Keal Family Letter, February 2004

Hello Family,
This is Solomon, and I am beginning a new resolution to stay more
connected with our extended family. It is my intention that you will
hence forth receive One Letter every month from the Solomon and Tirah
Keal family, which will be explicitly designed to inform and enlighten
you on the multiple complexities of our budding family life. And I
think that is plenty of "a-do" for now, so without any further use of
it, I will delve into the present joys, hopes, dreams, struggles,
achievements, diapers, anxieties, concerns, and stuff of ours.
Starting with the newest member of our family: Tirah is, as many of
you know, pregnant with our second child, and she is due sometime in
June. It's amazing how quickly one goes from being a first time parent
to being... not a first time parent. Um, or in other words: When
Tirah was pregnant with Thea you would hear this: "So, how far along
are you?" "Oh, 6 and 1/2 months give or take a week depending on when
you count from, you see some doctors count from..." Or "So, when
are you due?" "February 2nd." But now when we're asked how far
along we are, the answer is "Oh, about half way." Or if we're asked
when we're due? "Oh, sometime in June." Don't get me wrong, we
are still very excited, but we've sort of settled into more of a
"normalcy" that just wasn't there with our first pregnancy. Just the
other day I felt Turtle (the baby) kick for the first time, and believe
me, it was just as amazingly reassuring and real as the first time I
felt Thea kick. We're suspicious that this one is a boy. Of course
we have no real evidence to support this suspicion but it's fun to
guess anyway.
Thea just turned One Year Old today (February 2nd)! She is our
little bundle of joy! She is capable of standing up on her own if she
can hold onto something like a coffee table, or the side of the couch,
or Papa's face when Papa is lying on the floor. She is learning to
eat more and more grown-up food, and desiring more and more of the
exact food that Mama and Papa are eating (not the same kind of food,
but the food that I'm about to put into my mouth). One of her
favorites is scrabbled eggs or "Eggy" as we call it. It even seems
like she sometimes tries to say "Eggy" when she knows we're making eggs
for her. Her sounds are becoming much more complex and always the
cutest thing ever to fall across our ears. She also likes chicken
(and yes, in Thea's case, the chicken did come before the egg.) We
used to grind up the chicken in a baby food grinder, but now, with two
teeth on top and two teeth on the bottom, she is capable of chewing
almost anything (except for maybe a sirloin steak, but she would
certainly give it her best shot) Thea just recently figured out how
to climb up stairs, but not down stairs yet. Some of her favorite
things include: eyelashes, lights, CD Player buttons, baths, a big
stuffed Panda bear, pulling out drawers, and laughing.
Tirah is frustrated with her present, pregnant size, but she is ever
and always the most beautiful woman in the world. In her free time
(which neither of us have very much of) she enjoys reading, listening
to books on tape, helping my Mom with a Pre-School music class,
quilting, cross-stitching, visiting with friends and family, organizing
our photos on the computer, doing so much to help me around the house,
and of course date nights with me. We've made it a habit, which we
think is essential to the health of our marriage, to go on regular date
nights, at this point they are weekly. We love going to movies, or to
dinner, or to coffee, or even just window shopping. We consider the
expense a worthy use of our money and we budget for it.
Tirah and I have a regular weekly evening schedule. After I get home
from work, I spend as much time with Thea as I can, before she goes to
bed, simultaneously giving Tirah a break. We eat dinner, and then I
put Thea to bed, usually around seven. After that we have a different
thing planned for every night. Monday nights are "cave" nights for
me. A time for me to do whatever I want for a couple of hours, just by
myself. I usually read or look at things on the internet. Again,
something we think is important to the health of a marriage. It's a
nice little break from the responsibilities of being a husband and
father which then gives me the energy to get back into it. Tuesday
and Thursday nights are music nights for me. Wednesday night is
family night, when Tirah and I do something together all night.
Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays remained unplanned (unplannable). At
around 10, we check e-mail, and then read from a nightly rotation of
books. These books include the Word, a book of the Writings
(presently Heaven and Hell, the New Century Edition), some other
spiritual book (presently the Doctrine of the Wife by Leon James) and
for the time being we've thrown in a Bradley birthing book to prepare
for Turtle's birth. Then we try to be in bed by 11 o'clock. We
find, (especially I find) that it's nice to have everything that we
Want to do scheduled into our life, so that we never feel like we never
get to do what we want to do.
Lastly, before I have to go, a little about me. I currently work for
Brandon Junge, a carpenter contractor in the church here in Kempton.
That's my job, and I enjoy aspects of it, but it's not what I really
want to be doing. I really want to be doing something with music.
Thus the Tuesday and Thursday nights that are devoted to music. I am
working to become a Songwriter by profession. This is a job in which I
could be writing music for a living, and conceivably working from home.
I learn something new every day about the music industry, and though
it may take quite some time to build up the recognition needed to make
a living, I am making progress. But more about this later, it is past
10 o'clock and I must be going. Until next month.... Solomon,
over and out.