Need More Cowbell

Pop Culture is an infectious thing.  My daughter tonight after the children had been excused from dinner asked Nana where those "other toys" were she'd told her about.   Nana said to look in the bottom drawer in the dresser in their room.   It was no surprise when not two minutes later the call for, "Mommy?" came floating down the hall in a high, tinkling little girl voice.  

I went to see what questions she might have about the toys, which to a sighted child would have been obvious.   A child with vision would have gone through the things and decided what they wanted to do first.  My daughter needed help though because she didn't know what was in the drawer.   She didn't know if she wanted to play with any of it, because she didn't know what it was.  

I described each thing, labeling a lot with, "it's a seeing thing" and telling her what she might do with the things that I thought she could do.   Even with the list narrowed down to only those things she might be able to do, most of them required an adult or other person to be able to do.   But she was okay about it, she had at least a few new things to play with. 

I went back to the dinner table and a few minutes later my daughter came down the hall making a banging noise, saying, "Greyson, we need more cowbell" as she banged on a little cowbell from a charity event.

One of the big Saturday Night Live skits of my era was the, "Gotta have more cowbell" one with Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken.   Even our car has a cowbell mode where it plays a portion of the skit with the Blue Oyster Cult skit in the background.   My husband and I were proud of her in a strange, pop culture sort of way.  

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Early Egg Hunt Cooperation:  My son was a gentleman this morning and helped his sister find an equal number of eggs in the early Easter Egg hunt my mother-in-law planned.   She told them she had talked to the Easter Bunny and asked if he could bring the baskets and eggs over early so she could help him.   The children didn't have any problem with this at all and were just glad to be getting eggs.   My daughter was very worried she wouldn't get an even number of eggs and had to, unfortunately, be sent to her room at one point, because she was so focused on not getting an egg or the evenness of eggs, even though everything was very carefully being done to ensure things were equal.   She finally calmed down after her brother came to give her one of his eggs after seeing how upset she was.   He was very sweet. 

Framing The Picture

My daughter is having her picture and a comment added to the media for a company that makes 3D printers for children.   Getting a picture to the company has been a bit of work for multiple reasons but we got it done today and tomorrow the picture and comment goes live.  

I had to get my daughter's buy-in on this whole picture and video thing.   She helped, but she doesn't want to be shown just because she's blind.   So I deemphasized that part.   Once she decided to help, she sort of got into it.   

What surprised me was how little she knows about some things.   I was trying to set the shot up so I could get her standing beside the little ToyBox printer.   I had to explain how I wanted both of them in the picture.   Then I had to tell her t face a certain way so she didn't block things. 

She was looking at the little mini planter pot a face on the front, including glasses.   I had to tell her to stop looking at him so I could get him in the picture.   If what I just wrote doesn't make sense, it's because my daughter was "looking" at him with her fingers.   She moved them away from the facial features on the front of the printed little planter pot and I started to try and make her laugh. 

You have to try and make her laugh, because her forced smile is, like so many other children's, awful.   We got some pictures and she even did a little video clip that I sent to the company.   I think she enjoyed helping out, even if it kept her from the pool for a bit this morning. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is going to peel maybe tomorrow.   This week for certain.   This was a bad burn.   She's blistered all along the tops of her arms and shoulders and is in a lot of discomfort.   If you're thinking about lecturing me, don't bother, I've been lecturing myself since Monday I've been so upset about it.

The Big Boy Update:  My son knows how bad his sister feels with her burn and yet today he decided to take his shirt off late afternoon and run around without putting any sunscreen on.   I don't know if now I have a second child burned.  I hope he stayed in the shade or wasn't out for long in the sun.     

The Fanfare

Chelsea is still trying to get my daughter interested in piano lessons.  So far, all she can get my daughter to do is listen to her play and let her help in figuring out the songs she's interested in playing for her right hand.   My daughter is not one bit interested.   She can learn a new song quickly, then get better and better playing it more quickly and after she's learned it to her satisfaction, she moves on to the next song to pick out. 

Part of the problem is she knows she's going to have to learn a new way to use braille.   The six dots in the standard braille cell have been remapped to be used to represent music notation and notes.  When Chelsea tried to introduce this new system to my daughter, she met extreme resistance.   We had bought an entire piano course because you can't teach music reading to a blind person with standard sheet music. 

The introductory concepts should have been easy, but Chelsea couldn't get past the remapping of the keys themselves.   If they hadn't put braille letter stickers on the keys a year prior, it might have been different, because the stickers on the keyboard at the time were completely wrong for true braille music notation.  And my daughter hated it. 

There was more though.   When you type in braille, your thumbs are used for the space key alone.   Every key you type doesn't need the thumbs.   Thumbs aren't part of the words.   When my daughter sits at the piano, she plays with four fingers and rests her thumbs on the wood below.    Chelsea doesn't know if she can get her to break that habit—and my daughter doesn't want to. 

She does, however, want to play songs.   The last time Chelsea was at our house. she sat at the piano with my daughter and Reese said, "you start with the fanfare."   Chelsea dutifully started playing a song using both hands and my daughter chimed in at the right points with her single note at a time melody.  

They play like this a lot.   Chelsea is trying to get Reese interested enough that she'll want to learn more.  For now, she's being a stubborn brick wall.   Chelsea, knowing her well, thinks pushing her isn't going to help, it will make her less interested in playing altogether. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl All Day Pool Time:  They were in the pool all day.   My daughter did a good bit of screaming because she was in pain from the sunburn we accidentally let happen yesterday.   Everyone feels so badly about it.   I think ultimately it was my fault because even though she got to the pool very early, I should have thought about sunscreen even then.   She's better now and she and her brother played all day and got along almost the entire time,   I spent some time with them each, but they were having lots more fun without adults, doing imagination games all around the pool. 

The Sun Miscalculation

My daughter likes water.   She would gladly spend the entire day in the backyard pool at Nana and Papa's house.   This morning she was up early and had a breakfast of fruit and freshly made pancakes from Nana.  The minute she had finished eating, she asked if she could go into the pool.  

She put on her swimsuit from the night before and got into the hot tub.   I moved my breakfast outside and then went over beside her.   Her brother came out shortly, put on his swim trunks, and then they just took over, playing with each other, screaming, laughing, playing games, having fun. 

I had to go inside to get my swimsuit on so I told the children to make sure each other was safe and promptly got stuck inside for a while.  Other people went out and I did make it back outside in a bit, after taking care of the dog. 

It wasn't until lunchtime when I suddenly realized I never put sunscreen on them.   And worse yet, they weren't long sleeve swim shirts.   We fixed the situation at that point, but the damage had been done, literally. 

My daughter did the screaming bloody murder thing while she had aloe vera lotion and Solorcain.   She is now chilled from the sun and is under a load of blankets.   It's always the first day in the sun that you forget to put sunscreen on, no matter how early it is, even though the sun isn't high enough to shine on you.   Forgetting can hurt.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has worn his bathing suit on backward for the past two days.   He turned them around once, but he seems to like them on backward.   Somehow, they fit.  He's so thin right now as he starts to grow.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter walks very carefully around the pool so as to protect herself.   She still got hurt a half dozen times today, but she brushed them off.   She can play games with her brother and just go with all the visual things he talks about.   I don't know how she does it, but for a lot of the day today when I saw her playing in the water, I didn't think about her blindness, watching out to make sure she doesn't get hurt and calling out in time to stop her if needed.

You Can't Get There Any Faster

We've been on the road for fourteen hours now heading to my in-law's house in Florida.   The house is snugly taken care of in our absence by the homesitter that doesn't need to be fed: our alarm system and cameras.   The trip has been long and grueling in the back seat, but it works for me because I can help with things the children need (my daughter more so than my son) and I can run interference when bickering occurs.

The other reason I sit in the back is to let the dog have the front seat.  It's fairly cramped in the single seat I sit in in the back.   The dog is covered in fur and the cooling back here is much less than it is in the front.   She can sit in the seat itself, or drop to the floorboard and get blown on by the air-conditioning directly up front.   She spends most of the time on the flat surface of the floorboards, being cooled as much as she can. 

We've stopped four times for relatively short durations at the supercharger.   They are getting faster with the later versions they release.   We achieved the fastest charging we've ever had at our last stop, charging at an astonishing 660 miles per hour.  By the time we had gone to the bathroom, we were ready to go.

One of the things that's interesting about driving an electric car is that you can't get to your destination by driving faster.   The faster you drive, the more electricity it takes to move the car.   The more electricity you use, the more time it takes to charge or, the more charge stops you need to make.   In our case though, we can't go for that long without a "potty break" stop with the children.   Or a, "I'm so hungry, I can't wait any longer!" repeated every five minutes.  

But we're almost at Nana and Papa's house.  Everyone is excited.   The dog even knows something big is about to happen.   For me, I just can't wait to get out of the back seat, get in their hot tub and hope my back will stop cramping. 

The Car Naming Discussion:  My son asked me, "Mom, what's your favorite filament?"  The children know I am singularly obsessed with 3D printing and the filaments you use to print with, but when he asked. I just stared dumbly at him and said, "Uh, I don't really know."   He said, "Because I think you should name your car whatever it is."   You can give a Tesla car a name that shows up on the dash.   He said a few minutes later something I couldn't stop laughing about.   He said, "What about Filament Flying?"   My daughter wanted to get in on the action and offered up, "The Power of FIlament."  I'm not sure yet what I'll name the new car, but I do like their suggestions. 

Negative + Packing + Printer

We're all negative, having a high probability as a family that if we were COVID-19 positive, one of us would have turned up with a positive result.   Today, the children have been in school but due to COVID-19-related things both children have been doing distanced learning.   Tomorrow we're off on vacation.   

I've been packing all day.  My husband has been doing things to prepare for our departure like cleaning my car.   I love a clean car.   It gets easier every year as the children get older as there is less child-specific packing and they can help with some of their own things.   Still, it's a good bit of work. 

My husband said something so nice last week I didn't know what to think.  He said, "why don't you bring one of the 3D printers with us?"   I have a small one that's easy to pack.   It's the same one I took to my son's class for the demonstration.  

So it's packed.   With some filament and any tools or parts I might need while I'm working with it.   I packed Easter colors and plan to print Easter-themed items.  

We get up frightfully early in the morning to leave.   When I finish packing, I'm heading to bed early. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl What Is That Sound Question:  As I'm writing this I can hear a strange sound in the back yard combined with my children running in and out of the basement door, banging it as they come and go.   I just looked out and they are putting ice on the trampoline and then jumping with it.   The odd sound is the ice pieces all hitting the trampoline bed at the same time.   They're screaming and having a great time. 

A Little Taller

We measure my son and daughter's height every year on their birthday, marring a wall with a line and the date so that years from now, we can look back at how they grew over the years.   My daughter has always been a little shorter than her brother at the same age marks but we figured that was about par since children grow so quickly.  

The children have always been normal on the growth charts every year and they seem to be normal in nearly every way.   So that surprised me when my son mentioned something about being the shortest in his class.   

He seemed to be not that upset about it, but you could tell he wished he were a little taller.   I talked to him at one point about it and how he was a fourth year and that he would likely be not as tall as his classmates who were fifth and sixth years.   He knew that, but he also said he was the shortest fourth year boy as well.   again, not with any real anger behind it, just sort of a wistfulness that he might be taller. 

Today, as we were packing to go visit Nana and Papa for the spring break week (and only Nana and Papa, staying in their house with them is enough for us so that we can remain hopefully COVID-19 safe.)  I looked at my son, who was wearing shorts due to some warm weather that had come through.   I noticed his knees looked more pronounced and his legs looked longer. 

I asked him if he thought he had grown recently.   He was working on a slider puzzle that went up to twenty-eight and was focused, but he heard me and nodded, saying, "a little, maybe."  I said he might be in a growth spurt and might not be the shortest in his class soon.   "That would be nice," he replied.  

The Big Boy Tiny Girl IT TICKLES! Trauma:  We got COVID-19 PCR tests today in preparation for our trip.   There was a small fuzzy thing we each put in our nose and swabbed  for five seconds per nostril.   My daughter has been traumatized by the deep sinus probing tests in the past two weeks and was already in near terror form.   My husband got to my son first and the noises my son made did not make my job any easier.   My daughter was terrified of ten seconds of tickle.  When I finally got her calmed down enough to do the swab, she said, "was that it?"

please don't fall asleep...

I have been reading a series of books to my daughter that she's been checking out from school.  In the evening, before she goes to sleep, I read a bit and have some time with just her and me.   Only there's a problem.   I can't stay awake when I read.  

I can not explain what happens, but I know that it occurs every single time I read to her.  There is some somnolence effect I have associated with reading to her.   I've read in the middle of the day, late at night, and just before bedtime.   Regardless of the time, I can't stay awake. 

I'm not reading for a long time either.   The book read cover to cover could probably be completed in less than an hour.  I commit to reading four chapters of the book at a time which is about a third of the book.  I hope every time that I can make it through without falling asleep. 

It's happened so many times now that I thought going up early last night to read to her would be a good idea.  I sat on an uncomfortable stool, thinking that would make a difference.   I knew I was in trouble when she asked me who a character was that I'd said the name of, only to realize I'd been falling asleep and read the name wrong.   I hadn't even made it to the second chapter. 

I got on the floor, sitting on my knees to try and jog myself awake.   I got mid-way through the third chapter and had had to change positions three times to keep from falling asleep while sitting up.   I don't know how it's happening. 

At one point very far away I heard my daughter quietly say, "Please don't fall asleep..."  I tried.   I even stood up at the end and somehow made it through the end of the chapter.   I told her we'd do the next section tomorrow and then I went downstairs and fell asleep at 7:30, not waking up until close to midnight, fully clothed, with my son gone and up to bed. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is doing distanced learning this week.   She's had a lot of asynchronous days recently but no real distanced learning.   She's back in online classes, getting frustrated at finding the mute key combination and getting her work done to turn in remotely.    She jumped right in with no fanfare at all.   After all this time, she's pretty much a pro at it. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is back in school, although he has a low-grade fever still.   He, also, doesn't have a problem with the distanced learning.   He's been in classes this morning online and has his "desk" of materials all spread out on the dining room table. 

Tylenol Makes Everything Better

My son still had a fever of unknown origin this morning whereas his sister felt just fine.   My daughter, husband, and I haven't developed any symptoms.   Hopefully, that will remain the case, but since we have no explanation, we have no idea on that front.  

What I do know is Tylenol is the great healer when you're a child.  My son, with a single dose of Tylenol, was ready to go outside and play.   We let him do so, provided no one else was around.   He and his sister got along all day and told us they were, "getting exercise" outside.  

Tomorrow, they start school distanced-learning style for the remainder of the week. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is saying he's going to read every day, and then isn't.   Today he was supposed to read for two hours but has yet to do much of it.  I think he'll be staying up until he reads it tonight because I'm tired of him putting it off.  He wants to have read, he just doesn't want to read. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter asked if she could go outside when other children.   We let her jump on the trampoline when no one else was near it.   It sort of kept her safe while she could look at and talk to other children that had come to visit. 

A Fever That Wasn't

The children have been out of school a lot recently with symptoms that are in some way related to COVID-19, but aren't for them.   When one sibling is out, we take the other child out too.   Today, we were going to have two children back in school for the last week before spring break.

Only a teacher at my son's school became COVID-19 positive and the school decided to go remote for the remainder of the time before the break.   That was one child down.   This morning, things took an interesting turn. 

I had dropped my daughter off at school when my husband called to say my son had a fever.   Was it really a fever?   He did a lot of tests with two thermometers to make sure we weren't being alarmist, but the temperature was rising quickly.  My son was lethargic and had a stomach ache on top of the fever.

While I turned around to pick my daughter back up, my husband took my son to get a PCR test.  When they got home, my son fell into a deep sleep on our bed with his fever managed by Tylenol.   My daughter was told to not interact with anyone and I lay down, not feeling all that hot myself, although not having any specific symptoms like a fever. 

I was certain we had COVID-19 as a family.   Spring break in Florida was canceled.  Where and how did my son get it and who might we have interacted with that we need to notify.   Only late afternoon the tests came back for my husband and son: they were negative.   The PCR test is highly reliable for negatives, especially if you're exhibiting symptoms. 

So what does my son have and where did he get it?  Will the rest of us get it?   We just don't know.  The pediatrician said to monitor him and call in the morning with an update.   He doesn't have earaches that would indicate an ear infection.  He has a bit of an upset stomach, but not enough to be worried about appendicitis and his throat isn't sore.   Allergies don't present with fever and he has no other allergy symptoms. 

Any other year he would just have a bug that was going around.   This year, things are much more serious when you get sick. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son lay in bed all day.   I stayed with him some of the time.   He was calm and sweet.   It was sort of nice spending time with him, even though he was sick. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  When I picked my daughter up from school she said, "I was really hoping to get to see some friends today at school."

Always Questioning

I think as a parent I'm always questioning if I'm doing a good job.   Some days I feel like I do fairly well.  Other days I worry I'm not present enough in my children's lives and they'll be grown before I know it.   And then some days I have a sinking feeling I'm failing miserably. 

Tonight, despite my best intentions, went south in a very direct and rapid way.   The children are in bed, possibly asleep, but I don't think it was a good end to the day.   My husband is upstairs, still talking to my son, hopefully getting some insight into his thoughts.   I tried but I was getting nowhere.

The Bathtub Unwrinkling:  My children still like to take baths together and play.   They haven't hit puberty so it's innocent fun for them.   I came in to hear my daughter saying, "I bet you can't get the wrinkles out!"  She was bent over sideways, causing wrinkles to appear in her skin between her ribs and hip.  My son was trying to spread out the skin on her side while she tried to bend over even more to happy cries of, "I got it", "no you don't!"  "Yes, I do!"

When Did I Change?

There are times in life when something happens that your brain isn't ready to accept yet.   I remember going into the halls of my high school and not feeling at all like a high school student.   It wasn't long before the thought of being a mere junior high schooler was far beneath my mental age and maturity.  

Later, the same thing happened when I went to college.   I think the difference from being single to being married was a much bigger one.   All the preparation of the wedding made no difference on the impact that was one day being single when the following day I was a "Mrs." with a husband.   I marveled over that simple change the entire honeymoon and it wasn't until probably a full year that my mental image in all ways was of someone who was married.   

Now I can't imagine being single I'm so ensconced in my mental image of someone who is married.   Parenting was another one that took a bit to get into, but not long.  You're so busy being a parent it happens pretty quick in your mind. 

What took a long time to become one with thought was being the parent of a blind child.   There was the complication that we had a child that was first plagued with a serious eye injury.   Her vision declined gradually even with heroic measures but we remained hopeful it was a temporary thing.    Eventually, when it was clear she would never regain her vision, it wasn't suddenly a single incident that classed us as parents of a blind child.   It was, rather, a lot of little things.

There are a lot of things that happen in life that we're not prepared for.   Many of them we're not equipped to handle.   But we're learning, adapting creatures and like countless other people on the planet, I muddled through it until I figured out enough to get by.  

Then at some point, suddenly I was.   Suddenly having a blind child, being a parent, being a wife and sometimes, on occasion, even acting like an adult, was just who I was.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son asked if he could have the iPad or my phone or something the other day, long enough to create and update some playlists of songs for playing on the outdoor speakers while they're outside playing.   He's got a good sense of music.   He reminds me of his cousin, Kyle. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was frightfully upset that she wasn't allowed to leave the table after yelling at us, using angry words, complaining and wishing she could just go fold her laundry so she could go back outside.  I told her she wasn't going anywhere until we had polite conversation at the table for dinner.   She sulked until she realized I was serious.  Then, suddenly, her mood changed. 

Naps

Am I getting so old that I need a nap every day?   I don't know.   Maybe?   Sometimes I think it's because I'm up early from just waking up and I've gone to sleep late so I'm low on sleep.  Sometimes it's because I'm just in pain and lying down helps.   I always seem to fall asleep so I think that must mean I'm tired.   I don't really know though.   I used to not need naps.  

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Sleepover Quandry:   My daughter wants to have sleepovers a lot.   She and her brother talk about them and ask and we say no if it's a school night and they're both disappointed.  On the weekends, they ask to sleepover in either the bonus room or the living room.   

Last weekend, they planned to sleep in the bonus room, getting their baby crib mattresses from the back closet and putting them along with blankets, pillows, and sleeping bags into the bonus room.   And then my son backed out on his sister.   He's done this several times, and I'm not sure why.  

Tonight was the same thing.   My daughter was ready with all her things but when my son disappeared into his room, he would only come down to have a sleepover if she did certain things for him.   I told her I thought he was putting her in a situation where she couldn't meet his demands, and even if she did, he was going to back out for another reason.

She thought going to ask him might be a good idea, so she went into his room and I heard him yelling at her.  He called her names, was terribly rude to her because she had touched him and he had fallen asleep just before, which she didn't know.   He is going to have to apologize to her tomorrow because the things he said were not okay. 

My son has bunk beds.   If he is more comfortable in his room, she could sleep in the top bunk, something she'd be willing to do.   I asked her about that tonight as I went to check on her.  She was lying in her sleeping bag right outside her bedroom in the hall.  My heart went out to her.   She said he told her she'd stink up his room.   

I said that wasn't true and he knew it, it was just an excuse.   I told her when COVID-19 is over, she can have sleepovers with her friends again.   I reminded her how jealous he was when she had sleepovers.   I talked to her about when she grew up and all the things that were going to happen to her in the future and how I looked forward to seeing all the things she'd do.   She seemed happy as she fell to sleep with me lying beside her in the hall.  I'm glad,  I didn't want her to go to sleep sad. 

Illness or Allergy

Here's the rundown and where we got to where we are now.   Yesterday, my daughter said she had a sore throat.   Her ear(s?) were also itchy, so much so that she'd scratched them(it?) raw.   When asked, she would downplay and minimize everything but mid-morning we decided to go get yet another COVID-19 test for her.  

Last night, the tests for her, my husband and me, all came in negative.   Today, her symptoms are worse and she's afraid we're not going to go get to see Nana and Papa for spring break (nine days away).  We decided to keep the children home tomorrow out of an abundance of caution.   Even though we're fairly certain it's something other than COVID-19.

It's starting to be a false spring with the recent clement weather we've been having.  I've started getting some fierce allergies which include itchy eyes, throat, and ears.   I also have some drainage, but not to the extent my daughter has been having. 

My daughter's voice has gotten raspier and raspier as the day has worn on, while also complaining of lots of drainage down the back of her throat—something that can cause hoarseness.   Is it allergies?  She has never had a single allergy, one of the good things she has going for her medically.   

If her symptoms aren't better in the morning, we may take her to the pediatrician to see if it could possibly be anything else.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son told me tonight he couldn't possibly get his book read by our trip, which means he won't have screens at all while we're there.   I told him he possibly could, that it's been a month since he lost screens.   Four-and-a-half weeks, he corrected me. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  In preparation for going to visit Nana and Papa my daughter and I got pedicures today.   She got olive green that sparkled,  "because Nana loves green," she said.

Crystal Game

My son still is resisting reading that one book he needs to read in order to get screens back.   He had said at the beginning of all this that he was never going to do screens again.  He can be very dramatic, like all children when they're upset and not getting their way.   But as time goes on, he's not even trying, and while that's odd, it's not been a bad thing at home. 

He has taken a renewed interest in drawing and his skills are increasing every week.   After school, if his friend Rayan can't play in the yard, he goes to the bonus room, turns on an audiobook, and gets to work on something intricate or game-related.   There are a lot of game-based drawings he's been doing.  

Tonight, when I found him after dinner, he had been working on drawing up a game layout he had created on the floor with the crystal pendants he, his sister, and two friends got from Amazon for an astoundingly reasonable price.   These crystals have been the source of many hours of play.  Tonight, they were each the next step in the game, room in the dungeon, level to pass, spell to learn (he was non-specific when I asked but I think it's along some or all of those lines).  

Here's what he laid out, nicely organized by color.   He created and then precisely cut one square sections from his graph paper and laid out all the spaces.   The LEGO pieces mean something as well.   He told me you start at one and then showed me how, if you got to one of the end sections, you'd be able to take shortcuts.   He was going to work on that next, but he had it all in his mind. 

The thing that made me sad was he had to clean it up because his sister has class at home tomorrow and she was going to inadvertently step all over it.   He understood and then copied everything down on another sheet before going to bed.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son was interested in showing me the game he was planning after school.  I asked if there was anything I might have that I could contribute to the game.  He wasn't sure but when I reminded him of the crystals I had kept in a tiny drawer in the craft room, he said he would like them.   I'm glad I mentioned them because he created an impressive layout and game plan with them.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  One of the students in my daughter's class has COVID-19.  Her teacher and all students who sat near him have been sent home for two weeks or until after track out.  We're fortunate in that my daughter was at home after the headache incident last week while all this was happening.  Still, to be safe, we got another COVID-19 test today.   That's three tests in a week for my daughter.  One that was the wrong kind and would not be accepted by her school, the second that was and then today's in the case for any reason she was exposed the last day the other student was at school but she wasn't positive when tested. 

Scratch and Mess

I was working on a package I'm mailing tomorrow to a friend a short while before bed tonight in the craft room.   My children were in the next room over, working on something you scratch on to make a picture.   I thought I knew what they were doing as I heard my son tell my daughter she needed to scratch more that it wasn't showing a picture yet so I offered some verbal assistance from the other room. 

There are these sheets or booklets that have a rainbow patterned, silver, or gold-colored underside that's been covered up by a top layer of black.   You take a stylus and scratch it into the black and make any picture you want.   The underlying color shows through and it looks like you're drawing in silver or rainbow.   So when I heard my son explaining, I said, "you need to do a lot of scratching, so if you draw a circle, you want to scratch in the center of the circle. 

What I found out a bit later when my husband came upstairs was they had some booklet my son had been given a long time ago where every page was like a lottery ticket—a huge lottery ticket—and the children together had been scratching every single bit of it off and onto the table and themselves.   

I thought of the carpet and the little shards burying themselves in the depths, unable to be removed by the vacuum.   I did the, "hold still, don't move!" thing parents do when their child has made a mess and got most of it dumped back onto the table.   They relocated to the dining room table after that which is over the hardwood floor and is much more mess-proof.   

My children are nine and ten now.  Surely at ten and eleven, they'll stop making messes, right?

The Big Boy Update:  My son was angry my daughter didn't want to play a game with him tonight because she didn't feel safe.  I suggested they pick either another game she felt comfortable with or maybe he'd like to put on a blindfold and play the game that way?  He didn't like that suggestion and so he called his sister strange.   She got very upset, crying and saying she was always the strange one.   He realized his mistake and tried to tell her how strange was a good thing, that weird wasn't.   It was a ruse, but he was trying to correct his mistake.   He didn't mean to hurt her feelings, he was just mad. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was having fun scratching to reveal the picture in my son's book tonight.   She told her father, "it's really fun because when you're blind you don't know what the picture is and you can't cheat."  My son was her guide, telling her in great detail what she was uncovering as she scratched the coating off the page.

The Cotton Candy Event

Sunday was cotton candy machine day, my husband told my daughter.   He and I were going to bring out the cotton candy machine she got for Christmas and make some in the driveway in the nice weather and let the children have some with their friends. 

When the time came, suddenly we had three families of children in our driveway.   We gave them social distanced cotton candy.   My daughter loved it.   She was sort of the star, with her present being something everyone could enjoy.

It is national nap day and I didn't get to take a nap, so I'm going to sleep now.   It's not even early but I'm going to pretend I'm napping.

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Grandparents Name Discussion:   My children were talking about what we'd be called when we were grandparents.   I said maybe I'd just be Granny.   They thought maybe Cranny would be better to match the first letter of my name, Courtney.  My husband called out, "If she's Cranny, I'll be Nooks."   I laughed.   We had to explain to the children where the phrase "Nooks and Crannys" came from.   They've eaten English muffins for years, but they'd forgotten about the slogan we'd told them about, long ago.

The Last Memory

My daughter has almost no memory of seeing.   It's so strange to me that that is so given that she had four years of sight, longer than that even until she lost most of her sight.   At least five years she could see and yet nothing.   The brain is still forming during the early years of life and it is quite possible the areas of her brain used in vision were repurposed to other tasks.  

Yesterday my daughter said to me, because she knows I want to know these things and she's just starting to be able to talk about it easily, "I have another memory from before I was blind.  We were going to Pinehurst and when we got there there was a wreath on the door.   I was so young that I had a squeaky little voice.   I went into the kitchen and I say on one of the tall chairs and ate carrots."

She had a very specific memory of going to Nana and Papa's house.  When I asked her if she remembered what things looked like, she said she didn't.   And that's sort of an odd thing.  Her brain told her she'd seen but she's also not sure what it looked like.  She couldn't explain it.

When she has these memories I write them down for her, here.   Because there are so few left.   Anything we can preserve in any way I try to do. 

The Big Boy Update:  As my son was getting ready for bed, we asked Alexa what the weather would be tomorrow.   After hearing he said to me, "Mom, do you know what that means?  It means pants, whatever shirt I want to wear, and a sweatshirt...just like every other day."   He got several sweatshirts for his birthday and Christmas and he loves them.   He wears each of them and thankfully because they're still a bit large on him, we should be able to get another year's wear out of them.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  When my daughter got dressed to go down the hill to get sticks with her brother yesterday. she dressed in jeans and a fitted shirt to protect herself from the briers she might encounter.   I thought she looked wonderful in the clothes as it was a very different look for her from her normal comfortable pants and sweatshirts.   She remarked when she came downstairs, "This is so not my style.   It's more man-like.   I have butt pockets, at least."  Then she headed off into the wild and I hoped she didn't get hurt along the way and was careful.

Multi-color Printing

Remember that project I was working on one blog post ago that we pretended like was yesterday?  When I was first interested in 3D printing it seemed to be a disappointment that models were printed in one color.   You start with a model, give the printer rules on how to extrude filament and in the end, you have a completed print.   

That process happens in a single color though.  And that was sort of sad to me.   Why couldn't models be printed in multiple colors?  Well, it turns out they can, only it's complicated.   Models are printed one flat layer at a time and if you're printing a bear with white paws and a light brown face while the remainder of the model is dark brown, there are different points at each layer that you might need different colors. 

There are several ways this can be accomplished but the current way I'm working on it is via a secondary machine that looks at what colors you need when and splices together bits of filament so that when the printer needs white filament, it's just arrived in the extruder.   When the white is no longer needed and you're back to the dark brown, that color has already been prepared, spliced, and has arrived at the extruder to be melted and added to the model. 

It does all this in a single unbroken length of filament.   Sometimes that length of filament is tens of meters long for complex models.   Crafting the "recipe" of what filaments are needed when and then being able to splice up to four colors together is impressive technology. 

There is an interesting handshake that happens between the machine that's making this chain of filament splices and the printer that's printing the model.   They're not connected electronically.   One has no idea where the other one is aside from the fact that they started at the same point.   How fast the printer prints, if there are pauses by the operator don't affect the device splicing the filament.  The connection is a physical one.   The printer pulls for more filament and the splicer takes that as the message to produce the next segment. 

I'm so impressed.   It's not perfect and there is a lot of tuning that needs to be done to get the filament splices solid as different filaments have different properties.   Alignment is important so that the bear's paws will be white and not the paws and lower legs.   Even if it's not always perfect, the output is so interesting to see, after all this time printing with a single color on one spool

The Big Boy Tiny Girl S'Mores Dessert:  We had a fire in the fire pit we inherited from our neighbors that moved again tonight.  Last nights was fun and my husband was up for doing it again.   My son and he stayed out much longer than my daughter and I did.  She got cold so I went in with her for a bath.   He wanted to stay out and see what types of sticks he could put into the fire and how they'd burn. 

I've Been Work'in On A Project

Sing that to "I've Been Workin' On the Railroad" because that's the song that's going through my head in relation to this project I've been working on.  Also, if you could please pretend it's yesterday and I wrote this before crashing to sleep early last night, I'd be greatly appreciative. 

I'll sum this up with the children and their activities of late and then write about the project for today, I mean tomorrow's post. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Playing Together Days:  My son is still refusing to read Malamandar, the book he needs to finish in order to get screens back.   This is fine with me, although my husband and I are really hoping he finishes before we head to Florida to spend time with my in-laws over the upcoming spring break.   As a result, both of my children have been doing a lot of playing together.  As a general rule, this is something my daughter would love to happen all the time but doesn't that much because my son is busy with his own things, some of which include screens.   With the lack of any digital time though, they've been doing all sorts of things together with my son including my daughter in his play.   She's loving it and I think he's enjoying spending time with her too.  They were going to have a sleepover in the bonus room and got their sleeping bags ready but my son decided at the last minute to go to his bedroom.   My daughter wasn't that disappointed.   She fell asleep to the latest of her audiobooks with her favorite, "stufties" (stuffed animals) surrounding her. 

The Bridge Wreck

My non-COVID-19 positive daughter was in tow with my husband and me as we went to check out a piece of property.  She didn't want to go and pitched a fit but we told her if she was home from school, she had to go with us when we had to do work things.   I wondered if she would like the location, knowing what I did about it. 

It was multiple acres with a vacated house from the 1970s that had never been updated.   When we arrived she wanted to know if there was a gate and upon finding there was, got out of the car to feel it and help open the old, metal frame.   She launched down the gravel driveway with the dog following her.   I gave her directions on a bit left or a bit right until we met her father at the house. 

She wanted to investigate the house all by herself, finding all the rooms and doors.   I tied the dog up and went in and answered all kinds of questions she had.   There was a majestic large stone fireplace that spanned three floors, lots of rooms, and a pool table in the walk-out basement. 

She followed her father upstairs to the second floor which had a bridge overlooking a view of the small pond across the large yard in the back.   She yelled down to me, "It's an awesome view, mom."   It's things like this that are so interesting to me.   There was zero view for her.   But I dutifully responded that she was right, the view was certainly beautiful when I had made it to the second-floor landing. 

We went outside and I let the dog follow us around as we investigated the grounds.  My daughter wanted to know what fun things there were around and I noticed a small metal bridge crossing the creek that flowed into the pond.   We went over and I told her the planks had rotted away, but she could climb out on the rails and sturdy base frame.   

She did so and was very happy, about to make it to the other side when the dog decided to follow her and jumped into what turned out to be body-deep muck to both follow my daughter as well as to get something to drink.   She had stirred up the now dirty water so I had my daughter come carefully back while I sent the dog further into the pond to hopefully have some of the water clean her now-filthy legs and belly. 

As my daughter exited the bridge she said, "I love bridge wrecks.   What else is fun?"  She didn't want to visit the boathouse but perked up when I told her there was an old swing set.   I couldn't take her there until I got the dog, who had now decided to sink into the water to cool off (it was over seventy degrees and sunny—she was hot.)  

My daughter decided it wasn't all that bad, going to see houses with us.   I didn't want to tell her this house was quite the exception.   To her, most houses we would look at as real estate agents, would be just a collection of uninteresting rooms to her. 

I like that there's a bridge wreck

The Big Boy Update:  I was going back over my notes that I take for blog post topics and I saw this one from last year when we saw my parents during which we celebrated my father's birthday.   After singing the birthday song my son said, "Gramps, did you like blowing out the chandeliers?"

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Chelsea, Reese's music therapist, was outside, playing her guitar while Reese jumped on the trampoline and tried to sing off beat intentionally as a challenge.   She told Chelsea it wasn't hard for her at all because she just blocked out the music and did her own thing.   She also added, "I like to be annoying,"

Potential Purgatory

Two days ago my daughter got in the car from school with pain in her eyes.   This was new.  She'd never had eye pain before.  We got her home and gave her some drops for high pressure as well as Atropine to calm her eyes.   The stabbing pain went away very quickly and she didn't say anything more about it.   She complained about a headache, but she was pointing to her temples, which is where her eyes were and she was saying the pain was internal so we thought that's all it was. 

Today, we got a phone call from school saying she had a headache, and since headache was a symptom of COVID-19, we had to come to pick her up from school.   She would be allowed back to school if one of the following criteria were met: 1) she was seen by her pediatrician who diagnosed her as having some other condition, 2) she had a negative COVID-19 test, or 3) she stayed home for ten days. 

My husband drove her to have a COVID-19 test directly from school, the results of which we'll know tomorrow.   There is always the possibility it's COVID-19, however, she as well as the remainder of her family are showing zero signs of COVID-19 so we don't think it's likely.   There is a complication though, in that if she has another headache, even with a negative test, she has to stay home for ten days unless she has that alternate diagnosis by her pediatrician.   

Her pediatrician isn't going to know about her specific eye situation, especially as we had to change offices because of a change in insurance at the beginning of the year.  I had another suspicion though and when she got home I took her to the chiropractor's office.   I told him she'd had a few headaches.   He touched her shoulders and neck and checked one thing on her shoulder muscles, which was obviously uncomfortable when he touched her.   He asked her a question about the headaches and told her to answer yes or no, and that either answer was fine.  

She agreed that the location of her headaches was just how he'd described them.   He told me she had C6 Trapezius Lock Headaches.   Her lower cervical vertebra, specifically C6 was subluxated and her trapezius muscles were in spasm.  She also had C1 subluxated which I knew from personal experience could cause headaches.   

He did some trigger point work on her trapezius muscles and then adjusted her.   Before we left his office she said to me she felt a lot better, which was a good sign.  She iced the area when we got home and I gave her an NSAID and hopefully, that'll be the end of that with the headaches 

In the meantime, I'd gotten in contact with my daughter's pediatric ophthalmologist worked with her glaucoma specialist and amazingly we have an appointment for nine in the morning tomorrow.   That, for the Duke Eye Center, is quite the feat; they have a long wait time to get in usually. 

Again, hopefully, her eyes are fine and we have nothing to worry about.   We wanted to cover everything though.

The Big Boy Update:  My son is a late-blooming drawer.   He hated drawing anything at all when he was young and never colored a single coloring book.   These days, he's been wanting to stay up late to draw.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles;  My daughter didn't want to lie on her back on the sofa or the bed when we got home to ice her neck after getting an adjustment, she wanted to lie in the sun on the trampoline. I took the ice pack out, climb into the enclosure, and got her set up before heading back out to pick up he brother from school.   It was quite warm lying on the black trampoline bed in the sun.   I can see why she loves to do so.  

Preparation and Taxes

In years past, my husband, who does our taxes by his own preference, has needed some friendly prodding to get on the task.   It had even gotten to the point where I would put a daily reminder on his calendar saying, "how are the taxes going?" to try and help get him motivated.   He has always gotten them done with reasonable time to spare, but he procrastinates over this not-so-fun task every year. 

This year we had things going on, projects we'd both embarked on that were encompassing our waking hours not spent doing family things.   It wasn't until this weekend when he said, "you've forgotten something."   I had no idea what he meant until he said, "you forgot to remind me to do the taxes."

We both had some work we'd scheduled for today while the children were in school.  Mine was preparation for recording the next podcast episode.  His was starting on the taxes.   I got my first pass sent off to Scott for review and my husband had started laying things out on the large table in the basement behind our desks. 

In years past, tax documents and related files would fill this table for over a month.   Today, not even at the end of the day but at the end of the school day he said, "the taxes are done and submitted."   This is cause for celebration.  I think for him more than anyone else.   When I asked him how he said he'd gotten better at it every year and with the knowledge he'd gained and the single-focused work he did today, he could get done what had taken six weeks of procrastination in the past in a single, focused six-hour session.  

My day's work seems pretty paltry in comparison. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son told me something yesterday that I had no idea about.   He doesn't like to talk about school and rarely offers any information but he said today would be his last day as a class officer.   I asked him more about it and today, he told me the whole rundown of how each student serves a period as one of three officers.   There is the Seargent at Arms, who is responsible for noise level.  If a student is making too much noise they ask that a reminder be given. If two reminders are given the student is asked to leave the community meeting for a short period.   This officer is also responsible for making sure only one person is talking at a time.   Then there is the Chairperson who makes sure the class is staying on topic and leads the meeting.   They're the overall leader who delivers any reminders the Seargent at Arms requests.  My son was the Secretary, responsible for taking all notes, writing up any reminders for the chairperson to then deliver, keeping track of how many reminders anyone has gotten, noting the start and end times of the community meeting.   My son said he really enjoyed being an officer but he knew it was important for everyone to have a chance to serve.   And secondly, my son not only did not throw a fit when he got in the car today, he said, "Hi, Mom.  Let's go get Reese."  When I told him it was just him and me he asked politely if I was hungry.  I said I hadn't had lunch.  He asked if I would be interested in going to Chick-Fil-A.  If not, that was all right.   I said I thought that would be a great idea.   My son barely eats lunch due to the Adderall so he's very hungry after school.   Something changed in him today.   He was a nice person, not anger-filled.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  LEGOs hurt when stepped on and I noticed the other night the bonus room was strewn with them.   I called my son up to clean them up just as my daughter came in.   I warned her about them but she said, "It's okay, mom; the trick is to drag your feet."   As I watched her I realized what a clever girl she was.  Especially when I asked her where she'd heard that idea and she told me she'd figured it out all by herself.   She said, "you learn a lot from blind people, don't you?"  I agreed, I did.

Twelve Hours

I was at the computer yesterday after picking the children up from school and I couldn't stay awake.   I would type about five words and then I'd realize I had no idea what I'd typed so I'd shake my head to clear it, refocus my thoughts, and then keep writing.   I'd make it about five more words only to have the same thing happen again.   So I went to take a nap.

This isn't uncommon for me.  My sleep is erratic at night and the past week has been not the best sleep-wise.   Usually, I'll get a couple of hours and then I'll be able to finish out the day, sometimes even staying up well past the children's bedtime, catching up on the things I had intended to get done but couldn't on account of the afternoon nap getting in the way.

Later, I was awoken by the dog bounding onto the bed, trying to lick my face in a gesture of excited hello as well as the voices of my husband and daughter chattering.   My daughter was asking me questions I was too bleary to answer intelligibly.   My husband finally got through to me, asking if I wanted to get up and that it was now nine o'clock.   

Nine o'clock!  How had I slept from five all the way through to nine?   I tried to focus my thoughts to get up and help with the bedtime routine.   Both children need a little assistance to go to bed from the, "yes, you have to go to bed now.  Put your pajamas on and brush your teeth."   That kind of thing, only repeated a few times, sometimes followed by us chasing them up to their bedrooms to ensure they don't forget they actually have to go to bed. 

My daughter isn't all that bad, usually electing to go to bed early more nights than not.  She's sort of the opposite problem in that she'll fall asleep in different locations without the pajamas or teeth part of the routine and then is internally hard to wake up to get ready for bed. 

My son just isn't ready to go to sleep.   Ever.   He doesn't need as much sleep as my daughter and we've allowed him to stay up in his room, provided he's reading or doing some other activity like playing with something.  There are no screens in his room, so usually after a bit, he heads to sleep himself without a problem.   It's getting the children to the point of being ready to go to sleep that we're still helping with every day. 

Except for last night, I fell back asleep before I could fully wake up.   I woke up again after midnight, but only for a few minutes.   It wasn't until five-thirty this morning that I completely woke up.  I had slept for a full twelve hours.  I think the lack of sleep finally got to me and this morning, I'm glad I slept all those hours because I feel ready to take on the day.   My thanks, as always, to my husband for helping out while I was sleeping.   He really is the best.  

Pretend I wrote this post yesterday and I didn't miss a day.   I'm pretending I did.

The Big Boy Update:  My son still is very angry.   He told me yesterday in the car after throwing a fit because we had to go get his sister again, that five percent of his brain had been turned off.   Why and what for, I asked?  He said when he finished reading his book and he was allowed to have screens again, he would feel better and it would come back on again.   Why wasn't he reading then, I asked.   The obvious question, it seemed to me.   He didn't want to talk about it, he said.   When he got home, the friends he can play with during COVID-19 were outside, so he asked me to set a timer for forty-five minutes and then let him know so he could come back in and read.   Did he read?  I have no idea, I was asleep.   I'll find out this morning. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter had something alarming happen yesterday.   Her eyes were both giving her stabbing pain.   She rated it a six on a scale of one to ten.   I called my husband and we realized we missed her morning drops.  She also had a pressure spike in the last week so we upped one of the drops to the more powerful one.  She suggested adding in the Atropine drops as well, because they've helped before.   This is a whole post because I learned some interesting things about her eyes I didn't know before but for yesterday, we gave her the drops as soon as we got home and an hour later all the pain had gone away.   Her pressure was well in the normal range, so it looks like it was a short-lived event.   But a scary one.

Blindfolded

I've been trying to reach my son.  Trying to get him to see we're not favoring his sister over him.   It's been hard to get through to him that some things we're just going to have to help her with.   For instance, if she drops something on the floor, we need to encourage her to find it for herself.   The skills she has learned to sweep in a pattern until she locates the item in a predictable pattern is a life skill for a blind person, not a punishment because we think she shouldn't have dropped the item.   And yet when the dropped thing has rolled far away, it seems almost unfair to have her look for a long time, only to get dejected at not finding it—especially when she knows everyone around her can see exactly where the thing is. 

My son believes we favor his sister in other ways.  Some of this is only coming to light now, but he believes we spend more time with her.   In a way, he's right.  But it's because she asks, and asks, and asks to do things with us.   She is bored and she loves to do things with people.   She is a very social person.   We feel bad for her that we say no as many times as we do.   But to my son, he just sees that we're doing things with her more than him.

We try to do things with him, but he doesn't accept our offers much of the time.   Prior to the, "No screens until you read three big books" standoff, that wasn't as apparent to him we think.   He's now noticing more because he's experiencing boredom on some level as well, although he's been doing a lot of interesting drawing, LEGO, and creative work.   He's also been receptive to having us do things with him more. 

Tonight, I decided to try something to see if I could trigger some empathy in him.  He and I were folding laundry in his room.   I told him we were going to blindfold ourselves and see what it was like to do laundry blind, like his sister has to do so every week.   Maybe, I thought, he would understand why I helped her with certain things and didn't with him.   He wasn't seeing that even though I helped my daughter in some areas of her laundry, she had to do additional work in other areas, but this wasn't about that. 

Greyson was happy about putting on the blindfolds.   We set a timer for ten minutes and both sorted the laundry.   And we did well.   I was surprised, although not completely so.   We did the easy part at just dividing up the laundry into piles of the same things like shirts, pants, socks, etc.   My son wanted to do another ten minutes and I agreed.  He told his sister about the plan and what we'd been doing and I fumbled down the hall to hang her shirts with a basket in my hands and a blindfold over my eyes.  

I found her closet floor completely covered in soft things.   I had only just cleared out the mess to get to the hangers by the time my son came to let me know the timer was up.   I don't know how much of the message got through, but we're trying.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son played outside today with friends on the street.   They all played well together and my son seemed to have a good time without trying to show off and control all the play.   He likes to run the show, which not everyone enjoys, especially when he's forceful about his opinions of what everyone should be doing.   I think it was a good day for him.   

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has learned how to make that pop sound you can make with your mouth by tucking your lips over your teeth, pressing down and then pulling them out quickly.   She worked hard to figure it out, especially since she had to do so mostly on descriptions.   She was showing off tonight and said, "It's amazing what the human body can do."

Paging Mom and Dad

We love the Amazon Echos.   We what feels like a slew of them in the house.   My husband bought one before they were generally available way back when they were in beta testing mode.   At that time the children's voices weren't understood by Alexa.   It would infuriate them as they tried, again and again, to get her to understand them in their tiny, little voices only to have her ignore everything they said after her name.  My husband and I would say the exact same thing and she would understand us on the first try.  

Today, we've upgraded models multiple times, relocating the older versions to other, less-used locations in the house.  At this point, most spots we spend time in, including the bedrooms, have their own Alexa communication device and Alexa not only understands the children, but she can also figure out what we're saying when more than one person is talking over you.   

The technology can be very useful.   And annoying. 

You can reach someone by connecting to their location using, "drop in" which starts an open conversation with those two Echos just like double-ended speakerphone call.   You can also send a message to all the Echos in the house.   This is also nice when my husband wants to let us know dinner is ready.   It's definitely useful when someone is hurt and we need to know.   But it is also a way to pester parents when we don't want to be pestered.

Typical messages are along the lines of, "Mom (or Dad) can you come here?"   We're starting to crack down on this, letting them know we're not going to even consider coming unless they let us know why—because it's usually something like, "she's touching me" or some other equally important situation only we can handle. 

Tonight my son announced, "Mom and dad, you need to come up here NOW!"   My husband and I looked at each other and I responded, "Why?"   My daughter was in my son's room and he didn't want her there.  So we needed to come up "NOW" to handle it.   We didn't budge.   The number of additional interruptive messages we got after telling them we were sure they could work it out themselves was annoying, but hopefully, they'll start to get the message that we're not interested in being paged for trivial reasons.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son wanted to go outside with his socks on today.  I told him not to.  Twice.  Firmly.   I found the socks on the floor at dinner wrong-side out.  I turned them out and found them caked with leaves and dead grass.   My son had to clean them off.  If he wants to do that in the future, he can use his own money to buy socks and then throw them away, because they're not going in the laundry, I told him, so they can get leaves all over our clothes. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has taken down swings on the play set on multiple occasions to stop other children (whom she feels don't like her or won't let her play with them) multiple times.   This is happening when there are children in our back yard when our children aren't outside, something we've allowed as our neighbor's children need to get out and not go crazy inside too.   But my daughter has been around in other areas when this has been happening and she's not being nice because I think she's afraid of not being accepted—so she's making sure she's not accepted by dropping the swings.   She is not allowed to do it again or all the swings will be put away, I told her.   She was horrified because then she couldn't use the swings.   Good, I told her.   So don't remove the swings from the set and leave them on the ground anymore.   

Road Rage

I picked my son up from school today and he nearly had a conniption fit in the car.   He found out something I'd told him this morning, but he said he didn't know.  I was talking to them while they were eating breakfast, but he's like his father in his ability to single focus incredibly well at the expense of not being able to multi-task without some effort.   

I don't know if he was concentrating on his toast or what he was going to do at school or who knows what, but I explained that their father had a commitment during the time of school pickup, so I would be getting them both after school. 

I told them this specifically this morning because my son hates it when he gets picked up and then has to ride to go get his sister.   If possible, we each go get one child because his school is quite close while my daughter's school, which has the VI specialty, is in the next town over, bordering on the town after that. 

My son smashed into something in the back seat or thrashed his backpack around.   I turned around and his teacher, who had heard it through the closed car door, came over.   I explained the situation, pointedly saying how his sister did that drive to and then from school twice every day and he was being upset about doing it once. 

Ms. Michelle responded in a calm voice, "that's families" and her soothing voice calmed my son in a way. As we drove to Reese's school, Greyson was manifesting his anger in different ways.   I told him he was very fortunate because if we could pick him up separately, we did so.   And that what I expected from him was gratitude for those times, not anger because he wasn't being picked up alone. 

That was hard.   I knew it was going to be hard to turn high anger into gratitude, so I told him it was okay today to be angry and that I understood, but that the next time his father or I picked him up and took him straight home, to say thank you.   I told him that would go a long way. 

He understood, he told me.  And I really think he did get it.   The question is, will he remember it the next time he's picked up?

The Blameful Boy Update:  My son was angry in the car this afternoon.  He was looking to take some of his frustrations out on something and his sister was an obvious target.  When she got in the car he tried several times to criticize her, which I stopped.   Kindness...is it too much to ask?

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's braillist was putting the large, heavy, roller backpack into the trunk of our car today on the week we lost our lead VI teacher.   She said, "Thank God It's Friday" to which I responded, "TGIF!"   The children hadn't heard the phrase before and Reese particularly enjoyed saying the 'God' word.   I asked her to use 'Goodness' instead, please.   She thought that was a good replacement word once I'd explained it was a better choice.

Coolwhip

The Big Boy Mom Dessert Update:  My son and I have a dessert we love: Coolwhip.   I know, it's supposed to be something you put on top of your dessert, but he and I like to just have a bowl full.   It's light and fluffy and a large container of Coolwhip goes quickly in this house.   I even have a special Coolwhip spoon I keep by the refrigerator for when I'm hungry.   

The TIny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is making a model of the Mars lander in art class.   She was very specific on what she wanted for materials from an idea perspective.   I had to translate her ideas into craft things I had that I could send her to school with.   She took a bag to school today with enough options for three landers.   I'm looking forward to seeing what she creates.   

A Change in Attitude

I've been stressed lately.  I could say there was a lot of stress on me, but realistically, I'm putting it on myself.   I seem to be able to overcommit myself time and time again.   And then I set milestones and goals and what also happens time and time again is there is just not enough hours in the day to get accomplished what I had set out to do for the day. 

My husband is running into the same thing.   The children at home for so much of this calendar year has put us behind from where we would like to have been on several things.   Each day he'll say, "I'm going to get the such-and-such done today" and then it's eleven at night and he hasn't even been able to start on it.   By then, we're both tired and don't want to embark on something that might take us several hours, only to find we can't complete the item for a hitherto unknown reason. 

The difference, I think, is attitude.   My husband doesn't seem bothered by this.  Tomorrow is another day, as the saying goes, and he picks up where he left off the day before without complaining or worrying.   I am the opposite in a lot of ways. 

I lament that I wasn't able to get the work I had wanted to complete finished.   I fret that time is passing and things are still incomplete.   And I complain about the above situations.   And I hate when I complain. 

I have a friend that kindly listen to me complain.   He had cancer a number of years back and he said it put a whole different perspective on things.   He didn't worry so much and was fine if things took longer to complete than he had hoped they would. 

I thought about those words and that night I told him thanks for the advice.   He replied that he didn't mean to sound preachy, and I told him it didn't come across that way at all.   Still, I told him, thanks for the advice because I'm trying to adopt the same for me.

So far, so good.   I don't know how long it will las, but I'm going to continue to try and not worry so much about deadlines and goals.   Even my husband said he was thinking about saying something to me because of the amount of stress I was bringing down on myself.

The Big Boy Update:  My son still has no screens.   He is, however, working towards getting them back, both in reading the required books, but also in changing his attitude.   He did several things towards that goal today, including some positive interactions with his sister.   

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter talked to Scott today.   Or rather he asked her questions and recorded their conversation.   Initially, she said she was only going to talk to him for three minutes but she ended up talking for almost forty minutes.   She knows about the podcast, but she thinks it's about our family and isn't as focused on her blindness.

Some Days Nothing Goes Right

I bet I'm not alone in having days that go from one mishap to another.  One wrong step to the next.  One thing broken only to find when that's fixed that another thing is kaput.   3D printing can feel like that sometimes.    It's hardware that is all working in concert to turn little strands of melted plastic into something recognizable.   All those parts can rebel on you when you least expect them to. 

I have some new hardware in the 3D printing realm here at the house.   Some of it has been put together and is working in the print room (mechanical room, workshop, pinball room,or as I think of it, the fun room.)  Some days are decidedly not fun, though. 

We had a timing belt that was loose on the new chidren't printer.  It came that way from the manufacturer. I looked online for instructions on how to adjust it but there were none.   There was a video for another one of the timing belts, but it was an easy one to adjust, not the difficult to reach one I needed to fix.   I sent an email to the company asking for instructions, saying I could do it myself if they'd tell me the best way to access it. 

There are components all connected together.   They have wires.   Some of the parts get very hot so they can melt plastic.   Tolerances are tight so that the plastic is melted just right.   But I could do it, I told myself.  

With no word back, and my patience on the thin side, I started taking the extruder apart.   Thirty careful minutes later and I discovered everything I'd done was for naught because the spot I needed to reach was below where I could reach with the current disassembly.  

I won't go into the details, but getting everything happy again was a bear.   And a mean bear at that.   I'm tired so I'm writing this short little blog post and going to bed.  I'll figure out the belt tomorrow.   And I hopefully won't cause more trouble in the process. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son has created several more games as he avoids reading the three books he needs to read in order to get any screens back.  He did ask if he could take the largest of the books to school to read during their reading time there.   Maybe he'll be ready for screens this weekend.   I'm still in no hurry. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Today we said goodbye to Mrs. Sample, my daughter's TVI or Teacher of the Visually Impaired.   This is the teacher who taught her braille and many of the other skills she's learned specific to her blindness while at school.  Mrs. Sample retired, and while we're happy for her, I'm also sad to see her go.    I think we all are.   She was much beloved. 

The Printed Drawing

Today I got a package in the mail that's been a bit long-awaited because of a pile of bad weather that ground shipping of packages across the country to a near-standstill for a while.   I knew from checking updates on tracking numbers that the little box was out for delivery and when the dog barked, I knew it was here.  

I got to the front door to find a box that was smaller than I expected.   What was inside was a 3D printer for children called the ToyBox.   It's a printer redesigned from the ground up to be easy to work with, low on maintenance, and approachable by children.   

I opened the box, took off the copius packing, plugged it in, and turned it on.   Then I downloaded the app, created an account, and logged in.   I told it I had a new printer and then it saw the printer.  It asked to connect to the Wifi and then we were connected and ready to go.  

That is unheard of.   I have several printers but more than that, I know about lots and lots of printers because from a media perspective, I spend almost all of my time consuming videos, websites, reviews, and anything else about 3D printing.   I've become sort of a nerd when it comes to 3D printing.   It's not that other printers couldn't do the same thing, but it's more of a hobbyist field at this point and people want a printer they can modify, upgrade, tinker with and change about.   Plug and play doesn't fit into that model. 

And that's okay.   But for a family who wants to get children interested in 3D printing, this little ToyBox is a pure delight.  Not only was it easy to set up, once I'd gotten the printer connected, I could click on all kinds of fun models and print them.  My son would be all over this, picking the Minecraft models and robots to start and then branching out into the huge library of other models he could choose to print, all for free. 

For my daughter, there is a drawing area.  She could draw and then have her model printed into a printed squiggle.   She did just this tonight.   We can also take a picture and turn it into a raised version that could be printed and she could feel.   Those two things alone are very special features other printers don't have, mostly because they're printers and not a printer with a child-focused app together. 

I have my daughter's rarely-used iPad beside the printer and tomorrow she wants to do more drawings.  My son wants to see what other Minecraft models are and I'm fairly certain he'll like lots of other things on the first page alone.  

And it prints fast.   Children don't want to wait five hours for a print so this printer is calibrated to print fast.   Many models only take ten minutes, which is exceptionally fast.   I had things to do today, but I kept coming back and sending more things to the little ToyBox because even though I'm an adult, it's a lot of fun to print with it. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son still has had no screens returned to him—all because he refuses to read three books.  Tonight he created another game with customer medium-sized color-specific LEGO models. He and his father were mapping out gameplay when I came upstairs before bedtime. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter got new shoes the other day as well as some ankle boots she bought with her own money because she knows I like boots.   We both agreed to wear our boots today.  I've been trying to get her to wear boots for years.   She looked so nice in them today, as opposed to the ratty sneakers she usually wears.  She told me tonight she liked wearing them.   I said I was wearing mine again tomorrow.   I wonder if she'll wear hers too?