A Bump To the Head and Snow
Greetings to all.
Yesterday, I got a call from the school nurse. No, Xavier did not develop covid symptoms. Instead, he tripped in the classroom and smacked his head against a desk leg. The welt on his forehead was larger than my thumb.
Apart from the thumb-sized lump (or bump as Xavier calls it) on his forehead, Xavier appeared fine. The nurse complimented how much of a trooper he had been, only crying a little with so nasty a fall.
I took Xavier from school and we visited a nearby urgent care center. The doctor on duty looked him over, gave him a cold pack and sent us home. The doctor found no evidence of damage beyond the "bump" on his head, though he did warn that as the bruising cleared up, Xavier may gain a black eye.
Xavier asked for McDonald's for lunch as I picked him up just prior to his lunch hour. So, we had McDonald's for lunch.
As it had snowed about ten inches and most of the snow still covered the ground, Xavier and I built snow forts (OK, snow walls really) and had a snowball fight. The sun was out and the temperature near fifty. Xavier showed no problems playing in the snow, unless a snowball hit his bump.
One of the snow walls listed a bit. I told Xavier, "Throw yourself against the wall and knock it over."
He tried several times, but was a little too timid to commit his thirty-eight pounds against the wall. "Your turn, Dad," he said.
Though not timid to commit my two hundred some pounds against the wall, I was more concerned with getting up after. Still, the wall crashed to the ground and I followed after it.
With only his snow wall standing, we named Xavier the winner of the snowball fight.
Xavier the Engineer
Greetings and Happy New Year to all.
One of the things Xavier got for Christmas was a small Sterling engine powered by a small alcohol lamp.
We finally got around to unpacking the device from its box last night and tried to get it working. After all, how hard could it be? Just put the lamp under the glass bulb, wait twenty seconds, then spin the flywheel to start the engine.
No, not that easy. Rebecca tried several things. I tried several more. We adjusted the engine's components here and there. Nothing worked.
With disappointment, we emailed the manufacturer and called it a night.
This morning, Xavier wanted to try it again. We put the lamp under the bulb, waited twenty seconds, then turned the flywheel.
The engine started spinning.
"What happened?" we asked.
"I fixed it," Xavier told us.
After that, we asked him to explain how. He said he tightened a connection on the bottom of the engine. We asked him how he knew to do that (after all, two parents didn't think to do it).
He explained that he thought about it over night and this morning noticed the connection was loose. He tightened it and it worked.
We build the fan unit for the engine to turn and got that working. However, Xavier's "thinking about it," having enough understanding to identify the problem and to fix it was more impressive than the engine itself.
Merry Christmas 2020, Day 3
Merry Christmas to all once again.
It's nice that Christmas is a season, not a day.
Of course, we had our gift exchange on Christmas Day. We thought everything had arrived by the 25th. We were pleasantly mistaken.
A day later, the Santa UPS sleigh deposited a large box on our doorstep. It was sent by Grandpa Danny.
The package arrived late on the 26th. After breakfast on the 27th, the three of us gathered around the other end of the dinner table to see what wonders G'pa Danny had sent. His gifts are always thoughtful and fun.
Xavier, being Danny's only grandchild, was highly favored.
Xavier had a "stocking in a bag" and two wrapped packages. He opened his stocking first. In keeping with a Braaten tradition, there was a clementine to eat.
Xavier and I built the Lego light-up car later in the evening, turned out the lights in the house and played with it nearly :30 minutes.
Xavier got a new pair of binoculars, something he has needed as his last pair have seen better days.
The second package contained a remote-controlled car, one promising the ability to scale walls. Xavier squealed with excitement.
Although the wall-climbing feature did not work well on our orange peel texture, the car did well on the floor. We broke out two other RC cars and raced them quite a while.