Thanks, somehow I missed the hours:) Not that it will really matter, I don't think! It is going to be freezing cold, with the wheelchair (and me 21 weeks pregnant!) and a 5-year-old who has cold-sensitive after living her life only in Texas. Yesterday she was in a tutu and a tshirt to go to swim lessons:) Something tells me we will be tucked back warmly into a hotel long before the park closes, lol.

So. There will be very little actually planning involved as we are thinking of making a visit as part of our Christmas trip, and need the quick lowdown. Where to stay, ease of travel, what are things not to be missed, food, etc... Here are some specifics: We are looking at being in Paris for 5-6 days just after Christmas. Not the most ideal time to go, but dd5 hasn't been yet and wants to include it as part of the trip. For obvious reasons, Disneyland is not at all on my list of top things to visit/see whilst in Paris...but with the weather we will be limited. Many of the days will be occupied by things such as museums that dd is excited about, but I KNOW we will need to give her a break:) We are also thinking New Year's Eve day, Disneyland will be a fairly safe and exciting place for a child. Also that even though it is still Europe, it will be much more likely to meet the wheelchair/accessibility needs of myself, language barrier (rudimentary French only), and picky food issues of dd. So. Any ideas? Anybody been recently? I just don't have a lot of time to plan, we leave for the UK portion of our trip next Friday! And honestly, it just seems like I have so many more important details of the trip to plan, that I have neglected this:) Can anyone help?!

Yes:) We also have the audio set of greatest hits that are fantastic. Very dramatic and fun.

Oh no! I love these:(

I got Alex one last year:) But it isn't so much a calendar as it is just a flip book with a new one for each day, numbered. Still, lots of fun and great for kids. We have some of the vocabulary ones from the same company. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1602140553/ref=pd_aw_sims_4?pi=SL500_SS115&simLd=1

Some of dd''s favorites that introduced some more advanced math ideas in a fun way without being too dependent upon tradition math paths were the Penrose the Cat books. Later, Number Devil.

Okay. So I am just going to admit it. I have this one and a couple of others like The Pythagorean Thereom for Babies and Non-Euclidean Geometry for babies by Fred Carlson. And can I just say they are ADORABLE:) I don't know about for babies, but when dd was about 3 and her passion for math becoming evident even then, she carted these around. The Pythagorean Thereom book uses alphabet blocks to demonstrate first the length of a 3-4-5 triangle, then area. Super effective and very cute, lol. I think it was kind of a joke to get them at first, but dd loved them and they work:)

This happens to me several times per month and drives me absolutely bonkers! The only choice is to sit out next to your vehicle waiting, or attempt to go back in and arrange for someone to make an announcement to come and move their car...which rarely works or speeds up anything as the driver in question usually just thinks they will hurry up and finish anyway. Frequently it is motorcycles or small cars that think regular parking rules don't apply to them. Three weeks ago this happened whilst I was at a doctors appt, which happened to be in the hospital. I waited for TWO hours, and ended up having to arrange for my dd to stay late at preschool-which cost me $75! And PSA: wheelchair vans with side ramps usually have large, prominent stickers on their side windows to draw attention to the necessity of keeping those spaces free. And, although I know it is not always possible as the need for a handicapped spot is the primary concern? If there IS a choice between a blue spot with van accessibility and a regular blue spot, please consider saving the van accessible one:)

Wow. I thought I was now prepared for every question dd5 could possibly ask about reproduction and babies. Nope. Today when we were driving home from piano lessons she (who has serious sensory issues) pipes up very worriedly from the back: "mom, when the male touches his pen$s to the vagin@, does it tickle? I don't EVER want to do that!" SOOOO glad that question was asked when she couldn't see my face😳

One of the bigger reasons we are still at the university where dh teaches is their very generous 100% tuition remission policy for family members after a few years of employment. In addition, they have a reciprocal agreement with other universities within the same state. And still, that is our backup plan because I have no idea if dd will even be interested in the universities here:) We started a small savings account for her when she was born, and worked up to contributing several hundred per month. We paid off the mortgage, so we really should do something about a savings plan that will actually earn a bit of interest without penalties if she doesn't end up needing the money for school. And of course, soon we will have to worry about a second fund for new baby. Ugh.

Huh. Dd is very much the same--anything natural to her, especially regarding the circle of life or things with a clear, scientific reasoning she can understand and isn't fazed by. Charlotte's Web was only problematic for the potential for Wilbur to be shot. (And we are vegetarians, so apparently dd found this doubly offensive!). However, books with issues involving abuse, cruelty, human-on-animal violence are hugely problematic! We still haven't managed even Little Red Ridinghood as she simply cannot handle it. When Pa killed the swan accidentally in On Swan Lake she was devastated...and Shiloh was one of the most difficult, deep-discussion-provoking, anger and tear-inducing books we have read. I have completely rearranged out read-aloud lists after that. She was nearly in hysterics, but would NOT let me stop reading it because she had to KNOW what happened:(

Dd today was working through some problems in BA...after throwing a fit because when I brought the book out it has a 4 on it. She angrily and tearfully informed me that as of a full 36 hours ago she was FIVE years old, not FOUR! And could she please have the proper big girl book😖 Geez. She finally calmed down when I told her she could write an email to BA and ask them to please speed up production to match her chronologically:)

Color Code was a present for Alex's 5th birthday too. And yes, it is decidedly more challenging than something like Castle Logix:) It also had a lot more room to grow. Some challenges that might actually take more than 2 minutes, KWIM? Alex also loves colors, shapes, and especially patterns. If that is the case and you go with just one, Color Code is it! We got Penguins on Ice because dd is in love with all things oceanic:) You might also take a look at a travel-size one called IQ Twist. Maybe a stocking stuffer for Christmas? It is similiar in idea to Penguins on Ice, but colors and shapes to makes them fit in little holes. We keep it in the car, along with a magnetic set of Mighty Minds.

Like BatmansWife, we have Penguins on Ice and Color Code. Penguins on Ice was one of the first games of this type that really challenged Alex and kept her attention, largely I think because of the way the plastic ice pieces slide to change shape-buy the penguin is affixed to really add an additional level of difficulty. And it does get challenging quickly! Some of the more difficult puzzles *I* had to work through:) Color Code she got more recently (as in 3 days ago for her bday!) but it has already gotten a lot of play. It really is awesome for visual perception. Hubby played it with her on Friday evening and mentioned how impressed he was at the multi-level skills. He is an inorganic chemist, so I think he dreams in symmetry, rotations, flips and inversions, lol, and he said he wishes he could start the semester with a whole week devoted just to games like this to train his students to think in terms of spatial and visual manipulation:)

How timely! I was just discussing this today with some other moms. I am usually in the cut off the ends, cut in half and roast camp. They are such a pain to cube! Anyway, in the discussion today one of the moms (whose hubby is an ER doctor) was telling us that when her hubby was on call last month a lady was brought in...she lost an EYE because she apparently tried to cut up butternut squash the wrong way. Awful:(

Nope. But my mom pretty much curbed that permanently when older stepsister peeked. We were each all allowed to choose exactly ONE present (wrapped already, so we had no idea what it was!)...and we had to bundle all the other wrapped gifts into the car to drop off at Salvation Army. Worst. Christmas. Ever. Don't recommend it as a strategy unless you want to seriously traumatize small children:((( Me? I think peeking is natural curiousity to a degree. If you do not want peeking, find great hiding places:)

Me too. Snickering, giggling, all sorts of creative ideas. But what a great idea...all sorts of new stocking stuffer ideas for hubby. Although maybe in a separate, Christmas Eve stocking:) A new holiday tradition?

This is a truly inspired idea:) I have a very young speller who, in all likelyhood, will complete level 7 before summer. I plan to take the summer off from spelling, and she wants to do spelling bee prep work next fall. So far she just seems to internalize all the rules, and can identify the applicable rule if I purposely misspell a word, but I have been brainstorming future ideas since her output and potential for using all of the words she spells regularly will most likely be limited for awhile. She wants to do keyboarding as an official subject next year, so it would be a perfect and natural addition to have her type all of the dictation sentences for typing practice--without making her feel like I was adding in unnecessary review:)

I agree, I would trust your own judgement and that of your daughter. I see no problems now, although the instructor really does need to consider some sort of long-term policy on this to protect himself. I understand he is currently in a fairly transient situation as a college student, so that of course factors in. The only caveat I would add is that I would continue to make sort of random, unannounced visits to gauge the tone of the lesson. You would do this anyway, regardless of the ages/sex of the participants, as you are paying for quality instruction and safety, right? This is for several reasons: quality of instruction, monitoring your child's progress and goodness of fit with instructor...and because whilst I would sincerely doubt that he is looking at her now as anything over than a 14 year old child? If he continues to teach her long-term she will eventually be 16-17 etc., and they will have a long, shared history. Still not necessarily a problem because I DO believe that most people have control of their urges, lol...but occasionally popping in to watch is a reasonable measure.

Will be thinking of you guys and hoping all goes smoothly! How exciting and nerve wracking to reach the culmination point after so much time and hard work. Can't wait for the update and know he will knock it out of the park:)

My dd is hilarious with her interpretations of lyrics. The most recent was when I heard her sing the Curious George theme song...apparently he is a 'bi-curious' monkey!

This cracked me up because I just had a very similar conversation with Alex:) Our local zoo sent off DNA samples recently to verify one of the very few reported cases of parthenogenesis in captivity of Komodo dragons:) Alex was very concerned that none of the girls in her class could 'make her pregnant by accident.' Yikes!

Ha! I just saw that Rainbow Resources has their sale all week on AOP, Life of Fred, and others. Home Science Tools has 10% off through Dec 22nd, as well as a 12 Days of Christmas sale where some items are 12% off. I have a feeling Cyber Monday sales weren't a profitable this year...

Well, my very first fledgling conversation with dd4 (before I bought great books!)...I was trying to be non-specific. That first 'but HOW does the sperm get inside the female to fertilize the egg?' Can be a bit stutter-inducing:) I just said, 'oh, that is what a penis is for.' Dd was quiet for a beat, then: 'Eeeewwww, you mean the man PEEES on a woman?' Um. No dear.

I think Zumdahl's book does a fantastic job of pulling in more organic material into gen chem:) If Biochemistry is where his primary interests lie, I definitely think you are on the right track. The MIT coursework will set him up very nicely for organic chem, which they also offer. There is a reason why o. Chem is a prerequisite for biochem classes. Really, biochem is simply a much more focused area of organic. It is all about understanding how and where the electrons are going, lol. In fact, my biochem classes were very nearly duplicates of my biology cell physiology courses...except that I enjoyed the biochem more because I felt it was much more detail oriented. I will ask hubby tomorrow if there is a specific textbook he would recommend for your situation as he is definitely more up to date on specific textbooks. The department just spent six months choosing a new organic textbook and argued over every possibility:) In the meantime, I am remembering a really fun mini-text that was basically centered around applying basic gen chem and o chem functional group knowledge to amino acids. They were problems that really made you think and were a fun way to start thinking in terms of applying general knowledge to biological systems. It was an older publication from one of my profs, so I shall try to track it down. I think it would be right up his alley, from the sounds of it.