Eating, Video Games and Dancing

What do those three have in common? As some of you know...

Eating... Tyler doesn't like to try new foods... and even has a hard time eating the foods that he likes.

Video Games... Tyler also loves Mario Kart Double Dash on the Gamecube which he refers to as "Daddy's Game". He doesn't play (yet), but he likes to watch others play the game.

Dancing... Tyler also likes to dance, especially to the music that plays between the races.

So in our seemingly never ending quest to get Tyler to eat, I've now tried a new method that combines these three things. I don't know if this is good parenting or not, but it has worked the past few nights so that he has eaten his dinner.

Tyler gets to watch a race, do a little dance and then in order for the next race to start, Tyler needs to eat a bite of his dinner. If he resists eating (usually saying that he wants to dance), I threaten to turn off the game. So far I haven't had to turn off the TV but so far I've only fed him food he likes (corn and rice). He then chews as the next race is played and then the cycle begins again.

Altogether it means that Tyler gets to watch "Daddy's Game", Tyler eats, Daddy gets to play Gamecube in the name of "good parenting" and Tyler gets a little exercise by dancing. Win, win, win, win :)

Fireworks Photos

So I decided to try to take photos of the fireworks last night after reading this post on the Digital Photography School blog. I have posted the four "best" photos that I took. Considering the fact that I'm using a point and shoot without a tripod, I think they turned out pretty good.

Richard Bushman on Mormonism and Politics

I recently stumbled upon this transcript Mormonism and Democratic Politics: Are They Compatible? through Meridian Magazine. I thought it was pretty interesting so I thought I'd share it.

The introduction to the transcript states:

Richard Bushman, an emeritus professor at Columbia University and author of several books about Mormon history, discussed the relationship between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and American politics over the past two centuries. He addressed Mormonism's shift from 19th-century radicalism to 20th-century conservatism and the significance of this religious heritage for presidential candidate Mitt Romney. A lively question-and-answer session with journalists followed his presentation.

Lively is a good description. Richard Bushman wrote the biography of Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling, has academic credentials and is a member of the LDS Church.

Here are some excerpts:

I, for one, will be listening for how Romney calls Americans to their higher destiny. I think Americans yearn for that call, especially now after all the scandals of the last few years and the defamation of our character around the world. But the question is, Can Romney find words that will sound American rather than Mormon?

...

How does all of this bear on Romney? I think the obvious question is, How far will he trust government when his Mormon heritage teaches him to be distrustful of government? His instincts will be skeptical. Joining that problem to the problem of finding a language of idealism raises the question, Will he find a way to use the government for any kind of idealistic purposes, or will he remain suspicious through to the end?

...

It's [polygamy] also perplexing because Joseph Smith himself gave so few rationales for it. The best rationale is one revelation written down in 1843. That is virtually all he said on the subject, and plural marriages are depicted simply as part of the restoration of the ancient order of things. Smith brings priesthood out of the Bible. He brings temples out of the Bible. He brings the temple rituals out of the rituals for sanctifying priests in the book of Exodus, and he brings polygamy out of the Bible. That is all he said, that the injunction for polygamy is to go and do the works of Abraham. Beyond that, it's hard to understand.

...

The way the story is told now, and I think there is some pretty good evidence of this, is that though the announcement ending polygamy sounded like a policy switch – "We are no longer going to perform plural marriages" – it really was based on a revelation. I would be almost positive, just because of the parameters of Mormonism, that the president of the church would not do anything so drastic unless he felt like he had the backing of God, whether it was an angel appearing to him or just a very powerful feeling, like Spencer Kimball had when the blacks' situation was changed. I think Mormons just say to themselves, he must have had a revelation, and there is some evidence that he did.

Mormonism and Democratic Politics: Are They Compatible?

Photos, including the 4th of July!

Hope you had a great Independence Day! I finished up the June Album and started the July Album (links below) including several from the 4th.

June 2007	July 2007

Highlights include:

A very cute Alex


Tyler on the carousel at Strawberry Days
'

Alex's first haircut


Daddy with the boys

Parenting Blogs

I recently started reading two parenting blogs that I wanted to mention. One is Parent Hacks which highlights clever ideas on little "hacks" that can help making parenting a little easier. One recent post was about toothbrushing with toddlers which we haven't tried, but sounds interesting in light of Tyler's continued independent streak and resistance to me brushing his teeth. It usually devolves into me holding him, him screaming and at least some of his teeth getting clean.

While Parent Hacks is practical, the other is much "cooler". The Geekdad Blog (one of Wired Magazine's blogs) is mostly about making sure your "geeklets" (their term, not mine) get a proper dosing of geekiness. This includes Alka Seltzer tag, a Hobbit Hole Playhouse, Science Birthday Parties and many more that I can't all mention here.