Keal Family Letter, November 2005

Hello Friends and Family! November is here! For me and my one-track
mind, that means that my Christmas CD, "Advent," will be coming out
this month. Very likely in the next two weeks! I will keep you
posted on that.

October was a busy month for us... very much like every other month.
But busy is good! I've been reflecting a lot lately on the concept of
having the right attitude in life. I believe very strongly in the
idea of focussing on the good things in life. Not to completely ignore
that bad things, but just to orient myself towards the good things. I
hope to be a "glass is half-full" kind of guy. I think that it is
actually a big part of being on the road to heaven. Heaven is all
about good things. If we're constantly focussing our minds on what's
going wrong in our lives, we are actually turning our spiritual bodies
towards the road to hell. Whereas, if we're constantly focussing our
minds on what's going right in our lives (no matter what is also going
wrong), we are actually turning our spiritual bodies towards heaven.
I'm not saying we don't need to focus on our problems and try to remove
them. I'm just saying that it really seems like a major difference
between the right path, and the wrong path (which might be better
defined as the happy path, and the sad, or angry path) is simply
attitude.

And now for a taste of some good things in our life right now:

Cirdan is a little boy! He's not really a baby any more; he's a
toddler. We were trying to figure out, the other day, why Cirdan
seems so much cuter than we remember Thea being at this age. (We were
hoping that the answer wasn't that we're horrible parents who play
favorites.) We figured out that it's because Cirdan was walking a lot
sooner than Thea was. And there's something so insanely cute about a
little being that doesn't look big enough to walk... walking.

Cirdan is growing up so fast! He's getting to that phase where it
seems like he learns a new word every day. He can say every word in
the English language that rhymes with -ack, -eck, -ick, -ock, or -uck,
and those seem to be his favorites. It's amazing how many words a
little baby boy can learn that rhyme. You'd think we'd have thought of
that when we invented the English language. Maybe then we wouldn't
have situations like these: "Did he say truck?" "No, he said duck."
"I thought he said book." "No, I'm positive he said rock." "No
no, he wants to go on a walk!" "No he just wants to take off his
sock." "Are you sure he doesn't just want to play with that block?"
"Maybe he's just telling us that he can talk!" If I'd invented the
English language I would have been sure to evaluate the words
associated with early childhood: "What shall we name this powdery
mineral writing medium?" "How about 'chalk'?" "No good! That
rhymes with 'walk.' Parents will go insane. Try something else."

Fortunately, Cirdan has been learning words that don't rhyme with -ock,
too. He can now say: "Uh-oh", "Bowl", "Ball", "Touch", "Out", "Yes",
"Mama", "Papa", "Cheese", "Pop!", "This", "Hat", "Banana" (comes out as
"Nana"), and my personal favorite: "Turtle" (comes out as "Dodo").

A lot of what Cirdan says, however, remains untranslatable by us
Parents. I'm starting to wonder if he's not really speaking English at
all, but rather Ewok, or Jawa. That's what it sounds like most of the
time. Maybe it's my love of Star Wars coming out in him. Either
that or, whoever invented those languages for those movies, had a
one-year-old. Next time you watch those movies, find a picture of
Cirdan, and just listen to the Ewoks or Jawas talking, and it will be a
pretty good impression of the language stage that he's in right now.

Cirdan loves to sing and dance. He can do a lot of hand-motions for
our worship songs. He will talk on pretend phones, and if you give
him a comb, he will comb his hair... or try to anyway. He's in the
parrot phase. He tries to imitate us. It's very cute.

Since Tirah has been working, and having to get up insanely early, or
stay up insanely late, she's been drinking coffee. Which means that
Thea and Cirdan have been drinking coffee too... just pretend coffee.
Cirdan will walk around the house carrying a toy cup and spoon and will
offer you a taste of his coffee.

Thea had a pretend cup of coffee the other morning. When Cirdan came
over and rudely grabbed it from her, she came running up to me,
screaming in a hyper voice: "I NEED MY COFFEE!!!!!!!" I had a really
hard time not laughing.

Thea is also leaping ahead in her ability to talk, and comprehend
language. She also has quite the imagination. The other night, while
we were cleaning up the living room, she was talking on her toy phone
to her cousin Caleb. The pretend conversation went something like
this: "Hi Caleb... We had tacos for supper... I like tacos, but I
don't like lettuce... what are you having for supper?... Hamburgers?...
I like hamburgers.... No you can't go outside... it's time to clean
up... (at which point she brought her toy phone to me and said, "Caleb
wants to go outside." So I took the phone and explained to "Caleb"
that it was time to clean up. She took the phone back, and the
conversation continued.) No you can't go outside because it's time to
clean up... O.K. Bye." She told me the other day that, "I know how
to talk, because I'm a big girl."

Thea has started to figure out that if she talks, I tend to listen. So
at bed-time, she will often talk my ear off, right as I'm trying to
leave the room, because she know it will keep me from closing the door,
and it will delay bed-time. I've never been the type of person who
can hang up on a tele-marketer in the middle of their sentence, and
this is a million times worse, but occasionally I have to close the
door in the middle of her pitch.

Thea is still very much two, and so has frequent tantrums when her Will
is challenged. But she is also learning how to play nicely with her
brother, and how to be polite to us parents.

A funny thing happened a couple of days ago. It was nap time, and both
kids were in their cribs. I was down-stairs doing some chores when I
heard a "Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump." It sounded like
little feet running! I walked over to the monitor to listen better,
but all I heard was the little kid laughter that should have been
silent sleep. They often laugh at each other in their cribs, so I
went back to doing chores. I couple of minutes later, I was walking up
stairs, when I noticed the handle of the kid's room door jiggling! I
walked in, and there was Thea running around the room! She'd gotten
out of her crib... with the bar up! She'd turned the light on, and
she was trying to open the door to get out! I figure she must have
piled all her blankets and pillows in one corner, and climbed out onto
the table next to her crib, and then down. We often let her climb in
and out of her crib with the bar down, but we didn't think she could do
it with the bar up!

Tirah is feeling more confident in her manager's job at Jo-Ann Fabrics.
It's still a tough job, for not much pay, and it's a long commute,
but she feels good knowing that it's letting me work on my music
business. We're trusting the Lord that things will start looking up
for us financially. If we're going to be a rags to riches story, we
need to start with rags I guess. And ultimately we are already rich:
We have a good marriage, two wonderful kids, friends and family, and
hope for the future.

This month will be a big month for my music business, because my
Christmas CD, "Advent" will be coming out. It will be a significant
step in what will be a long period of building a business from scratch.
As always, check out my website for more news: www.solomonkeal.com.

We wish you all well, and we hope you have a wonderful Autumn and
Thanksgiving!

May the Lord bless your lives!

Love from,

Solomon, Tirah, Thea, and Cirdan Keal.