Tomorrow, I Think Tomorrow

I'm going to catch up tomorrow.   I really think I'm going to.   I mean I really need to catch up on everything, right?  Surely it's doable.  I hope it's doable.   I got a few hours of sleep, but tonight, I'm going to sleep early.   Well, earlyish. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son had a good trip today with his school to a 4H camp and he came home late, but happy.   I'm so glad he's had a chance to do a field trip or two this year.  Even if they've been day trips only. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is asleep in the closet of filament.   She is now warm with the dehumidifier on and is going to be hard to wake up and get to bed.   I've been known to fall asleep in there myself too...

Excitement Can Lead to Frustration

This morning I found something online that was exciting.   Someone had contacted Filament Stories that was someone big in the whole 3D printing world.  It made things easier and harder because that meant we needed to do a response.   Or rather wanted to do a response.   The part that it made easier was it was in regards to a video we'd been working on already and the message made the video's content much easier to present. 

The video still needed to be done though.   It would be the longest video we'd put out.   Only we'd been working on the content for several weeks in one form or another so it shouldn't be hard to just reshoot it and put it out with a different spin on it.   This would be easy. 

At 3:20 when my husband told me as he was heading off to get my son, "we're almost done" because I was fretting that it would take until 2AM, I told him, "no, we're not."

It is easily going to be after two before this video gets out.   Because things always happen.  Always.   I did not want to be right.  I would have loved to be wrong.   If I sound cross, it is because I am.  

Anyways, regardless of being frustrated by something going wrong every time or taking longer, or needing to be reshot or whatever, this is an exciting thing to happen.   I still can't believe how many people and companies are getting in touch with us.   We're small, but apparently we're doing a very good job, even if it's at 2AM

The Big Boy Update:  My son has to be up for a day field trip to a nature camp at six in the morning.   That meant he couldn't get to sleep until extra late because of either the excitement or the thought he had to go to sleep early. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has been distraught.   Her favorite character in the series of books we've been listening to died.   And he didn't get brought back to life in the fantasy books about witches and Greek gods.   Not only that, his girlfriend (they were in high school) who never had a chance to become his girlfriend because they hadn't gotten around to professing they cared for each other yet, also died, being turned to stone by Medusa.   It was a tough end of the book series for my daughter, who had her favorite characters, and those two were her absolute two by far.  The Author did leave the series hanging in such a way that she could write more books.   I told my daughter that perhaps the two will be reunited again someday yet. 

Happy Vomit Birthday

Today is my husband's birthday.   The plan was for Nana and Papa to pick my daughter up from school and take her to their house.   My husband would pick my son up, take him to Code Ninjas and then we'd all meet for dinner at the club at their outdoor seating.   

We don't eat out much, but dinner early and outdoors seemed like a safe bet.   On the way over, my husband talked about driving scores from Tesla, something new you can elect to participate in.   The higher your score, the sooner you might be invited to join the full self-driving beta.  

We talked about poor drivers and did so through the rush hour traffic.   My son was in an abysmal mood, complaining and just being mean.   He asked for dad to drive "nicer: a few times, which his father said he'd do.   We called to say we were parking as we pulled into the parking lot and were close to finding a spot up front in the mostly empty parking lot when...my son vomited all over the back seat. 

My husband quickly pulled in, I jumped out, opened my son's door and he vomited again...aiming again directly on the seat instead of the pavement.   

He got out and apologized.   He didn't mean to get it on the car, we could tell.   He was just confused it all happened so quickly.  Sometimes he gets car sick.   Not often, but it can happen.   My thought was that it was related to the discussions about driving and the busy traffic, coupled with him wanting to be out of the car after a long day at school. 

Fortunately, a quick call to Nana and the great good fortune of timing netted her a shirt and shorts from the pro shop in the building just as they were closing.   My son, blocked by his father and me in the open door of the car, changed quickly and we went into dinner, my son looking the best dressed of the group in his light blue collared shirt and navy shorts.

He had eaten French fries an hour prior, so what was in his stomach wasn't even that bad.   It was just a mess.   Dinner was lovely, even though it didn't start out that way. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son felt very badly about vomiting his his father's car.   He was both calm and kindly apologetic.   He even called out to Nana on speaker phone, saying thank you for getting him new clothes.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and I love cookie cake.   She and I, along with Papa, would have consumed half of the cookie cake ourselves if we had been allowed.   

Othello

My daughter and I play Othello a lot.  Initially, some time back, she only played with the vertical and horizontal directions for valid flips.   We let the game go for a while but we're back playing in full force now.  When we got back into it it took her a bit to get caught up on the strategy.   Or I suppose we were both learning strategies together, finding out what made bad moves and what would set the other person up for a great move that made you wonder what you were thinking with your last move. 

We're both getting better every game and I'm not playing easy for her, mostly because she's good, but also because learning how to lose gracefully is something she needs practice in.   Interestingly, we have tied a number of times.  

It took us a good while to play initially, but we're getting faster and faster.   We were targeting a ten minute game tonight—something I knew we weren't going to make.   I decided to let the game go to the end because we were moving faster than we had in the prior games.   She won.   She killed me.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son had another night terror just now.   He is so confused when it happens and he doesn't seem to fully wake up, even though it seems he's awake in many ways.   He finally settled down, let go of my hand and went back to sleep peacefully. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was so upset at the middle part of our Othello game tonight.  She was trying to control her frustration but it was hard.   When it was clear at the end that by me having so many pieces available, she had a lot more to flip, she was able to easily win.   She felt sorry for me and was trying to go easy on me.  I told her she should play to the best of her ability.   When I lost (badly) I did not pout or even complain.   She was a gracious but not boastful winner.  On the balance, it was a good game in many ways.  

To Frustration and Beyond

The title was meant to be said in the Pixar Toy Story style of "To infinity and beyond!"  I have had a lot of anxiety over a video I need to get out.   It is pivotal for several 3D printing and social media reasons which I won't bore you with.   Last weekend I swore I was going to get the video out by the end of this week.   I was going to work on it until I dropped and it would get out, no matter what. 

I had vague ideas of what I would say in the video.   The video evolved again and again over the week.   And we were so close to finishing it—until we thought maybe it shouldn't be the way we'd structured it.  So last night we abandoned the main video and put one up on Beer filament, something I'd been planning as a backup.  

I'm so frustrated, for reasons that are too complicated to enumerate, but at this point, I need a break from working on the video, which is under five minutes.  Maybe by the end of next week, who knows.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son watched The Secret of Nimh with his father tonight.   We'd been wanting him to watch the movie for years but it took trapping him and getting him to watch five minutes before he agreed.   Five minutes in and he was hooked. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has been making friends, which makes her more happy than anything.   She had two friends she played with today.  One of whom she disappeared and we found them halfway around the neighborhood in Ashley's little jeep electric car.   We had a discussion with them about it being okay, but they needed to let us know if they were going somewhere so we didn't worry.

Six Days

We've been filming a video that has been challenging, to say the least.   There are lots of things to consider in how we approach it and we've gone through several iterations.   We thought were close to finalizing the video and had planned on getting it out tonight, but we both had second thoughts today. 

We're used to creating videos that are under sixty seconds.   They have to move at a fast pace with the intention of every second being as interesting as possible.   That's the social media realm we're publishing in via Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. 

When viewers have the ability to swipe up, over, down, etc. to go to the next item because your content isn't interesting (enough), it has to be interesting enough to keep them watching your content, because there is always other content that might be more interesting just a swipe away. 

So for today, I am wearing the same shirt for the sixth day, because we keep refilling things, trying to get the long format YouTube video how we want it.   Long format YouTube isn't the same and can be more relaxed, but we've done short format so long now that we can't think any other way. 

I really wanted this video out and done.  It is bothering me for several reasons, mostly because I'm not sure how it will be received.   The feedback and comments we've gotten so far has been almost completely positive and supportive.   Amazingly supportive.   So we'll see.  

If I'd known about this when I bought the shirt some time back, I would have bought two.

The Big Boy Update:  My son wanted to go out on his own today at the park.   I was with my daughter and he was making friends and having a good time and I wasn't worried about him at all.   When it was time to go, he found me and we left with no complaints. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter met a new friend today, Grace, who is blind.   She and her older sister became fast friends.   So much so that when it was time to leave, she ended up staying with and going home with their parents to play together until dinner time.   Having a friend who is blind is very helpful in many ways.   They live close and we now have future videos planned.  

Turkey Dinner Candy Corn

I was picking up a prescription yesterday and walked past the candy aisle completely not by accident.  I was looking for one of my favorite Halloween candies and while I didn't find that, I did see the most unusual thing—Brach's candy corn in a different colored package.

There was a turkey on the front.   Of the bag of candy corn.   I picked it up and read, "Turkey Dinner + Apple Pie and Coffee Candy Corn".  What?  This sounded odd.   And I like odd.   The flavors were Green Beans, Roasted Turkey, Cranberry Sauce, and Stuffing.   I got two bags. 

I showed my husband, excited about this new find when I got home.   He didn't seem to care.  How could he not care about crazily flavored candy corn?  So I did the next best thing: I messaged my mother tonight, the person in our family who always loved candy corn.   I'm saving the bag for when I see her next so we can try it together.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son sent an email to his friend today, having been given permission to get on the computer to do this task.   He wanted to get in a game but he didn't dare, because he didn't want to lose screens for the rest of the weekend.   What he did do though, was start looking at all the settings and macros he could set for his new, special mouse.   I had to kick him off because he was pushing no screen time, even though he wasn't in a game. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter told me today as she was getting in the tub, again, for the fourth day in a row, setting a new cleanliness record for herself, that she would take a bath upstairs but there was no tub in her room.   I told her I had suggested moving to the other room when she moved out.   She wanted that room though because it had been Nana and Papa's.   I told her she could move, but she decided even without a tub, she wanted to stay where she was. 

Turnabout is Fair Play

My daughter had something my son wanted tonight.   She wouldn't give it to him until he told her why he wanted it.   So he told her.   She said he then had to explain why he wanted it but in a different way the second time.  He couldn't use the same words, it had to be completely different. 

She was unbending and told him none of the explanations were good or met the criteria.  Finally, she relented and let him have the balloon.   A bit later he went off to bed with the pile of balloons.  I heard my daughter screaming that scream that indicates injustice, not injury.   

What, had happened, I asked her.   "He took my balloon!"  So I went down the hall to get his side of the story and he did indeed take the one balloon out of the stack that she had wanted to keep.   I had him come back to the craft room where we were making a lighthouse for a school project my daughter had.

He came in, leaned over to me, and whispered something.   I had no idea at all what he was saying, but I nodded along because I could tell he thought he was being clever, so I went along with it.   What he did, was definitely clever.   He did to his sister, exactly what she'd done to him.   And she didn't like it one bit. 

In the end, he gave it to her but she didn't want it back when he ended the return by saying he'd had the balloon in his mouth. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Art projects can be very hard for my daughter to do independently.   She can do some of the work herself, but she doesn't know what supplies we have and can't look around to make suggestions, even.   My husband wanted to make sure she did the project herself, and we tried to help her do so, but we had to be involved quite a bit. 

The Big Boy Update:  It was my son's week to go see Dhruti and when my daughter heard this morning, she was very sad.   I asked my son if he wanted to go.  He would have gotten out of school early if he did. He said he didn't really have anything to talk to Dhruti about so she could have the appointment.   She was so happy. 

Comments Comments Comments

I can't decide if I like comments or not.  We get lots of comments on our videos.   Many of them are positive statements of support for the work we're doing to the model(s) presented in the videos.   Some are questions about how something works, a tool or printer thing shown in the video, or even what 3D printer should I buy.   And some are in disagreement or negative, but those are few and far between.  

A lot of the negative comments turn out to have someone else jump in and speak up to clarify something to the other person, or even defend what I said or showed.   It's been very nice.   But comments take time, no matter what they are. 

I put off responding to comments so I can do so in batch.   My husband likes to look at them, but he leaves it to me to decide if I'm going to just like the comment or respond with a comment to their comment.  I try to respond to the majority of comments that are more than just a, "wow" "that's so cool" or "love it!"  

I completely ignore them until it's time.   Tonight, my husband told me about a few comments and I ended up getting stuck in comment land and now it's well past time to go to sleep, so I'll have to get the filming I'd planned done tomorrow morning. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son came down to the computer with permission to send an email to a friend.   Fifteen minutes I turned around and he was on the computer playing a game.   This was the second time this week he was on, knowing it was not okay for him to do so.  He was warned yesterday; today, he lost screens for all of Friday.   He was very upset.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter loves baths lately.   She's taking at least one a day.   I don't know what happened, because not a month ago she hated having a bath at all.   Or a shower.   She would have rather been dirty forever 

Invitation

I've been involved in the 3D printing community for a long time it seems.  It's a fairly young field to be in meaning everyone who's a "veteran" has only been doing it for a short number of years.   3D printing has been around for some time, but it's gotten more traction within the last five years and grew steadily over COVID-19, like many other at-home endeavors. 

One of the creators I've followed for a good while contacted me, asking if I'd be interested in doing a collaboration with him on his channel.   I continue to be impressed with how much attention we're getting, given how new we are.   I hear every time how professional our work is and that the content is interesting and entertaining.   

My husband can make anything look good.   He can pick up anything quickly.   The reason what we're putting out looks as professional as it does is because he's making no compromises and is coming up with creative ways to deliver the work I'm doing on the 3D printing side.  

I am a mess when it comes to using the cameras.   I was telling him today that I've been working with the cameras as long as he has, and yet I don't have anywhere close to the knowledge that he does with them.   He said back that he'd been doing the 3D printing as long as I had, and he has no idea how to do most of the things I do.   

We each have our focus and between the two of us it seems to make a good end product.   I'm interested in finding out what this collaboration will be about.   I should know more in a few days after meeting online to discuss. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son came downstairs just a few minutes ago having a night terror.  He had no idea what was going on and could barely talk.   He was adamant about something, he just couldn't articulate it.   We went back to his bedroom and he fell straight to sleep again.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Every day my daughter asks if I can message Monica to see if Ashley can come over to play.   My daughter is so fond of Ashley.   I think the feeling is mutual.  

Directoral Debut

Yikes, it's almost three in the morning and I'm just finishing things up for the video my husband and son worked on for Filament Stories.   My son wanted to direct the video, picking which wands would be shown and how the video would go. 

He ended the video with a wave of his wand and the Filament Stories logo floated up into the air.   He and his father came up with that great idea.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has no screens at all during the week and today when he came home from school you could tell he really wanted to be on the computer I could tell, because he kept coming over and playing with his new mouse, practicing clicking quickly.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter forgot all about music today and got into the tub, very unusually, when she got home.   Chelsea kindly waited for her to get out and dressed again so music could commence.

The Secret Message

I was looking for something today and came across a book that I've had since I was around the age of my children.   There was a catalog that would come home and you could buy various things from it.   I think some of the things were books, possibly games, but the one thing I remember is the stickers.   There were all kinds of stickers and at the time, stickers weren't like they are today.   Stickers were something to collect and carefully meter out.   All I wanted was those stickers. 

Somehow I talked my mother into getting them for me, or perhaps letting me spend my money on getting some.   I was ordering so many stickers that I needed a sticker album.   As it turns out, there was a sticker album in the catalog too and it was this sticker catalog that I came across today.    

I remember that day, coming into my parent's bedroom, pleading with my mother explaining how I so needed those stickers and my life wasn't complete without them.   I remember her saying, "it looks like we're going to be getting a lot of stickers."   I practically danced out of the room.   Why I remember that particular incident over all the others in my childhood, I'm not sure.  

The stickers were either an investment or a flop.   If you measure success by sticker usage, then it was a poor buying decision.  If, however, you measure the stickers by how they were cherished and saved, then it was a huge success, because many of those stickers I still have today.  

Here is the book, which I would recognize anywhere:

I got a lot of records back then.   I had a few stickers from Record Bar, a now defunct store for obvious reasons.   

But possibly the best sticker is the one I have saved until hopefully someday technology will advance to the point where I will be able to find out the secret without losing the information: 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Kill and Make Up:  My son and daughter got violent with each other today.   My daughter and Nora were trying to keep my son inside the large swing parts bin by standing on top if it.   When he finally go out, he was crazed and hurt my daughter.   They were so upset but I was proud of them.   They wanted to storm off but I made them talk to each other and didn't interfere.   Suddenly, they both apologized quite sincerely and then hugged and laughed.  It was not what I was expecting. 

Four Million Pumpkin Breads

For some reason, I think I've written about this.   Sorry for the repeat if so.  

My daughter and I like the pumpkin bread at Starbucks.   I always order it as bread and they respond with, "pumpkin loaf" and I want to say, "I don't want a whole loaf" but I refrain. 

My daughter wanted to order, "four million pumpkin breads" one day (we were ordering four because she and I love breakfast).   When we got the bag, it had '4 million' written on it.   Ever since that time, she's been hoping they'd do it again but so far no luck.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son has ordered his very first custom, fancy, gamer mouse.   He's been practicing clicking as quickly as he can because that lends some advantage in Minecraft.  Today when I picked him up he wanted to know if "The Glorious Model O" had arrived.   When we plugged it in and it lit up with light shining through the hexagons, he was so happy.   I told him Uncle Jonathan, who has the largest collection of gaming mouses of anyone I know, would be proud of him.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's presentation today went well.   I guess.   She didn't really want to talk about it.   I asked her what one thing happened at school today did she want to tell me about and I got, "we had a math quiz."   

Unknown

It is very late.   I refuse to look at the time because that will distress me.   But I got the work done finally.   Well, that phase of the work of the printer build. 

The Big Boy Update:  I got home with my daughter and realized my son was nowhere to be found.   I found hin playing Minecraft on his computer—something he is not allowed to do on weekdays.    I haven't decided on the consequence yet.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's three-week project is due tomorrow.   She forgot she needed a visual model to show off.   We had to make a football field with a boy lying face down and a football beside it.   We got it done.  Next time she tells us last minute we aren't helping.   At all. 

Not as Focused as My Husband

My husband has this ability to focus to the point he has no idea of anything happening around him.  I can call his name, he can answer me and still not know I'm there.   My son has this same capability.   My daughter and I have the opposite problem.   We can't tune anything out. 

The reason I'm mentioning this is because my husband is listening to things on his computer right beside me and I am just not able to tune out Matt Damon and whatever it is about the movie he's talking about next.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter practiced her oral presentation for Friday this evening.  It has to be close to but not over four minutes.  I didn't think she was ready and the first time she did it she forgot lots of things.   She thought about it because she didn't have her note cards with her and asked to take a half-hour break outside.   When she came in she did the presentation, covered everything quite clearly, and finished at 3:53

The Big Boy Update:  My son wanted to see how tall he was in comparison to his father today.   He was pleased to be, "taller than dad's nipples."

Offset

I have a burning ring of pain around my trunk that we can't identify the etiology for.   But whatever it is, it's bad.   I've been trying to combat it during the day but at a point, I need to lie down.  And I hate that I do because it messes up my day because it's split in two. 

I went to sleep at six in the evening and woke up at nine and am now downstairs and I can't take the pain again, so I need to go to bed.   It's just annoying that I can't make it through the whole day without taking a break.   

Also, my husband is wonderful for helping out while I have to lie down.  I just don't like it.  Not only the pain, because no one wants to deal with pain, but the annoying schedule. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Fidget Collection:  There are a huge number of fidgets my two children have amassed with their own money or with things they've traded or been given by other people.  They agreed (surprisingly I have to admit) that all fidgets are equally owned by both of them.  I predict there will be conflict over this at some point when someone trades a favorite fidget away.

Happy Little Trees

I printed a model of Bob Ross and one of his paintings for the Story video we did today.   We found music that was reminiscent of his style of delivery and the general feel of the time.   It was a fun time, remembering watching his show when I was little, not having any interest in being a painter or even painting.   There was just something about him though that kept me there, watching with rapt attention as he made structures appear with the ease of his brushes and scraper tools. 

Apparently, I wasn't the only one taken with him as he's now a pop culture icon, decades after his videos were released. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son asked if he could get online for fifteen minutes only today to see what had been released with the new Fortnite update so he wouldn't have his friends spoil it for him.   I didn't want to let him get on at all, but he was good and got off after he saw what was new. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is working on her project, but has needed some help in organizing her thoughts.  She thought she had it covered, but when she tried to talk about her book, it wasn't as planned out in her head as she thought it was.   

The Potato

My daughter suddenly came downstairs today while I was working in the print room with a plate.   She said, "I made this for you, Mom."   I took the plate and asked her what she'd made. 

My son still uses the microwave with a level of uncertainty, mostly because he doesn't want to use it.  He will gladly eat pretzels when we aren't looking—for more than one meal in a day—instead of making even some soup for himself.  He's getting better because we've been encouraging him to use the microwave more to make his lunches, but other than that, he has very little interest in learning to cook. 

My daughter, on the other hand, wants to be independent.  I didn't know she knew how to do this, but she'd gotten a potato, put holes in the skin with a fork, microwaved it for the appropriate amount of time, cut it in half, even though it was steaming hot.  

Then she put butter, salt, and pepper on it, carried the wobbly thing on a plate down the stairs with a fork, and had brought it to me, all without running into anything, even though she can't see what's around her.  

I was very impressed.   I ate the entire potato and told her thank you an hour later when I saw her. 

My son, upon hearing about the potato, wanted to know if she would make him one.  Then, he wanted to know what other food she could cook.   They spent some time in the kitchen making food and talking about cooking.

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Laundry Cooperation:  It was laundry day and the children were tasked with folding their laundry after washing it yesterday.   Both of them wanted to go somewhere else and were in a hurry, so when I came up to tell my daughter something, I was surprised to find my son in her room.   He and she had made an arrangement: she was hanging his shirts, which he hated to do, and he was sorting her pajamas and other things out that she can't do because there is no tactile difference in the materials.   They were happily helping each other.   It's not a first, but it was definitely unexpected. 

Work Undone

My daughter's braillist came to the passenger window when I dropped my daughter off at school this morning.   It appears to them that she isn't getting her homework done and is behind on her work in school.   Ms/ Crossey said she took my daughter's work home the night before and found that some of the work was there in her backpack, but for some reason, it hadn't been turned in. 

My daughter was brought outside of the classroom and in a conversation with the teacher, she admitted the work wasn't complete or even started.  So there is a disconnect.  My daughter needs some help with organizing and she also needs to be more proactive at working on her long-term projects.   She has one coming up this coming Friday but she's been putting it off. 

We're going to have a conversation with her this weekend and help her with some plans and strategies to help with homework and schoolwork.   She has been complaining about not getting in early enough to work on her "Probe" which is some research on a historical person.   She told her teacher she hadn't completed any of the three, but she does have one completed, just not turned in. 

She wants to excel at school, so this is an odd situation for her to be in.   We'll see if we can get to the bottom of it. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son spent money last night on some items, one being a storage case for all his Pokemon cards.  He is suddenly very into Pokemon again.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter did not like the car ride home because for a change, her brother wanted to talk about something and she had to listen.   She said she was getting car sick listening.   Which would be a ruse, except the other day out of the blue, she did get car sick—which has never happened before.  Another thing to figure out with her.

Son Time

My husband is out and my daughter is with her friend so I have a rare opportunity to spend some time just with my son.   I'm going to go see if I'm cool enough to play a board game or card game with him.   I put it at a 50/50 chance.   They're at that age where adults aren't that cool anymore. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son came home and didn't put up a fight about not having screens.   He knew he was busted last night when we caught him with two devices at midnight.   

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has packed her backpack full of fidgets to play with Ashley today.   The amount of trading and swapping that has gone on is impressive.   It seems like she has new fidgets every time I turn around.  Then, later, she'll swap back and have ones I remember her buying.  

Midnight and Busted

My husband went upstairs for something at what is now past midnight, only to find our son with his iPad and the Nintendo Switch in his bed.   We are discussing what the punishment, I mean consequence, should be now.   

When I was a child, it was called "punishment" but these days, "consequence" seems to be the more popular term.   But knowing how my son is going to be tired and grumpy in the morning, right now I believe I'm going to tell him he has a punishment and that it will be <whatever we decide after I write this>. 

He knows he shouldn't be on his electronics.   They aren't even kept in his room.   He also knows he won't just get away with it.   And that is enough to keep him from doing this on most occasions.   Sometimes he can't sleep, but getting on his device is not going to end well.   

The Big Boy Update:  Children aren't afraid to click around and try things.  It's one of the ways they learn so quickly on computers.   Today, he and I were on a call with his teacher and the other families about an upcoming day trip to a nature camp.   He was clicking all around, learning about Zoom while the call was going on.   He discovered things I'd never even noticed before. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter got very upset today when she heard the orthodontist say they would probably have to, "wiggle those two baby teeth out".   She was being evaluated for the future need for braces.   I had a discussion with her about it later.   It's hard to understand that a little discomfort now (and even that with anesthesia) is worth it to avoid a lot of discomfort later. 

Delicate Subjects

I'm finding that doing some of the things I want to cover on Filament Stories is potentially fraught with opinions and conflict.   At this point, nothing that I've done has upset anyone.   On the contrary, most things have been received with support and positive comments, but there are opinions on how things should be done or shouldn't be done, and I'm not interested in getting into a huge discussion or debate with anyone. 

Some topics are based on misinformation, but people believe strongly that something is the case, even when research has been done to indicate that it isn't so.   There is also the safety of various aspects of 3D printing.   You're dealing with a robot in a way and it has a hot element in it that melts plastic.   Treating it with respect is important, but some people have more strict guidelines and others are more casual about how they approach 3D printing. 

Aside from discussing and showing 3D printed models and talking about filament, I have an ever-growing list of topics I want to cover, but as I approach each one, I'm making sure I'm educated on the subject in order to be prepared for when someone gets upset because, for instance, small magnetic balls are a hazard for young children.   

That one surprised me because so many models that might be printed could be unsafe for very small children, but magnets did seem to be upsetting for one person.   So I think about each topic and make are I'm considering all the options.  Then, and this is always the tricky part, I try to convey the information all within sixty seconds.

The audience we have has been more than supportive and welcoming, and I know some people won't always agree with everything, but I do want to try to present 3D printing in a positive light and not a controversial one.   Thinking about all the angles has been more complex than I thought it would be when I started.

The Big Boy Update:  I printed some wand parts that could be combined into different shapes and styles.  I wasn't sure if the children would like them but my son loved them so much he asked if I could print more, picking out four more colors and requesting certain parts.   I have four printers busily printing wand parts for him while he's asleep tonight. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is so excited about both her fidget collection as well as getting together with Ashley to swap, trade play with, and talk about them.   She has been bugging me to message Ashley's mother just about every day.   They're going to meet after school later this week and my daughter is so excited to show off the new fidgets she has. 

Good Advice That Isn't

We've gotten so many positive comments about what we're doing with Filament Stories.   It's just been a rewarding experience overall—even if it's an exhausting one some days.   One of the comments we frequently get is from people on TikTok, asking if we sell the models or how they can get one themselves. 

I always respond that we're not set up to sell models, but in reality, I don't want to print and sell models.   We were with some friends today who had similar advice, commenting that they'd easily pay twenty dollars for a model we were talking about.  That model had multiple printed parts and hardware.   The hardware wasn't expensive and in general, most 3D printed models aren't expensive at all on materials, some being less than a dollar even.  

But the time to print the model including multiple filament changes, assembly of the model, posting it on a sales portal such as Pinterest or eBay, prepare it for shipping, packaging costs, taking the boxes to the post office, wait in line to have the postage calculated and paid for and the drive time there and back take that twenty dollars and reduce it to so far under minimum wage that it makes what sounds like just under twenty dollars in profit at first to an endeavor that few are willing to invest in. 

There are people printing and selling models, but they're larger, higher price point models and they're doing lots of printing with many printers and have economies of scale on their side commonly coupled with custom orders and commissions, making it a more attractive endeavor. 

Everyone who's suggested the idea of selling 3D printed models does so because they see an interesting, beautiful, or exciting model and believe people would pay to buy one for themselves.   And I know people would buy them.   It's just not how I want to spend the time I have available.   All of my time is dedicated to what I really love: Filament Stories. 

The Big Boy Update:  We went to our friend's house today to celebrate a birthday.   It was just the two families and we spend it largely outside in the beautiful weather.  My son spent most of the time with Luke, their toddler son, who loved having a chance to spend time with an older boy.   My son had a good time with Luke as well, who was just as adorable as a toddler can be. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter came downstairs just now, worried she'd heard an animal making noise.   I told her it was the dog, who had come up and was sniffing under her door to see if she could get in and lie on the bed with her.   She went from scared and upset to happy when she realized that was all it was. 

Crazes

It's late, again, and I'm tired, again.   This seems to be a recurring theme with me.   On the upside, I'm busily doing something all day during all my free time that I love.  On the downside, I'm up late, tired a lot, take naps I wish I didn't have to take due to pain, and consistently keep working until I just can't go any longer.   But the work is fun. 

And by "work," I don't mean work in the typical sense of go to a job, follow what someone assigns you to do and then come home.   I mean the work that needs to be done to do Filament Stories things.   I'm getting more companies wanting to work with us, which I still find supremely surprising given how small we are.   I have expectations I set out before I agree to work with them but since neither party has anything huge at stake, it's a pretty easy agreement process. 

The title of this post is "Crazes".   My craze is 3D printing.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son's craze is Fortnite, Minecraft and playing games online with the tight group of friends he has. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's craze is anything that falls under the category of "Fidgets".  My parents mailed two fidget spinners to my daughter and this morning, in a whisper since they had mailed this to her and not her brother, she opened the package.   She got to spinning them immediately.   And then she put them in her basket and went off to Madison's house to see if she could come outside and play with and/or trade fidgets.   Trading is another craze of hers. 

The Other Parent In The House:  What craze does my husband have?  I don't really know.   He mostly manages with the rest of us and our crazes.   He is the most adaptable man I've ever met. 

Step One: Frame

As far as progress made, this is only the first step, but the base frame is complete.  It involved some blind screws, which was an interesting way to put the frame together in such a way as to have the screws completely hidden.  

It's after 2AM and I'm still up, although I had a nap so that helps, but I should really get to bed.   I'm hoping to get two more of the linear rails installed tonight before I completely run out of energy.   Even though I'm already pretty much beat.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son has had significantly less screen time these past few days and he's getting back into the mode where he doesn't want to be on the computer nearly as much.   School has started and he needs to be on screens much less at this point, so that's a good thing.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter keeps asking to go for a motorcycle ride with her father.  They go slowly around the neighborhood, but it's wind and feels so much faster than a bicycle.   We have, through a hand-me-down gift from a neighbor, a helmet that just fits her head and she loves wearing it. 

 

From Scratch

I'm building a 3D printer from scratch.   And by that, I mean completely from scratch.  I've had to source the parts and am working against a CAD model of an open-source design.   It's going to be the fastest, most powerful printer I have when I'm done and the only way you can have one of these printers is by building them yourself.  

No one is selling them.   I'm fairly lazy and would have partially preferred to just find one and buy it.   But the process of building it myself is going to teach me things about 3D printing I need to learn a lot about.   There are several areas I am hugely lacking in knowledge on, but I have one thing that's making that part seem less worrisome: I'm building the printer with a friend. 

This is an online 3D printing friend I've never met.   We're both undertaking the build at the same time and the fact that we have two of us working remotely but together is making the whole project seem much more friendly.   

It's going to be a long build as we have a lot going on, but since neither of us is in any hurry, it works out for both of us. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son has some very good friends online.  He plays games with them and because we can hear what he's saying, we know it's not a bad situation.   You never know who your child will meet online. 

The TIny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter "played dead" tonight when I came up to see if she was in bed.   She did such a good job she almost got away with it, with me changing her into pajamas and realizing just how much she's grown.   She couldn't keep from laughing though when the dog jumped on the bed, pounced on her, and licked her face.

Super Duper Dirty

My daughter really needed to wash her hair.   Badly.   I told her it was time, but then she had an invitation to go to the pool and I thought we might be able to get two things done at once.   She came home and when her hair was mostly dry I said I wanted to finish drying it so it would look nice and she wouldn't have to wash it again for several days. 

I got the hairdryer out and as I started to dry it, it was hard to brush through.   It was sort of stiff and was for lack of a better word, sticky.   I could lift up some, drop it down and it wouldn't fall like you would expect clean hair to fall.   It was most definitely not clean. 

Something she's been trying to do is wash her hair herself.   But she needs some lessons in how to wash all of her hair.   She puts the shampoo on the top of her head and scrubs that bit very well, but the rest of her hair doesn't get the cleaning it needs so I told her tonight we'd get her hair clean and I'd show her how to wash all the parts of her hair. 

When we started washing it tonight, the shampoo wasn't lathering at all which is a clear sign there is still dirt there.   We washed it a second time and then a third before it finally lathered up.   I don't know how her hair got so oily and dirty as it isn't particularly oily normally.   Once I dried it, it was light feeling, soft, and fell in lovely, blond sections by the time I finished drying it.  

Hopefully, we won't let it get this bad again.   Hopefully, she won't want it to get this bad again.

The Big Boy Update:  My son is in trouble and has no screens, even if he wants to work on something educational.   First off, last night at two in the morning he woke up and couldn't get back to sleep.   So he came down to our bedroom and got his iPad, where it charges.  His father went and got it about three minutes later.   Then, this morning, we found a big container of pretzels in his room—where food isn't allowed—as well as a collection of Oreos, some eaten and some still in the wrappers.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I asked my daughter how things were going with her and her friend Aditi.   They were having some difficult times with their relationship at the start of school.   She said they were getting better.   They had had some setbacks, she said, but things were moving to a happier friendship.  

Cleaners Cometh

It was cleaning up the house day.   It's not messy so much as it's dirty.   Or dusty perhaps.   And the bathrooms need more than a once over.   We have some people we use for real estate to come to the house and clean it tomorrow. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son happily cleaned his bed.   The top bunk is swarming with stuffed animals.   He managed to put even more on the bottom layer.   How he sleeps with them all in the way is beyond me. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter doesn't like cleaning her room, but when she sets her mind to it, she does a very thorough job.   Her room was far messier.   With a little help from her father and me we got it cleaned up enough so the cleaners stand a chance of vacuuming her carpet. 

Lots of Worry

My husband and I talked to Dhruti today about how things were going with the children.   She gave us an update on how they're doing and what we could do as parents to help with what they're feeling and going through as they navigate childhood. In short summary, here's what she said:

The Big Boy Worrying Update:

My son is cautious in temperament, Dhruti said.  He has always been this way.   He also is a protector and given that his sister is blind and has suffered through so many things, he worries about her.  He worries about a lot of things—things he shouldn't need to worry about as a child.   He wants to protect his sister, even though much of the time it seems like they're clashing.   If I think about it though, the clashing doesn't have to do with his care for her, it's just their personalities.  

He worries about her and wants to help.  And he worries about us, for instance, that we'll forget to pick her up from school.   That's an odd one because there would be no terrible consequence if we for some reason forgot her, but he worries.   

He also seems to want to tell her what to do, but we found out today that while his delivery and tone may need some work (he sounds like he's being critical and bossing her around at the same time) he really wants to help us, as parents, in taking care of her.  So we have some different ways to approach his behavior that will help him feel better about things while acknowledging his desire to help out. 

The Tiny Girl Friendship Chronicles:

My daughter's largest issue is the grief of losing her sight.   That processing is ongoing, but in addition is the relationship with her friend, Aditi, from school who is also blind.  My daughter is jealous of the sight Aditi has and wishes she had it.   And that has caused some hard feelings for her towards Aditi.   She also feels like Aditi is getting preferential treatment when the actual situation is Aditi has her own accommodations based on her vision and while they may seem like advantages to my daughter, they're just there to help maximize what Aditi can see in school so she can work more effectively. 

Dhruti said my daughter is feisty in temperament so if we want to get her engagement with something to phrase it so that my daughter can control the things within her control.   She can't control Aditi's sight or how Aditi acts.   But she can control how she feels about her and how she treats her.   When phrased in that way, my daughter figured out how to change things in her, and from that point, the relationship between the two of them began to improve. 

Dhruti said we can employ the same tactic at home with anything.  As long as we phrase it in such a way that my daughter can see what's in it for her, she'll figure out how she wants to handle the things.   We can approach things in a way that will achieve the same things responsibility and expectations-wise while letting her decide how she wants to act or take action.