Boys and their toys!

Colin started a Robot Creations class at the library last Thursday. He had so much fun that Randy wanted to play too. Of course the Lego Mindstorms kit they bought last year didn't quite have all the features of the new version so it was listed on ebay and Lego Mindstorms NXT was purchased. They played Lego Mindstorms all weekend and Colin has had it on the brain all week. Randy has been too busy with work, his class, scouts, taxes........ to be too preoccupied with the robot but tomorrow is Saturday again. Happily for the budget, the old version just sold on ebay for almost as much as it was originally purchased for.

More Happy Day news!

Today is a very happy day. Robyn just read 41 pages of Are You my Mother? without needing very much help and no freaking out! Wahoo! Grace has been wearing big girl underwear all day - the same clean pair! Double Wahoo!!!
The best news is that my midwife just called and I don't have to go to the specialist just yet! My titer numbers went down to normal - no problems! Triple Wahoo!!!

She called me last Friday to say she was referring me to a Perinatologist or some such thing - a specialist in Maternal - Fetal health because my blood work from five weeks ago showed antibodies to Rh+ blood cells. She sent the records over, but the ladies at Maternal Fetal health did not get it reviewed in time for me to get any information before they all went home for the weekend. Needless to say, I spent last weekend trying not to freak out as I studied all I could about Rh disease and all the horrible things is can do to your baby. On Monday the ladies from the office called me to set up an appointment for an ultrasound and a consult. I do not like ultrasound because the studies have not been done to see the ultimate effect on the fetus. I did not get any ultrasound with Grace - no fetal imagining, no doppler (we used a fetoscope to hear the heartbeat), and no external fetal monitoring device. I just barely read an interesting article called "Questions about Prenatal Ultrasound and the Alarming Increase in Autism" by Caroline Rodgers in Midwifery Today Winter 2006 issue. Then I spent the weekend reading that the doctor was going to do up to 17 ultrasounds to monitor the blood flow through my babies brain starting around week 20. I asked the ladies what the ultrasound was for because you cannot monitor Rh disease by ultrasound until at least 18 weeks and I am only 16 weeks along. They told me they like to just check everything, not just what was referred to them. That is fine and all for the rest of the world but not me and my baby. I still have a 50% chance that this baby is Rh- and will not be bothered at all by my antibodies and here they wanted to start off cooking his brain! I went ahead and made the appointment like a good patient. Then I freaked out. I immediately called my current midwife with the information I had gathered and we decided to do another titer before the appointment to see what was going on with the blood. I would have been perfectly happy to go straight to the specialist if they had made the appointment for a blood titer (which would be useful to monitor the condition at hand) and a consult. Then I emailed the midwife I had with Grace and she went above and beyond the call of duty to get me nutritional information and what has worked for others. What a woman! I started the periwinkle tea right away and was already doing everything else she found. I had more blood drawn yesterday and my midwife just called to say the number has dropped by half back into the normal range and we can go ahead and just monitor with blood titers monthly for the time being. Wahoo! Needless to say, the appointment has been postponed indefinately.

Thanks to the Grandmas for thinking of putting my name in at the temple and all of Robyn's prayers since the beginning of this pregnancy.

Classical Education in Action!

Happy day! This leadership education stuff is working. Today while the kids and I were wrapping Randy's birthday present, Colin started making an obnoxious noise. Robyn ran away screaming, "Siren!" When he quit and she came back, I casually mentioned that in Homer's "The Odyssey," a Siren is an enchantress that sings a beautiful song and anyone who hears it gets trapped and dies.
I also said that it was in one of the Great Books. A little while later, Colin brought me the Great Book of Homer and asked me to find it. I was surprised that he bothered to find the book and I was even more surprised when I was able to find a little bit about the Sirens in the book. We read a small part that Odysseus was told to put melted wax in the ears of his men so they wouldn't hear their song and if he wanted to hear it, he would need to tie himself to the mast tightly so he couldn't get trapped by their song. Odysseus was warned that if a man became enchanted, he wouldn't be able to return to greet his wife or children. Colin wanted to know how a guy could get away after he had been enchanted, but they can't get away once they are trapped. I think their ships get wrecked on the rocks near the island and they drown, but some people think that the Sirens are cannibals and they eat the men. We then talked about how sin and following Satan could be like listening to the Sirens - once you hear it/try it/ see it... you could get trapped in it and it could keep you from your family just like the Sirens would trap the seamen so they couldn't return to their wives and children.
It was an interesting conversation. The Sirens can be likened to many things so I am sure that the discussion will continue. Too bad I haven't read the Odyssey since AP English and I didn't learn quite as much as I should have back then. Anyway, discussing it with my son motivated me to keep studying the classics.

The Great Books are a 60 volume collection of the Great Books of the Western World from Encyclopedia Britannica. Randy and I got them off Ebay last fall and have been working on studying them since. It is supposed to take ten years to get through them all, but at the rate I am going it may take 30 or more. Randy is reading Plato and I am working on Shakespeare.

Randy has also been working on learning about salt water aquariums, teaching himself the guitar, and learning more JAVA with the websites he's created and the Lego Mindstorms robot. He is starting a 3 credit class at BSU next week. Somehow he still finds time to work a 40+ hour week, keep up on the honey do list, run races, and spend time with his lovely wife and children. He's amazing!! I have been reading for my 5 Pillar group (a book club of sorts that studies the Classics and leadership education). We have read Animal Farm, Pride and Prejudice, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and The One Minute Teacher since I started attending in September. We have both been trying to get the lessons read for Sunday School and Relief Society/Priesthood before church each week so we get more out of the lessons. All this study sure keeps us busy, but all our studying makes for great conversations at our house. I love it.

As a family we have been reading the Book of Mormon before we start the morning Children's Miracle Music (I still LOVE these CDs!), a bible story after the night CD and then listening to classics before bed (either book on CD from the library or me reading). We have read Little House in the Big Wood, The Best Christmas Pagent Ever, and we will finish Little House on the Prarie tonight. We haven't decided what to read next, maybe another Little House book. The discussion that results from our reading is really cool. I love the questions that the kids ask. I especially love the Little House books because they cover soooo much - geography, history, homemaking skills, manners..... When the kids are not using their manners, I can say "Children are to be seen and not heard" or "no singing at table" and it's a fun gentle reminder because of what we've read and discussed. I don't really expect my children to follow all the rules that Mary and Laura had to follow - they are welcome to talk and ask questions, but they are not welcome to be annoying or rude. The Best Christmas Pagent Ever was great to learn the Christmas story in a very memorable way. We read the book and then watched the movie and talked about which was better. We added a few "Sha zams" to Christmas story in Luke 2 when we read it on Christmas Eve. The scripture study has been a real blessing in the discussion that results as well. We recently studied the Sermon on the Mount and talk about the wise man and the foolish man. (Even Grace knows the Wise man and the Foolish man song.) Now when something comes up all I have to say is, "Where are you building your house?" It really helps me to not get upset and the kids (especially Colin) to not get defensive. That's the beauty of classics! I am finally getting the "liken" part of scripture study as well as anything else we learn.

I have to run, I am using all my study time to blog!

We had a wonderful Christmas. Colin was very happy that no one got coal from Santa. I am not so sure why he was so worried, we didn't discuss coal from Santa much and, to my knowledge, no one deserved it. Perhaps he knows something I don't. :)

The Saturday before Christmas we went to Great Grandma Reeder's annual Christmas party. She always wants each family to share a talent after dinner and this year we were finally talented! (Ok, so anyway, we had a talent to share.) Colin and Robyn each played their fiddles and Randy accompanied Colin with his guitar. Colin and Randy played Jingle Bells, Boil 'em Cabbage, and Shortenin' Bread. Robyn played Jingle Bells all by herself. She was so brave. I was very proud of all of them. Colin doesn't have to be brave to do stuff like that, he likes it. Robyn gets very nervous, but you couldn't a bit that she has that tendency. Uncle Jeremy and Uncle Jack each played their guitars and Great Grandma read a poem. No one else voluteered a talent - good thing the Larry Reeder branch of the family made a good showing. \

After the talent show came karaoke - Colin's absolute favorite part of the entire year. He loves to do karaoke at the Christmas party. He was very good at not being a microphone hog this year, but no one else really wanted to give it a shot, so he got plenty of time on stage himself. He talked his cousins into singing a song with him once, but Santa came in the middle of it and they all left to follow Santa. Colin stayed and finished the song, then went to find Santa. It was funny.

Grace was very brave. She climbed right up on Santa's lap, gave him a big hug, and said "Merry Christmas." It was very cute.

We hurried out first thing this morning to play in the snow. When we get snow at our house, we have to play in it quick before it's gone! We tried to build a snowman but it didn't work out. We built a nice snow pile instead. Grace's gloves got all wet and cold so I put socks on her hands. She thought that was very funny. Robyn's favorite thing was to snowball fight. Good thing you don't get in trouble for that at our school! :)

Colin has been busy building things today. He built a teeter totter and a flower with his Knex. Then I helped him combine his elevator from the Marble Mania extreme with the Discovery Toys marble run. Fun stuff!

Gracie and Oreo napping on the couch.

Colin has turned six years old! I cannot believe how fast the last six years have flown by! He invited the Garcias over for cake and presents. It was very fun.
Colin designed and decorated his own cake. He wanted a triangle cake with cupcakes around it. There is a lot of math involved in cake making - like geometry which I swore I would NEVER use in my whole life. (I am so sorry Mr. Smith and Mr. Golightly - I have learned my lesson and I am grateful for all you tried to teach me. Perhaps if we had used more food in class....) Anyway, we traced the cake pan and cut out the square. Then Colin turned the square into two triangles and figured out how to put them together to make a big triangle. We needed a place to put the cake to decorate and serve it so we got a big box to make a serving tray out of. Colin used the big paper triangle and drew circles for cup cakes in the pattern that he wanted to see how big we needed the tray. Then we had to measure the drawing and transfer the measurements to the cardboard we were going to cut. Then we took turns cutting the cardboard until we had the perfect size tray. Then we had to measure the aluminum foil to fit the cardboard and wrap the tray in it to make it all pretty. Then we got to decorate the cake we made. It was fun. I like that kind of math.
Actually we have been having a lot of fun with math lately. We got a math-u-see program for our math curriculum that is a lot of fun.
Colin got a marble run from Discovery Toys for his birthday and he hasn't stopped playing with it since he opened it. He hardly took time to eat his cake and ice cream in his haste to get back to playing. If you want a marble run - go with Discovery toys and be sure to get the Crank it up accessory. We have tried a wooden marble run in the past and the blocks don't stay together well enough to play. We tried a Marble Mania Extreme last Christmas and it was great for about five minutes. It takes FOREVER to build and it is impossible for a small person to even modify slightly by himself. We got it for it's elevator - which is totally cool and the only piece that ever gets played with, but a marble elevator isn't very cool with out a marble run to drop the marbles into. Anyway - go with Discovery Toys. It's easy to build and modify, sturdy and FUN!
The kids have been playing with the marble run all morning. Too many marbles got into the crank it up accessory and they got a bit stuck. Colin said, "The marbles are stuck" and Robyn said, "stuck in committee?" It was so funny. We haven't watched School House Rock in a month or two but apparently time hasn't diminished Robyn's memory. "I'm Just a Bill" is one of our favorite songs and sometimes bills get "stuck in committee." I love listening to their conversations! It is so fun to be a mommy. Oh and the marbles are easy to get unstuck - the kids just turn the crank backwards until the excess marbles get out.

Randy, Colin, and Robyn playing at Planet Kid. Robyn loved having her daddy go with her. Everyone had a blast!

The kids earned a date to Planet Kid with their points from the Miracle Music. We went last Saturday so Randy could go to. These are pictures of Grace jumping into the ball pit - her absolute favorite thing to do at Planet Kid.