Hello Ashland

We are finally on the way down to California for Wren's surgery.   Today we drove from Seattle down to Ashland.  It was a very long day (10am till 7pm!) but we stopped for lunch at Pizza Pi in Portland and a quick visit to Powells.  Josh bought a language course in Japanese and has been trying to teach me the basic greetings.  I have stalled on good morning - something which sounds like Ohio go zai mas (which I remember as "Ohio go I must!") - and sayonara (which we recall from action movies).  He is remarkably good at understanding the advanced disk - I can see Frost will have a parent resource when he starts Japanese next year.   I bought an excellent book on Scottish Genealogy.  The Scots have fabulous genealogical records due to an obsession with writing things down and an abundance of lawyers plus they have made much of it available online.  My Dad's granny was a Scottish McHarg and I am looking forward to exploring her family more.  I think that the Dewars may also be Scottish but a way further back and the Hamiltons are reputed to be Scottish pre-1600.

We had a dramatic departure this morning.  Josh asked me for a list of the Things We Could Not Leave Without.  It included:

Wren
Wallets
Computers
The X-ray disk.

As we were driving off I remembered to check for Wren's hospital bag with all the activities I had bought and been gifted.  It was not there!  I checked back to think where it could be and realized it must have been given to Phillipa among Frost's things and was now locked in their house.  Nobody was home so we had to call Frost out of class at school and use his spare house key to go in and retrieve the hospital suitcase.  Close thing!

That delayed our departure.

We drove through rain and various cloudbursts and dark coniferous forests before Portland but since then it has been green vistas of sunny valleys and long-shadowed red barns with cows, goats and horses scattered in the meadows.

Traffic was easy and Wren's indomitable bladder required few stops.

We are all tired and have another 6 hour drive tomorrow.  We hope to swim in the pool first or at least try the hot tub.

The Games we Play (by Granny)

Frost, Wren & Josh playing Smallworld

Wren and Frost both love games and don't mean only commuter games. Any games. I realized that since I arrived here from Australia a week ago we have played games morning, noon and late.

Frost suggests a chess move for Wren. 

Shannon bought a new board game called Castle Panic which the whole family can play. It is unusual in that it is a cooperative game. Us against the orcs, trolls, goblin kings and giant boulders. Our precious castle is at stake and general panic ensues as the enemy advances. Wren has learnt to give up the cards that he wants to hoard for the survival the team. It took a little persuading.

Later we wanted a little quiet time so Shannon set Wren up with drawing pens and a big piece of paper and he decided to 'make a game'. I think, in doing so, he may have stumbled upon his future career, for he proceeded to design a game with cards; an enemy that inflicted grades of damage to our ‘tents’ and many other details. It bore some resemblance to Castle Panic but not a lot.
I can understand why Wren is so involved in the world of fantasy challenge. His current night time story is Harry Potter and in the car we listen to Greek myths and legends.

Josh plays games with both boys and last Sunday I was introduced to a very complicated board game designed for age 14+ called Qwarriors, complete with expansion packs. Its intricacies were a challenge to me but Wren and Frost were at home. 
Shannon says that Josh looks at http://boardgamegeek.com/ for interesting games to play with the kids.  

Wren with Qwarriors.

Another game for Wren is to shadow fight in the garden or bush, solo against imaginary enemies. On our recent trip to eastern Washington to search for the Sandhills Cranes, Wren walked with us, his wooden sabre in hand ready to deal with possible invaders. He was most concerned with the ancient 'potholes' that we saw in the scab-lands. He had imagined that we might fall into them.

Wren playing his game of imaginary battles.

Shannon and I were taken with Wren’s delight in story telling. To pass the time at dinner in a tiny 'outback' town called Soap Lake, we played the game of 'continue the story', where one person starts the story and the next person continues it.
Shannon, 'Once upon a time there was a little boy called Lump who lived beyond the mountains. He had never travelled so one day he decided....’

Wren was off talking and no matter what twist was made in the tale he was ready with orcs and dragons and mining equipment to enrich the plot. Sometimes he was distraught if we digressed in a different direction. We played this several times on our travels in between looking for elusive cranes and the more elusive burrowing owls.

Back home the kids had a pupil-free day last Friday. So more games were played. First Wren made a shop to which we came to make 'purchases'. Next we played forfeits and he designed a series of forfeits that came randomly with the cast of the dice. …Such as running around the court six times.....

And then Frost had his first match of Ultimate Frisbee. A game I had never watched. It is most similar to soccer. It was a windy cold day - maybe normal for spring in Seattle but freezing in my world. Frost, with help from his team, scored the only goal against the opposition. It is a fast game and a lot of fun.

Watching the Ultimate Frisbee game, Josh, Shannon, Wren & Beezle.

And the last game to end the day was a little tennis on the half-court. More running around the court….No wonder that I sleep well.

The Dinosaur Exhibit BY WREN

This blog post is by Wren.  He is telling me about the minecraft dinosaur exhibit he has created.

WREN SAYS:
"This Minecraft world has a backstory.   The backstory is that we had this giant machine and found a giant dinosaur bone and we don't know what it is.  It is a whole dinosaur bone.  A GIANT dinosaur.

Here it is:

 We collected DNA from the dinosaur with our DNA collector.  DNA is like stuff - everything has DNA and scientists use DNA to figure the genealogy about the thing and can make eggs out of the DNA. We put the DNA in our DNA Collector.   The bottles that are blue are filled with DNA and the ones that are white they are still trying to collect it.  Its not real.  Its my imaginging that its a machine that looks around to find DNA.

Here is the DNA Collector:

In my chest we have three dinosaur eggs because we used three to build a dinosaur exhibit.  There are three in my exhibit.  The one area is closed and it has a sign.  The sign says "CLOSED - FAILED DINOSAURS".  This means that the dinosaurs are failed they are like zombie-ish - not looking like dinosaurs, they are like globs.

Here is the sign:

The dinosaurs in this cage are velociraptors which are dinosaur kind of birds.  They are moving so its hard to take a picture.  [Here is a picture when Wren broke the cage for a moment to let me see inside.  He closed it again quickly so the Velociraptor did not get out.]

This exhibits is T-Rexes.  My brother told me how to make them when I didn't know.  They are the biggest things other than GHASTS so I made Iron golems into T-Rexes with iron blocks.  If you put a pumpkin on top they turn into Iron Golems.  These are Iron Golems but I am imaginging they are T-Rexes.

So, that is the backstory for my dinosaur exhibit.
BY WREN

Wren Himself

Wren is now six and a quarter.  He is tall and skinny, about average height for his age but only 30th percentile for weight.  He has lanky blonde hair and protects his fringe (bangs) when I plan a haircut because he needs his "look" for a bad guy.  I once cut his fringe short and he cried inconsolably because I had taken his pirate look.

Wren has a few interests:
1) Screentime (minecraft or iPad)
2) Drawing or coloring with fine tipped pens
3) Playing his imaginary fighting games unseen in the bedroom or on the basketball court
4) Board games.

He cannot stop talking.  He talks ALL the time, to the point that Frost and I are exhausted and don't listen to him.  If you do listen and try and say something, he talks over you.  He is rather rude and imperious.  He wants his own way or he gets MAD and FIERCE.  We are working on this.  We do "redos" when he does the same thing again, more thoughtfully.  That is quite successful.

We have learned that Wren is very reflective.  Whatever tone you speak to him in, is echoed back and amplified.  If you hurry him to leave the house, he shrieks and panics, running around throwing shoes, telling you "THIS IS THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD. I HATE GOING OUT".

One must go out and get him ready by stealth or be ready for a great confrontation.

However, Wren loves to play with this friends and others who are willing to play his games and share his interests.  Today, we did painting and drawing and he very much enjoyed trying something new, being encouraged to avoid his own self-critic "this is a useless drawing.  I am going to throw it away!" had to be turned around into a 'draw on the other side' moment.

The game he enjoyed today is called King of Tokyo.  Its a great game, not too long or complicated but with plenty of drama and challenge.

Tomorrow Wren goes back to school after midwinter break.  He is still coughing at night but seems to be recovering.  I am STILL Wheezing after our awful flu-cough thing three weeks ago (Wren got sick on the 31st January and I was stricken on the 1st Feb).

It is still cold and dark but at least there is some light in the sky when we rise at 6.30am on a school morning and today we saw the sun as we walked around Greenlake with Beezle (tongue lolling).

I am looking forward to cycling to school again in better weather and generally being less of a hibernating family.  Frost suggested "we should go for a short hike on the weekend, for Beezle" and we agreed.

The boys invented a new way to each a stack of small pancakes.
You layer nutella between them, coat the entire exterior of the stack
with cream and decorate with strawberries.
I think Wren managed to fit syrup on somewhere.

Wren thought he was too scared to ride the carousel because
"The horses go up and down" but he rode on the chariot behind one.
With me.

The boys ride the carousel at the zoo, "gundam style"

Wren with the tree shrine at Greenlake.
People lay flowers to honor a tree that was cut down.

Obsession with Sourdough

Both the boys are obsessed with sourdough bread at the moment.  After his third slice of toast after school yesterday, Frost said "Mum, if you keep buying this bread I am going to gain 3 pounds!"  He pinched his thigh.

They love to toast it until its golden and slather it with peanut butter.  Wren likes peanut butter and golden syrup.  Frost loves vegemite and butter.

I ate a slice from the bag for breakfast yesterday.

It really is delicious.  Anyway, this is just a small glimpse of life.  Celebrate the sourdough!

Wren's 6th Birthday

 This month Wren turned 6.  On his actual birthday he had a special birthday circle at school and walked around the months of the year set up on a low circular table.  He also had a special candle ceremony with the lights off.

Wren "Grows up" as he circles the sun once for each year
of his life

Wren as Birthday Boy in the morning circle.

That evening he was allowed to choose his own birthday dinner.  He chose hot dogs with relish and root beer.  He didn't even finish his hot dog because he was too busy building the Lego urukai-army Granny gave him.  Afterwards, we sang and ate his "bouche de noel" cake with meringue mushrooms.

Yesterday we celebrated Wren's 6th birthday with a party.  Ever since our visit to Australia in August we have been reading Tolkien.  First we read The Hobbit and now we are almost finished with book two of The Lord of the Rings.  Lego has recently released sets along the Lord of the ring so we decided to have a birthday part on the Tolkien theme.  The main activity for the party was a Quest to Destry the ring, along the lines of a treasure hunt.  We started with a clue to find an Elf to receive an elf pouch.  Frost was the elf.

The clue was to go and seek the Elf where the Reindeer gazes.  Apparently the word "gazes" was too complicated (perhaps they thought it was grazes?) and they spent a long time milling around on the lawn before spotting Frost in the tree.

At last!  The Elf is found and gives out Elven pouches.

The Elf instructed them to head to the soapy lake and fish for
The One Ring (only there were 8, one per child).
The bamboo has a magnet on.  The rings were key-rings.

Later, they had to defeat The Dragon.  A pinata of a golden
dragon I made from a discarded box.  It was rather
strong and needed Alex to give it a good Bash and defeat it.

jafkdsl;jk;j

Near the end they had to use a golden coin to get near the volcano
which was our version of Mount Doom.  Frost jumped up and made a big
EXPLOSION noise when each child dropped their ring in the abyss.  They took it seriously.
Later, when they found an extra ring, they rushed down to throw it in
Mount Doom as well.

Donovan throws in his ring while Frost (hand) waits to
ERUPT!

Afterwards, we had cake and lunch at the table in the living room.  I took inspiration from another parent's LOTR cake and painted an Eye of Sauron on royal icing on the top.

The lettering on the front is an (incomplete) copy of
the inscription on the One Ring.  The letters on the
front of the cake spell WREN in Dwarven Runes.
This was Frost's idea!

Wren had a lovely day and was quite happy to run around with his friends after cake.  This was a relaxing party after the organizing of the quest.  Josh was a great DM of the quest so I didn't have to rush around with them.  Frost and Alex were also a great help.

Here is a short movie of Wren's birthday celebrations at school and home.  Its not polished because my laptop has barely enough memory to create a movie and, due to lack of skill, editing is very time consuming.

The smallest particle

Over the weekend Wren asked me some questions about the make-up of the universe.

Wren: Mum, how big are orcs?

Me: I don't know.  I would guess they are about 8 feet tall.  They are a fantasy creature so its hard to know.

Wren: No Mum.  Not ORCS, ORCS! They are not a fantasy creature.  They are the smallest thing in the universe.

Me:  No, orcs are a fantasy creature.

Wren:  No AWKS!  What is smaller than an atom?

Me:  An atom is made of a proton and an neutron.

Wren:  But what is smaller?

Me:  Electrons?

Wren:  But what is SMALLER!

Me:  OH!  You mean quarks?

Wren:  orcs

Me:  QUARKS!

Wren:  quorcs, orcs, quarks....  ask Dad.  Dad told me orcs are the smallest thing in the universe.

Mystery Name

Does this say DEDAN?  Dugan (aka Doogan)?  DEGAN?

Wren Wonders how Black People Were Made

The babysitter had a word with me last night.  She was concerned that she had one of the Big Conversations with Wren at bedtime and she wanted to fill me in.  Apparently Wren had asked how Black People were made.

Sasha explained that she had to be careful to ask a few questions to understand what he was asking.  It seems, Wren is under the impression that all people are innately pale and that in some cases special techniques, magic, luck, chance etc occurs to make a person turn black.

"How do people turn their skin black?" he wondered at bedtime.

She explained that people were just born black, or yellow or pale or tan and came out of their mother's tummy that way.

"How does the mother's tummy DO THAT?" asked Wren, now altering his world view to allow that babies gestate in a kind of dye-bath environment which stains them a particular color.

Sasha tried to explain that the color of the baby was from the parents.  That parents before that baby had a different color skin.

For Wren that only pushed the issue BACK a generation.
"But how did that MOTHER get dark skin?"

Apparently, Wren has a notion of an incredibly pale progenitor.  I shall have to explain at some point that it was just as likely the other way around and that his paleness is the question.

Christmas Camels

We were reading the newspaper at breakfast yesterday and Wren asked about the article showing camels.  They were walking down 51st St in NYC where they are for some Christmas theatre.

"Why are camels in a show about Christmas?" one of them asked.

"Why do you think?" I asked.. with a DUH tone of voice.

"Because camels are COOL!" said Wren.

"Because they were on Noah's ark?" pondered Frost.

"No, really." I said.   "You don't know?"

Frost left the room abruptly and I ordered him NOT to Google it.

"Okay, because they are in the nativity scene?" ventured Frost.

Sensing we had missed a good story I explained about the star and the wise men and the gifts and the star stopping above the stable and that the wise men were riding camels.

"Oh, yeah" said Frost

Wren had never heard this before.  When I complained to Josh that we had left out some fundamentals of Judeo-Christian mythology he got all defensive and asked whether the kids knew the great stories of Islam or Hinduism.  I said they knew quite a few Hindu stories and many Buddhist ones but surely he owned that Christian narratives are closer to our culture than the others.

He refused to admit this.

Regardless of their Hindu-buddhist-greco-roman mythological framework, the boys are keen on Christmas.  Today they gave me Christmas lists.

Frost would like things relating to video games (t-shirts, equipment) and Wren wrote his own list. Sadly, I cannot read many of the items on his list.  I attach it below.

I think it says:

1. Hang Man 1
2. Brick Arms
3. 20 Dollar Bill
4. Lychee army?
5. Core mech?
6. Chocolate peppermint bark
7. bunny painter
8. Flowers

We will see what we can do about the lychee army.