Son: You know when you make a swan with your hand? [Bends his wrist and elbow to make the shape of a swan’s head and neck.]
Mum: Yes.
Son: Well when you do it with both hands and then put them together it makes a heart
Mum: It does, doesn’t it?
Son: Yeah – I did that to Lucy today.
Mum: Ah! What did Lucy say?
Son: She said “Oh, that’s really nice!” Me and Lucy are sort of friends, but not boyfriend and girlfriend.
Mum: Just good friends?
Son: Yeah, good friends.
Mum: What’s this in your book bag?
Son: Oh that’s from Lucy from her holiday. It’s a heart and she writed my name on it. Leo and Jaimie got badges but she only had two badges so she gave the rest of us boys hearts.
Jaimie said he was going to ask his mum if they could go to a shop and buy some more badges so I could have one.
D: Can I have some salt on this?
Me: There’s already some on it.
D: I can’t taste it. Can I have some more on?
Me: A tiny bit. Too much salt is bad for your heart.
D: I know!… Mum?
Me: Yes?
D: What happens to your heart if you have too much salt?
Me: Weeeell… Salt dries things up. You know when you eat salty food it makes you thirsty?
D: Yes.
Me: Well, if you eat lots of salt, then your body thinks it’s trying to dry up your insides and so it holds on to lots of water and keeps it in your body, so there’s less space for everything to move around. Your blood can’t travel around in the tubes so well, because the walls of the tubes get thicker to cope with all the salt, so the space in the tubes gets smaller. Your blood pressure goes up and your heart and kidneys have to work really, really hard and might not be able to work properly.
D: I know about when kidneys don’t work properly – Cooper, the dog, had a problem with his kidney and he wee’d all over the floor, but it wasn’t his fault – it was his kidney not working properly.
Me: Oh yes, his insides didn’t work very well did they? I don’t think that was too much salt though – I think it was just old age.
Sometimes, too much salt can affect your brain too – high blood pressure and thin tubes sometimes means that blood can’t travel up to your brain so well.
D: So your brain doesn’t work properly?
Me: That could be – yes. If your brain doesn’t get as much oxygen as it needs, because not enough blood is getting there with the oxygen in, then your brain won’t work properly.
D: Oh! I hope my brain won’t break because I had too much salt!
Me: You’ll be fine. But you shouldn’t eat too much salt on things – just a teeny tiny pinch will do.
D: Mum. Did you know – you can’t be a fairy.
Me: Why can’t I?
D: Because you’re too big – you have to be smaller than me to be a fairy.
Me: Oh – that’s a shame. I wanted to be a fairy.
D: Well, you might be able to be one – you need to talk to Auntie Vicky. She knows them. She told me the stories from when she was a little kid:
One day, Auntie Vicky didn’t know where the gravestone was – with her friend – every single day, so she wrote a letter to the fairies and the dog took the letter to the fairies and the fairies got the lawn mower out and mowed the grass and so Auntie Vicky and her friend followed the path and went straight to the grave – it was a really small grave. And you know how grass takes an extraORDINARILY long time to grow?
Me: Yes.
D: Well, the next day, it had all grown back – straight away!
Also, when she was little, she really wanted her toys to come to life, so she drawed hearts, coloured them in, and cut them out and put them in her toys. And in the middle of the night, when she was still a kid, she woke up, creeped down the stairs without her mother noticing, and all the toys had come to life, they could speak, they could move about – and she realized, it must have been the fairies that did this!
So, that’s why you have to ask Auntie Vicky about being a fairy.
So mum, one day, can I put paper hearts in all my toys?
Valentine card – 14 Feb 2013
D: Guess what? If you’re upside-down for too long blood comes out of your mouth.
Me: That’s not true – who told you that?
D: Misha told me it. So is he telling me lies?
Me: Well, he’s probably just mistaken. If you’re upside-down for a long time, blood will go to your head and your head will feel heavy. Then you’ll feel a bit dizzy when you’re the right way round again, but blood won’t come out of your mouth.
D: And then when you stand the right way round again, the blood will go back down to your feet?
Me: Yes, and you heart will help to keep it pumping around your body.
D: Oh yes – your heart has two halves and one half pumps the blood out through a tube.
Me: Did you remember that from your Human Body book?
D: No, I just knew it.
iwantmarbles 