Around the House

I've titled my post this because that where I've been for the last week with a few exceptions. Here's the news, starting from last Saturday.

DANCE PARTY
We went to a huge birthday party last Saturday and I somehow managed to not take any pictures. We did have fun though and happy birthday to Katie. Thanks to the sisters for the dances, chocolate fountain, green party punch, chinese lanterns and chocolate ravioli. (There were other delicious foods, but I especially appreciate the chocolate things). By the way, Katie is a sweet 16.

THE BIG GAME
On Monday we went to watch Joel play on his kickball team. But nobody showed up except for the opposing team, which consisted of some really big black guys that Joel felt he couldn't take on without a team, and since neither I, nor Silas, nor Micah signed up to play, we decided to go to the hospital to eat hamburgers. We beat the hamburgers.

PLAY DAYS
There was no fun Bible study this week, but we got to play with Melody and Eleanor two days this week. On Tuesday, Silas and Eleanor took turns not sharing toys until we took a walk and played on the swings at the park. On Thursday, we went to Melody's where we got to see some men hard at work at replacing not one, but TWO windows in Matt's truck. Then we played with water on the deck. That was a blast and Melody gave us delicious homemade pizza. This picture, by the way, is in our back yard. Because of a good rain last night, there's too much water standing around to try to keep Silas out of it. And why should he stay out of it?


WHY THE DMV IS WORSE THAN THE WIC OFFICE
Sandwiched between two fun play days was a trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles. The state of AR has ensured that everyone who goes there will leave in a crabby mood. They start by calling their building "AR Revenue Dept". Doesn't that make you think of paying large sums of money? Yep. After my SECOND trip to the DMV, I learned exactly what a large sum of money the DMV wouldn't take via credit card or monthly installments. The first and second trips were child-free. OK, now imagine having to take 2 small babies and a huge chunk of check-book, taking a number, and then w...a...i...t...i...n....g for a cranky government employee to call your number. It finally happened but because I had 2 babies, I couldn't get up very fast. She tried to SKIP MY NUMBER!!!!!!!!! I was totally prepared. I had downed a cup of coffee and listned to "Eye of the Tiger". I was ready to conquer and I did in fact, walk away with a license plate.


AROUND THE HOUSE
Yesterday was Joel's day off. We worked outside, picking up sticks, mowing the lawn, pulling up bushes. At the end of the day, Joel and I ate our favorite desert and watched nearly 6 episodes of "the office" from Netflix, including my favorite episode, "Diversity Day." I have included this picture of our disaster room because while we have been working around the house, very little has been done inside the house. Not enough naps. Too much nice weather.


Stay tuned this week or next for a book review and something that will attempt to make Andrea mad.

Poll

Under what conditions would you be willing to read an entire book review on someone's blog?

Amendment to Previous Post:

I have translated the babies' growth stats from number of dominos into lbs and inches and percentiles:

Micah: 10lbs 13oz (15th percentile)
22 3/4 inches (22nd percentile)

Silas: 28lbs 4 oz. (77th percentile)
33 3/4 inches (84th percentile!)

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*

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).