Christmas Present is Here Today, Bringing Joy that Will Last.
I can not believe how quickly this year has gone by. In just a few short weeks Aiden will be two years old and a few weeks after that we welcome the second addition to our family. Kids really grow far too quickly for my liking. Our week wasn’t incredibly eventful. Brandon substitute taught and we waited to hear from a lady about a town home in Farmington. She called us Tuesday evening as we were watching G-Force and said that because Brandon was only making $72.00 a day they didn’t think that we could afford the town home and when he asked if we could contest that she told him that they had already given it to someone else. THANKS A LOT FOR WARNING US (or even giving us a chance to explain the situation). Psh. As a result I called my friend in Sandy who had a basement apartment that they have been trying to rent for a few months now and thankfully it is still available. We have put down a deposit on it and will be moving January 9th. It will be nice to be close to places like Wal-mart, the library, various parks, various grocery stores, and etc. again. Brandon will also be working about 5 mins. away from there in mid January to beginning February. We have begun the preparations to pack and I have even packed a couple of boxes but the major moving is going to wait until we are back from our trip to visit Brandon’s family.
Thursday was my 24 week appointment with the obgyn. It went well my blood pressure was good, the babies heartbeat was good, and my sugar levels were normal. I am now measuring 26 weeks when I ought to be measuring 24.5. This is not due to weight gain because I have only gained 7 pounds thus far. We will see how things go but in order to avoid a c-section I may end up inducing a week or so early like I did with Aiden. This is unfortunate because I was going to wait a little bit longer before asking for a mercy induction to see if Lucas would come on his own.
Last night was my friend Christmas party like I mentioned before. It was fun the food was delicious and the decorations were nice. Thank you to my friends for the generous and tasty gifts.
Yesterday Aiden also got into the bathroom when we got home from running an errand and after flushing the toilet walked around in the bath tub while wearing his wet and dirty shoes. The result of this mischieviousness can be viewed below.
Today we had a scare when we got home from church. As you know we have diligently kept Aiden away from any and all nut products. This is because he has a 50% chance of being allergic himself thanks to my allergies to them. Our plan was to take him to an allergist again between ages 2 & 3 to be re-tested and then to wait to feed him peanut butter/peanuts until he is 4. Anyway today when we got home Aiden got into my dad’s room while Brandon and I were getting lunch ready, shut the door behind himself, found my dad’s big bag of peanut M & M’s and started picking up handfuls and shoving them into his mouth like a squirrel gathers nuts for winter. Brandon was the one who found him when I mentioned that it was far too quiet and that Aiden must be up to something. Anyway, Brandon made Aiden spit out as much as he could coax him too but Aiden immediately swallowed when Brandon said to spit (the stinker). Then Brandon brought him down to me and I started to panic and washed around Aiden’s mouth. I also gave him some water to drink to further wash things out. I had Brandon grab the epi-pen and then we watched Aiden. I knew that if he was going to show symptoms of a reaction that it would happen fairly quickly. So we both watched Aiden for trouble breathing, swollen lips, a rash, dialated eyes, or just him acting out of the ordinary. Thankfully none of that happened and he is now napping in his room. I am of course a worry wart so I am still a little worried about him and won’t be fully reassured until he awakens healthy and happy from his nap but there were no symptoms of being allergic so I need to just calm down. Anyway, the other thing is that I was told that allergic reactions don’t always show up when a person is first exposed to a new allergen. This means that now he has been exposed to it it will be the next event of exposure that will tell all. I plan to have Aiden re-tested for allergies in February or March for a more accurate test.
When I was putting Aiden down for nap and rocking him he was drinking from his sippy and he said, “That my water, put in mouth.” and then he said, “Put it in the mouth.” He understanding of language and the world around him astounds me.
Lastly, is a controversial topic to many people and I will do my best to be respectful and unnoffensive. I have struggled with whether or not those who are in the gay and lesbian community have come to same gender attraction due to nature or nurture. This has plagued me for years as I knew on the one hand that spirit children of Heavenly Father are not attracted to the same gender and that “Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.” I also know that, “God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.” God’s children in the world before this life do not have to contend with the natural man and the desires of the flesh. Thus I can feel confident in saying and knowing that they were not and are not attracted to spirits of the same gender.
This only today occurred to me as they read the line, “Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny” from, “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” at church. I hope that I am accurately portraying my feelings. What I know is that these bodies of ours are imperfect, they are full of desire and the natural man and could be attracted to anyone, male or female. As a result our spirits are subject to the desires of our bodies and the power that we give to our bodies can overpower our spiritual nature. God’s plan is for men and women to come together and to procreate. That is how it is and how it has been for generations past. I know that is how it is in Heaven without our bodies, desires, and the world to confuse us. So the answer to my question of nature vs. nurture is that it is not the nature of our spirits, but the nature of our bodies that causes some men or women to be attracted to those of the same gender. We are all God’s children, we all deserve basic rights, we should stop bringing each other down and making judgments. We should be praying about and serving each other. Everything else will be worked out in Heaven.