“Let’s go to the IPOD!” We don’t go out to restaurants often having four kids, but yesterday we did celebrating J11ds birthday. Everyone started suggesting various restaurants when J7ds shouted out with a straight face “Let’s go to the IPOD!” Of course, he meant IHOP, the International House of Pancakes. Uncontrollable laughter broke out. “Shattered Window”, a lesson learned J11ds, J7ds and neighborhood kids were playing a “wallball” nearby a glass door of an apartment building yesterday and a ball thrown by a neighborhood boy hit an upper panel glass and shattered it. Apparently, this boy told J11ds and J7ds not to tell anybody and they all scattered to their homes. J7ds told his mom but not J11ds due to either misplaced loyalty to his friend or a fear of reprisal. This incident gave us an opportunity to talk about truth telling, responsibility for one’s actions and open communication among ourselves. It also gave us an occasion to reassure and emphasize our love for them no matter how “bad” or “serious” future incidents may be. We got in touch with neighborhood boy’s mom and all matters were quickly resolved. I hope that this lesson will stick with them for a while. “Spin and Puke” I have an airsickness problem with bouncy flights. Since the U.S. Navy’s Self Paced Airsickness Desensitization Program (SPAD) program is located here in Pensacola, FL, I stopped by at the center yesterday. In the middle of a small room, there was a spinning chair with switches to control spin rates. A person would sit on it and spin at a set revolutions-per-minute for an hour at a time, while he deliberately moves his head every 10 seconds. Motion sickness desensitization occurs as he tolerates faster spin with head movements without getting sick, which usually takes up to 6-8 weeks. In general, some ways to limit motion sickness are as follow: - Try not to move your head too quickly (keep the head straight)
- Avoid staring inside of car or airplane. Stare something outside of the vehicle
- Concentrate on slow, relaxing breathing (maybe like “Lamaze”)
- Cold air
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