The Fankhauser News Brief

PARENTS
We're really grateful for all the moms that came to help when Micah was born. Mom Poteet drove 2 hours in the middle of night and stayed with Silas while we were in the hospital in spite of having a dying gall bladder. When she left us, she didn't waste too much time before heading to the hospital herself. Mom and Pops Fank came too. Pops was only able to stay for one night but we covered the important stuff while he was here: Jack Bauer Power. Silas had a great time with Debbie and she was even gracious enough to take him to get his shots so there will be no flu around here. Then Andrea came and we had a great time making delicious chocolate things. Thanks to Andrea, the wallpaper shadow of the tv wall stand is gone. She also brought a billion new toys for Silas to play with. He especially likes Smart Street. I was inspired by Heath's fun parenting (see the Bradley blog post "Daddy's Girls") to take Silas to home depot and not make him ride in the cart. It was raining and I would not have imagined that the most fun part of the trip was stomping through the puddles on the way in and out of the store. I got what we needed as quickly as one can while holding a squirming hand and we made our way to the front of the store. People kept staring at us, but not in the way that says "oh what a cute toddler". I guess they haven't had to keep their children inside for the last week because of the rain and cold. Maybe it doesn't rain at their house.

CHURCH
Yesterday Joel and I went to a class to tell us about Fellowship Bible Church, the church whose ministeries we're considering committing our time and money to. Towards the end of the class, a man stood up to ask a question that went a little something like this:
"I just WASTED a year at a church because they didn't have something like this. I think the Bible teaches a lot of good things but I think there's a lot of truth found in other places and I don't think that everything the Bible says is true. Jesus was certainly a good guy but y'all don't teach ridiculous things like that Jonah was really swallowed by a whale, do you?"

The pastor answered unapologetically that yes, they do teach that Jonah was an actual person and there have been other acounts of people being swallowed by sea creatures and still living just fine. The man said this:
"That is absurd! Are you serious?! Y'all don't have any snakes in the back of this church, do you? Well, thanks a lot, but I'm not going to waste any more time here!" And he pretty much stomped out of the room.

VACATION
Today is Joel's first day of vacation. He's catching up on the all the medical journals I've been threatening to recycle. We ate some delicious banana bread that Melody made us for breakfast and Silas is already down for a nap (he's sick and coughing on everything and everybody). Micah's asleep too (but not in the sink. That's just while Silas is taking a bath. We don't have any beds in the bathroom). He's a sleeping champion. Last night he slept from 11pm to nearly 5am. This was great since the new pediatrician (who we LOVE) told us not to wake him up at night to feed him anymore. He's not supposed to be back to his birth weight until this Thursday. But he was already last Thursday, plus and extra 6 oz.

Joel just told me that when a kid has rotavirus, in only 1 gram of their stool there are 100,000,000,000 virus particles. Now I'm going to do all the things that I can think of to prevent the spread of communicable diseases in this household: wash my hands and take a nap. A well rested body can fight illness better than a tired one.

P.S. I forgot to mention that Joel might have saved Silas' life when he was choking on a bite of apple. Silas was trying to swallow and cough at the same time. It didn't work out, but all's well that ends well.