Five Days Away, No Worries

My son is leaving in the morning to go to Washington, DC.  He's looking forward to going and isn't worried at all.  He and his father packed everything up and tonight, because they were closed today and there's nothing like the last minute, I cut my son's hair before he took a shower to get the hair bits off him. He was naked and it was about the most humorous hair cutting you could imagine because he was trying to dance around naked and I was trying not to hack his hair to bits.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son made things even more laughable because I gave him a makeup large brush that had baby powder on it so he could brush the hair off him that for some reason sticks all over him.  He was dancing around and patting himself with the hairbrush.   I hope his hair isn't too badly cut. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I got my daughter an entire new wardrobe today at Target.  She had no shorts at all that fit and her pants were far too short as well as the shirts were too tight.  Target had everything she needed, including a bathing suit and some additional bras.   I put so many things away from her room, some of which had been there since she moved out from the shared room with her brother. 

Everything Everywhere All at Once

I saw a movie today.   I don't usually, rarely, hardly ever go to the movies but this one was one that I couldn't pass up.   It was a sci-fi film involving alternate universes and timelines.  It was a comedy.   And it starred Michelle Yeoh.   That was a combination I just couldn't pass up.  

So this evening we went with Uncle Bob, Uncle Brian and my mother-in-law to see the movie.  We ordered food that was brought to us.  Note to self: do not order sampler platters with four dips and four items that you can't see in the dark.   And we watched the movie. 

It was good.  It was crazy.  It was unique.   My mother-in-law said she thought it was a chick flick.  My husband and I weren't so sure.  Uncle Bob thought it was one.  Uncle Brian said he didn't think it really was.   Either way, it was nice to get out.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son took Adderall short acting today against his will, or mostly against it because he didn't want to take it, but we've been having such difficulty getting him to be successful at home we thought we'd try it.  Things went okay.  Neither bad, but maybe not a completely different day.   We may need to do more investigation.  He said he wanted to be able to eat.  He doesn't like losing his appetite.   He did fold his laundry (which took hours but he watched television) and no one yelled at anyone.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter said she was not going to do her laundry.  No way.  She said she was tired (at eleven in the morning). I said if she was tired she didn't need her Alexa because she would be sleeping.   I took it and in a while, she yelled down that she would do the laundry if I gave her her Alexa back.  I said this was not a negotiation.   Then she came downstairs, said I was the worst person in the world, tried (rather feebly) to choke me, and said she wished I was dead.   Things did not get any better for her after that.  I summarised her actions, starting with me politely asking her to do the laundry up until the point where she threatened my life.   All her decision.   She grumbled.  I didn't budge.   She did her laundry and then acted very nice to me for the rest of the day. 

Family Time

It is so nice to have family visiting again.   It seems like such a long time since we regularly had people in the house and visitors from our family come to stay with us.   Some of our favorite visitors are Uncle Bob and Uncle Brian and they are here this weekend, which is just wonderful. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter had such a good time with Bob and Brian today.  She went on a walk with them and then out to Chipoltle with them for lunch.  Then she went to a baseball game and had all sorts of things to eat as well as bought tattoos all by herself.  She came home full of energy—and then fell asleep early tired from all the activity.

The Big Boy Update:  We are trying to be kind to my son and he is trying to do his responsibilities so that he isn't corrected.   He's doing partially well and then sometimes failing at things.  He's not doing well at accepting responsibility for his actions when he does miss things.   It's hard for him.   We're not giving up on him though.

The Sweetest Thing

I have this water bottle that I love.  My husband got them two years ago for giveaways for the neighborhood Halloween contests and he had one left over.  I didn't expect to like it so much, but it is absolutely my favorite.   I thought I had lost it recently, which was distressing.  I take it everywhere.  It turned out I had taken it into the closet in our bathroom likely when I was getting a bandaid or Advil or something and had left it on the shelf.  When I found it a day later I was utterly relieved. 

Today a box came in the mail.  It was heavy and my husband jumped in and said, "I think that's for me."  He came into the room a few minutes later and gave me this.   Best husband ever. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son thinks I'm pretty, but he doesn't like certain things with my clothes and will tell me if he thinks I should change.  He is very opinionated.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to sleep on an air mattress.   Very badly in fact because she said her bed was terribly uncomfortable (as a ploy to get us to agree to the air mattress.)  She made a fortress around the mattress and is now happily sleeping in the bonus room.  

Well, This Wasn't An Improvement

I thought we were getting better.   But we're not.  It's 3:10am and we're still working on posting the video we made tonight.   We tried to prepare in advance but I was up with my son until midnight with, well we shall say issues.   My daughter and son were home from school sick and my husband has felt lousy.   

We need to be asleep.   We're going shortly.  Uncle Bob and Uncle Brian arrive tomorrow.   And my son has two days off school.  My daughter has one.   I can't wait for some days off.

Typewriter

My daughter wants a typewriter.  Why?  Because she wants to type messages to give to her friends.  Friends who are sighted.   She wasn't happy with the idea of typing something on her computer and sending it to the printer.  She wants an actual typewriter.  

She wants an old one with clacky keys very much like her braillewriter.  She wants to put paper in it, type a message and then give it to people.  It's not a bad idea.  I don't want to get a very old typewriter that doesn't work well and have to deal with maintenance issues though. 

I'm going to look into one.   She will only use it short term I suspect because she's learning more and more about how to use the computer and other devices using the VoiceOver features they provide.  Soon enough she's going to be zipping around the computer faster than the rest of us.  For now though a typewriter might be nice. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son has been doing so well with the "no corrections" plan we have in place.  So far things are all very happy.  I hope it remains that way.  I worry about this weekend when he'll have screens again.  He gets much more grumpy and obstinate when he has screen time. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to have an air mattress blown up for her tonight because, "my bed isn't comfortable".  She has a very nice mattress.  She had just found the air mattress in the attic and I think wanted a change.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dinner

I got up early and worked today until around 5:30 when I couldn't stay awake at the computer any longer.  I went upstairs, intending on taking the nerve medication I was supposed to take at noon, and promptly fell asleep on the bed with my purse beside me.  

My daughter came by at some point, I was so confused, and handed me a little bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough that was from the batch she was making.  She knows I just love the dough.   So in my nearly asleep state at some time around dinner, I ate that little (small) bowl of cookie dough.  My husband woke me up at 10:30 and now it's two-thirty in the morning and I'm finishing up work.  

It was a terrible dinner health-wise, but boy was it good. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son came home today, came downstairs, and said, "Mom, I like how you vacuumed the car, it looks really nice." then he went on to tell me about the snack I had gotten for him and how he and his friend liked it.  He was happy and saying positive things.   We're all trying really hard to see if we can turn around this behavior thing he has going.  Maybe it will work this time.  I really want it to and I know he does too.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has made some delicious chocolate chip cookies again.  Darn her and her wonderful baking.  How am I supposed to eat less and lose a few pounds when she insists on making things I have a terrible time not eating!   She is a great cook.

Eating In The Dark

I frequently go up to find my daughter in her room these days.   She moved out of the shared bedroom she shared with her brother, something that surprised us, because she's younger by close to a year and we had always figured her brother would want to escape her first and would leave to go to the room that had only a shower with a smaller closet.   But she wanted to leave, to have her own space, and she was ready first. 

I thought she picked the wrong room because the back bedroom didn't have a bath, something she enjoys soaking in regularly, and the closet space was much smaller.   But that room was where Nana and Papa would stay when they visited and therefore it was the place she wanted to be now that Nana and Papa had moved close to us and had their own home to stay in. 

She loves things and had she retained the shared bedroom with her brother, she would have much more space to spread her things out in.   As it stands, it just means she needs to take stock of the collections of things she piles up and pick things to store (because you can never say you're getting rid of something, that just can't be imagined—both children never want to say goodbye to anything).

She spends time alone, being in part introverted, although she is a very social being but her room is her place to be her, to play games with herself, and to lose herself in the land of audiobooks, her favorite pastime.  We never have to send her to her room, she disappears there to do her own thing already as a ten-year-old. 

When I go up to find her, sometimes she's doing homework, sometimes she's listening to an audiobook and sometimes she's just doing things in her room.   No matter the time, the light is always off.   Why have lights on when you don't need them?  I ask if I can turn them on to help with the laundry, saying that I can't do it without the light like she can.  She never minds.  

She eats in the dark too.   It's an odd thing to come into the kitchen and find her at the bar seat eating quietly in the dark.   You know she's there because she'll have an audio book on or a game playing quietly if everyone else is asleep.   But she's in the dark.   It's a world I can't comprehend.  I close my eyes and in less than a few paces I'm lost in space.   But she does it every day, all day long and never complains. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son says he is a terrible person.  That all he ever does is things that are wrong.  And yes, he is corrected constantly.  But he is intentionally doing things he shouldn't be, like eating in the living room or not getting off the computer when he had agreed he would get off.   Or poking his sister and driving her crazy, just because he wants to.   So today we struck up a bargain with him.  We wouldn't correct him (I explained that we never wanted to, and we would very much like not to) provided he did all the things he should and didn't do the things he shouldn't.   I said it would be work on both sides, but what about giving it a try?  He agreed.   He helped me with the groceries in and then he had a very good rest of the day.   I really, really hope this helps.  I hate that he's constantly corrected.   We really don't like it any more than he does. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter got a new audio game.  They are hard to find, but my husband found a new one.  She binge played it and came upstairs after only two days asking for the next game.  She loved it.   But I don't know that there are any more games to find.  She wants the sequel, but we don't think there is one.   If she were sighted there would be hundreds or even thousands of options.  But as it is, there are only a few.  I'm so glad she liked it.   Knowing her, she'll play it again. 

Sometimes I Think I Fail a Lot

I thought I was doing fairly well today.  My husband was out playing golf.   I did have to sleep in because I could barely stand because of an annoying thing going on with my back.  That's not entirely true, I can stand and walk around just fine, it's getting up or down that's the problem.  My doctor prescribed a muscle relaxant, which I don't like taking because they make you tired and I already fight that problem, but in this case it was pretty necessary so I could get up. 

I got the children fed and we even went out to a huge asian grocery store mega market and were having fun.  I thought I was going to lose it in the store with them from a safety perspective for my daughter, who wanted only to do what she wanted and my son who wasn't paying attention with the cart, but I managed to remain calm and all went well.  

And then on the way home I called my husband and the children were screaming in the car at each other and I was letting them work it out.  When we got home I said, this time with force, that they had to put up their laundry that I had washed and separated as well as turned right-side out for them.   They were so angry at me.  I didn't budge.  They were so mad at me and I thought it had been a good day. 

The Big Boy Update:  When I got up very late I came downstairs and tried to tell my son I was sorry I had been in bed for so long and I felt bad that I been asleep and that I hated that my back was so bad and I felt like a bad mom.   He told me it was okay but he was busy and could I let him play with his friends online now?

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter, in very uncharacteristic form told me she thought she knew why the dog listened to me and no one else.  It was because she was afraid of me.   This was after the neighbor's dog had gotten into our house and I thought there was broken glass outside so I was keeping her away from the door.  The dog comes to me from anywhere outside, running, excited, no matter what, because she's been rewarded by me and she's been consistently trained since she was young.  She won't come for anyone else.  Not because she's afraid, I'm her main person.  But it still hurt that she would say that.  She was mad that she had to clean up before going outside.  After I had bought her the things she wanted at the store she really wanted to go to.   She insisted on leaving us and wandering at the store.   The most interesting thing was a lady who asked if she would take their picture holding strange fruits with her friends.  I took the camera and helped.   I didn't even explain and I don't think my daughter would have wanted me to.  I thought I was having a good day with her and we probably were.   Her mood, just like any child, can change in seconds. 

Slept A LOT

Well, I must have been very tired because I went to bed yesterday at something like 2:30 in the afternoon and I never got back up.  I got up enough to say I wasn't getting back up and then I stayed in bed until 7:30 in the morning.  

I was in real estate class most of the day and then I went to the park with the children and spent some time with them.  We went to get dinner and then came home and they scattered like they like to do at this age to be alone.  I got back to work, we posted a video and now I'm going to sleep so I can work more tomorrow. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son did not want to go to the park and then he remembered Pokemon GO.   Could he bring his sister's phone and see if he could catch some Pokemon?  Yes?  Okay then, he was in.   And he played with us and we all had a good time. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to race her brother on the climbing tower at the park.  He easily beat her.  Easily.   It was easy for him because he could see where he was going and plan ahead.  And she realized that.  She didn't want to play again, but she didn't say anything bad.  Later when it was clear he was going to win any competition, she didn't try to compete.   I asked her when we were alone a few minutes later if it wasn't fun when she knew she had no chance to win because her brother could see to plan ahead.  She said without malice, "yeah" and then we moved on. 

Oddly tired

I’ve been so tired.  I don’t know why.  I’m not sick. I don’t think.  But I can’t explain the tired.  I’m going to keep sleeping. 

What Happened About With Thunderstorms?

There was a rather intense thunderstorm happening this evening after the children were supposed to be asleep.  My husband is livid at 1:30 that my son is still awake.   They were fine with storms for a long time, enjoying them even on the porch.   Something changed though and even though the storm was nowhere near us, the lights and sounds were.  And it scared them.

We have to get up early and go to multiple appointments and my mother-in-law is even coming over to get my daughter to take her to school.   My daughter has fallen asleep.  My son has not. 

The Children Are Up(date):  My husband has been speaking to my son in an angry tone all day long so I just snapped at my son to save my husband from yelling at him.  And now my husband has yelled at me and my son has gone upstairs crying.  I have to go fix this. 

In A Spoiled Play

My daughter is in a play.  Her whole class is.  It is the traditional end of year play her teacher has her class do every year.  Parents come and watch their children play all the parts of traditional children's stories characters in a trial where the Big Bad Wolf is on trial for killing Granny.   

It is supposed to be a surprise when we go see the play I believe, but my daughter wanted to read us the play tonight so while I cleaned up the kitchen from dinner and bread making, she read the story, stoping at certain points to do actions the participants will do from time to time.   She is pretty excited about the play. 

Interestingly, she didn't want to have a big part.  There are lines to be memorized, but memorizing is something she does too well sometimes.   Or perhaps she did want a large part but didn't want to be disappointed if she didn't get one so she intentionally set her expectations low.   I think she's doing this for the Braille Challenge, saying she would like to win third, because she likes bronze.   We've told her she's already one of the top the in her age group across three countries and we're proud no matter what.  

She did a good job of reading the play and in several weeks from now, I will have forgotten all the funny lines when I see it live.   

The Tiny Girl Reading Update:  My daughter hated to read before the year began at school.  She complained of her fingers hurting.  She avoided reading.  She is currently reading four books at once, which is even more reason for her rolling backpack which is always full.   She reads in the car, reads before school, after school, and on weekends.   She still is a die hard audiobook listener, but she's adopted reading as a way to hear stories and learn things without it being a terrible, awful thing those adults said she had to do.

The Big Boy Update:  I was surprised today.  My son came in after school and told me he was sorry for being mean to me and saying mean things.  He said he knew he was upset and said mean things but he didn't realize how he was sounding.   He apologized several times.  I told him thank you and that it meant a lot to me that he would tell me and of course I accepted his apology. 

Turkish delight

My daughter's braillist brought us some of the Turkish Delight she and her husband enjoy eating.  It's not a traditional style like they have in Turkey (some of which I had recently thanks to my new friend in Turkey that has her own filament company) but is similar.  This is milk chocolate-covered and has a rose-flavored jelly center.   She warned us that it might take some getting used to, but she wanted us to try it. 

Why?  Because my daughter had been reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and wanted to know what Turkish Delight was.  On the way home from school I opened mine and took a bite.   There was no, "getting used to" it for me, I loved it.  And I mean I loved it to the point that I wanted to take back my offer to share my piece with my daughter.  That kind of amazingly good, good.  

Fortunately for me, my daughter was not one bit interested in trying something new (she's at that age) and so I got to enjoy the entire thing myself.   When I got home, I went online, found them and shamelessly ordered some more. 

On Monday, I told her teacher at drop-off that I had not only loved it, but I had also ordered some.  She laughed with me and said she was so glad I liked it.  When she and her husband got married many years ago he had introduced her to them and she really didn't like them.  Years later and she is disappointed if they're out of them when she goes to the store in the area that carries them because she said going without them for a week is something she doesn't want to do. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son asked if he could install Pokemon Go on the phone that is his sister's, but he uses it from time to time to message his friends to see if they can come out to play.   He wanted to friend our neighbor because this would help have more Pokemon appear.   I knew this was tricky, but I let him with my fingerprint to install it.   He tried for the remainder of the day to get to the phone, including saying he was just going to go for a walk at eight-thirty at night...for exercise.  He had taken the phone, again.   We had a talk with him after finding him in his sister's room on her iPad, admittedly helping her with a game, "she asked me to help her with".  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Did my daughter ask her brother to help her with her iPad?  Actually, she did.  I have a feeling he talked her into it, but they made a deal.  He would play a game she remembered and help her hatch eggs.  He would tell her what kind of creature had hatched in this mixed-up animal creation game where parts of different animals combine to make strange and unusual creatures you can then race in air, on land, or in water.  Depending on the characteristics you mix together you might get something that can win.

Don't You Just Hate It When..

You do your hair, put on good clothes (well, jeans and one of your nicer t-shirts) and go all the way to the basement and then your night doesn't pan out?

Tonight we had plans to make a video.  We did make a video but it's a special one I'm sending to the manufacturer so he can review it.  We didn't get to make the video we wanted to release for tonight.   The one I sent to the manufacturer will have additional B roll added to it and put out possibly tomorrow, but I need him to verify it first.

One of the things the content creators have banded together about is never letting a company review their content first and control what is kept, added or changed.  It puts the relationship in a difficult position and doesn't give the content creator the freedom to say what they really think about the product.

I've never sent a video to a manufacturer before but in this case I asked him if I could record a video to explain what he was telling me about his filament.  He does not speak English and his emails were a bit confusing, but if I understand correctly what he's saying, it will benefit people to understand what's going on.   

It explains how something is in fact a feature, and not an issue.   I even thought it was an issue until I had someone ask in the comments if I was having problems with one particular filament and as coincidence would have it, I was.  I was having an issue I'd never had happen before and it was confusing me.  

The owner of the company explained that their filament was slightly elliptical and why that made things much more reliable in how the colors were printed, but it was at the price of possibly tripping up a printer's runout detection sensor.   Which is exactly what was happening to me. 

So no video for us tonight, but that's okay.  I'm going to celebrate by going to bed only a few minutes after two o'clock.  I was hoping things would happen a little faster today on YouTube because we're about to hit 100,000 subscribers, a number I absolutely had no expectation we'd hit.   Well, initially I did.  Before we started on this Social Media adventure I thought hundreds of thousands of subscribers would flock to our channel the second they heard about us.  And of course everyone was going to tell everyone they knew so clearly that was going to happen in a matter of weeks.   Or so I thought before we'd ever released a single video when I knew next to nothing, okay nothing, about content creation and the Algorithms with a capital A.

We're at 99.927 and typically we get more than seventy-five subscribers overnight.   But we've been slowing down ever so slowly, so we might not be there in the morning.   Heck, morning isn't that many hours away.  I have gotten to the point now that I actually believe we'll get a silver Play button.   When we hit 100,000 I'll find out if YouTube is still awarding them.   I have friends who got theirs a month or so ago so the chances look good that YouTube hasn't stopped.

The Big Boy Update:  My son hasn't learned the lesson that rudeness and disrespect are not okay in this family still.  Yes, he's grumpy in the morning, but that is no excuse.  He was so bad in the car that when he got back in this afternoon I told him he had to go to his room.   He needed to stay only a half-hour, but he should stay as long as it took for him to be ready to be polite and respectful to us.   He turned the day around at that point.  Progress.  Slow progress.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter had a long day.  She went to school, stayed late to practice for the Braille Challenge, came home and changed clothes and then went to sing with her choir at a retirement home. When she came home she had a lot of reading to do before going to bed, late, after ten o'clock.  I told her we could get an extension, but she hates having extenuating circumstances as an excuse.

A Little Pathetic

We went to see my daughter sing in her choir tonight after a nice turkey dinner with my in-laws who had just arrived from Florida.  They're here until January, hooray!  My daughter and I went early so she could be prepared with the singers for the start of the concert. 

Her group of eight younger Chorus girls sang four songs first, then they had some solos, all of which were very nicely done.   After that, the older Chorale group of eight got up and sang some songs and did a very nice job of them.    Then they had some of their members do some solos, and they were very good.  The last one was from Hamilton and she played the piano and sang a complex song at the same time. 

Then both the Chorus and Chorale got up and sang some songs together.   Having sixteen singers on stage at once was even better.  They had some funny Mark Twain bits they sang.  

All in all, it was very nice.  The group had been much, much larger but COVID-19 caused things to go away for a year, and then there were some financial things that apparently happened with compensation and the entire staff of the choir walked out just before the year began this year.   They found a new director and started over with a much smaller group of girls, sixteen being the smallest group in years and years. 

My daughter told me the other day, "We're a little pathetic" when I asked her what she thought about the upcoming performance.   I thought it was an insult, but she meant in volume.  Some of the other seven she was singing with she said sang so quietly.   And boy did they.  She said she didn't feel comfortable belting out the song when everyone besides her was so timid.   

I didn't think they were pathetic even a little bit, but I can see how my daughter might think so after being in her very large school chorus. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son was a little sassy today when my in-laws arrived and at dinner, but he was a very good concert attendee.  He sat and listened quietly the whole time. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter heard that the current choir director was leaving as this job was a very long drive for her and she was only filling in until they found a more permanent director.  I was a little worried about that because the lady who is taking over is very nice, but doesn't have a good knack for understanding the needs of VI children.  It's been hard for my daughter for half of the time she spent with her each chorus practice.  She told me tonight she wasn't going to come back next year. 

Back Home

My in-laws have returned from wintering over in Florida.  We're glad they're back where we call home and are looking forward to having dinner with them tomorrow and all going to see my daughter sing in her spring choir recital. Or is it a concert?   I’m not sure which it is, but it will be nice all around

The Big Boy Update:  My son apparently hates me again. This surprised me to hear tonight because my husband was the one who was cracking down hard on him for a lot of the day.  Do your laundry and talk to us about reasonable screen time for the day and we will work with you.  That was our only requirement.  But that involved a lot of anger and avoidance and.in the end, my son didn’t get screen time after mid-morning.  He could have had a lot more.  If he had been able to do a few things.  He will get there 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter doesn’t think this choir is nearly as good as her school one.  I didn’t realize that until she told me on Monday.  I would have thought it was the other way around given what I’ve seen.  It turns out it isn’t the instruction or leadership, it's the people in the choir.  Her peers badly eek out any sound and she says it’s so hard to hear them. She tries to do her best but she doesn’t feel like she has much support from the others in her level and area. 

References

One of the things I like doing is helping other content creators out.  It doesn't matter if they're bigger or smaller, new to the whole content creation thing, or have been doing it for long periods, I just like helping.  

It's nice to be able to tell people you know who are going to watch your videos that there is someone else they might like.   It's just nice.   People have done the same for me and I always like it when it happens.   It's one of those things that makes you feel good either way it happens.

I wanted to put a video up this afternoon.   I wanted to have a nap.  I was tired.   The way things go here it is now 11:43PM and the video is still not up.   We do put up pretty good content quality-wise, I think.  But it takes time.  

And it isn't the time to make the one video.  If that was the only single thing we had to do in all the whole world of content creation, it would be fast and quick.  But getting all the things to the point where you can record, and dealing with software, hardware and in my case, plasticware, is all prep work or debug work.   Then there are the things you have to do after the video is ready to put up the video.  This is is subject on which I frequently complain, I know.   It just amazes me for the very small amount of content we put out minute-wise, the whole huge amount of work that has to be done surrounding it.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son got screens today.   He wasn't angry, he was too busy to be angry.   He forgot to eat dinner he was so happy he was online.   We will find out if he is in a good mood and nice tomorrow. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to go play on the playground after school.  She and I went together to play and she told me about how we would go around this one large structure together.   At one point she was going to go over a very tall arch and I asked her if she knew where it went.  She said, "no, but I have an idea."  I said, "I know where it goes."  She said with absolutely no malice, "well of course you do, you can see."   

Tomorrow I Need to Not Sleep. Or Something

I have got to stop being tired and get some work done.  We've been getting to sleep earlier because we've both gotten fed up with the late nights but I'm still tired.   Tonight it's 12:30 and I am going to bed in just three minutes so this will be fast, I hope. 

My jaw is still sore from the dental work, mostly the injections, which is odd for me.   But it happens.   I am trying with all my might to get work done on the architecture documents for delivery to him at the end of the weekend.  Tomorrow is Friday and from the amount, I still have to do, it's going to be a long weekend.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son has been nice, but he is on edge, wanting to have screen time and he is still liable to explode when he doesn't get it, and he hasn't been getting it.   Even so, he was so nice today and spent time with me doing his puzzle of The Mandalorian.   He is learning that being polite and nice has advantages.  Inside, he is still very short-tempered still.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter had to write a bio for herself and include things about how she got started with Braille and what she was looking forward to for the Braille Challenge.   I have no idea where this is going to be used, but it is somewhere we'll find out about soon enough.  

Dental Migraine?

I had some dental work done today.  Some fillings, nothing major but he had to numb me in multiple places and in one case twice and it took hours for my mouth to regain consciousness.   Then I had something unusual happen.  It may have been nothing related to the dental work but I got a terrible headache.   Was it the anesthesia, no, numbing, wearing off?   

I'm not sure but I had to lie down after picking my daughter up from school.  It's a good thing she wanted to talk and play some new game because I couldn't focus well and I needed her to keep my mind occupied so I could let the other half of my brain work on the driving.   

The Big Boy Update:  I called my husband after he had picked up my son to tell him two things.  My son started in on the, "we were in the middle of a conversation" and then he caught himself and was exceptionally polite.  We had a nice interchange and I said I didn't want to keep them from the conversation.  It was very nice for a change.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to play The Candy Store game.   I like candy and this candy store was a full block of a building with basements and amazing edible things.   She would grow up to be Willy Wonka if she could, I bet. 

Fifty Five Hour Pop

My night was going well.  I had gotten some things done today and the children were going to bed.  I came downstairs to change the filament in the print that had been printing on livestream for fifty five hours.  People were asking me questions and I heard a 'pop'.   Then the printer went a little crazy. 

We're not sure what the issue was, but the print wouldn't start working normally again and I had to terminate it with a little over ten hours to go.  Sad, that.   

So now I'm sweaty from having to deal with all the questions and advice and kind people who also had questions for me about 3D printing all while my newest printer may be broken in a way none of us had ever heard of before.   

I'll find out if it's okay tomorrow.  After some more dental work.   Tonight I'm tired and going to bed. 

The Big Boy Kindness:  My son is being kind.  And nice.   It's like that hard lesson sunk in.   How long will it last though?

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's VI teacher emailed asking if they could have a mini assembly and have my daughter and Aditi, the other VI student talk about the Braille Challenge and have my daughter talk about going to Nationals.   Everyone is excited.   

He doesn’t hate me

I totally forgot to write a post tonight and I’m in bed and it's so late.  Tomorrow I shall write something more. My son got grounded from attitude this morning but tonight he was nice and kind and he went up to bed and then came back down and surprisingly said, “mom, I don’t hate you.”  I told him I loved him very much and then he turned and went off to bed. 

I Got a Bouquet!

My daughter sweetly came downstairs today and gave me the nicest bouquet of paper flowers she made at school.  We picked a 3D printed  vase to put them in.  They look so nice beside my computer.   My son and husband came down with a nice handmade card.   They were all kind and let me work and do my own thing for a lot of the day.  

I got some more done on the architecture worksheets that are far more information than I ever thought I would need to know about for the house, but it's all helpful information, I suppose. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son I am sad to say has been acting up more and more.  He disregards rules, is incredibly rude and insulting and can be just downright mean.   He pushed his father today.  He pushed his sister and then he pushed me.  He is nice and sweet when he's getting what he wants and the second he doesn't, for instance the doughnut he wanted had already been eaten, he comes down the stairs, yells at us all that we're awful for eating the doughnuts and we shouldn't be eating so unhealthily and there is nothing to eat and huff huff huff.    I ignored him.  He later tried to get his sister to make his lunch for him and then told her she'd melted the handle of the pot (that was only dirty) and proceeded to be nice to me if he thought I was going to make his food and mean and insulting or hiding avoiding responsibility otherwise.   And then he pushed me one more time when his father got home.   He is in his room now, he had no dinner and has not been let out.  He cried a lot.  Good.  He is exhibiting all the behaviors of a spoiled brat and a bully.   And we don't know where we failed.  Everyone else says he's nice and polite.  At home, he is most certainly not.  In particular if he's had a day or two of screens.   He is on a short chain.  A very short chain now.  My husband and I can't figure it out.  He's made his father so angry so many times lately.  And it takes a lot to my my husband mad. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter made me a chocolate chip cookie cake today.  She made the vast majority of it all by herself.   I don't know how she does it but she just never gives up.  She really is so amazing. 

All Alone With the Smoke Detectors

My daughter came to tell her father a smoke detector was beeping.  He decided to replace all the batteries and this time mark on them the month and year of installation for next time.   He asked if I remembered how many smoke detectors we had.  I told him I thought I knew but I could find out quickly.  I had written a blog post about it some time back because we had no idea how many smoke detectors we had until we did the first battery replacement.   

I used the blog search feature and found a post back in 2012 with the information we needed.   Search engines are just amazing things.   This evening we left our children for a few hours while we went to three houses on our street.  Two directly across the street and one two houses over for a street cocktail crawl.  

We have had people move in since COVID-19 started and have only waved at them in passing.  It was odd to be at a social event but things do seem to be getting back to normal, which is good and scary at the same time.  

The Big Boy and Big Girl Away Time:  While we were away at the street gathering I came back in the middle of the event to check on the children.  They were fine and didn't seem bothered at all that we had left or were even gone.  They had carried on about their day without missing us at all.  My daughter had fixed her own dinner and was eating it at the bar.  My son complained that he was starving and of course, didn't know what was available and if could I make it for him.   My children are very different in some ways. 

Mixing It Up

We need to do something different.  We need to try out different options.  We need to try new styles and do new things.  Maybe I need to come up with different ways to integrate 3D printing into things.  We are getting in a trough or a rut on Instagram and TikTok and we're not seeing any growth and a good friend who has been quite successful made that suggestion. 

I think he's right.   But I'm struggling to figure out what to do.  For YouTube I can create lots of long format content.  I have it in my head, I just need to make it so.   For Instagram and TikTok we're limited by time and I'm trying to come up with ways I can be creative within the short, one-minute timeframe.  Or possibly we need to do shorter videos.  Maybe I need to be in them more and talk about things and be a "personality" or rather show my personality.  My husband says I have a hard time doing that, and he's not wrong.  This whole adventure into social media has been less than comfortable. 

So I'm thinking about it while my printers are all off and I'm working on other things.  If I hadn't gotten a good bit ahead I wouldn't have been able to have the printers off for four days.  It's getting close to when I'll need to turn them back on, but I can keep working for a while longer and hopefully I'll get enough done that I can step back into 3D printing and perhaps have some ideas on how I can reach a different audience than the one we've already connected with.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son is almost a teenager from a sleep perspective.  He's only eleven but he slept today until after noon.  I can only imagine the hours into the afternoon he'll sleep once he hits the full teenage years. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter has a friend coming over tomorrow.  She has been collecting Easter eggs so they can have an egg hunt tomorrow.  She so loves hide and seek games, especially when they involve prizes. 

Cancre Sore Times Two

My son came and told me he had a cancre sore today.   He gets them from time to time and I was expecting something fairly large because the last time he resorted to telling me about the one he had it had gotten quite large.   I wasn't expecting it to be so close to his lip and so very large.   He must have bit his lip and it developed from the wound. 

I have some medication that they hated the first time and then they saw the benefit of the terrible taste and awful burning sensation for thirty seconds: because it chemically cauterizes the wound creating a seal over the sore so that you are out of pain and the sore has an opportunity to heal underneath for a day or two before the skin comes off.   

My daughter came in later tonight and said, "mom, I have a cancre sore too."   She has rarely had them, so I was not expecting a large sore also on her bottom inner lip.   She and my son both sat very still and let the medication work it's burning magic.   They both felt better minutes later, even if the taste was rather bitter until they rinsed out their mouths. 

On the whole, my children don't have this happen often.   It seems "often" because it's happened more than twice, but as I think about it now, neither has chronic issues with cancre sores, which is a relief. 

Taking Notes Again

My son said something today as I was driving him home from school that I thought was very interesting.  He had an insight into something at the time and it impressed me that he had seen through a situation and had summed it up in such a concise way.  

Tonight as I sit here at the computer to write up the day's happenings I of course can't remember what it was that he said.  For years I would get my phone out and take a few words to jog my memory when it would be blog posting time later in the day. 

And for years that worked well for me.   So why did I stop?   I'm not sure.   I do fairly well summarizing something in our children's lives each day, but I could do a much better job. 

I shall redouble my efforts!

I like that saying.   Is that quadrupling your efforts?  If you're re-doubling them?  I've never really known. I shall quadruple my efforts doesn't sound nearly as good though. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son got home and started a new puzzle.  This one is a wooden fox-shaped puzzle with special pieces in it that are. recognizable shapes.  We had to tell him it was time to stop and go to bed.   Once he starts doing things other than screens and can get his mind refocused he has a good time doing other activities.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter helped open a package from my friend Echo from Canada.   Her name is not an online nickname or alias, her mother named her Echo.   Echo makes soaps and bath bombs and she sent us a big box packed with all sorts of wonderful things that my daughter got to open up and smell.   The children can't wait to have a bath to try them out.   I said they couldn't use all the bath bombs at once.   To which my daughter said, "aw, Mom!" 

Failure

I think I bad job of managing everything going on.   I get yelled at for not getting one thing done so I work on the one thing.  Then I hear there is another thing I need to do, only I'm trying to do the one thing I was working that I need to work on.   I get tired and I hurt so I lie down.   But I get back up and work late.   I don't think I'm being lazy; I work about as much as I can on things. 

But today I realized I didn't have the right priorities, so I'm making some changes.    I'm trying to put some things higher up so that when I'm out of energy or I need to lie down to get away from the pain for a while, when I get back up, at least I can feel like I was working on the things that are the most important.   

And those things include my children.   When I say "work" they are part of that.   I got the word ,"work" from the Montessori method, which my children always said.   They would be doing "work" at school, which just meant a thing they were playing or learning.   A lot of what I do is work, but my children are not.

The Big Boy Update:  My son hasn't liked me lately.  He doesn't like it when I tell him no more negative words.   He's gotten so cross at me that he doesn't want to talk to me.   I guess I make him angry.   Tonight though, he was nice after I told him he couldn't listen to an audio book at dinner.   He decided to work on a puzzle in the dining room and after weeks and weeks of it sitting out, he finished it all by himself.   He didn't know (or hadn't paid attention) that I got him a fox puzzle for Christmas.   He said he's like to do it together.  It's not a big puzzle, but it would be really nice to do it with him.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I think my daughter is angry at me a lot of the time too.   Not always, but today I think she was just not happy.   After dinner she was nice enough.   I was helping her clean up her room.  She wanted to read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe to me.   I love that book.  I'd gladly listen to her read that any day. 

He's Finally Tired

I don't know how my husband does it.  He has energy when I have none.  He's not tired and keeps going and I can barely go on.   He stays up late and gets lots done and yes, I stay up late too, but I had a nap.   I don't know how he keeps going when I'm so tired.   He is amazing. 

We have a lot to do, that is true.  Such is the nature of social media.  You're not really creating content for the people who are watching your content, you're creating it for the algorithms who are sending people to your content.  Or at least that's what you're doing when you're building an audience.  Later, when you have an audience, you are then creating content that they expect, not necessarily the content you want to create, because you need to keep the audience and they are there for what they think you should be creating. 

That is a very cynical way to look at things, but it's reasonably realistic too.   That doesn't mean being a content creator isn't fun, it is just fun with rules that you didn't think you'd be playing against when you started the game.   Still, we have a very nice audience who is supportive and positive.  But we have that audience by virtue of the algorithms suggesting our content.   

Certainly, some of the audience we have is from word of mouth, or I suppose it would be word of link and tag.   But a lot really is from having our content suggested because the logic from the social media thinks certain types of people would like our content.   And they do a great job of that because there is no way we would have ever found ninety three thousand subscribers on YouTube otherwise.   I will never meet or even wave at across a vast canyon full of people that many individuals.   So it's working.  

But it's work.   And in order for the algorithms to think you're worthy of suggesting over many, many, many other content creators who also would like their content suggested, you need to post regularly, and be lucky, and a lot of other things.  But mostly just keep working. 

So we stay up late after the children get to bed.  Tonight I have said no later than 12:15AM!   I hope I can hold to that. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son was angry at me this morning.  I don't really know why, but he didn't speak to me in the car after we backed out of the driveway.   I hated having him go to school angry, but he didn't want to talk.  After school he's forgotten and I didn't bring it up. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is going to sing the National Anthem with her choir at a baseball game next month.  She is not happy about it because she doesn't know the song.  I told her she could learn it, like everything else, easily.   But for now she's totally against it. 

Technical Frustration

I've had a migraine on and off for two days, which is neither here nor there, what I'm frustrated about is the inability for us to get technical things working.  We have so much working that I shouldn't complain, but there are key things I need to have functioning properly in order for us to do the work we need to do and we just can't get them working. 

We've been each working on our own parts of the printer setup, which has so many pieces to it it is a positive to say that the printers are working, we have a location in which we now have them housed that can can be blocked out so that we can do long prints without light or other changes in the surrounding area affecting the appearance inside the location they're stored.  We can get into and out of the individual print location for two printers now with ease.  

We can send prints remotely from the computer, meaning we don't have to slice the model, store it on an SD card, walk over to the printer with the SD card and start the print.   We can send a model and start a print from the desk without having to get up.   We can watch the prints being printed on a web browser from anywhere and if something is going wrong, we can stop the print so the printer isn't damaged and filament isn't wasted.

There is a problem that is the last piece of the puzzle and that is we can't get the timelapse functionality working.   I can print a model and show the completed results, but seeing the model being printed in timelapse form is one of the most interesting and popular things we do.   People love them.   Getting quality timelapse videos requires that environmental control we have ready and waiting, but we can't get the timelapse itself to work. 

There have been so many issues along the way.  The current situation is we can start a timelapse.  We have the camera working too, which was a big part of the challenge.  When it is time to take a picture, the camera now takes a picture.   And all is well for the first layer.   But for some reason after that, no filament comes out of the nozzle.   It is the strangest error.  The print is going on as you would expect it to, but the filament isn't advancing.   Everything works until the first picture is taken, and then it just refuses to work.  

I've been holding off on starting prints on this new, huge printer my husband decided to buy, because we want to get exciting timelapse videos of models that are so large they take two, three or even four days to print.   I haven't started printing anything on the printer because if I do, we can't work on the timelapse problem until the very long print completes.   

Tonight I got frustrated and decided to just start something.  New models have been released that people are very excited to see.  My peers are printing them and running livestreams on TikTok and I'm doing nothing at all, for two weeks now, while we try to get this overall setup and recording worked out.   I'm at my wits end, as is my husband.  We'll get it, eventually, I hope. 

The Laundry Monster:  My son hates folding laundry.  He fought doing it for hours today.  It is exhausting to fight him on this.  But he never wins.  I wonder when he is going to get that he won't win and just do his laundry?

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter had friends over in the back yard today *and* a request to go over to Ashley's house.  She was so happy, friends to play with two days in a row.    She has a teacher workday tomorrow but I don't think anyone near her is off school as well so she will be home without peers tomorrow.  

Crummy

I still feel crummy.  Maybe it's the tooth.   I even watched a movie tonight, which is an indication of how I don't feel well because I don't usually sit still long enough to watch a movie. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son did not make the best choices today and struggled to have screen time without whining, wailing, cheating or getting screaming angry.  He made progress.   He is learning (ever so slowly) that disrespect and rash responses don't get him what he wants.  We don't want to keep him from screens all the time, but he has to earn them, not get them by default, something he still isn't grasping. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter had a play date today.  Just having another friend in the house and hearing them run around screaming in happiness was so nice.   My daughter was so very happy to have a friend to spend time with.