Spring is in the Air

THE MAIDEN VOYAGE OF BOB DUALLIE
A couple weeks ago my 5/9 of my (Poteet) family came to visit. We shopped, watched a couple of movies and ate nice food. The weather was really nice so the LKS and I took Silas for a walk on the nature trail. There were no rocks or roots that BOB Duallie couldn't take. It was a lot of fun and since then, I've been out walking a lot with the babies.

BABIES REPORT
Silas has reached an important mark in language development: He has started putting 2 words together! The most memorable phrase so far has been "bye bye, mama". He said this as he turned to run away when I asked him to follow me at the Rock Creek playground. Silas is also getting better at using a spoon and fork, and has started responding to "time out" for touching the computer and pulling Lewis' hair.

Micah rolled over twice today! He is smiling when he's in a very good mood (that is, when he's fed, dry, and just woken up from a 3 hour nap). Otherwise, he seems to be content to watch me fold laundry or swing while we all eat lunch. I'm glad he's around.


BAKING AGAIN
After all the coffee I drank post-Micah-call, I was feeling somewhat manic and baked petit fours and decorated them with my new mechanical pastry bag that I got for Christmas. It was a lot of fun and they turned out quite delicious. Please someone, give me another reason to bake cake.

MICU IS DONE
We stay-at-home Fanks are hoping to get reaquainted with Joel again this month. He was really busy pronouncing people dead last month in the Medical ICU. It should be noted that he did a great job balancing an emotionally stressful job with what can be an emotionally stressful family life (2 kids crying at once can drive anyone crazy).

Running on empty

Micah had his first bad night last night. From about 2am until Silas woke up at 7, he woke up at least every hour crying. Every other time I fed him and he quickly fell asleep. When Silas woke up, he cried too, I think because I didn't bring his milk into his bedroom. I never bring his milk into his bedroom. I'm not sure why this was a problem today.

So I think I'll make some coffee, light a candle, take a couple tylenol and spit this yucky day in the eye. Rain, bring it on. Crying children, I can take it. There's a God in heaven who's behind me all the way. He was awake all night too.

Long time readers will no doubt begin to be disappointed with blog post titles such as this one

I do not have the mental energy anymore to think up clever titles or make sure that most words are spelled correctly in my posts. I hope that's not why you read them anyway. You're supposed to be looking at the cute pictures. But for you "readers", here's this week's news brief.


BODY BUILDING
Today I went in for a 4 week post-partum, well person check-up. I was irritated the nurse didn't tell me I looked great. Then I realized it was because I have over 15 lbs to lose to be just pre-Micah-pregnancy weight. That's ok with me though. I'm breast feeding AND I'd like to introduce you to our new family member: BOB Dualie, our new jogging stroller! Don't worry. I'm not about to do anything crazy like jogging just yet. For one, it's too cold. For two, Micah can't hold his head up yet. For three, I'm at least a good 10 lbs away from being able to jog without hurting my knees and hips. BUT...I can go walking over rough terrain. BOB Dualie has 3 inch shocks. We know for sure that it can run over most toys we own so we assume it can also easily go over roots and rocks.

HIPPIES?
I bought cloth diapers for MIcah. My friend, Kim, who lives in Tanzania said she uses them with her baby who is 2 weeks younger than Micah. She doesn't have a washing machine and is still able (well, her household helper is able) to wash out the mustard-poo that sweet little breast-fed infants have. Also, Micah is now 28 days and we've gone though at least 140 diapers. But the REAL reason I bought these diapers that will no doubt add hassle to my currently hassle-free life, is that I'm tired of looking for the diaper rash creme or petroleum jelly that I have to slather on M's little bottom to keep him from getting a diaper rash.
ADDENDUM: in accordance with the Fank. Family Policy 12.22 to promote companies that have provided good service, we add cottonbabies.com to our list ( http://www.cottonbabies.com/ ). I ordered diapers on Monday and they arrived Wednesday. Today is our first day to use them with Micah but as I mentioned before, I really like using cloth with Silas. And just like we enjoy saying BOB Dualie, we enjoy saying bumGenius!

AND SPEAKING OF MICAH
Someone said yesterday that he has my mouth. I agree. He and Silas and I all have my mouth, that I think we got from my mother, but it might have come from my father, who has a beard, so it's hard to say.
Silas and Micah have been keeping me especially busy these last 2 days. Micah apparently doesn't like to have air in his stomach after eating and Silas apparently doesn't like our clothes to be in closets or dressers.


FINAL REFLECTIONS
I have to remind myself that the every day trials of having these little people around me are merely a season. In the blink of an eye this time will have passed, and I fear I'll regret not taking note of the precious moments that come with all the diapers. Silas still loves to sit in my lap and listen to me read books to him. He explores his world with the determination of his father that I so greatly admire. Micah is so sweet to hold. When he's awake, he's so easy going and seems to enjoy studying my face. When I remember what I'm doing here, I'm thrilled to be the one to disciple these boys thru their childhood and adolescence.

photo experiment: by ann

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.

Micah Alden Fankhauser

he's one cute baby.

Poll

Over Christmas, I got some new stretchmarks. At my doctors appointment yesterday, my uterus (and thus the baby in some way) had grown 3 centimeters from top to bottom. I don't know how much weight I've gained since I lost the half pound before Christmas. I figured with all the candy I got for Christmas, and that it's nearly gone now, this time I really would not want to know how much I weighed.

I feel like this baby is getting pretty big. If anyone would like to guess his birth weight before he's born, there will be a prize for the winner, or the closest without guessing over (think "the price is right"). Also, for all you who have been DYING to know what you can give this baby as a gift- he really would like money for cloth diapers and a swaddling blanket I've placed a bid for on ebay. You're so kind. So generous.

Here's my guess: 8lbs 7 oz. (if I guess right, the prize will still go to the next closest guesser).

New Years Resolutions

#1 Do not agree to puppy sit for a week within days of baby's due date.

#2 Give my immediate family more kisses

#3 Save money in a savings account

#4 Update our OS so I can post pictures of the growing family

#5 Lose at least 10 lbs (I like to be able to check things off my list and this one should be pretty easy so long as I don't have the baby today, tomorrow, Saturday or Sunday.)

#6 Be able to do addition in my head more quickly

#7 Print and label more pictures

#8 Join a church

#9 Accessorize

#10 Finish a book (not by Doctor Seuss) in a timely manner


I'll post the rest as I come up with them. 2007 is going to be great!

Fun facts about being Great with child

On Thursday, I will be 36 weeks pregnant. I wonder how many weeks Mary was when she gave birth to little baby Jesus. Maybe Jesus was born around the same time our baby will. Mary and I have this in common: we both are/were likely deliver early (she because of her likely young age, and I for having had a delivery within 18 months).

At my doctors visit today, I told the nurse I didn't want to know how much weight I had gained because I didn't want to feel guilty for eating fudge or other Christmas foods. She asked if I wanted to know if I had lost any weight. I thought she was kidding so I said sure, cause then I could know how many extra cookies I could eat. She said, "OK, well you lost half a pound. It's probably from holiday stress so I wouldn't worry about it."

Worry about it? The baby is growing fine so that was music to my ears.
Bring on the holiday cheer!

For Hire

I burned my index finger, part of my middle finger and thumb on my left hand. My index finger currently only has a partial print. If anyone has any crimes they need committing, let me know and I'll quote you a price because I'm pretty sure I could get away with it.

Update on divinity

It's gone. But I'll make some more. Here's a few more important updates.

There's a huge pile of Christmas cookies in the kitchen that need to be decorated. I could sure use some help...

Silas has really started to enjoy reading books. Since I'm not up for too many fun and games on the floor, he likes to bring me books to read to him. This morning, we've read a book about dump trucks three times. He is better at walking all the time and has now mastered going down the stairs. The other day we went to Target AND Walmart. At Target SIlas was really shy when people talked to him, but at Walmart, he yelled at everyone in the produce dept and in the check out line.

Yesterday was the last day of my Bible study for the semester. THe speaker was one of the singers of "point of grace". She's been one of three ladies leading music the whole time and I never knew she was once famous. Point of Grace broke up in 2004.

A group of pirahnnas and deskeletanize a cow in 8 minutes. I learned this over Thanksgiving vacation with the Fankhausers (this is pre-divinity post, I know). We really had a great time them though there's some question as to the TRUE story behind the Arkansas Hacksaw Massacre. The only fact is this: Matt had the hacksaw in his hand when Joel's thumb started bleeding profusely during the initial stages of cutting off the bottom of the Christmas tree.

Master of Divinity

I finished 45 out of 60 hours towards my master of arts in cross-cultural ministries before I became a mom. But it took only one painstaking hour to make divinity. It's light and delicious, almost like a home made marshmellow. If you hurry over, you can have a piece before it's all gone.

If you've been waiting on the edge of your seat...

to know what happened with Sprint, the wait is over! Sprint will credit our account for the correct amount of the alleged rebate. Sprint remains on our list of folks we like to do business with, but we reccomend being the first person in the LIttle Rock store when it opens at 9am. I guess most people are their most fresh first thing in the morning.

In the sad news, poor Silas is ill. First he got an ear infection. Then he had digestive problems. Now we add to that Croup. All you naturalists would be appalled at the number of prescription meds he's taking. All you medical enthusiasts who care about geeky stuff like that, email me and I'll tell you the list.

Oh, let's end on a happy note. Mom, Dad and I worked at Nana's long and hard (well, they worked long and hard, I was just there, mostly. You know- for morale. Nothing like a sick baby to boost morale.) and the house is nearly empty. Goodwill got 3 huge loads of stuff and Arkansas Hospice will be getting some nice furniture soon.

But the lucky winner of the most stuff is the City of Little Rock Solid Waste Division. Stay tuned for a summary of the trash and treasures.

Walking, Sprint, and Marathons

Silas has thankfully decided that walking is more efficient than crawling. I'm so happy to have a son who values efficiency as much as I do. Now we can quickly have toys, laundry, pens and papers spread about the room. You don't hear me complaining, though. Since this new development, several major joint and muscle pains that I thought were just pregnancy related have nearly disappeared! I don't think it has anything to do with the toys and such. I think it's because I'm not carrying him. But I'm not the doctor in this family, so I can't say for sure.

Sprint has another customer service challenge before them if they want to keep us happy. As you probably know, we make an effort to point out business that meet or surpass our expectations. We also want to inform friends and family when a business falls short of their contract. Sprint may be riding the fence. They claim we are not eligible for a mail-in rebate... this is not the time to inform us we will not receive refunds we were promised.

I should also take the time to remind everyone that Mega-life Student Insurance, Entergy Arkansas, and TXU Energy should be avoided, if possible. Compass Bank is a great bank that everyone should use if they live in a city with a Compass Bank.

Finally, my sister says she's going to run a marathon early this spring. She's posed the question: is running a marathon more difficult than childbirth? I think that it probably is. But a better question is this: is childbirth more difficult if you gain an extra 10 lbs over the holidays?

Silas' Bad Day

And it's only 9:15am. Poor Silas.

He spit up milk on my robe.
I wouldn't let him play with my cell phone charger OR the laptop.
He fell down 2 stairs and bumped his head.
I didn't feed him his oatmeal fast enough.
To make up for it, I let him feed himself the last half of his applesauce, but he's green at using a spoon so he quickly swept the little bowl off the tray and onto the floor splattering blueberry applesauce for 4 feet of floor and up 2 feet of wall space.
Last but not least, I wouldn't let him go back to bed with his face, hands, arms and shirt covered in snot and breakfast.
Add to all that the discomfort of 3 new teeth coming in.

Yes, Silas is having a bad a day. And it's only 9:15am.

Home

I'm writing this post for me. There. You've been warned.

I lost a dear, dear friend this week. Since I moved to Little Rock, she called me a minimum of 3 times a week. At first I found this a little annoying, espcially since she never started out a conversation with, "Hi, Alice." or "Hey! It's me." or anything remotely related to what I would call a greeting. The first thing I would hear when I picked up the phone after I said hello would go something like this, "I need to know what day Andrea's coming," or "Alice, where did you get the receipe for that soup? I couldn't taste any chicken!" Or, sometimes it was simply, "Is Silas sleeping?" After a while, I quit thinking about it and I was able to tell her things I thought she would find interesting. I now treasure these phone calls as someone just wanting to know and caring about the details of my life. Few people can genuinely do that and I've found there's nothing our hearts long for more.

We ate dinner together one last time Saturday night. I never would have believed then that in 48 hours she should be gone. We had a great time. We talked about the Razorbacks playing, how she'd stayed up to watch the end of the World Series for the first time in years, how she was concerned about my social life, and how once at the same restaurant she ordered a pork chop that "was no more tender than the leather on my shoe". We left around 6 so she could get home for the Hogs. We hugged good-bye and exchanged I-love-you's. The Hogs won that night so I'm pretty sure she died happy.

I'm so happy that for her, death was not final. It's a matter of time before I can see her again. Until then, Nana, I sure do miss you.

Priscilla Alden Poteet
April 24, 1921-October 30, 2006

Oh, would that I could post pictures

You could see my ultimate creation: Joel as Honest Abe Lincoln for Halloween. We went to a Family Fall Festival with our friends, the Lumpkins and Joel won second place in the costume contest. We really had a great time with Silas "playing games" and winning us candy as well as hanging out with the Skywalkers and baby Yoda. The only bad part: someone called me and Silas nurses when we were clearly doctors.

In other news, today is Joel's day off and we have NO plans. Sorry. I guess that wasn't really news.

the bad news is...

Since we've replaced our hard drive, I have been unable to upload any pictures from our computer. I'll have to consult my blogger experts on how to upload photos from the internet and then you can see how we've all changed since late September.

Out with the Old

Our computer has been risen from the grave. We have a new, clean hard drive not clogged up with all those pesky iTunes songs we bought or pictures from this summer. Sad, yes. But we are grateful to have the miracle of the internet again.

Along with saying goodbye to the songs, we are also saying goodbye to the food network and ESPN. What will replace it? Reading books, playing games, enjoying the great outdoors and each other, when Joel's schedule allows.

We've also bid farewell to infant formula and welcomed the price of whole milk to nourish our TODDLER. That's right, no more crawling around here! Well, that's an exageration. For 5 whole steps last night, there was no crawling. We're hoping for more walking today but no rush.

Finally, I am no longer in my mid-twenties. No worries though, the "late twenties" were ushered in with a bang. Five out of 9 Poteets (6 if you include me) were in LR to celebrate. I got a fantastic coffee maker that looks like the head of the alien from that historical sci-fi thriller "Alien," starring Sigourney Weaver and of course, the alien.

Lives on Hold

Our computer is broken so until sometime in October, there will be no posts on this blog site. If you really need to know what's going on with Silas or how we feel about service at the Sprint store in Little Rock, you'll have to call us. Home and cell numbers remain the same.