So Many Groceries

My husband played golf with his father today and the children and I did things.   The biggest of those things was laundry.  There wasn't that much, but with two children who are experts in task avoidance and what seemed today like a lot of task drawing out skills, we took a while to get it done. 

There was to be a reward at the end.  I would help them, but only if they were actively working on their laundry.  My daughter wanted the reward and was very worried she wouldn't win.  I kept telling her there was no danger of her losing but she kept fretting.   After about the fifth time, I told her I'd give her a thousand dollars if her brother beat her just to give her an understanding of my certainty. 

When everything was completed, including changing my son's bed and doing additional laundry that had accumulated since washing the existing piles had started.   My daughter did indeed win and decided she wanted Mike & Ike's candy.   I said if they got in the car with me we could go to the grocery store and not only get her candy but some ice cream too. 

We got that ice cream but in the process, we got fruit and bread and milk and all sorts of other things we needed.   The children couldn't believe how full the cart was, which wasn't that full.   I think they need to help with the groceries more often. 

The Big Boy Update:  While my son was working on a retirement card for his art teacher, Mrs. Grace, my son said, "Tomorrow I start puberty."  I asked him if he was sure.   He said, "Yeah, I'm puberty man.  I already feel taller."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter, in her hurry to beat her brother at laundry folding said to me, "I was about to take a break since Greyson was so far behind me but then I remembered the tortoise and the hare."

Escaped!

We lost the dog today.  Not our dog, the neighbor's dog we're watching.   You'd think we weren't taking our job seriously, but we were.   We were careful, knowing she is a gladiator of a dog with rippling muscles that are as strong as she is gentle and sweet.   That is, until she goes outside, where she transforms into a hunter. 

She was being walked by my daughter and one thing caused her to lunge, drag my daughter over (who took the whole thing very bravely) at which point her collar, which must have been used for a good long while, snapped at the seam and the dog was free. 

Charlotte gets loose from time to time.   Her general pattern is to patrol the woods for ten or fifteen minutes and then come back.   It's happened so many times that they don't even try and chase her anymore.   Her family, as her mother has said, are not gladiator in stature, and Charlotte has found different ways to visit the woods over the years. 

They rescued Charlotte from the SPCA, where they had been doing volunteer work.   And while her past is unknown, she had a gentle streak they loved and decided to adopt her.  We got on the phone with Lisa to tell her what happened today and my daughter said Charlotte perked up when she heard Lisa's voice on the phone. 

The Big Boy Update:  I came in to find my son watching Fortnite videos on the television today.   He loved the game and then wanted to have nothing to do with it for a long while.   It had become uncool.   Apparently, it's cool again. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  When we were getting ready to take Charlotte out today my daughter said, "I think he tail is almost a weapon" as it whapped against her and the door.   Our dog doesn't have a tail or rather only has one the breadth of a hand so the whole tail wagging was a new experience to my daughter. 

Emergency Math Teacher

Taking care of the neighbor's dog, Charlotte, has been a lot of fun.  She is laid back and sweet and full of muscles.   I had hoped we might be able to get the two dogs together, but the brief encounter we had didn't go well.   We need to have some more socialization on both sides as COVID-19 has affected everyone, including our pets.   Not to worry, though, my daughter and I are making sure Charlotte is getting lots of attention. 

When I was depositing a full bag from the walk with the dog around the block in some rather blustery weather this evening after feeding her dinner, I noticed this on the tool shelf and I had to take a picture.   This isn't a gimmick slogan or a joke, the company has been around since 1928.   It is just the wrong sort of slogan you want to have when a multi-year pandemic comes around with the same name:

The Big Boy Update:  Tonight before bed, my son was brushing his teeth when he turned around and said, "Let's play emergency math teacher!"   There were rules (he is good at making up rules) surrounding you, the player, running over and asking the emergency math teacher to give you a problem.   You had to solve the problem and solve it quickly.   If you got it right, well that's when I realized this was going to be one of those games where the rules were unending and the game was never starting.   I managed to get him to play a practice round in which his father and I successfully passed the, "What is eight times eight" question was posed by him, the emergency math teacher.   We may play more tomorrow.   I can't wait to see what emergency questions the emergency math teacher will ask me.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter loves animals.   She even loves slugs.   She has really enjoyed going over to feed and take care of Charlotte.   She sits down beside her, listening to her thump her tail on the ground as she wags it and pets her, telling her how much she loves her.   She has a very kind heart towards animals.   If she does something in the field for her career, it will be well-suited for her.   She still wants to own her own pet store...in Kentucky. 

Social Engagement

We had a social engagement tonight!  I'm saying that with an exclamation mark because it's been so long I've forgotten what it's like to spend time with friends.   

These friends are relatively new friends—sort of.   We've known them for years but only very casually at the pool and in passing during neighborhood events.   We found out we have even more in common and decided to get together tonight to play some games and get to know each other. 

Everyone has been fully vaccinated although we maintained safe distances throughout most of the night.  They have two small dogs who only want to be loved, petted, allowed to sit on your lap and be there with you.   We're going to have another gathering in the future but with children.  They have three younger children and I think my children would get along very well with them.

It was odd to be out and at someone else's house.  The children kept coming downstairs to peek in on these strange things called visitors.   We were feeling just as strange, I wanted to tell the girls.    It was nice, though, doing something that feels not normal now but was completely normal two years ago. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Pineapple Update:  My son took my daughter's 3D printed pineapple this morning. She didn't like it and yelled at him.  He didn't like being yelled at so he held her pineapple hostage until she did exactly what he wanted, which was to apologize.   He didn't like it when my husband grabbed the pineapple away, making his arm hurt.    I talked to him about anger and exacting revenge.   My daughter was probably taunting him in some way but he was the one that took action.   I don't want him to become a bully and this type of behavior worries me.   I hear it's a phase.   I hope so. 

I Can't Find Tigger

The children were nestled, all snug in their beds.  When out from Alexa comes, "I can't find Tigger!"

The children didn't like stuffed animals much when they were younger.   They never needed anything to go to sleep from a comfort animal perspective.   It is only now, much later in life, that they both seem to care about stuffed animals.   Perhaps they need them more now for some reason, or maybe they didn't find them cute and adorable when they were younger.  

Today, they have become important to each child in different ways.   Both children are collectors, but my son wants to have his stuffed animals manning sentry duty on the top bunk in his bedroom.   My daughter wants to have them as close to her as possible, sometimes to the point I don't know where her body fits after she lays her bed out at night. 

My son recently has wanted certain stuffed animals to be in the bed with him.   He seems to find nothing embarrassing about this at all, even though lots of things embarrass him in other aspects of his life, his parents included. 

Tonight, after the children were both in their beds with the lights out, I was in the kitchen cleaning up when my daughter dropped in on the Alexa in the kitchen.   She said in a nearly panicked voice, "I can't find Tigger!"  I didn't say anything, wondering what would happen next.   About three seconds later she said, "oh, never mind, I found him.   Alexa, hang up."

The Big Boy Update:  My son made an entire chess set out of clay in art class.   He fired it in the kiln and then put glazes on them to indicate the two sets of pieces.   He had the set laid out on the dining room table this evening.  They're going to spend the night with Nana and Papa tomorrow.  Maybe he'll take them to play chess with Nana.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter came down after lights out and said, "Dad, I forgot to give you your inspiration."   She had a foam golf ball she gave him so he would have it for inspiration in the upcoming golf championship he'll be playing in.

What Do You Keep?

Part and parcel with children in school is artwork they bring home and proudly show you.   Or in the case of my son, freaks out about our interest in his work initially only to then, after having it sit in the house for a bit, tell us it's okay for us to look at it now.  

That's not entirely fair about my son; some of his work he brings home he is immediately and urgently interested in having us look at it.  But he is his own worst critic and much of what he completes at school, for whatever reason, time being the biggest factor, he wasn't able to do the job he wanted to do on the project. 

My daughter is interested in her artwork, but a lot of the time she forgets about it in her backpack and when we ask her about it when we prepare for the next day of school, she's grown detached from it and isn't as interested. 

On the whole, there are those pieces each child loves and has a special feeling about and there are other items they aren't as attached to.   There is one thing though that they both feel strongly about and that is that nothing should ever, ever be thrown away. 

And this presents an issue for us and most other parents: what to keep and what to "misplace".   For instance, tonight I made some calls about three items my daughter brought home.  On one page she put about fifty dots of green paint from a paint dauber in no particular order or pattern.  The second item was interesting, but it was clear her braillist helped her do most of the assignment as it was meant to represent something specific.  The third piece was an interpretive cloud three-dimensional work.   That one went in the attic. 

Someday we'll go through what we've kept and likely cull it a bit.   We've kept more than we expect to long term, but that is mostly because if the children are going to ask about it, we want to be sure we can bring it back out for them.   They never do though, children move forward far more than they look back. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son brought home what amounts to a doodle today from school.  He left it on the counter in the kitchen with the words, "What do you see?  There are five pics."   I got three and my husband got three. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's, "little sausage" as she called her big toe the other day is injured.   It was run over by one of those electrified children's cars.   She was trying to push it off the curb when it jolted forward (or something along those lines, I still don't know the exact story) and her toe was run over. It was jammed and her chiropractor helped in that regard.   It's getting better, but now the joint higher up is bothering her more.   I told her it was going to take time to heal.   I refrained from reminding her how shoes were sometimes helpful at keeping your feet safe.   She needs the tactile information her feet give her.

8:30PM

A tantrum is being had here.  There was a tantrum this morning as well.  My son has had a hard time getting up in the morning.   He has been very, very angry about, well, morning.  He's taken it out on my husband and me and anything that was in his wake.   The challenge for him is to get up and get ready for school on time.  

We tried setting a plan for the mornings, listing out times each thing was to happen by such as getting up, being dressed and downstairs or having their teeth brushed and shoes on, and then there was the important final one of not forgetting to bring a mask in the car for school.   

Today, my son's reaction to morning was just too much.   It has happened too frequently and he's always having a hard time waking up.   So we changed bedtime to 8:30pm.   At 8:00 tonight my son lost it.   He isn't tired now and doesn't want to go to bed.   I'm hoping we can reset his sleep clock soon if we keep this enforced.   They're getting older so we've let them control their bedtime more lately.  In his case, he seems to be a night and not a morning person. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son got out of the car this morning, looked at it and said, "Mom, hash tag wash me:   

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and I are listening to the same audiobook.   It's a series for children not unlike Harry Potter that I'm very much enjoying titled, The Keeper of the Lost Cities.  Not only is she not telling me what's happening when we listen on the ride to and from school, she's remembering to move the location back to where I left off when she stops listening so that I'll be right where I was when I get in the car next.   She's twenty or so chapters ahead of me but she always remembers where she was. 

Apologize!

There has been a lot of unkind behavior between my children.   They are learning to apologize and to do so with details on why they're apologizing.  I would say details on why they're sorry, but I'm fairly certain much of the time, they're not.  

Tonight Four Square went south.   I missed most of it but when I came upstairs, they were both doing the nicest job of mumbling something I could hardly hear that was sort of sincere sounding while at the same time sounding like they were begrudging saying it.  

Such is childhood. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son was so sweet to bring me home a dessert he got from school for a birthday. He must have known I would see it and eat it, so he wrote "Do not eat Mom" on it.   Even with the missing comma, I knew what he meant.   When dinner was over he said, "okay, you can eat it now, Mom."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: I was cross at the children in the car for being late, again, to head out for school.   I told my daughter after dropping off my son that I hated it because I got frustrated at them because they were late and forgot things and then they thought I was being mean.   She told me very sweetly that she thought I was nice, even when I was angry.   I'm pretty sure she was just trying to make me feel better

The Burning Ring

I have this ring around my chest that's right under my ribs.   It feels like an inner tube of fire.   We've done all sorts of tests to figure out what is causing it and thankfully it's not a tumor or anything life-threatening. It is, in fact, rather a mystery.   There are some things going on like osteoarthritis and some bone spurs, which isn't surprising in a way because I have high bone density.   But there is no direct culprit. 

Sometimes, at the end of the day like right now, or in the middle of the day, or even in the morning, it's just so hard to bear.   It's times like this that I try and hold my breath as much as I can, or at least hold my position in one spot so it doesn't get worse, although nothing seems to help.  But I try.   At times like this, when the children have been challenging to get to bed, that I just want to go to bed myself.   

The Big Boy Control Tiny Girl Understands Update:  My son wandered in to listen to me read to his sister tonight.   Then, he proceeded to try and control everything so badly that it all turned very sour for him.   He brings this on himself, even with his sister being understanding to a point.   I don't understand it, its like he wants to get in trouble, make everyone angry and then say we're all against him and couple that with statements that completely contradict what he did only a few minutes before.   I salvaged tonight, but I had to force him back into his sister's room to get him to calm down and just listen to the book he had only wanted to listen to in the first place. 

An Unstoppable Urge

My son has had a lot of issues today.  He went to a birthday party, which was fun.   He came home to get a marble run set to take over to the party when he discovered Jay (the birthday boy) had gotten a set from someone as a present.   They intermixed all the (relatively costly) pieces and at during the excitement of the moment, my son told Jay he could have his collection of sets.

We didn't know this had happened until Jay's father texted us asking if that was really my son's intent.   They worked it out so that my son will go back over tomorrow, they'll make a big run of marbles, video it, and then separate out the sets so my son can get his back. 

This whole experience upset my son in hindsight and the rest of the day he's been talking in baby talk, and has been difficult or defiant or mean.  

It was a valuable lesson, but my son hasn't handled it well and continued to get in trouble with it.   At one point, my daughter tried to help with some popping material from some boxes.   She suggested he jump on them to relieve stress—and it worked.   It worked so well my son wanted to keep the packing plastic beside him on the sofa.   He said to me, "Mom, don't touch or move these, even if. you have an unstoppable urge."   

The plastic remains on the sofa as I type this, despite my unstoppable urge to recycle them.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son lost the right to watch television on the T.V. in the living room after repeatedly eating or drinking in the room.  He has never had permission to do so, so when we found him with a Selzer water sitting on the sofa material that wasn't good, twenty minutes later when he was back, eating ice cream on the sofa the remotes were removed.   We're still not sure why he did it.   We think he wasn't paying attention, but he's never, ever been allowed to eat ice cream on the sofa so it's confusing. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter heard Nana tell stories about ghosts, which she said were real, and her experiences with them.  My daughter currently won't sleep in her room because she's scared of ghosts and sounds in the house that might mean they're around.   I don't know what to do about this.   She's in my son's room right now, but he really didn't want her there, and that won't work on school nights. 

Together Again

My husband and I used to spend all our leisure time together.   We had the same, single hobby that took hours and hours and even more hours of our time.   If we weren't working or doing something necessary to our lives, we were together.   Where we were, was in a video game. 

This was back before the interconnectedness of games like it is today.   We had to work hard to communicate.   There was no voice chat built into the games, it was all typing.    But through this interface across state lines and even though we weren't dating, we were spending loads of time together. 

Those days faded and it's been a long time since I've had a hobby that my husband shares.   Until recently. We've been working on 3D printing things together.   We've always gotten along but this is a way for us to do things together that don't involve the children.   I'd write more about it but I already fell asleep writing this paragraph so I'm going to have to save it for another day. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son hesitantly told me today, trying to sound noncommittal while at the same time interested, that I could contact the music therapist and let her know he was interested in taking classes from her. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and I had the best time playing with the dog on the trampoline tonight.  I don't let her up there much because she has claws and I don't know how rough they are on the surface over time.   The dog loved chasing us around so much that we got one of her squeaky tennis balls and a tug toy.   When it was time to go in the dog wasn't ready to come out of the trampoline because she was enjoying it so much. 

The Most Difficult Thing

Is my life complicated?  In many ways I'd say no.   And then there are days and days I try to get to something and time goes on and on and I don't get the thing I want to do completed.   I get other things completed or started on or I talk to people or I have things happen upon things happen and I feel like my life must be complicated because I can't get to that one thing I wanted to do. 

And granted the one thing isn't something simple like sending an email to the teachers to say we need to pick a child up early for therapy.   It's a complex thing that needs hours of work to get completed.   I get partial work done and then other things intrude, many of those things being related to the two small beings my husband and I decided would be such a good idea to have when we were planning on getting married. 

And they were good things to have.   Children bring a joy to your lives like nothing else can.   And frustration sometimes in equal measure.   I'm trying to make sure I spend time with the children which is a good thing and should be on my list of things to get done every day.   Perhaps because it's a given and not something I get to check off that I feel like I'm not making progress.   Maybe I focus too much on the checklist and not the journey of the day.   

Maybe so, but that checklist still stares me down every evening in an accusatory way, saying, "you didn't put a single check here.  Not one.   What in the world did you do all day?"

The Big Boy Update:  I asked my son what he and Dhruti, his therapist, talk about when he sees her.   He said not much, which I doubt is the case from her perspective.  He did tell me something I thought was so interesting and true though.   She asked him what he thought the most difficult thing was.   He said he thought the most difficult thing was life, because life was always changing.   Life changes so quickly for children.  They grow so fast, mature so quickly.   How they navigate it successfully is always amazing to me. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter begged to be taken to the pool today because Nora was going.   She's been wanting to go to the pool, which just opened.  I thought it was crazy, knowing how she hates to be cold.   The weather is and was hot today but it gets very chilly at night.  The pool has had no time at all to even begin to warm up.   She went though and came back wet, so I suppose she managed to get in. 

Too Much Cookie Cake

I don't remember what you technically call those giant cookies from Mrs. Fields that are chocolate chip, have icing on them and say happy birthday to the person, congratulations on your twins, or whatever the event is.  What I do remember is how delicious they are.  

I remember this because I just finished eating too much of one of them.   Tonight we got to see friends we haven't been able to do anything with in over a year.  It was Uncle Jonathan's birthday and he and Aunt Margaret came over to celebrate.   

We had P.F. Chang's and I ate too much.   Then we played Pass the Pigs, a dice rolling game where the dice are large foam pigs.   My daughter loves this game.  There were presents my daughter selected for Uncle Jonathan as well as balloons she asked me if we could inflate.  

We went to the basement in order to first show them the 3D printing, well, land that it has become as far as I'm concerned.   When I'm down here, I'm doing 3D printing things.   After showing them the working printers, completed models fresh off the build plate, and giving Aunt Margaret a baby Yoda printed by my husband in his resin printer, a candle was lit, the birthday song was sung and then we dove into the huge, no giant chocolate chip cookie cake. 

My daughter and I ate until we couldn't eat anymore.  She and I have control like that.   Huge control over sweets.  Not.   We were playing a game of who's cookie it was, with me winning by sheer holding on to the box.  

I hope Uncle Jonathan takes the cookie home with him, even though he doesn't like sweets that much.   My waistline can't bear too many more pieces of it.   And trust me, I'll eat it if it's here. 

Ther Big Boy Update:  My son was saying they should take the cookie cake home with them he said, "This is coming from me, who is sensible.  And has common sense."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is so very sweet.   On her own, she found Uncle Jonathan a collection of presents.   They were things she liked, but she thought he would like too.   She found the bags and put the presents in the bag.   And then she made him a puzzle birthday card.   On the top she put the alphabet and numbers in braille and then put special words for him below to decrypt that were special and reflected how she feels about him. 

The Recycling Truck

My daughter came running un the house from school today saying, "Mom, truck?  Truck?"   Why is it children speak in vague sentences like this sometimes?  Both of mine do it.   I called her into the bedroom where I'd been lying down and told her to check on the corner of the bed, it had just arrived. 

My daughter had wanted to give away her favorite recycling truck to the next-door neighbor's little son, Leo for his birthday.  She was sad when I told her I didn't want her to give away her and her brother's truck because I wanted to keep it for when they came home with their own children.   I don't keep a lot of toys, but this is one that was particularly loved. 

She was sad but I told her I thought they still made the trucks and indeed they did.   I ordered it and assured my daughter who was adamant it had to arrive by today—}because Tuesday is Leo's birthday, Mom!"  It arrived and when Nana came home with my daughter from school (yay for Nana picking her up, she loves the extra time with grandparents) she helped wrap the present.   

My daughter ran over to give the truck to Leo but came back a bit sad.   The one thing she was most excited about was the three recycle bins it came with that the truck could hook onto and then with the push of a button a motor and a battery, move the bin upwards to dump the contents into the large compartment for recyclables.  

Her original truck only came with one bin and it's been lost for some time.   When I told her Leo's would have three bins, she was excited but she didn't see (or feel them) in the packaging so she thought they didn't come with the truck.  I assured her they had been stored inside and he'd find them when he opened everything up. 

She was much relieved, although it took a bit of assuring her that I was absolutely positive the truck came with the bins. 

The Tiny Girl Update:  My daughter and I walked to the mailbox after she'd given Leo his truck to find a small package waiting there for her.   Apparently, we weren't the only ones to lose the recycle bin to our truck and now they were selling three replacement bins: red, green, and yellow.   She was so happy to have bins again.  She tried to go to sleep with them even. 

The Big Boy Chronicles:  My son came home and gave me a little sticky note with the words 'frog' and 'baby bottle' on it.   He told me they were doing a play and needed those two things and could I 3D print them for him?   I am certain real objects could be found at the homes of his classmates and we definitely have our share of frogs here.   He was asking for me to print something for him, so I jumped on it.   Here's the frog he selected in the filament color named, "Venom Green". 

Lesson Twenty-Two

I'm still in a braille class after all this time.   It is my fault for taking breaks after finishing one lesson.   I say down today and have just finished lesson twenty-two.  I have three more lessons to finish and I'm hoping, no planning, on completing them before Reese tracks out again.  

How can it be that nine weeks of school have nearly happened?   How can it be that I have children that are nine and ten?   How can it be that we've lived in our, "new" house for over ten years.   Time not only marches on, it barrels ahead, dragging me in its wake. 

There is an odd sense of accomplishment when I complete something I should have completed some time back.   How is it that I feel happy and relieved that I got the lesson submitted.   I should have done the simple half day's work weeks ago.   All that putting off and I should be disappointed it took me so long to complete, but instead, I'm thrilled to be done with it.   Glad to be able to address the next thing I'm behind on tomorrow. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son doesn't like to be kicked off his computer when he has earned time just because I have a board meeting to attend in the basement.   He doesn't like the answer, "because we're going to be talking about sensitive things." He left in a huff.   He said he'd put his headphones on and I know he doesn't care about what we're talking about.   But you never know when these children things will be listening and then will repeat the thing they heard at the most inopportune time. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was picked up from school by Nana today.   She was so happy to have a different person driving her home and to have some special time with Nana. 

They're Back

We get excited when relatives come to visit.  We have great relatives.   But there is nothing quite like grandparents and today, Nana and Papa have returned.  They spend the winter months in Florida but now that winter has passed, they've come north to spend some months with us.  

Well, that might be giving us a little more credit than we deserve.   To be sure, they've come to live here and see their friends and do all the things they normally do.   In addition to that, they'll spend some time with us.   

Tonight, the children sat on the comfortable new sofa, eager to hear Nana's next installment of one of her story series.   Then, we looked at some photos and showed off some 3D prints.   We kept them up longer than we should have, which meant the children stayed up longer than they should have.  But we all had a good time. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son got a cap gun from Nana and Papa.  He loved it.  The dog and his sister absolutely did not love it.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter had the big blue swing flip over on her and she fell on her back, scaring her in the process.   It wasn't that far a fall, but she landed wrong and she was scared.   I laid her on the ground and the dog came over to lie beside her.   Matisse always knows when she's hurt and comes to make her feel better. 

The First Sleepover

We made a decision to let the children have a sleepover last night.   This was based on a lot of things, the CDC's change in recommended guidance for COVID-19, including those for vaccinated people.   Per an idea of my neighbor, my daughter would sleep with Madison and my son would have Whitaker over. 

These neighbor children are ones my children have spent time with outdoors for the past several months.   All the parents are vaccinated and so we felt the risk was reasonably low.   Not zero, but low enough that with the updated guidance, it was something we were willing to do.   

The children had fun, although we had to remind them today that just because we allowed one sleepover, we were not letting other children into the house.   They were a bit disgruntled about that but we told them that would remain the rule for now and likely for some time still. 

I hesitated writing about this because, in the past, we have received either direct or indirect criticism about the choices we have made with regards to COVID-19 and the safety of others either direct or secondarily direct.   We have always followed all CDC, state, and local government recommendations not to mention the somewhat more strict school guidelines.    We know our choices might be different from what others might make but we respectfully understand each person must make the choices that are best for them. 

A Friends Cancer Update

My friend, because I consider her that as well as an honorary member of our family, is struggling with the results of cancer treatment.   Edna, the lovely lady who's cleaned my house since 1997, found out she had breast cancer at the end of last year.   It wasn't a large mass and it was easily removed via surgery at the beginning of the year.  

That's when her real problems with the battle against cancer started, though.  If it was as simple as surgical removal, she would have been back to her life in a few short weeks.   It's all the after surgery parts of the battle against cancer that have been hardest. 

Chemotherapy, she's told me, is simply awful.  She's exhausted and drained and yet has to go back again and again for treatments.   Once she's past that, she has radiation to follow.   She keeps hoping to get back to work, where she says she feels normal, but her doctor has told her it may be six months before she has her full energy back. 

Emotionally, this is hard on her.   Physically it's grueling.   And financially it's devastating because she's going months and months without her standard income.    Everyone is trying to help where they can, which is heartwarming.  Everyone wants her to feel like herself again and to not have to worry about the cancer still being in her body. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is sleeping in the bonus room tonight, sleepover fashion.   I went up to tell him he had to turn the light out and stop playing video games when I heard him dashing down the hall from his bedroom.   He said, "I just needed to get my Adderall."   He only takes Adderall in the mornings on school days.   I thought it was a ruse, even though the lights were out in the bonus room when I opened the door seconds later.   I told my husband about it and he said, "do you think he meant the melatonin he has in his room for when he can't get to sleep?"  That had to be it, it sure confused me, though. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has a new game to play in the car.   She has a raised maze she can navigate through with an attached pointer.  The maze is tricky because it has shifting walls and depending on how you have them set, the maze changes.   She calls out the choices to me and I tell her which direction to go, navigating blindly as it were, to the exit she can feel the path to with her hands. 

Distanced Learning Not Due to Weather

I picked my daughter up from school early today to take her to an appointment to see Dhruti.   While I was waiting for her to arrive from her classroom, the front office lady who has kindly checked us in and out every time we've needed to ever since kindergarten, asked me what I did.   I wasn't sure where she was going with the question until she said she said the administration was asking teachers how they'd feel about going to a day of distanced learning tomorrow, suddenly, without time to prepare. 

The reason was the current gas situation.   The hacking of the oil computer systems which caused the pipeline delivering gasoline has been causing chaos at the gas stations.   I'm writing about this in summary not for those of you reading about it tomorrow, but for those who might read it years from now, possibly even my children, who won't remember the week where the oil dried up and then came back on the following week. 

Some of the transportation vehicles were low on gas and it was questionable if all the students could make it into school.   Staying home might also save on gasoline for those who were low.   And since there were already some students still doing distanced learning this semester, it wasn't a hard switch to make. 

After school released, the announcement came out and my daughter will be at home tomorrow, not doing an asynchronous day, but an actual school day at home, attending meetings, and doing her work during the periods in which it's assigned.   She'll even be doing P.E. from our bonus room.   Monday, hopefully, school and gas will be back to normal. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son said to me as he was about to sit down to dinner, "I have a cool a-Natalie". I asked him if he meant "analogy" and he kept right on talking, saying, "yeah, an analogy..." and proceeded to tell me something I have already forgotten.   But it was very important and about Nerf guns, I know that much. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to know what kind of ice cream I was eating and could she smell it?   She was not too thrilled to find out it was espresso chip ice cream.   I offered to give her a bite, but she declined, saying, "I think I would regret it."

The Tester

I've been doing some testing for a friend lately.   I love testing, it's lots of fun.   It's not always about finding errors in something but looking at some code, a model, an idea, a product, and seeing how it would work to meet a particular need.   The design might not hold up over long use or it might no work easily or it could be non-intuitive.  From a design standpoint, there are many ways to look at a thing and give advice back that will improve the resultant product. 

The nice thing about designing something is you can have multiple iterations and changes can occur all along the way.   I like helping but I have to tell myself it's important to give feedback other than, "it's great, I love it, it worked just like I thought it would and it was so easy to use!"   That feedback is nice, but it's not as helpful as real feedback on how you were unsure what to do until you'd looked at things for a bit.    

Tonight, I asked my husband what he thought about something and he had some entirely different suggestions than I would have thought of.   It makes me realize how important feedback is from different perspectives.   How I might use a piece of software or kitchen sponge is not necessarily how my husband would.  And yet that sponge or cell phone app or 3D printed model needs to be able to be universally picked up and used by everyone.  

Testing is a fun job.  Developing a robust product is hard. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son almost lost screens for the next several days for being unable to quit using them when he's told to stop.   He always has just a few more minutes.   He may have to lose the right to get on the computer for a week or so before the message hits home that when we say it's time to stop, it's time to stop.

The Tiny Girl Chronicle:  My daughter likes playing word and verbal games in the car when we drive to and from school.   But lately, she is completely interested in listening to the audiobook I'm on.  It's a series she's listened to herself that is quite good, "The Lost Cities" by Shannon Messenger.   She gets in from school and says, "audiobook?"   She's learned not to tell me what's coming up because she knows I definitely don't want to know. 

Family Nerf Gun Battle

Today's family activity at the end of the night was orchestrated by my son.   He brought down his large collection of Nerf and similar foam-based projectile-type guns.   The armory was stationed on the couch with weapons divided up into small, medium, and large.   Kyle, my son's cousin, has drastically increased my son's collection, so when he told us to select a gun from the small area, we had a lot of choices. 

Next, he told us there had been ammunition scattered all around the first and second floors.  You weren't allowed to stockpile ammo, but you could keep what you could store in your weapon.   After five confirmed hits on one of the other players, you were allowed to go back to the armory and upgrade your weapon. 

There were loads more rules he wanted to explain, but since bedtime was barreling down on us, we elected to go for the simpler game and start immediately so we'd have more time to play.  My daughter was surprisingly ready to compete and wasn't unhappy about any of the numerous things that could make the game wholly unfair for her.   

We all shot at each other and had an understanding that we'd hand off ammo if she ran out.   There was no real winner or loser after the two rounds we played (all with eye safety) but no one complained aside from the typical, "aww, do we have to stop?  Just one more time?  Just one more minute?"

The Big Boy Update:  My son worked hard to create a special game for us tonight.   He laid out two floors of the house with all the things we'd need to have a fun game together.   He didn't even complain about having to put things away at the end of the night.   He wants to play again.   We had so much fun I think we'd all be up for more.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter didn't complain once about not being able to see something or we were cheating of it wasn't fair tonight.   The game was not the same for her, but she played along and had fun in her own way.   We all had fun playing with her and she successfully shot us.   There were lots of misses all around and I think she understood it wasn't easy for us just because we could see. 

The Family Easter egg hunt

My daughter loves to have Easter egg hunts.   Two years ago there was a miscommunication between my mother-in-law on when and where the egg hunting was going to occur and as a result, there were lots of extra eggs.   The eggs had been loaded with candy of the kind that didn't go bad quickly, like Smarties or other such pressed or hard candy.   The filled eggs stayed in a stashed spot for a month or so and from time to time my daughter would ask if she and a friend could have another Easter egg hunt even though egg hunting season was long gone. 

This year we ran into the same situation, with more eggs than could reasonably be hidden.   This was mostly due to a mother who bought eggs at one place, candy at another place, and then found pre-filled eggs at a third place.   In the end, there were just a lot of eggs and only two children who needed to hunt for them.  

Tonight my daughter remembered the eggs again and we ended up having a family egg hunt as our activity for the night.   The children picked who they wanted to hide eggs for and who they wanted to have  hide their eggs.  We each hid five eggs in different parts of the house and then helped, if needed, the person find their eggs.  

My son and I hid eggs for each other and my daughter and her father also cross hid for each other.  My son found my eggs fairly quickly and then did a bang-up job hiding eggs for me in the basement.   He would give me hints not as to area, but in how I might think about the type of location he hid a specific egg. 

It was an odd kind of family fun for a night in May, but no one complained about having candy for a late dessert.

The Big Boy Update:  I went up to tuck my son in tonight after he had had some unsettling thoughts after going to bed.   He asked me to tell him a story about Gramps and me so I told him about how we would go  to yard sales sometimes together on Saturdays.   I told him after we got home, Gramps would go in the basement and work on the things he'd gotten.  He asked me what I meant so I said like I like to spend time in the basement working on 3D printing, Gramps likes to spend time in the basement working on the things he got at yard sales.  My son said, "Oh, like your 3D printing, only important, because they were antiques and your stuff is just plastic you can print a million of."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter didn't make finding the eggs easy for her father.  My son had found the ones I'd hidden for him and I was almost done finding the ones he'd hidden for me before they got done.   Maybe because it's so hard for her to find the eggs, she wanted to make the job harder since we can see.  Or maybe she just wanted to be tricky.

Battle for the Bath

It's mother's day and my children are running around after dinner, playing outside with some walkie-talkies.   Hopefully, we can get them in shortly to have either a bath or a shower.  We're still in the "battle for the bath" days with them, hearing groans and complaints when we tell them they have to have either a bath or a shower tonight. 

They are visibly dirty.   They have got to feel better once the grime has been removed.   I don't know what all the complaining is about because once they get into a water source, getting them out is the second challenge we have to overcome.  

My daughter made me some very sweet things for Mother's Day, including a ring, a picture of a Mexican Sun, and a note with a written song.  My son wished me Happy Mother's Day when he got up.  He remembered he is sweet, just not the present type.   I love them both for who they are. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl He Cheats! Update:  My daughter and son were playing hide-and-go-seek with walkie-talkies this afternoon.   Only my son got busted because Nora, who was on the third walkie-talkie, kept telling on him as he moved his location.   He retaliated by changing channels on the walkie-talkie.  Good sportsmanship is a learned thing.  My daughter hates losing too.   They're both working on it.  

The Class I Almost Forgot

I dithered over the title to this post.   It was going to be "The Class I Didn't Forget" but the real story is that I almost forgot the continuing education class I was taking for half of the day today.   My husband and daughter were at the beach doing their final Y Guides father/daughter weekend.  My son was here and we'd had a late night playing a cooperative two-player video game.  

I went to sleep after midnight but woke up at three-thirty.   And didn't go back to sleep.   I was trying to "finish up these last few things" which seems to be the story of my life of late, and then go to bed when my husband called with an update on their fun so far.   He casually mentioned the class, and then it hit me.   The class. 

I sat at the computer today on a long Zoom-based class on the ethics in Real Estate, a topic that sounds dull but is in fact anything but.   The collection of interesting examples of things that had happened to agents and clients helped a lot.

But I was still tired.   So tired.   I fell asleep many times during the class in that nodding off and then catching yourself kind of way.   I made it through without being caught and subsequently kicked out of the class—which this teacher would do without question, I've been in several of his classes before. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is very fun to be around.   We've had a good time today and last night.  It's always nice to have half of the standard chaos family-wise here.   Not for long, but just enough to have us realize what life is like with two people instead of four. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's tribe won second place with their raft.   I don't know what the raft was made of, but it included three air mattresses and a lot of wood.  Plus a flag pole.   They decorated the raft for the Party Penguins (their tribe name).

It Takes Two

My son and I played a game on the computers tonight in co-op mode.   He's played some with his father, but I thought this would be a good time for us to do something together.   He had a very good time, as did I.   He talked the whole time, telling me which button to push next even though I was already pushing the button.   He had a good time though, as did I.   Tomorrow, we plan to do more.

The Big Boy Update:  My shoulders and back hurt badly so I'm telling my son he can stay up as late as he wants to and that I'm going to bed.   We'll see how late that really is tomorrow morning.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I picked my daughter up from school today and she was disappointed I wasn't her father, ready to leave on their last Y-Guides event ever.  They're at a camp at the beach that has been around since before I was born.  

Reopened

Today we decided to reopen the trampoline.   I was enjoying having a quiet backyard in the same way as I enjoyed having a quiet house when lockdown started.   We still don't allow other children inside and at the rate things are going I am hopeful we'll be able to get away with not allowing it all through the summer.   But we shall see on that as pandemic cases evolve. 

We still have a large number of cases here in the United States.   I was talking to a friend online recently from a sizeable city in Australia.   They were put back on lockdown for four days not long ago which prompted me to ask how bad things had gotten there.   They had one case, and then two, and then four, so they decided to reinstitute a short-term lockdown.   

Cases where?  I was confused about what that one, two, and four meant.   Not thousand or even hundred cases, just one that doubled to two that doubled to four.   In their whole city, that's all they had.   He said they'd experienced relatively normal lives for some time and they didn't want to lose that with a resurgence of the virus. 

Jealous, I was, to hear those numbers.   Hopefully, we'll be in a similar situation here eventually.   Time will tell. 

The Big Boy, Tiny Girl Final Word Ruling:  With the updates to the rules for the trampoline and yard (no food, take your belongings home, no sand in the trampoline, plus other rules that should have been obvious, I told the children they were the final word on rules—and that they had better not abuse that privilege.   If I'm called out to verify or confirm a rule, I was not going to be pleased and they could tell the other children that.   This is to give them some control over the peer pressure they've felt.  

The Penis Model

Yes, yes, I printed a penis model for my daughter.  But think about it: she has no frame of reference.   She took showers with her father some when she was very young, but those memories are fleeting at best and not locked in.  

She has spent a lot of time in the tub with her brother and has perhaps brushed against him, but they play, not investigate each other.   He can see everything on her so he's not interested in what something looks like and she doesn't realize things are different than her, so she doesn't ask.   Until penises came up the other night. 

Interestingly enough, and this is no dodge, I don't remember how it happened.   It is probably my aging brain but is also just how my mind has always worked.  It's done via connections and if I don't have a starting connection to get to the place, I can't get there at all. 

So I printed her a penis, and let me tell you, finding what I needed was tough.   A friend told me about a place I could find all manner of prints along that vein online.  Only I didn't need *those* kinds of prints.   Not with spikes or wearing things or as the head of a winged dragon or involved with a lady or man in any way.   "anatomical penis" didn't help.   I just needed a boring, child-sized, non-veiny or bulgy or modified penis in any way. 

I finally found a key chain model.   I printed it out and gave it to her the next morning.   The children don't think anything bad about this.  They have no body shame or even ideas of why this is anything other than normal.   Other than telling her the ring part was for hooking on something, I decided to let her brother explain it to her.

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Penis Conversation:  I missed the conversation, but I suppose it went well because when I asked her later she understood that they don't always stick straight out like the model she was happily holding in the back seat of the car.   She said, "I know, mom, they coil up."

I Fell Asleep, Again...

Yesterday I lay down just before six o'clock.  I had a phone call come in shortly afterwards and then I was out.  I don't even remember hanging up the phone.   My daughter tried to wake me up but to no avail.  I thought she woke me up enough with the dog's assistance jumping on my chest to help get her next wanted audiobook.   I think I convinced her to bring me noodles, no sauce, which I ate in bed.  I never eat in bed, I'm too messy.   

And that is the story of why there was no blog post yesterday, well today as I'm back-posting it.   I woke up close to five a.m.   I guess I still wasn't over being tired from the second vaccination shot. 

Exhausted

I’ve been in bed all day. I'm fine, but I just have zero energy after the second round of the COVID-19 vaccine. No fever or other symptoms.  I'm feeling better now at close to eleven o'clock at night.  More tomorrow about the children and a very special 3D printed model my daughter requested.  

Closed Again

Word has gotten out that the backyard is open again.   More and more children are arriving, knocking on our door, and asking if our children can come out to play or if they can jump on the trampoline.   We like the positive and beneficial social interactions, but we also expect the trampoline and all other equipment to be respected and taken care of. 

Today I came home after getting my second COVID-19 vaccination shot and found five to ten pounds of sand on the trampoline along with food wrappings on the ground.  I stormed downstairs and said, "that's it, the trampoline is closed."

It turned out my son was involved.   He had been the partial victim of peer pressure from the older children.   I told him I'd clean the trampoline, but it was closed until further notice.   My son was upset and I had a discussion about letting people talk him into doing things they know are bad, especially if they could break something or worse, cause someone to be injured, 

The closure will slow down the number of children in the yard for now.   That was a positive side-benefit to me because it was getting too busy out there. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son has trouble covering his tracks.   He does something he shouldn't, like eating pretzels in the living room, and leaves the wrappers behind on the end table.   Or he wants to play outside and decides to sneak food to the other people, and they leave the wrappers on the ground.

The TIny Girl Chronicles:  My son has been doing a lot of flashing of us lately.  Through a conversation that followed we found out my daughter has no idea what a penis looks like, her brother doesn't want to let her touch his, and she thinks that's awful and would never touch his, even if he would let her.   Solution: I'm printing her a model of a penis.   

Some Prints

My allergies are bad.  Last year it was like this but this year the trees must be trying to propagate even more than ever.  Here are some 3D prints for tonight.  I'm heading to bed.  

Sample filament spool for some samples I got, made with leftover bits of filament I had from other prints:

A little vase with some striped filament

Little Dot Jars with holes for things that need airflow

The Mariner Vase, which has a different pattern on the inside from the outside, and yet is still printed in one continuous flow rather like a super complex Slinky

A box.  For putting things in.   In a filament that transitions through colors over time.