Three months old

I can't believe that Brianne is three months old now. It hardly seems more than a few weeks ago that Vicki told me that we had a child on the way. Being home for Brianne's birth was very special. Seeing Vicki's heroic struggle, and the birth of Brianne has convinced me that men are wimps in relation to the pain that women handle in childbearing. I had also forgotten how it feels to be there and look into the face of a newborn. I have decided that for me, this is standing on holy ground.

Brianne is doing well. Her personality is beginning to shine through. She is a grunter. This means that she and I can communicate quite well, (It should be noted that "grunt" is a nickname for infantry soldiers).She also is quick with a smile and coo. She is a good sleeper. This means that she usually is content to bring up issues that arise in the night, in the morning. The big exception to this of course is "feeding time". That is just one thing that is not optional but satisfaction on demand.

Brianne is quite beautiful and charming. This "Downs Syndrome" thing is very new to me. In fact at times I find that I have to remind myself that she has it. The amazing thing is that even after five previous children, the wonder and excitement of looking into her face, playing with her tiny fingers and hands is still so strong. I don't tire of it. At times when we lock eyes, it is as if she looks right through me.

I think that Brianne has a very cruel since of humor. Thanks to this we have had several "Hazmat" incidents. I am surprised that we have not ended up on the evening news. Diaper changing is very different with Liam vs. Brianne. When Liam is ready for a change, all his work is done. It is just holding the nose, or breath and making the best of a not so good situation. But with dear Brianne, every time can be "Full" (pun intended) of surprises. There is an art to this. First, you must have all needed supplies on hand and organized. Second, there is a need for speed and effecteness. Woe to the man who leaves Brianne uncovered for any amount of time. You will be wearing your mistake.

In closing, the dress that you see Brianne in is very special. It is not just Brianne's. But it has been handed down to her by each of her sisters. It was also worn by Vicki. Vicki's grand mother, Kaye Stumm, knitted it for Vicki at her birth. Which was a long time ago, okay, we wont say just how long ago. But the dress is holding up nicely.

Scientifically Speaking...

It's pure fact....Connor loves science. So do the rest of us, it's just that his love of it goes a little deeper.

At the first of the year we spent a month or so learning about the different systems of our bodies. I helped them do this experiment about our five sense. They had to identify similar yet different (sugar/salt, peeled apple/potato, canned chicken/tuna) items using only one sense, say, taste with out sight or smell. Could they do it? ....we were trying to see how all our senses work together; that our ability to taste depends upon our nose to work better (which is why when you have a cold nothing really tastes all that great).

While the kids did their own studies of other systems I was busy reacquainting myself with a baby's digestive tract....how can a little body produce that much poop anyhow?

Ryan is busy with a science curriculum that is geared for high school age kids. He's not thrilled with doing experiment so Connor joins him (and learns alot) and Ryan has more fun doing his projects. Ryan and Connor tell me this experiment was about DNA extraction, only it didn't work out so well this time.

Mmmmmm any one want some soapy onions?
Anyhow, I've decided to follow the 'Thomas Jefferson Education' by Oliver DeMille,theory a bit more, embrace John Holt's thoughts and let education be child driven. I can tell when Connor gets bored with something he gets more lackadaisical--or, well spacey for a lack of a better word. (He usually gets this way when he's not challenged enough) He's been getting that way with our current biology studies lately. I asked him if he wanted to start the same book curriculum that Ryan was doing, (the book geared for his comprehension level) "Yes!!!!" he gleefully exclaims. (Apologia-Exploring Creation) He's enjoying the vocabulary words, study guide questions, tests and most definitely LAB experiments! I love how he comes and talks with me about what he's reading and learning--he loves how he's being more challenged. I love that I don't have to remind or conjoul him to do science anymore. Yeah! This is a win-win situation

Yeah, for Oliver DeMille, John Holt and Connor!

I don't get it?

I'm not sure how to make this work?

I knew that some day, after seeing me pump multiple times during the day, that I'd find Liam trying out the pumping gear. Sure enough, he found these phlanges and "put them in the right spot", but it just wasn't working out for him..."hummmmm" I could almost see the the question in his eyes, "How does Mom get this to work? I don't get it?"

Feeding problems

When I was pregnant with Brianne I read about the difficulties babies with DS have when it comes to nursing. I was thrilled that minutes after she was born she latched on and nursed quite well, in fact, she continued to do so for a few days. This soon changed and due to low muscle tone she just wasn't able to get enough milk to keep her body growing and satisfied. I had to supplement with formula. Then my milk supply started to diminish because Brianne wasn't stimulating milk production well enough. Thus began 2.5 months of pumping milk, supplementing with formula and feeding her by a bottle. I grew to hate this. After a rather stressful day of tears and frustration, (an upside to the day--it was a Tuesday and we got to go to Macado's for dinner--I didn't have to cook), I decided that I was going to stop and feed her solely formula. I had bittersweet emotions about this, feeling of guilt but ohh so releaved (and overall quite happy) at not having to be teathered to a pump. However, during that week she had so many problems with two different types of formula--she had mucus in bm's and considerable amounts of gas (this was on a formula that was suppose to help with gassiness). While on a different formula she had projectile vomiting (and still gassiness, although not as bad with the other brand). It was during FHE, after she showered me with the whole bottle she just drank that I decided that even though I was only giving her 50-80% breast milk, it was still much better than 100% formula and I couldn't let her go through all the pain of a strictly formula diet. After a phone call to my visiting teacher/friend, who happens to be a lactation consultant, we have a plan and hopefully I'll get my milk supply back up, perhaps even better than before. My attitude has changed, now I want to pump because it's really beneficial for Brianne's abdominal wellness. So back to pumping every 2-3 hours (I even need to commit to getting up once in the middle of the night) What really stinks is that after 5 babies I finally have a baby that will sleep through the night. I can even put her to bed awake, but drowsy and she will go to sleep all on her own. Murphy's Law is alive and well in our home.

A Boy and His Cars

When Ryan and Connor were little I loved to watch them play with their matchbox cars. They would organize them by color, line them up side by side or from front to end. They'd play for hours watching them roll down ramps they created from old bookcase shelves. They also loved to race the cars against others to see which one was faster.
Liam recently discovered this fun. I love to sit and watch him too. Connor joined in the fun with him--he even remember which car was the fastest from his earlier days--they called it 'The Blue Champion'.
I look forward to many more days sitting while feeding Brianne, watching Liam immerse himself into a world of imaginative play with blocks and cars....Vrrrrmmmmmm

Visiting a Good Friend and Teacher

A wonderful primary teacher is a great memory to cherish. For Cailin, one such teacher was her CTR 7 teacher, Sister Carolyn Weber. According to Cailin, Sister Weber always made the lessons fun. Cailin says that one of the things that she remembered about the lessons were the "squeakey chalk".

Whenever Sister Weber used the chalk in the classroom, it would sqeak and the class, including Sister Weber would break out laughing.

Cailin also says that she enjoyed going over to Sister Weber's house. There they played games, watched movies and looked at pictures of Sister Weber's family.

Toward the end of their CTR 7 year, around Christmas, Sister Weber left for a mission--she was called to the Omaha Nebraska Mission. She would write to Cailin (and others) and Cailin loved to write back to her.

While on her mission, she became sick. Cailin fasted for her (her first time fasting). Sister Weber went home from her mission to stay with her daughter in West Virginia.

Last Friday, Beryl, Jared and Cailin took a trip (thanks Christine for suggesting and arranging the day) to visit Sister Weber. They spent the afternoon eating Happy Meals, playing Monopoly Deal and talking.

She came home happy to have had a chance to visit with her again (and glad that the long drive was over), yet, she was very sad to have to say goodbye, for a time, to a good friend.

A trip to Russia

Now, after Brianne's birth, that things are settling down just a bit, we all thought it was time for us to add more of the 'fun' aspect of our school studies.

We are studying world history this year, right now we are learning about the early 1900's--World War I, Russian Revolution, Depression, etc. We took some time to 'visit' Russia.

We spent some time learning about Faberge' eggs-- why and how they came to be. We decided to make some of our own. The kids enjoyed making some decorated eggs to give to their friends.

Glitter glue, stickers, hot glue and beads....having lots of creative fun decorating plastic eggs.

We learned that in many cities of Russia, if we were to really travel there, we could find many fresh hot soft pretzel carts. Soft pretzels are a favorite snack food of the Russian people. (When we lived in Germany and we traveled to Austria we found many such carts there; of course we indulged in some of those wonderful breads from street vendors.)

Mmmmmm, sounds like a great treat for us to make and eat too. Yummm!

Even Ryan, joined in the fun. He would have rather I make the pretzels for him, but I wouldn't do it. For him this became a good cooking lesson.

Brushing the dough with an egg wash, add the salt, then bake.

(Teaching the kids how to cook are some of my favorite lessons--I keep telling the boys that I'm not going to come and cook for them when they are on their mission so they better learn to cook and bake or they'll be hungry. I'm not worried about Connor or Cailin, however, Ryan better hope for a companion that can cook :)

The tundra makes up much of Northern Russia. It was here that Joesph Stalin sent those people whom he didn't like--to Siberia. We spent an afternoon studying about this biome. Brrrrrr it sure is cold there. Today, as I'm writing this blog entry, the weather outside is in the 50's or low 60's. We learned that in Siberia, our weather today would be a heat wave during the summer season. They have 3 months of 'summer' (if you want to call 40's and 50 degree weather summer) and the rest of the year is winter.

We learned how blubber keeps animals warm. We did an experiment that showed us how this worked. We made a plastic bag glove of shortening. We then submerged our hand in ice water protected by the "fat glove" and without the fat glove.

Connor and Cailin had fun timing each other to see how long they could handle the cold with and without the glove.

We also did an experiement to show why much of the ground during the summer months are muddy. It's all because of permafrost. You can dig down in the soil about 12 inches and then you'd hit what would feel like solid rock, but it isn't, it's permanently frozen soil. It keeps the melted snow water from soaking deep into the ground.

Cailin learned that if you just eat the permafrost ((jello) and the ice cream (chocolate=soil and vanilla=snow) can very easily penetrate the permafrost--and it tastes quite good too!!

Delaney was introduce to many of the animals that live in the tundra. She also learned about hibernation and migration. Ahhh, the fun of science and leaning about the world around us.