"Lets wash your head. Now behind your ears! Oh look at these feet! That is your penis. That is your scrotum. Inside of it are two little balls called testicles!" (A simple every day conversation in an every day situation- giving your kid a bath.)
Lets practice saying these words. Maybe if you practice enough you won't blush every time you give your child the appripriate label for his or her body parts:
buttock
anus
penis
scrotum
testicles
breasts
nipple
vulva (yes, lets not mislabel this and call it a vagina, its not the same thing.)
vagina
clitoris
What better way to get over your own awkwardness and fear of saying these words then in saying them to your young child, in every day life opportunities.
"Look- that lady is going to have a baby! Her baby is growing in a special place called her uterus. You would think its growing in her stomach, but its not!"
"Mom- what is that lady doing to that baby?" "She is breastfeeding. She is feeding milk from her breasts to her baby. You know how some moms feed milk in a bottle to their babies? That mom is feeding her milk to her baby."
There. Is that really so hard?
Practice that. Then take it a step forward when ready child is ready:
-explain that the testicles make things called sperm
-explain that the baby will have to go through something kind of like a door called a cervix to get out of the uterus and through the mom's vagina into the world.
-etc, etc,
Do you want to be able to educate your child when he\she is about to hit puberty about the changes that are coming? Do you want to educate your children about sex? Your daughter about her looming menstrual cycle and fertility? Or would you rather the public school teach him? Or her friends teach her? How will you be able to talk to your sons and your daughters about sex, pregnancies, periods, breasts, pubic hair, etc, if you can't even label and name body parts when he or she is a toddler or preschooler? When you can't even explain normal, human body functions when they are in kindergarten?
It really is not that hard to start. Start now, when your kids are young, instead of starting when the stakes are higher, and the questions more challenging.
(Now if anyone has a good way for me to explain the pornography store located right next to our local post office, please share because I know that question is coming soon.)
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The Great Smokey Mountains (craziness #3)
From that week into this....
A family trip to Tennessee. Brian's aunt and uncle invite a bunch of family members to a cabin in TN. We did this two years ago and it was great, crazy fun. It was the same this year. However, this time Brian stayed home. My sister-in-law and I traveled together:
10 hour drive split into 2 days
5 kids: ages 6, 5, 3, 1, and 8 mo.
1 I-pod touch with games to fight over.
1 broken DVD player (seriously!?!! We only got to play 1 dvd before it stopped working)
lots of audio books but our crowd just couldn't calm down long enough to pay any attention.
(so actually, the driving went really well. The kids were pretty good. Just a bit loud sometimes and just a few fights.)
Once we got there we now had:
12 children (oldest is soon to be 13.)
7 adults (2 years ago we had 9 adults.)
What did we do?
Caverns (on the way down):
Swimming, hotel fun, general traveling fun:
-Cherokee Indian Village: learning about the Indians from the Indians themselves (this is actually in North Carolina)
-Santa Land: (mot my favorite place but the kids love it.)
(Tristan did the classic scream when we got close to santa. But we had a technical error and didn't catch it on camera.)
-Swimming in the River. (We love, love, love this river! So fun!) Tristan loved it so much too. I don't have any pictures of him because I left my camera in the car and haven't gotten pictures from my mother-in-law yet.
-Hot tub fun, playing cards with cousins, and just playing at the cabin
-White Water Rafting (dang, don't have pictures at the moment.) Rafting was fun but not as fun as the other year. The river was lower this time plus we had to go on the low end because of all the kids we had. (You have to be 8 to go on the higher end which has a greater degree of intensity.) The rapids we went on only had about a level 2 (maybe 1 or 2 level 3) out of 5 level scoring scale.
10 hour drive split into 2 days
5 kids: ages 6, 5, 3, 1, and 8 mo.
1 I-pod touch with games to fight over.
1 broken DVD player (seriously!?!! We only got to play 1 dvd before it stopped working)
lots of audio books but our crowd just couldn't calm down long enough to pay any attention.
(so actually, the driving went really well. The kids were pretty good. Just a bit loud sometimes and just a few fights.)
Once we got there we now had:
12 children (oldest is soon to be 13.)
7 adults (2 years ago we had 9 adults.)
What did we do?
Caverns (on the way down):
Swimming, hotel fun, general traveling fun:
-Cherokee Indian Village: learning about the Indians from the Indians themselves (this is actually in North Carolina)
(Tristan did the classic scream when we got close to santa. But we had a technical error and didn't catch it on camera.)
-Swimming in the River. (We love, love, love this river! So fun!) Tristan loved it so much too. I don't have any pictures of him because I left my camera in the car and haven't gotten pictures from my mother-in-law yet.
-Cades Cove: (which will work out better when our kids are older. It was so dang hot too, we stayed in the car most of the time.) Its basically a mountain with a 1-way loop you drive one. you can get out at about 13 stops to see old cabins, churches, to learn about the first people who settled Cades Cove. There are a few hiking trails and I was told a great trail to some falls but we didn't go on it. We saw a deer up close and there was also a bear in a tree but we Heather and I vaguely saw the bear- we drove by it and thought it was an eagle's nest. I would like to do Cades Cover another year and get more out of it next time. It was very pretty though. Lots of mountains and lots of valleys.
-Hot tub fun, playing cards with cousins, and just playing at the cabin
-White Water Rafting (dang, don't have pictures at the moment.) Rafting was fun but not as fun as the other year. The river was lower this time plus we had to go on the low end because of all the kids we had. (You have to be 8 to go on the higher end which has a greater degree of intensity.) The rapids we went on only had about a level 2 (maybe 1 or 2 level 3) out of 5 level scoring scale.
Moving and leaks (craziness #2)
I got home from camp and immediately had to jump into another crazy week: Getting my dad moved into a new apartment. Since my dad has limited resources and limited good health, he needs a lot of help with things like this. We also had to move him during the week during business hours (sheesh.) And while I was at camp his car broke down so he was depended on me to drive him and\or do his last minute moving errands. So it was a lot on me. Luckily, Brian was able to take some time off from work. I was able to hire some young people to help on moving day, my mom helped, and it all worked out in the end. And it reminds me that I have no desire to ever, ever move again. (hah, yeah right.)
I think this move is really good for my dad. He moved into senior housing. Its basically a regular, normal apartment but for people 63+. There is a community room, activities, a community patio, community wash room, bus trips, exercise room, etc. He will be around people. He wont' be so isolated, which will really help him. The location is also very nice and convenient. The grounds have a pretty garden and he got a nice end unit with extra windows and a nice view. (His car is still broken so he has been grounded for a long time and needs my help a lot more then normal.)
At the same time we were getting my dad moved, I walked into our utility room to do some laundry and the floor was soaking wet! It had just rained. Was it from the rain? Humm...this is a lot of water. Is it from the freezer? It was late. We decided the freezer defrosted for some reason. Went to bed. Next day was the big moving day so I didn't get to deal with our leak problem until that night. I was not convinced the water was from the freezer. It was really wet! Our utility room was a mess because we have been moving some stuff around and we got a whole bunch of stuff from my dad. So things were out of place and the house has just been a disaster. So I end up moving all this stuff and trying to clean up the wetness and finally found the cause of the leak- our water heater. Its just leaking. Weeping. At least its not gushing. Could be worse. But what bad timing. It was stressful. I sucked up at least 9 gallons of water out of the carpet. It kept leaking until it was replaced. One day my mom came over to help. I had to clean up the utility room and throw some stuff away that got wet. We had to move a bunch of stuff into our bathroom too (I'm telling you, our house has been a mess for a few weeks. It just gets worse and worse!) Now, 3 appointments later we are done with the water heater drama- for now. Its been replaced, inspected, and we had our home owners insurance co out. I'm still not sure if part of the wall will need to be replaced. We have wood paneling down there and I'm pretty convinced the installation got wet. The man from insurance said we should rip up the carpet as well (no padding under) but Brian didn't do it. We got it pretty cleaned up and it dried out but I'm still concerned that we should have taken the carpet up. If we get sick from mold, you all will know why.
(Our fish tank also leaked on our again at the same time. It keeps leaking from the filter because it gets dirty I guess. And I discovered a wet spot in the ceiling of our office- right under the bathrub.)
I think this move is really good for my dad. He moved into senior housing. Its basically a regular, normal apartment but for people 63+. There is a community room, activities, a community patio, community wash room, bus trips, exercise room, etc. He will be around people. He wont' be so isolated, which will really help him. The location is also very nice and convenient. The grounds have a pretty garden and he got a nice end unit with extra windows and a nice view. (His car is still broken so he has been grounded for a long time and needs my help a lot more then normal.)
At the same time we were getting my dad moved, I walked into our utility room to do some laundry and the floor was soaking wet! It had just rained. Was it from the rain? Humm...this is a lot of water. Is it from the freezer? It was late. We decided the freezer defrosted for some reason. Went to bed. Next day was the big moving day so I didn't get to deal with our leak problem until that night. I was not convinced the water was from the freezer. It was really wet! Our utility room was a mess because we have been moving some stuff around and we got a whole bunch of stuff from my dad. So things were out of place and the house has just been a disaster. So I end up moving all this stuff and trying to clean up the wetness and finally found the cause of the leak- our water heater. Its just leaking. Weeping. At least its not gushing. Could be worse. But what bad timing. It was stressful. I sucked up at least 9 gallons of water out of the carpet. It kept leaking until it was replaced. One day my mom came over to help. I had to clean up the utility room and throw some stuff away that got wet. We had to move a bunch of stuff into our bathroom too (I'm telling you, our house has been a mess for a few weeks. It just gets worse and worse!) Now, 3 appointments later we are done with the water heater drama- for now. Its been replaced, inspected, and we had our home owners insurance co out. I'm still not sure if part of the wall will need to be replaced. We have wood paneling down there and I'm pretty convinced the installation got wet. The man from insurance said we should rip up the carpet as well (no padding under) but Brian didn't do it. We got it pretty cleaned up and it dried out but I'm still concerned that we should have taken the carpet up. If we get sick from mold, you all will know why.
(Our fish tank also leaked on our again at the same time. It keeps leaking from the filter because it gets dirty I guess. And I discovered a wet spot in the ceiling of our office- right under the bathrub.)
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Girl's Camp. (Craziness #1)
(Warning: several posts all in a row about the craziness that has been life lately.)
It was my joy and privilege to be the assistant camp director for Girl's Camp, for my 2nd year in a row. It was lots of fun. Lots of work! Camp preparations felt like a whirl wind this year- we got a late start this year and had camp a whole month earlier- plus I had a baby in the house! But it all came together in the end.
I really love these young women- they are great girls! And I love camp. This year, since I have Tristan, I couldn't sleep over. I was a bit sad about that- I hate missing anything! But, I did enjoy getting showers and A\C at night but don't think I got any more sleep then I would have if I slept over. My mom came up a few times to help with Tristan. I put a lot of long hours in and Tristan was a champ putting up with it all (and got lots of attention from the girls.)
It was really neat to see how much the girls have grown and matured in one year. They are all such great ladies and I know the Lord has a lot of good stuff planned for them in this life. I too, got to grow and mature and had to do a few things that were outside of my typical comfort zone.
Some highlights from camp:
(with pictures randomly thrown in. These pictures aren't the best because I"m purposely picking pictures that are kind of vague as to who is in them because I don't know if its OK to post pictures of people with out permission.)
A great FHE with our bishop and a great dinner (taco salad) provided by our Relief Society. We were all stuffed in our cabin for FHE because of a big rain storm that came at the perfect time, but I think the coziness was a good thing.
A truely fabulous value walk. It was great! So spiritual.
Awesome ward shirts that fell apart before our eyes (grrr. cheap iron on transfer paper). Being surprised with some lovely bandannas and ice cream pops by a wonderful sister in our ward.
Some really awesome\spiritual mini-classes. I missed 2 of them though. But I got a narrative of them and they sounded great. The one I did make it to was a really inspired one about focusing on the positives in life.
A great testimony meeting outside. Being read to at ward devotional.
Scripture scavenger hunt and fun bed treats and goodies hidden in\on people's beds.
Pine-wood derby cars and racing
Archery, Swimming, Kayaking (which I could not do.)
(not bad, huh? Two of our girls got bulls eyes!)
Hikes and learning camping skills (certification). I really enjoyed participating in dutch oven cooking- it was so yummy! And I got to make a cupcake in an orange. Cool!
Working with a great co-leader (Katri!) and having great support from the other YW leaders before and during camp (especially having volunteers to sleep over night since I couldn't do it.)
It was my joy and privilege to be the assistant camp director for Girl's Camp, for my 2nd year in a row. It was lots of fun. Lots of work! Camp preparations felt like a whirl wind this year- we got a late start this year and had camp a whole month earlier- plus I had a baby in the house! But it all came together in the end.
I really love these young women- they are great girls! And I love camp. This year, since I have Tristan, I couldn't sleep over. I was a bit sad about that- I hate missing anything! But, I did enjoy getting showers and A\C at night but don't think I got any more sleep then I would have if I slept over. My mom came up a few times to help with Tristan. I put a lot of long hours in and Tristan was a champ putting up with it all (and got lots of attention from the girls.)
It was really neat to see how much the girls have grown and matured in one year. They are all such great ladies and I know the Lord has a lot of good stuff planned for them in this life. I too, got to grow and mature and had to do a few things that were outside of my typical comfort zone.
Some highlights from camp:
(with pictures randomly thrown in. These pictures aren't the best because I"m purposely picking pictures that are kind of vague as to who is in them because I don't know if its OK to post pictures of people with out permission.)
A great FHE with our bishop and a great dinner (taco salad) provided by our Relief Society. We were all stuffed in our cabin for FHE because of a big rain storm that came at the perfect time, but I think the coziness was a good thing.
A truely fabulous value walk. It was great! So spiritual.
Awesome ward shirts that fell apart before our eyes (grrr. cheap iron on transfer paper). Being surprised with some lovely bandannas and ice cream pops by a wonderful sister in our ward.
Some really awesome\spiritual mini-classes. I missed 2 of them though. But I got a narrative of them and they sounded great. The one I did make it to was a really inspired one about focusing on the positives in life.
A great testimony meeting outside. Being read to at ward devotional.
Scripture scavenger hunt and fun bed treats and goodies hidden in\on people's beds.
Pine-wood derby cars and racing
Archery, Swimming, Kayaking (which I could not do.)
Hikes and learning camping skills (certification). I really enjoyed participating in dutch oven cooking- it was so yummy! And I got to make a cupcake in an orange. Cool!
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