Aldergies

I've got allergies, or 'aldergies' if you hear me talk about it right now.  My daughter has it too.   The Zyrtec isn't helping much so I'm switching to Claratin for a few days.   My eyes are so itchy as well as my throat and years.   I changed the sheets because I think the dog, who gets on the bed, has brought the outside in with her fur.   

I'm going to bed, this is no fun. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Sitter Update:  One of my sitters, who has both had COVID-19 and is vaccinated, is back from college and available to sit again.  I am so thrilled. 

Lighting

Lighting can be such a tricky thing.  I've been trying to get some videos completed on some 3D printed models as they're in the process of printing as well as pictures of them afterward.   Lighting has been challenging to get true to color and at the same time well-lit. 

We can get the model lit properly, but it's off in color somewhere in the background, looking odd and wrong.   We can get the model looking great, but the shadows are not the idea.   We have multiple lights, just getting things right with them has been complex. 

My husband is helping and he's good at these things, so by tomorrow with his help I will hopefully have a solution that will work for some of the models in some of the filaments on some of the printers at least right at least some of the time.   Hopefully.  

The Big Boy Tin Girl Massage:  My children's therapist thought my daughter, in particular, might benefit from massage, thinking it would be a good way for her to release some of her inner tension.  On Monday we have a massage therapist specifically trained to help support work done with the children's therapist.   They're both looking forward to having a massage.  

New Rules

Children aren't always trying to be mischievous, sometimes they're just having fun.   It is during some of these fun times that adults will tell them their master plan of, say, putting piles of sand from the sandbox onto the trampoline was not a good idea and was from this point going forward, not allowed. 

We had a set of rules for the trampoline, which have worked out well with children respecting them.   What we need now is a list of rules for the backyard.   One of the main ones is the leaving of belongings in the yard, on the ground, not in the cubbies I got specifically for jackets, hats, socks, and shoes.   

I wouldn't mind if it was overnight and then the child would come running back for the things they forgot. Instead, they come with new items on and never take the prior ones home.   It can get to be a rather large collection left out in the rain for weeks. 

Weeks, because we wanted to see if they would ever take things home.  They don't.  So now I'm working om a new list that also includes food and beverages because some children (and mine aren't innocent here either) are leaving food containers and wrappers all around. 

I want to change the rules such that they police each other.   If things are left and litter happens or if they put sand all over the place, then we're closing the backyard for a week.   

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Audiobook Agreement:  The children like to listen to the same book sometimes and when this happens, the other one doesn't want to hear ahead in the book.   This causes arguments and fights with the Amazon Alexa's in the house.  In order to quell the arguments, today on the way to school I asked them to come up with a plan.   They had a good one: the audiobook goes off unless they both want to hear what's on or agree on something else together. 

Five Pounds

Did I mention I've gained five pounds over COVID-19 staying-at-homeness, wearing sweatpants, eating snacks, and general lack of exercise.   I need to get serious and focus on eating better.  I was thinking this was going to be the week, but it turned out to be more like this: 

The Big Boy Update:  My son got in trouble with me tonight.   I told him to end his session on the computer, it was time for bed.  I went back upstairs to continue reading to his sister and when I went to his room to say goodnight I found him downstairs, listening to an audiobook and eating, well past his bedtime.   He was angry at me, threw a fit and wanted me to leave his room but I wasn't budging until he was in bed.   When he'd finally calmed down I asked him what happened and he had a good answer.   He was so upset I had him stop working on his design on the computer that he wasn't really able to listen to what I was saying.   It sounds like a thin excuse, but when he's mad, he's redline mad and in all likelihood he wasn't listening clearly.   We talked about how things could be different the next time.   That's the important thing, I told him, figuring out how we could make things better the next time. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has been wanting me to read to her for a week or so now but every time we're about to do so, something comes up.   Today we planned for right after school but she had friends in the back yard when we got home so she opted for going outside instead.   I'm glad we got to read after dinner tonight before bed.   

The Non-RMA

I have an odd product I purchased a while ago.  It's a good product from a good company but this particular one has had problems from the start.  I've replaced three parts on it so far and it still isn't able to work successfully.   It's using up consumable parts that should go for hundreds of hours but in my case are lasting about five hours.   It's an odd mystery what the source of the problem is since each of the things that's gone wrong aren't necessarily related. 

I've been working with support and they've mailed me replacement parts and consumable components, but we still have a barely functioning machine.  What's been interesting to me is that the company hasn't offered to RMA the product yet. 

The latest steps had me opening up the back of the unit and rewiring things to test it in a different configuration.  This step confirmed that the main board running the unit needs to be replaced.   So, surely they would offer to replace the unit at this point, but it appears they're considering sending me the board.   How I'm going to disassemble the whole unit to replace the board into which everything else connects, is a little concerning. 

There is an additional problem I discovered and upon emailing with this information I thought surely this would be the tipping point.   But no, I'm to do some measurements tomorrow and if they're out of a certain tolerance then there is another part that needs replacing. 

It's been an interesting journey.   Fortunately, it's not a product I can't do without, so I'm just going along with all the testing and part replacement and wondering when or if they're going to decide they need to swap the whole unit out.

The Big Boy Update:  My son wanted to play video games today but he had to read to earn time, and he ultimately decided to spend the afternoon in his room.  He did come down after dinner to watch his father play a video game.   He had so many questions.  He had the best time watching and seeing someone else playing a game for once. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter asked me last night if I could cut her hair.  Her brother's hair I'm less worried about because it's wavy.  Her hair is straighter when we dry it and if I didn't get her bob cut right, it would be noticeable.   She wanted me to cut it though and stood very still.   We think I did an okay job.   It wasn't noticeable this morning, which is a relief. 

The Firepit We Didn't Know We Wanted

There are lots of friends and neighbors we know that have fire pits.  They're nice and it has always been fun to go to their house and enjoy theirs from time to time.   We never considered getting one of our own until suddenly we were given one when our next-door neighbors moved away and didn't have room for theirs in their new home.  

From time to time we'd use it in the evenings for the sole purpose of making s'mores with the children.   Making s'mores is about the highest and best use a fire pit could be used for my children thought, until tonight. 

My husband wanted to know if he could start the fire early enough that there would be coals to make a full meal on it.   Today he prepared things and with the sole exception of pre-microwaving the baked potatoes beforehand, he cooked the entire meal on the fire pit on the grill. 

We had corn on the cob with the shucks pulled down after cooking so they could be rolled in butter and salted.   There were skewers of shrimp, baked potatoes, and steak.  Everything was eaten with zero complaints and a lot of compliments to my husband, their father, and our chef.  After dinner, we of course had to end the night with s'mores.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son is prone to criticizing others, especially his sister, and complimenting himself.  We are working very hard on changing this habit without coming down on him too hard.  We know part of the problem is his self-image, so we don't want to crush his spirit.  Yet we can't allow the behavior to continue. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to find something in my drawer in the bathroom while I dried her hair tonight.  When she found what she was looking for she handed me the hair cutting scissors and asked me if I could cut some off of her hair.   I was hesitant, but I cut about an inch off, saying if she liked it, I would cut another inch off next Sunday when we did her hair in preparation for school.   She only washes her hair every few days.   Her hair is like mine in that it doesn't need to be washed all that often and stays looking clean and doesn't get greasy looking at all.   This works out for my daughter as she's not overly fond of doing her hair. 

The Military Helicopters

My daughter has been interested in spending long periods of time on the trampoline again now that the weather has warmed up.  She jumps alone, jumps with friends, and sometimes just lies on the surface in the sun while listening to an audiobook on the outdoor speakers. 

She asked me yesterday if I could jump with her, knowing that I don't do a lot of jumping because it hurts my neck with all the compression that comes with bouncing.   I told her to ask me in the morning, when I'm typically feeling better (evenings are much tougher for me) and that we'd see how long I could jump. 

She slept in this morning so after breakfast, she asked if we could jump before it started to rain.   We had a nice time, and because we didn't do any difficult or heavy bouncing, I was fine.   She showed me all the tricks she'd been learning and I tried to give her some suggestions on how she could improve them. 

It's hard to demonstrate what a certain trick looks like because she can't see what you're doing and sometimes words don't explain well.   But we tried and she did get better fairly quickly after listening to the advice I gave her. 

Just before going in I heard a buzzing sound in the distance.   I asked her if she thought that was a drone someone had in the neighborhood.   She very matter-of-factly said, "those are military helicopters, Mom.   They're around a few times a day."   Leave it to her to know exactly what a sound is.   She knew because as they got closer, someone had seen them in the sky and told her before and she remembered the sound.

The Big Boy Update:  My son gave me a tour of the Minecraft world he's been heads down creating today.   It is extensive, complex, and well-thought-out.  It's not just building, it's logic he's programmed into the world to have it behave like a game for the people that enter it.   I was very, very impressed. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter brought her braille Green Eggs and Ham cookbook downstairs today and asked her father if he would help her make the cake listed on one of the pages.   They made icing, cake and a topping all from scratch and we enjoyed her cake for dinner.   I had two pieces.   It was like a fudgy, iced chocolate cake—and it was good.  

The Thinnest Thread

I was reminded of a magic trick my father did when I was a child as I worked on some 3D printed models today.   I was using up scraps and little pieces of filament, using them to make a sample-sized spool to hold smaller amounts of filament.   One of the printers I have can load up filament, print until just the very end of the segment, and then change out to the next bit. 

When changing from one filament to the next, the current filament is ejected and when you pull it out, the very end is still melted.  And not unlike a grilled cheese sandwich or mozzarella stick, the filament stretches out into a thin strand as you pull it out. 

If you pull the end bit of filament out at just the right speed, you can make a super-thin thread.  Sometimes this would happen and I couldn't get the stringing to end, leaving me with a spider's silk thickness of plastic that I couldn't seem to get off of me and into the trash can.   

The reason this reminded me of my father and the magic trick was that the trick relied on a thread so think and fine that it wasn't visible.   And that is what I was contending with today.   Only I wanted to find it, because it would get caught up in my hand or clothing and I couldn't seem to find the end.   

I thought if only my father had had this thread-like substance when I was young, he could have used it with his trick. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is loving the Code Ninjas programming after school program he's in.   He also loves Minecraft.   He's using code blocks and other programmatic elements of Minecraft to create all kinds of interactive things in the game.   He doesn't see it as programming, but it really is, I told him, it's just a different kind.  He had never thought about that before.   He is going to work more on recreating the popular online game Among Us tomorrow in his Minecraft world. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter loves the fire pit outside, but it only took a minute after her father said how we were all going to smell like smoke when we went in, for her to ask if she could go take a bath.   She doesn't like the smell of smoke. 

The Longest Nap

I was so tired today.  I'm not sure why because I slept well last night but I was so tired I realized I needed to get home and out of the car after getting my daughter from school.   I never feel sleepy while driving, but today I did.   I got in bed and fell asleep, missing dinner and the children and I woke up well past bedtime.   I'm down in the basement to turn off the printers, write this blog post and get back in bed.   Odd day, today. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son said something incredibly rude and defiant to me in the car this morning and got himself grounded to his room after school with the only time out being eating dinner and making his lunch for tomorrow.   I hope he learned a lesson.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter asked as we were getting in the car today, "Mom, what's beyond the universe?"   We had a discussion which involved more defining what was in the universe as her school has only gotten to the solar system so far, than anything else.   We did talk about the whole concept of the universe.   She seemed to think about all of it.  I think more questions will come back soon on this topic. 

Bubbles

My daughter likes bubbles.   She likes to blow in the little circle wand and dip a large wand in a bucket of soapy bubble solution.   She likes to take the two sticks with the ropes between them and spin around, making bubbles.   She likes when bubble machines are making bubbles.   She loves bubbles.  

Why?   She can't see the results of anything she does.   The best thing that could happen is she has a bubble pop on her.   She gets soap all over her, and for what?  I think the only thing she gets out of it is what people describe is happening around her. 

It sounds anything but fun to me.   But my daughter loves bubbles.  I don't know why, but I'm glad she does. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is in a play at school tomorrow.   He has to memorize his lines and we worried he wouldn't know them.   It turns out he picked the character who has the most lines and is asleep most of the play.   I tested him tonight though and he knows every line without even the slightest hesitation. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Did I mention my daughter calls the lint trap of the dryer the "flint trap?"

The Real Reason For...

So I have these 3D printers and I do a lot of printing on them.   Day in and day out, they print.  They print all manner of things, many of which I give away to unsuspecting people when they ask about the 3D printing, or have a birthday, or come within six feet of me and I can throw it to them.   In a way, 3D printing as a hobbyist is a lot like other things people take on as hobbies.

If you do woodworking and make birdhouses, there are only so many you can put in your own back yard.   If you like to knit or crochet, blankets and sweaters are things you can make to give to other people.   Anything that produces a product tends to pile up on the person who's doing the making of it. 

Because what fun is it if the only things you can make are things you can actually put to use yourself?  3D printing has another side to it though and that's the functional one.   If something is broken, there's a good chance the company or someone has published a printable version of that part.   You can print it, replace the broken one and be working again by only spending a few pennies in printed plastic.  

Some people would argue that the real reason for, or the justification for getting a 3D printer is the ability to print useful things.   And I agree, I think it's the most compelling case for getting a 3D printer.   For example, yesterday I got a floor lamp at Lowes.   I unboxed it, screwed the segments together and came up with a problem: it was unstable.   

After some looking at the manual, I realized a piece was missing from the assembly that would hold the pole into the base.   I hadn't lost it because it would have been incorporated and connected along the power cord chain.   But it wasn't there.   My husband suggested returning it but I didn't want to have to box it back up and I also knew the only other one at the store had a box that had been opened and retaped.  I didn't want to return it.   I wanted to fix it. 

I saw the shape of the missing part on the diagram.  I got the calipers out and measured the diameter of the pole and then went into a modeling tool and created a replacement part.   I printed it in two halves and tonight I installed the new, non-matching blue plastic part on the lamp.   It worked.  And I got to use the printers for something useful, which was fun.

I'm still learning 3D modeling, which can be complex and the products used to do the modeling are so feature-filled they're intimidating to learn.   But I've gotten started.   Now I just need more things to either break or I need to find upgrades I can do to things.   I've already revamped our pegboard tool wall with all kinds of 3D printed specialized hooks and containers.   I've been able to get about three times more storage on the board just by adding 3D printed things. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son has moved so quickly through the lessons at his Code Ninjas after school program that he's entered into the second level.   He's still a "white belt" but he isn't stopping, he told me, until he gets his black belt in programming.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was wailing at nine-thirty tonight.  She was hungry and how dare we not let her have another bowl of pasta and we were mean parents.  She had two bowls for dinner.   I do think she's in a growth spurt.

The Surprise Poster

My daughter had an incremental visit with her glaucoma specialist today at the Duke Eye Center.   They were running behind in a pretty significant way, so my husband was walking around the halls with my daughter.   He sent me this picture with the caption, 'Look what I just found."

The Strength Hope and Caring award, with some of the words I'd written about the care my daughter received at Duke was right there on the wall in front of my husband and daughter.   When he sent it to me I cried.   I sent the picture to Dr. Prakalapakorn and told her we'd just seen this and how much I still remember those times in a positive light, even though they were scary for us all.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son is coming home and staying inside lately.   There are some friends coming over but for some reason, he doesn't want to play with them.   I haven't figured it out yet. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is still doing the screaming, I'm hurt, cry when she and her brother get into it while playing.   Typically he's done but she keeps wanting to play.   They do something like both hit or kick each other but she acts like she's injured.   We're starting to get on to her though, realizing it's an equal thing, she's just making a big fuss, trying to get her brother in trouble.   And it's worked too.   We're trying to correct that.  

Haunted Cupcake

We have speakers outside that my husband wanted to put in place when we built the house.  For years we used them every so often but they largely sat unused.   Then, we had an issue with one of the components and we had to determine if we spent a reasonable amount of money making it easy to play music outdoors or if we left it as is and when we wanted to play music, we would have to go through a complicated set of steps to get something working.  

My husband looked into it and he wanted to be able to use the speakers and to have it be something that was fairly straightforward.  He opted for something more in the middle in that it wasn't the easiest solution, but it wasn't the most costly.   This turned out to be in our benefit today, because over time technology has changed and at this point all you need to do is say, "Alexa play such-and-such on the outdoors" and your selected music will start blaring outside.

I say blaring, because outdoor music is now the children's favorite thing with the warmer weather.  Music or an audiobook, either works and if you're my children, you want it loud.   Also, fortunately, all we have to do is say, "Alexa, turn the volume down on the outdoors."

In the afternoons when friends appear in our back yard, the children bound in and out of the house asking for different songs or artists to play on the speakers.   They've also found a new way to play music as well by adding the words, "on repeat" at the end of the request to Alexa. 

There are several songs they've played out, but the one that's currently stuck in my head and is now banished or forbidden, at least for a little while, is "Haunted Cupcake."  It's too catchy and too strange.   But they love it. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Too Many People Question:  The trampoline and our back yard in general has been discovered again.   The children like having people around to play with, but we're all trying to decide if it's all too much and if we're still not ready to have the yard fully open yet given the current state of vaccinations and the pandemic.    It's something we're all weighing as a family.   We don't want to close the backyard, but if it becomes too many children, we're going to have to.  My children are in agreement with this, even though they like having people to play with. 

Save, Give, Spend

My parents had an idea to give the children some envelopes for Christmas two years ago with money inside them.   There were three envelopes, each with the same amount of money.   On the front of the envelopes was written (or brailled) that one was to save, one was to spend and one was to give away. 

The children both didn't want us to put their save money in their bank accounts because they wanted to keep the cash.   Over a year-and-a-half later, the envelopes still exist.   The spend one was easy and I believe my son's spend envelope is empty.    The Give envelope could go to anyone or anything the children wanted.   Could my daughter buy her best friend a toy with the money, she asked?  

Mimi had told her she could.   We planted the idea of doing something with that money to help someone in need instead of just presents for friends.    Both children liked that idea a lot and as such, held onto their envelopes until they had something worthy. 

When we recently went to Florida to spend time with my in-laws. I asked the children to pack their backpacks with things to play with or that they wanted to have with them on the trip.   As we were riding down, I noticed my daughter pull out her three envelopes from Mimi and Gramps and go through them again, making sure the money was still there. 

I don't know what she'll spend the money on or where she'll give the other money, but what I do know is my daughter won't have forgotten it's there.   Her memory works like that, rarely forgetting things. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son was invited three times to come out for s'mores tonight after it grew dark.  He was playing a video game and didn't want to disengage.   When he realized we were cleaning up, he got angry.   Next time maybe he'll be able to disengage when it's time to do something else. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has friends again.  There are some children we didn't see for a long time once COVID-19 got in full swing.  The fact that they can play outside together again is a very good thing.   My daughter loves having friends to play with.

Being Summer

My daughter came into the bedroom tonight while I was changing the sheets and said, "I don't like my name."   She said she felt bad saying that because she knew we had named her, but she just didn't like her name.   I think she thought I was going to be mad, but instead, I asked her what name she wanted to go by instead. 

I told her I thought it was common for children to not like their names.   There could be all kinds of reasons, but the main one was that children didn't choose their manes, they were given them by their parents.   My daughter thought for a bit about which name she wanted to be called by.   She'd been thinking of several names and then ended by picking 'Summer.'

I told her Summer had been one of the names we considered naming her.   She was surprised.   Then I asked her if she wanted us to start calling her that now, and she said yes.    She was about to go off to tell her father and brother when I stopped her and said, "do you remember when Keaton changes his name and how hard it was for us to get it correct.    She said that was okay and that she understood. 

I talked to my husband about it later and found out he was against it.   I told him I thought it was probably a phase and why not what could it hurt; people have nicknames, we'll just think of it as that.   Tomorrow, she may have forgotten all about being Summer.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son got into the car after school and told me nonstop about the things he's doing in Minecraft.   He talks to me like he's a highly technical geek and I'm the nerdy mom who doesn't understand it at all.   

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter found the air cannon tonight and ran around hitting people with it.      She can aim fairly well when she's on the bed, lying back and using her feet to pull back the rubber band for full air blasting effect.  

It's Pinball Time

I've been trying to write this post for an hour.  Our neighbor is over to play some pinball and I just can not get this post written.  We don't play pinball that often and it turns out that there just isn't enough time between my turns to actually write anything so I'm going to have to pick this back up tomorrow night. 

The Big Boy Update:  I told my son the other night thank you for helping your father with the dishes.   He. said, "Oh, I was just doing it so I could talk to him."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter said in the car today she's narrowed it down to three names she's going to change her name to when she gets older.   The names are (with her spellings): Evelen, Amy, and Casondra.  

Unautomation

I just got a notification that a feature I've used since starting this blog in 2011 is going away.   There was a way to subscribe to email updates for this blog so that once per day, any posts that had been written would be sent in an email.  I rather liked the feature and used it as an alternate backup to the blog.    This nice automated feature is becoming unautomated.

It's sort of an odd thing, the World Wide Web.   It's out there and it's constantly changing.   I've been writing about my children and my random, rambling thoughts for years now.   I think the chance that things would just disappear is low, but if the blog is somehow unavailable to read, years in the future, the writing I've done here for my children to read someday about their lives as children is just gone. 

I've looked into backing up and exporting the blog, but it's unwieldy in a very large text file that's formatted in such a way that the information is treated as data more so than it is something to spend time reading through. 

If I had wanted to write a journal or diary, I could have done so.   I most certainly didn't want to do the pen and paper option.   I could have written in a document on my computer and managed it myself, which would have been fine.   But many interesting things have happened as a result of having this blog.   I am very glad I started writing it.   And I don't plan on stopping. 

There will be other ways to get this blog in a readable form, should things change at some point in the future.   Change happens.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son was in the most pleasant mood today.   He greeted me after school and told me he loved me.   He saw me eating CoolWhip and suggested I go ahead and eat the whole large container instead of saving some for him, and he genuinely wanted to spend time with me it seemed.   He was very sweet.   It was a nice feeling. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I was in the car driving my daughter home when she called out from the back seat, "This is what a person looks like if they have no neck."   I looked back to see her shoulders hunched up to her ears.

Coolwhip, Again.

I can't stay awake.   I didn't sleep well last night and I've been working all day.   I fell asleep at the computer three times writing the children's updates below, so I'll make this quick because if I don't, I'll fall asleep while writing and then nothing will make sense.   And that's embarrassing.   I don't know how I can fall asleep while sitting up and then get in the bed and be awake again, but it happens. 

My husband and daughter sent a picture while I was making beds tonight.   I didn't respond quickly so they called to see if I was excited about the picture.   What did my husband do?  He bought me more Cool Whip.  Two huge containers.   I told him that just because I put it on the grocery list, it didn't mean I wanted him to get it.   Didn't he know that?  Now, I'm going to eat it all.   I can't help myself.   It's my Kryptonite I think. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son said that artists who are perfectionists are "Smartists."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter loves pillows.   A few years ago Aunt Kelly and Uncle Eric got her one of those full-body pillows that are made for pregnant women.   To this day, she still loves it.   She loves to have all sorts of things on her bed though so the other day when I was making the bed and asking her about the pillows she wasn't sure what I was talking about and said, "do you mean the legs and butt pillow?"

Unbroken

I hate when something is broken and I can't fix it, especially when it's new and it shouldn't be broken.   I had something recently that kept breaking.   It came with replacement parts because they were expected to wear out after a while, sort of long-term consumables type of thing.  Long-term isn't a few weeks in, and multiple parts in succession. 

I knew if I emailed the company to let them know the situation, they would make it right.   Only I hate doing those kinds of things.  When the first part failed I replaced it with the spare and then ordered more parts, which at $10 each, wasn't a huge issue.   Sometimes things just happen, I thought. 

When the second part went, it was during the company's launch event for their new products.  I didn't want to bother them on a very exciting launch day so I ordered another replacement part for the replacement part I used and put off emailing them. 

Another few things happened from a reliability standpoint, not a broken parts perspective, and I finally emailed them.   They, of course, made everything right, including some advice on how I could debug the situation in case there was something large in play that was wrong. 

I avoided dealing with it for several days to drop my frustration level and today, when I went back to things with the new settings and other advice, things worked.   The broken parts are new not-broken ones and the settings helped get past the other issues I was seeing.   

I like when things work.   I think I might like it even more when things work when they weren't working when they should have been working. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son has to now either read or work on his typing skills in order to earn screen time.   He doesn't have any problem with this restriction, which is not how I expected he'd take it, but I'm glad he's okay with it. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wants to go to Target.   She just wants to browse.   She was disappointed that we didn't take her today.   Do I have a budding shopaholic?

Sold!

After eighty-two showings and twenty offers in this crazy market today, our friends took an outrageously high offer and then opened some champagne.  I’m a dreadful drinker and fell asleep after they'd left before dinner.  One-and-a-half glasses apparently does me in.  I’ll have to write more tomorrow on the life and times here. For now, I’m finally going to catch up on some much needed sleep here. 

The Long Thank You

My daughter came into our bedroom this morning doing that scream crying that indicates there is a mixture of insult and injury going on.   Her brother had slapped her on her shoulders (which are still bad with scabs and peeling skin from the sunburn close from two weeks ago tomorrow. 

When consequences were being doled out (writing apology letters to each other of a specific length) my daughter did an impressive amount of talking back, complaining, insulting me, and playing a martyred victim.   It went on for so long that the consequence turned into two, adding an apology letter to me as well.   That was compounded for at least a half-hour, ending up with my daughter finally stomping off and admitting defeat after neither my husband nor I bought her complaints that she didn't know what to do or what we were talking about.   She had a full five pages to write to me to explain her behavior. 

She is in third grade.  She's socially behind in many ways because she can't see other children play and missed out on many social queues.   But she understands more than she lets on.  A half-hour later she came downstairs and read to me her apology which was by this time not only for the morning's behavior but for the prior night's rudeness at the dinner table with my parents.  Here's what she wrote:

Dear M,

I’m sorry for embarrassing you in front of your parents. I don’t know how you feel.  I’m sorry for hurting your feelings so badly.  I shouldn’t have complained, even though my butt was hurting from sitting so long.  I love you and I’m sorry.  Do you still love me too.  I don’t understand life. I can be harsh when I want to and when I don’t want too either. You are the best mom ever, but sometimes we don’t get along.  I did many things that I shouldn’t have done being angry at you this morning.   I admit I was trying to bluff my way out of punishment, but I didn’t understand.  Now I do. This is what happens, my anger boils and rims my vision with red.  Though now I don’t let my anger build over and I scream and sometimes I’m so angry I’m calm.  I need to remember angry ball.  He will protect me in any way he can.  I shouldn’t have done any of it.   I did and I am sorry about it.  Do you still love me?  I understand if you don’t, but I do.   I will use Angry Ball more often.   He will help very much.  I need to work with Dhruti on this to keep Angry Balls, anger from boiling over.   I’ll try harder and I’ll do my best.  I love you Mom, but I can’t do everything.  So will you help me?  I have some ideas.   I will count to ten, or take deep breath’s.   If I may, I can be excused to get Angry Ball when I need him.  I can talk to Angry Ball and have my anger under control.  I need to keep my anger under control or I will start to be controlled by it.   I can think happy thoughts and talk to Angry Ball in my head, but I will succeed,  I know I can with your help.   Soothing music and noises will help too.   I can do it, I know I can.  Do you agree?   It will also help if I busy myself with things so I’m distracted.  Soon enough I will be under control of my anger for good.  We can fix our mistakes I create to help with anger problems.  We can make anger control exercises and create toys out of things to help too.    When we make the Bazooka, that can help too.  I can imagine that when the air puffs out, my anger is blasted away.   I hope I can do this.  Will you also help to control my anger, because this is going to be difficult for us.  You don’t have to help, but it would lift some of the weight off my shoulders, 

Love, RWB

I assured her I loved her and would always love her no matter what.   Then I addressed all the points in her letter and told her how much I appreciated the note and why I thought what she had written was so insightful.  She had explained how she felt, why she did what she did and how she could improve in the future.  I told her I'd like to work on the same things and maybe we could get a squishy ball for me and she could teach me what Dhruti had taught her on how to deal with big emotions.   She said she wanted to teach me and ran off to find another squishy ball I could use. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son had to write a one-page letter to his sister and one to his father.  He had a much harder time getting around to completing the assignment and is just coming to deliver the notes to me now after his sister has fallen asleep for the night. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter told me her numbers have colors in her mind. Very specific ones at that. In her words, "Zero is dark, springy green; One is olive green; two is a light, airy green; three is a dark like red;  four is a deep, dark blue; five is a brilliant, bright orange, like a sunset or maybe a little lighter; six is a very light black that’s so light that’s it’s like a purple-black; seven is neon yellow; eight is dark purple; nine is a light, warm chocolate brown; ten is green for the one and instead of the zero being springy green, it’s white; eleven is a light, light purple for the ones instead of their normal green; twelve is the normal color for one, but the two is like a chocolate bar brown; twenty has a white two with a green tinge and the zero is normal; sixty has the normal zero color but the six is a darker version of purple-black;  100 has the normal ones but the zeros are brown; 1000 has lighter green for zeros; and one million has a normal one but the zeros are scenery green."

Audio Wizard

My parents just left after coming over for dinner.   I do so like it when they're in town and we get to see them regularly.  I thought my daughter might like to be read to from the library books she checked out.  She and I decided to do one thing first and then do some reading.   I would be writing this post and she would be playing a game on her father's computer while I typed. 

I am trying to write something here, but I'm finding myself distracted by the very interesting thing that is an audio game.   She has to have the volume fairly loud because she's listening to what direction sounds are coming from.  You can't fight ogres if you don't know from what direction they're attacking. 

The graphics are minimal and the animations are little to none.   But the sounds are just what you need.   There is an old-sounding wizard who is taking my daughter on a journey of adventure and battle through sounds.   I like it.   I don't think I'd be able to survive even one level with my ears alone. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son didn't want to sit at the dinner table and eat.   He has this need to move that's hard to contain.   When we finally excused him he said, "I cannot believe that I am actually being excused.  I never thought it would happen.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter also didn't want to stay at the table any longer than required.   She complained several times but was required to sit until we decided they could go.   When we said she was free to leave the table she complained, "My butt is so numb."

Sharing Is My Thing

Children don't like to share.   At least when they're little they don't.   Why share something when you can have it all to yourself?   We had to teach our children that sharing was an important thing we all did.   Did the lesson sink in?   Perhaps some of the time.  Other times, my two children would rather be sent to their room for a week instead of sharing the one mini ginger ale we have for special stomach ache situations.  

I came upstairs today to find my daughter's chocolate bunny unwrapped and in pieces and cumbles all over her spot at the dining room table.   She was out on the deck at the time, getting warmed by the sun and covering herself inadvertently (and unknowingly) by loads of yellow pollen 

I asked her to come in and told her there was a problem.   We were exceptionally fortunate to have a compliant dog, because most dogs wouldn't be able to resist the draw of the smell of chocolate, left within easy reach at the edge of the table.   Matisse didn't even try.   She's quite remarkable that way.   She's just not very food-driven, thankfully. 

My daughter apologized and put the chocolate up on the bar.   As we were about to leave I asked if I could have a piece of her chocolate bunny.   She said, "Of course you can."   Then she followed up with, "Do you know what makes my heart ache in the best way?  Sharing.   Sharing is the best kind of thing."

The Big Boy Update:  My son came home today to find some of his friends outside on the trampoline, waiting to set off a party popper of streamers inside the net.   It was exciting fun, but all my son wanted to do was do some more programming after he came home from his Code Ninjas after-school class.   

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter saw Dhruti today and they had a special event planned: they were going to plant a flower in the flowerbed Dhruti had just built outside her office.   And they were going to get muddy.   My daughter had nice clothes on, for her, and yet she got in the dirt with her shoes off and started digging a hole.   I heard Dhruti say, "See what the dirt feels like to you.   When we turn on the water in a few minutes, I want you to see what it feels like on your hands and between your toes then.   I told my daughter later that she was lucky they couldn't get the water to turn on.  Because I was stripping her down outside the car and making her ride home naked if it had worked. 

72 Showings

The housing market is in a very strange place right now.   It's a seller's market in a way that just doesn't happen very often.   There are a number of factors at play, much of it that is in some way related to the complexity of a year we've had since COVID-19 lockdowns began.   The net result is if you're selling your house, prepare for a whirlwind.  

My son's preschool teacher is selling her house.   She was the first teacher my son ever had and we've kept in touch.   She and her husband decided to build a house and they've gotten to the point where the construction is far enough along that they need to put their current house on the market. 

They have worked long and hard to make their house look as attractive to potential buyers as possible.  My husband put the house on the market today at noon.   Tonight, after only half of a day on the market, they have 72 showings scheduled, which will begin tomorrow.   They also already have one offer, sight unseen.  

There is about one-third of the inventory of houses for sale that would be in a normal situation, which is contributing to the number of showings, but only to an extent.   I had a friend joke earlier that he was almost tempted to sell his house and go live in an apartment, it was such an opportune time. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son came to the basement after school to work on his typing at his computer.   I was watching a live stream about 3D printing on YouTube because my friend was in it.   My son came over and nicely said, "Mom, you know all those times you ask me to put on my headphones?  Do you think you could return the favor?"

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My son's teacher sent home some special cream for my daughter's burned and scabbing arms.   As I was putting it on her tonight she said, "I call this one 'key'" because it's shaped like a key."  When you have so many scabs that you start naming them, you know it's bad. 

The Grief of Loss

My daughter has had a thing with loss for some time.   Things are gone forevermore all the time.  When you eat the ice cream, there is no more and it's okay.   When the toilet paper has run out, well, that's not as okay, but it can be replaced.   And yet for some reason when things are gone or lost that might have been able to still be an entity in my daughter's life, she can become overwhelmed with grief. 

The first time we saw this happen was with a rock in Hawaii that she bonded quickly with.  My husband threw it over the railing and back to the river when she suddenly said she had to say goodbye.  She couldn't part with it.   Only it was gone.   The grief from that lost rock was intense and went on and on.  To this day, she still remembers that rock she held for thirty minutes.  Maybe less, because it was set aside while she was playing in the water. 

We can take pictures and have memories retained in a way that my daughter can't.   That's not to say she doesn't have memories that are just as rich from her other senses.   But she's also dealing with the loss of her vision as a whole.   And there is some connection with the two, Dhruti has said. 

My daughter had asked for a very large 3D printed egg.   I think she'd forgotten, but I'd been working on it.   Large models take a long time to print but I'd gotten the first half completed.   The top failed about thirty percent in, finishing up with a stringy mess of filament until I came in and stopped the print.  

When my daughter asked tonight about the egg she was happy to feel the lower half and then intrigued with the failed upper half.   Could she tear the stringy bits off it?  I told her she could.  Once she had the top cleaned up she decided it was a hat and walked around with it for about ten minutes, playing with it this way and that.  

Then she asked if she could break it?  I said she could do anything she wanted with it.   So she sat on it.   She got a satisfying crunch as the bottom dropped out, leaving a big hole where the top of the egg would have been once the model had finished being printed and rotated right side up. 

Suddenly my daughter realized what she'd done.   She'd broken her hat.   She almost immediately got very upset.  It wasn't fake emotions, these were real grief tears.   She begged me to fix it and I said we'd print a new one.   No, this was the one and it had to be fixed. 

I got out the 3D pen on her suggestion and patched the broken egg up.   She became calm and normalized again.   I never know when the grief of loss will strike.   This time it was easy to fix. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son had his first class at Code Ninjas today.  He came home so excited about programming that he went straight to the computer, logged back in, and programmed two more little programs.  One was an animated graphic of a baseball being pitched to a batter that then swung to hit the ball, followed by a cheering crowd.   The second was a program that arranged letters on the screen to spell his name.   It has to be a good program if you come home and want to keep working. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   While I repaired the broken egg with the 3D pen tonight, my daughter played darts.   I know, a blind child playing darts.   She's careful though and no one was close.   She's working on her throw—to get a dart into a small round area on the wall.   And yet, she was doing it and even hitting the dartboard from time to time.   She was very excited when this happened and asked me to tell her what score she got.  

Oh Dear

Oh dear, I'm tired.   I'm supposed to have something to write about every day and today while a lot of things happened, none of them were particularly interesting and I didn't set out with this blog to just narrate my day.   So I'll explain a thing or two about the children and head to bed.

The Big Boy Update:  My son never liked to color.   Children like coloring with crayons, but my son didn't write well initially and didn't prefer to color at all.   Now, rather suddenly since this school year started, he loves drawing.  He found a book on birds that's more of an adult coloring book than a children's one and he's been meticulously coloring in the segments of each bird with the large color pencil set I got him at the start of the school year that he keeps in order of color in a cloth pouch that rolls up and keeps all the pencils organized.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter came to me with a splinter today and instead of being panicked about it, she held her foot very still and I got it out on the first, painless try.   If she could have just done that the first time she got a splinter, it would have gone just as easily.   But fear makes us do interesting things, even if they're not in our best interest. 

Flying the Drone

My husband bought a drone.    Well, another drone.   He has one that he's had for a good long while now that he uses to get footage of real estate houses from above and their surrounding area.  Then he saw a video.   It always happens like that these days.    Someone sends a link to something and once you see it you have to tell someone else.   And sometimes, if the thing you saw was interesting enough to you, you do something about it. 

If it's a recipe, then you might cook it.   Or you might buy it.   In the case of this drone, it was the latter situation.   And I have to agree with my husband, I don't even have that much interest in drones, but after seeing the video, I wanted him to get it too. 

This drone has several modes, the first one when you get it is the safest mode.  In this state, its self-preservation is full-on, and it's almost impossible to crash or hurt it.   It just won't let you do anything to harm it.   You can unlock the more adventurous modes, but to start, the safety is on, so to speak. 

Tonight, my husband asked if I wanted to come outside and fly the drone.   When I went outside, I saw my daughter with the headset on (although even she admitted she couldn't see anything really.)  She was driving the drone all over the place and was exceptionally happy.  

It was so high up it was just barely a buzz in the sky, but she was driving it.   When it was my turn I went down the street to visit my best friend's house and then I came home.   It was easy and intuitive and the headset made it even easier to use. 

I had to hand it back over to my daughter, who couldn't see anything but wanted to drive the drone nonetheless. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son emailed a friend today and asked him if he wanted to come over to play in our backyard.   Nicholas showed up a bit later and they played with masks on before he went back home, six houses down the street from us.   This is the first time my son has coordinated his own play date through email. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter very gently carried the tiny little drone in the house tonight after flying it, calling it something like "baby drone" and being so happy to be able to be involved with this fun thing her father was doing.  

On How Sharing is Fun

I have a problem.   I think I may have mentioned it before, but if I haven't let me tell you all about it now.   When I say "problem" I'm being facetious, it's not really a problem in a bad way, it's the kind of thing my husband and children tease me about as well as my online friends.   I don't mind, though, it's all good fun. 

The thing is, I love filament.  3D printing filament.   Kilograms of spooled plastic in all kinds of colors.  Some of them transition through a rainbow of colors, some are silky, others are matte in finish and of course then there are the sparkling, glittering and even twinkling filaments.   There are filaments gravimetrically infused with clay or cement.  There's a filament that can be reshaped after printing like clay when heated up.  There are extra strong filaments, some even with added carbon fiber.  Specialty filaments can have rubber-like results, one filament foams when printed, puffing up and then, of course there is the dissolvable filament, which has a special job of supporting other filaments when printing and then melting away, exposing the final print later.  So many filaments.   So many colors.

I have an online friend that I've never met.  We may meet someday as his son lives close to where we do, but for now, he's a person across the screen, typing back and forth to me about anything and everything related to 3D printing.  We talk about filament a lot.   There is nothing nicer than picking the perfect filament for a model and watching it spring into life on the print bed. 

He was talking to me today about some filaments he was considering ordering.   A kilogram is a lot of plastic to order if you're not sure you're going to like it.   Most filaments are very economical, but even so, there are far more filament choices out there than anyone could possibly have.   The question he had was if it was worth the price difference to order a particular brand.   I already had that particular filament.   And then it occurred to me: we could do a filament swap.   

I could mail him samples of filaments of the brands or colors he was thinking of getting.   I could put several in a little package and he would be able to try the out without having to buy any of them.   There are some models that use a lot of filament, take hours and hours or even days to print, but many models just take a small amount of fiament to print. 

It would be enough to determine how well the filament prints, what the true color was in person and how any additives change the appearance of the fiament.  In short it would help make any decisions on buying full spools. 

I was excited about this.   I love sharing and helping.   I could both share and help out one of my friends simply by sending samples of a few spools.   I can't do anything about it now, because we're currently in the car on the way home from Florida.   It feels like we've been cramped in the vehicle all day but I've just been told we have three more hours to go.  

Tomorrow, after unpacking, I'm going to start figuring out what filaments my friend might be interested in,   I'm definitely putting some surprises in rhw package. 

The Big Boy Update:  In the car after a long bout of travel my son said, "My foot is hungry.   I can feel it rumbling."   We told him him we were coming up to a planned stop shortly.   He went back to his iPad and then announced a few minutes later, "Dogs and cats are a lot more alike than it seems."

The Tiny Girl Game:  My daughter wanted to play hide and go seek in the hottub with me yesterday.   She said the game was in your mind though.   It was more like, "Mind and Go Seek," she said.   The area t hide was anywhere in the backyard. On your turn you picked a place to hide.  It didn't matter if you were small or even tiny,   You could hide anywhere.   The other person guessed and you gave hot and cold directions until you found the hiding person, or small dog, or in mouse.   It was a lot of fun.  

The Lighthouse Experience

We return home tomorrow and for the entire trip we've spent here with my husband's family, we've stayed at their house.  They have a pool and a hot tub in their back yard, Nana cooks and there are family members to play with, so it's been a very good time.   It turns out we didn't need to go anywhere.   But today, we decided to visit a local lighthouse, climb the steps to the top and see what we could see. 

That's the trick though, isn't it: it's a seeing thing.   My daughter didn't complain, but I suggested something to her.   I said I wanted to do the entire lighthouse with my eyes closed.   I could get an understanding of what things are light for her. 

I think she thought I was crazy and she didn't really think it was a good idea.   She didn't want to have to teach me or guide me.   I told her I'd get her brother or father to guide me and she could work with Papa maybe. 

We arrived and when it was time to start walking through the path of trees towards the lighthouse I took m son's hand, asked him to take care of me, and closed my eyes.  I have to say, being dragged along by my son along the path was scary.   Shade disappeared and we were in some clearing, then he turned sharply.  I knew there were other people, but I had no idea where.   I didn't know if there was a tree branch or other thing I would run into.   I told him about pulling me behind him if things got tight and narrow, that if his body could safely move through the space, me moving behind him would keep me safe too. 

He got me there with no incident and while I wanted to keep my eyes shut, we had a bit of time to wait as only a few people could go up at once.   I talked to my daughter about the special Indian Ficus tree that was close to a hundred years old, we felt the name plaques and dedication bricks that indicated donors helping to keep the lighthouse going.   I explained they were setting up for a wedding and that was the sound she heard around us.   Then it was time for us to ascend the lighthouse. 

It wasn't a large lighthouse, but there were a lot of stairs.   I started outside and had my husband help me.  It was stumbly at first until he got me over to the handrail.   From that point on, handrails were my guide.  Inside the lighthouse, I realized we were ascending the main structure once we started to wind quickly with the stairs.  

Everything was fine until I hit a mid-flight landing where there was a window.  I couldn't tell where the next railing was and while I knew it wasn't an open area you could fall down, it felt like it.   I made it to the top and experienced with everyone else some intense wind.   There were spots you had to bend down to not hit your head and thanks to my husband's guidance, my head remained safe.

Once at the top, I was on my own to traverse around the perimeter.   The railing wasn't curved, but in straight sections, rather like a dodecagon or some other-sided shape.   I asked if the spot where I stuck the toe of my shoe out went straight down.  It did.  But I moved on until I got to the end and then I came back and we descended.

My husband wanted me to look at the top.   I didn't.   He wanted to show me pictures tonight, but I didn't want to see them.   I said if he wanted to tell me what the lighthouse view was like, he could describe it.  That was the experience I wanted.   The memories I wanted to have didn't involve seeing. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son the other day when he realized I was running out of energy and was going to take an afternoon nap, said in the most positive of ways, "Oh, I love your sleep schedule.   You can explore the far corners of the day."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  When we were at the base of the lighthouse I still had my eyes closed and had been led to a tree where both children were climbing.   I was holding on to the trunk when a man asked if both my daughter and I were blind.   They had a blind daughter, he said.   I opened my eyes and we had a very nice conversation about their daughter who sounded just as tenacious as my child.  She had gotten near-perfect scores on her SAT test and was currently in college.   She was so independent she hadn't even come home when COVID-19 happened.   It's always nice to hear a success story like that.    

Human Snow

The burns my children sustained from our mismanagement and irresponsibleness the first day we were in Florida continues to look bad.   My son is starting to peel now.   His back and shoulders are exhibiting a kind of human "snow" as he flakes and peels with bright red skin apparent underneath.   He's not in discomfort and hasn't needed to have more than moisturizing lotions or aloe vera applied to his skin.   He's not even asking for it because he's not in pain by it, we're just trying to put his skin in the best position to heal.  

His sister, on the other hand, is in a different position entirely.   She had a far worse time.   Her skin is far fairer than his and she suffered much worse burns on her shoulders and upper arms.   I remember this happening to me when I was a child once, and it was terrible.  

She was burned on Monday and since that time has had a long-sleeved shirt on anytime she's outside.   Getting clothes on and off her has hurt terribly.  Touching her shoulders makes her scream.   She blistered all over the area and is starting to have the skin peel off now.   Only what's peeling off isn't like her brother's snowy skin, it's too many layers of dermis, and what does peel off leaves underneath it a layer of skin that's raw and painful.   

I tried to put aloe vera today after she got out of the tub, but she couldn't take it.   I slathered her shoulders with vaseline, trying to just protect the skin.   I told her this wasn't just a sunburn, this went beyond that.   She wasn't trying to get out of sunscreen and we weren't intentionally not putting it on.   It was a bad oversight though for everyone.   I think she'll always remember after this week's experience.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son said to me tonight, "Why are palm fronds such a beautiful thing?  And why are they so easy to draw?"

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was demanding and mean early on in the trip.   She had a few attitude adjustments and for some reason she's suddenly started seeing things from other people's perspectives.   She's been understanding and polite.