News Archive

06.07.07 - Ch-Ch-Change
It's been a busy three months around Odom-land, and the theme of the three months has been CHANGE.   Alyssa has now lost two teeth, and three more are loose.  She graduated from daycare two weeks ago, and is now in YMCA summer camp.  She's having a blast, and is *so* excited to be out of the school "where all the babies go".

Tyler has moved from the "baby" floor of the day care to the "pre-schooler" floor of the daycare.   He now gets to play in the big neighborhood park every day, instead of in the daycare courtyard.  He's excited to be a "big boy", and wants to do everything himself.  Even it that's not always safe or even possible.

We took our FIRST full-family camping trip for Mother's Day.  We camped for two nights at Walnut Point State Park, and we had a really good time.  Nobody wanted to come home, and Anne's decided that she wants to own her own canoe.

Tyler got his first bike, and Alyssa's working on riding without training wheels.  We took our FIRST full-family bike ride to a neighborhood park.   Tyler has suggested that Anne needs training wheels on her bike, as she fell into the bushes TWICE while trying to ride slow enough to keep from running over Tyler.

Spring and summer have brought the return of lots of crawling things and animal life.  In particular, we're seeing lots of ants who think they should move into our home.  Tyler loves these new ants, and often tries to "pet" them -- which can be dangerous for the ants.  Alyssa recently went to a nature show, where she learned that "we shouldn't kill any bugs except mosquitoes".  As a result, killing an ant ON PURPOSE in our home is now a capital offense.  All ants must be captured and re-released into the wild.

As of tomorrow, Mike and I officially become "soccer parents", as Alyssa will attend her first real soccer practice.  She'll be practicing every Tuesday night and Saturday morning until school starts in the fall.  Thus begins the chapter of our lives where we start living in our car and eating cold sandwiches for dinner on most weeknights...

02.15.07 - February News
February's been a busy month for us Odoms.  We have new pictures, but it will be a little while before I can make a new slide show.  In the meantime, here's a bit of an update on what we've been doing:

Snow: Yep, and lots of it.  We saw our first major snow storm in almost 10 years, and it dumped more than 15 inches of snow on us overnight.  Severe winds gave us snow drifts deeper than Alyssa is tall.  When all was said and done, Mike and I spent 7.5 hours shoveling our driveway clear so we could leave for Mardi Gras.

Major Milestone - Earrings: That's right, Alyssa has her ears pierced.  She knew it would hurt and decided it was worth it.  Ultimately, it hurt more than she thought it would, and she still thinks it's worth it.

Major Milestone - Kindergarten: In the fall, Alyssa will start Kindergarten.  Last week, Mike and I began touring the schools in Champaign, to decide where Alyssa might like to go.  Champaign operates under a "choice" program, which allows us to list our 3 public school preferences for Alyssa.  The city will then place her in a school, taking into account both our choices and the ethnic diversity needs of the schools in the district.  It's an interesting way of doing things, and we're all curious to see how it turns out.

Medical Update: Tyler's getting tubes for his ears in the next couple of weeks.  A plethora of ear infections and some chronic middle ear fluid is preventing him from hearing.  As a result, he's had some trouble learning to speak.  The ENT says "put your fingers in your ears - that's how Tyler hears everything all the time".  Preliminary tests have shown that no damage has been done to Tyler's auditory nervers or ear drums, so once the tubes are in, he should be good to go.

Promotion: At the end of January, Anne was promoted to Lead Project Manager for her newest "unannounced" game project.  Prior to promotion, Anne was leading only the programming sub-team.  In her new position, she is leading the project management of the entire project -- all subteams.  It's an exciting move, and also daunting.

Travel: We're headed down to Mardi Gras today, and we can't wait to see everyone!!!  We've got a few weekend trips scheduled for March and April, but then we'll settle down and stay put for most of the summer.  We love to have company, though -- so think about coming to see us :-) 

01.31.07 - Kid Quotes of the Month
"Mommy, I want some more money.  Can you get me some for my birthday?"
--Alyssa, as she finally realizes that if the money is hers, she can buy whatever she wants with it.

"You have it in your mouth.  Take it out.  I'll help you."
--Tyler, in response to Anne bundling up in a scarf to go outside in 9-degree temps

01.10.07 - Happy New Year!
We had a wonderful Christmas day - our first "just us as a family of four" Christmas.  Tyler's an early riser, so we were opening presents well before 6am.  We mostly ate chocolate and dried cherries all day, occasionally spice up with a bit of leftover lamb from Christmas Eve dinner.  We got some new movies in our stockings, and a ton of new track for our ever-expanding GeoTrax --- so we watched Cars and The Little Mermaid while building trains all day.  We never took off our pajamas, and we all took nice long naps.  Lovely.

In the evening, we packed up for our long drive to MS.  We visited Grandma Sam, Papa Tommy, Aunt Lulu, Uncle K, and Cousin Dalton for the rest of the week.  Grandma and Papa just built a new house.  It has no grass yet, but plenty of dirt.  Add rain, and you get happy kids in mud.  Best holiday ever, says wet, muddy, Tyler. As always, we had a delightfully relaxing visit with our Mississippi family. 

And finally, we spent New Year's Eve driving home.  We made it back to the house around 8p, and snuggled our little ones into bed.  In a home devoid of groceries, we celebrated New Year's Eve with leftover travel snacks, a little cold Vodka, and the second season of Lost.  At midnight, we kissed each other and promptly fell asleep.  And thus we closed out the year 2006, and opened the year 2007.  We're looking forward to it.  Happy New Year!

12.24.06 - Chrismas Eve!
Excitement is high around here, as we prepare for the arrival of Santa.  We're feeling an extra need for celebration, as Tyler and Alyssa were both sick with strep throat last week.  After a week of barely feeling well enough to watch movies, we're glad the antibiotics are kicking in.

Determined to pack as much fun as possible into our weekend, to make up for our sick week, we've been up to our ears in holiday projects.  We made a giant wreath to go over our mantle -- out of tissue paper, posterboard and glue.  We had our friend Rose over yesterday to help us make a double-wide ginger bread shack, and we'll spend this morning making sparkly placemats for Chrismas Eve dinner.

Speaking of Christmas Eve dinner, we're having some friends over to celebrate with us -- Jen, Greg, and Chandra.  We'll feast on oven-roasted leg of lamb, wild rice, roasted winter squash, and bananas foster ice cream. 

We're looking forward to a nice evening and a fun Christmas morning - followed by a visit to Grandma Sam and Papa Tommy for the rest of the week.  Look for a new slideshow after the holidays -- and best wishes  for your holiday and new year!

12.17.06
We took a holiday trip to the Indianapolis Children's Museum yesterday and packed as much fun as we possible could into our 4 hour visit.  The Indy Children's Museum is the largest children's museum in the world.  Every holiday season, they turn the curving staircase in the main foyer into a giant ice slide, and put up their "Jolly Days" exhibit - complete with indoor ice castle and ice fishing.

In addition to Jolly Days, we also visited the National Geographic Maps exhibit, which is probably the best exhibit we've seen at the museum all year.  Tyler learned how to build pyramids, and Mike and I both learned about the per capita internet usage of every country in the world (even the really small ones).  We learned about star maps, river maps, fantasy maps, old maps, new maps, maps made of sticks, and more.  We could have stayed in that one exhibit all day, if we hadn't gotten hungry for lunch.

Each of the kids participated in a holiday workshop, as well.  Alyssa made presents for four of her friends, and Tyler made holiday cookies.  Both had an excellent time.  We highly recommend the Indy Children's Museum to anyone who finds themselves near Indy, regardless of age.  Learn more at http://www.childrensmuseum.org.

Like everyone else, we'll spend the next week gearing up for holiday celebrations.  Hope everyone has a great season -- and check back for Christmas and New Year's slides and updates!

12.10.2006
We're working on simplification around here, and the web site is no exception.  We want to keep it updated with pictures and stories, so we've trimmed it down to make that easier.   Look for new news about once a week and new slide shows about every 2-4 weeks.

Our first snow hit the ground about a week ago, and the kids were thrilled.  For all intents and purposes, this was Tyler's first snow -- he's been too young in previous years to really enjoy it.  He was so excited that he went barreling out the back door in his too-small pajamas, with belly exposed and bare feet, to stand on the back deck and try to catch snowflakes in the air.  It was all we could do to get him back inside and dressed, so he could really play.

Alyssa has grown into the age of snowball fights and snow forts.  Having not grown up in the snow ourselves, Mike and I are realizing that our kids will be the ones who teach us how to enjoy it.  I fully expect snow fort education from Alyssa when we get enough of the white stuff on the ground.