Pheromone Hypothesis

As I was laying in bed the other night, I was hit with an epiphany. I've wondered, ever since Million came home from Ethiopia why God blessed me with the most adorable boy for a nephew on the face of the earth. Then Shirley came along and I thought, "Wow! The two most adorable children on the face of the earth are related to me!" Then Creedence joined the family, and after meeting him this weekend, I decided it had to be more than mere coincidence that the three most adorable children in the world are my niece and nephews.

Cue the epiphany. 

As I was laying in bed, I began thinking about pheromones. I decided that children must secrete specialized pheromones. I looked up the definition of pheromone the next morning just to make sure I had it right: "A pheromone is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species."

I'm pretty sure children secrete love-me pheromones. These love-me pheromones trigger a love and loyalty response in nearby adults. The pheromones act most powerfully on the parents of that child, a little less powerfully on grandparents and aunts and uncles and less powerfully on friends of the parents, and so forth. According to my observations, blood relation plays no part in the effectiveness of these pheromones. Neither my niece nor my nephews have any blood relation to me. 

So, the more closely we as adults are related to a child, the more powerfully their pheromones act on us. We love them more and are more loyal to them because of these pheromones.

You can take the quiz below to see if my pheromone hypothesis is correct.

Pheromone Hypothesis Test

1. In the picture below, you would describe the little boy as:

   a. Kind of cute.

   b. Really cute.

   c. So adorable that you would give your left arm to spend an afternoon with him.

2. In the picture below, you would describe the little girl pictured as:

   a. A little peanut.

   b. An adorable little peanut.

   c. Such an adorable peanut that peanuts are now your favorite food.

 

3. In the picture below, the infant pictured is:

   a. Your typical one-month-old.

   b. Your typical one-month-old but a little sweeter than average.

   c. Such a delightfully sweet one-month-old that you want to adopt eight one-month-olds in the next week.

To score your pheromone hypothesis quiz:
Give yourself one point for every letter (a) you circled.
Give yourself two points for every letter (b) you circled.
Give yourself three points for every letter (c) you circled.

If your score was:
7-9 - You are probably a close relation of the three children pictured.
5-6 - You probably have some connection to the children pictured but not a close connection.
3-4 - You are probably not related to the children pictured even though you do think they're pretty cute.


And here are just a few more pictures of these three little sweethearts. You'll have to forgive the overload of pictures. It's the pheromones at work:

Belated Christmas Celebration

Mark and I had a wonderful Christmas celebration with family this past week. God has been so good to us in allowing us to take enough time off to spend considerable time with both of our families in one weekend. And both families were extremely supportive of our strange no-sugar, no-fruit diet. Don't worry-- another post will be coming soon to update on this dietary adventure.

Here are just a couple of pictures from the week, minus niece and nephews for the most part... more pictures coming soon!

I love Shirley's halo.

We can finally show pictures of the snowflake ornaments
Mark and I made for family this year for Christmas!

Helen and our soon-to-be brother-in-law, Robert.

Dad with baby Creedence.

Mom with baby Creedence.

Enjoying some latte foam (not whipped cream).

Breakfast at The Good Earth, one of the few restaurants
where we felt we might be able to eat a no-sugar breakfast.

Abby and Zack at my parents' house.

Immersion blender!!

Mark's dad fixed up Mark's hammered dulcimer. Yay!

Heather and Michael with more snowflakes.

Mark, looking studly with his new sweater.

Starting a new tradition-- family picture in front of my parents' Christmas tree.
 Maybe in a year or two the picture will change??

Putting me in the Christmas Mood

This afternoon I was leaving Walmart with [what I hope will be] the last of my Christmas shopping. Being the good environmentally conscious person that I am, I had brought with me a few reusable shopping bags. I only ended up needing one for my purchases, and the other three were left to lay empty on a stack of boxes in my cart.

Our Walmart faces east, which means there is a south-north corridor for cars to drive on in front of the store. Today, it being Iowa after all, there was a stiff wind coming from the south, heading north.

As I stepped through the second set of automatic doors, that stiff wind caught my three empty shopping bags like kites and carried them out of my cart and away from me-- north.

If I had had time to think, my thoughts would have been something like this: "Ahh! Gahh! Do I stay with the cart? Or do I run after my bags? What if a car comes?"

But I didn't have time to think, so this is what I did: I let go of my cart for briefly and lunged at the closest bag. A lady who followed me out of Walmart grabbed the second bag, a little farther away than the first. I thanked her quickly and turned to look for the third bag, an orange one.

It was on a mission, with a motto that said something like, "The Arctic, or bust." I considered the quickly shrinking orange tumbleweed for a moment and decided it was worth the bruising of my pride to go after it. It was my only orange reusable shopping bag, after all.

I twisted my cart to face north and started lumbering as quickly as I could up the asphalt corridor. I noticed almost immediately that someone was running next to me. Glancing to the left, I saw, with bell in hand, the Salvation Army bell ringer, jogging like he was on a mission too. A grin creased well-worn laughter wrinkles on his face, as he turned to glance at me, and he sped up.

"I'm gaining on it!" he shouted to me over his shoulder.

And he was. Before long he caught it. By then I was no longer embarrassed but was laughing. He returned my bag to me victoriously and then headed back to his bell ringing post, ting-a-linging boisterously.

If there was ever something to put me into the Christmas mood, it was seeing that bell ringer laugh as he chased down my shopping bag.