyways, it's been a learning process. Particularly a lesson in patience, for me. I'm not a patient person when it comes to stuff like this. :)

Christmas

And Christmas rules! Our tree is up. The stockings are on the wall. We have 2 nativities out. One is ceramic, beautiful, and up where the kids can't touch it. The other is a Fontanini one that the kids can play with. Which is awesome--it's my favorite Christmas memory growing up: playing with the nativity set. Cute little baby Jesus. This year we added wise men and a cow (the pieces are expensive), so it feels much more complete this year. We have the holy family, a shephard, a traveller, and the 3 wise men. Plus sheep and a cow. I love playing with the set about as much as the kids do. It's awesome.

Hope you're all well. Sorry this is a boring update with no pictures. We love you anyway!

Tamra, Rob, Miciah, Elijah, and Teancom

Pictures and Stories

Teancom is now VERY into climbing onto the table. In fact, it seems to be his favorite place. He's either sitting at a chair at the table or climbing up onto the table itself. I had forgotten they went through this stage. I hope it doesn't last long (let's all laugh about that together. Okay, on three. One, two, three: Hardee har har. Alright. Thanks for joining me for that). I thought it warranted a picture anyway.

And then there's cutie pie Elijah who is in the stage where he does and says funny things. Here's some of the best latest stories.

Elijah got a sticker at the dentist. He brought it home on his shirt, of course. That night he had it on his finger and was waving it around really fast. Then he started doing this fake scream, like he was scared, and saying, "Ah! Help! Scary! A bat!" Rob was laughing uncontrollably before I even figured out that the bat he was pretending about (and trying to run away from) was the sticker on his finger. Weird kid.

He also picked up "No way, Jose!" from somewhere. Which is cute anyways, cause it's being said by a 3-year-old. But he gets it wrong and says, "No way, hose!" So that's our new phrase: No way, hose! Go ahead, say it. You KNOW it's cute.

And the pictures I'm sending of him are from last night. He's in his pajamas and then suddenly he's all dressed up in boots with a bookbag on his back and with his "rope" (which he pronounces rote, and which is actually a random scarf) in his hand. He said he was going on an adventure. :) So we took a picture and told him to make a face like he was going on an adventure. This is the face he pulled. Too cute.

Another picture, non-adventure face:
Teancom

Teancom has been sick this week. He woke up Saturday night at midnight. Rob and I had just finished watching Ratatouille (which was a very well done, cute movie, much to my surprise). I heard a kid crying and walked into the room. When I opened the door I was surprised to hear the cry. It was a cry I recognized. It wasn't his normal cry. It wasn't a cry my other kids have done. It wasn't even a cry I'd heard about but never heard personally. It was the croupy cry I remember from my own childhood. The cry that woke me in the middle of the night because I couldn't breathe (this memory STILL upsets me, actually). Course, I knew what to do. I took him outside in the cooler night air until he calmed down and could breathe okay. But then I think he was scared, so he wouldn't go back to sleep. I expected this and was willing to sit up on the couch with him. ... He was awake until 5:30 a.m. No joke.

Primary Program

We didn't go to church on Sunday. Well, Miciah did because it was the Primary program where the kids perform. And not just that, Miciah sang in a quartet of little kids. She couldn't miss that. Rob suggested that I go just to watch that and I'm glad I did (though I was a little concerned about my driving safety, honestly, after only getting a little sleep--I made it okay). The quartet was really cute and it was the 2nd best thing about the program. The first best thing was O. O is 3. Her teacher is her mother. She was too close to the mic, so her mother gently put her arm around her to try to get her to back up a little. O finishes her line and then, without pausing, says, "Mom, let go of me," like it was the next line she was supposed to say. I laughed for a good couple minutes about that.

And then, after the program, I had to talk to a few people about church stuff. Which is a bummer, really, since I was completely incoherent and I knew it. :) Oh well. ... We've stayed up late with sick kids before, but never all night. Teancom slept until almost 2 p.m. Sunday. I took a 2-hour nap. Rob took a nap, too. It was a long day. And we normally don't do this, but we've drugged him every night since. I'm pretty anti-drugging kids, actually, but we couldn't do another all-nighter. I think he'll be okay tonight. His sore throat voice is virtually gone. He still is congested and that's yucky--it's going around here.

Miciah not only sang well in the program, but she said her part very well, too. I heard her whisper to her teacher as she was getting up to the mic, "I can read it." :) It was a nice thing to hear.

Grandparents Day

A funny thing with Miciah. Her school is having Grandparents Day this coming Tuesday. Carolyn is coming down, but we'd decided to let it be a secret for a while, to surprise Miciah. Miciah usually talks about everything and asks about everything, so I anticipated that Grandparents Day would come up when they talked about it at school. But she didn't ask. And she didn't ask. Then she came home 2 days ago singing a song they'd been practicing for Grandparents Day. So I decided to ask her about it. It went like this:
"Miciah, are you excited for Grandparents Day?" "Yes." "Why?" "Because Grandma and Grandpa are coming." "They are? How do you know? Did you invite them?"
"No. My teacher said Grandparents are coming."... So our surprise plan backfired. :) I had her call and invite her grandparents and they talked about it. So life is better.

Home Projects

Rob stayed home on Monday and we did home projects. We painted our dining room (no, don't get excited about fun colors. We painted it white) and Rob and B (with R's help) laid our new laminate floor. The hardwood floor was fine but didn't look very nice with all the nails and screws the previous owners put in it. So now it looks great. And the room looks brighter and MUCH better painted. The previous owners had just painted it to sell it and it was a first coat at best. Really a bad paint job. It's bugged me ever since we moved in, though I've learned to ignore it. Now at least the living room is better. Bring on painting the hallway and living room!! We will also paint the bathroom and kitchen. The kitchen is the only room that will get color. White on the top of the wall with white tile on the bottom, and black and red accents? Umm, no. It'll be a rich blue, probably. We'll send out pictures of before and after when there's actually an after. :)

Thanksgiving is next week! We have much to be thankful for, as I'm sure all of you do, too. As we're getting into the season, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Tamra and family

Latest Update

If it would be closer to Thanksgiving, I would appreciate that. I have not been able to think about anything except the season's great food for almost a week! It's tantalizing. I might just make pumpkin pie early, but would that spoil the greatness of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving? One never knows.

I sent you all Halloween pictures. Halloween was good. We had our traditional Dinner-in-a-Pumpkin meal (which the kids actually don't eat--we feed them hotdogs), and it's always fun to cook a meal in a pumpkin. It makes me want to cook ALL my meals inside a cleaned out pumpkin. Cause it's cool.

Cutting Back on Stress

The last few weeks have been good. Around last month I was about done with all the activities our family was doing. We were busy with so many good things that I didn't ever feel like Rob and I got to spend time together or even have a normal conversation. It felt a little out of control. So we slowed WAY down and it's been nice to breathe a little bit. We took out anything that wasn't absolutely necessary and spent a lot of evenings at home together instead of out and about doing stuff or having people over. The break has made us better able to do the things we need to do, and the things we want to do. We have just started to add a few more things back in: having a few people over for dinner, stuff like that. So now I'm not bitter at Rob being so involved in his church calling. :) I was bitter for a minute until we took this break and I realized that a lot of what I was upset about was the fact that our family was too busy doing other things. Though, I have asked Rob to cut out some of the things for his calling, too. Balance. This is a hard word for me. A work in progress.

Miciah

Miciah is getting better and better at reading. We have a parent-teacher conference at the end of next week. The teacher said she would have a reading assessment for us when we went in to meet with her. The teacher said Miciah is "just cool", but she could have just said that to make all those parental pride emotions inside of me feel good. :) She's a great teacher and we feel lucky for Miciah to be in her class.

A few days ago Miciah came to me with 28 cents. She asked if I could put it in her piggy bank. We created piggy banks for Miciah and Elijah for when they earn money. I told her she had to earn the money and where did she get it from (because she only earns money by doing chores and stuff like that--they play the penny game: a penny for every item they clean up). She said she got it on the bus. I asked her to elaborate and she told me a friend on the bus saw a "jewel" that one of her classmates had given her for her birthday. The kid on the bus wanted it and "traded" her the 28 cents for the jewel. ... I wasn't sure what to say about that. Miciah sold something to another student. In the end I decided that counted as earning money and put the coins in her piggy bank.

Elijah

Elijah is still a rambunctious 3-year-old. He's so sweet sometimes and then just all energy and boy at other times. But it's really cute when we see how sweet he is. He's more considerate than I am BY FAR, and that's refreshing. Sure, you can teach consideration, but we didn't teach him--he came with it.

At Halloween, there was a guy sitting on his porch smoking. He didn't have any candy. Now WHY would you sit on your front porch smoking on Halloween night without candy? Who knows. Elijah started walking up the steps and the guy said he didn't have any candy. We started calling Elijah back, but he wasn't really getting it. We said he could just tell him Happy Halloween, which Elijah apparently took as a go ahead and walk up to get candy. So he finished walking up the steps. We hastily explained to him that the guy didn't have any candy and went to get him down (cause he wasn't coming down). He turns to the guy in the middle of all this fun chaos-like atmosphere, smiles, and gives him a thumbs up. :)

Night Terrors

For a few weeks Elijah's night terrors spiked in frequency. He really hadn't had many until we took his binky away. We took his binky away 2 months ago now, and at first he just didn't go to sleep very well. Then he got used to that and the night terrors started coming back instead. There weren't that many at first, so I wasn't sure it was connected to taking away the binky. Then there was 2 or 3 weeks where they were 3 times a week or more. They'd changed in nature a little, but they obviously were night terrors. We were about to the point where we were ready to ask the doctor about them--if there was anything we could do--when they quit. I just realized the other day that he hadn't had one in like 2 weeks. He will now wake up occasionally in the middle of the night, around midnight (he's ALWAYS done this, even since he was a baby sleeping, otherwise, through the night), be a little sad but able to be comforted, and then go back to sleep. ... We just had Teancom's check-up on Friday, which you'll hear about in a minute, and we asked the doctor about the night terrors. I told him a little of the history and described a little bit about his behavior during them. The doctor said 1- we had it pretty easy compared to some kids' night terrors, and 2- it made a lot of sense to him. The binky was his comfort item which helped curb the night terrors. Then we took that away and he had to adjust again. Having a comfort item helps curb night terrors. So I was glad at least that what we were observing made sense.

But an after affect of taking the binky away is that Elijah now does not take a nap at all. He occasionally will fall asleep watching a movie, or he'll fall asleep in the car (even more rare, since I'm not out and about much in the afternoon now). But no naps on any kind of regular basis. In fact, I'm having a hard time recalling when his last nap was.

Teancom

Teancom is the cutest baby ever. He's dang happy and content with life. He still is not walking, though, and he's not really talking, either. At the check-up, our doctor asked if we were concerned about either of those things. We told him we weren't really, we just wanted to keep an eye on it. He described it much how we do, "It would be nice if he were doing those things, but I think he'll get there." He said he was encouraged by his interaction with us, and how active he was. He did tell us we could send him to Children's for developmental testing for his walking and his talking. He said mainly it would be for peace of mind--plus, we wouldn't have to keep addressing it at doc's visits in the future. We turned that down, just cause we're not really concerned. Teancom has done everything so far at his own pace, and just about the time where we're starting to be really concerned about it, he starts doing it. So, I fully expect that he'll start walking at 18 months, a week before the next doctor's appointment. :)

And then his language will take off, too, I'm sure. Right now the only word he says that is truly a word is "No." He's got that one down. Not that I'm sure he always knows what it means. There are just times I KNOW he knows what it means. He's developing his attitude. He's taken to throwing sprawling fits on the living room floor. Usually it's because he's hungry and I haven't fed him yet. He does know how to sign for food, but I've found that if he's REALLY hungry, he won't sign any more, he'll just throw a fit. Fun. :) But at least he has an opinion about it now, and that's nice. Before it was hard for me to tell when he was hungry at all, because he seemed not to care so much. Then we taught him the sign for food and he would wake up from naps signing for food. :) And now he's moved up a level from that--throwing fits when I don't feed him soon enough.

But, still, he's so dang happy and cute and cuddly! I don't know any other 15-month-old that still loves to be cuddled and squished and loved on like he does. He's very calm for a 15-month-old. And I love it. Miciah the other day said, "Mommy likes Teancom better than all of us, even Daddy." I smiled. I told her that I don't like him better, I just love that I can still gush him. I asked her if I could gush her and she said she wouldn't like it. I told her that Elijah didn't like it, either, and it would just be weird if I did it to Rob. So I have to get it while Teancom will still give it. I'll be a little sad when he's more active. It's nice to just carry him around during church and not have him going crazy because he's bored out of his mind. He's just content to be held while he sucks on his fingers and plays with his ear.

That's the kids.

Thacker Family Fireside

Family stuff. Something very cool happened last week for the family. Rob's parents and sisters and brother, G, came down to do a fireside for the ward. It was titled, "What Think Ye of Christ?" and was a wonderful evening of song and testimony. They each gave a personal story and then sang a song to go along with that testimony. The last song, entitled Tender Mercies, had C on the violin, the rest singing, and our friend in the ward, RH (who is a FABULOUS pianist), accompaning. It was AMAZING. As the presentation ended, I was almost in tears about the fact that it hadn't been recorded. It is my new goal in life to have them perform it (or something like it) again in C and M's branch, or V & C's ward, so we can work on getting a recording of it. (There are rules about what can be recorded where in the ward building. We didn't look very hard into getting it recorded, since they had told us no because that's the rule. I think had Rob or I made a personal plea about how this is a precious piece of family history, they would have let us record it. Because that was the right thing to do. But, alas, now we just have that regret.)

Anyways, it was amazing and a great family moment.

I am doing good. Working on this idea of Balance. That will be a life-long endeavor.

Rob is doing good, too. His paper (as always, it seems) is near completion and he's working on his second paper and his dissertation. We have a June 13th graduation in sight (it's a Friday, which I think is fun), and Rob has a committee meeting on Wednesday to try to convince them he'll be ready to graduate then.

Post-Doc Search

We're also still in the process of trying to find a post-doc. The woman he's been in contact with at the NIH is a flake and so we're looking into other options. This whole thing has been a process of better defining what exactly Rob wants to do for a post-doc. It is still possible that we will stay here in Cincinnati, but it's not Rob's first choice. There are lots of advantages for our family if we stay here, but it has to be right, whatever the choice is. I kicked the current "opportunity" out the door (the woman at the NIH he's been in contact with). Rob isn't as fed up as I am, but he's ready to start expanding his post-doc options now. Bottom line: There is no news to report. We're still in phase 1 (and in some cases, phase 0) of decisions about post-docs.

Cleo

Oh, and I should probably report about Cleo, our cat. We had given her to C, but she wasn't doing well there, so we took her back. There is someone here that is interested in her, possibly, but the day after she got back to our house, we found the elusive ringworm. You know, the ringworm that everyone in our family had, that C's family had, and that we were pretty sure the baby cat, Fumasa, had passed to us. We took Cleo in to get a treatment for it. We've been doing that for, what, almost 4 weeks. It's getting better, but slowly. A week or two after we took Cleo in, they found ringworm on Ceasar, too. The two different vets seperately concluded that Fumasa is a carrier for ringworm. Fun! So Cleo is with us until she is healthy, and then hopefully she'll go to another good home. ... So much for being cat free. :)

And that's our update.

Tamra and family

Stories of an Indecent Nature

Okay, not really indecent. I just have these great stories about Elijah. Here goes.

Elijah is in the obsessed with his penis stage. Seems like this is a long stage. ... Come to think of it, Rob always tells me, "But you have to admit, they are pretty cool," so maybe the stage never ends. (Sorry for embarrasing you, Rob.) Anyways.

Elijah gets impatient when going potty. He wants to stand but I decidedly do NOT want him to stand. He makes messes a lot. This is not my territory. I can not teach him how, I can not show him how, and since I DIDN'T teach him how, it is Rob's job: the teaching, the cleaning up after, the pep talks about how to do it right--all Rob's job. Anyways. He'll get impatient as he's climbing up on the potty. So he'll do this squating or perching as Rob calls it. This bothers Rob. Not me so much, since I prefer it to the standing in front of the toilet. So the other day Rob was in the bathroom watching Elijah perch to pee. He says, "Elijah, we don't perch to go pee." Elijah looks at him and says very matter-of-factly, " *I* do. " I started giggling. Yes, Elijah, yes, you do. So funny.

Elijah is hard to keep clothed from the waist down. If he has on one article of clothing on his lower half, I'm happy. Shorts, pants, or underwear. I'd prefer him to wear two articles--you know, underwear under his shorts or pants, but one will be fine. So we're sitting at the table and he's wearing just underwear on the bottom half. Which is fine. He's messing with his stuff down there (not gross-like, but still, at the dinner table?) and turns to me and says, "Mom, you have a pee pee (his word for penis)?" I start to answer his question, "No, I don't," and then I realize, WHY are we discussing this at the dinner table? So I add, "And this isn't really a discussion we need to be having at the dinner table." I call Rob in to discuss with Elijah why this isn't appropriate at the dinner table. Rob talks with him breifly. A few seconds later Elijah starts taking out his pee pee to show us all, saying, "You want to see my pee pee?" I'm not sure if this should be funny or disgusting. Sure, disgusting if he's 12. But he's 3. So it's mostly just funny. Rob tells him, "We don't show people our pee pee, Elijah." Elijah nods in agreement. "Yeah, we just touch it, right, Dad?" At this point I'm laughing. Like just touching his penis at the dinner table should be better than flashing it around. Too funny.

Oh, the joy of having boys. Just thought you all might enjoy that. Or maybe you didn't and you think it's just gross. In which case, God will bless you with male children and that will teach you. :)

Tamra

Pictures

We were taking pictures of Teancom with funny things in his mouth. He's in the stage where he puts EVERYTHING in his mouth. He has a few things in particular that he favors. But this one cracked us up, so we had to take pictures of it.

Teancom on the couch watching TV. So cute.

Then I moved on to pictures of Elijah. This photo cracked me up. Not sure what he's doing, but the image is funny.

Plus, here's a picture of him doing something he loves to do--playing baby in a crib.

Then on to Miciah. She was sitting very quietly and smiling for the camera. Then, I'm sending a series of pictures to see how Rob's influence changed that. :) ...


Tamra

Halloween Update

Happy Halloween! Here are some pictures of the kids all dressed up. The boys, plus Rob, were all train conductors (or train engineers, I guess).

Miciah was a princess. My Mom made the costume out of material picked up by Miciah's cousin (who got a matching dress). Miciah added the bandana because she thought it made it look cool. ... Enjoy.

We went to a Halloween party on Saturday. Miciah bobbed for apples and the pictures of it cracked me up. And Elijah's best friend was there, and it's a dang cute picture, so I had to share it, too. They walked around holding hands saying, "We're brothers." So cute. The friend is a grasshopper, in case you can't figure out the costume (but the costume is so beautiful, I think it explains itself).

The other two pictures are from trick-or-treating. Uncle R had special treats for the kids, and we got their picture. A little fuzzy, since it was a picture with a flash in the dark. :) But it came out alright. And then a fabulous picture of Teancom on Rob's shoulders. Teancom's getting more used to the hat and is letting us put it on him for longer periods of time. Which is good since Halloween is now over. :) Oh well. He was dang cute any way you slice it.
Weather was perfect. I don't remember such a perfect Halloween night for years and years. Plus, since the time hasn't changed yet, the sun wasn't as far down and so it never really got cold. Good for all of us.

Tamra

What Think Ye of Christ?

This is a program that Rob's family put together for my ward. It was a FANTASTIC night and a great family moment. It is one of my lasting regrets that I didn't press hard enough to get a video recording of the night's program.

“What Think Ye of Christ?”
October 28, 2007


Opening prayer given by Tamra Thacker

Introduction by Robert Thacker

“Come, Come Ye Saints” Thacker family and congregation

“He Hears Me” solo by Chiara Cameron

“Abide with Me” intro by Vaughn Thacker

solo by Garrett Thacker

“Nearer my God to Thee” Thacker family

“Our Savior’s Love” Thacker family

“Perfect Love” solo by Melanie Stucki

“May I Serve Thee” solo by Robert Thacker

“Tender Mercies” Thacker family

Closing prayer given by Bishop Cybulski


Alma 5:14, 26
“And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?
“And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?”

Miciah's Birthday!

Miciah is now a very adult 6 years old. Awesome.

Birthday at Parkey's Farm

We spread out her celebrations. Not on purpose, really, but that's how it ended up happening. The Saturday before Rob took Miciah up to C's house to practice some songs they're singing for a fireside, and while the cousins were all together, they did a little birthday celebration. Then on Monday we did a celebration with another family at a local farm that does Halloween Nights. It's a non-scary family-oriented night. They have a hay maze and a hay ride and there was a magic show and other stuff. They loved it. Well, everyone but Elijah loved it. Elijah had been cranky earlier in the day, but during the magic show he started complaining about his head and throat and I noticed his forehead was hot. I took him out, got him a drink of water, carried him around, and by the time the others were out of the magic show, he was asleep. I made Rob carry him, and for the next hour he just slept in Rob's arms. Poor kid. But it was still a good time.

At one point, during the hay maze, which the kids loved, I thought I had lost A, Elijah's friend that we brought with us. I was standing by one of the maze exits, as a sentinel, but the other exit wasn't being watched too closely. So suddenly I was seeing Elijah running around crazy and no A! I asked Rob if he saw him. Nope. No one else did, either. I'm looking around the maze, he's not there. I'm looking nearby at places he could be just running around. No A. Then a lady standing at another side of the maze goes, "Are you looking for a little boy?" Yes, in fact I was. "He's sitting in this corner hiding." Breathe again. He wouldn't get up for anyone, so I walked back through the maze with Elijah and convinced him to get up so we could move to something else. It ended up being funny, but for a minute there I was wondering how I would tell one of my best friends that I had lost her son. :)

October 16th

The next morning Elijah was fine, but Miciah had the fever. (Teancom had a fever Sunday night.) I called and talked to her teacher about something else and mentioned to her that Miciah had a fever and I was ordered (sort of) to not send her to school. Bummer for Miciah, since it was her birthday. So she stayed home, but was fine by mid-afternoon. She kept asking what her friends at school would be doing now. Told me about the fun things they'd be doing in class that she was missing. :) So I told her that she was lucky because she got THREE birthday celebrations. One on Monday, one on Tuesday (with the family), and then one on Wednesday when she got back to school! She thought for a minute and then said, "Then I should be 9!" ...

We let her pick her birthday dinner. She chose beef Ramen and Ritz crackers. Joy! Rob actually loves Ramen (why, again, do I try to make good meals when he's just as happy with Ramen?) so he was in heaven. Then we had her cake. She's always wanted an Ariel cake (just like last year. She's obsessed with Ariel and mermaids), but last minute she decides it should be a castle, too. So I cut notches off the top layer so it would look remotely castle-ish. I thought for a last-minute solution it wasn't half bad. She was happy with it anyway, and that's what matters.

The gift we got her was a $20 gift card to ToysRus. She was thrilled to pick out her own gift. She chose an Ariel building block set and a mermaid pool toy thing. :) It's funny to me how much a gift card can be exciting. Easier for us, fun for her. If she doesn't like her gifts, it's her fault because she chose them. How can you go wrong?

While I took her to ToysRus Rob was busy building her a bed tent. Elijah's been asking us to put blankets up so that his bottom bunk is a "tent". Miciah's been trying to get us to build her a tent, too, but she's on the top bunk. So we'd been thinking of a plan and Rob finally came up with lashings. Yea for Boy Scout training. So he lashed up some thick cardboard rolls and secured bed sheets to them and when we came home I told her to go look in her room for the surprise. She was so excited. Man, sometimes it's the easy things in life, eh? Didn't cost us anything--the supplies we already had. Just a little bit of time and effort and she's happy. Life is good.

Back to School

And Wednesday she was able to go back to school and share treats with the class, so she was happy. I was scheduled to be in helping the teacher as a Parent Helper, so I was able to share the moment with her, which was fun. She loved having me in helping, though I didn't help her specificially. I think she just liked being able to share with me what her day is like and what her class is like.

So that was Miciah's 6th birthday. Yea for kids getting older and yea for simple birthdays and family time!

Other family stuff.

Miciah is Reading

Miciah is now reading. It hadn't occured to me that there was never a day when your kid would just BAM! be reading. When people say that kids read, they say, "You were reading at 5" or "She was reading at 3 1/2", like it was a single event. Miciah has been in some stage of being able to read for over a year. Now she is reading almost any word she wants and needs minimal help, so I think that constitutes Reading. When she can sit in the back of the car and drive you crazy reading and asking questions about signs she's reading, that's official. :)

Elijah

Elijah is not driving us crazy as badly as he used to be. We re-evaluated how we were parenting him and realized we needed to just chill out a little. We've never been hyper parents, but in his transition from quiet, happy, sweet, cuddly toddler to FULL ENERGY IN-YOUR-FACE little boy, we'd been knocked off-balance. So we took some deep breaths, put some calm back in our voices and souls, and he's been reacting MUCH better to that. Elijah feeds off any anger or loudness sent his way, so really, the problem was in large part us. But we're OK with this full energy kid, we just needed to realize this is who he is now and he's not "broken" in the sense of "what's wrong with you? You weren't like this before!". So life is MUCH better.

Teancom

Teancom is still the quiet, happy, sweet, cuddly one, so he has now eclipsed my other kids as the current favorite. Mothers should not have favorites. But at times when everything is chaotic, including my older 2 kids, I can sit on the couch and gush my sweet baby and that's awesome. Soon he too will be the full energy in-your-face little boy, so he can keep favorite status for a while. :)

No real news with Rob or me, as usual. If there is, I'll make some bold headline like "ROB PUBLISHED HIS FIRST PAPER". You will know when there is real news here, not just non-news.

Nintendo Wii

Rob and I did play the Nintendo Wii for the first time last night. We made our little miis. I told Rob, "Your mii looks a lot like you, spelled u-i-i." It was fun to play. I thought my mii looked quite like me while Rob's (with the beard) looked like Kenny Loggins. But I have now been a Simpsons avatar and a little mii. My life feels complete.

We love you all!

Rob, Tamra, Miciah, Elijah, and Teancom

No big updates from us since last time.

Family Campout

Two weekends ago we went on a family campout. We have gone once before with two other families. This time we added one more family, but that's about as many families, I think, that will fit into the family campout scheme we have worked out. It works great to have other families there, because you share everything, including the sites and the cost, and you end up spending less than you would have just going with your own family. And that's awesome. ... The kids love the camping. We will go again in April, when it's warming up again. It's fun.

Plus, fires are pretty cool. We've been having a good time making tin foil dinners in our fire pit outside. And they're actually really really good. We have a wood pile that we intend to have used up by the time next summer comes and we'll be moving (if it all works out). So we make a fire probably once a week, sometimes more. We make s'mores and tin foil dinners and sometimes we just make the fire to make a fire. Code says that you have to be cooking over it for it to be legal to make a fire, so we always at least make s'mores. S'mores might be one of the best things EVER. So yummy. ... The other night we made a fire and as it died down (fires are like very demanding children. You can't leave them unattended), we sat around it and watched Tim Conway youtube videos. It was awesome. There's something about a fire that makes you want to just stare at it and let the world pass you by while you sit still.

Rob's Paper

Rob is really close to having his first paper finished and ready to publish. But I feel like that's where it's been for YEARS. :) Okay, it hasn't been that long, but it feels like it's dragging out. One of these days I'll send out an update saying it was published in this journal and it'll feel nice to have that completed. ... Rob has started writing his thesis and is doing experiments now for his second paper. Everyone cross their fingers that the results will come.

Miciah and School

Miciah is still enjoying school. She's a very self-motivated learner, which impresses me. Though we did have to have a discussion with her about homework. You do homework before you go outside to play or play a computer game. This discussion made Rob feel really old. How many times did our parents tell us that and how many times did we groan about it? And now here we are saying the same thing.

Teancom

Teancom has leaped ahead in just the last week. The signs we've been trying to teach him for the last 2 months (food/eat, juice, more, milk, and all done) he's now learned and is using unprompted. Out of the blue, it seems, he just suddenly was using them. So it's really really nice to be able to have him tell us what he wants. He's also taken a step for us, though he still thinks it's hysterical that we get so excited about it. ... I'm not sure I can define what's changed in Teancom. He just seems more attentive and alert and like he wants to communicate with us. Like he's trying to interact with us, whereas before he'd just smile at us when we tried to get him to sign. :) I think he likes that he can sign food and get food.

He still thinks it's pretty funny to hit me when he's tired. Usually in the face. Why he should think this is so funny, I don't know.

Elijah

Elijah was sick a week ago Sunday. He woke up puking at 6 a.m. Sunday morning and was up sick until 8:30 or so. He woke up feeling much better at 10:30 a.m. Everyone was at church except for him and me, and he turned to me and asked where Daddy was. I told him that they were all at church because Elijah was sick. He looked at me a little puzzled and said, "I'm sick?" It was cute. ... He's so sweet when he's not feeling well, really. When he first woke up, I jumped out of bed because all I heard was what sounded like Elijah choking. I ran in to find he'd thrown up all over his bed and himself. I took him into the bathroom to finish while Rob changed the sheets. After it had passed, I took Elijah into the living room. He took a detour to his room, looked in to see Rob, smiled at him and gave him a thumbs up. :)

That was a pretty off day. Later I remarked to someone about how if that's how Elijah's sickness went, I'd sign up for the same thing. 3 hours and done. He woke up asking for food. I made him go slowly, but he was eating good stuff by afternoon. Anyways, when I said I'd sign up for the same sickness, I meant that I'd sign up for it to happen IN THE SAME WAY. A friend of ours was sick with some stomach bug that ailed him for 3 days during the week. Wasn't sure it was the same thing, since his sickness was so ugly and Elijah's wasn't.

And Then It Happened to Me

So Thursday night I went to bed only to dream about how I was going to throw up. I woke up at 1 a.m. to fulfill that prophetic dream. By 3 a.m. Miciah had joined in. By 5 a.m. Teancom was throwing up, too. Poor Rob, he had to get up with the kids every time because I couldn't get up without throwing up. After Rob got done cleaning up after one of the kids, he got back to bed and said, "I should set my alarm for 10 minutes from now." When the next round came, he got up and said, "Well, we made it 12 minutes." :) He got back to bed after taking care of it, and said, "Well, you might as well get up and throw up, too." I told him I would have to in a matter of minutes. Of course, by then I was just dry heaving, which is worse. We all were done by 8 a.m. and everyone slept in until almost 10.

Rob asked if I wanted to get up and take a shower and hopefully that would help me feel better. I said sure and got up. I walked into the bathroom and Rob looked at me as I was leaning on the sink for support. He said, "Are you okay?" I told him I'd probably better just go back to bed. By the time I got back to the bed, I had almost fainted. So, needless to say, Rob stayed home from school Friday. I told him I'd love to be able to take care of my sick kids, but I can't even take care of myself (and you can't pawn sick kids off on someone else). I tried twice to get up and sit on the couch. From my bed to the couch (what, maybe 30 feet) I had to stop and sit on the dining room chair so I wouldn't faint. Miciah sat on the couch watching TV all day, with a fever spiking at 102. And I slept until 5 p.m. I still wasn't feeling great, but good enough to walk, so Rob took a little nap because he was beat. Wonder why. :) We figured out that the night we were all awake sick, the longest stretch of sleep was 2 hours. Nice.

The Morning After

We all felt MUCH better by Saturday morning. This last weekend was General Conference for our church, and we were supposed to go up North to stay with M and C to watch conference and let the kids play together. We were supposed to go up on Friday night, but obviously that wasn't happening. So we went up Saturday early afternoon after we got our house back in order. On the way Teancom threw up (Rob said maybe it was just car sickness. Maybe). I was grumpy because I still wasn't feeling great. Not sick any more, but still recovering and weak (I lost 5 lbs. in a little over a day--I kept looking in the mirror wondering what was wrong with my image--guant and pale (and that's paler than normal, mind you)). We got to M's house and I laid on the couch for another few hours. Finally by dinner Saturday night I was eating some normal food. That's 48 hours after getting sick. We went to bed that night and Miciah woke up and had thrown up a little agian.

But by Sunday we were all pretty much better. And no one has had any episodes since. ... Rob's advisor did tell him that he's next. Rob said, "I hope not." To which his advisor, an MD, responded, "No. You will be." :) Let's hope not.

... Why it should be fair that I would be hit really hard by this sickness that Teancom and Elijah breezed through, .... :) Oh well. We're all better for now.

So DON'T EVER SAY YOU'D SIGN UP FOR A SICKNESS. Cause you never know what you're in for.

Here's a great picture of Elijah. I went into the kids' room last night to make sure it wasn't too cold and walked in to find Elijah, asleep, like this. :) It was awesome.


Well, that's our long update about not much of anything. Hope life is going well for all of you!

Tamra

P.S. One of the speakers during our General Conference gave a talk that really touched me. He was talking about charity and small acts of kindness. About halfway through his talk he started shaking a LOT and looked like he was going to fall over. One of the other men walked up behind him. I thought he was going to tell the speaker that he should probably sit down or something. But he didn't. Without a word or even a gesture, and without any acknowledgement, he just stood behind the speaker and supported him so he could stand. The shaking decreased, but it was with great effort that the speaker finished his talk. I thought that maybe the speaker would shorten his talk because of the situation, but I don't think he did. He wanted to give his message as it was intended. It just really struck me that here is this man speaking on charity, just trying to give his talk with a body that isn't cooperating, and then, his friend comes up and embodies the talk by supporting him. No words. Just simple, kind charity. ... After the talk the speaker said, "Thank you," and several other men helped him to his chair.

How we all lean on each other. Thank you, all of you, for showing me and my family charity and love. We appreciate you.

Reading to the Kids

Here are a few photos of Rob reading to the kids last night. All 3 of them were sitting on his lap and were quiet and engaged while he read them a book. After a long day of sick and fighting kids (Elijah woke up throwing up at 6 in the morning) (Elijah, as Rob put it, maliciously threw away Miciah's soda, and in retaliation, Miciah "accidentally" bit Elijah's ear), it was nice to remember what family is all about.

Tamra

Pictures I Wanted to Share

I send out a lot of pictures. Probably because when Collin gave me this camera, he told me I had to send out lots of pictures. I suppose if you ever get tired of them, you don't have to view them. :) Oh, and if anyone ever wants the full-sized version of photos I send out, just let me know. I have the ability to send out larger files, it's just inconvenient, so I usually send out smaller pictures. I figure they normally just get viewed and deleted anyway, not printed out for photo-quality stuff.

These 2 photos are from late last night. Rob and I were playing parcheesi, a game we've come to love. I beat him mercilessly (really, it was a blow-out). Then he sat there for like 20 minutes trying to build an animal pyramid. The first photo is of him concentrating (check out those focused eyes!). The second photo is of the pyramid, the best it got. Too bad the video is much too large to send out. Cause it's pretty funny to watch how weird Rob gets after 11 p.m.

I can never get very good pictures of Elijah, hence I'm always trying. ... I finally figured out that he looks cheesy when he smiles for the camera because he doesn't naturally smile very much. So I've stopped asking him to smile for the camera and the pictures are turning out better--more natural.

These are my 3 latest attempts.

I was labelling my pictures and came across this one Rob took of Elijah. It reminds me very much of photos of Ruben when he was a little kid. At the very least, it shows off Elijah's T-ness (in looks, not in behavior)!

Tamra

Just Pictures Today

No real update. Teancom no longer has spots, isn't pale, and is happy again. He still cuddles, likes to be held, and prefers to crawl or sit instead of even attempting to walk. Elijah is still terrorizing the house, we took away his binky (for good) and that's been a fun adventure. Miciah is loving school. Rob has his first paper finished enough to go over with his advisor. And I'm enjoying scrapbooking while Miciah is at school. We've been making a bunch of tinfoil dinners over a fire outside in our firepit for dinners, and that's been a ton of fun (plus it's yummy!).

Enjoy the pictures. These 2 are of Elijah soaked at muddied from playing in the hose outside. :)

Elijah sleeping on the couch. Since we took his binky, he's slept on the couch a few nights. He still asks for his binky every night and I feel as though I've taken away his best friend, which, really, is what I've done. It's a little sad. I caught him sucking his finger today. I don't know if that'll continue or not.

Teancom is cute! He's a very smiley, happy baby, and I love it. Plus, naked babies are awesome. :)

Tamra

Last Part of the Update

Miciah is loving school. She likes to learn (though she does tell us that she's not learning a whole lot that she doesn't already know). She comes home and as quickly as possible shows us her stuff from the day. They often have things she wants to finish coloring or whatever. Sometimes she'll come home with stories to act out for us. She loves doing her homework and is very eager not only to do it and have FUN doing it (is that possible? She has fun doing homework?), but to do it right.

It did make me laugh yesterday. She came home and was trying to tell me about an event happening Monday night. She said it was a bagel thing. I was thinking about how I didn't know there was a school function that night that involved breakfast food. She then told me that they would throw things. I asked, "Throw bagels?" "Yeah!" she said. I was beyond confused. She then told me it was at 7. No, no, that wasn't right. The teacher said it was at 7:30. And we could watch it on TV. They would be playing a game. ... She was telling me about the BENGALS game. Bagels, Bengals, it's all the same. :)

Teancom still isn't walking or anything, and that's okay with me. He does say Da Da, and usually says a consistent bye-bye. That's about it. But, again, he's about the happiest kid I've ever met, so I'll take it. By this point in Elijah's life, we knew about his temper. I was wondering if Teancom would have the same temper, but it seems that he doesn't have a temper. He doesn't even get mad if he's hungry and you're not feeding him fast enough. And that's AMAZING to me. He's just really chill. It makes him a charmer because everyone falls in love with his soft temperament. Including me.

And the last thing, I've had some funky eye problem. There was a dry spot on my eyelid. Who knows what it is. I had it for over 2 weeks. As I was entering week 3 this weekend, it started swelling. First the swelling wasn't too noticable, then it got a lot worse. I finally broke down and decided I should treat it with something. I didn't know what to use, though cause just about everything topical says not to get in or near eyes. I tried melaluca oil, but it burned and made my eye feel like I put icy hot on it. So I decided to try this triple antibiotic cream that has melaluca in it. The swelling has now almost completely reduced and my eyelid is no longer red. Random of all randomness, but I'm glad it's going away. And no, I am NOT attaching a picture of it at its worst. :) That's the beauty of being the one behind the camera.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Tamra

Sunday Morning Photo Shoot

This is how MOST of that Sunday morning photo shoot went. Teancom was trying to play with the toy hammer. Elijah was trying to take it. And Miciah was trying to moderate. For a good portion of the time, Elijah was sulking about not being able to have the toy hammer. Finally we gave Elijah the hammer and gave Teancom another toy.

For a little while, since Elijah was sulking, I took pictures of just Miciah and Teancom. There's a whole series of cute pictures, two of which I sent. Miciah is trying to help Teancom play with the hammer. Teancom accidentally bops her lightly in the face and then Miciah cracks up. Made me smile. Miciah looks so good in pictures when she's laughing. I probably like it so much because she's almost always laughing in real life. It's how she looks most natural. Eliah, by comparison, has no emotional reaction to anything. I noticed this at Coney Island. We'd put them on a ride. Miciah would be laughing and smiling and talking all about how much she liked it. Elijah just kept the same expression. I'd say, "Elijah, do you like this ride?" He'd nod, like it was a very normal thing to go on a ride. Or he'd shake his head, like he didn't like it but couldn't be bothered enough to frown about it. It makes me laugh how different the two of them are.

Tamra

Elijah Stories

Elijah is now super chatty, mostly owing (I think) to the fact that Miciah isn't around for him to talk to for a few hours every day. He's also now into make-believe, which is new for him. So I thought I'd report on some of the fun things he's done recently.

* He likes to pretend to be a baby and sleep in a crib. Often he'll fit himself into the play baby doll crib, which is like 1 foot by 2 feet. Miciah will help him some times by building him a crib on the couch out of couch coushins. This is a favorite game around here. The take all the coushins and rearrange thim into marvelous things. One of these times, they built a boat. Miciah had a steering wheel in the front and in the back was a space for the crib. Miciah took her turn being the baby, too. It's funny to watch your 5 year old and your 3 year old playing pretend parent/baby together. Miciah reached out to him making baby noises for "come get me" and Elijah was walking around. Miciah got more insistent and Elijah said in a very real parental tone (you know, the I'm busy, but I'm trying tone), "Just a minute. I'm coming."

* We have a little playset outside that the kids like. Elijah was standing on the slide when Rob walked out onto the deck. Elijah said, "Dad! It's a pirate ship! Look! Buried treasure!" ... Some days later, the kids were looking into the fish tank. Miciah said, "Dad! There's a quarter in there!" Rob looked at it and said that it was a penny. They took that in for a second, staring intently at the penny. Rob kind-of-causual-like said, "It's buried treasure." Elijah, nose pressed up to the glass, says with wonder, "Buried treasure!" Rob and I laughed for a good 5 minutes over that one.

* One of the afternoons with just me and Elijah, Elijah was chatting my ear off (this is becoming more and more common). He started talking about some story that has no real beginning or end, in a way only little kids can do. I picked it up here: "And I will be a lion. I will say "Roar!" And you will be scared. You will say, (and here he does his very best high-pitched Mom voice) "Ah! Robbie! Help!" And I will say, "Roar!" " Since then I've been repeating it for just about everyone because I like saying (in my very best high-pitched Mom voice), "Ah! Robbie! Help!"

* Elijah is certainly more capable now than he ever has been in the past. We made a fire the other night in our fire pit. We had the kids' chairs out for them to sit in. At one point Miciah was sitting in a chair right beside Rob and drawing on a piece of paper. She got up and showed Rob her work. Then she went to sit down again and fell on her butt! While she had been standing up, Elijah picked up the chair and moved it to the other side of the lawn. :) Miciah started crying, more out of embarrasement than anything, and it didn't help that Rob was laughing his head off. Elijah wasn't quite sure what was wrong, but when he figured it out, he brought the chair back. A little late, since Ciah was still upset, but cute anyway.

Elijah is still very sweet when he's not being trying. On Saturday we were at Coney Island with our kids. By the end of the day Teancom had fallen asleep in the stroller. I soon caught Elijah "bugging" Teancom, which doesn't make me happy because Teancom needs the nap. But then I realized that Elijah wasn't bugging him at all. He was stroking his leg and hand very gently. I stopped yelling at him and just looked at him. Elijah looked up at me and smiled. It's nice to have moments like this amidst the chaos. :)

I'm sure I have more Elijah stories, but I can't think of them right now. Those were the best ones.

Tamra

Here are 2 more pictures from Sunday morning. The boys were wearing matching outfits, and I wanted to take a good picture of them. Of course they weren't cooperating too well, so these 2 are the best pictures. The one would be perfect if it didn't have Miciah's hand in it, but oh well.