Being Polite Could Save Your Life

For our FHE activity Monday night, we played Doctor to help Aaron prepare for the practical portion of his Entrance to Third Year Exam the following morning, where he would have pretend patients and pretend to get their medical histories, do physicals, diagnose them, counsel them, and such. So we got out the kids' medical kit and were having fun faking catastrophes and quickly being restored to health by the amazing Doctors.

When it was Aaron's turn to be the patient and Xander was the Doctor, Aaron was doing quite a dramatic rendition of a heart attack. When he fell upon the floor, Dr. Xander auscultated (that's Aaron's fancy word for listened) with his stethoscope and announced that his heart wasn't even beating. After several vigorous shocks with the blood pressure cuff, Xander auscultated once again and declared excitedly that his heart was beating again--he was better! Like a thorough physician, Dr. Xander proceeded to counsel his patient. "You need to be more polite and take smaller bites. When you swallowed the whole hamburger, it got stuck in your heart and gave you a heart attack. So you just need to take smaller bites, OK?"

What perfect advice. The laughter that ensued certainly helped reduce Aaron's risk of heart attack due to exceeding levels of stress that night! It was just what the doctor (or midlevel provider, as the case may be) ordered.

Our Mountain Getaway: Togetherness

One year ago today, I entitled my post "Families Can Be Together Forever." We spent a couple days of Aaron's Spring Break celebrating that truth with some togetherness time in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. (Courtesy of the thoughtful generosity of his PA School classmates--we can't thank you enough!) We had so much fun sledding together, drinking hot chocolate together, swimming together, eating out together, eating in together, trudging through the snow together, roasting marshmallows together, reading stories by the fire together, playing crazy eights together, building a snowman and snowdog together, snuggling up in our cozy cabin together, reading the scriptures together, singing songs together, and enjoying the gorgeous mountain scenery together.

It was the perfect time to share something worth celebrating with our kiddos. I decided I'd give them a big clue and let them guess.

Me: "Have you noticed anything about my tummy lately?"
Xander: "It's getting bigger because there's a baby growing in there."
Elodie: "It's just getting fat like Daddy's."

Who do you think was right on the money?

(This picture was taken on Apr. 8, when I was 13 weeks along.)

Good Clean(ish) Fun

Elodie is quite a well-rounded young lady, thanks to the influence of her big brother. She is quite opinionated and doesn't usually appreciate my suggestions about what she should wear. She does not like to wear jeans and LOVES to wear skirts with fun tights. Some days her outfits even almost match, like her purple day above. So that part of her is pretty obviously girlie. Yet she tells me she wants to play football when she grows up, even though she sees the amount of tackling it involves when she watches Nolan and Xander play football in the family room. Do you think she's got the build for it?

She also enjoys shooting bow and arrows with her brother, who was kind enough to insist that I make a bow for Elodie after he finally got me to help him make one for himself. The hanger with tied-together rubber bands ended up working out pretty well; much better than the splintery shards of wood Xander was bringing in from the garage when he was trying to make a bow all on his own. And the quick drawing of a target was a good substitute for me and Elodie as the prime targets. If only dad wasn't gone studying all the time, he'd make a pretty good target...

And when I was distracted, she found a highlighter and out came some more girliness. "Mom, it's just eyeliner!"

Yes, she is wearing a Princess Cinderella dress, but she just "launched a missile" complete with sound effects. For the record, I always call them rockets, not missiles. Where does she learn these things?

Oh, yeah, from my little space engineer. He currently hoards toilet paper rolls and the like so he'll have the materials when an idea strikes him. I think his favorite thing I bought him lately was a roll of masking tape. I believe this was a rocket that morphed into a jet that has the capacity to scoop up water to put out forest fires. Yes, these projects do result in a trail of paper, cardstock, and tape scraps, but it is so fun to see his creativity blossom! And he's not too bad at cleaning up after himself, either! This stage of life is just good, clean(ish) fun! Do I have to send him to all-day kindergarten in the fall?

Olympic Celebration

Some of our fun friends came over for dinner last night. They happen to be Canadians. And the other fun friends who came thought it would be fun to bring a Canadian dessert in honor of said friends (and the Olympics, of course). This friend is a trained pastry chef, so I knew it would be a winner. If any of you are looking for a fun Canadian treat to munch while you watch the Olympics, try Nanaimo Bars! Yum, yum! Warning: the recipe does sound a bit involved--you may feel like a pastry chef as you make them!
And since we ate them after a heaping serving of vegetable & lentil curry over brown rice, I really didn't feel too bad about enjoying these little beauties!

You're toast!

Elodie and Xander are both pretty into cardboard swords these days. It started a few weeks ago when Xander's primary teacher gave him a CTR shield made of cardstock with some yarn attached to it. He didn't think a necklace shield was too cool, so he asked me to put a handle on it. And once I showed him my armor-making skills, the requests for new swords and shields have just kept coming. Because cardboard swords bend and break, you see. And Xander has no tolerance for a floppy sword. Or sometimes, you're at Aunt Melayna's and you both forgot your swords, so you both have to beg and beg to have new ones made right then and there. And gratefully, Aunt Melayna's a softie. When we were gone in Florida for 4 days, Xander came home with a new cardboard sword made by Uncle Milan. And, call me silly, but the fact that he had written "Ctr" on it made me feel much better about the sword fetish.

Daddy Daughter Date

After reading the article on becoming a more influential father in this month's Ensign, Aaron and I decided it was time to implement what we've intended on doing when our kids were "old enough"--one-on-one outings with Mom and Dad. Since it was Elodie's birthday this week, we figured that was a good reason for her to go first. So daddy and daughter went to Baskin Robbins last night. What little girl wouldn't choose such a pretty scoop of pink bubblegum ice cream? We had told her for months that she couldn't have gum until she was three, so she felt pretty grown up to finally be old enough for gum. Aaron said she absolutely loved it and thought it was so special to have real chunks of bubblegum in it. Which she of course swallowed, since it's mixed in with the ice cream. Aaron sampled it and found the rock-hard chunks of cheap bubblegum rather repulsive. But to a three-year-old, this made it quite a special night.
The night seemed a little less special when she woke up 3 different times, complaining of not feeling good the first time and then throwing up 3 times throughout the night. And yes, it was bright pink. She slept in until almost 9:00 this morning to make up for the lost sleep, and since she's awoken, she's felt fine and had a normal appetite. We're pretty sure it was the bubblegum. So this served as a great opportunity to teach her why swallowing gum is not the best idea. In fact, she told me this morning that maybe she's not old enough for gum yet. At least we'll be holding off on the pink bubblegum ice cream indefinitely.

You are what you eat

The year I was born, President Benson said this regarding physical health and the Word of Wisdom:

"To a great extent we are physically what we eat. Most of us are acquainted with some of the prohibitions, such as no tea, coffee, tobacco, or alcohol. What need additional emphasis are the positive aspects--the need for vegetables, fruits, and grains, particularly wheat. In most cases, the closer these can be, when eaten, to their natural state-- without overrefinement and processing--the healthier we will be."

"To a significant degree, we are an overfed and undernourished nation digging an early grave with our teeth, and lacking the energy that could be ours because we overindulge in junk foods. ... We need a generation of young people who, as Daniel, eat in a more healthy manner than to fare on the "king's meat"--and whose countenances show it (see Daniel 1)."

(My dad emailed me an article containing this quote and my dietician sister posted this picture on her blog today; they are both great examples of this principle! They make ME look like a junk food junkie! These are great reminders and they go so well together that I thought I'd pass them along!)