Marcia – Jacob and Marcia

My Third Birthday

Twelve years ago I posted this about my third “birth.”

I was born physically almost 42 years ago.
I was reborn spiritually almost 34 years ago when I chose to be baptized.
20 (twenty) years ago today I had carbon monoxide poisoning. Some doctors turned me away from their hospitals saying I was dead. Finally one accepted me, and through the modern miracles of medicine AND the Priesthood of God, I was given my life back.

Here are twenty of the thousands (infinite) things I have learned since my 3rd birth:
1~ I can do hard things ~2~ I can stand up for others ~3~ boundaries are important ~4~ we know even less than we think we know about other people ~5~ kindness wins ~6~ it can be fun to learn ~7~ it can be hard/painful to learn ~8~ we have to choose kindness ~9~ adults can be bullies in-person and online and it still hurts ~10~ true friends are hard to find ~11~ true friends are hard to lose ~12~ true friends are honest ~13~ all people are allowed to change for the better ~14~ it is hard to take care of others if I don’t take care of myself ~15~ drink lots of water ~16~ there is appropriate music for all feelings/times ~17~ cooking for allergies is like living in the Cutthroat Kitchen, except I have better access to Alton Brown’s knowledge online than if i was in that kitchen ~18~ YouTube can be an excellent teacher ~19~ favorites are subject to change without notice…color, food, music, people, quotes, movies, memes, et cetera ~20~ I am my own person and I have value, even when others don’t see it

Dare to Do Right

We have a bedtime routine that includes singing a number of songs each night.
Every attempt to decrease the quantity has been met with great resistance and tears.
We told them we can still sing the same quantity if they will sing too. Sometimes we insist that they have to sing to us while we listen.
In an effort to help the children learn more songs we choose one song to switch in/out each week. This week we are singing “Dare to Do Right.”
These are the words (with some of my own commentary/thoughts):

Dare to do right! Dare to be true! *
You have a work that no other can do; **
Do it so bravely, so kindly, so well, ***
Angels will hasten the story to tell.
Dare, dare, dare to do right;
Dare, dare, dare to be true,
Dare to be true, dare to be true.

Dare to do right! Dare to be true!
Other men’s failures can never save you. ****
Stand by your conscience, your honor, your faith; *****
Stand like a hero and battle till death. ******
Dare, dare, dare to do right;
Dare, dare, dare to be true,
Dare to be true, dare to be true.

My comments:
*I think “true” can be multiple things. I think it can be about telling the truth. It can be about not deviating from a known path; similar to a bicycle tire, if it is wobbly at all it is called “out of true” and that is what I like to think of.
**Each person has their own set of strengths and weaknesses, as such, we each can do different things, and that enables us to be our own part of the whole.
***Sometimes making the right choice is not what other people want us to do, we can still do it, we can be polite about it, and we can still do it correctly.
****No matter what someone else does, we are responsible for our own choices and actions. Our success is not determined by the success or failure of another person. We can cheer others on and not wish for them to fail.
*****What ever your moral compass is, stick to it; be honorable in your actions!
******While some battles end in death, I think this is a message of endurance. Do not give up. Fight the good fight your whole life through.

Humming is Happiness

Corban hums while he eats something he likes.*
Corban got a full dose of stubbornness from his mom and from his dad.
Corban has three favorite foods, chicken fingers, Gardetto’s, and popcorn.**
Some days he decides that if what I make for supper is not one of those foods, he isn’t interested and will try to refuse to eat. This forces us to get creative just to get him to take the first bite, upon which he realizes he likes the food and will eat, often requesting seconds.
Last night was a night he said he “WILL NOT EAT THE NOODLES!”
After further behaving in a rude manor and a timeout to calm down, he was invited to re-join us at the table.
Everyone told him how they liked the food, and he insisted he would just sit and watch.
Corban begged for buttered toast*** instead of the cheese burger macaroni shells.
Corban loves cheese burgers****, and he loves sauces*****.
We offered to let him eat his cheese burger mac with sauces, and he was sold! He was willing to try it, if he could have sauces.
Then Corban hummed the rest of the meal!

*This reminds me of a particular little person that was at the preschool while I worked there. Corban does not appreciate being referred to by that person’s name.
**If we would let him, he would eat those exclusively everyday.
***Another thing he really likes, because he knows how to put bread in the toaster and push the buttons.
****Sunday for supper we had burgers. There were only a few frozen patties in the freezer, so I had purchased more on Saturday, in order to have enough. I found some good dairy free cheese slices. The meal was a success…mostly. The newer patties were of a lesser quality. It had not occurred to me that hamburgers might have filler-ingredients. They didn’t hold their shape after being cooked, so, instead of putting the rest in the freezer or cooking them up to have as leftovers, I cooked it up like ground beef and used it for cheese burger mac. That was the best use of that meat product, and I will not be purchasing that brand of beef patties again.
*****I have been having fun researching lots of recipes for sauces like honey mustard for example or dairy free ranch, and so far, those have been successful.

A Bit of Levity

For Christmas we enjoy when we get MAD LIBS books. I got one with presidential stories, and I asked the children to fill in the blanks.

Title: So, you want to be president?

Mar©ia:
Do you dream of becoming the next house of the United States? You’ll probably want to start with a cute position, like a councilperson or mayor of Grandma’s house. Then you could become a state representative or an orthodontist in order to cut your legislative brain cells! Just make sure you don’t support any scrumdiddlyumptious bills or controversial chandeliers. When in doubt, always side with the everyday sun in the sky. Be sure to keep your earlobe clean and stay free of bright scandals, which will be sure to surface during your campaign. Everything you’ve ever said or shreiked will come to light. Finally, learn to smile and wave adorably. You’ll be shaking a lot of pupils and decorating a lot of babies on the campaign trail! Or you could always start as a Neon Tetra on TV!

Hinckley:
Do you dream of becoming the next booger of the United States? You’ll probably want to start with a lumpy position, like a councilperson or mayor of the water park. Then you could become a state representative or a plumber in order to cut your legislative hairs! Just make sure you don’t support any cool bills or controversial clocks. When in doubt, always side with the everyday mom. Be sure to keep your nose clean and stay free of cold scandals, which will be sure to surface during your campaign. Everything you’ve ever said or ran will come to light. Finally, learn to smile and wave funnily. You’ll be shaking a lot of eyes and walking a lot of babies on the campaign trail! Or you could always start as a sneeze on TV!

Corban:
Do you dream of becoming the next caterpillar of the United States? You’ll probably want to start with a triangular position, like a councilperson or mayor of the restaurant. Then you could become a state representative or be a doctor in order to cut your legislative ears! Just make sure you don’t support any slimey bills or controversial LEGOs. When in doubt, always side with the everyday doctor. Be sure to keep your leg clean and stay free of scandals made of bugs, which will be sure to surface during your campaign. Everything you’ve ever said or rubbed will come to light. Finally, learn to smile and wave apologetically. You’ll be shaking a lot of eyes and looking at a lot of babies on the campaign trail! Or you could always start as a letter “O” on TV!

The Smallest Thing

Jacob: The smallest thing I am grateful for is the electron because electrons make my job and most of modern technology possible.

Marcia the Elder: The smallest thing I am thankful for is DNA because I am amazed at how living things/beings grow and form and develop and change over time and how we get all of our unique traits.*

Marcia the Younger: The smallest thing I am thankful for is this bowl** so that Corban doesn’t burn the house down.
Also, I am thankful for atoms because they make up everything.***

Hinckley: The smallest thing I am thankful for is family, no, it is food.

Corban: I think the smallest thing I am thankful for is the entire house. Wait, it is bigger than us. Uh, uh, I know, a mini-robot that is this small.****

*What a run-on thought!
**A wooden bowl where we put the knobs for the stove top ever since he lit a pan of brownies on fire causing a bit of an issue.

***This is where Jacob said, “That’s why you shouldn’t believe atoms, because they make up everything.” To which, she did giggle.
****Pinching his fingers together with about a centimeter space.

Best Kind

Our responses to, “Would you rather live in a gingerbread house with the candy decorations or a house made of LEGO?”

Jacob: LEGO because I like changing things and reconfiguring the house would be that much more fun.*

Marcia the Elder: I guess we should get a LEGO house. It would be more structurally sound than a gingerbread house. Can you imagine that first wind and rainstorm. It would be one big soggy, sticky mess. My family seems to want to change the house a lot…. Wait until they see that I may or may not have used Kragle on the LEGO house.

Marcia the Younger: Probably LEGO because then I wouldn’t be tempted to eat my house. Also, there are smooth pieces of LEGO to smooth over the floor.**

Hinckley: LEGO because if we lived in a gingerbread house we’d be really tempted to eat our house, and them we would have no home to live in. Also, because we could take our house apart if it was a LEGO house and put it back together and transform our whole house.

Corban: The reason I want a LEGO house is because I want the floor to be flat with no studs. That’s why I want to live in a house made of LEGO with you.

*Mar©ia pointed out that it would be easier to fix the gutters because you can just make stairs to reach the gutters.
**As often as she asks to rearrange her room, I am surprised that she didn’t mention this in her reply.

Tonight at Supper

I said I had a question and that I wanted everyone to answer.
Hinckley said he knew what I was going to ask, “Are all the chores done?”
I told him that while that is a good question, what I wanted to know was:

Would you rather be a centaur or a mermaid/merman?

Jacob: Somebody told me that centaurs are all boys, so, I want to be a merman because I want to be where there are girls too, and not only smelly horse boys, and I don’t want to have to carry a baby (and give birth).

Marcia the Elder: I would rather be a centaur because I know there’d have to be girls too, and I am not a swimmer, and there are holes in my eardrum, so, I think merlife would not be right for me.

Marcia the Younger: I would rather be a mermaid because centaurs are always boys.

Hinckley: I would rather be a centaur because it would be cool to gallop as fast as a horse.

Corban: After much refusal to cooperate and asking him the question each time he said something that was not the answer, here is how he eventually responded:
          Seahorses can’t swim.*
          I don’t want to be a mermaid because I don’t want to be in water.
          I don’t want to be a centaur because I don’t want to go as fast as a horse.**
          I would rather PLAY WITH a centaur that’s alive because I would play Hide and Seek, and I would always want to be first to seek.

* This was after talk about part fish and part horse.
**Hinckley tried to tell him he could choose to not go as fast.

Who Knew the 4 Year Old Would Win

Jacob has a chess app on his phone, and the copyrights enjoy watching him play and are thrilled if they get a chance to try it. The app simulates playing against Magnus Carlsen at his abilities at various ages.
Tonight Jacob let them each take a turn.

Corban seemed to not really have a method.
Hinckley thought he had a method.
Marcia seems to have a better understanding of the game.

They each played against “Magnus Carlsen (Age 5).” As indicated by the arrow.

Arrow indicates: “You defeated Magnus!”
He was pretty thrilled to have won.
The older two did not win or lose, they each had a draw, or a tie.

I think the best quote while he played was when he exclaimed, “I captured another pond!”

One Whole Decade

Mar©ia went to bed as a nine-year-old, and woke up ten! We like to wake the birthday girl with bells in her doorway by singing “Happy Birthday” to her, I think she liked it.

Even if the picture is blurry, I love the smile on her face.
Her birth-minute picture:

Maybe another day I will finish telling the events of the day leading to her expulsion.

Ten Years Ago Today

I was was “released from partial bed rest*” and started eating all the things that people say would start** labor. It didn’t seem to do much to help. So, we kept to the plan to go into the hospital at 8:30 p.m. for them to start the labor process with a pill they planned to put next to the cervix***. Turns out that when we went in I was having contractions every 3 minutes, but I didn’t know**** it. With monitors attached, I was given Pitocin, and settled in to see how long it would last. Sometime before midnight, the TV no longer could distract me.

* I had a friend go with me to a prenatal appointment a few days earlier (Jacob had a class), and being that we are good friends, we were talking as usual, this time about something that makes me mad, and so my blood pressure read a little high. At the end of the appointment it was checked again, again after they left us in the room talking again, same topic. So, they had me go over to L&D at the hospital for a couple hours of observation. Most of the time my blood pressure was good, baby’s stats were good. But when on certain topics, they didn’t like the BP. I was sent home on partial bed rest and had to do a 24 hour urine collection. They found no trace of protein in the sample. The only questionable factor was BP during certain conversations. So, my advice to new moms, avoid topics that make you mad for prenatal appointments; for me it was talking about selfish behaviors of certain people that occasionally affect my life.
** Turns out that those things that people say will “start” labor really only encourage labor that has already begun.
*** It truly is all about the hormones.
**** I thought I just needed to pee every 3-5 minutes. And having never been through labor before, I didn’t recognize that as contractions of early labor.