Duck Pond Adventures

Aidan had his first death-defying experience this past week. He was with a babysitter and they walked to the botany pond (aka the duck pond) a couple blocks away. The babysitter brought her 5 month old daughter with them and I went up to statistics class.

About twenty minutes into class I received a phone call from my babysitter where I heard Aidan screaming in the background. She informed me that he had fallen into the duck pond. She sounded horrified. I quickly called Aaron to see where he was and learned that he was just arriving home. I filled Aaron in and he quickly got off the phone.

I went back and sat in class for about a minute and explained to my friends what had happened. One mentioned that Aaron would be fine with Aidan and I was good to stay so I tried to concentrate for about thirty seconds and then realized I wanted to go home and be there for my baby. I packed up and left class.

I arrived home at the same time Aaron arrived back carrying Aidan in a towel.

I got the story from the babysitter.

They walked to the duck bond in the double stroller and had parked. Then they decided it would be fun to go and feed the ducks. She got Aidan and her daughter out and held her daughter. Aidan was eating a granola bar and would ask her to peel back the wrapper and then have a bite. He walked up by the side and was interacting with another toddler boy as they were each trying to feed the ducks. Aidan leaned over to hand his granola bar to the duck and share and toppled over!

He fell onto a rock right in the middle of his face. He scratched up his nose, bruised his forehead and had scratches on his lips and tongue. He then continued to fall over on his back into the pond. His bum was sinking, but he managed to keep his head and feet up.

The dad of Aidan's toddler friend jumped in after Aidan as soon as he hit the rock! He grabbed him and pulled him out of the water and stripped his wet, cold clothes off. Aidan had maybe gone under water for a split second. My babysitter said she didn't even have time to act before this guy jumped in after Aidan.

I am SO SO grateful for this man that jumped in after Aidan without even thinking twice about it! It's amazing that there are still people out there that would perform such heroic acts in our every day life.

He loves to hold his toes

Aidan LOVES wearing Aaron's gear!

My thoughts related to this incident...

1. I am so sad that I was in class and missed Aidan's first death defying moment. I am looking forward to many days home with him. It makes me ache a little bit to know that I won't always be able to rescue him or be there for him when he gets hurt.
2. I love Aidan and Aaron so much. It hurt me to see him bloody and in so much pain. Aaron was amazing to sprint to the pond with towel in hand. He knew just what to do to keep Aidan calm and nurse him back to health by cleaning his owies.
3. On a spiritual/hypothetical side, I am grateful that I know that I have somebody who will "jump in and save me" if ever I am struggling or close to drowning. I know that I have a living Savior who gave his life for me and is willing to help me whenever I need him. He doesn't even think twice about whether I deserve it or not. I am grateful that He was watching out for Aidan and the babysitter and everybody else involved. A million things could have gone wrong or been worse and Aidan walked away with no broken bones and just a few minor scrapes and bruises.

Stake Conference Counsel

Our Stake President (LDS area leader) has asked that we remove all violent video games from your home. FYI: This is in a BYU Student Married Stake. This is the second time he's announced and suggested we do this on our homes. He used the updated For the Strength of Youth guidelines as well as a talk by Elder Bednar and a few other things and told us he felt really strongly that we should follow this counsel and we'd be blessed for our obedience and diligence. This would not be a difficult thing for me personally because I'm not really into the violent games to start with (and it doesn't hurt that I'm horrible at them anyway), but I have some married friends that play games together and my husband spends time playing a variety of video and computer games. Just got me thinking.

If your stake president asked you to remove all violent video games from your home,

What would you do and why?

Some of the quotes he used and the video he told us to watch in FHE:

"...Do not attend, view, or participate in anything that is vulgar, immoral, violent, or pornographic in any way..."

I raise an apostolic voice of warning about the potentially stifling, suffocating, suppressing, and constraining impact of some kinds of cyberspace interactions and experiences upon our souls. 

Shared Housing

We currently live in the upstairs of a house with a couple living in our basement. We have lived here for 5 years and we plan to be here through August 2013 at least (assuming we are finally done with school and ready to move on with life).

Overall, it's been a positive experience living here. Sharing housing has it's pros and cons, but lately I am going bonkers. I'm sure some of it is just wanting to move on with life and grow up and have our own place. But, please allow me to whine a little bit.

We have central heating and air. The thermostat is in the basement. The upstairs is always about 10 degrees hotter in the summer than the downstairs. During the winter, this generally means the same thing, but with these most recent neighbors, they say they are really hot down there and they like to set the thermostat at 60 degrees! Yes, 60 degrees in the middle of winter. While it's snowing outside. We have huge windows, wooden floors in the bedroom, doors that don't quite seal out the cold and we are freezing up here. One night, Aidan woke up saying "Cold Cold" and I knew I had to talk to them. I settled and told them not to lower it below 65. The wife is pretty good about this, but the husband will still occasionally lower it to 60-63 degrees. I have talked to them multiple times about the thermostat issue, explained the poor temperature control etc. They just don't seem to care. I know he just wants to save a buck, but I really hate freezing in my own home! PS We bought a heater for Aidan's room so don't worry about him freezing

Our house was built in the 50s. Naturally this means super creaky floors. It also means that we could hear everything going on downstairs if we really wanted to. We noticed this the first week we lived here 5 years ago and invested in a sound machine. Problem solved. We now have a fan in our room and the sound machine in Aidan's room. Seriously, we could hear a normal volume level conversation without this stuff. Every time neighbors move in downstairs, we advise them to invest in a sound machine or something else or they'll hear lot of stuff. The current neighbors have taken it upon themselves to bang on the wall if we are being too loud at night. This means that if we (heaven forbid) have sex, they bang on the wall. If I get up to tend to Aidan in the middle of the night, they bang on the wall. If Aaron and I are talking in our bed about life etc, they bang on the wall. Seriously!! I cannot believe it. It just comes with the territory. If you're going to live in shared housing or an apartment complex you are going to hear other people. I talked to the husband about it and he basically said "I understand you walking around in the middle of the day, but it's hard on us when you're up in the middle of the night. We hear every time you move in bed, walk around etc." I couldn't help but smile and said "I'm sorry. I'm going to have to take care of Aidan and sometimes we are up late since we're in school and working." I couldn't believe this conversation. I also reiterated the idea of a sound machine.

The dumb part is that I still care. I get nervous to walk around at night and move in bed. I worry when Aidan is crying that I will hear a bang on the wall. I hate that I worry about it. Why can't I just not care? How come we had 4 years of downstairs neighbors previous to this that didn't seem to mind? Has something huge changed since then? Also, the husband downstairs is the owner's brother so I also get super self-conscious about that. Is he going to complain and try to get us kicked out or something? Aaaaah! I know they're planning on staying long-term so I should really try to get to know them better. Maybe, they'd see that we aren't horrible people purposefully making noise all the time.

Also, I feel like I am constantly being judged for my parenting. For example, this morning on the way out to church Aidan wanted to bring a bigger toy car so I explained that we couldn't fit that one in the bag and we found a smaller one. Aidan then screamed as I was opening the back door just as the neighbor was leaving so he saw and faked a smile and rolled his eyes in my direction. I'm standing here with the car seat in one hand, trying to get Aidan out the door, calm him down about his toy car and get to church. I get it. They don't have kids. But seriously. I would really appreciate a bit more empathy and understanding. I am doing my best here.

Maybe, I'm reading way too much into this. I should really get to know them better.

But, still, I cannot wait to get a place of our own.

Pros & Cons

I just got this from our pediatrician.

Video Games: Pros and Cons

Posted on February 8, 2012 by admin

Article at a Glance
• Video games can be used to help improve test scores, teach life and job skills, improve brain function, and encourage physical exercise.
• Most popular video games are addictive by design.
• Because video games can have a negative impact on health and academic performance if a child becomes addicted, parents should be aware of the symptoms.

http://www.uvpediatrics.com/news/2012/02/video-games-pros-and-cons/

What Would You Do?

Dust-up at the Diner | Video - ABC News

This takes place in American Fork, UT.

Marinara Sauce

I have had such a hard time with marinara sauce since being pregnant with Aidan (and that ended 18 months ago), but a wonderful thing happened....

I had some pizza yesterday and I LIKED it. Oh my gosh! I liked it so much! It's amazing. I was dipping bread sticks over and over. Delicious! It was amazing and wonderful for me. Yes, it is that big of a deal.

And the even better news, the pizza I ate happens to be from Aaron's favorite pizza place. Plus, Aidan LOVES pizza!

Win win win situation!