Oh No, Oh No!

I was so sleepy on Friday afternoon.  Or was it Friday evening?  I don't remember but I'd been working hard all day, trying to get to the things on my list of things to do that I haven't gotten done.  I owe several people some replies or 3D printed things and I've been trying to get to them but I've had challenges either finding models that match the specific need or I just can't find a model that will print well.   

I'm not giving up, but it's taking me longer than I'd hoped.  Designing a model to match the need would be ideal, but since learning Fusion 360 has been on my list and has also been repeatedly made lower priority to other things, I don't have the necessary skills to get the level of precision needed for the model.   But that will happen...eventually.  

So I fell asleep and my husband was going to wake me up.  He tried, but I just couldn't wake up, even knowing I was going to miss putting this blog post up.   No matter, I'll write it on Saturday, only I forgot.   So I'm two days late now and I don't even remember what my children did on Friday so I'll have to give an update on what they did on Sunday as soon as I post this.

Hangers Bigged Up

When I had children friends of ours gave us a huge number of clothes hangers that were children-sized.   For many years we didn't take advantage of all the hangers because we either had babies, toddlers or children who preferred to get clothes out of their drawers as opposed to the closet. 

Gradually we transitioned and for many more years, we used those little hangers.  Only now, the children's shirts are too large and they fall off all the time.   So yesterday I got new hangers for each of their closets.   They were indignant, saying they both liked their hangers.   They were plain white, I wasn't sure what the connection was they felt, but I assured them they could keep both (in the storage area where they could find them in a bin in the back should they ever press the point.)

Today, I swapped over way too many things on hangers from small to normal-size.   Hopefully, they'll prefer this over having their clothes fall on the floor from time to time.   Actually, who am I kidding, they never cared if their clothes were on the floor.

The Big Boy Update:  My son is looking forward to his trip to visit Mimi and Gramps.  My mother has been talking with him about what he wants to do and it sounds like they have the schedule will be full.  He's hopeful that one of their neighbor's granddaughters will be there at the same time.  The last time he visited he spent time with one of the grandchildren and he and she had a lot of fun.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Tonight my daughter came downstairs with the new one-piece pajamas on and complained that they were too big.   I asked her if she remembered our size predicament at the store.  We could either pick 7-8 (and she was nine) or 10-12 (and she was close to ten).   One was going to be too small and the other would be too big and it would be better to grow into something than have something already too small.   The elastic around the ankles made the pajamas workable even though she was definitely too small inside them.

Cleaning Day, Try Two

Our house stays relatively clean, but it does become out of whack after a while with what feels like four children home for the summer given all the mess that seems to accumulate.   They aren't that messy, but forts, slime making extravaganzas on the porch and spending time with friends in the garage when it's raining and inside not being an option, and things just get out of hand after a while. 

My daughter isn't that messy and does try to clean things up, but some things are a little out of her league and would be highly frustrating to her to clean on her own.  The garage slowly became a mess after weeks of hangouts in there with the garage door open.   They had done beadwork, making bracelets and necklaces and beads had rolled places in the large space that is the garage. 

There were food wrappers—which should have been put in the trash can beside the area there, but somehow, children being children, they didn't make it.   Water bottles had been left at our house as had shoes and socks around the trampoline, something I still don't understand.   We have had upwards of ten pairs of shoes at times in varying sizes and the children must keep coming over with other pairs.   

So today, while my daughter and her friends were taking ropes and hanging them in the tree in the front yard to create makeshift seats, I swept all the debris up into a pile, put the trash in the trash, the recycling in the recycling, and made five times the available space just from getting things out of the way.  

That was only one area.   The children did some of the work and tomorrow they will have more work to do.   They are grumbly about this and I tend to get frustrated and lose my temper when I tell them that they expect me to clean up after them?  Is that what their expectation is?  Because if that's what they think, they have another think coming. 

The day ended with a massive pile of things covering the breakfast nook table.  Tomorrow that will all go away with their help and then they have to clean their rooms.  They're going to love that. 

The Big Boy Update:  I caught my son's friends standing in the basement today with the door wide open—in close to ninety-degree, high humid weather.   They ran out when they saw me.   They were back in just a few short minutes later.   They have been banned from using that door now. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was outside in her pajamas all day today, despite being told to put on clothes multiple times by both her father and me.  Then, tonight she tried to go to sleep in those same, now dirty pajamas.   She was told if she went outside with pajamas on again, she would be taking them off and would be left outside with no clothes on.  So I sure hope she remembered to put on clothes tomorrow. I think she will from the gasp of horror she emitted when she heard the not idle threat. 

The Tarp

My children had talked about putting a tarp over the trampoline when they wanted to have a sleepover the other night.   I said to them that while the trampoline had a mesh wall around it, putting a tarp over it wasn't something that could happen because anything we had that was large enough, would fall into the center of the trampoline from sheer weight if we were even able to get the edges over and off the side. 

They didn't need a tarp, I had followed up because if they wanted to sleep outside, we'd make sure it would be on a night that didn't have rain predicted.   They were a bit sad a this but since there was nothing to be done about it without putting excessive weight on the netting, having complex tying down schemes, and possibly not even being able to find a lightweight tarp that would work—and we weren't going to buy one—they had to go with the open trampoline plan if they wanted to sleep out there at night. 

The trampoline zips up completely and the mesh from the sides connects seamlessly with the bottom surface of the trampoline, so when they're zipped in, they won't be available for vicious rabbits or rabid deer that are too afraid to come near the house now that the neighborhood has been developed.   In short, they would be quite safe, except from rain. 

Today I was up in the craft room and I looked at something I'd seen lying in the back storage closet where we keep the toy and clothes overflow.  There are things in there from when the children were much younger and the clothes need to be gone through and handed down. It's a bit of a mess in there and it needs some cleaning up.   I had seen something I'd ordered from China and had hoped would come in at the size I'd specified and was surprised that I actually got what I had paid for.   I pulled it out and thought I'd mention it to the children the next time they got bored. 

So when I walked by it tonight something clicked.  It was a parachute for a group of children who would stand in a circle and hold on to a looped handle at one of the seams of the very colorful segments.  Everyone would lift the parachute up and down and feel the air resistance.   Then, on the word of the teacher, everyone would lift up, step inward, pull the parachute behind them and sit down.    The parachute would make a bubble around the group as the air slowly let out. 

Was the parachute big enough to be a tarp?  It was round and it had pre-made handles.   Would those handles be something I could connect to the top of the mesh wall's poles?   Yes, and yes, it would work.  I couldn't believe my great good fortune.   But how to attach it?  I didn't want to damage any of the trampoline or the parachute.   

I decided to pull out the huge rubberbands I had and see if I could connect the parachute to the top with them.   That way if any stress happened, the rubber bands would just snap.   After a half-hour of tying up the parachute and we had a trampoline with a parachute on top.   It's a lot of fun to jump up and down and feel the parachute push the air out of the area after you pushed it up with your head and hands.   What an unexpectedly fun discovery in the back closet from years back. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son did not want to take a break from dinner as he was in the middle of a game online with his friends.   I was putting rubber bands on the trampoline when I saw him walking around from the back porch with something in his hands.   He had brought his soup from the kitchen outside (because he would get in trouble had he carried it through the house,) had gotten his headset, and was right outside the door by his computer with his headset on, talking to his friends and eating Mimi's soup for dinner.   He figured out a way to do both dinner and be involved in the game at once. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter loved the parachute on the trampoline.  She wanted to spend the night outside but her brother said it was too hot—it was.   We suggested finding a cooler day and making plans to set the parachute up again then.

Failed Sleepover Again...

My daughter wants to have a sleepover so badly.   She tries to have them with her brother, but he changes his mind about it at the end of the day every time and she always ends up disappointed.   The other thing she's tried to do is coordinate a sleepover with our neighbors, which has almost happened but each time has ended up not for various reasons.  

Today, they had talked about having a sleepover on either their back porch or the trampoline.   We said we were fine with it but again tonight, right after it grew dark, it rained for a short period of time.   They went out in their pajamas, now in the clear weather but with a wet trampoline, carrying glow sticks and colored flashlights.   

They spent some time out there and then decided they were going to sleep over in the garage.   The garage that was intolerably hot and humid, I might add.   I was asked if I could move my car out of the garage and I said that no, they weren't going to put sleeping bags down on the floor of the garage where the dirty car had been driving in and out.   

That was fine, they said, they would move some things out of the way in the small half-sized garage which was filled with things from their play over the past weeks.   They didn't manage to move much, but we put some music out there and they spent a while until Rayan and Keira decided to go home around ten o'clock. 

Some day my daughter will have a sleepover again.  She just loves the idea of having a friend over.   I hope it works out for her.  We're up for it if we can make it happen. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son likes wearing long sleeves and long pants, even in the hot, summer weather outside.  I offer cooler clothes to him from time to time, but he just likes wearing clothing for cooler weather.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has begun to not respect the dog's wishes, forcing herself on her and forcing her head down or hugging her in ways the dog tolerates but doesn't really like.  It's taking it's toll and I've been speaking to my daughter about wanting the dog to want to spend time with her and if she keeps it up, she is going to find out the dog isn't interested in spending time with her.   She said she can't help it, but she also said she understands and will work on it. 

Names I Like

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  We are on Round Two of "Names I Like" from my daughter.   She wanted to tell me the names she really liked today and wanted to know if I was going to write them down.   I told her I could if she wanted and then she asked if I was going to be putting them in the blog.  I said I could do that as well, too.   

She has heard me talk about the value of documenting things so you can refer to them in the future.  Her idea of, "the future" is a little shorter in length than mine is at this point in my life, but I said I would document the names and put them in the blog.  

I don't know in what situation these names would be important to her.  I'm guessing they might be cat names or names for people she and Nora or Keira are using for the games they play together.   If the names had two parts to them I would suspect Warrior Cat names because of the series of books she likes.   In this case, I think they just have a nice sound to her. 

Leeva, Elemy, Summer, Alix (female), Gilidise, Samira, Audra, Eveinlin, Eleven, Ninelet

The Big Boy Update:  My son has decided it would be nice to go visit Mimi and Gramps the last week before going back to school.   He had a good idea that it might be good to change things up and get his mind reset from summer relaxation here before starting the new school year.   I thought it was a good idea too.   We'll confirm with Mimi and Gramps to see if that works with their schedule. 

Flapjack

Swearing happens in this house.   For the most part, the swearing is done by me or on rare occasions, my husband.   The other time swearing happens is when splinters are being removed from my daughter, in which case lots and lots of words ring out in short succession.   I don't know if the dog swears, 

My son has reached the age where he is considering the coolness of swearing.   He gets online with neighborhood friends and plays games.   The team games he's playing involve competition and of course, you don't always win.   Or, perhaps someone pulls off something extra impressive or you have a victory or any other number of reasons that to my son, might be cause for exclaiming and possibly using a swear-like word. 

Only he's not allowed to swear, so he's been working on alternatives.  Maybe some of the alternatives are common these days, like "frick," which we outlawed after it was becoming so prevalent it was appearing in every other sentence.   The latest one he's been using though is rather funny to me.   I keep hearing him yell out, "Oh, flapjack!" from the computer.

The Big Boy Update:  My son gets frustrated when he has to stop doing what he's doing to come to dinner or go to bed or any number of things that interrupt what he is currently doing.  The one thing he never seems to mind though is being completely silent when we tell him we're recording for Filament Stories.   He's pretty supportive of the work we're doing, which is super sweet of him. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter also is supportive of what I'm doing with Filament Stories although today she told me she thought it wasn't a good thing to buy the printers because we needed to buy food and pay bills.   I told her we would never spend money we needed to have to pay our bills and especially to keep everyone fed.   I don't know if she was worried, but she seemed to feel better when I told her that. 

Parents Are The Worst!

My daughter came in from having a wonderful trip with my parents over the last three days.  She was settling back into life with us when I explained to her that she needed to do certain things to clean up and get ready for bed.  She hadn't been home for five hours when she declared, "why do parents have to exist in the world?  And why do they have to be the most annoying people in the world!"

The Big Boy Update:  It's now midnight and my son is only going to bed because we're making him.   He is really going to have to adjust to get back into school hours.   I hate to say it, but I don't really mind that he sleeps in and lets us sleep in too. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter accused her best friend of using her blindness against her tonight. She was furious and right after yelling at her to go home, she realized she could have been wrong, so she apologized to her, only to find out she was apologizing to the dog, which upset her even more.   She was distraught in the house, writing an apology note and asking if Keira would please forgive her and be her friend again.   She was so sad.  I messaged Keira's mother and decided to go over in the dark to deliver the note, even though I hadn't heard back.   Keira was already in the shower, but Lisa said she would deliver the message and that we all had times when we said things we didn't mean.   She hoped everything would be fine in the morning and that the two ladies could talk it over. 

Another Kind of 3D

My husband got a new 3D headset the other day.  He's had this particular headset for a long time and the games are so interestingly realistic in your brain, but you have to play at his computer with a long cord so the latency from your motions won't lag behind what you see on the screen.   

The new version is standalone and you can be anywhere and see what's happening as well as the headset includes games built-in.   It's been fun standing in the middle of the basement moving around, playing "Beat Saber" for instance, which is a game where you hold lightsabers in your hands (or so it appears) and musical notes come towards you in time with a song playing.  You swat at the notes and slice them with your "sabers" and the better timed you are with the music, the more score you get. 

That part is fun, but what was more interesting was standing in the middle of a ski slope and watching from the perspective of my husband, as he takes her down the mountain.   He recorded the video in 3D with his GoPro camera earlier this year.   On the computer, you can look around and see any direction including behind you.   But with the headset on, you feel like you're there.   It's eerie and captivating at the same time.   

At one point, my daughter gets a little close to my husband as she skis and you have to step back and out of the way, even though you have no control over what's happening in the recorded memory.   I watched the video twice and I did the same thing the second time, even though I knew what was about to happen. 

The whole thing reminds me of the movie Brainstorm. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is very good at games, a point I suppose I'm proud of, even though it indicates he's spent a good bit of time playing games.  He was telling me how to play Gorn last night and after I died miserably very early on, he proceeded to tell me how he got all the way to the very last boss.   

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to talk to me on the phone tonight and was so excited to talk about what had been happening with her trip to the mountains with my parents.   She was interested until she was done, which didn't take long.   She needed to get back and play more with Mimi and Gramps.

Virtual Reality

My husband has a virtual reality headset with games on the computer he's had for a good number of years.   The children were babies when he got it.   Recently, my son has had a renewed interest in VR gaming, asking to play on his father's computer each night. 

My daughter is away and during that time, my husband got the much reduced in cost with dramatically increased functionality.   We wanted to take the time to learn to play it while she wasn't around as it's something she can't do and it's hard to have everyone around you be able to do something while you sit aside and can't. 

So I'm signing off here early tonight to go stand in the middle of our basement and wave my arms around, feeling sensations that aren't there that only exist in my mind.   It is singular how real it feels.  For instance, there is an elevator and your brain tells you you're moving upwards or down, even though you're standing totally still. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is enjoying being here with his father and me.   He has us all to himself.   We're glad to have some time to spend with him too. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter rode a horse today!  She loved it.   Thanks to my mother for coordinating this event with her.   She was well under the twelve-year-old requirement, but the owner and his daughter made sure she had a special day.

Boiled Peanuts

My daughter is now at my parent's house for a few days.   My husband drove her up this morning after being woken up by her, letting us know it was time to get up and go.   My mother has been preparing and one of the things she wanted to do was send back something for my son and me.   

She kept saying she had something for me that was a surprise.  I jokingly said it had better not be a fruit cake.   So when my husband got home and told me he had some boiled peanuts for me from my mother, I was very excited. 

They might sound terrible, but they're actually sort of like peanut-flavored salty beans.   I grew up eating them from roadside stands on the road as we headed to Georgia to visit my grandparents with my mother.  Sometimes the group traveling down would be my mother, aunt, and cousin Rebecca.   Those were good times.  

We would sing songs, Rebecca and I would play games in the back seat and ask how much longer until we'd get there.   We would have to go to the bathroom and say we couldn't wait.   They would let us know they could pull off the side of the highway and we could go with the door open if we couldn't hold it until the next stop.  

I often wondered if that was a threat because they didn't want to be stopping every hour at our whim just because we were antsy and wanted to get out of the car.  

Those trips are good memories and the flavor of boiled peanuts always brings back thoughts of my childhood.  

Thanks for the peanuts, Mom.

The Big Boy Update:  My son and I had a good day together today.   Tonight, perhaps because his sister wasn't upstairs in bed in her room, he came back down and said he was scared.   He watched us putting a video up for Filament Stories for a while and then said he was tired and headed off to bed by himself.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to listen to the movie Luca, that she recently "watched" with her father.   He turned on the movie, enabled audio descriptions, and let it play as they headed to the mountains.   She listened to the movie not once, but twice on the way there. 

Do No Wrong

My daughter is going to visit Mimi and Gramps tomorrow and in an effort to have her not look completely disheveled—something at which she excels—she took a bath and washed her hair.  Things were busy and my husband said he'd dry her hair, something I said was a must lest her hair look crazy for the whole trip.  I said I would do it but he insisted he knew how to try her hair and had been for years. 

So off he went and I didn't think much of it until he asked me if I could finish the drying job.   I came upstairs to find not wet hair, but heavily overly laden with products hair.   It looked like it hadn't been washed in a week.   It was heavy and greasy looking. 

I hate to do this to my daughter, but I told her we had to stick her head in the tub and I was going to wash off the products and re-dry her hair.   While I was shampooing her head I talked about how dad didn't realize he'd put too much product in.   She burst into tears and it took me a minute to get out of her what I'd said.   

She said, "I didn't know daddy could do anything wrong!"   It was so sweet, so innocent and I didn't want to ruin her opinion of her father so I told her it was okay that we could easily fix things.   She calmed down but a few minutes later her father came into the bathroom. 

She ran over to him, grabbing him in a bear hug, and commenced crying all over again.   I explained and my husband did just the thing a parent does to comfort a child in the best way.   He knelt down and said to my daughter, "you thought I couldn't make mistakes?  It took you nine-and-a-half years to realize I'm not perfect?" in the kindest mildly teasing tone.   My daughter burst into laughter. 

And it was all over.   She was fine with everything.   I have a feeling she thinks her father is still perfect.   He pretty much is an amazing dad. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son lost the privilege of having seltzer water as a punishment from me.   He typically loses screen time but I went with a different approach.   It worked but he forgot and when he explained he'd already opened the drink, I said that was okay, he could put it right back in the refrigerator.   He does love drinking seltzer. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter called Mimi today and talked for a long while on the Amazon Echo, planning on her visit.   She is so excited to leave tomorrow to go see her and Gramps.  

Doughnuts Are Delicious...But Not Edible

Whew, we got the videos out last night.   We made a mistake in how we released them, which was mostly related to how the content was released and not what was released.   We had two separate videos on one thing.   We divided it up into two thirty-second videos so we could get them both in the Shorts player on YouTube and Reels on Instagram. 

Our mistake was that both videos had the same music and looked like they were the same if you weren't paying attention.  Sure, the cover image was different and there was different text associated with them, but we could have saved one for the morning, changed the music, or any number of other little changes and the confusion wouldn't have been as apparent.  

This has caused not much difference on one platform with close numbers in view count, but on another platform, one has drastically lower engagement.   Does it matter, no, not really, but we did work awfully hard on the video to have it be missed.  The good news is we've learned for the next time. 

The amount of things we've learned for the next time is an every time affair.   But back to the doughnuts.   My children love them, our friends who came over thought they were great and took some home to their children.  There is a good bit of buzz ongoing and people are printing the doughnuts left and right.  

It's a lot of fun.   Plus, they look great.   I had such a fun time working with Clockspring on the project.   Unbeknownst to the 3D printing people out there, there are more related models to follow.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son has been very into the Virtual Reality games on his father's computer this week.   I've been trying to write this post with him behind me ducking, swatting, punching, and moving all over the place as he tried to beat the enemies.  It's a wonder I haven't gotten hit. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter loves footy pajamas.   It is summer.   She should be hot, but she has ice cream for dessert and gets chilled.   I have no idea how she makes it through the night with those pajamas on. 

Donut or Doughnut?

I've been working with a 3D printing friend on a project involving doughnuts.   The 3D printed kind of doughnuts.   He has a good sense of quirkiness and when I saw an old picture of a doughnut and asked why he'd never released it, he said he would rethink the model. 

Thus started a project of revisions and testing, filaments being bought and tried out, and ultimately, tonight at some point if we can get the videos completed, will be announced to the 3D printing community and I suppose the world at large. 

We had a conversation about the "proper" way to spell doughnuts.   I had mentioned some weeks back how I had been able to manage breakfast cravings and had gone to get donuts.   He said something and used the word doughnut and then I changed over to that spelling.  He noticed and mentioned the change.  I said I preferred the spelling with all the extra letters because it wasn't do+nut, but dough+nut.   

Why had I changed?  I said the brand I had bought called their product donuts, but the overall bready sweet goodness thing, in general, I considered to be doughnuts.   Thus began two days of butchering the spelling of doughnuts while preserving the phonetic pronunciation.  

We've had fun working on the models, but I'm glad to be moving on to the next thing.   There are lots of things to print out there. 

The Big Boy Update:  Folding laundry involves tantruming.   Which never works.   Maybe someday he'll learn.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter didn't want to fold laundry either.   She asked if she could have a bath, thinking that would get her out of it.   Which it did, but only for a brief spell.   It is amazing how long she can stay in the tub when she's avoiding laundry. 

The Pool

I am winning the award for the most interesting post titles of late, but it's past my bedtime, all sorts of body parts are screaming at me to go to bed and I need to finish this up so I can grand them their wish. 

I haven't been to the pool this season.  There have been multiple reasons but the most prevailing one is that I'm busy working on Filament Stories.   Who knew it would take so much time and effort to put out short bits of media.   In my defense, the actual filming and audio dubbing takes very little time, it's getting the models and other shots complete after testing, re-testing, and dealing with other 3D printing things that take the time.   But regardless, I am busier now than I have been in many years. 

But today I went to the pool.  And I had all intentions of getting in with the children, but I got to talking with my neighbor, Lisa, and since it has been a good long while since we caught up, we had a lot to talk about.  

The children had fun, my daughter played with her friends on her new huge inner tube that is in the shape of a cheeseburger.   She loves it.   It was a gift from Nana and Papa and if she was allowed to go to sleep with it on her bed, I feel sure she would have. 

When it was time to come home, the children planned a sleepover, something they do frequently.    The idea was to have the four of them in the trampoline overnight.   We all agreed it would be fine. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Sleepover Confusion:  It grew late and the children weren't prepared to sleep outside.  Their friends hadn't come over to knock on the door with their sleeping bags.   It turned out they rescheduled for tomorrow night without remembering they would be at Nana and Papa's house tomorrow as we have a dinner out with friends.  They can reschedule for when they get back, it's summer, everyday is a weekend day. 

Not Wanting to Die

My son happily went off to bed after watching his teammate come in second place out of a hundred players in a Fortnite game.   He has made some close friendships with the boys right around us, meeting online to play Fortnite both competitively as well as experiment in Creative mode to see what interesting challenges and tricks they can come up with.

My son has friends come to our door to see if he's available to play.  They come to the window by his computer to see if he can come outside.   But when my son gets in trouble, he gets very upset.   He has said on several occasions over the past few years that he wanted to die.   

I haven't been worried about it, but my husband was concerned.   We had asked Dhruti about it before and she said, from knowing his situation through therapy, that it was just saying something for effect and reaction.   But today on the way to Dhruti's I thought I'd ask my son about it. 

Did he want to die, I asked?  He didn't know what I was getting at and said no, of course not.   I explained the concern adults have when hearing those words and if he really felt that way that we would want to help so he didn't have to feel that way.   No, he said, he didn't feel that way.   He went on to tell me all sorts of things that made me believe him completely. 

Still, it is hard to hear your child say they're so unhappy they want to die.   It's not a good time to say, "well then maybe you shouldn't have eaten the doughnuts just before dinner when you know you shouldn't!" because, at that point, it doesn't help.

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Sleepover Disconnect:  My daughter keeps wanting to have a sleepover with her brother.   He agrees because she pressures him I think at the time.  Possibly he's having fun then and actually wants to.   But when bedtime comes around he wants to be in his room alone and doesn't want to sleep anywhere else.   And she's always disappointed.   I can't wait for her to have her own sleepovers with friends again.   She's going to love it. 

Puberty?

My daughter had a splinter tonight.   She had asked permission to swear if it hurt, which my agreement with her is that during any and all splinter removals, she's allowed to swear.   She always asks permission and during the time of swearing would make a sailor proud.   And then when it's over, she stops.  

It's very cute hearing the string of words coming out of her mouth with the proper intonation that makes her sound like a little adult.   Even if it's an uncouth little adult.   What can I say though, she learned it from her mother. 

It was during this time that she told me she was worried because she had a lump in her breast.   It had been there, "for a long time" which upon further questioning meant a day or two.   I checked and told her I knew what it was and she needn't worry, it wasn't cancer like she'd thought it might be.  It was simple, it was puberty. 

We talked about what a silly word 'puberty' was and how I remembered the day I told my mother about the uncomfortable bumps in my chest.   How at her office she'd given me ice cream from an event they'd had a few days back.   I told her how happy my mother had been for me and that I was just as happy for her.   She wasn't so happy though. 

She wasn't ready to become an adult.   I told her that was a long, long time in the future and she'd go on being a girl for many years to come. 

The Big Boy Update:  I am not writing this.  You have not read it.  I was not here.  My son is streaking his pants again.   It went away for a long time.  Possibly two years.  But it's back and it has been multiple times.   We're trying to figure out the cause.    We don't think it's medical. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter had scrapes all up and down her legs tonight.   This is indicative of a fall.   She didn't want to tell me at first, but I assured her it was okay, that we all fell.   It happened while she was riding on the skateboard.   I told her that made sense and that falling off a skateboard and getting scraped up was just part of learning for all of us.  

Gamesmanship

Guys, guys, guys.   I'm tired (again) after a long day in which I was on another long video call in which I am only realizing now I got a call from my mother that I couldn't take and didn't call her back because I was being called to dinner, which my husband had kindly made, when I got off. 

I had a nozzle clog with one of my printers, which can happen, but in this case when I was doing the unclogging, the thermister wire finally gave way.   It was a part that was in need of replacing but I was holding out and it had not only had its time, it let me know so with some sparks when I tried to adjust the nozzle after turning it back on.   The sparks were my stupidity from doing something while the printer was on, hence the stupidity. 

So I had a printer down with major repairs needed.   I worked on that while on the call and it struck me as I was talking about various things, that social media today is all about gamesmanship.   There are tactics you can employ to gain followers, subscribers, likes, and comments.   These tactics play against or prey on people's psychological tendencies.   If your motivation is good, you can get your message across, but you can do just as well if you have a more negative goal in mind.   

It's interesting, coming from the position of someone who knows almost nothing about the various platforms by intention.   I've avoided them for a long while, although I have created accounts on all the main platforms.   I don't post and only have them for when someone sends a link to something so I can see what they've sent.  

The advantage I have now is that it's not me, just the persona that is Filament Stories, which suits me just fine.   I'm still surprised though that doing one thing versus another can make huge differences in how a piece of media is suggested by the platforms and their various algorithms.   It's so interesting.   And I'm so much a neophyte in all of this. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Baby Talk:  Why is it children still drop into baby talk when they've gotten in trouble or are unsure of something?  I wonder how old I was before I stopped the baby talk altogether.   Sometimes they're having fun talking in funny voices, but sometimes it's just baby talk. 

Marshmallow Roasting

My daughter wanted me to 3D print her a model...of a marshmallow.   I asked her if she was really wanting a hard plastic version of a cylinder that represented the squishy thing she loved.   She didn't have a better idea. 

I ended up finding a little 3D print that used a hex wrench (which comes with just about everything you buy that needs to be assembled) and a tealight candle.   When assembled, you can light the candle, put a marshmallow on the hex wrench and roast it right from your kitchen.   

She loved it.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son lost YouTube privileges.   He isn't listening to bad content, it's just not great content.   Tomorrow he's going to have to watch documentaries I think.   With me.  I love documentaries. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was afraid of the candle for the marshmallow roasting.   She can't see it, so I understand.  Only she also wants to get right up to the fire pit when she's cold.   

Military School

My son can't control his anger.   He goes into redline mode so quickly and when he does, he makes poor decisions.   Today he was at the counter eating and listening to something.  His sister was in our bedroom getting out of the tub.   I went outside and three minutes later came in to find him at his seat, but his sister screaming about how he'd slapped her very hard. 

He didn't like her interrupting what he was listening to by announcing things over Alexa, so he got up, asked her to stop (rather rudely and commandingly I'm guessing), and because he didn't like her reply, took action.   

And this isn't an outlier situation.   Granted, she provokes him, but it isn't just his sister, although what with COVID-19 it is mostly his sister.   Still, it's not okay for him to hit her or her to hit him.   She knows how to make it tough on him though and no matter what, I told him, a judge wouldn't care about the extenuating circumstances, he hit her unprovoked with anything other than words.   And that was going to be always in the favor of the other person. 

I brought up military school.   He threatened to run away, as all children threatened with military school do.   The conversation went in circles for a while but in the end, later when he'd calmed down, he said he wanted to work on it.   

We're going to need some guidance on this one as I don't know how to adequately handle his anger in such a way that we're helping him control the anger, which is the underlying root of the physical outburst.   He's not a bad child in any way, he just likes things his way, which I suppose we all do to some degree or other. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son argued that he got physical with the neighbor girls, "to stop them from breaking something of a friend of his."  He didn't get that it wasn't okay, even to protect some piece of property.   He still needs some perspective.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter asked us if her eyes were open today and we checked her raised glasses area and said mostly they were.   She said, "man, I don't know how you keep your eyes open all day.  It is so hard."

Swollen Lymph Node

My daughter's throat is sore and she has a swollen lymph node.  Just one.   She had a bit of a fever today too, so my husband took her to the doctor, who said it wasn't anything he could see specifically and that it could be any number of viruses.   The question is, is it *the* virus?  

She's had another COVID-19 test and is anxiously awaiting the results.  No one is showing any signs of malaise here and she's been with us non-stop, but it could be some contact somewhere, I suppose.  

Tense times.   Hopefully, it's nothing.   She will be utterly relieved. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son was unkind to his sister today and got upset about it when I pointed it out.   He was upset at possibly being left out yesterday when the friends came over, so he self-excluded himself from the activities.  He was jealous the girls were interested in playing with her.   And a bit hurt too.   So when he got an invitation to go the pool with the neighbors, instead of quietly meeting me in the garage for putting on sunscreen, he announced it to her.   When I told him how disappointed I was in him, he got very upset and clearly regretful.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was upset she didn't get an invitation to go to the pool too.   I had a conversation with her saying we all don't get invited to everything.   That that will always be true, even for twins.   I explained how her brother felt left out yesterday and she didn't even know he felt that way.   He came back and apologized later.   She was kind and said it was okay, she didn't really want to go to the pool anyway.    That wasn't true, but it was nice of her to say so. 

They Didn't Know

We had a play date today with three younger children who have been wanting to come back and play with my children.   The two girls mostly wanted to play with my daughter.   When their mother arrived she came around the corner and said she needed to talk to me about something she didn't know how to handle. 

I thought something was wrong but what she said I never would have expected.   Their children had had so much fun playing with my daughter and were excited to come back and play with her again.    But the interesting thing was, they hadn't noticed she was blind.   

How should she handle this with her children?  We decided it was interesting and it wasn't a bad thing for them to find out organically.   So we left it alone.  And by the time they left, they had had such a great time, and yet I think they still didn't know. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son was supposed to spend time with our guests today.  He knew this, and yet he disappeared to the basement.   Later, he told me he thought they only wanted to play with his sister.  I think he was feeling not important because they were interested in her.   He didn't take into account their son, who wanted to play with him.   The fact that he was very small was a nice thing my son would have enjoyed.  Next time I think he'll join in. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  At one point we started doing a craft project today.  My daughter started doing some odd behaviors and it wasn't until I got her in a corner quietly that she said, "I can't do the project because I can't see it."  I told her I had a project she could easily do and when she knew that, she jumped in and finished off her project first.   But before I sent her back, I told her they didn't know she was blind—because she was so capable, they hadn't even noticed.   Her, "they don't?" words had this sense of awe and wonder in them that was wonderful to hear.   She had a really good time today being a host to her new friends. 

Getting Out of the Pool is Hard

We had a very nice visit with a donkey named Dakota, a pregnant horse named Tilley, two dogs, one cat (that we saw, there were more), and a pool today.   They were all fun.   Well, aside from the donkey, who was very sweet and gently nibbles on your hands, until she nibbled a little too hard on my daughter's hand.   

She got over it quickly as it really was only a little harder than she expected.   It was more fun to brush the donkey and give the donkey and horse hay, treats, and alfalfa.   Scott, our host, told us everything to do.   I have very little experience with horses or donkeys but he knew just what to tell the children to do.  

My son, who I didn't think would be that interested in the horse or donkey really liked them both.   He was interested in bringing hay to them and brushing them and talking to them and just interacting with them.   It was nice to see him with them.

My daughter was able to get up on the back of Tilley, although it was decided best not to go for a ride.  First, because she was pregnant, but also, there was the whole saddling and learning what to do to ride a horse and it was a bit more to accomplish than made sense to do in the span of our visit. 

Sitting on a huge horse and feeling how big they are how their body moves is impressive enough for a first "lesson" as it was important to remain calm on the horse because, as Scott said, that while very unlikely, horses can get spooked and if Tilley got scared, they could fall off.  

Both children were very respectful to the animals but it was hot, so the next step was to head to their backyard pool.   It was at this point that the adults go to spend time talking and testing out my husband's drone, which he brought to look at the property from above.  One of the dogs was part herd dog and she paced the pool the entire time the children were in, ready to jump in and save them at a moment's notice, should there be a problem.  I've never seen a herding dog so intent on her quarry before.  

It was a really lovely day and it was something special to my daughter because she has heard about horses in so many places, in particular, some books even featured them.   But she's never felt one or been on one before.   Her understanding of them changed entirely today because she has concrete data from hearing, smelling, and feeling them now, which is more than any number of words can ever describe. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Get Out Now Update:  It is hard to get out of a pool when you're having fun.   The children did not want to leave today, but it was time to go.   My son relented and finally got out, but my daughter did that thing I did many times when I was young: if I can't hear them, then I don't have to get out, and bobbed around until I got her attention.  No one wanted to leave. 

The Donkey

Whew, it's late.   I seem to be saying that a lot lately.   I keep working until I realize I haven't made a blog post and it's already past midnight.   How this keeps happening, I don't know. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son wanted to play a game with his father tonight.   He had asked for hours.   I was working at the computer when they get in game and heard complaints from across the room.   My son was giggling and denying he'd set himself to invincible.   My husband got him back when he changed the settings.  But then they went on to win a team game together against lots of other people.   They both were happy. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is going to get to ride a pony or horse tomorrow, most likely not the horse, but she is getting to ride a donkey.   The donkey is the sweetest of the bunch.   She is so excited about it she was squealing and running around saying, "donkey donkey donkey!" when I told her. 

Social Media

I am so terrible at social media.  I've avoided most of the social media avenues/apps/platforms in large part for the entirety of their existence.   I have accounts on all of them and if you were to send me a link that opened in one of those platforms, I could click on it and go see what you were sure would make me laugh uproariously.   Because who doesn't want to see a monkey getting whipped cream out of a refrigerator and asking for some in a cup as a treat?

With Filament Stories, there is a lot of social media I'm having to learn.   The different platforms have different ways of delivering content.   YouTube started out with videos, but now there are Shorts and Stories and they have different requirements on length, when and how they're presented, and in what orientation they must be uploaded. 

Over ninety-eight percent of viewing these days on some platforms is done on phones, so while we were building videos in horizontal format—which my husband and I both prefer—we had to refactor our plans and go vertical.   Which is an odd thing, because there is the same amount of space on your phone regardless of if you're looking in landscape or portrait, but it just feels smaller. 

The vertical extends to TikTok, which is sort of a throwaway, but it can get people in you as a brand and they'll want to find you on other platforms.   Currently, and surprisingly, just from throwing a few videos up, we have subscribers.   Instagram wants not vertical but a more squarish format.   

Instagram has posts, reels, and then your "Story" which is what's happening now.  If you like your own post and then add it to your story, you've doubled the exposure.   And if you have a video and post it as a reel, it gets shown in the reels area when people go there.   

Does that sound confusing?  It is.  It so is.   Just getting one post up where we get the proper tags in (because you have to hashtag so many things) and then adding links to the items shown and giving proper credit to the model creator, the music, and the filament, is an exercise in confusion. 

Fortunately, we have a friend who knows far more about this than we do and he's given us some good advice.   It's still strange to me to be posting on these platforms I wanted to actively avoid for so many years.  

Other than that, all the 3D printing is so much fun.  Busy, but fun.

The Big Boy Update:  My son requested, "a 3D printed cup I can really drink from."  He knows not all filament is food safe, which I was impressed he knew. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter now has a Dwarven Mug for when she drinks something in a can.  It can sit in this container (the lid screws off) and she can hold the handle and drink from the can directly.   She felt all over it to see what was on the sides and said she loved it.  

The Five Dollar Fourth

It's the fourth of July.  We have family over and have had a very nice time.   The fireworks have happened and my daughter is nowhere to be found, hiding out at a neighbor's house because she really, really hates fireworks because they're so loud.   I have a feeling she'll be home soon.

I wanted to tell this story very quickly before I'm called to the backyard for s'mores.   Yesterday I let out the dog and left the door barely open so the dog could press on it and let me know when she wanted to come in.  I always set a timer on my watch for five minutes in case she doesn't come back quickly.   But yesterday, I forgot. 

Several hours later I noticed the door cracked and said, "who left the door open?" in an accusatory manner of a mother who doesn't want to have all the cool air flow out of the house into the backyard.   Only no one had been outside in the back.   

And then it hit me, I had opened the door and had forgotten all about the dog.   I called for her and called and in a few seconds, the dog came padding down from upstairs.   But how did she get inside?   No one had let her in, everyone was sure. 

This morning the mystery was solved.  Keira from two houses over and one of my daughter's best friends had noticed her in their yard.  She came to our house, opened the front door, and let her back in.   This morning when we found out, my son said to me, "mom, can you take five dollars from my allowance and give it to Keira?"  He wanted to thank her for saving our dog.  

I went to give Keira the money and she kindly declined.   She said it wasn't anything and she was glad to help.  I told my son I was very touched he would want to give his allowance away because Keira had made sure our dog was safe. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son was all involved with the fireworks but when he was done, he came inside. His friends knocked on the door beside his computer and asked for him to come back out.  He said, I'm tired, my back hurts and I have a headache.   I told him he sounded almost as old as I did.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter went into the filament closet and picked out a spool and asked me to make her a surprise, "with this color".  I told her when she went to bed which printer would have her surprise when she woke up and she could get it off the print bed if she wanted.   She now has a lovely little bright orange tree frog to go with her other 3D printed animals she keeps in her room.

So Many Identities

There are a lot of identities we all go by in this electronic age.   I have my real name and the userid I use on Google that I post this blog under.   I have three email addresses, wait four (I forgot one.)  I am online in some communities and I have a handle or nickname I use there and then there are all the various hashtag names I use on the social media platforms.  

If you wanted to find me on Facebook, you could probably look me up by my full name, including maiden name, but there could be a lot of people with my name so you'd have to find my by other information you know about me.   What about Twitter or Instagram or TikTok?   Then there is that podcast I put out.   

It's all a lot for me to keep track of, much less someone else.   And now I have this YouTube channel under a name not my own that we're working on showcasing filament.   It's super fun.  It's loads of work.   It's sometimes harrowing because even small amounts of content require the work behind the scenes to get the content printed and ready to show.   And don't even get me started about making quality time lapse videos, because as beautiful as they are, they are an exercise in patience, settings and the right technology to get looking right. 

But it is fun.   Wait, where was I?  Identities.   Now I have a secondary set of identities as FilamentStories we have to keep track of.  Fortunately, in this case we're a team, my husband and I, and we both can do that side.   That includes posting, commenting and responding to all the comments. 

It's a lot to keep track of and I am admittedly not well-versed in social media, so I have so much to learn.   I get on one of my devices like my laptop or phone and have to ask myself, checking to, "see who I am right now."

So far, I don't have a split personality from it.  I hope that remains the case in the coming months. 

The Big Boy Goodbye Update:  My son's teacher and one of the administrators at his school are leaving with one moving away.  Today we had a goodbye gathering to see them and say our goodbyes.   My son is happy he'll get to see their son online with Minecraft even though he's moving to the other side of the state.   He didn't seem upset otherwise. 

The Tiny Girl I Don't Care Update:  My daughter didn't care about the teachers and student moving, she didn't want to go.   She was cranky and had to have several lectures and a cooling off walk before she was fit to go to the gathering.   She didn't know these people and thought she would be completely bored.   I think she had a reasonable time, but it's not the same sitting around with adults talking around you and having only a little input into the conversations you care nothing about.   She was kind though when the one teacher moving told her about the special painted rock she had that my daughter had given her.   She said she had packed it and was bringing it to their new home.   That made my daughter smile.  

Kittens

My daughter is kitten mad.  She wants a cat so badly she can taste it, as my mother would say.   Today, we got to go see two kittens.   Or, in her case, feel two kittens .  

It was at my best friend from elementary school on up's house and she and I cried when we saw each other because no one has seen anyone is so long.   I have two years of birthday presents to get to her. 

My daughter got to do something she's never really done before:  feel what all the parts of a cat felt like.   These kittens were so darling and sweet and playful and they let her hold them (briefly) and then darted off to chase the toy again. 

It was a wonderful afternoon.  It hurts my heart a little, knowing how much she wants a cat and that we can't really get one here for several reasons. 

The Children On The Brick Wall:  My children climb up somehow around the back to the very tall top of the brick wall surrounding Nana and Papa's back patio.   If one of them fell, it would be broken bone city I'd guess.   But there is dirt on the other side and they have the best time.   So I hope for the best as all parents do from time to time. 

Guests!

We have guests.  I forgot what guests are like. We're still doing things as they got in late and we're talking about 3D printing and other things.  I'd better get back in there and see what they want to print next.  So exciting having visitors

The Children's Update:  The children are sad Uncle Eric, Aunt Kelly and their cousin Nicole are staying with Nana and Papa, but they're glad we'll get to see them several times while they're in town.