Great Deals with Daylight Savings!

In this week's Fank. news:

SPRING BREAK
I took my first road trip with the babies. Amazingly, we didn't fill the car with all our stuff. We did take a pack n play, 2 strollers (no, BOB Duallie wasn't one of them), 3 duffle bags, a dog crate, applesauce and fig cookies, 15 cloth diapers and a suitcase.

Phase 1: Shreveport- we began with this quick little jaunt to celebrate the life of a friend in Shreveport at a funeral. It was great to see friends at Shreveport Bible Church and see the adult Fanks even if it was for a very short amount of time. I was glad that Joel was able to join us for this leg of our journey.

Phase 2: Texarkana- this was highlighted by a trip to Target, the mall and twice to the grand opening of Kohl's on Saturday which I vow I will never do again as long as I have two children in strollers. Then daylight savings hit and Silas has been sleeping until 7:30 or 8 instead of 6:45 or 7! We went to church with the Poteets and then we were off to Andrea's.

Phase 3: Caddo Mills- we had a GREAT time with the cousins. Andrea took everybody to the store in a wagon while I got a chance to zip to Plano for much needed heart-to-heart with 2 very dear friends. Anabelle and Ava are so much fun to be with. I got to be um...Tiko the squirrel (??), Silas got to be Baby Jaguar and Anabelle was Dora. Andrea, Heath and Ava were other Dora characters, but I can't remember their names. Ava sweetly showered Silas with hugs around the neck and told me a VERY funny knock knock joke. If I tell it here, it won't be as funny so you'll have to call or perhaps even ask Ava herself.

Phase 4: the drive home- I learned the time limit for car travel is 1hr 45min at a time. Thankfully, we were able to stop in Texarkana and Arkadelphia on the way home. THanks to Emily for feeding us on the way back. Silas was greatful for several chances to walk thru mud and splash in puddles before we drove the last hour home.

COMPANY
*photo courtesy of Matt Lumpkin*
We had the pleasure of a surprise invitation to a picnic last Thursday from the Lumpkins. Matt brought his camera and got some fun shots of the picnic fun. We had to end it a little early so we could make it back for "the Office". I've been especially grateful for the many ways they show me their friendship.

The adult Fanks and Emily came to visit this weekend. We ate a lot of food. We played a lot of games. Debbie washed a lot of dishes. Joel was off so it was a lot of good ole family fun together.

SUCCESS AND FAILURE
I'm happy to share the many successes we've been enjoying as a family. Though Silas really, really enjoys pushing the envelope, he is learning to obey me without discipline as often. I can't believe how much he watches and learns when I don't think he's paying attention. He understands that he has to eat vegetables before he can have something to eat off my plate, he (occasionally) picks up a box of toys before he asks me open a new one, and today I watched with my jaw dropped to see him pick up a plastic cup from the stairs, carry it to the kitchen, open the dishwasher and put it on the top rack! He's also very helpful to throw away diapers (even the cloth diapers) after Micah has been changed. *photo courtesy of Melody Lumpkin*


Micah is also such a joy to be around. He is very smiley now and starting to coo and goo. His eyes are adjusting to normal and the tear duct is no longer blocked. He likes every thing except facing forward in the Bjorn carrier.

Here are the stats from today's 18mo. and 2mo. doctor visit:

The only major failure I can report is that I did not dominate in dominos as I told Emily I would. Some might regard the excessive number of laundry baskets full of clean laundry to be put away a failure, but I don't. It's all organized by room.

NEXT WEEK'S NEWS
Will hopefully be posted on time. Already, a week's worth of events have transpired before I could publish this post. I guess you'll have something to look forward to... *photo courtesy of Matt Lumpkin*