Tired Feet

Halloween is over.  My husband single-handedly coordinated the entire neighborhood's events for the evening.   There were competitions, free things for the children, beverages for the adults and children, pizza for everyone, tables, chairs, plates, and napkins, plus games.  There were tents, some rented and some bought.  Tables and online voting for the pumpkin and house decorating competitions.   He's worked for weeks on it and heavily this past week.   People knew it was all him and he was very much appreciated for it.  

I was tired from helping in the small part that I did.   I don't know how he's still standing. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son went around the neighborhood with some friends.  For the past three years he's been off and away with friends and comes home with candy.  My daughter has gone with friends, but has needed assistance.  My son told us when he got home he waited and his friends and he "double dipped' and went to some houses more than once.  I think the houses knew, they mostly wanted to give out their candy so they didn't mind.  My son was in a pure black outfit with a lit outline in blue stick figure like.   He looked so good in the outfit.  It suited him. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter went around the neighborhood with her friend Ashley and a bit behind with Ashley's father and me trailing.   He and I had a nice time talking.   He's very nice and I like Monica, his wife, very much.   Monica was at home handing out candy.  My daughter was overly tired in the end, saying her feet hurt so much.  When she got home (she was a white witch in a beautiful white gown and hat) she put her feet in a cold bath for a few minutes before going to eat some candy. 

Unexpected Turn of Events

I was approached by a filament company, who wanted to have a phone call to discuss some ideas after we had swapped a few emails.   I had some ideas and had been trying to think of what I could do that would be helpful to them and interesting to the viewers we have and are likely to build.  I had come up with a plan that I tried to explain over an email.   It was related to how 3D printing was beneficial to blind people because it gave them an opportunity to feel things they might otherwise not have a chance to see. 

I was all set for the call this afternoon but when we were a short bit into the call I realized they wanted something else entirely.   They weren't looking for me to come up with a way we could work together.   They liked our work so much they wanted to know if we would be interested in producing their marketing and filament materials. 

This was a bit of a shock when I realized what they wanted, not because we couldn't do it, but because what a big honor it was that they would consider us for the opportunity.   They came to us because they said we did such quality work and it was clear we knew how to show off filament.    

Couple this with it being my favorite filament company in the world, and it seemed like a filament dream come true.   We were on a video call for two-and-a-half hours, much longer than we had scheduled.   We left the meeting after I got a virtual tour of their production facility, asking all kinds of questions about how they produced filament and discovering how and why their filament is superior in many ways.  

We had the most relaxed, easy conversation with no definite commitments made, but the inference that we would be going ahead and working things out along the way.   We're meeting back in two weeks with more ideas and the goal to set a plan in place to begin work.  

I'm very honored they would pick us.  And I'm very excited to be able to help them.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son had his student led conference today in which he told us all about what he's been doing at school.   We know he does things here and there, but it was impressive hearing about all the things he's working on during the hours he's at school.   He did a very nice job of leading the conference with his teachers on a video call to join in and help if he needed any, but he had the whole conference covered. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter wants to go everywhere her father is going when he goes out—even when it's not convenient.   And that upsets her, even though her father has good reasons for needing to go without her on some of the trips.

Livestream

Is it livestream, live-stream, or live stream?  Merriam-Webster says it's livestream so I'm going with that.   Today I did a livestream.   For two-and-a-half hours I was live, doing an unboxing connecting, printing, problem solving, three camera and computer swapping between as I ope.ned up a product that has been highly awaited around the world. 

The setup in order to be able to do this is all new.   Most of the lighting, cameras and other equipment we've had, but putting it all together to do something where you're live and anything can go wrong is harrowing.   Plus, people might join that I don't know and they would comment and I would need to respond. 

I didn't announce the stream and I picked a time of day I suspected would cause no one to attend.   I intentionally made the livestream hard to find.   But people who are subscribed to the channel got notified and some joined.   We don't have many subscribers on YouTube, but we had sixteen attending.   I tried not to look nervous. 

Things went reasonably well but wow am I tired.  It's being constantly on for the entire duration.   You can't stop talking, because you're carrying on a one-way conversation the entire time.  I'm good at talking, but this was tough.  I'm definitely tired.  Tomorrow I'll know more about what to expect.   It wasn't as bad as I had expected.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has the next three school days off for student-led conferences and teacher workdays.   Tomorrow we get to hear about what he's been doing at school so far this year. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is so excited about raising money for her school.   She is glad money is going to the school, but her motivation is definitely about the prizes she gets for hitting certain tiers.   She wants to hit the highest tier.   She's going to have to work hard to get there, though.

It's Not...Okay, It Is...

Yep, it's two in the morning again.  But I had a nap during the day.  Today's challenge was getting livestreaming working so I can do an unboxing and first print tomorrow.  We thought we were prepared until YouTube told us we had to wait twenty-four hours after asking to do the first livestream.   Had we known this one day in advance, we could have pushed the button.   But now we know. 

YouTube gave us access less than a day later and we ran a hidden livestream tonight as a test, and things seemed to go well.   Was I terrified?  Absolutely, and I only had my husband and one friend in the stream. I have a massive table in the print room only there is so much I need to have on that table for the unboxing and first print that I'm going to have to put things on the floor. 

Tomorrow I'm going to try to see if I can do this.  I may have the stream hidden and if all goes to hell then I'll delete it or edit it or do something with it.  Regardless, it will be experience, and that's something I need a lot of.   

My friend said I sounded natural.   I was hiding behind lots of words.  When I get nervous I talk even more than I normally do. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Dinner Time Update:  Getting the family together for dinner all at the same time has proven to be a challenge.  One of the challenges is me as I get stuck in the basement.   My husband is too flexible on this I think.  He needs to be the hammer more and get us all at the table at the same time.  He works so hard to cook healthful food for us.   He's pretty amazing.

In Person!

Yesterday I got to meet another "Maker" as the term goes for people who do 3D printing.   He and I met on Discord, which is an online group chat platform.   There are people in this particular channel which is all about 3D printing.   There are people from all around the world, hundreds in fact in this group.   

I've met people from Russia, Romania, South Africa, England, Australia and all over the US.   As it turns out, one of the people lives quite close to us.   I had a printer I was wanting to find a good home for and I asked if he'd be interested some time back.  He and his family were going to the beach this past week and on the way home they planned to stop by and pick up the printer. 

He and his family were lovely and I had just the best time talking about all sorts of 3D printing things.   It was really nice talking to someone who loves 3D printing as much as I do.

The Big Boy Update:  My son either loves to give me a hug or he is way too old and cool for hugs anymore. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's teachers are saying she's having the best week of the year.   I'm not sure why, but I'm glad she's enjoying school.   

It Is Not Two AM Again

Okay, it is.   We keep running into late nights with the videos we put out.   We're working on starting earlier, but we have other things that keep us from getting to final filming until later.   The models were finished yesterday, we just had to set up the set, do the main filming with the models, get the lighting right, edit everything, do the voice work, add captioning, upload, tag, wait for the YouTube video to render in 4K, publish, and I am sure I'm forgetting many other steps.   

But we have it down and it's not that hard to do, it just takes a while.  And now I'm tired, so I'm going to bed. 

The Massage Update:  Sheila comes every other Monday and my children look forward to her now.   They get on her table and ask to have their audio book playing while she takes twenty minutes to forty minutes with each of them.   They don't groan when they hear Sheila is coming and they don't argue about who has to go first.   They like taking turns.   

The Track Out Fib

My daughter stayed over at Nana and Papa's house last night.   She called and was worried she wouldn't have time to finish her last book before Monday.  We told her it would be okay.   She was worried, because we told her the reading and math sent home was not optional and she had put off doing most of it until the last week of track out.  

In actuality, Brady, my daughter's Braillist, sent home some work to help with her math and reading practice, but the work wasn't required.   Tonight I sent an email to all of my daughter's teachers, asking them if they wouldn't mind supporting us with the mandatory expectation.   If my daughter comes home cross tomorrow, we'll know they saw her before getting to the email. 

The teachers don't have access to email during track out periods.   At least I believe that's the situation.   Perhaps they're encouraged to take the time and not open email.  I do know that in the past we don't get a response until after the quarter has begun. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's fingers get tired reading braille.  I suggested when she's tired to read one more page.  Over time she can build more stamina and read for longer periods.  She happily told me yesterday that she had read two extra pages when her fingers were tired. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son says he's a nicer person when he's not on screens.   It was an interesting insight.   He tried very hard not to get angry when he had to get offline for a meal or other activity this weekend.   He almost lost his temper several times but he pulled it back and was polite every time.  

The Horror Show

Mrs. Aagaard came over today to do a "horror show" with the children.   The adults (my husband and in-laws who had come for the event) weren't allowed to be around for the preparation.   They worked for some time in the kitchen and then we were greeted by two children covered up in shawls who spoke in a low, grumbling voice that we had to put on blindfolds before we could enter the den of horror. 

Or something along those lines, I think.   We donned blindfolds and felt our way upstairs, all thinking this is what it's like for my daughter to move around the house all day every day.   When we made it to the top of the stairs we were told by Mrs. Aagaard that we could have waited to put the blindfolds on until we were upstairs.   But no matter, we had made it.   

We felt our way to the table and then were told that Count Dracula had drank the blood of one of his victims and we were about to feel the remains.   The poor victim had fallen to pieces and we had the opportunity to feel some of them.   But, since it was a horrific thing, we had to remain blindfolded so we wouldn't die of fright. 

Bowls were passed around which contained: the eyes, ears, teeth, bones, hair, heart, toes, liver, gall bladder, brains, toe, and tongue.   

Each one was very well done and we exclaimed our horror and fright at each and remarked at the realism of the items.   The children were having such a good time coming around, showing us the bowls and speaking in their low, ominous voices.   

After the show was complete we asked if we could guess what each was.   We got almost all of them but there were a few surprises.    They were clever.  

Here were the results:

Hair - Cat hair

Eyes - Peeled grapes

Ears - Dried apricots

Teeth - Candy corn (some broken due to terrible dental health!)

Intestines - Cooked spaghetti

Fingers - Baby carrots

Bones - Breadsticks

Heart - Balloon connected to a baster through the bottom of the paper bowl (still beating!)

Liver - Ziplock bag filled with warm water, olive oil added to the outside

Gall Bladder - Balloon filled with corn kernels, oiled (so many gallstones!)

Brains - Oatmeal with just a bit of water

Tongue - Balloon filled with kinetic sand, stretched into shape

Toes - Ladyfingers dipped in water at one end

The Big Boy Update:  The children went to Nana and Papa's house for dinner and an overnight stay today. My son didn't want to stay but we sent a bag of clothes just in case.  He called after dinner and apologized that he wasn't going to come home and was it okay if he stayed?  So sweet. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter had the best time with Mrs. Aagaard today.   She dearly loves her retired Braillist.   We are so very fortunate to remain in touch with her.  She is very special to our entire family.   My son thinks she's wonderful too.  

To Punish and to Reward

My children have had a lot of consequences in their recent lives.   Privileges have been taken away including Alexa usage, screen time, being able to play with their friends, no dessert, and being grounded.  It's not fun as an adult to give a child a punishment, but it's a necessary part of parenting as you teach your child what is important, behavior-wise. 

You know you're making the right choice if the consequence is one the child is particularly upset about.   A punishment that they don't really care about means they're not learning the important lesson of not doing the particular behavior or actions again.  

Grounding is the most recent option we've been using because both children really dislike having to stay in their rooms.   Or at least initially they do.  

We're trying to reward them as well when their behavior is positive, especially with respects to each other. Both my son and daughter got an unexpected reward for their good behavior last night.   My son got to pick the dinner we would have, which was Chinese food.  The rest of us got to reap the benefits of his reward in this case.

The Big Boy Update:  My son told me today that he thought the no screen time on week days was a good thing, because he thought he was a nicer person when he wasn't on screens a lot.  He is very right about that.   He said he didn't understand why it was so.  We don't understand it either. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter got to go to the fair again today with her father.   She was so happy to have some more time to eat the fair foods and mostly to ride the rides again in the early morning when there were few people around and no lines to speak of. 

Getting Along (For Now)

My children have had a very good night.   Not only have they not been rude or defiant or cranky or petty or selfish or any other childhood behaviors in that vein, but they've actively been playing together and having fun.  

There is some game with Pokemon cards.  My daughter is so glad to be involved and my son is liking being the leader of the game since they're his cards.   

They don't want to go to bed because they're still playing, but it's gotten too late to let them keep on. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is good about playing games with his sister in a way that doesn't require her to see.   He just does this as a matter of course and doesn't think anything about it's unusual. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is so excited about her Pokemon cards in the game tonight.   They are all the same feeling pieces of paper, and yet her imagination takes her through and it doesn't matter that she can't see them. 

Time Just Expands

I have a dentist appointment at 7:40 in the morning, so my husband and I were going to finish our filming and video publishing to make sure we were done early.   It is now two in the morning, the time it seems we always finish and get videos posted.   We're not being lazy, we put three videos out today total, but the one main video we release three times each week always seems to take us late into the night as we work to get it just right. 

Things are paying off as we're hearing from content creators who want to work with us and companies who are asking to send us products and to do business with us.   We have a reputation for high-quality, entertaining and fun content.   But boy is it work.  

It sure is a good thing I love doing it.   I sure hope my husband does too...

The Big Boy Update:  My son accidentally brought his lunch camping stool that they take every day over to the art museum home with him.  It was in need of repairs but for some reason he got frustrated at me for trying to fix it.   I fixed it and emailed his teacher offering to fix the other stools if they were also in need of repairs.   Some of the repairs involved tightening screws that were about to fall out.   But there were also parts that needed replacing. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I've gotten my daughter interested in Ello, a LEGO-like product released a number of years back that failed.   I like it quite a lot and wish there was more to be had.   My daughter and I worked on one of the sets I have tonight.   She didn't like it at first but she's getting into it now that she understands how it all hooks together.  

Less Than Six Feet

We went to the fair mid-afternoon today with my in-laws, daughter, and son who we got out of school early.   The hope is the crowds wouldn't be bad.   It turned out to be more crowded than I would have liked, but it wasn't as bad as the weekend would have been.  

We run a higher risk of getting COVID-19 just from the sheer numbers of people we were around.   We kept our distance where possible and wore our masks when we weren't eating, but there is still the potential for infection.  

As much as we tried to keep our distance, it just wasn't possible at all times to stay six feet apart.  You can leave that amount of space in front of you but when there are people passing on the left and right in the other direction you have to give in to less distance than the recommended amount. 

We weren't around any person closer than six feet for more than fifteen minutes.  We wore our masks.   We washed our hands.   But we were still in a public place, touching things other people had touched on occasion.  There is a higher chance than if we'd stayed home.   

It was a chance we decided to take.   There are a lot of chances being taken now that the children are back in school just from all the daily interaction there.  Amazon is still my best friend, but not everything can or should be bought online.   Risks have to be taken at some point and after weighing the benefits and risks, we decided to all go. 

The Big Boy Update:  When we picked up my son he was very cross at us.   When we arrived and he got some roasted corn he changed attitudes and was suddenly happy about being at the fair. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was an "old pro" at the fair after going last Thursday.  She might be blind, but she remembers where everything is and what the options to eat and do are.   She is like me, a fair enthusiast through and through. This very fair on the same grounds is what I spent my Octobers going to all through my early childhood into an adult with children of my own. 

The Lesser of Two COVID-19 Evils

We're taking my son out of school early tomorrow.   We thought about this and decided it would be the lesser of two potential evils.  The state fair is back this year after missing last year due to the pandemic.   My husband and daughter went the morning of opening day and had a good time with almost no crowds at all.   

We knew any other time there would be much larger attendance, but we wanted to take my son, who was disappointed his sister got to go and he didn't.   We weren't about to take him on the weekend and later in the afternoon would be only more crowds, so we decided to get him out of school a bit early and go with my in-laws 

We told his teachers and they understood.   Tomorrow, we'll see if the crowds are manageable and how many people are wearing masks still.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son remembered without being told that he had to put up all his laundry before he could have free roam of the house or go outside to play with friends when he got home.   He went up, finished is laundry and didn't complain at all when he got home. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter told me her stomach was all buzzing around.  Why?  Because she is so excited about going to the fair again tomorrow. 

Not Getting Along

My Son's Perspective:  My son attacked his sister again today, suddenly and without provocation.  She had a sword that was "his" even though she had just found it in the bottom of a bin of Halloween things.   He contended she stole it with malice and intention.  I told him she absolutely did not, that I'd put the sword in the bin after having it sit around downstairs for a long time.

My son, after extensive discussion in which he became more withdrawn, said his sister intentionally tries to make him angry all the time.  He says he hates her.   He's said that more than once recently, but only when he's mad.  

He said she always gets away with things because she goes into the I'm a perfect little innocent girl mode. I don't know if it's related to her being blind, he doesn't seem to relate it to that, only that she tries to bother him all the time. 

My Daughter's Perspective:  My daughter wasn't having a good day either.   She was wailing and moaning when I came in to find out what the status of her laundry was.   She was upset about losing her blue eyes (they are scarred and are now grey).  She told me, "Mom, I feel muted.   Because my mind is on one thing but I'm talking about another, so it feels like my mind is taking over so I'm not focusing on the things I want to focus on".   She doesn't like any part of her body other than her ears, her nose, and her mouth, she said.   She also said her brother irritates her all the time too.   This is childhood, the lessens she learns now will carry her forward through life, although I hate that she's seemingly so sad right now.   That being said, she just bounded downstairs, apparently completely over the sadness.  

Just Crazy

It's five in the morning and I still haven't gone to bed, so this will be quick.   We've had a video go viral.   And by viral, I mean viral for us.  It's a short, twenty-five second video I quickly recorded and uploaded on July 15th.  What triggered it to start being watched again is totally unknown.  Usually #shorts videos are just that, short-lived. 

We've close to doubled our subscribers and have now hit a thousand watch hours, which is all kinds of crazy because we put out one-minute videos.   We're almost at 500,000 views on the video and it just keeps ticking up.  

I have no explanation on why it's happened, but I'm not complaining. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Gone Update:  My children are with Nana and Papa tonight.  And the dog.  The dog goes absolutely crazy when Nana arrives.   Nana takes such good care of her. 

One Hundred Hours

I'm building a printer.   There are printer builds and there are printer BUILDS.   This one is of the latter type.   You can't buy one of these printers, you have to build it yourself as the design is open source.   The only thing you can do that helps get you partway to starting is there are companies that are collecting the items from the Bill of Materials list.  

Even that won't get you everything you need though, because a significant portion of the printer is 3D printed parts themselves.   You can print the parts yourself, but they're with a type of plastic that can't be printed by a lot of the printers most people have.   But there's a solution to that. 

There's a, "Print it Forward" program where you can get printed parts from someone who has already completed building their printer.  They use their printer to print parts for another printer just like it.   Then, when you have your printer built, you print parts for someone else who is building their own printer.   

There is a third option, which is to buy the printed parts from several groups selling full sets of printed parts on eBay.  Given that you need an enclosure to print the parts due to the type of plastic required, I went with the eBay option.   There are a few parts I've printed myself based on changes I decided to go with from the base spec, but the number of parts is small and the printer I have that is enclosed can handle them easily. 

I estimate it will take me close to a hundred hours to complete the build.  Possibly longer to tune the printer.  It's been fun and I've learned far more about 3D printers by building one.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son had to clean up all the things he had strewn around his room and down the hall today after school before he could have any screen time.  It's amazing how quickly he worked, knowing he couldn't get on the computer until it was done. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter had to clean up the back yard with all the balloons she's had outside filled with water.   The yard was a mess from all the things left behind.   I've gotten tired waiting for children to take home their belongings.   I threw away shoes and clothes that have been around for upwards of four months in some cases.   My daughter is going to warn anyone who comes over that things left longer than a week will be thrown away.  I threw away six pair of shoes today.   There are four pair still remaining that are reasonably new.   How do these children go home without their shoes?!

This Baffles Me

This was on our car at lunch yesterday.  I know this type of information is being shared around the nation. This is the first I've seen of it myself.   I have very close friends who are medical professionals and pharmacological researchers who have been dealing with the medical side of COVID-19.  They went into their fields because they care about their patients and want to help people, not harm them.  I'm not sure how the collective medical body could be staging such a horrific fate on our nation such as this flier claims. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son had a hard time complying with his grounding over the past two days.   He brought lots of things into his room.   The room is protected by a vast array of pens and pencils he ran out and grabbed from the craft room.   He didn't get into another fight today, though.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter got to go to the state fair with her father today.  She is now tall enough to ride all the rides.  It was the first day and they went at opening and there were no crowds at all so my daughter got to ride many of the rides again and again.  She brought me fudge.  

Only One Window

I thought I'd started a blog post tonight.  I was sure of it.   But things get busy around here on my computer and that involves lots of windows opened.   I have a big monitor.   It's wide such that I can fit three full windows side-by-side.   It took some getting used to when I first got the monitor because things would be off to the left or right beyond where I could easily see them just by shifting my eyes.   I had to learn to turn my head ever so slightly to see what was in the left and right window space.  

Three windows is a lot.   But I needed more space.   I could have windows opened behind other windows, but it's easier to swipe left or right and have a whole new screen space available.  I filled up one desktop as they're called,  with slicer programs, another with Internet browser pages and two more, okay sometimes three more with other programs and tools. 

I have a lot open typically.   I don't like to have something open if I'm not actively using it, but I tend to be actively using a lot of things, so I spread them out and I can get to everything fairly easily.   The one thing that does tend to pile up though are web browser tabs.   Not that long ago we had one window and we could go to one web page.   If we wanted to go somewhere else, we left the page we were on and went to the new page.  Today you can have as many pages open as you'd like at once. 

If I'm not sure if I'm done with something, maybe it's reference or email or one of the remote printer utilities, or shopping, or filament settings, or you name it, instead of closing the tab, I leave it there and add a new tab.   Sometimes I even need to have multiple web-based windows up simultaneously so I have three windows with numerous tabs all open at once.

Today, as I was closing fifteen or twenty tabs, I remembered back to the day where we had one window to browse the World Wide Web.   And the time before that when we had one screen that was the interface to everything happening on our computer at once, which wasn't much, because the computers back then couldn't process more than one thing at a time.  

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Grounded Execution:  After school today, after their father had gotten home and picked up my son from school, the children went into their rooms to be grounded for the rest of the day.   My daughter was doing fine, but my son just had to get angry about something.   He left the room multiple times and caused another fight with his sister.   He will continue his grounding after school tomorrow.

I Think I'm Going to Cry

My daughter and I took some time today to go to Frankie's, a fun park with loads of games and ticket rendering amusements.   We had a wonderful time, which I'll sum up in my daughter's words: "I think I'm going to cry."   

Now that doesn't sound happy, until you know the next thing, which was, "of happiness."

Guests are arriving in five minutes so I'll cut this short for the night. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is mad because someone else picked the same Mystery History historical person as he did.   He picked it an hour earlier, though, and he feels like he should win.   I don't know what they'll decide at school tomorrow.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter loves the games that give out tickets.  I don't know how she does it, being happy with so little.   Most of the games involve pulling a lever or pushing a button and the rest is timing—timing she can't see.   But she had a great day, and I suppose that's all that matters. 

There Must Be a Test Or Something

The children aren't allowed to eat anything in the living room.  My daughter doesn't particularly care, but my son is forever trying to bend the rules when he's watching something on the television, sneaking just beyond the border of the kitchen and sometimes even making it to the couch.   I know this because of the crumbs.  

Tonight, I was getting a massage with the massage therapist who comes to work with the children and me and my daughter wanted to make a, "Mini Meal" something she got from Nana.   She wanted to show me her mini meal so badly, but she also wanted to eat it.  

Eventually, Shelia and I relented and let her come in carefully to show the very small portions of several things on a plate she was going to have as a post-dinner snack.   While she was preparing the mini meal she was talking to Shelia, explaining that children aren't allowed to eat in the living room.   But, she said, adults could.   Then she added, "there must be a test or something."

The Fight:  My husband is out of town.   The children wanted to talk to him so badly that they got into a true brawl over who could have the phone.   Their father eventually hung up as a statement.   They have been grounded. 

The Team Building Corn Maze

While my husband was working today, my children and I went to a local farm for an event with other visually impaired children.   We arrived to find out the friends my daughter had hoped would be there couldn't make it.   We had the three of us and decided to go it on our own as opposed to wait at the front since other people were arriving and we wanted to get to the corn maze early. 

Because we arrived at opening we were able to get right into the corn maze with no wait.  I was worried it would be a very long maze given what we've done in the past, but was pleasantly surprised when she said it was estimated to be only a half-hour.  

What was also different was how you proceeded through the maze.  Instead of running around and hoping you're going in the right direction, you walked through the path and its brief offshoots until you found a number on a stand.   Then you looked at your page of questions on teambuilding.   The quiz questions gave you directions on which way to go next.   If you got it correct, you made it to the next number, if not, you would spend more time looking for the right way until you returned to an earlier number.  

We were doing well when for some reason my daughter, upon hearing people behind us, decided she wanted to hurry so they didn't catch up to us.  My son just wanted to run ahead so he could find the next number and then pretend like he hadn't, hiding it with his body until we arrived and (pretended to) look confused. 

We made it out in the stated thirty minutes and then had food from a food truck and did some more fun farm things before heading home.  It was a sunny day out, something we haven't done much of in the last two years. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son wanted to control things today.   He wanted to control all the aspects of the corn maze and the kettle corn bag and the location we sat and, just everything.   He must need to feel in control of his life or something around him.   His sister was getting annoyed with him.  Heck, I was getting annoyed with him and he was directing a lot of the control at her.   She doesn't like to be controlled. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I wanted my daughter to feel how corn leaves could be sharp if you ran through them quickly as well as what an ear of corn on a stalk felt like.   She liked how the corn grew on the stalks, thought how the roots came out of the ground but completely ignored the leaf comment and proceeded to run through as much of the maze as she could reasonably see, which wasn't much.  Fortunately, corn mazes are fairly forgiving and she just popped through the other side of the row.

Early and Late to Bed

I have two children and each of them has a different preference on when they want to go to bed.  My daughter has preferred to go to bed.   Well, perhaps not preferred, she's fallen asleep typically before the rest of us.   She's fallen asleep everywhere.   My daughter is an excellent sleeper. 

My son can stay up very late.  He says he's just not tired.  We've let him stay up late on the weekend.  I don't know if that'a good or a bad thing, but he prefers it and it's nice having him in the basement with us, even if he has headphones on at the computer the whole time. 

Tomorrow, when the three of us are sleeping in, my daughter will be up and about.   She will probably come to check on us to see when we're getting up. 

The Tiny Girl Helpful Morning:  My daughter will come in lately, get the dog, let her out, let her back in, feed her and then let her out a second time.   She'll do this if we're sleeping on the weekend.  It's very nice to have her offer to help. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son has no interest in doing things for the dog.  Every so often, under near duress he will do something for the dog.   He does like her, I just don't think he's a dog person.   

That's How Filming Goes

I asked my daughter if she wanted to help me tonight with a video we were working on for Filament Stories.  She likes to help and both children love to be in the videos.   Granted, only their hands are in the videos to date, but they love to be involved.  

She said yes and then proceeded to be very cranky about me not explaining what she was meant to do immediately.   I told her I was still figuring it out and I wanted to talk it over with her father, who had just returned from the store with her on an epic trek across grocery stores late at night to find the dry ice my husband had forgotten to get earlier in the day. 

As we planned out the shot we practiced.   She was to hand me three small cups which contained small bits of cut-up filament.   I would say things and then we would try again.   She was so not interested in the process.   She wanted to do something, not wait to do something. 

I told her that's how filming worked and I understood it might be boring, but we had to prepare before we filmed.   And once we filmed, we learned things we wouldn't have realized until we started filming, and then we filmed again.  

We realized a while later that she was very tired as it was after eleven P.M. and sent her to bed.   I think we moved away from the dry ice idea and went with the option I had come up with.   I don't know if she's going to want to be involved tomorrow.   Filming moves too slow for her. 

The Big Boy Update:  It's always good to hear when your child likes his name.  I heard my son say to someone online today, "you know my middle name?"  Apparently, the friend didn't because he said, "it's Fox."  There was a bit of pride in his voice when he said it.   I really do love his middle name. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter, my blind daughter, has been up in the attic, finding the Halloween decorations, bringing them downstairs, and decorating the house.   I've said it before, but she is so very capable.   Beat up from hitting things all day, every day.  But capable.   And nothing stops her.  She was in the trampoline with three teenage boys who got angry with each other.   There was a tussle (they are siblings) and she calmly sat on the trampoline mat until they had worked things out.

A Social Experiment

Tonight we decided to put LEGOs together with the children.  My husband and daughter had been working on one model, The Tower of Terror Disney ride as envisioned in small, colorful bricks for a while now.  The stopped working on it for a number of months, but with Halloween barreling down on us and the ride being a spooky one, they decided to pick it back up. 

My son wanted to do a model too and so he pulled out the Infinity Gauntlet from The Avengers movies.   Only my son didn't want his sister to know what he was working on.   He came to find me and wanted me to not tell her, saying it was, "a social experiment."   I told him I didn't agree with his decision not to tell her, that she would know if only she could see. 

I advocated for her for a while without saying what the model was, which upset my son.  He went on to tell her she could guess, but would only give hints when she wasn't paying attention.   And he would only give her one guess per hint. 

This went on while my daughter put together their model as her father handed her pieces on one side of the table while I organized and handed my son pieces and he put his model together.   She didn't get it, mostly because the hints weren't that helpful and she didn't know enough about the movie as she hadn't seen it.   She would have only picked up on it from games the two of them had played, although we do have a very large Infinity Gauntlet that Mimi and Gramps gave my son—which is loud, but apparently fun. 

Later, when LEGO time was over, I asked my daughter if she was upset by it and I was surprised.  She said she had wished I didn't say anything, because the game was fun to her.   From prior experiences with things like this with her, that is the last thing I would have expected her to say.   My son had been selfish and secretive in a way that was unfair to her due solely because of her lack of sigh.   But she was fine with it.   Sometimes, you just don't know what the right thing to do is. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Dog Barking Event:  My son became very upset when I yelled at the dog tonight, hustling her into the house and telling her to go into her cage.   He thought I was going to hurt her.   I was trying to scare the dog because she had aggressively gone after a man when she saw me come out to bring her in due to barking.   She is highly fearful but in this case had turned protective and scared at the same time and it redlined her.   She is too gentle a dog to do anything intentionally.   But scared and defensive and she would have nipped at the man if she had been off her lead.   

The children got a lesson from us about what happens to dogs that bite people.  My son was hateful and wanting revenge on anyone who would put a dog to sleep over that.   He didn't understand initially why it is a better, safer place when we know there are consequences for humans who keep dogs who can attack, or worse still, are trained to attack.   They could only picture their sweet, kind dog and the horror of having her put to sleep (or killed, as my son said we should call it.). My daughter couldn't bear to hear about it.   We told them it wasn't a common occurrence, but it was something we had to be very aware of because sometimes the dog gets so scared she flips into this strange aggressive mode—and that is not something we can condone.   We're working on it with the dog.  Things have evolved while she matured during COVID-19 and the lack of socialization has made things more complicated given her fearfulness.   

Ugh

I don't know if it's from the injection or if it's just one of those days that's awful, but my back has been in spasms since yesterday not that long after the injection.   It really might not be related; these things just happen with my spine.  There's too much in play.  

The other thing that never goes well for me is getting my hair done.   The chair at the salon, and I've been to multiple as the person who does my hair has moved locations twice, is never, ever comfortable.   Especially when you have to sit there for several hours while she makes my hair less frizzy or less grey, or both.  

Tomorrow I will hopefully have a calmer back.

The Big Boy Update:  My son asked very sweetly and nicely if he could do "a test" to see if he could get on the computer and then get off without complaining.  He said sadly that his friends got more screen time than he did.   I question that, but regardless, it's how he feels and it upsets him that he can't be online with them. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and I worked on planning her birthday party today.   We're not sure about all the details, but it absolutely must be a fidget party, she said. 

Injection

I had an injection in my spine today.  Well, the neck part of my spine.   It's supposed to make things hurt less, but so far, it's been a very rough day.   I would write a lot tonight but I need to go lie down.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son wants to be at school.  It is more interesting and he likes that there are things to do at school.   We've had a talk with him because there are so very many things to do here.  I won't go into a long listing of them, but trust me when I say there are untapped resources for him here that have never been tapped.   Not having screens since school started has been a change for my son.   Tonight he did one of these things to do and I think he had fun.  I caught him in his bedroom later with LEGOs in his bed and a creative ideas book working close to eleven o'clock. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was picked up by Dan today and went to get her friend Grace, who is also visually impaired, from school.   When I came to get her later they were surprised to find her learning how to use the braillewriter she had never wanted to try (her impairment is different).   She was asking all about how to spell things and was voraciously learning braille up to the time we left an hour later. 

My Mother Made Me Mash My M&M's

My daughter went to try out to see if she would be interested in being in a girls' choir today.   We heard about it from our friends who's visually impaired daughter and her sister are members.   I was fairly certain she would want to join (she does) but I gave her today to evaluate it and see. 

It was a strange feeling, going back to my college where the chorus practiced.  I drive by the campus as I take my daughter to and from school, but it's at a distance.   When I drove down the front drive I noticed how much the trees had grown over the decades since I was a student.   It was the same campus though and it brought back memories. 

We went into a building that I'd been in so many times.   I started going there when I was a child, taking violin when I was very small, and then later piano lessons. We walked by rehearsal hall where I'd competed in a piano competition I remember well.   I spent more time there as I grew older because my mother worked at the college, and then later, I went to school there myself.   

Good memories.   Good times.   I hope my daughter enjoys the chorus.

The Big Boy Update:  My son almost walked three miles to school today due to attitude.   He got part-way out of the neighborhood before he decided to change his attitude.  I told him I wasn't able to follow him slowly in the car because it wouldn't be safe on the bigger road so he would need to stay on the side in the grass.   He got in the car. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter oddly told me today she does remember something from the very first time she was in the hospital when her eyes collapsed on her.   She was woken up in the middle of the night to prick her finger.  I was asleep.  She hated having her finger pricked, she told me.   She remembered eating some candy that was on the nightstand her brother had sent to her.   I had no idea she remembered anything at all from those very scary first days when she lost the bulk of her vision.  

The Crash

After last night's Halloween decoration journey around the neighborhood I knew my daughter was frustrated.   She wants to be able to do things and she hates that she can't do what the rest of us do easily.   Today she was running in and out of the house, talking with friends who had come over and were on the trampoline and generally having a good day.

I had forgotten about last night when I came upstairs and heard her crying on our bed.  I went in to find her in a ball with my husband beside her.   She didn't want me to know what happened, but a short while later she must have decided it was okay, because the story came out. 

I'm presuming here, but she went back out on her bicycle.  I can't imagine how she does it, being able to see almost nothing and what she can see is not always helpful.  But she wanted to ride her bicycle.   She also wants to ride fast.   It is an exercise in parental fear to see her pedaling about, seemingly not worrying while you want to scream the whole time, "Stop!  To the left!  Go slower!  STOP STOP STOP!"  Like that, but on constant repeat. 

When she's in an area she knows well, she does okay, but today her location discerning skills must have been off because she crashed into a mailbox going fairly fast.   She had a bandage on the bottom of her right eye socket, that being where her face made contact and her glasses, while protective of her eyes, smashed into her face. 

I don't think it will stop her from riding her bicycle, but it might make her take more care.   I need to find a place where she can just ride in an open area and be free.   She just wants to be free. 

The Big Boy Update:  My daughter is spending the night with Nana and Papa tonight.  For some reason, even though his sister is in an entirely different room down the hall, when she's not here he's not comfortable going to sleep in his room alone.  It's past eleven o'clock now and we've only just got him up to bed.   He may come back down again though.  He's scared in an odd way that's sort of sweet in how his sister makes him feel safe, just knowing she's there. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter told us today when she was crying after running into the mailbox that she just wants friends.   She has a lot of friends, but they are one of the most important things in the world to her. 

The Very Scary Halloween Decoration Viewing

After dinner my children wanted to go look at the decorations already up at houses around us.   Fine, my husband and I said.  Not fine, we said about them wanting to ride their bicycles to do so.   But they insisted.   And it was a disaster on multiple fronts. 

My daughter wanted to ride out in front, only she couldn't see what was there, so a lot of yelling happened to tell her to stop and her not wanting to stop.  My son was riding in front of her to get her to stop, which made it even more dangerous.  

Everyone was telling her to be careful, my son was riding off, my daughter was going where she wanted to go, the dog was pooping on a neighbor's yard while we were trying to show my daughter an interesting decoration and everything was all higgledy piggedly. 

When we returned I told them it was a good idea but I knew it was highly frustrating for my daughter and scary for her father and me.   Next time, I said, we were walking to look at decorations.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son wanted to help tonight, to be a parent, to take care of his sister.   But his way of doing so only made her angry and more resolved to do what she wanted to do. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to be independent tonight.  She almost ran into parked cars at a decent speed and mailboxes and drainage openings.   It was so scary for us.  For her, she just wanted to be free.   I can't blame her.

I Can Help...No I Can't

I'm still catching up from the night I got no sleep two nights ago.   I was doing well today until I got to the point where I wasn't.   At about six-thirty this evening I lay down, telling my daughter if she needed me to let me know and I'd help.   

Sure enough, just as I'd fallen well and truly asleep to the point where my brain was confused upon hearing my name, my daughter came in and needed help.   I told her something and she went away.   But she came back, at just the point where I had fallen asleep to that same point of confusion.   I felt so badly that I couldn't wake up enough to help her.   

When I woke up later, she was fast asleep on the floor in the basement beside her father who was on the sofa.  I helped her to bed and cried, telling her I was so sorry I had failed her today and hadn't helped her.   She said it was fine and that I hadn't failed her.   I don't know why, but I just feel like I should have been there to help her.   She was very sweet.   I told her in the morning I would help her with the birthday present she had been making for her friend, Keira. 

The Big Boy Update:  When my daughter has friends knock on the door she runs outside, when my son has friends knock on the door after having zero screens for the week just as he gets home from school, a near meltdown occurs.   I told him to tell them I needed his help (I did) but moreover, I knew how much he wanted to get online and see what he had missed all week because we wouldn't let him turn on his computer. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to give Keira something for her birthday, but since we didn't have anything to give her, she decided to make her something.   She is blind, but that doesn't stop her.   Nothing stops my daughter.    She made her a notebook using the binding machine we have.