September 12

Colds

     During our trip to Utah, Marlene and the kids had colds and they all seemed to get over them. I, however, ate lots of dairy and milk products during the trip and have started to get a cold. Today has been the worst bit yet. It deepened in my throat when I woke up this morning and I’ve felt a bit under the weather. I didn’t attend church today because of the cold. I have started to heed Marlene’s view that it is not better to attend church when sick because you can make others sick. I have always believed that it was more important that I go, even if others get sick. But that is really a very egocentric view, not thoroughly considering others points of view and needs. Anyway, colds are not fun at all. As I stayed home, I did get to watch Lily because she was still sleeping when Marlene and Oscar left for church. She slept for awhile then woke up and we played or she played on our bed while I rested – half awake and half asleep. I had a grand old time with her. Marlene and Oscar then came home. Lily’s and my morning home together was over.

Remembrance of September 11, 2001
     It is amazing how quickly our lives have gotten back into the same old routines of life and patterns. It has already been four years since the tragic events in New York City and Washington D.C. I was so amazed at how much everyone turned toward religious beliefs to find peace at that time. I felt relieved as the country began to see the importance of trusting our Supreme Creator. I hope that we don’t as a nation lose completely the understanding that our strength gets increased and multiplied as we put our trust in the Lord. He is by our side waiting for us to ask for help, in our prayers and in our lives. As I have been starting the Book of Mormon and reading through the 2nd Book of Nephi and Jacob (Chapter 5 in particular), I am once again reminded of the importance that we trust in God and continue to do the work that he needs us to do. Even if it is hard and we do have challenges in our lives, we need to place that trust in him. As I have read through these chapters, I have read many times that “The Lord has his hand stretched out still” and that he “extends his arm out to us.” Leading to my next topic, I think that this day of remembrance has been shadowed by the horrible natural disaster in the south.

Hurricane Katrina
     A few thoughts about the Hurricane in the south that I would like to mention are that I really feel more strongly about the need to “be prepared” for a natural disaster or unexpected emergency in our lives. We have had several emergency preparedness drills in our ward and with the Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina I feel more need to be prepared. Fortunately so does Marlene so making sure that we have 72 hours kits ready so that we’ll be prepared is high on our priority list.

I don’t know what we would do if we were in the similar situation as many of those displaced by the effects of the hurricane. We pray for them each day and contribute through the church to help them.

Failure to Thrive

Now the last topic—Marlene and I have been talking about Lily today and are feeling very concerned with her weight gain and don’t know exactly what to do. She has been diagnosed with “Failure to Thrive.” This happened a few months ago but then she seemed to start growing again and didn’t seem to be quite the problem that we thought. She even felt like she was growing. Well we went in for a weight check recently and she has only gained about half a pound. We are going to try and take her in for “same day sick appointment” with her pediatrician tomorrow. Maybe seek some counsel from SACHS Norton in San Bernardino where I work as a student therapist. Also we can call Spencer and see what he thinks.

This condition basically means that the child or baby isn’t growing as expected by the growth charts—but by rapid decline from steady growth or non-growth at all. We are pretty concerned about her. We’ll keep this posted about what goes on with her.

Happy Note
     To end this blog on a happy note, Oscar and Lily play so well together. They have so much fun. They play with each other’s toys and for the most part share “fairly well.” Oscar likes to take Lily’s toy and trade it for another – since she really doesn’t put up a fuss he has gotten away with it for awhile now. But she is starting to notice and so are we. We are trying to teach him how to ask Lily for her toy and see if she wants the new toy. It is probably a mute point to try and teach him with her age only being 8 months. We’ll keep going forward to teach them what they need to know. Oscar is getting to be so cute. He is repeats what we say in books now. He has so much of them memorized. He emphasizes the last word of each page that you read or song that you sing and for the first time tonight, our family prayer. He said quite a few words. We are really proud of him. He is growing up so quickly.

Oscar on the Potty
     Oscar is learning to go pee and poop on his little Baby Borne Toddler Potty. He absolutely loves it. He is always grabbing our hands and telling us, “I need to go potty” or “I need to go pee-pee” or just removing his pull up diaper and pants and running around nakend. He loves the freedom and fortunately he hasn’t pooped off the potty yet. He has on the potty several times and we give him licorice or a gummy bear to reward him for or.

Well it is late and I need to rest so that my cold will go away. We are working out tomorrow morning too. Awesome.I get to lose some of the weight from vacation in Utah. We ate so well. Mom thanks.

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