Couch Cave

My children are at the age where the like to rearrange the house to go along with their play.   When I was young my parents had a long couch.   It was the longest couch in the world, I was pretty sure.   I think, and this might just be my childhood memories decaying over time, that there were four seat cushions on the sofa.

I know it was more than two because of how we'd set them up to make a tunnel.  My mother would put the seat cushion vertical at the front edge and then she'd prop the back cushion across the back frame of the sofa over to the vertical pillow.

By doing this from one end of the sofa to the other, you had a hideout or a secret tunnel.  I remember climbing up on the armrest at one end and crawling into the couch cave.  It was darker in there and there would be a bit of grit from time to time that had slipped through the cushions and onto the base cover.

I would then crawl to the other end of the couch and climb out of the hole at the armrest.   I did this loop again and again.  There was giggling and games my mother and I played together.   I feel like I had fun on that couch for years and years and years, only that's child time talking.   It was probably only a few years because I wasn't that old when they redecorated the living room and the couch was gone.

Children percieve the world differently.   I thought of the couch as large but I think it was the opposite—I was just small.   I had to be if I could crawl into the small opening between the two pillows without knocking down the fort.

I thought about the couch pillows today when my children were making another fort using both of our couches, all the dining room tables, every pillow in sight and, of course, all the blankets.   These messes happen a lot.   Someday, perhaps not that far off no more pillow forts will be made.   I know I'll miss it when they do.

The Big Boy Update:  My children were on a call with their cousin Sydney this evening.   I missed the beginning of the story but I was almost certain they were talking about kissing.  I listened in/. They were talking about first kisses and if "he" had kissed anyone and if he would tell them if he had.   My son jumps into the conversation at this point and helpfully says, If you've seen Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie then you know kissing is wet.:

The Tiny Gitl Chronicles:  My mother sent me an email a few weeks ago about what she and my daughter had done the day before.   Here's the story my mother shared:

For the next game, Reese said: “Mimi, I want you to make a maze for me.” I wasn’t quite sure what she meant, but I thought that surely I could make a maze. So I positioned her at one corner of the room, and I laid out some trash cans, pillows, a small stool, etc. Then I went to the diagonal corner of the room and told her to come to me. Very quickly she made her way toward my corner. When she got there she stopped and said emphatically, “Mimi, in NO WAY, was that a maze. That was an obstacle course! Let me draw a maze for you.” I gave her some paper and a pencil and she drew a very good representation of a maze. “This is what a maze looks like”, she said. And I said, “But Reese, with all this furniture in the room, I just don’t think there’s room for a maze.” And with a sigh, she said, “Well, I guess we’ll just have to play another game.”

It Takes Two To Teach

I never knew the weekend could be so good.   My husband and I worked with our two children to deliver the educational materials their teachers had sent since the cancellation of school earlier in the month.  We're not "teaching" the children in the same way that a home school parent would be doing, we're just delivering the material and helping them complete it where needed.

This is challenging for each of my children in totally different ways.   My son does the bit where he loses his mind at us on a regular basis.  In order for him to work well during school hours, we're giving him Adderall.  Of important note here, this is by his request.   It helps him focus.   He can get work done when he takes it.   We're even letting him help decide how much he should take and if he prefers the long-acting or the short-acting option.

My son doesn't like the Adderall for any other time except school.  It helps him work, something he wants to do but has a hard time doing when he can't slow down his racing brain.   There is a price to pay though—he gets emotional.   He will get upset and react in a way that is way overboard and not age-appropriate.  It's like he's regressed emotionally into a more child-like state.   However, if he can just sit down and do the work, he does a beautiful job.

The biggest challenge with him is the change.  There are new things coming from his teachers regularly as they try and get a consistent work week planned for each child, including online lessons with the teachers.   For the most part, every work he's doing is similar or exactly what he was doing at school but the overall package is anxiety-provoking to him.  Friday was a good day, today was not.   Hopefully, with the new work schedule now in place, things will go more smoothly for the remainder of the week.

My daughter has the opposite "problem" as my son.   She wants to work.   She wants to work and gets done with assignments so quickly that I can't get through the teacher emails to figure out what to try and do with her next.   All of her work requires pre-work to get it ready, like putting a book on her refreshable braille display, preparing materials in braille by me or coming up with things she can do that are mentally stimulating, if not exactly where they are in the curriculum.

The VI teachers have been working on a way to get materials to us.   They have to first compile it and then they have to get it to us.   Today I got an email that they could drop materials at a food bank within a time window and we could pick it up there.  No meeting.   No saying hello.   Drop off and pick up.   That's fine, it's materials.   We need materials for my daughter.  Badly.   Today I kept her reasonably busy, but she fills in with extra work while I flounder to find the next thing.   For example, today she wrote four word problems for me to solve.   They were good ones too.

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Thank You Note Writers:  My children both wrote Liam and his parents a thank you note for the butter chicken they cooked for us.   Their son, Liam, who is in my son's class, wrote a note explaining how butter chicken was his favorite.   He started with, "I washed my hands before I wrote this."  So the three of us washed our hands thoroughly and then wrote Liam a thank you note back.   I wrote one too, practicing my braille writing skills.   We sealed the notes up with sealing wax and some fun sealing stamps and then the entire family walked over to their house, placed the notes on the front porch, rang the doorbell and left.  

Tug of War

I've had dogs before, but only small ones.  I've had cute little fluffy dogs that like to sit on your lap, be petted and are generally sweet when they're not barking at people at the door.   I've had my share of "yappy" dogs in my time.   Our dog now is a completely different sort.  

She's larger by far, at thirty-five pounds than any dog I've ever had.   She is very gentle and loves attention.  I don't think we could have picked a better dog for our family—specifically for my daughter.   She will let you grab her, roll her over, snuggle her, and basically do anything you want to her physically without a complaint.   She has never once complained about the physical attention she receives, even though I worry she's being treated in a way that's controlling by my daughter.

She likes to spend time on the bed with us at night, but only some, preferring to spend the majority of the night in her cage or lying with her face against the air vent whenever cool air is coming out.   She always greets us as though we've been away for an eon, even if it was only for a short jaunt to the grocery store.

You can touch any part of her body without her minding.   She lets me groom her, trimming her hair wherever needed, including getting matted bits out with uncomfortable brushing and cutting if necessary.  She sits still with scissors right in front of her face as I cut the hair around her eyes so she can see better.

She listens to any commands I give her, something she's done since we sent her to training.   From time to time I need to remind her of her training by putting the collar on her for a day, but for the most part, she isn't a defiant dog at all, complying to any and all commands, even if there is something enticing or exciting she wants to see.

And she does something else I've never had a dog do—she fetches.   My prior dog was small and would have liked to fetch only she had dislocating knees as a juvenile and had to have significant surgery on both legs to keep her kneecaps in place.   This limited her ability to run and jump.   She also didn't have much interest in chasing after things or returning anything thrown.

Matisse loves fetch.   It took a bit to train her to drop the ball or stick in order to have it thrown again.   This is something she does well with me, but not with the rest of the family as they haven't spent as much time with her on this game.   She also loves to play tug of war.  

I love this game with her and am amazed at the strength of her bite as well as the carefulness with which she plays the game.  She will bring a stick to me in her mouth and hold it out, waiting for me to grab both sides.   She holds on to the stick, repositing to get it so she has a good grip and then we play tug.   I pick her up and spin her around, listening to her growl in play.   When she releases the stick after having enough of the tug game I throw it.   She brings it back, ready for another go.

I've had so much fun, watching her run at top speed to fetch balls and sticks.   She's a much bigger dog than I've ever had, but she's a perfect size, I've decided.   I don't know how we lucked out with such a gentle and understanding dog, but we did.   I wasn't sure we wanted to get a family dog.  Now, I can't imagine our house without Matisse in it.

The Big Boy Update:  We've been lazy this weekend.  I'm still in my pajamas this evening as I write this.   My son, screen time returned after several days without, played a game on his iPad beside me as I played the same game: Cell to Singlarity.  It' a game of evolution.   He and I are having fun seeing who can evolve the most things together.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  We opened a window in our bedroom to talk to our neighbor yesterday who was lounging on a hammock swing she'd put up between two trees.  My daughter wanted to climb out the window and then found out where the window was in relation to the perimeter of the house.  This is something we can see, but she had to experience it.  Today, she walked around the house, behind the bushes, until she found the window and then knocked to be let in.   Tonight she wants to find the window to the bathroom so she can climb in at the tub for her bath.

Butter Chicken Delivery

We got a text message from a family in our neighborhood who's son is in my son's class today.  They live a few blocks away but we've done social things with them on occasion.   They are very outgoing and I am certain to have many friends.   Everyone we know has such nice things to say about them.   We've been to an auction experience two years ago where they cooked traditional southern Indian food for us in their home.   If they offered it again, I'd sign up—their cooking is excellent.

Which is why when my husband got a text today from them, asking if we'd like some butter chicken they were making to share with friends, we didn't hesitate on saying yes.  I wasn't concerned about getting food from someone else; the food we buy from a restaurant or grocery store has, at some point, been interacted with by at least one person.   Getting overly paranoid doesn't help.  Therein lies madness as far as that goes for me.  

They delivered the food at five o'clock with a letter to my son from Liam, their son.   They had a note on the bag from them as well:



What a lovely gesture.  And what delicious food.

The Big Boy Update:  Today was hot here in the mid 80's.   The children had a lot of fun outside.   My daughter came in when her brother was passing her, going back out.   She said as he passed, "I'm just about to go put myself in the freezer."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My son took apart a complex wooden puzzle that was for decoration purposes on a shelf.   I said he had to put it back together, which I knew would be tough.   He worked on it for a while and when I though he was going to give up he said, "I think I'm on to something."  He was, and he's got a good idea on how to put it together.   The trouble is, all pieces are different and he hasn't figured out the final ordering yet.

The Blanket Cloak

My children love blankets.   In particular, they love to lie on the couch when they're watching (listening) to a show, plating on the iPad, reading a book, or any other thing you can think of that they might be cold while doing.

The above examples are all fine.  They want to wrap the blanket around their shoulders and do things that either don't make sense or aren't okay with us.   On the not making sense front, they are not invited to use a blanket while folding laundry–because their arms and hands aren't available to fold when they're sheltered inside the blanket.   They like to have blankets around them at the bar while they're eating.   If it's crumbly, it's all over the blanket.   If it's sticky or stains we'll have to wash the blanket.

And then they want to use the blankets as cloaks, keeping them warm while collecting all the dirt on the floor at the same time,   We've told them so many times not to do this.   I have a new blanket as of a week ago.   It is mine.  It is not allowed in their bedroom.   They cannot take it anywhere.   They can use it on the bed in our room and I gave permission for the blanket to go to the living room earlier today to help my daughter get interested in watching Coco willingly.  

So, what did I see two hours later?  My blanket on my son's shoulders, trailing the floor as he walked around the kitchen all over the areas where his father had just finished cooking dinner.   My blanket is now back on the bed and they can touch it only when they're on the bed.  

I got distracted by the assault done to my new, clean blanket.   Back to the point.  They love blankets.   We have loads of them and they do like to wear them as blanket cloaks.   The children would gladly have ten blankets in their beds with them if we didn't ask them every so often to return them from where they took them in the house.

The Big Boy Update:  When getting groceries I happen to see a Duncan Butterfly Yoyo.   We've been learning how to yoyo here but have poor quality yoyos.   I told my son we needed to get a Duncan.    I came home from the store and called out to my son, holding the package up.   From the top of the stairs he cried out, "is that a Duncan?!"  I nodded while he was running down the stairs to come and get it.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  We had a yoga class with Dhruti today.   There is a complex chain of events, causes and reasons, but my son cried out at one point that it wasn't fair because his sister couldn't see.   He was mad about it.   He and Dhruti talked about what she could do to help Reese.   (Dhruti was explaining things fine, Reese was having other issues).   My daughter sat quietly, for the first time since we started the Skype call with Dhruti, and listened.   Her brother standing up for her helped calm her anxiety down.

Goin’ On A Bear Hunt

This morning my husband told me someone on the neighborhood Facebook page had posted about a neighborhood bear hunt.   The goal was to give the children the motivation to get out and walk around as exercise.   The idea was simple: hide stuffed bears in your front yard for children to see as they walked by on their "hunt."

It was sheer genius, whoever came up with the idea first.   Bears were put out and kept out until seven p.m. or just about dark.   There were bears everywhere.   And people had gotten creative about it too. They hadn't just stuck a bear in a bush or under a tree.   People had created entire scenes with their bears (or other stuffed animals).

Across the street from us was a scene at the beach with bears on a beach towel, decked out in snorkel gear.  Sunscreen was by their side and they both had a can of seltzer water in their paws in a coozie.   There was a porch on our street with two bears having a sleepover.   They were in pajamas on a sleeping bag with a giant game of Jenga between them.

Blake, our sitter next door, who was an avid rock climber, had two bears rappeling down from the second-floor wearing climbing harnesses complete with powder bag.   There were bears in tricycles or other children's toys, bears hidden in all sorts of places and some houses had done things up by putting out quantities of stuffed animals all over.

My daughter wrote a story about it for part of her school work today.   It's interesting from her third-person perspective how the bear hunt went.  

     Today little kids were going to have a bear hunt.  They looked for bears.  These bears were stuffed bears.   The bears were easy and hard to find.   A little girl named Reese put a Christmas bear with Creeper and B. B. 8 in a chair on her front porch.  She also put some bears in some trees.  They were going to go om the bear hunt too.  There was also a tiger on their basketball hoop.
     Reese was blind so her parents and brother named Greyon had to tell her what the bears looked like.
     There were lots of bears.  The bears were everywhere.  People were aloud to put bears out for kids to look for.  But the kids weren't aloud to touch the bears.
     Reese had a dog.  Her dog loved stuffed animals.  Her dog wanted to chew the bears when they saw them somewhere.
     Reese loved the bear hunt.  There were Christmas bears.  Some were Halloween bears.  There were Easter bears.   There were regular bears.  Ther were big bears.   There were even tinny little bears and a special bear on Reese's front yard that said I heart Reese.

The first thing about this story that amazes me is she explains that she's blind.   She doesn't talk much about being blind.  She's still accepting the blindness.  When I read her description I realized that that statement, along with the one about not touching the bears (because of COVID-19) that my daughter went on a walk and had to listen to us tell her what we saw.   She had our words as the only way she could experience the bear hunt—and yet she loved it.

The other thing that impressed me about this story is her ability to end a story by coming full circle and ending with something that gives the story closure.  In this case we come back to her yard in which there is a special bear that happens to have the words, "I heart Reese".  Well, the heart is a picture, not the word, but you get what I mean.   Her bear was the most important bear of all to her.   She's eight-years-old and can finish off a story better than I can after over three thousand blog posts.   Soon enough I'm going to just have her take over here.

The Big Boy Update:  My son found a yoyo the other day.   It must have come from the dollar store or the dime store (if they still existed) because it was terrible.   I thought I had another yoyo and I did find two more after a bit of a hunt, but neither work well and as they are also of the cheap variety and some years old.   He and I watched videos online tonight about on tricks and proper technique.   I haven't told him, but I ordered a Duncan yoyo and we're going to see if we can learn to walk the dog and some other tricks when it arrives in a few days.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was fairly adamant that it should be bears in the bear hunt and nothing else.  We have a lot of stuffed animals and she acquiesced.  There were many kinds of animals in the bear hunt so we weren't alone in branching out from bears alone.

What is Pollination

My daughter has been doing work for our at home school.  She is far more enthusiastic about working than her brother is.  So much so that we're working to find her things that are challenging and interesting.   There have been multiple teachers who have suggested she write a letter to them, one being Mrs. Aagaard, who piqued my daughter's interest because she has (apparently) an exotic pet supply store in her home.   My daughter is supposed to write at her silliest in the letter...and yet I can't get her interested enough to actually do the writing.

The refreshable braille display unit we purchased a while back that has gone largely unused has now turned into a near lifesaver from the reading side of things.  She can't read online and the turnaround for the library for the blind isn't that quick.   I can download a book and have it on her Orbit in a half-hour.   And the books are free.   Free books are one thing, free books that have a braille version at the level my daughter is reading that work on her twenty character wide display is an entirely o type of life-saving device.

My daughter is creating her own work.  It's almost invisible work because when we go up to her desk, there is a sea of manila sheets all over the place.   We can scan a page of print quickly.  Braille pages all look the same.   I went through stacks of pages tonight after the children were asleep and found what she'd been doing.  As always with her, I was impressed.   Here are two of the things she's done over the last three days.  First was a ten-page story she wrote that she told us about (that turned out not to be quite the ten pages she listed in the contents):

What is Pollination
By Reese
-----------------------
Contents
1. Flowers blooming..............6
2. What are polinators............8
3. Helping polinators..............10
-----------------------
1. Flowers blooming
There are lots of flowers.
What are flowers?
Flowers are plants.  They start from a seed.  The seed turns into a sprout.  Then a pod.  The pod slowly opens into a buitiful flower with many parts like pedals, stamen, stem, leaves and many others such as the pitle.
-----------------------
The stamen is mail while the pistil is female.
Bees move from flower to flower.  They take pollen to each flower to the next flower.
-----------------------
2. What are pollinators
Pollinators are bees, wasps, butterflies and many others like beddles or moths.
Pollinators help us make lots of food and stuff to make helpful things.  If we didn't have pollinators we wouldn't have apples, fruit or even vegetables!
Fun facts
Pollinators help us stay alive, with out them we would not be here.
Pollinators have been here for millions of years!
-----------------------
We should be greatful for what we have
Yay for pollinators!
Yay for pollinators!
*********
Pollinators help make new plants grow

The second piece of work I found was this:

Name:
Answer the questions, and use the story for help
Conporhention questions
The old man in the treehouse
There were to girls name lilly and Leeper.  They were walking and soon saw a treehouse.  There was a man in the treehouse and he lived there.  The man was very humble. But he was very very very poor.  They fed him and played with him and said you can live with us.  The man lived happily ever after.
The end! 

1. What did lilly and Leeper see when they were walking?
2. Who did they meet?
3. Were the girls friendly to the man?
4. What did the girls give the man?
5. Was their treatment of the man good or bad?
6. What were the girls names?
7. Where did they find the man?
8. Was the man poor or rich?
9. Was the man helpful or humble?
10. Did you like the story?

She did a third work titled Count the Robots that's hard to describe as it uses braille graphical representations for counting of numbers.  In addition to these pieces, she also created braille flash cards and work for me to do.   I'm having a hard time being both teacher and student and getting everything done in the day.  At least I can say I'm not bored, though.

The Big Boy Update:  My son had zero screen time today, including not being able to attend the class Google Hangout with his friends and the surprise guest of his teacher.   He protested attending the first one on Monday but was absolutely dejected with a side of angry at me that he was not allowed to attend today's call.   It was leverage, and I think it made an impression on him.  I told him his teacher was planning on having small group gatherings in the coming weeks where they would all catch up with each other as well as have lessons.   We did let him have one bit of screens today in which he says at his father's laptop and signed into the typing tutor site he'll be using throughout the next few years.  This is preparatory work for next year when he'll be in Upper Elementary.  Up until now, there have been no screens of any kind in their Montessori classrooms.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter got very, very, very angry at Blake today.   She was saying words like fooluk, bishee and shut she made to sound like swear words she couldn't say.  She lost a lot of privileges though for repeatedly calling Blake an idiot and an imbecile.  Oddly enough, about ten minutes after her massive screaming fit (which was unusual, even for her) she was happy doing things with Blake, all forgiven on her end.  Blake wasn't overly upset about it.

Work Schedule

We're working into our weekday work cycle with the children.  I've heard from other parents who do homeschooling full time that they can get accomplished in three hours the same amount of school work done in a full day of classroom-based school.   There are bits of time lost as the children move from the classroom to the lunchroom, take bathroom breaks as a group, have P.E. lunch, snack, etc.   I don't know if this is true for us, but we're basing our day on a schedule that puts all the main learning in the morning and leaves the afternoon for other activities.

We've received information from both my son's Montessori teachers as well as my daughter's main classroom and VI teachers at the end of last week and we're integrating that into our schedule and making changes where necessary.  We had a schedule worked out, based on our neighbor's timeline.   My son thought it was okay, but he wanted to make changes.   Here's what he came up with:



My daughter liked the schedule so we went with it.   There are several things I like about the schedule, the first being that we don't start until nine o'clock.   This is loads better than getting up, rushing to get the children fed, teeth brushed, bags ready, outerwear on and out the door when the cab arrives at 7:40am for my daughter and then 8:00 off to school with my son.   I have to get ready in that time too unless I want to go out in my pajamas, which I have.

Starting at nine o'clock lets my children wake up on their own, get themselves breakfast and then have school in their pajamas for the first part of the morning.   The downside is my husband and I have turned into teachers, which takes a lot of the day's schedule up for both of us.   We have two bright children, but they're only eight and nine and they need a lot of management as they go through their assignments.

Things are going well though.   I much prefer them being educated by teachers who know what they're doing, but they've given us the tools and materials to do a fairly decent job while we're here at home for the next month or two.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has been alternately a nightmare and a dream to work with for home school.   His teachers sent work he's familiar with.  He and I came up with a work menu of things he can choose from throughout the week.   He did some work gladly, but lost his mind entirely and had a fit of epic proportions about other things.   Some of the issues were things weren't exactly the way they are at school.  I didn't do things the right way, apparently.   He explained how things worked at school and I told him how that wasn't possible while we were at home and we had to do the best we could.   Once he settles into the change, he's going to be fine.   Today, after finishing his main work, he wanted me to print a copy of the United States.  He colored each state and then started to cut them out.   He asked for a second copy of the map so he could create a puzzle.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is more than willing to work.  Our issue with her is having enough work for her to do.   We have some information from her teachers but not very much from her VI teachers yet.   They emailed to say they were working on things and we'd hear from them soon.   In the meantime, my daughter is reading until her fingers get tired, doing creative writing and creating homework for me to complete. Tomorrow she's going to correct the four pages of homework I completed today in between other work.   I still have three pages to go.   She's given me some good problems that have been more difficult than I expected.   She's my teacher too.

Fifteen Percent

I've been having trouble with diet and weight lately.  The weight "problem" isn't so much a problem as a weight correction I need to work on.  The real problem lies in the food choices I'm making.

When I say food choices, the problem is two-fold.  First, I'm going to the store and purchasing things that are poor choices and then second, I'm eating those poor choices in large quantities.  My biggest current problem is sugar.   That problem started online when I went in search of the real, traditional, these-are-the-ones-from-my-childhood, spice drops.

Spice drops are gumdrops with interesting flavors.   I love interesting or different food.  Traditional spice drops include flavors you might expect, including cinnamon, spearmint, and wintergreen.   The other three traditional flavors that many people don't realize are clove, anise, and sassafras.

I went online to hunt down the real deal in spice drops.  I found them and discovered when I was checking out I was going to have to pay a hefty chunk in shipping.   I could circumvent the shipping charge by changing the quantity to the ten-pound bag of spice drops.   And I love spice drops.   Can you take a guess what I've been eating a lot of lately?

Eating a lot of sugar makes you crave lots of sugar.   And while I haven't exhausted the bin of spice drops (thank goodness) I'm trying to reset my eating habits some.  The situation was compounded food-wise when I bought extra things in case we were asked to stay at home due to the COVID-29 coronavirus.

All of these things combined, and I'm not managing my weight well.   My husband has similar issues. He told me he felt fifteen percent of the weight he had gained was my fault because of the things I've bought.  I told him I thought that was more than fair, generous perhaps, and I would take the blame.

Back to the spice drops—I had plans for them.   It wasn't my intention to just eat them.  I ordered some gumdrop trees and have, for the last two weeks, had a little tree at the top of the steps coming up from the basement, covered in spice drops.   The children walk by and eat one from time to time.   I would potentially tell them they had to as permission, but given the quantity of spice drops I have and the concern I have for my own eating problem with them, I've let it slide.

There is a recipe of cookies with spice drops I was going to make with my daughter for her class business project in which they each have their own business and sell something.  Only that got canceled along with school.   I could still make the cookies, only that seems like adding insult to injury when it comes to eating healthier.

The Big Boy Update:  My son had a Google Hangout meeting today with his class.  They created a pass-along story.   The first person, Luna, started the story with, "There was a girl named Luna.   She was the most beautiful girl."  As the story went on, Luna had adventures, including having multiple boyfriends.  Then, Luna kissed a girl.   The story ended happily ever after with gumdrops (my son brought the gumdrop tree down to show people.).   The thing I liked about the story was this:  Luna is transgendered and "was the most beautiful girl" she said.  The fact that Luna thinks she is beautiful is truly a wonderful thing.   The students (who are first through third grade) are supportive of everyone's life choices and to them, having a transgendered classmate is just like any other student who has something special about them like glasses or a peanut allergy.  I liked that Luna had both boyfriends and was kissing a girl.   I was watching Luna's face on the screen, she was smiling and was happy.  No one was teasing her.  She is accepted by her peers.   It made my day.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I sent my braille instructor an email asking if I could have an extension on my homework given our situation.  In the email, I sent a link to the blog post from a few days ago of the homework my daughter created for me.   My instructor wrote back how impressed she was with both her language and particularly about the grid lines she did for the math problems.   She said this is something that's hard to get the hang of and my daughter has learned it easily at a young age.

Footage Review

It would be nice to say we have harmony at home with the children out of school and everyone sequestered away, but that's not the case.  My son and daughter work well together for a while and then an argument will break out, followed by violence.

We have never modeled violence, I don't think most parents do, but it's a way to get back at someone when words fail.   My daughter irritates her brother and he is quick to push or shove.  My daughter gets very upset with any violence, but also is willing to give as good as she gets.

It's going to be an interesting time, seeing how they get along during the time we'll all be alone together during COVID-19.  Tomorrow is school at home again and that keeps them separated for a number of hours.  The children will be potentially annoyed at us for all the work we're requesting of them.   But that's fine with us.   Education must continue.

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Camera Update: My son always, "accidentally" hits his sister.   The cameras we have outdoors in the front and back yard have been our friend and their nemesis during this time.  When an issue comes up, we review the footage and their stories seem to suddenly change once they're faced with evidence contrary to their initial story.

Homework at Home

My children have been doing school-type things during the week this past week.  We've had them both read for periods of the day and do writing or other things that they would do during the school day.   We don't have access to their curriculum so we were mostly winging it.

My son's school compiled a collection of materials and work for each child to do over the next three weeks and possibly beyond.   As each child is at a different point in their education due to the Montessori method, this work had to be customized for each student.  On Friday, we picked up a bag full of things my son will begin to work on starting Monday.

My daughter's work is more difficult to repeat at home as the class's work needs to be converted into a format she can feel instead of see.   Fortunately, we had extra works her braillest sent home that my daughter elected not to do at the time.   We've saved all of these and she used part of her school time last week on these items.   We don't have enough to nearly last her through the end of the estimated isolation period, but three of the upcoming weeks she's tracked out, so we won't be as far behind if she does things we can come up with at home.

Yesterday, my daughter created some homework for me.   She wanted me to understand I might not have been introduced to everything she was putting in the homework and that that was okay.   Here is my homework assignment:









The Big Boy Update:  I put on a bandana yesterday and my son disliked it.   He told me, "Mom, you look hideous."  I told him it couldn't possibly that bad and that I liked how comfortable it was."  He responded, "No, no, no, it actually makes me feel uncomfortable."   So I sadly took it off.   All humor aside, my son is an excellent judge of fashion.  I regularly ask him if I need help making a choice when picking out my outfits.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's retired braillest, Mrs. Aagard, messaged me saying she was feeling cooped up at home and asked how things were going on our end.   She gave me some suggestions of things we can do to keep the children entertained creatively during this long downtime.   She also has an exotic pet store that would welcome written inquiries about their products.  I told my daughter she could write a letter asking about their rubber boots for ducks and geese and if they had sweaters for giraffe's necks or curlers for lion's manes.   My daughter looked at me sideways and said, "is this pretend?"  I told her it was, and that Mrs. Aagaard said she could be as silly and creative as possible in her letter.   She's thinking about what to write now.

Music In The House

When I was a child my parents had a "Hi-Fi" stereo in our den.   It had a radio and a record player and many evenings and on weekends it would be loudly playing music out into the living room and onwards into the dining room.   When I was very young the only thing the stereo played was classical music. that being the only type of music I have ever heard my father listen to.

I think, for some reason, I believed parents liked classical music and that it was something children grew into as they became adults.   My mother never chose to have the music she preferred on the stereo.   She loved gospel music and sometimes we'd sing gospel songs she and my aunt would teach my cousin and me on long road trips to visit my grandparents.

As a child, I preferred pop music.  Our cars listened to the radio stations local to our area and I picked up on the latest pop songs from being in the car.  Later on, I got one of those boom boxes that became popular in the early '80s and was able to play music I preferred.   My boom box was rather small and didn't have the big "boom" of large speakers.   That was fine with me since I valued compactness over sheer volume.

My little portable stereo had cassette players—two so I could play something and record at the same time.   This was a rarely used feature, but it did allow me to confirm some backward masking when it was all the rage in later years.

My parent's stereo and the classical music it played sometimes had intrusions of other music.   When Star Wars came out we got the double record album set.  Many a night I would play the Star Wars records, looking forward to my favorite song, "Cantina Band."  I remember a Shaun Cassidy album we danced to and then there was Barbara Streisand, a favorite of both my parents.

My father added an 8-track player at some point.   We only ever had a few 8-track tapes from my recollection.  One of them was a comedy set from a radio announcer who's last name was Spooner.   He would call people and do what today would be called "pranking" by calling them with some outrageous story that always ended with, "you've just been Spoonerized!"

Today, my father still loves classical music and my mother enjoys listening to gospel singing.   They also still have the same HiFi system in their house, including (I believe) the record player.   After fifty years, I'm betting its an antique now.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has been all about Harry Potter since shortly before the Disney trip.  Today, before home school started, he was watching one of the Harry Potter movies.   I recently got him a funny little plush that gets angry, yells and shakes violently when you poke him or move him around enough.  He named Grumbledore as a nod to the Hogwarts headmaster from Harry Potter.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter likes to peel and core an apple and then eat the spiraled center area.   I challenged her to eat the peel in one long piece as I wound it off the apple.   She stood over the trashcan until she was sure she could eat, matching my peeling pace.  It was the single largest (longest) apple piece she'd ever had.  Next time we're going for speed eating and faster peeling.

Ms. Brenda

My neighbor and I had a discussion yesterday about what we should do about the contact our children are having in the back yards of ours and other families on our street.  Should we keep them apart?   Is the risk acceptable because these children have been together every day for weeks and far before social distancing was a thing?   And what types of things would cause us to change our rules?

Yes, these children have been together for weeks, every day after school and all throughout the weekend.   The statement, "if one of them has it, we all have it" is valid at a fixed point in time.   We're not in complete social isolation though.   Today I took my dog to the groomers and the children to the Chiropractor.   The groomer had twenty-seven dogs today and the chiropractor's office could have had over a hundred patients.   

That's a lot of hands that touched things we could have touched that might be infected.   This means if no one else left their house at all today, my children could have contact with over a hundred people from the two stop day we had—and they could infect all their uninfected friends on the trampoline. 

And that's just our errand of the day.   We know we weren't the only ones who went out today.  There's something to be said about small group sizes.   It's true and it's not.  We touched the door handle to get into both the groomer's and Chiropractor's office today.   Those doors were touched by those other hundred-odd people.   It didn't take a group gathering to possibly infect us.   Group gatherings on and around our trampoline, for instance, can also pass germs along, but so can serial contact.

And all that means is I don't know the answer of how we'll evolve our protection plan for our family, but also for the people we don't know.   My neighbor and I were talking about our duty yesterday and that there must be a balance from extreme isolation to blatant disregard for people's health.   She said, "I mean how would we feel if we got sweet Ms. Brenda infected at the grocery store?" 

I knew exactly who she meant.   Brenda has worked in our neighborhood grocery store for years.   She's close to retirement age and has always worked at the checkout line.   She touches people's things all day long.   She has no chance of social distancing with her job.   

My friend's comment struck a chord though, we all like Ms. Brenda—how would we feel if we got her sick and she died.   We have daily talks as neighbors on what we should do.   Six feet away from each other.   The good news is no one is judgemental of others based on their choices.  It's a nice neighborhood in that way. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Seeing Germs Lesson:  I had my children watch (or listen) to Mark Rober's video on how germs spread.   They were both fascinated with how easily germs can be passed on and what we can do to prevent contaminating others.   It helped them understand in part why we're all so worried about COVID-19 Coronavirus

Four Hours

I'm tired and am getting in bed so I'm making this short.   I took the dog for a walk with my neighbor on Saturday and something went awry in my back.   It's been several days of inflammation and spasming muscles but it's finally calming down.  I haven't been getting as much sleep with last night at only an hour-and-a-half.   After I press publish on this post I'm going to sleep immediately.

Today I ran into an unexpected loss of four hours, maybe five.  It was an unusual thing involving insurance.  We had switched out a medication last month to one that would hopefully help me more while being easier on my system at the same time.  There was the priorauth that had to happen but it went without a hitch and the medication filled in less than a day.

So it was surprising to go and pick up the refill this month to find out it was $736.   I had two people on the phone from the insurance company and they were talking to the pharmacist on and off on speakerphone for an hour and fifty minutes.   The thing is—the insurance company has no record they covered it.   They have no information at all about how the cost I got last month was arrived at, there are no coupons involved, the medication hasn't changed coverage tiers, my insurance hasn't changed.  Nothin we the four of us could think of could explain it.

The pharmacist had all the information on their side showing details of how the insurance company had covered it.   I had my paperwork showing the same thing from when I picked it up.   We're looking into things more, but I was out of luck for this month so the only thing I could do was (and this was fortunate I could do this) call and get in quickly with my provider.   There was no way I could leave a message with his nurse, the situation was too complicated.   But for an office visit copay, Lawrence and I could figure out what plan B would at least for this month.

It's always good to see Lawrence and he and I did come up with a solution.   It was well worth going in as he had some ideas with pros and cons and we hopefully picked the best interim solution.   It's a good thing my husband was able to be home with the children, being teacher dad, while I ran the quick errand up to get my prescription this morning that turned into most of the school day.

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Physical Bad Behavior Update:  My husband came in from the trampoline after dinner and said both children had been acting badly and not listening.   I can't get near the trampoline with this back out of wack thing I have going on, but I got to hear in great detail the injustices done by each child to the other and how from their father they were bending the story in their own direction.   They didn't want him to pull up the video showing how one of them, "accidentally kicked" the other one just after not getting their way.   My husband is really liking the camera.

L'eggs

I was getting some staples at the drug store yesterday and at check out I saw what looked like hose-like material only in the type of pop-open container you'd find in a gumball machine that gave out toys.   I suddenly got a flashback to my childhood and remembered the large area of the grocery store aisle dedicated to hosiery.

At that time, fashion was for a lady to wear hose over her legs in business settings or for any dressy or formal occasion.   My mother wore hose to work every day, I knew, but other than that I knew little more.   Once in a while though, we would be asked for our parents either buy or send in an egg container from one of the hosiery brands for an art project.

I remembered all of this but I couldn't remember the name of the brand that sold all their hose in eggs.   The woman checking me out remembered it too when I mentioned it, only we were at a loss for the name.   I pulled up the handy reference known as the Internet I kept in my pocket on my phone and L'eggs popped up from the search.  

For some reason, she and I weren't sure if that was the name we remembered.   At that time I looked back and there was a lady older than we were, perhaps of our parent's generation and she was smiling and nodding.   I said, "L'eggs is what we're thinking of?"   She said they were the ones we were remembering.

When I was old enough to wear hose I gave it a try for a while.   I never particularly liked them as they seemed to sag at the crotch or were too baggy in the legs or, and this was my number one complaint—they ran.   I could put a run in a pair of hose before I even got the second leg in them after opening the package.  

Fortunately for me and my clumsy ways, hose seemed to phase out about that time, which suited me as I preferred pants anyways.

The Big Boy Update:  The mother of the triplets around the corner sent me a text asking if we wanted her boys to stay away due to the coronavirus.   They were wanting to play with my son.   Since this group of children has been all around each other for weeks and they're all touching the trampoline plus fifty other surfaces, if one of them has it, we all have it.   I told her to send them on over and then I told my son his new friends wanted to know if he was available to play.   My son has really enjoyed making new neighborhood friends.  The trampoline has brought social benefits we didn't expect.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and her ex-boyfriend Sullivan have been working on an art project for several days now.   The dog thankfully jumps over the thick layering of chalk.   My daughter doesn't know it's a rainbow because she can see it, she knows it's so because Sullivan and she have created it together to be a rainbow.

Reading, Writing and ‘Rithmetic

Today was the first day at home with schools canceled due to coronavirus.  Our neighbor has a school schedule for her children which we're hoping to follow for breaks and end of day time.  They had a craft today at the end of their school day which was making gummies.   They brought us some when they came over to jump on the trampoline after school was out.

For tomorrow we're focusing first and foremost on getting their desks organized.   Both of them have very messy desks.   Next, they're going to do some reading and then we'll have free or directed writing (as yet to be decided).  We will need to work in math and other things but for tomorrow, we're starting small.

We realize we can't take over where their education left off and move forward, especially with my daughter, who needs everything to be made tactile for her.   So we'll be focusing on things we can help with, like "reading, writing, and rithmatic" as the old saying goes.

The Big Boy Update:  The boys created a very large number of "Kick Me" signs to be placed on the backs of more people than we had around.   They got placed all over the yard and play structure.   I hated the Kick Me sign thing when I was a child.  I don't think I ever wanted to kick anyone from behind and I don't believe I made any signs.   It was popular at a certain age when I was young.  It's fun to watch the children try and put one on your back as an adult.   Their level of sneakery is very low.  When you let them and then act fooled by it, they love it.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter ran into the heavy blue swing today and her tooth went into her lip a bit.  With the camera now pointing at the back yard, my husband rewound to see what happened.   The swing was slowly idling and she was hit by the corner.   She knew where she was and she knew no one was on the swing, she didn't expect it would still be idling back and forth the way it was.

I Bet You Can Guess

Today is more trampoline antics, experiences, interesting things said and lessons learned.

Antics: My son pantsed another boy!  I don't know if he realized he would be pulling down the child's pants and underwear, but that's what happened.  The boy, who we don't know well, came into the house and asked my husband if it could be deleted from the video recording,   My son was talked to and duly disciplined and then went back into the fray.  

Interesting Things: The neighbor came to get our older trampoline today.   He came with his son who he had told my husband was, "special needs."  I met them at the door and we went around back.   His son had something going on that was hard to pinpoint aside from difficulty in his gate and tightness in his arms.   I did something I would not have done five years ago because I didn't know how—I stepped right in, put my arm out if he needed to grab on, which he did and then later took his hand and we walked down after his father to the very active trampolines in the back yard. 

It wasn't until then that I understood children and it was even more recently that I knew how to help a special needs child.  I wouldn't have stepped in and assisted so effortlessly years before because I didn't understand children, but more to the point, I didn't know how to interact with a special needs child.  

We had a good time for the next hour.  Thomas was excited about trying new things, but he realized he had limitations and wanted to be careful.  My daughter was very excited to show him things and have him do things with her and Madison.   When she went in to go to the bathroom I pulled her to the said and said "I wanted to tell you that Thomas may not be able to do things..." but before I could finish, she interrupted me and said, "I know, he has Autism."

I was taken aback and said, "how do you know?"  She said, "Mom, I just know.  I know about these things."   I had forgotten she is in a school that also has the Autism special department.  She has autistic students come into her class every day/.  She probably knows a lot more than most people   

Lessons Learned:  Today my husband made popcorn, the real kind, not the trampoline game of the same name.  He put the popcorn in plastic cups and then handed them out to everyone in the back yard.   Popcorn got all over the grass,  It was a huge mess and I feared the dog wouldn't be able to go out for a few weeks.  I came down a little later and said I had jelly beans or cinnamon bears for people who picked up the popcorn.   It was a bribe, but it worked.   My husband blew the rest of the popcorn down the hill with the leaf blower.   Next time we'll have them sit at the table when they eat the popcorn.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son found in the bottom of the pantry a Pringles container.   We don't typically have them so he brought out the canister and hopefully looked at me.   I told him that yes, they could all share them (they had been jumping and exercising for hours).  Two other children got bowls along with my son and went outside to share them.   I found out later my son was not sharing.   He was metering out one or two chips at a time.   I told him we had plenty of Pringles, I had more than one container and he now needed to hand over the container to others.  A few minutes later he was still not sharing and seemed to be begrudging the chips others had taken as he went back over to one bowl and crushed the chips with the bottom of the can.   He was sent inside for a while to think about his behavior.   To put things in perspective, this is something that stands out in my mind today as an interesting part of his learning and maturing.  My son did a lot of kind things today and was a very good host to the visiting children.   He's a good guy...most of the time 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I saw my daughter and a boy on our front porch this evening around dinner time.   They were quietly sitting and talking, facing away from the door.  Was this Sullivan that my daughter had said was her boyfriend and then yesterday was definitely not anymore after how he acted?  My husband went to check on them and discovered they were coloring the bottom step.   When she came in later I asked her about it and she said, "Nope, he is my ex-boyfriend.  He's my friend."  Then she added, "And for your F.Y.I., Sullivan is a very good colorer.  And he is veeerry distinctive."

Trampoline Timelapse

Today was another free for all in the back yard with the trampoline.   Well, trampolines, since we have the second one until tomorrow.   I went to Target this morning to get some things for the back yard after making my coffee.   Before I left, I went out on the deck and told my daughter, who was first awake and already out on the trampoline, that I was heading out.

I was going to Target for a few things: first, I wanted to get a small water cooler because we were going to wear a path on the carpet from children coming in and out of the house to fill up the water pitcher.  Second, I wanted to see what I could do about cups and third, I wanted to get some small tables to go beside the chairs I'd gotten the day before.

In typical Target style, they had inexpensive yet stylish tables that went with the chairs.  Why I didn't think to get them in the first place confounded me—I had known I wanted a place to put things like cups or drinks.  I also found some small plastic cups in multiple colors for fifty-nine cents each.  I got sixteen of them and then got a packet of paper cups for backup.

Target didn't have water coolers but Lowes did and was the next building over.  Twelve dollars for a small tap-based cooler was just the price point I was looking for.   I brought everything home and found a crew of children already in the back yard.  I placed the little tables down and noticed the children had moved the folding table over to the edge of the trampoline alongside the shoe and possessions bins I'd got at Target the day before.

My husband came out with the cooler, filled with water and then topped off with ice.  I had come outside with the plastic cups and some sheets of braille letters, numbers and symbols.   I told the children they could each put stickers om a cup of their choosing and then they would know which cup was theirs.  Everyone really liked the stickers that let them spell out their name in braille on their cup.

I did this with the cups because the day before we went through probably two cups per child as they would put their cup down and later when they were thirsty again, couldn't tell their cup from all the other cups and so got another cup.  The personalized cups would turn the backyard into a zero-waste situation.  This would make drink cleanup that much easier.   I'd have to wash the cups at night,  but we're not using single-use products, which is a win.

I went out for a walk with my neighbor and told the crew Blake was in charge and what he said went.  Blake, who is home from college for at least a month, has been very strict with rules adherence and expects everyone to be respectful.   He sent one child home on Friday for valid reasons.   That child was in the yard today and said, "Aww, Blake?  He sent me home yesterday for no reason!"  I told him he'd better be on good behavior in that case so it didn't happen again."

In the meantime, my husband was at work.   He's been meaning to put in a camera facing the back yard but hasn't gotten around to it yet.   After lunch he had a prototype up, which he pointed out to everyone, explaining we could see everything that was happening and things were being recorded.  This worked out well when my son came in later, declaring Blake had pushed him when he got out of the trampoline, again, "for no reason."  My husband asked him if that was actually what happened and did he want the footage rewound to see what actually happened?   My son backed down immediately and admitted Blake only pushed him because he was leaping onto him as he exited from bouncing and Blake pushed him away.

The camera works very well and has, I think, had an impact on behaviors.  Here's a timelapse of the last five hours of the day, starting when the camera came online.  You'll notice as it's getting dark that I come out and sweep off all the grass from the trampolines.  The footage ends with my husband and daughter doing one last jump before bedtime with a camping light.

The Big Boy Update:  My son makes friends easily, but sometimes tries too hard and overdoes it when he first meets someone.  I think it's insecurity and anxiety that come across as boasting and an almost cocky attitude.  So today when the doorbell and four older boys asked if my son wanted to come out to play in the front yard I told them he was upstairs and to go get him.  I think my son is liking having "cool" older friends.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles;  This morning I heard my daughter get up, come downstairs and go immediately out back to the trampoline.  I looked out the window to find her curled up in the Child's Pose yoga position, warming up in the sunlight, before starting to jump.

That Was Fast

The new trampoline is up.   At Christmas when we installed or put together the first trampoline we had four of us working on it.   It took us hours and we got it done after it had grown dark.   This morning the installer arrived with the boxes in his truck.   He and my husband easily picked up and moved over the existing trampoline and then he got to work unboxing.

I went inside to get the iPad so I could install the app and configure the app while he worked on putting the new, larger trampoline together.  I went upstairs to make some coffee and toast and thought I should take a picture or two of the process of him putting things together since we didn't get that many pictures in December.

I called out to my husband and said, "he's already got all the spring bars in!"  This was fast.   Very fast.   Granted, he knew what he was doing, but he had unboxed and put things together more quickly than I had expected.   The longest part was yet to come, that of tensioning each of the spring bars into the trampoline mat itself.

This part took my husband, two brothers-in-law and me several hours to get done.   I finished making my toast and took that and my coffee over to the sofa to watch a documentary while we waited.   I went back over to the window to see if he was making much progress.

He was done.   He had gotten every one of the spring bars tensioned all by himself in I'd guess less than twenty minutes.   He had the net bars already in place and was putting the basketball backboard in place before raising the net.

I had missed it.   I didn't even get to see how he did that process, by himself, that took four of us to do.   I asked him when I went out to get the game controller box to add batteries and he said it wasn't so much about strength as it was getting the motion down to get each spring bar placed into the pocket.  

I took a picture of the now almost complete installation beside our first trampoline for size comparison and then finished the configuration of the game module while he put the sensors in place to track the jump motion.

I love it.  We already have neighbor children who are out of school today like my son is, come over to try it out.  When they take a break, I'm going to check it out myself.   In the meantime, I updated our trampoline rules flyer and my husband laminated it and then affixed it to the base beside the zippered door

My mother and I head off to get my daughter just as school is out in order to get her home so she can be one of the first to jump on it.  I predict it's going to be a busy weekend in our back yard.

The Big Boy Update:  My son is with our sitter, Blake, today.   The two of them have been jumping on the trampoline and now are doing some video game activity.   I told my son it was okay if he wanted to play some games, but that he needed to take a break and do something that included Blake.   I know Blake likes video games, but watching someone play is interesting only for a short while.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I'm anxious about the unexpected addition of the games system with the new trampoline.  It came with the larger model and is quite nice with a whole collection of games for children.   I don't think my daughter will be able to do any of them though, and that might make her angry or upset if her friends want to play a game she can't participate in.   I'm going to try out the options this afternoon before we go and get her to see if there are any that would work for her.   The good news is the controller isn't on the trampoline by default because you don't want to get the screen wet.   It will be inside and we can bring it out when it's asked for.   I would normally be excited about the addition of an unexpected feature, but I don't like anything that highlights my daughter's disability, and this may do just t

Upsizing

After much discussion and lots of observation, my husband and I made a decision today.   It has been interesting how the trampoline has changed the social dynamics around our house.  And by around, I mean the houses around our house and their children.   We have seen a spike in the number of children who come to our house to play after the installation of the trampoline at Christmas.

This, I am guessing, is not a surprise to most people.   There was one trampoline I had access to when I was a child and It wasn't even close to my house.  We would get on our bikes and travel several blocks to get to the classmate's house with the trampoline.   There were all sorts of people who would come and jump and you never knew who you'd see.   Many of them I knew because back then there weren't as many choices in school so we all went to the same location.  Still, one or two years difference in grade and they might have been from another planet to us at that age.

Still, we had to learn to work together and take turns.   I have nothing but good memories of that trampoline from my childhood.  I am pretty certain we didn't go that often, but when we did, we always had a good time.  When I got older I said someday I would have a trampoline, then, when I became an adult it seemed less interesting.   Now, with children, a trampoline has that almost mystical feel back.  Only this time it's seen through the eyes of my children and their friends.

We seem to be one of the houses where everyone comes to play.   Now that we have a trampoline we seem to be attracting even more children.  Our children are learning how to manage social situations through conflicts and their resolutions.  There have been some difficult times, but that's to be expected.

When my husband and I picked the trampoline out before Christmas, we were concerned with how it would fit in the yard.   We didn't want it to dominate the back yard and prevent it from being used for other things.   Now, after seeing how the trampoline is far more entertaining than the yard has ever been before, we've been rethinking our idea of the size trampoline we purchased.

Yards are great for many activities, but a large portion of them require sight.  Activities with balls are out when you can't see a ball coming at you.   Yards are great for things where you run, only running can be hazardous when you don't know where you're running and you might run into anything and everything.

A trampoline is the opposite.  You step in and zip it up and there is nothing but mat below you and netting around the sides.   It's like a bouncy, padded room minus the pads.   The kind of trampoline we have has no springs and is from the appropriately named company Spring Free.   For my daughter, it's very safe.   She, and all our neighbor children, love it.  My husband is also a crowd favorite, being the "double bounce king."

My husband and I kept looking at the overall jumping area and the number of children in line and we thought about how we were enjoying it as adults and as a family and we both kept saying, "we need a bigger trampoline."   Today we did several things.  First, we contacted our neighbor, who is a local distributor for the trampoline to talk about options.   Second, we went to their showroom and picked out the larger model we wanted and then we got into scheduling.

As luck would have it, they had a cancellation and so they're coming in the morning to install it.   In the meantime, my husband worked with another family in our neighborhood who has a special needs child who was wanting a trampoline.   They're coming tomorrow to get our current one.   Everything worked out better than we could have expected it to.

Everyone is excited, with me being I think the most excited.  Madison said she was the most excited because now she can do a roundoff back handsprings on the trampoline.   My daughter gave a squeal that said she was excited too.   We had eight children jumping today and playing on the playset.   It's a fun back yard.

The Big Boy Update:  My son found the Transformer Rescue Bots this morning.  Before school, he had them all organized on the dining room table with instructions for me not to clean them up.   Tonight he was having battles with them.  Tomorrow he's off school and is going to do more with them before putting them all away, he said.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I told my daughter our current trampoline was going to a special house tomorrow, but that it might make her sad when I told her where.   The family that's buying it is moving from one half of our neighborhood into the other and will be just a few blocks from us.   I told her they're moving into Gaddyn's house and the trampoline is going there.   My daughter looked confused and said, "but Gaddyn already has a trampoline."   I told her I knew she did, but that Gaddyn had moved away to another neighborhood, just weeks ago.  My daughter looked like she was going to cry.   It was a good thing her "boyfriend", Sullivan, who I think is eleven, called her over at that point to sled down the dirt hill in the plastic swimming pool.

The

Filet of Spice Drops

It's late, I'm tired and I want to go to sleep so I'm cutting this one short tonight.   I have a hitch in my esophagus in which I collect things.   Namely food, but from time to time medication which can be a literal pain if you can't get it unstuck.  Medications dissolve and go away relatively shortly.  Most foods don't dissolve.   They can lie in wait in my throat and come back as surprise flavors later in the day.

I get flavors most people have only wondered about, like today's combination of steak and spice gumdrops candy.  It wasn't as bad as you might imagine, but I'm accustomed to unusual combinations by now.   Maybe it will be the next Jelly Belly flavor...but I doubt it.

The Big Boy Update:  My son is adjusted to going to bed at a reasonably hour now
The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter isn't falling asleep at five-thirty anymore.   Just in time for Daylight Saving's too.

Marshmallow Memories

My parents still live in the same house I was raised in, which is conveniently located about five miles from where I live today.   I had just gotten to my parents house the other day to drop them off for some lunch and shopping.  We had come inside and I had a thought as I was standing in their living room with my son.  I pointed to their fireplace and told him that when I was little, Mimi and Gramps had had fires in that very fireplace.

The fireplace hasn't been lit in years, but when I was young, on winter nights, my parents would sometimes light a fire.  There was a brick hearth, and plush carpet right beyond, which I am certain wasn't inflammable in the way carpets are these days.   And yet throughout my childhood, I never saw sparks fly out with any real danger towards the carpet.

My father was mindful of safety and would close the glass fire doors when the fire was building up.  Sometimes, I would get to ball up newspaper and throw it in in order to help the fire along.  After enough time had passed, I would open the doors and bask in the heat of the blazing logs.   There is really nothing quite so nice as a roaring fireplace.  My children like the fireplace we have at our house, but it is of the switch on and off variety and doesn't have the same charm.

On occasion, I told my son, there would be a fireplace in that fireplace and we would roast marshmallows and make smores.   When I was young, I loved getting the marshmallows cooked just right.   Some people like to burn them a bit but I always tried to get mine golden brown and as melted as possible without having the marshmallow fall off the skewer.  I never quite mastered this and lost at least one marshmallow into the fire every time.

I don't know if my mother prepared in advance, getting marshmallows at the store when she knew cold weather was incoming, or if they were always there, hiding in the back of the cabinet.   But whenever it was time to roast marshmallows, she would always produce them and the skewers to my father and me.

I remember wanting to sleep by the fire but never actually doing so.   I remember carefully playing with the fire, poking at the logs, putting little bits of paper in and lighting the long-stemmed matches, I was cautioned not to waste.  I wanted the fire to go on all night but my father judiciously determined when the last log should be put on and by bedtime, the fire was down to coals and my desire to sleep in front of it had waned.

I didn't tell my son all this, only that I had roasted marshmallows, "right there when I was young."  But in my mind, I recalled many an evening a warm firelit evening from my childhood.

The Big Boy Update:  My son was out with my mother getting dinner a while back and she mentioned how the wooden chair was uncomfortable on her, "fanny" (as my mother has always called it.).  She said it was more comfortable for her if there was a cushion.  Both my mother and I have never enjoyed sitting on wooden chairs.  Perhaps we have similarly shaped backsides given that we share that discomfort.   When she told my son he said helpfully to her, "why don't you throw a hissy fit?"

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter asked me to warm up some pop-tarts for yesterday morning, saying she wanted them microwaved for twenty-two or twenty-three seconds.   That was a very specific time, I told her and then said I thought maybe twenty-three seconds would be good.   I pressed the start button on the microwave and saw a look of concentration cross her face.   A short while later she called out, "5- 4-3-2-1-0" and at the exact point she called out zero, the microwave dinged.  We all have a pretty good idea of how long a second is, but we're off by a slight bit that compounds over time.   She was spot on target.   The microwave gives no indication of seconds going by and we don't have a ticking clock in the area.   I congratulated her for her accuracy as I handed over the now-warm pop-tarts.

Lactose Intolernment

The dog has ongoing issues with her stool.   Oops, I didn't warn you it was going to be a bodily functions post.  Sorry.  I'll try and keep this high level.   The situation with the dog started some months ago when perhaps we noticed it because we have clean the yard up regularly.   Things weren't as solid as they should be.

We had her tested and she was fine.  There were no parasites or other issues it was determined after an expensive vet visit.   We were given canned food to try for a week and some probiotic to sprinkle on the food.  That seemed to make things better, but it wasn't fixed.

There was a complication in the diagnosis because I'd switched her food and we thought it might be that.   I'd been getting different foods over time, trying different ones out so it wasn't a given it was the one food.   I put her back on the original food and we kept up the probiotic and that sort of worked, but only on some days.  

Since that time I've tried the other, questionable food I'd bought and that doesn't seem to make any difference.   I bought a food recommended by the vet for gut health and sensitive stomach and that hasn't seemed to make much of a steady, regular difference.  

The only thing that I've been unable to completely isolate is people food added to her diet.   We keep saying not to give her anything in the plans on doing a multi-day test but then we forget and/or don't remember to check the productions outside.  

I've mentioned a few times its possible shes lactose intolerant and that perhaps I shouldn't let her have the puppiccino they like to give her at Starbucks.   It's a tiny cup of whipped cream and I'm not sure how much it affects her.   She seems to like it and other people food and nothing bothers her that we can tell.   And yet there is something going on.

We're still working on isolating the cause.   In the meantime, my daughter is telling people the dog is, "lactose intolernment,"

The Big Boy Update:  We have talked to my son about what I think is a lot of things normal for children to go through, but anger management is getting him in trouble more than anything.  We're trying to get him to stop and think and calm down before reacting—which is hard for him.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter knows how to make her brother angry, and then she knows how to play the innocent victim because we're worried about her getting injured.  At this point, it's not possible for her to lose much more in the way of eyesight but she's injured a lot in the general course of the day.   It's not fair for us to be uneven in our parenting with them.  We're trying, but it's tricky and they both know how to work the situation to their advantage.

The Punisher

In preparation for their father coming home yesterday, I took my children to 5 Below for some shopping.   It was in part due to my daughter having caused "fatal" damage to a rubber toy she had named "Squirmy."  She wanted to use some of her own money to buy a replacement as well as likely some other things, what with our destination her favorite retail store.  

My son was somewhat less inclined to go shopping but we coerced him and, not surprisingly, once, inside the store, my son was quite happily shopping, making selections, putting things in the cart and then returning them to the shelves when he found other things he liked more.   

One thing I was surprised by was his choice of a bottle of cologne he wanted to get for his father.   My husband doesn't wear cologne and I don't have any perfume, so I had to explain to my son what the bottle he was holding was for.   I thought he would change his mind when I'd explained, but he was so taken bt the black box with the picture of the skull logo from the comic, "The Punisher" that he decided he still wanted to purchase it.  

The three of us smelled the scent and, given it was only five dollars, I thought it wasn't that bad.   We bought our items and I dropped the children off with my parents next and came home with our purchases.   I put each of the children's items in a bag at their seats at the bar and thought no more of it.  

This afternoon my son and daughter had been playing with Madison up in their closet.  Commonly the girls don't get along with my son and don't want him involved with their play because his ideas don't mesh well with theirs.   Today, they were doing something and having a good time together.   I heard lots of commotion, but seeing as there were no complaints, I wasn't overly worried. 

A mess was being made, of that I was sure, but they're children and they come part and parcel with messes.  They're fairly good about making messes that can be cleaned up and aren't damaging.  We've had a lot of conversations about what's okay and what isn't, such as food isn't allowed upstairs and nothing should be done that is destructive of walls, furniture or things.   Still, it isn't a good time unless some mess is made. 

A while later the girls came down and said my son had been spraying, "the bottle of vinegar" on them and wouldn't stop.  What bottle of vinegar?   The perfume, they said.   How many times had he sprayed the bottle of "vinegar?"  Oh, at least thirty, they said.  

I headed out of the room towards upstairs and was hit, immediately with the heavy smell of "The Punisher."   The children had all dissipated at that point, unlike the smell, to jump on the trampoline or do something else outdoors.   The smell only got stronger as I hit the landing on the second floor.   The closet door to their room was closed and I could barely force it open, finding all the pillows, blankets and sleeping bags laid out in their closet, which had been turned into the newest, "secret hideout."

I went downstairs where my husband was, gave him a rundown of the situation and since he'd been out of town for a week on vacation and I knew he'd missed handling things like this, said, "you're up."

I texted Madison's parents explaining what had happened and that my son, knowing nothing about cologne, hadn't realized two sprays was enough for a day.   I got a text back saying, "it was hair washing night anyway." 

My husband opened the windows and brought the large fan down from the attic to try and drop the level of "The Punisher" in the room to a tolerable level.   We told my son about appropriate cologne usage later at dinner.   He understood.   He also said, "it tastes like vinegar."

The Big Boy Update:  My son, having lost YouTube privileges for the foreseeable future spent some time last night and this morning watching documentaries with me on my new favorite streaming service, Curiosity Stream.   We watched two shows on the history of the continents from a geological perspective and then put several more things on our watch list that we plan on watching together in the future.  He and I love documentaries.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter damaged her new favorite toy "squishy" by cutting a flap off that she'd broken by playing with it too roughly.  She accidentally cut through it and had punctured it, causing it to deflate.  She was quite upset about it.  She said to me in a piteous voice, "I'm such a fool!"   We talked about things not lasting forever, which was upsetting to her.   She decided to rename her toy to, "Ghost Squishy" after she bought a second, replacement Squishy at 5 Below.

The Photograph Memory

My parents have been going through their cabinet of photos these past few weeks.   Twice now, they've come over for dinner or to see the children bearing books, folders, and envelopes of pictures from years gone by.   As is typical with the general flow of events in my house, chaos was in high gear with children running around, busily engaged in activities punctuated with calls of, "momma" every few minutes.  

Things only become more confusing with two of the children's favorite people arriving at the door.   Sometimes their arrival is met with excited cries of welcome, but not always as it depends on what the children are doing.   As much as my children adore their grandparents if they're in the middle of making a school classroom with student stuffed animals or are playing an enthusiastic game of "popcorn" on the trampoline, we're hard-pressed to get them to even say a friendly 'hello.'

Regardless of the welcome my parents may initially receive, we seem to always be in the middle of a mess—one we're trying to keep under control.    My parents are of the very understanding sort and we've briefly looked through the pictures at the time with the promise of a more in-depth review when things calm down later.

Today was one of those days.  My mother had brought some pictures over and once the children were off on their own, in this case on a walk in the woods with another parent, she and I sat down to look through some of the pictures.

It had been a long time since we'd last looked at the pictures, longer still since they were originally taken.  Some of them were obvious with the people pictured obvious and the occasion for the photo memorable.  Others weren't so easy to suss out.   My mother knew some that I didn't remember while I recognized people she was unsure about.  

One of the photos of another girl and me at about the age of my daughter was so memorable and yet I wasn't sure who it was.   I had seen that particular picture many times in my life and I knew I should know who the other child was.   I remembered she had been someone I spent time with at that age.   I remembered she wore more "girly" clothes while I wore more tomboy garb.   This would seemingly have been obvious because she was in a sundress with wooden-soled sandals popular in the day whereas I was wearing colorful sneakers, corduroy pants, and t-shirt.

I remembered more than that though.   I remembered a memory of looking at the photo over the years since it had been taken.   My mother would comment about how she (whoever she was) liked to wear dresses.  I asked my mother if it was my cousin and she said maybe that was it.   At that point chaos or "mommy" happened and we had to put the pictures away for later review.

After my mother went home I looked through more of the pictures but I kept looking at that one photo and thinking I knew who it was, almost willing it to come to me.  Out of the depths, the name Kelly surfaced.   Kelly who though?    I remembered who she was then, not the name, which I felt was correct, but had no memory of calling her that, but the person herself.  I remembered where she lived, what her back yard looked like, where she lived and that her parents had a grand piano in the living room of their modern house.

I called my mother and told her I'd remembered.  When I told her, she remembered who.   She knew her last name and that we became friends because my mother worked with her father.   All that from a photo of two children standing on some steps.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son is having a hard day.   He is behaving very badly.   He's repeatedly done things to other people's personal property because they're doing something he doesn't like or he doesn't like what they've said or done.   He got in significant trouble with me this morning, caused my mother to lose her temper at him at lunch, took his sister's things this afternoon because he just wanted them, was mean to two boys later because he didn't like something that happened, destroying their property and then had a very poor choice of words to his father, causing him to lose YouTube for up to a year.   It's not good.   He's not going to win going about things this way.   Unfortunately, all he's doing is losing.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter made a mistake and cut through, "squishy," a squishy toy I had gotten her at 5 Below.  She wanted to go back today and get another one to replace it, using her own money.   She liked them so much, she bought the box of them.   She's rarely wantes to spend her money on things.   We've found 5 Below is the exception though.

Family Movie Night Minus One

My husband is coming home from a week of skiing with my best friend's family and some other good friends.  The children and I have held down things here, the children have gone to school, and I've gotten mom-type things done while he's been away.   Tonight, instead of our typical movie night of friends and their families, it was just the three of us, and, for once in a great while, we decided to watch a movie.

This has been something we gave up four years ago when my daughter lost her vision.   Watching a movie isn't any fun when you can't see what's happening.   It was a long while before my daughter was interested in listening to a film, ideally with assistive audio.   Now that she's interested in movies again, we can start to do that which many families enjoy: the family movie evening.

My son prefers the audio track off, and if I'm being completely honest, so do I.   You're presented with dialog or description at all times, which gives you a full movie of listening—and that's more taxing than you might realize until you've done it.   It turns out to be a good thing if you're busy doing other things like folding laundry, making dinner, cleaning up, putting a puzzle together, brushing the dog—you name it—that would take your eyes off the screen.   But if you're in the habit of actually watching a movie from start to finish (which I typically am not), then it's a bit overkill to a sighted person.

Tonight was Frozen II night at the house, and after some coordination getting them both in the living room at the same time, we did indeed watch the movie.   There was only one scuffle/argument/fight that ended in me yelling at them, removing the toys they were fighting over that had been launched into the air and into the blinds.   There was a second event where my son got in trouble for standing on the sofa, pulling up those same blinds, and brandishing his loud lightsaber in the darkened window.    My daughter wailed about the toy I'd taken, saying she'd broken a promise to the anthropomorphized rubber tube, saying she had pledged to be friends and never leave each other's side—forever—and that it was all my fault.   In short, it was a typical night with an eight- and nine-year-old.

That was only a small portion of the time, and the movie was for the remainder of the time a very nice time together.   It was late when the movie ended, and, surprisingly, my daughter was still awake.  My son and I congratulated her on being awake since she'd been falling asleep really early over the past several months.  Perhaps she'll even sleep late in the morning.

The Big Boy Update:  My son requested the higher of two doses of Adderall we were testing out with his teacher.   He's a little hyper-focused on the larger dose, but she's and we are glad he's attuned to what he needs to be able to focus and do his work.   Outside of school, he insists he doesn't want to take it.   He knows what he needs.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's cab driver keeps the vehicle very, very hot.  She's eight-months pregnant, and I can't imagine how she's not roasting herself from remembering what it was like being pregnant myself.  When I got my daughter out of the cab this evening, she commented, "I'm glad you're here, I was melting."