Tuesday, December 06, 2005

A Lesson On The Circulatory System

While playing in the basement this morning, I came across Ian's old doctor kit toy, and got it out for Emma and Zoe to play with. Emma was absolutely delighted with the discovery and immediately morphed into a doctor with pink Barbie examination gloves and a penchant for giving shots in interesting places. I immediately was her patient, first a baby, then a kitty. She looked at my eyes and ears and took my temperature. She made me take good tasting "juice medicine" and listened to my heart with the stethoscope. Her favorite tool quickly became the blood pressure cuff. She pumped it relentlessly after attaching it to my wrist, checking occasionally to see what number appeared in the display. It was touch and go for a while, anytime the cuff said "64", my hand blew up. After about three explosions, she gave up on the cuff and went back to the stethoscope. She dutifully moved it around on my chest the way her pediatrician has done to her so many times.

Unfortunately, our medical set is not like the old Fisher Price doctor kit that had a working stethoscope. I used that stethoscope often when I was a kid. It was so cool to hear your own heart thumping and beating in your ears. Remembering that excitement, I asked Emma if she would really like to hear my heartbeat. Getting quiet, she put her ear on my chest and listened intently. Suddenly she pulled her head back and had a huge smile on her face. "I heard your heart!" she exclaimed. I asked her what it sounded like. She again put her head on my chest and listened. Again she pulled her head off of me and described a ka-chunk sound. The best part came next. Emma decided that it sounded like there were people inside my heart building my heart. She didn't think the heart could build itself, so there must be people inside building it.

Three year olds have a great view on life!

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