15 Months

My little boy eating at his first Japanese restaurant for Grandpa's birthday. His favorite food was the tempura dipping sauce which he wanted to eat like a soup.

Fun at the local library: 

Fun at the doctor's office (before he realizes he has to see the doctor):

P1 did not have fun at his 15 month check-up. He cried whenever the nurse or doctor were in the room. But as long as they were gone, he enjoyed playing on the little chairs. P1 is 31.5 inches long (61st percentile) and weighs 23 lbs 3 oz (29th percentile).

Words of a Prophet

I came across these words from President Spencer W. Kimball today. These words were spoken by a Prophet of God 36 years ago, and I believe they apply today more than ever.

“The growing permissiveness in modern society gravely concerns us. Certainly our Heavenly Father is distressed with the increasing inroads among his children of such insidious sins as adultery and fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, abortions, pornography, population control, alcoholism, cruelty expressed in wife-beating and child-abuse, dishonesty, vandalism, violence, and crime generally, including the sin of living together without marriage. 

“We call upon our Church members everywhere to renew their efforts to strengthen the home and to honor their parents, and to build better communications between parent and child. 

“Important as it is, building stronger homes is not enough in the fight against rising permissiveness. We therefore urge Church members as citizens to lift their voices, to join others in unceasingly combating, in their communities and beyond, the inroads of pornography and the general flaunting of permissiveness. Let us vigorously oppose the shocking developments which encourage the old sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, and which defile the human body as the temple of God. 

To our beloved brethren and sisters everywhere, as well as to all peoples of the world who love the Lord and desire to live in harmony with the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we say no people can remain strong and happy who condone these loose standards of morality. 

While we cannot tolerate sin and we exercise Church discipline against those who do sin, we must help the transgressor, with love and understanding, to work his or her way back to full fellowship in the Church. Let us help each toward the blessing of a lasting repentance, a resolute turning away from error... 

“God will not be mocked. His laws are immutable. True repentance is rewarded by forgiveness, but sin brings the sting of death. … 

“As we think back upon the experiences of Nineveh, Babylon, Sodom and Gomorrah, we wonder—will history repeat itself? What of our world today? Are we forgetting in our great nations the high and lofty principles which can preserve the nations? … 

“… There are among us those same vices which we have seen wreck empires, and we see them becoming flagrant in all nations. Shall we, like Belshazzar, sow the wind and reap the whirlwind? Shall we permit the home to deteriorate and marriage to become a mockery? Shall we continue to curse God, hate our enemies, and defile our bodies in adulterous and sensuous practices? And when the patience of the Lord with us is exhausted, shall we stand trembling while destruction comes upon us? Or shall we wisely see the handwriting on the wall and profit by the sad experience of the past and return unto the Lord and serve him?”  

President Spencer W. Kimball, Oct. 1977 General Conference

What really hit me, is that it is not enough for us to teach our children what is right and wrong. We have to raise our voice as citizens to combat the rising permissiveness in the world. The scriptures are full of accounts of nations that have fallen because they forgot God and walked after their own ways. Even Jerusalem, that housed the temple of God, fell to the Babylonians because they had turned away from God. If we truly love our neighbors, communities, and country, then I believe we have to raise our voice in warning.

Future Chef

P1 is going to be a chef one day. He loves to pretend cook. He makes soup all day long, and loves to let you try it! Yesterday, he kept disappearing in my bedroom with his duplos. Turns out he was making Lego soup in our laundry hamper. I guess it works as a giant stockpot.

Here, try some, it's delicious!

I want to get him one of these toy kitchens from IKEA. Because P1 loves cooking, he is always underfoot when I try to cook in the kitchen. And while it is cute that he wants to help, sometimes it is a bit too much. Especially when he keeps whining because he wants you to hold him up while you cook. So maybe it would help if he had his own place to cook.

Affordable Care Act

Dear Affordable Care Act,

Thank you for making healthcare unaffordable. It is a Saturday, and I believe that my husband and I have strep throat. Because it is a weekend, we would have to go to an Urgent Care facility to see a doctor and get medicine. If it was still 2013, we would do that. But it is 2014, and we no longer have the same health plan because it no longer exists. It used to cost us only a small copay to go to urgent care, and a small copay for prescriptions. Now we have to pay for everything until we hit our deductible. Our new deductible is 5.6 times greater than our previous deductible. And after we hit our deductible, we still have to pay 20%. Even for prescriptions, we have to pay the full cost until we hit our deductible. And our new, unimproved, healthcare plan is 22% more expensive to pay for than our previous plan. We are with the same employer, the only thing that changed was you. You happened, and suddenly our previous healthcare plan was no longer an option.

Once again, thank you for making healthcare unaffordable for those who pay for a healthcare plan and are in need of medical attention.

Sincerely,
A Concerned, Contagious Citizen

Adorableness

P1 was simply adorable yesterday. I wish I had pictures, but alas, words must suffice.

We had a play date at our house with a little girl who is 1 month younger than P1. This is the 3rd time we've gotten together, and it's fun to see them get along better. Today, P1 decided he needed some cheerios, so I put some out on a chair so that they could both get to them. They crowded around the chair and grabbed the cheerios in their little hands. Then, P1 started feeding them one by one to his friend. He would hold it out to her, she would open her mouth, and he would put it in! It really was super sweet to watch, and pretty hilarious. When they would run out of cheerios, P1 would grab me and point to the box until I got them some more. And it was always so he could get more to feed to his friend. They also loved trying to share each other's sippy cups.

Then around 5 pm (and at this point it is getting dark outside and it is snowing), P1 brings me one of his shoes and keeps tapping me with it. I take this as a hint that he wants me to put his shoe on, so I sit him on my lap and put the one shoe on and set him back down. Seconds later, he brings me the other shoe and taps me with it. I put it on his other foot. Then he brings me one of my shoes and taps me with it, so I put it on. And then he brought me my other shoe and tapped me with it. As soon as I had both shoes on, he proceeded to head to the door. I didn't want to take him out in the dark and cold, but it was just so cute, so I pulled out our coats and we played in the snow for a little bit.

Later on, we were in P1's bedroom which is also where we keep our plants (it's the best place for them to get sunlight). P1 is usually pretty good about not going near the plants, but today his friend had been playing back there, so he didn't have his normal hesitations about it. As P1 reached his hand out to pull on one of the plants, I reached out to stop him and tell him not to pull the plants. But then I realized he had been going for a dead leaf on the plant, so I let him get it. He proceeded to pull off the dead leaf, and throw it in the garbage can. Then he pulled off another dead leaf, and put it in the trash. I didn't see anymore dead leaves, so when he reach for the plant again, I went to stop him, but then I realized he had found another dead leaf. After pulling off all the dead leaves he could find, he stopped, looked at the plant, and then left it alone. Periodically, I will go through the plants and pull off any dying leaves and throw them in the garbage can, and I guess a certain little somebody has been paying attention. It really is amazing how much they pick up by watching us.