Monday, November 30, 2015

Never Absent, Always Late

This post is about my husband.  Tomorrow morning he has hernia repair surgery.   It’s a small groin hernia that isn’t causing him discomfort or pain, but is better to get corrected so that other complications—like bowel obstruction—aren’t a possibility.

My mother-in-law has come to visit for a day to take him to the hospital while I wrangle the children.   She and I were teasing my husband tonight about having to set his alarm and get up early.   Mornings aren’t my husband’s favorite thing to wake up to.   He is excellent at sleeping in and without an alarm in place he can do just that, even with rowdy children running around.  

He got a little irritated at us, which I don’t blame him for, even if it was in good fun.  He can and does get up when needed, but I learned something about him today from his mother, something I’d never heard.

When he was in high school he had the best attendance.  He was rarely ill and if he was he would still go to school.   What he wasn’t though, was on time.   His mother said the teachers commented he was, “never absent, always late.”

The Big Boy Update:  My mother-in-law was telling our children tonight that when dad comes home tomorrow they shouldn’t climb or jump on him because he will be recovering from surgery.   My son replied, “Well daddy shouldn’t come near us or lie down then."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wrote (drew) all her own thank you cards for her birthday presents.   She has taken a recent interest in drawing free hand (not just coloring in) and I let her draw whatever she wanted.   She would draw something on a the card after I told her who it was for and when she was done, she would tell me what was on the card.   I would then write what she wanted to tell them from her and then she and I sealed and mailed the cards.   My son is looking forward to drawing on his own cards after his birthday next month.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Straightening Up and Other Thoughts

Straightening Up
I had been having trouble swallowing and having food stick in my throat over the last year.  I had a swallow study done and then an upper endoscopy which revealed only that my esophagus wasn’t straight likely due to the spinal fusion hardware in the area but otherwise nothing was wrong.   I wasn’t excited about having a difficult time swallowing for the rest of my life but that’s what it looked like was going to happen.   The doctor said that sometimes the scoping process will cause the esophagus to reshape.   I was highly skeptical and truthfully forgot about that until just recently when it occurred to me I was having dramatically less trouble in swallowing and things weren’t getting caught any more.    What a happy and unexpected consequence.

How do they know where, “the game” is?
This happens from time to time.  Someone says something like, “can you turn the game on?” or “do you know what the score of the game is?”   People who know something (or a lot of things) about sports automatically know what sport, what game and where to find said game on the television.    I don’t even know what season it is.   I’m all about people enjoying their favorite teams play.   If you want a good laugh though, ask me a sports question.

Lack of Email
This five-day holiday weekend was email amazing.   I got hardly any, including Black Friday when I wouldn’t have been surprised to get a lot of sales-type emails.   People were spending time doing other things than sending email.   I did not miss checking my email one bit over the holiday.

Happy Children, Clean House, Sanity
Someone told me recently you can have two of the above, but not all three.   Which were the two I tried to have?   I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I swear, I try to have all three but I agree, it’s a near impossible thing to achieve.

The Big Boy Update:  My son knew it was a long holiday this weekend with five days without school.  On Thursday evening he asked me, “I have five days, how many are gone?”  When I told him two he said, “three are left.”   This sounds like great four-year-old subtraction but he was asking because he knows he doesn’t get the iPad on week days and wanted to know how many more non-school days were left.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  This morning my daughter looked at my sleeping clothes and said, “why do you always wear those?”  I explained they were my favorites.   She told me, “you should put them in the wash.”

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Glitter is Forever

I have a saying about glitter that isn’t very complimentary.   It’s been said many times by many people but I’ve adopted it because it’s just so true.   Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies.   The inference is once you have glitter, you can’t get rid of it.    I’m pretty vocal about my extreme prejudice against glitter.   Friends, family and even my children know how I feel.

That being said, glitter does come around from time to time and it must be dealt with.   Glitter greeting cards arrive in the mail, a holiday decoration that sheds a glitter-like substance must be treated with care and placed on a spot the children won’t bother it from.   And then there are the presents.

The thing about giving someone a present with glitter on it is it’s not your problem.   Like what happened to my parents, you may not even realize the adorable little cape the cashier put in the bag at the consignment store was barely holding on to four ounces of gold glitter, ready to shed its motherlode at the first sign of a glitter-free home.

Glitter is really fun if you’re a child.   Children are so carefree and I envy them more and more as I get older and realize they just aren’t bothered by things.   What am I bothered by?  Small bits of shiny stuff that is doing me no harm other than looking shiny in spots I don’t conjure shiny bits should be located.

My parents got this great cape—the one mentioned above—and my daughter loves it.   I like it too, aside from the glitter.  The night they gave it to us she wore it to dinner and when we got home I held it as carefully away from me as I would an angry skunk and went out to the deck.    I commenced a beating on the cape the likes of which only a very dirty, old rug would have expected.

In the dark via the light on the deck post I watched shower after of shower of glitter rain down on the wooden planks.   I beat on and when the cape had convinced me it had a near endless supply of golden glitter I went and got a brush.   I brushed it vigorously and then beat it some more.    Ultimately the cape won and I went to bed, leaving it in the garage where it could do minimal glitter-damage to the house.

I brought my husband out to see the amount of glitter on the deck.   He was impressed.  I was impressed but I knew it would be blown away in the wind the next day and I would be rid of it for good.

My parents came over for dinner the next afternoon and I showed them the amount of glitter that still remained on the deck, most likely due to a calm morning and afternoon.     Today, I needed to get the leaves off the deck so I got the leaf blower out.    When I walked out I noticed, four days after the cape beating, there was still glitter.   There was still a good bit of glitter.

But I had a leaf blower.   The leaves were no match for the leaf blower, but the glitter is still there on the deck.   It’s on the wood; it’s on the chairs; it’s on the pillows and it’s on the table.     I think my new saying is: “glitter is forever.”

The Big Boy Update:  My son brought his iPad over to me this evening and showed me how he had “cleaned up room” on the page so I could download him “a hundred new apps.”   He had kindly put the other apps into a folder.   I tried to explain how we had to wait for people to make the apps.   He told me he would check back in the morning and could I please have them installed by then?

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My mother said to me yesterday that my daughter was upstairs singing “Mary Had a Little Lamp.”

Friday, November 27, 2015

Bringing Back the Bowl

I have lost my temper and my voice too many times lately.    I jump into that snappy yell that brings my children to attention and makes them understand I mean business, I have had enough and they’d better shape up.   I don’t like when I do this, even though it gets results.    Tonight I just lost it at dinner because my son could absolutely not control his energy at the dinner table and was waggling the fondue sticks around like they were weapons.  

I grabbed his arm in front of four grandparents, my husband and his sister, squeezed it and said in a caustic tone, “you had better calm down right now or I will take you outside and I will hurt you.”  

What the hell kind of mother says that?  I wasn’t going to hurt him but the situation around me precipitated my response.   His sister was playing with her fondue sticks, trying to connect them together and in order to do so, she was holding the pointy ends about an inch from her left eye so she could see them.    That was scary but what do you tell her, that she can’t try to see something she’s going to have to use and understand in order to eat her meal?

My father and mother were confused about the ordering process and what to select and I swear, my son was literally bouncing around the booth seat between my mother-in-law and me and waving two pointy utensils around in front of us (I exaggerate a bit, but it felt that way.)    So I snapped a him.

He was very good for the remainder of the meal, including being very kind to me, but I was so frustrated I lost my temper.   I talked to him about it tonight and he told me it was never my fault when I got angry.   He said it was either his fault or his sister’s fault, depending on the one who was doing the thing I got upset at.    I told him thanks for understanding but that even so, I shouldn’t have yelled at him and I’ll keep trying to be a better mom if he’ll keep working with me.    He promised he would.

Tomorrow the yelling bowl is coming back out to help me remember to take at least one deep breath before I yell and snap at the children in the future.

The Big Boy Update:   My son and I went to a holiday show at the fairgrounds this morning.   There were several hundred vendors selling all sorts of things.   We saw Santa across the way and I asked him if he wanted to see him but my son said not today.   We looked at a few more things and then my son said, “let’s get outta here.”  I thought it was a good idea, so we did.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  You wouldn’t know it.   Today we ran into friends we haven’t seen in over a year at lunch.   They had no idea my daughter had any vision issues and I didn’t mention it (that’s never a short conversation.)  A lot isn’t obvious from basic interactions in a social setting.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

The Internal Calendar Clock

Every year it happens multiple times, I see a Christmas tree or hear a Fourth of July song or watch a television show relating to some holiday months in the future.  We might be months away from that particular holiday at the time and I mentally am so far away from being interested, prepared or excited for the day(s) to come around.   And yet as the time gets closer I always eventually get ready and look forward to the holiday or season.  It’s as if my body has not only a circadian daily rhythm, but an annual calendar rhythm as well.

It wasn’t but a few scant weeks ago I thought there was no way I was going to be ready for another Christmas season what with the crazy consumer mania, the overdone holiday decorations and the excessive amounts of sugar-based holiday treats on which I will be exposed to.   Then, yesterday at the holiday symphony concert, there were a few songs that got me almost to admitting I was just about ready to embrace the holidays yet again.

As the last number finished amid all the stage lights, they turned on lighting in some garlands around the stage I hadn’t noticed before.    The show was over and the message was, “let the holidays commence.”    It was at that point that I said to myself, “I’m in.”

Today we had two very nice meals, both with all four grandparents, to celebrate Thanksgiving.  We also had an adventure down at the creek in which both my children were allowed to ride on the zip line across the creek for the first time.   Talk about glee.  

The rest of the weekend I think I’m going to get to work on wrapping and preparing for mailing the presents I’ve been collecting for our upcoming “mega holiday” otherwise known as American Christmas.   But for now, thanks to all out there who have touched our lives and made them more joyful.

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Barbershop Update:  The children’s Uncle Dale is in the barbershop quartet.   While we were in the car the other day my mother opened her birthday present to find their latest CD.   We put it in the car’s CD player and explained to the children that Uncle Dale was one of the singers.   My daughter asked several times, “which one is Uncle Dale?”   My mother, not knowing how to adequately explain to my daughter the difficulty of picking out one voice among the others said, “uh...he’s the third one.”   This apparently answered my daughter’s questions completely.    We heard several songs and then Amazing Grace began to play.   My son suddenly said, “this would be a good song for Christmas.”

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

What Happened Today

I rarely do the “this is what happened today” blog posts because it seems too easy.  Or maybe that’s not true, maybe it feels too difficult because so many things happen in a given day that I’d be here writing for more time than I’d like to dedicate to any particular post (I’m already long-winded enough.)  Or, and maybe this is more it, I don’t want a blog that’s just a diary of my days.    I try to take some thought, some idea or some event that’s happened and expand on just that.    I really try to add humor if possible, but given that humor in writing is one of my weaknesses, it doesn’t happen often.

That being said, I’m going to tell you what happened in our lives today as a family on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving…

My children got up and my daughter got her own breakfast (totally not surprising.)  My son, knowing it was the weekend, got his iPad and didn’t even think about breakfast (also not surprising.)   My husband slept in and I got up.   This is one of those alternating things with him getting up sometime and me getting up other times.  More commonly we both get up.   It really depends on who can pretend they don’t hear the children for the longest.   Or—and this is more of late—the one the children don’t bother incessantly with questions gets to sleep while the other gets up from sheer question exhaustion.

At close to nine o’clock I put the children in the car and we drove to Mimi and Gramp’s house where I dropped my son off for a play date.   My daughter had a scheduled meeting with the county school system’s childhood vision expert for an evaluation in an unfamiliar environment for consideration for her IEP (Individualized Education Plan) application.    My daughter thought she was having a play date with Jane, which for all intents and purposes it was from her perspective.  

I left them at the children’s museum for an hour and got gas in the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) car (of the non-Tesla, minivan variety) and got one holiday gift errand run.   I met them back at the museum and had a conversation about next steps and her evaluation of my daughter’s visual situation.   She said there was no questions she qualified for assistance and that her needs were only in the one specific area of vision as she was doing very well in everything else.    She is going to try and speed up the approval process so we can hopefully have Jane join my daughter for help up to two afternoons each week at her school.   This would be fantastic, even if her vision completely resolves back to the original state.  

My daughter and I went to a “Make and Take” pizza place and picket up two uncooked pizzas for this evening’s dinner with all four grandparents.   We went back to my parent’s house and picked up my son, hearing about their adventures while we were away.   On the way home there was a lot of yelling and complaining in the car so I told them we were going to play the quiet game and anyone who was quiet the whole way home—five minutes away—would get a jelly bean.   They tried, really they did, but neither got the jelly bean.   The upside was all arguing was forgotten as they tried to be quiet.

As we arrived my in-laws were just pulling in.   We spent the next two hours catching up and getting ready for the one-hour symphony concert directed at children with music from Frozen and The Polar Express.   My daughter wore her Snow White dress that lit up and my son wore his polar bear pajamas to the event.   We met my parents there and encountered several friends and their children.

The concert was very nice, but an hour is a long time for children to sit in any seat in the dark.   My husband was the least-thrilled about the whole event because he had two boisterous children, one on each side, through the event.

My son fell asleep on the way home and my daughter disappeared to wind down with some iPad time herself when we arrived at the house.   My husband made the pizza and my parents arrived just about five o’clock.   We had a fun dinner with all four grandparents.   There was wine and whine.   Wine from the parents and whine from my son.   The pizza was eaten and dessert was had.

I escaped downstairs to write this blog post while things were a bit chaotic in the kitchen, hoping no one would notice I’d disappeared.   From the sounds I’ve been hearing as I type this, I think my mother and mother-in-law are playing a game of hide-and-seek with the children.   It’s a funny game because my son and/or daughter will from time to time give the other one away.      I’d better finish this up and go join in the fun.

The Big Boy Update:  My son wanted dessert tonight but he wasn’t going to get any until he finished his slice of pizza.   My mother saw him putting it in his napkin and she told him not to do that to which he replied, “but I’m trying to hide it from daddy.”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter’s vision is very poor, but she can see some things like colors.   At the concert tonight the stage which was at the “one big blob” distance for her was lit up in LED colors.    My daughter said, “I see Mickey Mouse!”   It took me a minute to figure out she meant the colored lights, brightly lighting up the walls and changing colors as the song progressed.   We have a Mickey Mouse-shaped light that can change colors.    I asked her, “do you mean the colored lights?” and she said, “yes, Mom.”

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

I Am Thankful For…

Being grateful and thankful for a child can be a challenge sometime.    My daughter seems to want approval so she is the one who more commonly will tell you thank you without prompting and be very sincere when she does.   My son is likely to begrudgingly tell you thank you after a protracted discussion about being gracious and other people’s feelings, although sometimes he is decidedly very much appreciative of someone or something.

With the season of giving upon us, and partially past us with my daughter’s birthday just a few weeks ago, continuing the work of thankfulness is a daily challenge.    My daughter has just finished drawing all her thank you cards—a task she’s enjoyed quite a lot, even though it’s taken many sessions to get the work completed.    Her brother even wanted to get involved and has pre-drawn on some cards in eager anticipation for upcoming birthday gifts.

Then today we had one of those less than ideal events where someone was most ungrateful (my son) and as parents it’s always embarrassing when things like this happen.   My parents had arrived and brought my daughter and son a present.  My daughter’s was a late birthday present of a yellow sparkly cape replete with barely-adhered glitter that is now all over our house (something I’m working on being grateful for myself.)  She was happy when she opened the gift and asked to have it put on her.   She wore it to dinner, dispersing glitter in the car, restaurant and sidewalk as she happily enjoyed her gift.

My son opened a bag to find two huge tennis balls.   He shoved the present away.   He pushed himself into the corner of the room and said, “I want another present!”   He absolutely did not like the balls and was hearing nothing more about it.   We got in the car and he continued his angry words about wanting another present, telling Mimi and Gramps he didn’t like his present, etc.

We had a conversation with him and told him it was okay to not like something, but you should still be grateful someone got you a present.  It was a hard sell as we drove to the restaurant to meet Mimi and Gramps in the other car.   When we got there Gramps called, saying someone had sideswiped his car and driven off but they would arrive shortly to the restaurant.   His car isn’t in great shape and his estimation of two-thousand dollars is probably about right for the repairs, but they weren’t hurt so we’re glad they’re okay.

My son did manage to be grateful after getting some calories in at dinner and decided to go around the table and hug every member of the family in thanks.

When we got home I had to call my mother because my son and husband spent twenty minutes playing with those two hated balls, laughing the whole time.  

The Big Boy Update:  After hugging everyone at the table tonight my son stopped, thought about it and then wrapped his arms around himself and wiggled, saying he was hugging himself.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  In the car my daughter said, “I’m thankful for my parents” after my husband had said something he was thankful for.    We told her how nice it was for her to say she was thankful for her parents and were immediately corrected as she said in a plaintive voice, “I said ‘PRESENTS!’”

Monday, November 23, 2015

With Organization Comes Empowerment

I heard the title of this post recently.   I don’t know who said it but I think I may have just found my personal by line.   Wow, what a great thought.  I do tend to feel more in control of things, more empowered as it were, when I’ve got things organized.

The children have toys everywhere, there are dishes on the counter, jackets on the floor and a pile of paperwork on my desk and I feel like I’m not in as much control of my imminent domain as I’d like to be.     At the end of the day, like now, when the kitchen is cleaned, the toys are put away and the stack of paperwork has been completed and I feel relaxed.   I’m ready to focus on other things, tomorrow for instance, because everything else is in order.

Some of that is just being tidy though, which I think is a form of organization.   There is the digital organization of the files on my computer and paper organization of the printed material in my file folders that makes up a lot of the abstract organization in my life.    We have the physical organization including where things are stored in our closets, drawers, cabinets and homes.   Having everything around me in a relative state of organization and order makes things just go easier I think.

And then there is the reduction in stuff organization.   This has always been one of my favorite types of organization because getting rid of stuff is just so freeing.   I mean who doesn’t love stuff?  But too much stuff can be a mental burden.  

So on the whole, I don’t really know where I was going with this whole post other than to say how much I love the saying.    I’ve got to finish writing this so I can go organize a drawer or something and feel more empowered.   Later, folks…

The Big Boy Update:  Too big for bat.   My son has a shirt he’s been wearing for two years now.  It’s black with eyes and nose on the front and gussets under the long sleeves that connect to the body, making the shirt look like a bat.   It has small bat ears sewed into the top of the shoulders as well.   Yesterday I noticed the shirt didn’t even go down to his wrists any more.   I told him we were going to have to retire his bat shirt.   He said something along the lines of, “noooooo!!!!!”  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   My daughter likes to make bracelets out of strips of paper she cuts with the paper cutter.   She then takes a piece of tape and tapes up a bracelet to wrap around her arm.   Lately she’s been asking us to write her name on the strip before she tapes it on.   She does this because every time she goes to the hospital for an eye evaluation or to have an infusion she gets a medical ID bracelet with her name on it.   When we leave we remove it.   This morning she got the scissors, cut the bracelet off and said in a happy voice, “Oh, I can go home now!”

Sunday, November 22, 2015

“And Then…”

There is an age that should be titled the, “and then” age.   It’s the age when a child blows past the maximum words they can use in a sentence because they realize all they need to do is put, “and then” at the end of a thought and they can stream it into the next, and next, and next, and next… thoughts.  

My daughter has figured this out and she’s done so earlier than her brother has.  I don’t think this is necessarily because she’s smarter than he is or because she is better verbally.   I think it’s because she realizes she can continue to hold your attention as long as she’s still completing one stream of thought.   Or so it seems to me.

That’s not always the case though, sometimes she has gotten quite interested in the story she was telling and neatly summed it up in one very protracted, run-on sentence.    It’s hard to interrupt a child to tell them you don’t have another ten minutes to hear about the acorn, the leaf and the piece of bark in the back yard because you need to answer the phone.

Recently I was substituting at school and one student in particular gave an exceptionally long performance of his “and then” skills while we were eating lunch.   The story veered off in unrelated directions so many times I wasn’t even sure if it was a real story, a dream or something he was just making up as he went in order to not lose our attentions (he had already lost us all.)   When I finally interrupted him one very patient student at the table said, “you should let other people have a chance to talk during lunch.”

We’re not that sophisticated in our “and then” story telling here at the house, but they are just starting to hone their skills.

The Big Boy Update:  This may make you cringe.  It did to me, but note that it was innocent in intention.    There was a commercial with a graphic image of a semi-automatic weapon of some sort that stayed there for the entire thirty-second commercial.   For the readers and adults in the room, we could read about how easy it would be to procure one of these weapons in our state and how bad that was.   My son, who has never seen a real gun brightened up and said, “dad has one of those.   He gets the bad guys with it in his video game.”    We are not going to be able to shelter our children for all of their lives, our hope is we can educate them and help them make moral decisions.   For now, I told him that yes, that did look similar to one of dad’s pretend guns in his video game.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  We were waiting for my daughter’s eye drops at the pharmacy drive-through this afternoon.  My daughter decided it was a good time to roll her window up and down, now that she’s large enough to reach the button.   After a few minutes of laughing happily at her new-found control over her window she said quietly to herself, “this is the best!”

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Hate Is the New Bad Guy

My son has gone through a lot of iterations on how to express his anger and frustration.   He initially used the phrase, “walk away” which was taken so far out of context from how it was intended to be used it too on a life of its own.   He would tell his pants to walk away if he couldn’t get them on.   He would tell the food to walk away if it wasn’t what he wanted to eat and most importantly, he’d tell us to walk away all the time, because as it turns out, small children don’t get their way as much as they’d like to.

He moved into a killing phase after that.   He wanted to kill people when they didn’t do what he said. That one got squashed fairly quickly for obvious reasons.   But he still had strong feelings and he needed to express them in a way that didn’t involve hitting, kicking or biting (which was the first thing he learned to control.)   It was at that point that we became bad guys.

“Bad guy” comes and goes now with both my son and daughter.   They don’t use it regularly, but when they don’t get something they want or are bitterly upset (which happens a lot with young children) the “mom is a bag guy!” comes out.

My daughter has decided “poopy” is her new replacement for bad guy.   After that one day when we came home from the hospital where she was having an extremely difficult time getting over the anesthesia and proclaimed everyone ‘poopy’ the label hasn’t ever gone away.   Just this morning I got called “poopy mom” because, well, I don’t rightly remember, but I’m sure it was super important to her at the time.

My son on the other hand just plain hates everything.   In any given day he probably lets us know he hates at least fifteen things.   This morning when he was very upset at my husband because of some breakfast slight he said, “do you want me to hate you?”   This was after he had expressly stated his hatred of my husband, the food, the plate, the time of day and the trash can into which his food had been placed.  

So it’s hateful poopy all around the house these days.   Surely you want to come and visit for a spell?

The Big Boy Update:  My son was hiding pieces of cereal in one hand and asking me to guess which hand it was in.   After a few times he found me in the living room and told me to guess.  Before I could say anything he gave me a hint it started with, “buh buh”.   I guessed the left hand, thinking I wasn’t hearing him clearly.   He smiled and opened both of his hands to reveal a piece of cereal in each.   He said, “I said ‘buh buh’ because ‘both’ starts with ‘buh’”.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Yesterday I was talking about family and how we were looking forward seeing some of our family over the holidays.   My daughter mused out loud, “I really miss uncle bob and uncle Brian and I miss Aunt A too.”   She then went on to tell me quite the involved story of what Zipper (Uncle Bob and Uncle Brian’s cat) does while they’re here visiting us.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Stereoscopic

The Tiny Girl What Can She Really See Update:  My daughter’s vision fluctuates.   Or at least we think it does.   We say to each other, “it was a good day” or “it’s a bad day” when we talk about her vision.    Sometimes we can see distinct changes during a day as well.  

Some of the things she can see far away, like big shapes and colors, is surprising.   Other times, it’s depressing.  It seems like she can see things close up well, like when she’s watching something on the iPad.   But other times, like when she’s trying to recognize a three-dimensional object she’s never seen before, she seems to have no idea unless you give her some direction.

Today, amongst all the questionable vision she’s having, she did do one thing that gave us some information.    She had her four-year-old wellness check at her pediatrician’s office.   One of the vision tests they do is to look at a stereoscopic sheet and see if they can pick out shapes within the whole.  

She was uncertain at first, but then she realized what the nurse was asking and was able to find all four images.   This is a good indication she is seeing something from both eyes, even if her main point of “focus” is off to the left in a plane in her left eye.  

The Big Boy Update:   My son needed to go to the bathroom yesterday.   He told me as he was heading in that direction, “I have potpourri.  It was a giant potpourri.”    His use of this word, while funny in and of itself, is likely related to the Poopourri we have in the bathroom and use regularly (thanks to Uncle Eric and Aunt Kelly’s gift last Christmas.)

Thursday, November 19, 2015

It Was a Loud and Angry Day

I don’t know what happened but today was full of some very “strong feelings” as they say at my children’s school.   There was the typical breakfast where someone is unhappy about one thing or another until they start eating at which point things settle down, but after school, whew, it all went to hell.

My son didn’t want to do anything until I offered it to his sister  and then that was the only thing he wanted to do in the whole world.    The main event was my offer to roll the big, uncharted pumpkin down the hill into the back yard.  When he definitively said no I asked his sister, who stopped what she was doing, took off her socks and went out in the warm November afternoon to roll a lopsided pumpkin down a hill of wet grass into the natural area in the back yard. 

This made my son angry.   He wanted to take a turn (he was not given a turn.)   He did several ungracious things and said many unkind things while my daughter happily rolled the pumpkin into the edge of the briers on the right side of the back yard.   I retrieved it and took it to the left side of the back yard and let her roll it one last time down the steep hill.   It gained speed but held firm, rolling over the retaining silt fence from ten years ago into the lowlands and surprisingly enough into the creek almost out of sight through the trees. 

She and I were thrilled.  My son was not.   On the way back to the front door she went around a bush that was at the edge of a tall brick wall.   I hear her screaming and run back, because what if her brother was trying to push her over the edge? (Yes, he was that unhappy we were gaily ignoring his moaning complaints.)   I rounded on the bush to hear her cry, “he peed on me!”   And he had.   It was clear from the color and location on the front of her shirt that was exactly what he had done. 

My son got marched into the house, stripped of clothing and sent to his bedroom where he was told he wasn’t allowed out until he was called down for dinner.   He was irate.   I was more-so.   There is more, but know that his mood didn’t improve, even behind a shut door.  

His sister had her own moments, bursting out with screams of anger for seemingly slight things.   I’m not sure what’s happening with the two of them, but my husband and I have also been on edge too.   So be forewarned, if our entire family comes down with some fall sickness in a day or so, it was already brewing, based on our moods today. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son did not get to go to Tae Kwon Do tonight as punishment for peeing on his sister.   He was very unhappy about this.    Controlling your anger is tough, believe me, I know from experience. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter got her white belt (the first belt) at Tae Kwon Do tonight.   If she could see well, she would easily have qualified for it.  I think they pushed it a bit because she can’t function well in the class when she can’t see the instructor’s moves at the front.   I’ve stood with her for over half of the last two classes so she can watch what I’m doing up close and mimic my moves.   She really wants to do the moves, but her frustration shows in anxiety, shyness and whining when it’s hard to see.   Hopefully we’ll be able to determine after the trial month is up if she’ll be able to continue or if we want to wait a few months to for her vision to improve.  

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Another Board

No, no, not me, my husband.  We had our annual meeting for our neighborhood this evening.   December will mark the fifth year we’ve lived in this neighborhood and throughout that entire time we have had more and more houses being built.   It’s been fun, it’s been exciting, it’s been super nice to have neighbors.    Tonight was the night the developer handed over control of the Homeowners Association to the residents.

We elected five members to join the board and my husband—foolishly or not—choose to run.   I say foolishly because it was joining the board of my children’s school over three years ago that started my “not working for income” job that many weeks can take up to twenty-hours of my time.

But that being said, I’m quite excited for him.  He’ll do a great job.  He’s got a good personality to be working with homeowners to ensure the neighborhood is managed well.  He is reasonable and isn’t easily swayed by people who have their own agendas.  

In short, congratulations.

The Big Boy Update:  Our sitter, Kica, told us about this one tonight.   She said he clearly knows how to take advantage of his sister’s visual disability.   They were making potato heads before bed and had decided to save them to show us at breakfast.  My daughter loudly complained that she didn’t want to save hers but wanted to put it up instead.   While she and Kica put the remainder of the pieces away, my son sneakily and quietly stole her potato head and put it on the coffee table with the others.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  On the way home from school today we were talking about making banana bread when we got in.   My daughter said, and I quote verbatim because I know he reads this blog, “Do you know what?  I think Uncle Bob makes the best bread in the whole world.”

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Homecoming Stories

We returned this morning from our adults-only, child-free vacation to Las Vegas.   My in-laws had been with our children for over five days and we were wondering how things went.   We knew it went well from the text messages with pictures we received but we were still glad to be home.

We didn’t talk to our children once during the whole trip.   I know a lot of parents call their children and talk to them each night.   We had friends doing some face timing with their daughter on her birthday.  It is only right now as I write this paragraph that I realized we didn’t talk to them the entire time.    I left a message on Nana’s phone once and told the children we missed them, loved them and knew they were having a fantastic time without us, but that was it.

And the children were completely happy.  They went to a zoo.   They got musical watches.   My son even learned how to dance—but more on that later.  I got an email from Nana earlier that said she meant to tell us that the children found our framed wedding picture at their house this weekend.   She said they liked to carry it around with them.    But I think the important thing is that our children aren’t anxious about being without us.   They can have a great time and not be worried about where we’ve gone or how long it will be until we come home.  

I didn’t suffer from separation anxiety a lot as a child from what I can remember, but the few times I did, it’s not at all fun.   I’m glad the children were too busy having a great time to worry about us.

The Big Boy Update:   On the way home from school my son suddenly and quietly said, “mom, I missed you.”   He then asked me about the hound dog.   I told him I did know about the hound dog song and that I heard he could dance to it.   He told me about a second song he’d learned all about from Nana and Papa while we were gone, including how to get the song to play in the kitchen.   He told me, “you have to say, ‘Alexa, play Blue Suede Shoes by Elvis Presley.’”  He showed me his dance moves when we got home, although I told him he was not allowed to stand on the bar to dance, even if Elvis Presley had done so back in the day.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   My daughter and I were in the bathroom working on her hair after coming home to see each other after five days away.   I told her, “I missed you.”   She replied, “I missed you too.  How was your race?”   After that she went to a hidden spot and pulled out two lego structures she had made and told me they were presents for dad and me.   Mine was an excavator.

Monday, November 16, 2015

Rock & Roll Las Vegas 2015

Okay folks, first of all I have to say what a great time we had.   Last night was our marathon along the  closed Las Vegas strip and it was a spectacular event.   The amount of work that went into making this even happen was staggering.   I have zero complaints about the registration fee given the experience we had last night.

The first challenge was getting to the event.   The monorail was backed up with runners trying to get close to the starting line and the main road was closed to traffic so all transportation was constrained and slower as a result.  We elected to try for a cab, sharing a ride with two strangers also trying to get to the race.

When we arrived there was a sea of port-a-potties like none other.   We were grateful however on account of our need to use one each.    We made our way to the staring line and decided to move up in corral from where we had been placed because we’d been pacing faster in our recent runs.   I’m glad we did, because we spent the majority of the race running past other runners.

At this point, something strange happened.   The clouds darkened, bringing on night more quickly than expected, the wind became intense and suddenly there was a prediction for rain over the next three hours.    It felt like we were in an impending storm, about ready to unleash on the city.  

We started the run, running on Las Vegas Boulevard heading away from the main strip area.   As we felt a few drops of rain we turned back and headed down the main casino/hotel strip.  We passed by our hotel at about three miles in to find our families waiting on the side lines, cheering us on.   How sweet!

The rain started a bit more then and we realized we had two hazards to contend with: first, there was the road itself which was wide, but had inset lane markers that raised slightly from the street.   Because we were passing runners and people shifted around frequently, watching to make sure you didn’t stumble over a reflective marker was a bit of a trick.   We also were getting into more rain, which was making the usually dry roads slippery.     I did fall down at about six miles in, but it was a controlled fall (I’m only half a klutz) and I survived with only a sore rump and a little bruise.

We made it to Fremont street and saw the edge of the Fremont Street Experience and then made a few turns after which we headed off into the marathon only track, leaving the half-marathoners to head back to the finish line.    It was at this point that the race got a little less flashy and more urban street-esque as we headed through other areas of Las Vegas for another thirteen-some miles.

The run at this point was fun, although less casino-esque.  Oh, forgot to mention we ran down a whole row of marriage chapels before.   I knew there were a lot of wedding chapels, but I’d never seen them before because I’d never been to that area of Las Vegas.   We passed the municipal building where my husband and I officially got married six years ago (our ceremony was in the Bellagio later that day.)   We also ran by the Pawn Stars store from the well-known reality show.

We spent the next several hours looking for Uncle Jonathan who we knew would be ahead of us and telling stories.   We found him—I ran across the line and hugged him—and then carried on.    When we reached the turnaround I looked back and couldn’t believe how far away the Stratosphere was.   I also couldn’t believe how high up we were.   We had been gradually running uphill for miles.  

Running downhill was nice, but nicer still was each and every hydration station.   It’s at about eighteen or twenty miles that the race becomes a bit of a chore, but we were still managing our pace (which we were doing very well on) and we were still running easily.

When we made it back to the stratosphere however, we were ready to be done.   Most of the race is great but the last several miles are steady hell and running in the cold, high winds was making the last part of the race challenging.    It was cold, but I’d had my shirt off and around my waist for a lot of the race but later on it was too cold and we were ready to be done.

We had been passing people most of the race and we kept on passing people (which is a huge motivator mentally) even though our legs were protesting and complaining about fatigue, pain, cramps, etc.  

Once we passed the stratosphere we still couldn’t see the strip.   The main strip is big where the heck was it?   Eventually we saw the Wynn Encore building but it taunted us and maintained its distance for what seemed an eternity.    Finally we passed it and realized the end was fairly close.

We crossed the finish line to the cheers of our husbands, who had been following us via their cell phones throughout the race.   The had brought us our jackets and were so great to be there to support us.    We had text messages from family and friends congratulating us and we were exhausted but happy.

Was it a good race?  Hell yes.   It was so much fun.   I’ve told all our friends who were there, some of whom ran their first half-marathon and some who ran shorter races during the weekend, that I’m doing this again next year if possible.   I loved it.

I loved even more though the time if afforded us to spend with our family.   My husband’s three siblings and their partners, wives or friends joined us this weekend.   We got to spend time together (albeit with the busy schedule of the weekend it was tight to fit in as much time as we would have liked.)    I’m not sure I have enough happy words to describe how much fun this weekend was.

Thanks to everyone for the support and thanks to all who joined us to make this such a special weekend all around.

The Big Boy Update:  My son is going to be a leader, even if only in his own mind.   He loves telling people what to do.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is going to be the best friend you could imagine.   She loves people and loves to be friends with everyone.

Fitness Update:  Rock & Roll Marathon Las Vegas … check!

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Rock & Roll 5K

We’re in Las Vegas for the Rock & Roll Marathon series this weekend.   Last night was a pre-race day 5K off the strip.    My husband isn’t a runner due to a knee injury from many years ago but also due to preference.   Running isn’t really his thing.

We got on a cram packed monorail with droves of other runners to head to the last stop on the line and then walk to the festival grounds on which the race was mapped out.    There were about eight thousand people there.

It was a fun run for me because I don’t get to run with my husband much.   He didn’t train for the race at all.   When I trained up to run a 5K I worked for thirteen weeks to get my cardiovascular and muscular systems ready for the duration and distance of the run.   My husband?  He just did it.   He paced with me and only walked for about one minute after we got past the two mile mark.   I was quite proud of him.

Getting back was a bit of a trick as many, many people opted to not stay and watch the post-race concert.   We ended up walking over a mile to get to the Wynn to catch a cab back to our hotel where we showered and headed to see La Reve (which is always a great show.)

Today is the marathon.   I’m off now to eat a big brunch before the event.

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Separation Anxiety Update:   My children don’t really have separation anxiety.   My husband and I wanted them to feel comfortable without us around them.   I’m sure they miss us, but they are happily having a vacation weekend with Nana and Papa while we’re visiting here.   We’re so happy they’re having fun and so grateful for the grandparents who made this trip possible for us.

Fitness Update:  5K in Las Vegas with my husband.  Good times!

Saturday, November 14, 2015

The Blast Off Seat

When I was a little girl the laws for wearing seat belts didn’t exist yet.   As I grew up they were passed, in increments, first requiring lap belts in the front seat then over time shoulder belts and back seat riders were made requirements.    As a child, we didn’t worry about collisions (we were children) and we had some fun times in our back seat as a result. 

The first car I have good memories of riding in was a blue, older model Mercedes.   I want to say it was a 280 model, but that may be wrong.  I know my parents called it by the number and not the brand most of the time.  My parents had that car for a long time and it served our family well throughout my childhood.   

One of the “features” in the car was the “blast off seat.”  Most Mercedes didn’t have such a feature, but my mother told me the large, middle back seat arm rest, when folded down, was just such a seat.    All I had to do was fold it down, sit on it (optionally put on the non-required seat belt) and then prepare for blast off. 

When I was ready, she’d push in the cigarette lighter in the front dash board and we’d count down.   We weren’t ever sure how long the count down was, but when we heard the cigarette lighter pop, we’d yell, “blast off!”    

So that’s it.   That’s all it was.   But that little imagination game my mother came up with got more excitement and compliance out of not only me, but neighborhood children as we went places in the blue car.   

One year our next-door-neighbor’s son was starting school at the elementary school and my mother offered to drive him when she took me.    He was terribly shy and scared and didn’t want to get in the car.    But when he heard about the blast off seat he cautiously climbed in, say up and bravely looked forward as we headed off to school and he prepared to be launched by the seat.     It only took one trip on the blast off seat for Joey to get over his fear of going to school with us.    

My mother was a clever lady.

The Big Boy Update:  My son and daughter were at a park today, climbing up one of the play structures.   I got a picture from my in-laws with the caption, “it’s a race.”   Both children were clambering up one of the sides of the structure with an eye to get to the top first.   I didn’t get a follow-up message on who the winner was.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   I got a delightful picture of my daughter in a park, hiding behind a tree from my mother-in-law today.   The picture makes me smile because it’s one of the only pictures I’ve seen in a while where my daughter’s face doesn’t look bloated from the prednisone and her eyes don’t look disengaged from her visual impairment.    The prednisone is on final taper and her eyes are healing.   Hopefully there will be many more pictures like today’s in the near future. 

Fitness Update:   Apparently we walked over four miles yesterday to get to the convention center to pick up our registration packets for the two races we’ll be running today and tomorrow.   My husband and I are going to leave shortly to travel to the starting line for the 5K that’s this evening.   I’m looking forward to running Las Vegas at night.

Friday, November 13, 2015

One

We went to see Michael Jackson’s The One show in Las Vegas tonight.  The big shows here are always an experience.    As I watch the shows and see something new with lighting, choreography, acrobatics, stage equipment and costumes I can’t help but admire the creativity of the people who put together the performance.   There’s always something spectacularly new and different.

It was a trip back through Michael’s music intertwined over time.   I remembered all the songs and recollected what was happening in my life when each was popular.   I knew he had had a lot of hits, I had forgotten how many.    

The Big Boy Update:  My son was unexpectedly interested in singing the other day.   Getting his sister to stop singing is generally a challenge but he seems not so interested in musical pursuits.   We were going to school and she was singing into a plastic microphone.    He said, “it’s my turn now.”  She handed him the microphone and then he and she had a conversation about what song he should sing.   Then he did a reasonably on-key rendition.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My father-in-law sent a picture of my daughter very happily eating gummy bears at dinner yesterday at one of her favorite restaurants.   She is now doubt having a great weekend with her grandparents.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Well, He Didn’t Want to do Ballet

I really like the families at our school.   They’re not pretentious, even though many of them are doctors or lawyers or elected politicians or even federal judges.   They’re not judgy (which I don’t think is a word, but I like the sound of ‘judge’.)   They don’t care about ethnicity or religious beliefs and they’re supportive of the parents, children and teachers.

We started Tae Kwon Do at the beginning of the week this week and both children are really enjoying it.   When we arrived on the first day I one of the mothers from our school there with her daughter, who is in my daughter’s class.   We talked for a little bit and I asked her how her son, who is older, was liking Tae Kwon Do.   She said, “well, he didn’t want to do ballet so we thought we’d try this.”  

I didn’t ask for details, I just liked the thought that she had considered and offered ballet to her son before going with a more stereotypical male activity.    We have several people in school who’s daughters and sons do dance camp in the summer.   I’m not sure either of my children would be interested, but I might try when they’re a few years older.

The Big Boy Update:  Two classes into Tae Kwon Do and my son is loving it.   The only complaint is that they don’t get to use swords.    When we arrived on the first day of class, the older students were practicing with swords.   I had to explain to my son about dedication, perseverance, getting some belts and practice.    I’m not sure he got all of what I was saying.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has had two incident reports sent home recently for pinching.   She’s gotten frustrated and acted out physically.   This is not like her normally, but with her vision issues, it may be something we have to work on.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Another EUA and the Results

It’s been four weeks since my daughter has had an Evaluation Under Anesthesia (EUA) to see the status of her eyes.   The whole family went today on account of school being out and both of the adults wanting to know the latest.   I’ll cut to the interesting part and lay out what her lead doctor said after she was in recovery.

Her eye pressure is undetectably low.  It’s somewhere between zero and one, which is what their OR machine can register.  A pressure of five would be good.  Her pressure would be like pushing on her eye and feeling it not respond or bounce back.   He described it as, “squishy like a grape”.

The abnormal blood vessels in the eye are still inactivated and have not reoccurred.  Her retinal detachments overall look unchanged from last time (one month ago) to this time but they do not look worse.   They have improved from the initial EUA in September, however.  Initially the retinas looked stiff and bellowed outwards.  The stiffness has resolved and not there are folds and wrinkles in the retinas.    There could be interaction with the vitreous  and the fluid buildup behind the retinas.

There is a thickening of the choroid, the later behind the retina, which is due in part to the inflammation.   They were able to get a better view of the choroid this time.   They are seeing signs of inflammation in the optic nerve.   They did an ultrasound and didn’t see anything unexpected.

The dye test showed good blood flow throughout the retina.   They didn’t see a lot of leaking in the blood vessels, which was something they initially saw with the reduced blood flow to the eyes.  

One component of her poor vision is due to the low pressure.   They gave her another injection of Kenalog steroids directly into the eyes today and hope this will help with healing.   A side effect is sometimes these injections lead to high pressure.   There is no medication that will increase inter-ocular pressure.

One big thing that’s in play with in her eyes is the low pressure.   It’s like dealing with a leaky balloon.   There are fluid producing cells and drainage systems.   The fluid-production isn’t keeping up with the drainage.   It’s putting her eyes in sort of a shut-down mode.   Continuing to control the inflammation and increasing the pressure should help the overall situation. Unfortunately, there is no good way to stimulate the eye to make more fluid.

The structure of the eye and the function of the eye are related.  From a functional point she doesn’t see well.   She may have gaps in her vision that allow her to see better at some times and in some situations.   The real issue with this is the long-term effect of all of this.   A lot of the changes in her eyes have been in place for several months.   Once the healing has taken place, the brain and the eyes will have to come together again and remap what she sees with what her brain interprets.   This may take some time.  Fortunately, she is young and her eyes and brain are still developing with relation to vision.

So it doesn’t sound particularly positive as of today.   But she is just getting to full dosage on the immunosuppressant medication and the hope is that the situation has stopped worsening and will now begin to get better.    We will have another EUA in a month to find out more.

The Big Boy Update:  My son is now one of two four-year-olds in our household as his sister turned four today.   He was a very kind brother during all of the hospital events of the day as we took him with us to her EUA.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  EUA on her birthday?   Alas, we go with the surgeon’s schedule and that’s what was available.   We made up for it with fun, family and food tonight.  


Tuesday, November 10, 2015

The Blue Light I Didn’t Notice

I’ve discovered a blue light I’d overlooked before.   It was there, it was happening, I noticed it, but I didn’t pay any attention to it.   Now I realized what it means.  

This is about the Awesome Car, which I forgot to mention.   And if you don’t know what the awesome car is, you should ask my children, because as far as they’re concerned, that is the official name for our Tesla Model S.  

Our typical day goes something like this:  select the awesome car when possible.   Get there first—don’t be the one stuck taking the kids to school in the ICE minivan (Internal Combustion Engine).   Drive in great comfort and style while simultaneously focusing your energy on maximum efficient driving habits so you can arrive home with better Wh/mi than your spouse can manage.    Plug in the car to recharge it for the next driver.

Okay, it doesn’t really happen like that.   We always agree on who is going where and with which car, mostly dictated by those children factors and the car seats in the minivan, but the rest of the story is reasonably true.    Every time we come home we plug in the car.   It recharges via the grid (or now solar) and when we go out next we have a fully charged car.

The plug for the Model S has a light ring around it.   There are multiple colors the light ring shows to indicate what’s happening.   There is red which means you aren’t even close to getting the plug in, orange which means you’re close, but not quite, green which is what you want to see, meaning you’ve successfully mated your car with the charging plug.   When charging is done or nothing is plugged in, the ring is white.

Until recently I hadn’t realized there was another color that flashed by so fast I didn’t pay attention.   The color blue comes up, followed by green for charging…that is unless you have delayed charging on for things like time-of-use energy consumption plans such as what we’re now on with our electric company.  We were able to get on this plan when the solar system went live.

It is more economical to have the car charge on off-peak hours than it is during some of the on-peak hours.   The car is programmed to defer charging until after 9PM.    That blue light is the “all is a go for charging later.”   Charging overnight and watching the energy utilization and production has been pretty exciting, so much so that I wrote an entire blog post about a blue ring of light.

The Big Boy Update:  He had to eat dinner last night without his shirt on in the restaurant because he refused to lean over the plate when he ate food dipped in a sauce.   My husband warned him if he got the sauce on his shirt he was going to lose it.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  We had my daughter’s birthday celebration at school today.   She held the earth globe and walked around the candle representing the sun while we sang the song about how the earth goes around the sun one rotation for each year we are old.   From the number of times she walked around that candle during the four rounds of singing we did, she is at least in high school.

Monday, November 9, 2015

Costco’d

I think I’m going to start using a new phrase in our house because it seems to happen a lot.   It may happen to my husband or Uncle Bob when he’s visiting or, and this is the important one, me when I take a trip for one thing like toilet paper and come home with seven other things I didn’t have on the list but couldn’t resist when I got there.   I can hear myself now, shaking my head and saying to my husband, “I see you got Costco’d.”  

We have a membership to two warehouse stores in the area and we frequent them both.   There lies a trick in going there to get what you need and not being taken in by too many things you don’t need.   I have two issues when it comes to getting “Costco’d” and those are in order of magnitude: size and size.

Size one is the too much kind of size.   Yes, we like cheese sticks, but we didn’t need ninety-six of them.    Bulk items are great—if you have a bulk need, which we usually don’t.   I like a bargain, but not when it’s at a price of storing something for months in a refrigerated environment only to have to some of it out in the end because we didn’t consume it before it expired.

My other size complaint is of the MEGA variety.  These warehouses are big.   They have lots of floor space and their ceilings are high.   They have customers who have the ability to buy the biggest Halloween inflatable or the most insanely huge artificial tree or a toy train that’s about 1:2 scale and takes an entire back yard just to set up.   When it comes to these kinds of things, bigger isn’t better as far as I’m concerned.

Today I got mildly Costco’d.   I got something I didn’t need more of today, but I would use in the near future.   Thankfully I could fit the supplies in the drawer I keep backups in.   I got my daughter a jacket I wasn’t sure she needed but the jacket was everything she was going to love and it was sixteen dollars and I couldn’t remember if she had a winter jacket that fit her from last year and it went in my cart and I made peace with the impulse buy before I was even in the checkout lane.   It turns out she needed the jacket and happily wore it for the rest of the day when I showed it to her.

It wasn’t a bad day at the warehouse store for me, there have been worse times I’ve gotten Costco’d.

The Big Boy Update:  Extended Day.   We found out at our recent parent/teacher conference that my son will be going into Extended Day in January.   He won’t be told this until the end of December and it will be a happy time when he finds out from his teachers because becoming an “extended day-er” is a big thing in his world.   This means he’s going into, “kindergarten” or the equivalent thereof in Montessori school.   Because he’s five-years-old in December and the teachers believe he is mature enough to join the extended day class, he will start going to school for a full day, ending at 3:00 like other kindergarten children.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   My daughter has been feisty lately.  She has bitten, pinched, hit and screamed at other children in the past two weeks.   This isn’t normally like her.   She seems to be dealing with the stress of her vision situation well, but perhaps there’s something we’re not able to understand that’s going on.   Tomorrow, we have a meeting with her therapist, who wants to give us some advice on how to understand what’s happening with her and how we can best support her.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

The Rain Adventure

Yesterday morning I went running with my neighbor.   We started out without rain but we returned home drenched.   I went to the bathroom to get cleaned up and when I came out I realized my husband and children weren’t in the house.  

I checked the cars—they were there.   I debated calling my husband but I figured they were somewhere having fun and would return eventually.    A short while later I heard the door chime from the garage, followed by the pattering of two running children into the master bedroom.   Two naked children ran into the room and cried out, “warm bath, warm bath!”

As I started the bath, they began to tell me about their rain adventure.   They had gone down the steep hill behind our house and had gone along the creek.   They found a way to cross the creek and got wet as the did so.   They found a zip line and a tree house built by some children in the neighborhood.   My son wanted to use the zip line but we’re not sure he’s ready to hold on yet, so my husband told him he could when he was older.

As they came home, they found big rocks to throw in the creek and then they discovered they could cross the creek at a location where the water level was higher than their rain boots so they got filled up with water, as did my husband’s shoes.

They made it home and were so happy about the adventure they asked if we could do another one that afternoon.

The Big Boy Update:  The, “can you get me this App” thing may become an interesting thing for my son.   He found a second app (was prompted to buy it by a well-targeted ad) and now has two new apps that require reading.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I’m going to draw an ‘L’.   My daughter’s vision difficulties make it hard to know what she can and can’t do, but today she said she was going to draw several things, and then did a good job of doing what she said she was going to do.   She can’t see well, but she can do many things.


Saturday, November 7, 2015

Stuck in Work

I came to the basement to write this post hours ago when my husband was putting the children to bed.   I am getting to this post now, with my eyes focusing not so well, because I got “stuck” in work.  

It’s a common phenomenon that when you sit down at your desk, it’s easy to get sucked into all sorts of other things that need to get taken care of and the thing you came to the computer to do in the first place gets put further down the list.   That or you get attacked by the distraction monster.   “Ooo, an email from so-and-so about the thing I need to order online for my uncle for Christmas,” for instance.   You know, that kind of stuff.

I was distracted by medical insurance re-enrollment, emails about birthday parties, presents for the children for the holidays, catalogs, annual fund mailings, annual fund phonathon, annual fund coordination.

But I got things done.   Things have been accomplished and my to do items are less now than they were earlier, so that makes me happy.   I love having my list of things to do in order.

The Big Boy Update:  Today my son said something to me he’s never said before.  I have a feeling I’m going to hear this a lot more as he gets older:  “mom, can you download this app for me?”   I downloaded it and explained it was going to be an app that needed reading to understand and that’s why working on his sounds at school would be good so he could learn to read.    We’ll see if it’s made an impact on him.   For now, he’s hatching dragon eggs and building a dragon city in some app.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted a cheese stick, saltine crackers and a knife to spread some Wow Butter.    It was a bit unconventional, but she seemed happy spreading Wow Butter for twenty minutes.

Fitness Update:  We ran six miles this morning in no rain, a tiny misting, a drizzle, rain, intermittent heavy rain, full-blown heavy rain.    My shoes were squishy and I was drenched when we got back in.   But it was a great run in seventy-degree weather.  

Friday, November 6, 2015

Missing Friends

We went to a wedding reception for good friends of ours tonight.   They got married several months ago, but tonight was the celebration they had with their family and friends.  It was a great event.  I loved the music, food, drinks and service.   And most of all, I enjoyed seeing friends.

One of the couples we saw were friends we had been closer to in years past but had drifted apart since we had had children and they had had their daughter.   I think after tonight we may get together more often as a group, children included, to share time together.

The other friend I was so glad to see was someone who I used to date, then he married a friend of ours.   They adopted and raised a child and then they later got divorced.   He now lives in an area close to Boston.    All that time and all those events and I miss him though as one of our friends.   Regardless of the fact that we dated many years ago, he is still one of our friends and the group of us miss him.    It was so nice to see him and catch up this evening.

Thanks for asking me to dance, Matt.   I had a fun time dancing with you, our friends and their children out on the dance floor tonight.

The Big Boy Update:  My son got a ninja toy from the dollar store yesterday.   He didn’t treat it gently and it broke.   We were able to fix it but I had a, “you get what you pay for” conversation with him about quality just in case.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I wasn’t letting my daughter have candy, cookies or dessert for snack the other day.   She complained loudly, “I don’t get to eat anything, ever!”   I told her when she selected a healthy snack I would help her with something to eat.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

The Guy I Almost Killed

Note the word ‘almost’ in the title.   All is well.   He didn’t die nor was he even maimed.   But it could have happened.   

This evening my husband had a meeting followed by a movie date with one of our neighbors husbands (who is as enthusiastic about going to the movies as I’m not.)   I took the children to dinner and then headed back to drop my daughter off for her play session with her therapist, Ms. Dhruti.    

It was as we were driving in the now early-evening darkness on a relatively big street that I yelled out, “oh my God!” and hit the brakes.   There was not one, but three people dashing across the multi-laned street from the strip mall to the apartment complex and they were entirely too close to the car as far as I was concerned.   

The children asked why I’d yelled and I explained that I almost hit someone with the car and that person would have been hurt very badly had I done so.   I told them I didn’t think I’d ever been that close to hitting someone and it had scared me.   Here’s the thing though: did I not see them when I should have?   Was I not paying attention?   I was upset at myself.    Yes, they were running in the middle of traffic, wearing dark clothing, in the dark, no where near a cross walk when the lights on either side of the area were green, but still, my job as a driver is to watch for hazards.

I was shaken.  Maybe I wasn’t that close.   It was likely the people (including the one that was quite close to my car) were making their own choice on how fast they needed to move to get out of the way and weren’t relying on me seeing them at all, but it didn’t feel like that on my end when they came into view from my headlights.  

We dropped off my daughter and then my son and I left, heading back in the direction I’d just come.   Shortly after driving through the intersection I saw another darkly dressed person crossing the road ahead of me.   Then half-way between the stop lights there were three people standing in the middle of the street on the divider, waiting for an opening to dash between cars.    

So it wasn’t just once and it’s not just one person making the deathly dash across that street.   Still, I’m going to be hyper-aware whenever I go through there again after tonight’s experience. 

The Big Boy Update:  I was in the process of telling my son he did not need to wear his rain boots today and he needed to change into his other shoes when he told me, “I get to choose what shoes I wear.”   I stopped, thought and said, “yes, you can make that choice.”   We discussed as long as he was not choosing inappropriately (such as wearing crocks to school) then he could make the choice now.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Ms. Dhruti.   My daughter has had only one “play date” with Ms. Dhruti, her play therapist, and already she feels like they’re long lost friends.   She has been asking when she could go play with Ms. Dhruti again and today was the day.   When she was done with her session, she told me all about the fun things they did in the play room at her office.   Next week my husband and I have a meeting with Ms. Dhruti to find out what she’s learned.    Sadly, we’ll be missing Ms. Dhruti for several weeks after that as she must return to India due to the death of one of her parents.  

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Thin Versus Skinny

Is there a difference in meaning between those words to people?  Without looking them up, does one have the connotation of, “not overweight” while the other one conveys the thought of, ‘underweight’  I’m not altogether sure what the difference is to me, but I had an epiphany just now and decided to write about it here.  

This summer we were in New Jersey visiting my brother-in-law’s family for our annual summer vacation.  After dinner one night my husband and I went for a walk on the board walk and witnessed an unusual phenomenon.  There was a double rainbow visible off shore to the South.    We took a few pictures and kept walking.   Af few minutes later we realized there was also a rainbow visible at the other end of the arc, up the shore to the North.

We decided to take a picture using the panorama feature of the iPhone’s camera.   Just before taking the shot my husband said, “okay, do this” and then told me how to get in the picture more than once.   He started panning from the left and caught me in-frame.   As he panned right I ran around behind him and jumped into the picture mid-pan.   As he passed by me a second time I ran around him again and got into the picture at the double rainbow end.

The picture was great.   You could see all three sections of the rainbow and I magically had two siblings.    I had forgotten about the picture until yesterday when I found it looking for something else.   My husband said, “you should use that as your Facebook header photo.”   I thought about it but wasn’t sure, mostly because I’m Facebook shy and don’t post much and rarely put up pictures.

Tonight I brought up the picture again and had a thought about it.   As I was looking at the three versions of me I had the thought, “I look thin!”   This was a positive thought, because at about that time I had finished my weight loss plan and had hit my target weight.   I was running almost every day and I felt great.    I’ve always been fairly thin though.   It was at that point that I had a second thought which was, “will people think I’m skinny?”  

Is ‘skinny’ a negative term in our society today?

The Big Boy Update:  My daughter and I had plans after school today.   I asked my son if he wanted to help and he said no.   I told him he could play Mario 3D world (or Mario Maker) while we prepared her favor bags if he wanted to.   Afterwards when I told him he had to stop playing he wasn’t angry.  He didn’t get upset and he was very kind during dinner.   So it doesn’t seem all screen time makes him an angry monster.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and I prepared her favor bags for her upcoming birthday party.   She wanted to stamp them, selected stamps and ink and placed the stamps quite accurately.   She then put one of each of the items we’d selected into each bag.   At the end she wasn’t sure we had enough in the white paper bags (we were using luminary paper bags) so she selected adding a piece of white chalk to each bag.   She said that would be “plenty” for each friend after the chalk was added.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Dreary Solar Day

My husband came home before lunch and called me, rather excited.   This was unusual because he’s one of those even keel people that rarely gets excited.   He told me, “the guy from the power company is here, finishing switching out or meter.”   This was good news.  I immediately understood my husband’s excitement when he said that.

We’ve gone through the entire process with getting solar installed at our home.   The last step is the turning on of the system.   It has to be planned, approved, inspected, installed, inspected again, filed for with the power company and then, finally, our meter is switched out to a bi-directional one so that we can both buy and sell electricity to the power company.  

It was finally happening—we could go up to the attic, turn on the breakers, rotate the switches and rap on the display panels (don’t ask me why, but you rap on them with a knuckle to turn them on) and fire the whole system up.    Exciting times.

Only it was overcast.  It was dreary.   It had been raining and the sky was in a bad temper.   But it was technically light outside because I could see how to get to the refrigerator from the living room, so some solar power was being generated.   We didn’t get over more than a kW at a time for the next few hours, but it’s something.    And we’re pretty excited about that something.

The Big Boy Update:  My son was unhappy today when he found out his sister and Madison had “messed up his bed.”  (They had been playing ‘Birthday Party’ and needed his blanket for the table cloth.)   He went out to the front porch where they were hammering nails into little pumpkins, told them what he thought about their messing up his bed and then knocked over their container of nails.   Note to the ladies:  don’t mess with his bed.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and son were playing some sort of game this morning.   My daughter told me my son was “a Credible Hulk.”  

Monday, November 2, 2015

Hide and Seek

We decided to play a game of hide and seek with the children after dinner tonight.   At their age they completely understand the point of the game, but they’re not very proficient at playing it in practice.

They know they’re supposed to count or run off and hide.   They understand the whole seeking process, but they don’t know how to do a thorough job of looking around an area.   They don’t think about where human-sized areas might be that would be good for hiding and most importantly, they give up and leave you hiding when they get bored.

So we helped them out tonight by playing in teams.   We had a great time.   The very last round they decided to play kids against parents.    We hid in the linen closet and were given away the entire time by the dog, who sat by the door and barked at them from time to time.  

My daughter came over and asked the dog, “where is your family?”   There was a one-sided conversation with the dog and then they left to go downstairs, yelling out, “what floor are you on?”   We whistled and they returned upstairs, talking to the dog when they arrived.    I gave us away because I was laughing too much inside the closet.  

Good times.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has been busily circling all sorts of things in the catalogs that arrive daily by mail.   He and I had a conversation about the word “favorite” and the phrase, “the most.”  I asked him which one did he like the most?   He told me seven things he liked the most.   I asked him then which one of the transformer robot dinosaur things he’d circled was his favorite?  He explained that the red and the blue and the green and the yellow and the black ones were his favorite.    

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:    My daughter’s hunger is under control once again I think.   She’s gained a good bit of weight for her small size, but I think she’s stopped gaining and is now maintaining (I hope.)   She isn’t so food-driven anymore with the reduction in the oral prednisone.   She’s at a low dosage that will hopefully taper off and end soon.

Sunday, November 1, 2015

The Fuzzy Sleeping Effect

This is about something that happens to me.   I don’t know how to title the post so I’ve given up and gotten a title that’s the closest match to what I experience.   Let’s start at the current state of things and say that I have nerve pain.   The pain is hard to isolate to one specific area because the source of pain stems from spinal cord damage in my neck and since all nerves below that point can be involved via the spinal column, a lot is up for grabs in the pain area.

Back to the pain though.   Neuralgia is a good word to use, but it’s generic and doesn’t offer much help really.   The pain I experience is largely focused around my neck, shoulders forearms and arms, in order of magnitude.   It’s similar, but different to the kind of pain you feel when you’re sick with the flu and your body is very, very angry every time you move as well as every time you stay still.  

I thought I was an old person for a while and then I decided to ask my doctor about Lyrica.   Lyrics helps.  It helps a lot.   People tell me it’s a “TERRIBLE HORRIBLE DRUG YOU ARE ADDICTED TO AND YOU SHOULD SUFFER INSTEAD OF USING IT” and then I get the other end of the spectrum where my medical doctors tell me it’s one of the most mild medications I could take for the symptoms I’m experiencing and they’re very glad it can control the pain without the use of narcotic alternatives.  

I really hate talking to people who are so self-righteous about how bad medications are for you when they, themselves, haven’t suffered from debilitating pain for years and are desperate for any relief or solution.   But that is another topic entirely and I am quite opinionated on the subject myself.

Let’s get back to the Lyrica.  Typically I take a dose at 4:15AM.   Why that hour?  Because at 5:15AM my alarm goes off a second time to get up an exercise.   If I’m in intolerable pain, the last thing I want to do is get out of bed.    But, if I’m comfortably sleeping and I only need get up and get clothes on, I can move forward with my day, starting with exercise in the dark.

There is this “fuzzy sleeping” thing that happens on occasion.   Usually I get up an hour after taking the Lyrica, but on rare occasions like today, I get to sleep in.  My in-laws were here and they fed the children breakfast.   I slept past the one hour mark from taking the Lyrica.   I had been awake during the time change period because my son had had a nightmare.   He and I had a talk in our bed and after he felt comfortable from talking the dream out, he wanted to go back to bed.    It was at that time I was in a lot of pain.   I wasn’t sure I could go to sleep because my shoulders and arms hurt so much.   But I fell asleep.

When I awoke several hours later, I was comfortable.   There was this mild fuzzy feeling in my arms and shoulders which I’m guessing is the calcium channel blocking effect from the Lyrica, and the pain was blocked.   Lyric isn’t a narcotic.  It’s not deleterious and it’s not something you notice when you’re up and moving around, but it does help.   This morning was one of those times when I realized how much it helps me cope with the damage I’m dealing with.  

The Big Boy Update:  My children are allowed to use the iPads on the weekends.   I came into the bathroom this afternoon to find my son on the bath mat, watching something on his iPad.   I was in there for a few minutes working on several things when I realized he was watching a documentary on Uranus and Neptune, targeted at young children, narrated by Bill Nye, The Science Guy.   I’m not sure how my son found the show, but I didn’t interrupt him.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Right eye gone?   Today was a good eye day.   Things were looking up earlier.   But as of right now, after a game she wanted to play, I’m not sure the right eye is working at all and she’s having a hard time seeing things at all.    This morning on our bike ride she could see things from a distance.   My husband and I are so torn.   We want to be positive but when we see negative things like we see right now, as of ten minutes ago, our faith in her eyes healing is shaken.

Fitness Update:  Before the rain this morning my husband and I took the children on a bike ride with them on the backs of our bikes.   We did a loop of six miles, colored only by me losing control and dropping the back at the worst turn/hill on the route.   We were in the park and I needed a large amount of woods for the volume of my yelling.   I was SO mad.   I did everything right but my bike didn’t change gears quickly enough and I wasn’t able to recover when it did chunk into gear.   I’m blaming the bike, but dropping your child on the ground and then having to right a bike with a heavy child on the back who is unhappy is very stressful.   The bike seats are so well-designed.   She was completely safe the entire time.   We did the appropriate thing to handle the situation and talked it all out.   She’s fine with what happened and I feel better for talking it through with her.   She understands what happened and why I was so mad (I didn’t want to hurt her.)   Other than that, we got home in light rain and had a nice lunch together at home as a family.