Last night my daughter came downstairs crying, saying she’d just thrown up. As my husband and I helped her get our of her clothes and into clean ones she told us about how she tried to get to the toilet but she didn’t get it all in. I have to say, at this point in the story I was fairly hopeful upstairs wasn’t that bad.
I was dead wrong. She had vomited in the bed (reddish something with red chunks), had vomited across the room into the bathroom to the toiled, had vomited more across the room towards the door and then finished by vomiting down the hall before she got to the stairs.
We cleaned up what we could chunk-wise and with some liberal use of water. Stripped and changed the bed and planned to use the carpet cleaner in the morning. My daughter, a fair novice at vomiting figured out how to use the trash can beside the bed with all speed. She would through up about once every half hour and one time got it on the bed again, necessitating another laundry load.
In the morning she came downstairs and curled into a ball with a blanked over her on our bedroom floor. She stayed there until late afternoon, hardly wanting to move. No fever or other symptoms so we don’t think it’s the flu going around. Hopefully she’ll be able to sleep tonight and she’s over the worst of it.
The Big Boy Update: My son was in the car going to school this morning, knowing his sister was at home sick. He said to me, “I’m worried about her.” He is a very sensitive little guy.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: With my daughter nauseated today, I suggested saltines and ginger ale. What did she want instead? Carrots and orange juice. Nothing helped really until she got over the worst of the symptoms.
Friday, March 31, 2017
Thursday, March 30, 2017
My Son’s Visit With Mimi
My mother took each of our children on a special outing this week. She took my daughter on Monday and my son on Tuesday. Here’s her account of the trip with my on Tuesday with my so as told in her words:
The Big Boy Mimi Visit Update:
We narrowly missed the rain at pickup time. But by 3:30 the heavy rain stopped and the sun came out. We talked briefly on the way to the Mall. Greyson seemed happy to just be with his thoughts.
He wanted Chick Fil A French fries and chocolate milk for his snack. He must have been hungry, because he wolfed the French fries down. We ate quietly during our snack and then he asked if he could ride on some of the rides. I told him that we had to go to the potty first I let him know that I had brought some quarters and he could ride until they ran out. He rode on the ice cream truck and the space module and said that was all he wanted to ride on. Then he wanted to go to the candy store. He looked for a while and settled on the strips of gummy candy. I told him we could not get much and he agreed. He picked out a little amount of two colors and we bagged them up. We sat down at a table and he had two pinches of the candy and showed no more interest.
We walked around a while, went up and down the escalators, and then Greyson said he wanted to go to the Lego store. We didn't know which way to go so we found a directory and began to follow the directions. I was not sure we were going in the right direction, so I stopped a FedEx man who said we were almost there. The man said he had bought a Bat Man Lego yesterday so he knew exactly where the store was. Greyson was amazed at that and talked about the Bat Man several times.
Greyson was so excited when he saw the store. He ran in and began to look at all the offerings. I told him we needed to stay around $20. The first item he said he wanted was $99.99 and we agreed that was way above $20. Then he found the one we finally bought. He really liked it, but I told him it was also too much. He kept looking, and looking, and finally said to me, "This is the only one I want." I told him that Gramps could help and wewould get that one for him. That seemed to ease his mind.
He proudly carried the Lego bag to the car and could not wait to get home to put it together. I told him that since Gramps and I had given him the Lego set we wanted to see it when he finished putting it together.
There had been a traffic accident and the drive home was unbelievably slow. To help the time pass, I talked about our trip to Jamestown to see Olivia, Rebecca and Dale. I also told him about my cataract surgery. He wondered if my doctor could help Reese see better. I thought that was so thoughtful of him to make that connection.
We talked about singing a song, but could not think of a good song. Then he asked me if I could make up a song, which I did. We finally arrived home.
He was a delight the whole time. His energy was boundless and he ran everywhere. I tried to keep up with him. If he got ahead of me, he would look back to make sure we were together.
I hope we can do this again.
We narrowly missed the rain at pickup time. But by 3:30 the heavy rain stopped and the sun came out. We talked briefly on the way to the Mall. Greyson seemed happy to just be with his thoughts.
He wanted Chick Fil A French fries and chocolate milk for his snack. He must have been hungry, because he wolfed the French fries down. We ate quietly during our snack and then he asked if he could ride on some of the rides. I told him that we had to go to the potty first I let him know that I had brought some quarters and he could ride until they ran out. He rode on the ice cream truck and the space module and said that was all he wanted to ride on. Then he wanted to go to the candy store. He looked for a while and settled on the strips of gummy candy. I told him we could not get much and he agreed. He picked out a little amount of two colors and we bagged them up. We sat down at a table and he had two pinches of the candy and showed no more interest.
We walked around a while, went up and down the escalators, and then Greyson said he wanted to go to the Lego store. We didn't know which way to go so we found a directory and began to follow the directions. I was not sure we were going in the right direction, so I stopped a FedEx man who said we were almost there. The man said he had bought a Bat Man Lego yesterday so he knew exactly where the store was. Greyson was amazed at that and talked about the Bat Man several times.
Greyson was so excited when he saw the store. He ran in and began to look at all the offerings. I told him we needed to stay around $20. The first item he said he wanted was $99.99 and we agreed that was way above $20. Then he found the one we finally bought. He really liked it, but I told him it was also too much. He kept looking, and looking, and finally said to me, "This is the only one I want." I told him that Gramps could help and wewould get that one for him. That seemed to ease his mind.
He proudly carried the Lego bag to the car and could not wait to get home to put it together. I told him that since Gramps and I had given him the Lego set we wanted to see it when he finished putting it together.
There had been a traffic accident and the drive home was unbelievably slow. To help the time pass, I talked about our trip to Jamestown to see Olivia, Rebecca and Dale. I also told him about my cataract surgery. He wondered if my doctor could help Reese see better. I thought that was so thoughtful of him to make that connection.
We talked about singing a song, but could not think of a good song. Then he asked me if I could make up a song, which I did. We finally arrived home.
He was a delight the whole time. His energy was boundless and he ran everywhere. I tried to keep up with him. If he got ahead of me, he would look back to make sure we were together.
I hope we can do this again.
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
My Daughter’s Visit With Mimi
My mother took each of our children on a special outing this week. She took my daughter on Monday and my son on Tuesday. Here’s her account of the trip with my daughter as told in her words:
The Tiny Girl Mimi Outing Experience:
I picked Reese up at 3:00 and she happily said “Mimi, Mimi” when she heard me call out her name from the front passenger window of the car. She informed her teacher that I did not have a car like her Mom and Dad had.
She talked all the way to the Mall. I told her I was excited about going to the Mall with her. She said she was excited too and that “we were going to spend some money!”
I asked her about school and her friends. She said that “one of my teachers is living in the Harden house”, and that “it needed some things done to it, but my Dad can do them.”
We parked behind the food court and when we went in the first thing she said was “can I go on the rides?” I said that would be good, and reminded her of the fun we had had in the past on the rides. I had brought along about $4.00 in quarters and we started on each of the rides. She rode all five of them and thoroughly enjoyed each one. We were the only people at the rides.
She said she was not hungry, but could she buy some candy. I thought that would be a special thing to do so I said OK. We went to the kiosk next to the rides and she began to go through the decision process to decide on which candy she would buy. She asked me to identify each kind as she picked them up and felt of them. She finally decided on some sour gummy bears. We made our way over to McDonalds to get a beverage to go with the gummy bears. I chose a Coke, and she chose chocolate milk. We sat at the tables, talked, ate a little candy and drank our beverages.
Then it was time to walk around the Mall and see what we could find to “spend our money” on. We went into a few stores and then she heard a sound from a kiosk in the center of the Mall. It was a little dog that made a barking sound while walking forward and backwards. She was mesmerized by the dog, and wanted to buy one right that minute. I suggested we look some more before she made up her mind to buy the dog. She was not happy with that, but finally agreed we would do some more shopping. We made our way to the Disney store and she examined almost everything there. but said to me “Can we go back outside now?” So we did and she headed immediately to the dog stand. She said this was what she wanted to buy. There were MANY dogs of all colors. She took her time and finally decided on a green dog. The base price was $10, and $12 with the batteries installed. We, of course, bought the whole package!
She was so happy. She held the dog, would stop and put it down and watch it walk, show it to people, and just seemed so pleased with her choice.
She wanted to go up and down on the escalators and we did that for a while. She was very proficient at getting on and off the escalators, and seemed to enjoy walking up and down while they were moving.
Then I sat on one of the benches in the center while she ran around in circles, and up and down the middle. She enjoyed the freedom to just run and run. There were very few people there and so it was no problem for her to commandeer the space.
Finally she asked could we go to the rides again. I said yes, but we had to go to the potty first, which we did. We walked back to the food court, and she rode on two of the rides again. Then we agreed it was time to go home.
She was a delight. Not a problem at any time. I had at least four people tell me how pretty she was. She asked if we could do this again sometime.
When I talked to Greyson this afternoon about his turn to go to the Mall, he asked if Reese could go too. He thought it would be more fun if she were with us. Bill was there and we suggested that I go with Greyson by himself one time and the Mimi and Gramps would take Greyson and Reese to the Mall together. He liked that idea.
After this discussion, I relayed Greyson what Reese had said when I told her I was taking her to the Mall. (She asked, “What about Greyson?”) This seemed to please him. He had the sweetest look on his face when he heard this.
You have two wonderful children. Well mannered, well behaved, intelligent, considerate, and a delight to be with.
The Tiny Girl Mimi Outing Experience:
I picked Reese up at 3:00 and she happily said “Mimi, Mimi” when she heard me call out her name from the front passenger window of the car. She informed her teacher that I did not have a car like her Mom and Dad had.
She talked all the way to the Mall. I told her I was excited about going to the Mall with her. She said she was excited too and that “we were going to spend some money!”
I asked her about school and her friends. She said that “one of my teachers is living in the Harden house”, and that “it needed some things done to it, but my Dad can do them.”
We parked behind the food court and when we went in the first thing she said was “can I go on the rides?” I said that would be good, and reminded her of the fun we had had in the past on the rides. I had brought along about $4.00 in quarters and we started on each of the rides. She rode all five of them and thoroughly enjoyed each one. We were the only people at the rides.
She said she was not hungry, but could she buy some candy. I thought that would be a special thing to do so I said OK. We went to the kiosk next to the rides and she began to go through the decision process to decide on which candy she would buy. She asked me to identify each kind as she picked them up and felt of them. She finally decided on some sour gummy bears. We made our way over to McDonalds to get a beverage to go with the gummy bears. I chose a Coke, and she chose chocolate milk. We sat at the tables, talked, ate a little candy and drank our beverages.
Then it was time to walk around the Mall and see what we could find to “spend our money” on. We went into a few stores and then she heard a sound from a kiosk in the center of the Mall. It was a little dog that made a barking sound while walking forward and backwards. She was mesmerized by the dog, and wanted to buy one right that minute. I suggested we look some more before she made up her mind to buy the dog. She was not happy with that, but finally agreed we would do some more shopping. We made our way to the Disney store and she examined almost everything there. but said to me “Can we go back outside now?” So we did and she headed immediately to the dog stand. She said this was what she wanted to buy. There were MANY dogs of all colors. She took her time and finally decided on a green dog. The base price was $10, and $12 with the batteries installed. We, of course, bought the whole package!
She was so happy. She held the dog, would stop and put it down and watch it walk, show it to people, and just seemed so pleased with her choice.
She wanted to go up and down on the escalators and we did that for a while. She was very proficient at getting on and off the escalators, and seemed to enjoy walking up and down while they were moving.
Then I sat on one of the benches in the center while she ran around in circles, and up and down the middle. She enjoyed the freedom to just run and run. There were very few people there and so it was no problem for her to commandeer the space.
Finally she asked could we go to the rides again. I said yes, but we had to go to the potty first, which we did. We walked back to the food court, and she rode on two of the rides again. Then we agreed it was time to go home.
She was a delight. Not a problem at any time. I had at least four people tell me how pretty she was. She asked if we could do this again sometime.
When I talked to Greyson this afternoon about his turn to go to the Mall, he asked if Reese could go too. He thought it would be more fun if she were with us. Bill was there and we suggested that I go with Greyson by himself one time and the Mimi and Gramps would take Greyson and Reese to the Mall together. He liked that idea.
After this discussion, I relayed Greyson what Reese had said when I told her I was taking her to the Mall. (She asked, “What about Greyson?”) This seemed to please him. He had the sweetest look on his face when he heard this.
You have two wonderful children. Well mannered, well behaved, intelligent, considerate, and a delight to be with.
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Planning Commission
We, along with the adjacent neighborhood, our children’s school and other families from the school attended the city planning commission meeting today. We own a property two lots down from our children’s school and the property between ours and the school had filed for R-4 to R-10 rezoning.
There are lots of details in why this would be beneficial for their property, why it makes no sense to some of us looking at it and why it might be highly attractive to a developer looking to acquire the parcel of land. Regardless of your personal opinion, today was the day to make a stance, state your support or opposition to the rezoning request and see what the planning commission would recommend to the city council.
We had, as an entire neighborhood, school and adjacent property, five minutes to rebut. We made it in time. The council voted to suggest all parties work together to come to an agreement on conditions that would make rezoning tenable to all parties. For today, this was a good vote for us.
The Big Boy Update: My son was eating his snack this afternoon and loudly complained, “when are we going to get a new dog?” My husband and I were worried he was sad because he missed our old dog, Lucy. He cleared the air shortly by following up with, “cause then we don’t have to sweep the crumbs up.”
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter found the mud today. All of it. And most of what she found got on her feet, hands and clothes. But she listened to us, waited on the front porch for a bucket, soap and cloth and then got naked before coming in. I’d say that was the end of the story, but she went back out a second time, got muddy again and needed to lather, rinse and repeat at the front door before getting ready for bed. But she had fun…oh so much fun.
There are lots of details in why this would be beneficial for their property, why it makes no sense to some of us looking at it and why it might be highly attractive to a developer looking to acquire the parcel of land. Regardless of your personal opinion, today was the day to make a stance, state your support or opposition to the rezoning request and see what the planning commission would recommend to the city council.
We had, as an entire neighborhood, school and adjacent property, five minutes to rebut. We made it in time. The council voted to suggest all parties work together to come to an agreement on conditions that would make rezoning tenable to all parties. For today, this was a good vote for us.
The Big Boy Update: My son was eating his snack this afternoon and loudly complained, “when are we going to get a new dog?” My husband and I were worried he was sad because he missed our old dog, Lucy. He cleared the air shortly by following up with, “cause then we don’t have to sweep the crumbs up.”
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter found the mud today. All of it. And most of what she found got on her feet, hands and clothes. But she listened to us, waited on the front porch for a bucket, soap and cloth and then got naked before coming in. I’d say that was the end of the story, but she went back out a second time, got muddy again and needed to lather, rinse and repeat at the front door before getting ready for bed. But she had fun…oh so much fun.
Monday, March 27, 2017
Anchovy Pizza
It’s that time of year again, or at least I think it’s yearly, or infrequently or basically whenever the whim strikes me—it’s anchovy pizza time. I don’t crave it much, and before you got and even think the pregnant word, I’ve been an anchovy pizza lover since I was in elementary school.
My husband and I did our usual four o’clock “what are we doing for dinner?” conversation and ended up on pizza. Yesterday I’d randomly thought about anchovy pizza so today I asked if he could get a quarter of the pizza with anchovies. He didn’t know; he said he’d try.
Forty minutes later we had one quarter anchovy and the rest not-anchovy pizza. My husband gave me the look that said, “those tiny fish are smelling up the entire house and ruining my pizza experience”, but he didn’t actually say anything. I don’t think my children even noticed the smell. It was the best dinner I had all day.
The Big Boy Update: My son has been discharged from his occupational therapist for handwriting. He’s back on track and doing well and his teacher agreed he was ready to be done with the extra sessions.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter went to the mall with my mother today. They had a good time and she brought home a little mechanical dog that walks forward and barks. The dog is green, her favorite color.
My husband and I did our usual four o’clock “what are we doing for dinner?” conversation and ended up on pizza. Yesterday I’d randomly thought about anchovy pizza so today I asked if he could get a quarter of the pizza with anchovies. He didn’t know; he said he’d try.
Forty minutes later we had one quarter anchovy and the rest not-anchovy pizza. My husband gave me the look that said, “those tiny fish are smelling up the entire house and ruining my pizza experience”, but he didn’t actually say anything. I don’t think my children even noticed the smell. It was the best dinner I had all day.
The Big Boy Update: My son has been discharged from his occupational therapist for handwriting. He’s back on track and doing well and his teacher agreed he was ready to be done with the extra sessions.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter went to the mall with my mother today. They had a good time and she brought home a little mechanical dog that walks forward and barks. The dog is green, her favorite color.
Sunday, March 26, 2017
Planning Commission
I’ve been writing emails to the planning commission members tonight. This is not something I’m good at doing, but there is a property adjacent to our rental house that is requesting rezoning and we’re not certain we can support the application. I was writing that, along with more details, to the planning commission members tonight.
On Tuesday we go to the planning commission meeting and will see what decision they make. Tonight, I’m going to bed to sleep on it.
The Big Boy Update: My son sometimes will say, “i need some privacy” when he gets dressed. It’s not often, mostly when it occurs to him. Tonight he went behind the bed to get his pajamas on.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter has started to be interested in cleaning her glasses. She has a spray bottle and a special cleaner cloth she uses. She’s getting fairly good at cleaning the glasses now, initially she needed extra help.
On Tuesday we go to the planning commission meeting and will see what decision they make. Tonight, I’m going to bed to sleep on it.
The Big Boy Update: My son sometimes will say, “i need some privacy” when he gets dressed. It’s not often, mostly when it occurs to him. Tonight he went behind the bed to get his pajamas on.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter has started to be interested in cleaning her glasses. She has a spray bottle and a special cleaner cloth she uses. She’s getting fairly good at cleaning the glasses now, initially she needed extra help.
Saturday, March 25, 2017
The Thousand Dollar Meal
My husband had a new recipe he wanted to try for dinner. He went to the store to get ingredients we didn’t have as well as the myriad other things which had piled up on the shopping list. When my daughter heard there was to be cooking she pulled her stool from around the corner and did some helping. The amount of helping is always a mystery to me because mostly I’m elsewhere if the children are busy with my husband, accomplishing things more easily done unencumbered by youthful minds.
The meal was good, great in fact because there was an excessive amount of ginger involved in the dish—a single ingredient that will rock ratings through the roof if I’m one of the judges. My son and daughter also seemed to be liking the meal with my son stopping to ask why dad was a chef?
My husband explained how chefs worked for pay and made other people dinner while he just cooked for our family. We got into what it meant to pay for the meal and how much a meal would cost. My husband said, “you could pay me two of those pompoms you’ve earned to pay for the meal.” My son wasn’t so sure about that, saying he had worked hard for those pompoms.
He thought about it a little longer though as he had a few more bites and said, “I would pay you a thousand dollars for this meal.” My husband asked him if he was sure, saying that was a very generous amount, especially after the pompom rejection. My son agreed that yes, a thousand dollars would be fine for payment. My husband said he’d better save this recipe so he could make it again.
The Big Boy Update: My son had a fireman visit his class on Thursday. We knew it had happened but we didn’t hear anything about it until today. He started by asking us if we had a fire extinguisher in the house, then smoke detectors and what about sprinklers? He then told us about his classmate’s uncle who came to tell them about being a fireman.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My son and husband were discussing how much you might leave for tip when eating out at a restaurant and why you would leave a tip for the waitperson. My daughter listened and then said, “I never knew math was real.”
The meal was good, great in fact because there was an excessive amount of ginger involved in the dish—a single ingredient that will rock ratings through the roof if I’m one of the judges. My son and daughter also seemed to be liking the meal with my son stopping to ask why dad was a chef?
My husband explained how chefs worked for pay and made other people dinner while he just cooked for our family. We got into what it meant to pay for the meal and how much a meal would cost. My husband said, “you could pay me two of those pompoms you’ve earned to pay for the meal.” My son wasn’t so sure about that, saying he had worked hard for those pompoms.
He thought about it a little longer though as he had a few more bites and said, “I would pay you a thousand dollars for this meal.” My husband asked him if he was sure, saying that was a very generous amount, especially after the pompom rejection. My son agreed that yes, a thousand dollars would be fine for payment. My husband said he’d better save this recipe so he could make it again.
The Big Boy Update: My son had a fireman visit his class on Thursday. We knew it had happened but we didn’t hear anything about it until today. He started by asking us if we had a fire extinguisher in the house, then smoke detectors and what about sprinklers? He then told us about his classmate’s uncle who came to tell them about being a fireman.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My son and husband were discussing how much you might leave for tip when eating out at a restaurant and why you would leave a tip for the waitperson. My daughter listened and then said, “I never knew math was real.”
Friday, March 24, 2017
Cone Making
I had a mammogram today. I know it’s not a lot of fun for many women but I’m built in such a way that it’s not much of a discomfort to me. The procedure went fairly quickly and when I was done I called my husband to see if he, the children and my mother (who was over visiting) had decided where to go for lunch.
They had just left the house and were headed to Chick-Fil-A, one of the favorite restaurants of the children. I’m fond of their market salad as well so I said I’d meet them there. It was lunchtime on Friday and this particular restaurant is close to the hospital and always full.
I didn’t see my husband’s car but since I couldn’t find a spot either I parked in the grocery store lot. Inside the restaurant I found them in a corner, just beside the edge of the food ordering counter. I quickly ordered my meal and say between my children, listening to what they’d been doing with Mimi while I’d been having my breast tissue scanned for signs of abnormal growth.
One of the things about Chick-Fil-A’s kid’s meals is that the toy/book/game included with the meal can be kept and used or it can be turned in unopened for a child’s ice cream. Without fail, our children are more interested in the ice cream. This time I told them to walk to the counter’s edge and hold their toy bag out. I said the staff would know what they were there for and would ask them if they wanted a cup or a cone and they could tell them.
Sure enough a nice lady came up to the children and asked if they would like some ice cream. They said they did. She then said would they like to do something very special and come behind the counter and make their own ice cream cone?
They had just left the house and were headed to Chick-Fil-A, one of the favorite restaurants of the children. I’m fond of their market salad as well so I said I’d meet them there. It was lunchtime on Friday and this particular restaurant is close to the hospital and always full.
I didn’t see my husband’s car but since I couldn’t find a spot either I parked in the grocery store lot. Inside the restaurant I found them in a corner, just beside the edge of the food ordering counter. I quickly ordered my meal and say between my children, listening to what they’d been doing with Mimi while I’d been having my breast tissue scanned for signs of abnormal growth.
One of the things about Chick-Fil-A’s kid’s meals is that the toy/book/game included with the meal can be kept and used or it can be turned in unopened for a child’s ice cream. Without fail, our children are more interested in the ice cream. This time I told them to walk to the counter’s edge and hold their toy bag out. I said the staff would know what they were there for and would ask them if they wanted a cup or a cone and they could tell them.
Sure enough a nice lady came up to the children and asked if they would like some ice cream. They said they did. She then said would they like to do something very special and come behind the counter and make their own ice cream cone?
Yes, they would like to do that. Yes, they were very excited. They made their cones and came back all smiles to the table. And then, perhaps because they had been empowered with the whole making their own cones thing, they branched out, trying new things, tempting ice cream catastrophe.
My son ate the bottom clean off his cone, saying his cone had “two tops”. His sister poked her finger into the cone at various locations, making it look like one of those cactus planters. I was wary ice cream would be everywhere except in their mouths.
But they’re older, which in this case mostly means they’re faster, and when you’re faster at eating ice cream, you can beat a melted ice cream mess with sheer speed.
The Big Boy Update: My son got lost today. He was up in fifteen minutes for his music lesson at the house and then he was just gone. We looked for him, messaged neighbors, rang the gong and nothing until we realized one of the neighbors had gotten a new dog. Excitement of a new dog is a good enough excuse to forget your music lesson is about to start.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: In Detroit we were sitting on the third floor of the mall, finishing our dinner. I had forgotten to bring my daughter’s pennies for the fountain so I hedged, and said to her, “I’m not sure the fountain is on right now.” She sat up, got quiet and said, “shhh…” Then she said, “yep, the fountains are on; I can hear them.” And she was right, if I stopped to listen, I could hear them too.
Thursday, March 23, 2017
The Missing Sword Saga
My son and daughter ask to carry something in the car with them when we go to school sometimes. They aren’t allowed to carry the items into school and we usually say no, but yesterday we were headed to the chiropractor so I let my daughter carry, “Stinky”, her Pink Panther stuffed animal, and my son carried a Lego Batman character.
We weren’t two minutes into the drive when my son announced he’d lost the (small) sword somewhere in the seat or the car. I told them we’d have to look for it later because we were tight on time to get to the chiropractor and then to school before drop off was over.
They insisted on looking for a minute when we got to the chiropractors and then a minute when we got done with the chiropractors, all to no avail. The blind child said she saw it twice, but we’re not sure what she saw and it definitely wasn’t a tiny, silver Lego sword.
We missed drop off and I had to send them in via the office and a late pass due to sword searching. I looked when I got home and found, interestingly enough, another tiny sword but not the missing one. I forgot about it after that.
Today after school on the ride home I asked my son if he’d checked in his school purple bag because it was close and the sword might have fallen into it. I turned around to find my son dumping out his bag, piles of mulch and all, into the back seat of the car. I cringed. He yelled. “There it is!” I heard him saying as I tried to survey the debris damage while staying on the road.
My son went in and happily told dad about the sword he’d found in his bag. I stayed in the garage because there was car vacuuming that needed to be done.
Not two minutes later my husband came outside with a large glove on his hand. He said, “our son lost the sword again…into the toilet, after he’d used it.”
I told my husband he was the best kind of dad to fish it out and disinfect it. He told me if the sword got lost one more time he wasn’t helping find it.
The Big Boy Update: Since there is no school tomorrow my son can finally play the video game that the Batman (and sword) Lego character goes with. He had to patiently wait for a large patch update to install and then played up until dinner time and had to be dragged away to eat.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Out of the blue tonight, and because I have no idea what prompted this question, my daughter asked me, “mom, why haven’t you farted in a long time?”
We weren’t two minutes into the drive when my son announced he’d lost the (small) sword somewhere in the seat or the car. I told them we’d have to look for it later because we were tight on time to get to the chiropractor and then to school before drop off was over.
They insisted on looking for a minute when we got to the chiropractors and then a minute when we got done with the chiropractors, all to no avail. The blind child said she saw it twice, but we’re not sure what she saw and it definitely wasn’t a tiny, silver Lego sword.
We missed drop off and I had to send them in via the office and a late pass due to sword searching. I looked when I got home and found, interestingly enough, another tiny sword but not the missing one. I forgot about it after that.
Today after school on the ride home I asked my son if he’d checked in his school purple bag because it was close and the sword might have fallen into it. I turned around to find my son dumping out his bag, piles of mulch and all, into the back seat of the car. I cringed. He yelled. “There it is!” I heard him saying as I tried to survey the debris damage while staying on the road.
My son went in and happily told dad about the sword he’d found in his bag. I stayed in the garage because there was car vacuuming that needed to be done.
Not two minutes later my husband came outside with a large glove on his hand. He said, “our son lost the sword again…into the toilet, after he’d used it.”
I told my husband he was the best kind of dad to fish it out and disinfect it. He told me if the sword got lost one more time he wasn’t helping find it.
The Big Boy Update: Since there is no school tomorrow my son can finally play the video game that the Batman (and sword) Lego character goes with. He had to patiently wait for a large patch update to install and then played up until dinner time and had to be dragged away to eat.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Out of the blue tonight, and because I have no idea what prompted this question, my daughter asked me, “mom, why haven’t you farted in a long time?”
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Not Paperwork
I don’t know what to call it anymore. I use to have to do, “paperwork” from time to time. I’d like to say I pay every bill the moment it comes in, respond to every correspondence as soon as it arrives and file all things at the point I receive them, only that’s not what happens. I don’t let things pile up too much, because I don’t like having hours and hours of work to do to catch up, but when I’m traveling or are overly busy I let things slide until I have some uninterrupted time at the computer to get things done.
And “at the computer” is really the point here. It’s so much less “paperwork” and more “electronic work” that needs to be taken care of. Is it, “inbox work”? I don’t know what to call it anymore. Today I spent several hours getting anything and everything done so that I have zero email waiting to be handled across three accounts, no paperwork that hasn’t been handled and filed and all other matters on my electronic “paperwork” to do list handled. And it feels good.
I like being caught up. Sort of lifts a weight off, knowing I’ve punted communications back to any senders and scheduled things that need scheduling. I’ve returned things and filed things and overall taken care of things. Tonight I think I’m going to sleep extra soundly.
The Big Boy Update: My son has a new Lego Dimensions character pack his sister brought home from our drip to Detroit. He’s built the Lego characters but he hasn’t been allowed to load the game (screen time) to see what the characters do until this weekend. Since Friday is a teacher workday, he’s doing the best he can to wait without complaining.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter is losing her mind right now. She ate a lot but for some reason she’s unhappy about anything and everything. I’m going to go put her to bed right now if she can’t calm down and stop whining (this is what we’re telling her as I type this in the hopes she’ll change her behavior). She’s saying, “I can’t stop crying and I don’t know why.” She’s been pushing us with tantrums like this lately and when she ultimately loses, she turns suddenly into a very normal and happy child.
And “at the computer” is really the point here. It’s so much less “paperwork” and more “electronic work” that needs to be taken care of. Is it, “inbox work”? I don’t know what to call it anymore. Today I spent several hours getting anything and everything done so that I have zero email waiting to be handled across three accounts, no paperwork that hasn’t been handled and filed and all other matters on my electronic “paperwork” to do list handled. And it feels good.
I like being caught up. Sort of lifts a weight off, knowing I’ve punted communications back to any senders and scheduled things that need scheduling. I’ve returned things and filed things and overall taken care of things. Tonight I think I’m going to sleep extra soundly.
The Big Boy Update: My son has a new Lego Dimensions character pack his sister brought home from our drip to Detroit. He’s built the Lego characters but he hasn’t been allowed to load the game (screen time) to see what the characters do until this weekend. Since Friday is a teacher workday, he’s doing the best he can to wait without complaining.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter is losing her mind right now. She ate a lot but for some reason she’s unhappy about anything and everything. I’m going to go put her to bed right now if she can’t calm down and stop whining (this is what we’re telling her as I type this in the hopes she’ll change her behavior). She’s saying, “I can’t stop crying and I don’t know why.” She’s been pushing us with tantrums like this lately and when she ultimately loses, she turns suddenly into a very normal and happy child.
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Developmental Plane
The Big Boy Developmental Plane Update: My son has been having some unsettling issues lately. Let me give you some examples:
- He wants to crawl back into the guitar case of our music therapist, something he’s not done for some time but initially did.
- He wants to sleep in his sleeping bag in his bed to make him feel more secure
- He talks about an upset stomach at night and needs ginger ale to calm him down so he can sleep
- He has mentioned looking at the block of knives and thinking about using them
- He likes to have the demo song playing at full volume in the bonus room so he can drown out other sounds and focus on playing with legos
- He likes putting his headphones on with or without music so he can ignore everything around him
All of this (especially the knife part) sounds scary. I talked to our play therapist today and she said the exact opposite. She said he’s entering into the next developmental plane as a child and his world has been opened up mentally to a bigger world. And with my cautious fearful child, this means worry. This means he is unable to plan and figure out what he’s going to do with all the thoughts in his head.
We’re going to have him see Dhruti, his play therapist, a few times so she can help us help him through this new change. The good news, the great news, is that Dhruti says this is completely normal for him and is a sign of maturity. She said any time this happens to him we’ll need to support him and help him and he’ll work through it with our help. I’m glad he’s okay.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter and I came home from Detroit today. She wanted to call her brother as soon as we were in the car on the way home. What did she want to tell him? She wanted to tell him the exact Lego set we got him. Had she seen it? No, I selected it via a phone call with my husband. But she listened and she remembered and she told him just what she had picked out for him and she was happy, because she likes doing nice things for people.
Monday, March 20, 2017
EUA No Action
My daughter had an Evaluation Under Anesthesia (EUA) today with her retina surgeon. We weren’t sure if he was going to do something, nothing, a lot, a little. We didn’t know if her pressure was maintaining or if he’d have to artificially increase the pressure in her eyes with Healon again. We didn’t know and weren’t sure because she can’t tell us what’s going on by what she sees so we just have to wait and find out when we see her doctor on these visits to Detroit.
The short story is Dr. Trese decided to do nothing today, mostly in part because nothing had gotten unexpectedly worse in either eye. This doesn’t mean things got better, but no downhill progression had happened either.
Her right eye has tissue growth. This tissue growth has closed off her field of vision before and he’s opened it up before and it’s still happening. At this point he says it’s like looking through a 1mm pinhole camera. He wants to open her eye back up to 2.5-3.0mm but he wants to pick the right time to do so, waiting for the tissues to mature so that the scaring response wont be to close the opening back off again. To compare, he said my eyes, in the light of the waiting room, given my pupil dilation, would be about 1.5mm, so opening her up beyond that should give her a good amount of visual field. He suggests we come back in three months to have him do that procedure.
The left eye has what appears to be an attached retina, something Dr. Trese thinks has been the case in most part for some months now. How much the retina is functioning is an unknown though. Her lens is clouded, otherwise known as a cataract, and will have to be removed at some point but for now he thinks it hasn’t changed much in the last four months. He’s giving a lecture at Duke next Friday and plans to speak to my daughter’s pediatric ophthalmologist, Dr. Grace, at that time about plans for removing the cataract and replacing it with an artificial lens. We don’t have a date or timeframe on this, but considering it will significantly upset her functional vision we’re waiting until they think the time is right.
Tomorrow we fly home and plan on a return trip in three months for surgery on her right eye and hold on plans for the left eye until we hear more.
The Big Boy Update: My son likes to go to Dave and Busters as a special night out with the parent who is home with him when his sister goes to Detroit (a trip he thinks is fun as opposed to hospitals and surgeries). Tonight he apparently won the jackpot on one of the ticket games winning over eleven hundred tickets. Knowing the relative ticket to value ratio at these places I bet he could get a pencil or a noise maker when he checked out. I wonder what he selected?
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter told me in the car today, “I love only daddy.” I said that daddy was certainly a good person to love. She then said, “I love you too.”
The short story is Dr. Trese decided to do nothing today, mostly in part because nothing had gotten unexpectedly worse in either eye. This doesn’t mean things got better, but no downhill progression had happened either.
Her right eye has tissue growth. This tissue growth has closed off her field of vision before and he’s opened it up before and it’s still happening. At this point he says it’s like looking through a 1mm pinhole camera. He wants to open her eye back up to 2.5-3.0mm but he wants to pick the right time to do so, waiting for the tissues to mature so that the scaring response wont be to close the opening back off again. To compare, he said my eyes, in the light of the waiting room, given my pupil dilation, would be about 1.5mm, so opening her up beyond that should give her a good amount of visual field. He suggests we come back in three months to have him do that procedure.
The left eye has what appears to be an attached retina, something Dr. Trese thinks has been the case in most part for some months now. How much the retina is functioning is an unknown though. Her lens is clouded, otherwise known as a cataract, and will have to be removed at some point but for now he thinks it hasn’t changed much in the last four months. He’s giving a lecture at Duke next Friday and plans to speak to my daughter’s pediatric ophthalmologist, Dr. Grace, at that time about plans for removing the cataract and replacing it with an artificial lens. We don’t have a date or timeframe on this, but considering it will significantly upset her functional vision we’re waiting until they think the time is right.
Tomorrow we fly home and plan on a return trip in three months for surgery on her right eye and hold on plans for the left eye until we hear more.
The Big Boy Update: My son likes to go to Dave and Busters as a special night out with the parent who is home with him when his sister goes to Detroit (a trip he thinks is fun as opposed to hospitals and surgeries). Tonight he apparently won the jackpot on one of the ticket games winning over eleven hundred tickets. Knowing the relative ticket to value ratio at these places I bet he could get a pencil or a noise maker when he checked out. I wonder what he selected?
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter told me in the car today, “I love only daddy.” I said that daddy was certainly a good person to love. She then said, “I love you too.”
Sunday, March 19, 2017
26.2 To Detroit
We did some scheduling wedging this weekend. On Saturday we had our school auction, an event I typically would arrive at before lunch for setup and stay until cleanup was done around eleven o’clock in the evening. I did do setup, but I came home for a few hours to prepare for Sunday, today, which involved running a marathon followed by flying to Detroit with my daughter so she can have an evaluation under anesthesia with her retina surgeon Monday morning.
I left the auction early, went home and had to get more things done. I should have been asleep early so I could be rested for my 4:30AM alarm, but things didn’t go to plan. I had more to do than I anticipated and when I finally got into bed I wasn’t able to go to sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night and then again just long enough before the alarm would have gone off that I didn’t get back to sleep. I think I got just over three hours of sleep last night, which wasn’t ideal before a marathon run.
The marathon went well—better than the one two weeks ago—but not what I had hoped for. We paced at 4:40 for over ten miles and then we started to lose speed. We came in at 5:12, which for us isn’t bad, but wasn’t what we were hoping for.
We crossed the finish line and headed straight for the car. I got home, cleaned up and got ready for the flight to Detroit. My daughter was excited, I was tired. We’re here now in the hotel room at 9:30PM and she’s not tired at all, but I’m sending her to bed soon. I hope to follow her shortly.
All in all, it’s been a good day. The weather for the marathon was ideal for this time of year, we had no travel issues and Detroit isn’t covered in dirty snow remnants. Hopefully tomorrow will continue in this vein with positive news from our retina surgeon.
The Big Boy Update: My son likes to play quietly by himself with Legos. He’ll pull out the characters and various attachments like swords, flashlights, hats, capes, and make up all sorts of scenarios in his head for so long sometimes I think he’s not even in the house but visiting a neighbor child instead. Today when I came up to tell him I was leaving and wanted to say goodbye he jumped up, hugged me and told me he loved me the most, and then immediately went back to playing with the Legos.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: We got into Detroit after dinner time this evening. I saw a McDonalds as we were headed to the terminal and suggested we eat there, to which my daughter happily agreed, saying she wanted to eat there instead of taking the food with us As we were finishing our meal I said, “this was a good idea you had to eat before leaving the airport. She replied, “told ya. That’s because I’m a genius.”
Another Marathon: Today was the sixteenth time I’ve run a marathon distance run. I’m not getting any faster but at least I’m persistent.
I left the auction early, went home and had to get more things done. I should have been asleep early so I could be rested for my 4:30AM alarm, but things didn’t go to plan. I had more to do than I anticipated and when I finally got into bed I wasn’t able to go to sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night and then again just long enough before the alarm would have gone off that I didn’t get back to sleep. I think I got just over three hours of sleep last night, which wasn’t ideal before a marathon run.
The marathon went well—better than the one two weeks ago—but not what I had hoped for. We paced at 4:40 for over ten miles and then we started to lose speed. We came in at 5:12, which for us isn’t bad, but wasn’t what we were hoping for.
We crossed the finish line and headed straight for the car. I got home, cleaned up and got ready for the flight to Detroit. My daughter was excited, I was tired. We’re here now in the hotel room at 9:30PM and she’s not tired at all, but I’m sending her to bed soon. I hope to follow her shortly.
All in all, it’s been a good day. The weather for the marathon was ideal for this time of year, we had no travel issues and Detroit isn’t covered in dirty snow remnants. Hopefully tomorrow will continue in this vein with positive news from our retina surgeon.
The Big Boy Update: My son likes to play quietly by himself with Legos. He’ll pull out the characters and various attachments like swords, flashlights, hats, capes, and make up all sorts of scenarios in his head for so long sometimes I think he’s not even in the house but visiting a neighbor child instead. Today when I came up to tell him I was leaving and wanted to say goodbye he jumped up, hugged me and told me he loved me the most, and then immediately went back to playing with the Legos.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: We got into Detroit after dinner time this evening. I saw a McDonalds as we were headed to the terminal and suggested we eat there, to which my daughter happily agreed, saying she wanted to eat there instead of taking the food with us As we were finishing our meal I said, “this was a good idea you had to eat before leaving the airport. She replied, “told ya. That’s because I’m a genius.”
Another Marathon: Today was the sixteenth time I’ve run a marathon distance run. I’m not getting any faster but at least I’m persistent.
Saturday, March 18, 2017
The Velvet Cloak Inn
I was going to set up for our school’s annual auction this morning and as I was driving down one of the older streets in the city I noticed a freshly torn down building, or rather what had been a building that was no longer there, leaving all signs that demolition had only recently been completed.
I wasn’t sure, but as I drove back by later it did turn out to be where The Velvet Cloak Inn had stood for many, many years. My parents were married a short few blocks away over fifty years ago and I remember my mother telling me on occasion that they stayed at The Velvet Cloak Inn on their wedding night…and then went back to work the next day because their honeymoon wasn’t until later after school let out (they were teachers).
I’ve been to the hotel a few times in my life, more than once for a wedding or reception. It stood there through renovations and demolition of many things around it as it was a landmark of sorts, but it appears its time had come. Good times, good memories.
The Big Boy Update: My son said the other day, “don’t let poison ivy kiss you!” I thought it was a rather clever saying until I found out Poison Ivy was a character from D.C. Comics—a bad guy (girl?).
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter was eating pasta last night for dinner and was apparently enjoying it a lot because she suddenly said, “mmm mmm mmm, shake your bushy tail.”
I wasn’t sure, but as I drove back by later it did turn out to be where The Velvet Cloak Inn had stood for many, many years. My parents were married a short few blocks away over fifty years ago and I remember my mother telling me on occasion that they stayed at The Velvet Cloak Inn on their wedding night…and then went back to work the next day because their honeymoon wasn’t until later after school let out (they were teachers).
I’ve been to the hotel a few times in my life, more than once for a wedding or reception. It stood there through renovations and demolition of many things around it as it was a landmark of sorts, but it appears its time had come. Good times, good memories.
The Big Boy Update: My son said the other day, “don’t let poison ivy kiss you!” I thought it was a rather clever saying until I found out Poison Ivy was a character from D.C. Comics—a bad guy (girl?).
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter was eating pasta last night for dinner and was apparently enjoying it a lot because she suddenly said, “mmm mmm mmm, shake your bushy tail.”
Friday, March 17, 2017
Song and Seat
The Big Boy, Tiny Girl Negotiating Operation: We have some contentious things in our family of late. Firstly there is the, “favorite seat” in the car. I don’t know why there was a favorite seat at the bar eight months ago and now no one cares but there is a favorite seat in the car and that seat is worth battling over.
There have been yelling words and angered tones and unkind feet and mean hands that have dealt with this “problem” from the back seat. So I told them the other day that no, tomorrow wasn’t one or the other child’s day for the favorite seat, I was going to decide, as I saw fit and they would have no control over it until they came up with a plan on who got to sit in the seat when.
This could be one child going to school and one child coming home, only they come home at different times on some days and what if we go out to dinner, I asked them. Figure it out, I told them, and let me know.
So for two more days they had no solution. My husband arbitrarily decided who got the favorite seat until this morning when suddenly, they had a solution. The told us together that one of them would get the favorite seat and the one who did’t have the favorite seat for the day would get to choose the music (another privilege we take turns on).
This was an unexpected and clever solution to the favorite seat problem. Only a day later I don’t even have to ask who’s turn it is, because they’re both letting me know in advance.
There have been yelling words and angered tones and unkind feet and mean hands that have dealt with this “problem” from the back seat. So I told them the other day that no, tomorrow wasn’t one or the other child’s day for the favorite seat, I was going to decide, as I saw fit and they would have no control over it until they came up with a plan on who got to sit in the seat when.
This could be one child going to school and one child coming home, only they come home at different times on some days and what if we go out to dinner, I asked them. Figure it out, I told them, and let me know.
So for two more days they had no solution. My husband arbitrarily decided who got the favorite seat until this morning when suddenly, they had a solution. The told us together that one of them would get the favorite seat and the one who did’t have the favorite seat for the day would get to choose the music (another privilege we take turns on).
This was an unexpected and clever solution to the favorite seat problem. Only a day later I don’t even have to ask who’s turn it is, because they’re both letting me know in advance.
Thursday, March 16, 2017
Long Day, Busy Times
The next few days are going to be packed busy. We have our school auction on Saturday for which I’ll be working most of the day until late. Friday I’ll be prepping for it as well. And then I have a marathon to run at the crack of early on Sunday morning, which makes me wonder when I’m going to get any sleep for it.
Tonight my husband helped me prepare the auction paddles, something he did very well at as it turns out he’s a sorting whiz. I’m going to try to get some sleep tonight since I’m not sure how much I’ll be getting for the next two nights.
The Big Boy Update: My son weighs 41.6 pounds. I never know how much they weigh when we’re asked or how high they are other than to say they can or can’t ride on that ride alone at the fair. So when my son weighed himself tonight I told him I’d take a note of it.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: We got a ukulele for the children’s music therapy lessons. My daughter pronounces it 'you-kee-lau-le'
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Montessori Math
My son has been doing some impressive math work for a kindergartner. For instance, he comes home with addition and multiplication problems all the time—and not little dinky 3x4=12 problems, four digit numbers being multiplied by a unit. It looks impressive. It looks way advanced. It’s the kind of thing that can make you want to brag about what a brainiac you have.
For instance, my son came home with some addition work yesterday. Here’s the problem my son came home with yesterday. I’m pretty excited about al this math work but I can’t get him to tell me about it. At all. But I’ve substituted in the classroom so I know what’s happening.
For instance, my son came home with some addition work yesterday. Here’s the problem my son came home with yesterday. I’m pretty excited about al this math work but I can’t get him to tell me about it. At all. But I’ve substituted in the classroom so I know what’s happening.
Notice how each column is a different color? The units are green, tens are blue, hundreds are red, etc.? That has meaning. Very specific meaning because my son solved this math problem in a long, slow, protracted way, but in a way that helped him understand how numbers work.
The picture above is only half of the sheet, the solution half. The part where he documented his work looked like this:
For every unit in the units column my son counted green “pips” (little wooden things) into a bowl. He would add three, then seven then nine. Once he had that done he counted the total and filled in the number (twenty) by shading in the appropriate amount of squares on the sheet.
Next he has to figure out if he has any full “tens” that need to be carried. In this case there are two full rows, so he marks two hashes and puts two blue pips into the tens bowl. Because he did an exchange (ten units for one ten) he returns the “exchanged” green pips back to the bank.
He continues this process through to the last column, in this case the ten thousands column. The final result is to transfer the number to the original problem, making it look to parents like me that my child is sheer kindergarten genius.
As a substitute who’s seen children working through this type of problem, it’s exciting to see their minds moving slowly and deliberately, but understanding the entire concept of numbers and math as they do so.
The Big Boy Update: Math, my son loves it. His teacher says he’s excelling in math and that he doesn’t even need to use the counting beads as often because he’s making the mental leap in his mind. Penmanship…not so much.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: It was cold today—cold and windy. On the way home my daughter was asking me about evergreen trees and how they didn’t mind the snow (of which we have none) and if bushes were evergreens. We got into how plants could hibernate, just like our grass which is currently all brown but will return to green in the spring. My daughter, who always thinks of other people said, “is the grass happy?”
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
No Asphyxiation
I love my car. And when I say, “my car” I mean the Tesla Model X. I like driving it more than the Model S, which is definitely a great ride, but the Model X has less sporty and more comfortable seats. I like the ride and the quietness of the car. And I love the seat warmer, particularly in winter.
Sometimes, I get home from running errands or dropping the children off at school and pull into the garage, shut the garage door and just sit there in the car. I’m not only sitting there, I’m doing things, like checking email, voice mail, checking the weather or maybe just finishing my coffee.
It’s comfortable sitting the car—and it’s safe too, because there’s no engine spewing poisonous gasses that would asphyxiate me if I sat in a gas-based car for too long.
The Big Boy Update: My son has been wanting background noise lately to help him concentrate on whatever he’s doing. I’ve gotten tired of the droning, repeating demo song on the keyboard in the bonus room so today I got the little iPod we got for my daughter (pink, of course) and loaded it with artists my son likes like Deadmau5 and Sia, paired it with his headphones and let him try it out. He’s crazy about it. I told him he could play music any time if he wanted…but not outside!
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter has a fickle relationship with light. He irises are blown wide open from scaring and can’t regulate light like most people’s eyes can. She’s taken to using her prescription sunglasses all the time when she’s outside. She’ll drop her main glasses around her neck since they’re on an elastic band around her head and when she comes back inside she’ll put her sunglasses away and put on her regular glasses. She’s very good about keeping glasses on to protect her eyes all the time.
Sometimes, I get home from running errands or dropping the children off at school and pull into the garage, shut the garage door and just sit there in the car. I’m not only sitting there, I’m doing things, like checking email, voice mail, checking the weather or maybe just finishing my coffee.
It’s comfortable sitting the car—and it’s safe too, because there’s no engine spewing poisonous gasses that would asphyxiate me if I sat in a gas-based car for too long.
The Big Boy Update: My son has been wanting background noise lately to help him concentrate on whatever he’s doing. I’ve gotten tired of the droning, repeating demo song on the keyboard in the bonus room so today I got the little iPod we got for my daughter (pink, of course) and loaded it with artists my son likes like Deadmau5 and Sia, paired it with his headphones and let him try it out. He’s crazy about it. I told him he could play music any time if he wanted…but not outside!
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter has a fickle relationship with light. He irises are blown wide open from scaring and can’t regulate light like most people’s eyes can. She’s taken to using her prescription sunglasses all the time when she’s outside. She’ll drop her main glasses around her neck since they’re on an elastic band around her head and when she comes back inside she’ll put her sunglasses away and put on her regular glasses. She’s very good about keeping glasses on to protect her eyes all the time.
Monday, March 13, 2017
Hot and Cold
The weather here has been indecisive. So indecisive in fact that I’ve had to bring out spring clothes of short sleeves and short pants while keeping the heavy warm gear in the children’s normal drawers.
Every morning we talk to Alexa, asking her what the weather is like. Some nights we check in advance so we can tell the children to come downstairs dressed for warm weather, really cold weather or medium cold weather that will be getting to warm weather in the afternoon.
The children have gotten pretty good at making clothing decisions based on the weather predictions. Sometimes my son overdresses, but he feels confident in his choices, so we let him handle the consequences if he’s too hot on the playground.
The Big Boy Update: My son has been spelling his name on his school work for a bit now. What’s interesting is instead of spelling it correctly, he’s spelling it out phonetically. It’s great to know he’s thinking about sounds and how they form together to make words.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter comes downstairs in the middle of the night sometimes. Last night at 4AM she stood at the side of the bed and said, “mommy, I’m scared.” I asked her what was scaring her. She replied, “my eyes.” I sort of froze, thinking I might finally get some insight into how she felt about her vision loss. I said, “why?” and she said, “of seeing the shadows”. So I told her to get in the bed and ten minutes later I took her back upstairs.
Every morning we talk to Alexa, asking her what the weather is like. Some nights we check in advance so we can tell the children to come downstairs dressed for warm weather, really cold weather or medium cold weather that will be getting to warm weather in the afternoon.
The children have gotten pretty good at making clothing decisions based on the weather predictions. Sometimes my son overdresses, but he feels confident in his choices, so we let him handle the consequences if he’s too hot on the playground.
The Big Boy Update: My son has been spelling his name on his school work for a bit now. What’s interesting is instead of spelling it correctly, he’s spelling it out phonetically. It’s great to know he’s thinking about sounds and how they form together to make words.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter comes downstairs in the middle of the night sometimes. Last night at 4AM she stood at the side of the bed and said, “mommy, I’m scared.” I asked her what was scaring her. She replied, “my eyes.” I sort of froze, thinking I might finally get some insight into how she felt about her vision loss. I said, “why?” and she said, “of seeing the shadows”. So I told her to get in the bed and ten minutes later I took her back upstairs.
Sunday, March 12, 2017
Severe Weather Alert
I get weather alerts on my phone from time to time. There was some possible frozen precipitation happening this morning so I wasn’t surprised when the phone popped up with a message from one of the weather apps I have. I looked out the window and didn’t see much more than a minor bit of snow coming down. It was just enough to be able to see on the surface of the deck and grill. The children were interested, but only mildly so since it wasn’t enough to frolic in, let alone collect and throw at other people.
I opened up the weather alert notice on my phone at this point because I didn’t remember there being any indication of bad weather, much less a weather pattern that would warrant the phrase, “Sever Weather Alert”.
And that’s when I started to laugh. I laughed and couldn’t stop laughing. My husband looked at me and probably thought I was watching funny cat pictures on the internet until I said, “get this, that severe weather alert. It says, ‘Slight dusting of snow.’”
Did I mention we live in the south? Any chance of snow involves high alert and preparations for weeks without power and catabolism. All signs of the snow were gone by eleven o’clock.
The Big Boy Update: My son broke the rules last night. He broke them more than once and he suffered logical consequences as a result. He lost privileges to use his iPad, which he only gets to use on the weekend and which is precious time to him. He looked at us in the doorway to our bedroom this morning and said, “fine, them I’m going to kill you. I’m going to get a knife.” He was informed he wouldn’t like the consequences of that either, so he decided to stomp off upstairs and play with Legos (happily) by himself.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My son had money under his pillow this morning from the first tooth he lost yesterday. My daughter was excited about it last night and this morning she came down telling me in a happy voice, “Momma, the Tooth Fairy is real!”
I opened up the weather alert notice on my phone at this point because I didn’t remember there being any indication of bad weather, much less a weather pattern that would warrant the phrase, “Sever Weather Alert”.
And that’s when I started to laugh. I laughed and couldn’t stop laughing. My husband looked at me and probably thought I was watching funny cat pictures on the internet until I said, “get this, that severe weather alert. It says, ‘Slight dusting of snow.’”
Did I mention we live in the south? Any chance of snow involves high alert and preparations for weeks without power and catabolism. All signs of the snow were gone by eleven o’clock.
The Big Boy Update: My son broke the rules last night. He broke them more than once and he suffered logical consequences as a result. He lost privileges to use his iPad, which he only gets to use on the weekend and which is precious time to him. He looked at us in the doorway to our bedroom this morning and said, “fine, them I’m going to kill you. I’m going to get a knife.” He was informed he wouldn’t like the consequences of that either, so he decided to stomp off upstairs and play with Legos (happily) by himself.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My son had money under his pillow this morning from the first tooth he lost yesterday. My daughter was excited about it last night and this morning she came down telling me in a happy voice, “Momma, the Tooth Fairy is real!”
Saturday, March 11, 2017
The Tooth Fairy
Today we lost our first tooth. My son has had a wobbly tooth for a long time now, so long that I was wondering if it wasn’t going to come out at all, but today it finally did. He was cross at me at the time because I was explaining how he was not allowed to keep the volume on the keyboard, playing the annoying demo song over and over again, at full volume. He was in the middle of some tantrum-like gesture of anger when I saw something fall down from his mouth.
It wasn’t until he said, “my tooth just fell out” that I realized what small, cream-colored thing had just landed on the cream-colored carpet. Hopefully we found it rather quickly. The tooth out of his mouth didn’t even look like a tooth, but more of a tooth segment. Could it be his whole tooth? I had him show me his mouth and quickly realize inside his little mouth the teeth don’t look as small as they really are.
I put it in a bag and we talked about the tooth fairy visiting tonight. We talked about it quickly because we had a dinner party of nineteen happening shortly, with eleven of those guests children and my son was more interested in that then the tooth at the time.
Just now, hours past bedtime with our friends gone home, my son is getting in bed and is putting his tooth in the little bag under his pillow. He’s looking forward to finding money there in place of his tooth in the morning. Now the only question is, how much money does the Tooth Fairy leave these days?
The Big Boy Update: My son was looking forward to our friends coming to dinner tonight. Some our children knew well while others we haven’t had as much time to spend with. I told my son Colton was coming to see him and I bet he would have a good time playing with him. By the end of the night they were wrestling on the floor together. Colton didn’t want to leave and my son didn’t want to see him go.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter played The Gummy Bear song today through the Amazon Echo. She turned to dad and said, “do you remember when Kyle played the video of this song when we were visiting them in New Jersey?” My husband said he remembered. My daughter said, “I can see it in my head.” This is a poignant comment from her because she saw that video before she lost her sight.
It wasn’t until he said, “my tooth just fell out” that I realized what small, cream-colored thing had just landed on the cream-colored carpet. Hopefully we found it rather quickly. The tooth out of his mouth didn’t even look like a tooth, but more of a tooth segment. Could it be his whole tooth? I had him show me his mouth and quickly realize inside his little mouth the teeth don’t look as small as they really are.
I put it in a bag and we talked about the tooth fairy visiting tonight. We talked about it quickly because we had a dinner party of nineteen happening shortly, with eleven of those guests children and my son was more interested in that then the tooth at the time.
Just now, hours past bedtime with our friends gone home, my son is getting in bed and is putting his tooth in the little bag under his pillow. He’s looking forward to finding money there in place of his tooth in the morning. Now the only question is, how much money does the Tooth Fairy leave these days?
The Big Boy Update: My son was looking forward to our friends coming to dinner tonight. Some our children knew well while others we haven’t had as much time to spend with. I told my son Colton was coming to see him and I bet he would have a good time playing with him. By the end of the night they were wrestling on the floor together. Colton didn’t want to leave and my son didn’t want to see him go.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter played The Gummy Bear song today through the Amazon Echo. She turned to dad and said, “do you remember when Kyle played the video of this song when we were visiting them in New Jersey?” My husband said he remembered. My daughter said, “I can see it in my head.” This is a poignant comment from her because she saw that video before she lost her sight.
Friday, March 10, 2017
The Absentee Gas Station
I haven’t been to a gas station in almost a year. I haven’t had to insert my credit card into the card reader, type in my zip code, select the type of fuel and insert the nozzle into the gas tank spout. I haven’t smelled the smell of gasoline. I’ve not spilt a single drop of gas on the car and had to get one of those completely non-absorptive blue towels from the perpetually dirty windshield washing area to try and wipe up the gas, hoping it won’t scratch the paint in the process. In short, it’s been a good year.
There’s not a single thing I miss about using fossil fuels to power our car. It’s nice coming in at the end of the day, grabbing the charging cord and sticking it into the port on the side of the car. It doesn’t take five minutes to complete and I don’t have to stand out in the cold, rain or wind to complete the job. And every morning I leave the house with the equivalent of a full tank of gas—in this case a fully charged electric car.
My husband, children and I love the electric cars. Our children know people sometimes ask about our cars and they wait patiently while we explain. Sometimes people don’t know what kind of car it is but are intrigued when they see the falcon wing doors open upwards. When they ask what car it is I say, “it’s a Tesla; it’s a completely electric car”. This statement is commonly followed by the question, “who makes it?” Other times people know exactly what the car is and haven’t seen one in person and want to ask questions about how much we like the car and how far can it go on a charge and wow, that touch screen is seriously big.
We have a single battery in the glove box of each car that shows what type of batteries are in the undercarriage. I’ll pull it out and say, “there are over seven thousand of these in the car.” It’s a powerful visual explanation. Sometimes people want to take pictures of the car and have many questions. Other times they’re just curious what it is and move along quickly. As long as we’re not in a hurry, my husband and I don’t mind talking about the cars because we are big advocates of Tesla and electric cars in general.
I’ve been asked about our cars in all different locations, but the one place I don’t ever expect to encounter curious questions is at a gas station—because we’re never there.
The Big Boy Update: My son answered his doctor’s question the other day with the answer, “a yiddle bit”. I looked at his doctor and said, “he means ‘little’” to which my son loudly replied, “a LITTLE!” He’s been saying the word incorrectly for a long time but I think he’s got the pronunciation right going forward.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter came downstairs in the middle of the night with slightly wet pants. We got her some new pajama bottoms on and as she was about to walk back upstairs with dad I heard her ask, “could you find me the lemur?” She was wanting the lemur stuffed animal as a comfort because my husband had told her the other day how the lemur wasn’t afraid of the dark.
There’s not a single thing I miss about using fossil fuels to power our car. It’s nice coming in at the end of the day, grabbing the charging cord and sticking it into the port on the side of the car. It doesn’t take five minutes to complete and I don’t have to stand out in the cold, rain or wind to complete the job. And every morning I leave the house with the equivalent of a full tank of gas—in this case a fully charged electric car.
My husband, children and I love the electric cars. Our children know people sometimes ask about our cars and they wait patiently while we explain. Sometimes people don’t know what kind of car it is but are intrigued when they see the falcon wing doors open upwards. When they ask what car it is I say, “it’s a Tesla; it’s a completely electric car”. This statement is commonly followed by the question, “who makes it?” Other times people know exactly what the car is and haven’t seen one in person and want to ask questions about how much we like the car and how far can it go on a charge and wow, that touch screen is seriously big.
We have a single battery in the glove box of each car that shows what type of batteries are in the undercarriage. I’ll pull it out and say, “there are over seven thousand of these in the car.” It’s a powerful visual explanation. Sometimes people want to take pictures of the car and have many questions. Other times they’re just curious what it is and move along quickly. As long as we’re not in a hurry, my husband and I don’t mind talking about the cars because we are big advocates of Tesla and electric cars in general.
I’ve been asked about our cars in all different locations, but the one place I don’t ever expect to encounter curious questions is at a gas station—because we’re never there.
The Big Boy Update: My son answered his doctor’s question the other day with the answer, “a yiddle bit”. I looked at his doctor and said, “he means ‘little’” to which my son loudly replied, “a LITTLE!” He’s been saying the word incorrectly for a long time but I think he’s got the pronunciation right going forward.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter came downstairs in the middle of the night with slightly wet pants. We got her some new pajama bottoms on and as she was about to walk back upstairs with dad I heard her ask, “could you find me the lemur?” She was wanting the lemur stuffed animal as a comfort because my husband had told her the other day how the lemur wasn’t afraid of the dark.
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Hi Friends!
I am around my children's school a good bit. I'm on a lot of committee meetings, volunteering and substitute teaching. As a result I know most of the students by name and they know me. This afternoon I was over at the school early before I had to pick up my son to retrieve my daughter's forgotten lunch box. I stopped in at the office and talked to several staff members before going to the refrigerator to get her lunch.
After that I stopped outside to talk to two of the Toddler House classroom teachers about the closet I'd been helping organize and I had several of the smallest children come over to the fence they were playing inside to tell me about the fireman game they were playing, telling me about it in their cute little broken beginner English.
I left the toddler playground to walk across the Outdoor Learning Environment to the multipurpose room where my son was finishing up. The two teachers for the older after school children called out to me saying hello. I said hello back and then called out to the students, "hi friends!" The entire group unexpectedly said back in unison, "hi!"
It made me feel so happy to be part of such a friendly school community of both teachers and students.
The Big Boy Update: my son bites his fingernails. We've been trying to keep them trimmed, but he beats us to it most of the time. Tonight as we were reading he decided he needed to trim his own toenail with his teeth. He reluctantly let me trim them with the clippers after I got him to take his foot out of his mouth.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: my daughter had a play date with a school friend who leaves at noon instead of three when my children get out. We decided it would be a fun time for her and let her go home with Taylor at noon. She came home talking all about it and brought back with her several paintings she'd made including her hair, which had also gotten painted a lovely shade of teal in the process.
After that I stopped outside to talk to two of the Toddler House classroom teachers about the closet I'd been helping organize and I had several of the smallest children come over to the fence they were playing inside to tell me about the fireman game they were playing, telling me about it in their cute little broken beginner English.
I left the toddler playground to walk across the Outdoor Learning Environment to the multipurpose room where my son was finishing up. The two teachers for the older after school children called out to me saying hello. I said hello back and then called out to the students, "hi friends!" The entire group unexpectedly said back in unison, "hi!"
It made me feel so happy to be part of such a friendly school community of both teachers and students.
The Big Boy Update: my son bites his fingernails. We've been trying to keep them trimmed, but he beats us to it most of the time. Tonight as we were reading he decided he needed to trim his own toenail with his teeth. He reluctantly let me trim them with the clippers after I got him to take his foot out of his mouth.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: my daughter had a play date with a school friend who leaves at noon instead of three when my children get out. We decided it would be a fun time for her and let her go home with Taylor at noon. She came home talking all about it and brought back with her several paintings she'd made including her hair, which had also gotten painted a lovely shade of teal in the process.
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
A Pack and a Sack
My son has been working on reading lately. This week he was sent home with a book, A Pack and a Sack, he could read completely, all by himself. The teacher said he had memorized some of the book, but I could tell tonight he was reading the words because he stopped when he got things wrong and figured out what the sentence really said. I’m very impressed with him.
My daughter, sitting on the side, not able to see the pictures but listening quietly was also paying attention. She has to go on memory more than him because she can’t rely on sound. She’s only heard the book once—last night—but she remember it and helped him with what some of the pages said when he stumbled through the words. I am very impressed with her too.
The Big Boy Update: A song by Alvin and the Chipmunks came on in the car this morning. My son said, “I wonder how the people sing that high?” He answered his own question a few seconds later, saying, “maybe they hold their noses”.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter can snap the fingers on both hands with ease now. She’ll walk around snapping fingers, humming a little tune and singing some words she made up throughout the day and in the car.
My daughter, sitting on the side, not able to see the pictures but listening quietly was also paying attention. She has to go on memory more than him because she can’t rely on sound. She’s only heard the book once—last night—but she remember it and helped him with what some of the pages said when he stumbled through the words. I am very impressed with her too.
The Big Boy Update: A song by Alvin and the Chipmunks came on in the car this morning. My son said, “I wonder how the people sing that high?” He answered his own question a few seconds later, saying, “maybe they hold their noses”.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter can snap the fingers on both hands with ease now. She’ll walk around snapping fingers, humming a little tune and singing some words she made up throughout the day and in the car.
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
What Does B, B, S, T Spell?
My children are both sounding out words now. They see letters around and want to know what they mean. My daughter has a harder time seeing letters, but she can see them when they’re up close and she does know the alphabet.
They’re each working on spelling words at school and one of their favorite games at home is to spell out random letter sounds, asking either my husband or me what word they spelled. We try very hard to pronounce the unusual letter combinations they make up, which sometimes makes them laugh, followed by spelling an even longer and more crazy string of letters.
Tonight on the way home from dinner we were playing this game. My son asked what B-B-S-T spelled and my husband and I made an attempt to pronounce it. He asked what it meant and we said it wasn’t a real word that we knew of. He turned around, looked and said, “but it says so on the building back there”.
We looked back and saw the BB&T bank building sign behind us. Oh, we explained, that was a real thing, only it wasn’t a word you pronounced, more like letters you said in a row and that ’S’ looking thing wasn’t an ’S’ but a symbol meaning ‘and’. Can you imagine the questions we after that explanation?
The Big Boy Update: My son was climbing all over the railings and stairs and columns at the restaurant tonight. I need to look into a parkour class for him because I think he’d love it.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter took her soccer ball into the back yard. She took it to the top of the slide. She slid it down the slide. It rolled down the hill into the briars—like it always does. She cried and wailed. How is this still a surprise when it happens?
They’re each working on spelling words at school and one of their favorite games at home is to spell out random letter sounds, asking either my husband or me what word they spelled. We try very hard to pronounce the unusual letter combinations they make up, which sometimes makes them laugh, followed by spelling an even longer and more crazy string of letters.
Tonight on the way home from dinner we were playing this game. My son asked what B-B-S-T spelled and my husband and I made an attempt to pronounce it. He asked what it meant and we said it wasn’t a real word that we knew of. He turned around, looked and said, “but it says so on the building back there”.
We looked back and saw the BB&T bank building sign behind us. Oh, we explained, that was a real thing, only it wasn’t a word you pronounced, more like letters you said in a row and that ’S’ looking thing wasn’t an ’S’ but a symbol meaning ‘and’. Can you imagine the questions we after that explanation?
The Big Boy Update: My son was climbing all over the railings and stairs and columns at the restaurant tonight. I need to look into a parkour class for him because I think he’d love it.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter took her soccer ball into the back yard. She took it to the top of the slide. She slid it down the slide. It rolled down the hill into the briars—like it always does. She cried and wailed. How is this still a surprise when it happens?
Monday, March 6, 2017
Head Rest
I was at a dinner tonight with some of the mothers from my son’s class at school. We were all talking and enjoying the drinks and food but as I looked around I noticed something. People were sitting back, they were leaning forward, but no one was doing what I was, which was putting my elbow on the table and resting my chin on it.
I’ve been watching this behavior I do for a while now. I realized I have a lot of strength in some muscles in my body because, well, marathon and other things. But some places I’m weak. My neck is one of those places. Or maybe it’s not weak, but it’s easily strained. There are some positions I can do without causing pain or muscle spasm backlash while other things I can’t do for even a few minutes with repercussions.
Resting my head on my hand takes just enough weight off my cervical spine to make leaning forward to talk to someone down the table comfortable as opposed to painful. Fortunately these days putting your elbows on the table isn’t as much of a social faux pas as it was years ago. Otherwise I’d have to be okay with being a rude dinner guest.
The Big Boy Update: My son and I had green beans on our plates the other night. He wasn’t particularly interested in eating his until dad said, “who can eat the biggest bean the fastest?” The race was on. He was shoving the bean in his mouth as fast as he could. He won, beating me by two whole seconds.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter was lying on the ground yesterday and I was asking her to roll over so we could do drops. As I said this I patted her bottom. She said to me, “no tapping booty!” I have no idea where she heard the phrase but I couldn’t help but laugh.
Not My Fitness Update: My husband has been running lately. He has a bad knee, but of late it hasn’t been bothering him like it used to. Not too long ago (maybe last week?) he ran his first 5K distance without stopping. And talking about not stopping, today he doubled that distance, running 10K or 6.2 miles without stopping. Go dad.
I’ve been watching this behavior I do for a while now. I realized I have a lot of strength in some muscles in my body because, well, marathon and other things. But some places I’m weak. My neck is one of those places. Or maybe it’s not weak, but it’s easily strained. There are some positions I can do without causing pain or muscle spasm backlash while other things I can’t do for even a few minutes with repercussions.
Resting my head on my hand takes just enough weight off my cervical spine to make leaning forward to talk to someone down the table comfortable as opposed to painful. Fortunately these days putting your elbows on the table isn’t as much of a social faux pas as it was years ago. Otherwise I’d have to be okay with being a rude dinner guest.
The Big Boy Update: My son and I had green beans on our plates the other night. He wasn’t particularly interested in eating his until dad said, “who can eat the biggest bean the fastest?” The race was on. He was shoving the bean in his mouth as fast as he could. He won, beating me by two whole seconds.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter was lying on the ground yesterday and I was asking her to roll over so we could do drops. As I said this I patted her bottom. She said to me, “no tapping booty!” I have no idea where she heard the phrase but I couldn’t help but laugh.
Not My Fitness Update: My husband has been running lately. He has a bad knee, but of late it hasn’t been bothering him like it used to. Not too long ago (maybe last week?) he ran his first 5K distance without stopping. And talking about not stopping, today he doubled that distance, running 10K or 6.2 miles without stopping. Go dad.
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Ask and Take
Our children have different personalities. This is nothing unexpected, as anyone with more than one child will tell you. Our children are different in many ways, some of which is based on both gender and nature, but some of the ways they’re different are just personality.
On the weekdays we typically don’t allow the children to have “screen time”. This means television (for the one who can see the screen), video game systems or iPads. They both have an iPads as my husband and I have upgraded ours over time and passed ours down to them. There are lots of apps on their iPads and they can watch videos, movies and shows on them as well. For a child who needs to have a screen two inches in front of her face to see anything, the iPad is a wonderful thing.
On the weekends or holidays our children are allowed to spend time on their iPads come Saturday morning. They know this is coming and sometimes will even ask, “is tomorrow an iPad day?” We pull them out on Friday nights, plug them and their headphones in at a certain spot in our bedroom so when they wake up they can come and get them.
This works out well for us as it gives us a chance to sleep a little later than normal and it works out for them because they can watch shows and spend a leisurely weekend morning around the house. I remember when I was a child I looked forward to getting up on Saturday mornings and watching cartoons while my parents slept late.
Our children are different though in that one child, my son, will come in, grab his iPad and headphones and head out of the room. I don’t even have to open my eyes to know it’s him. My daughter on the other hand comes in, stands next to the bed and says, “can I do iPad?” We tell her yes and then she gets her iPad and quietly leaves the room. She is the permission asker.
The Big Boy Update: My son loves Legos. Any time he gets something new he puts it together and then wants to keep it on the table to play with it for several days. His latest is a Nexo Knights set. I’m not sure what was happening in his mind this afternoon but he went upstairs and got the Daelek’s (bad guys) from my Dr. Who Lego set we had displayed in the craft room and brought them down to fight against the good guys:
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter is a great helper. She helped dad make donut holes this morning and the laundry with me this afternoon. She helped me with lots of little things like cleaning up all day long. She likes doing things together.
On the weekdays we typically don’t allow the children to have “screen time”. This means television (for the one who can see the screen), video game systems or iPads. They both have an iPads as my husband and I have upgraded ours over time and passed ours down to them. There are lots of apps on their iPads and they can watch videos, movies and shows on them as well. For a child who needs to have a screen two inches in front of her face to see anything, the iPad is a wonderful thing.
On the weekends or holidays our children are allowed to spend time on their iPads come Saturday morning. They know this is coming and sometimes will even ask, “is tomorrow an iPad day?” We pull them out on Friday nights, plug them and their headphones in at a certain spot in our bedroom so when they wake up they can come and get them.
This works out well for us as it gives us a chance to sleep a little later than normal and it works out for them because they can watch shows and spend a leisurely weekend morning around the house. I remember when I was a child I looked forward to getting up on Saturday mornings and watching cartoons while my parents slept late.
Our children are different though in that one child, my son, will come in, grab his iPad and headphones and head out of the room. I don’t even have to open my eyes to know it’s him. My daughter on the other hand comes in, stands next to the bed and says, “can I do iPad?” We tell her yes and then she gets her iPad and quietly leaves the room. She is the permission asker.
The Big Boy Update: My son loves Legos. Any time he gets something new he puts it together and then wants to keep it on the table to play with it for several days. His latest is a Nexo Knights set. I’m not sure what was happening in his mind this afternoon but he went upstairs and got the Daelek’s (bad guys) from my Dr. Who Lego set we had displayed in the craft room and brought them down to fight against the good guys:
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter is a great helper. She helped dad make donut holes this morning and the laundry with me this afternoon. She helped me with lots of little things like cleaning up all day long. She likes doing things together.
Saturday, March 4, 2017
Lactic Acid
My best friend and I ran a marathon today in the park across the street where we regularly run. We’d done a trial run, doing the full 26.2 mile distance. We did a portion of the single track trails we’d be doing today and didn’t have much difficulty with the run. We were ready. We were trained up. We were prepared.
Today the race started off well but a little over half-way through I started to have bad pains in my legs—in my entire legs. It got worse and worse. There was lactic acid building up in them and I couldn’t get the pain to abate. I drank excessively at the water stations and ate food at every stop as well. Nothing helped.
When we were about two-thirds through the race I’d slowed down a lot and had to walk from time to time. We ran into one of the race volunteers who told us we were on the edge of being cut off due to slow pace so we’d better pick up the pace.
I tried. I tried to run faster, not walk and keep a decent pace, but it was hard. We came in at the end of the race just at the final time cut off, something I’m glad we were able to do. But it was a painful race.
I’m not sure what the lactic acid buildup stemmed from. I’ve run a good number of marathons now and I know how to fuel up and hydrate before a race, but this time something just didn’t work well.
I’m glad we made it. I’m tired now and am thinking of going to bed at seven o’clock. I’m looking forward to some sleep.
The Big Boy Update: Uncle Jon came over with a new video game to show my husband and son. They had a fun day trying out the new system together. My son loves video games and was happy to have a chance to see Uncle Jonathan.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter wanted to dress me today after the marathon. She went into the closet and picked out a dressy, polka dot shirt for summer weather. I told her it was lovely and am wearing it now. She also got me some shoes to match.
Marathon Update: I’ve run a marathon distance run fifteen times now, including today. Today was one of the two most difficult runs I’ve had due to a buildup of lactic acid in my legs. We finished though, although with a very slow pace.
Today the race started off well but a little over half-way through I started to have bad pains in my legs—in my entire legs. It got worse and worse. There was lactic acid building up in them and I couldn’t get the pain to abate. I drank excessively at the water stations and ate food at every stop as well. Nothing helped.
When we were about two-thirds through the race I’d slowed down a lot and had to walk from time to time. We ran into one of the race volunteers who told us we were on the edge of being cut off due to slow pace so we’d better pick up the pace.
I tried. I tried to run faster, not walk and keep a decent pace, but it was hard. We came in at the end of the race just at the final time cut off, something I’m glad we were able to do. But it was a painful race.
I’m not sure what the lactic acid buildup stemmed from. I’ve run a good number of marathons now and I know how to fuel up and hydrate before a race, but this time something just didn’t work well.
I’m glad we made it. I’m tired now and am thinking of going to bed at seven o’clock. I’m looking forward to some sleep.
The Big Boy Update: Uncle Jon came over with a new video game to show my husband and son. They had a fun day trying out the new system together. My son loves video games and was happy to have a chance to see Uncle Jonathan.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter wanted to dress me today after the marathon. She went into the closet and picked out a dressy, polka dot shirt for summer weather. I told her it was lovely and am wearing it now. She also got me some shoes to match.
Marathon Update: I’ve run a marathon distance run fifteen times now, including today. Today was one of the two most difficult runs I’ve had due to a buildup of lactic acid in my legs. We finished though, although with a very slow pace.
Friday, March 3, 2017
Trails Marathon
Tomorrow morning my best friend and I are running the most challenging marathon we've done before. We did it last year and due to an unexpected issue with her children following us for a bit and then not wanting to go back alone, we ran an extra mile over the marathon distance. This year, we're shooting for just the standard 26.2.
This marathon is in the park across from our neighborhood that is very hilly to start, but has added single track trails for approximately seven miles of the race over rocks, roots and pine straw, adding to the excitement, danger, fun and of cours exhaustion.
It's going to be freezing when the race starts, which won't be fun, but by the end we'll be in the fifties, although a twenty degree temperature swing will be challenging to dress for, See you on the other side tomorrow as I try and hold my head up to write tomorrow night's post.
The Big Boy Update: my son still pronounces "little" as "yiddle". I pointed it out to him the other day and tonight he asked me which was was the correct way to pronounce the word. All his cute little boy words will be gone soon.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: my daughter decided she wanted rainbow sherbet for dessert at the restaurant tonight. She got most of it in her mouth. Watching her happily eat it was well worth it though.
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Mongolian Barbecue
When I was a child there was a restaurant in town that served Mongolian barbecue. It was a fun experience for me because I got to pick out uncooked vegetables and meats, put them in a bowl and then watch as the chefs cooked mine and many other people’s meals on a huge flat, round cooking surface.
There were lots of flames as the cooks would move our meals slowly around the circular surface. I would watch them put the flavorings on as the food began to cook. There wasn’t a lot of choice flavor-wise: you could have sweet and sour, hot and spicy on a scale of one to ten and combination of the two. I always got just the sweet and sour.
As I got older, I took friends to the restaurant. It was terrible atmosphere, the tables were warped and the carpet seemed sticky and dirty, but none of us cared. Over the years I found out more and more people had the same love of the restaurant and their food as I did, sometimes because I’d run into friends while we stood in line waiting to fill our bowls.
Then there was a hurricane and a flood and the restaurant from my childhood decided to close due to costs to repair and reopen. Everyone talked about it. We were all sad to have lost the restaurant due to finances. Then, not that long ago, we heard they’d reopened. It was another location across town but it was the same restaurant. But was it really the same?
On our first visit we walked in to find the same ingredients, the same cooking surface and the same flavor choices and when the food arrived, it tasted just the same as we all remembered it. Tonight, we’re going out with my parents who haven’t been there since they reopened. My children are going too. They didn’t know the old location as it closed before they were born, but they like the food, which is all that really matters.
The Big Boy Update: My son ran into the bedroom in the middle of the night. He said, “I had a nightmare, how do I make it go away?” I told him we should talk about Nexo Knights (because he’s obsessed with them right now) and for the next few minutes he was distracted from the nightmare. Then he suddenly said, “ghosts are real.” Dad and I said we didn’t think they were but some people believed it. My son replied, “scientists think they are.’ My husband realized what he was talking about and said, “Oh, from the show Cosmos? What they said was the stars are like ghosts because the light comes to us long after the star has burned all its energy and died.” After a few more star-based questions my son was ready to go back to bed, having gotten over his nightmare.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter has been a question monster lately. You can hardly get one question answered before she launches into a second, third, twelfth one.
There were lots of flames as the cooks would move our meals slowly around the circular surface. I would watch them put the flavorings on as the food began to cook. There wasn’t a lot of choice flavor-wise: you could have sweet and sour, hot and spicy on a scale of one to ten and combination of the two. I always got just the sweet and sour.
As I got older, I took friends to the restaurant. It was terrible atmosphere, the tables were warped and the carpet seemed sticky and dirty, but none of us cared. Over the years I found out more and more people had the same love of the restaurant and their food as I did, sometimes because I’d run into friends while we stood in line waiting to fill our bowls.
Then there was a hurricane and a flood and the restaurant from my childhood decided to close due to costs to repair and reopen. Everyone talked about it. We were all sad to have lost the restaurant due to finances. Then, not that long ago, we heard they’d reopened. It was another location across town but it was the same restaurant. But was it really the same?
On our first visit we walked in to find the same ingredients, the same cooking surface and the same flavor choices and when the food arrived, it tasted just the same as we all remembered it. Tonight, we’re going out with my parents who haven’t been there since they reopened. My children are going too. They didn’t know the old location as it closed before they were born, but they like the food, which is all that really matters.
The Big Boy Update: My son ran into the bedroom in the middle of the night. He said, “I had a nightmare, how do I make it go away?” I told him we should talk about Nexo Knights (because he’s obsessed with them right now) and for the next few minutes he was distracted from the nightmare. Then he suddenly said, “ghosts are real.” Dad and I said we didn’t think they were but some people believed it. My son replied, “scientists think they are.’ My husband realized what he was talking about and said, “Oh, from the show Cosmos? What they said was the stars are like ghosts because the light comes to us long after the star has burned all its energy and died.” After a few more star-based questions my son was ready to go back to bed, having gotten over his nightmare.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter has been a question monster lately. You can hardly get one question answered before she launches into a second, third, twelfth one.
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Pepperoni and Butter Sandwich
My children bring their lunches to school. I try to pack a variety of things, changing what they have to eat so they’re flexible and enjoy a variety of food choices. Some of the things I put in every day such as a granola bar and yogurt, but the fruit, vegetables and protein ranges across a large spectrum of choices.
I’ve asked the children to be involved in helping make the lunches but it is more tedious and always takes longer than when I do it alone. Sometimes through those helping sessions I learn something new. For instance, yesterday I learned my children would prefer a whole orange be sent in as opposed to one sliced up.
Tonight I was making sandwiches and querying the children on what they wanted on theirs. My son walked over to the island where the ingredients were laying out, looked up at me and said, “I want a pepperoni and butter sandwich”. And that is what’s in his lunchbox now. We’ll see what comes home tomorrow after school.
The Big Boy Update: My son looked up to see my husband kiss me in the kitchen. He said, “are you guys kissie wissie?”
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter at dinner, “I wish I could go back in time”. Me, “why?” My daughter, “to go to breakfast.” Me, “why?” My daughter, “so I could go to school again.”
I’ve asked the children to be involved in helping make the lunches but it is more tedious and always takes longer than when I do it alone. Sometimes through those helping sessions I learn something new. For instance, yesterday I learned my children would prefer a whole orange be sent in as opposed to one sliced up.
Tonight I was making sandwiches and querying the children on what they wanted on theirs. My son walked over to the island where the ingredients were laying out, looked up at me and said, “I want a pepperoni and butter sandwich”. And that is what’s in his lunchbox now. We’ll see what comes home tomorrow after school.
The Big Boy Update: My son looked up to see my husband kiss me in the kitchen. He said, “are you guys kissie wissie?”
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter at dinner, “I wish I could go back in time”. Me, “why?” My daughter, “to go to breakfast.” Me, “why?” My daughter, “so I could go to school again.”
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