Anyway, memorizing the Articles of Faith has been a fun challenge. Phoebe has been working on the first one, which is a funny one for her because she still struggles with fronting. She can say /k/ and /g/ now but it's harder for her to place those sounds in certain words. For example, cat. That is a trickier word than you might think because she used to say "tat," and that's not right because there's a /k/ in there. But where?
Is it tac? Is it cat?
Sometimes she has to say the word multiple times to get it right.
And so it is with the first Article of Faith.
95% of the time, Phoebe will begin, "We believe in dog..."
"God," we'll tell her. "Start at the back and move to the front."
"We believe in dah...in dah...in dog...in dah...in God!"
"Hey! You did it!"
"That was duud, wasn't it?"
"Mmmm...yes. Keep going."
"We believe in dog the Eternal Father..."
Anyway, before we started memorizing the Articles of Faith we were reading the Doctrine and Covenants. Miriam has been following along in German and reading aloud in German when it's her turn. Sometimes she'll attempt a translation into English just to make sure she understands what she's reading. German is strange because I can't say anything in German, and if I listen to it "cold," as it were, I can't understand much (although it sounds like I should be able to understand). But if I'm listening to someone read in German while following along in a translation in English, I can 100% follow along and say, "Yes, this makes sense."
Anyway, Miriam was reading D&C 135:4, which is the section detailing the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith:
Anyway, Miriam was reading D&C 135:4, which is the section detailing the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith:
"...Ich werde unschuldig sterben, und man wird von mir noch sagen: Er wurde kaltblütig ermordet."
She stopped to translate:
"...He was...murdered...in cold blood?"
"Yes," I said.
"Woohoo!" she cheered, and then slapped her hand over her mouth. "I just...I mean...I'm just excited that I understood that right. I'm considerably less excited about the murder part."
*****
Andrew got his COVID and flu vaccines while he was in DC because it's easier to do there than it is here. So he wasn't feeling great yesterday when he came home. And then Phoebe had another awful night (but he heroically got up with her and let me sleep). But we're all a little paranoid about getting sick because she coughed directly into our faces all night last night (and the night before for me as well).
I was coming downstairs to do something this evening (probably whine to Andrew about this conference proposal I was trying to finish—and did!) and caught him over by the keys...which is where we keep the thermometer.
I was coming downstairs to do something this evening (probably whine to Andrew about this conference proposal I was trying to finish—and did!) and caught him over by the keys...which is where we keep the thermometer.
Why do we keep the thermometer by the keys?
Good question.
I...don't know. It's a good, central location. I...honestly don't know. Like, we have a shelf upstairs in the hall closet where we keep all the medicine. And another shelf where we keep first aid supplies like band aids and things. And the thermometer used to be there. But it moved downstairs quite some time ago and now that's just where it goes.
It doesn't make sense. But, anyway...
"Whose temperature are you taking?" I asked.
We're nervous about other kids getting sick, too, though we're hoping this is just a "childhood" thing that grown ups are naturally immune to. Because we enjoy false hope, that's why. But deep down inside we're a little nervous that everyone will get sick with this.
"Yours!" he said, aiming the thermometer at my head.
"I tan do it myself!" I said, mimicking Phoebe's voice and making a wild grab for the thermometer (because that's what she does whenever we suggest taking her temperature).
"97.7," I said.
"Now do me," he said.
"97.8," I said.
"Oh, okay. I had a fever this morning, but I guess that's resolved now. I was just going to check and..."
"Now do me!" Miriam said, holding back her hair to show her forehead.
Here's the thing: my kids really like taking their temperature.
Maybe that's why the thermometer lives by the keys!
When everyone is sick, they will literally line up when it's time to take temperatures. Sometimes they'll randomly go around taking everyone's temperatures. There's always a contest to see who can be the closest to 98.6 without going over. It's a very exciting game. I don't know why.
"Do me!" Miriam said again. "Do me!"
Andrew held the thermometer up to her forehead and clicked the button.
"Wait, wait!" Miriam said in the brief few seconds the thermometer was analyzing the data. "Don't tell me! Let me guess..."
The thermometer let out a sequence of three sad beeps, indicating a fever.
"WHAT?!" she shrieked, then demanded: "TAKE IT AGAIN!"
No beeps this time.
"Huh. Now it says 98.8. Before it said 99.7."
"It lies!"
Anyway, she seems to be fine as of yet. As far as our children goes, she tends to run a bit warmer. How do we know this? She consistently loses the "who can be the closest to 98.6 without going over" game.
*****
We called Rachel. At 11:30 PM. Which is what you do when your adult child has been off learning how to make pupusas at a friend's apartment and they live a few time zones away.
Phoebe woke up while we were talking with her. Andrew went to rescue her and brought her to say hello to Rachel. Phoebe was terribly upset—she was sleepy, she was sick, she was crying and snotty. Her hair was wild. She was...just an absolute mess.
She took one look at herself on the screen and hid her face on Andrew's shoulder.
"Don't you want to say hello to Rachel?" Andrew asked.
She turned around. She looked coyly at the phone.
"I do," she whispered...and then she lunged at the phone and gave it the slobberiest lick, right across Rachel's face. "Hello, Rachel!" she said.
Phoebe...often...tries to lick Rachel when she calls, but I was not expecting that!
When we got to the end of our call we were like, "You hang up!" "No, you hang up!"
And I was like, "No, literally you hang up because I don't want to touch my screen..."
Following Miriam's example (we were using her phone to talk with Rachel last week...and her screen ended up getting licked), I used some hand sanitizer to clean my screen because...eeeeew.
No comments:
Post a Comment