The Ride For The Ride

My husband has a motorcycle and enjoys riding it on occasion.  He's taken some trips specifically to tour locations on the motorcycle but some things have been difficult to visit because to get there you need to take a long ride on highways on the motorcycle first, which isn't as enjoyable a ride. 

For a long time my husband has talked about getting a small trailer for the motorcycle so he could tow it behind the car on family vacations to, for instance, my parent's house in the mountains.   We had the challenge of no location to store a trailer until recently, however. 

Today, my husband bought that trailer and it will be loaded and stored in the off-site garage at the lot where we will eventually build a house.  It's a perfect solution.   Now we just need to plan a trip to come to see my parents so he can test it out. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter came home from visiting Ashley's house with a red mustache like she'd been drinking something red.   Since she has no idea of the color of things she eats or drinks we weren't able to figure out what the culprit could be. 

The Big Boy Refusal:  We are talking about things to do this summer. One thing is horseback riding.  My daughter has been interested in this for a long time.  My son on the other hand flatly refused to even consider it.   He said he doesn't want to fall and hurt himself.   We assured him it would be fine but so far he is not budging. 

Picky Eater Strikes Again

My daughter went over to a friend's house today to go to the pool.  Her mother asked if she was going to be fine with her pasta and should she make it without sauce.   Well, this mother had delivered an absolutely delicious dinner to us one time while the girls were playing of her pasta and I ate more than my fair share so I thought my daughter would have no problems at all with it, expecting her to ask for seconds.

Unfortunately my daughter was in a picky mood and refused to eat it and the mother felt very bad about it.  I assured her it wasn't her fault and was likely that my daughter had been feeling bad and wanted to come home.  She took an Advil and was fine but I hate that the day turned out less than positive for everyone. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is on the playdate action.   She will come to me and ask if I can message so and so's mother or if someone is available and I follow up with the parent.  She will be very communicative when she has her own phone someday I have no doubt. 

The Big Boy Friends Update:  My son, who was complaining about having no friends a while back, now has a lot of them and they all seem to want to come in the house.   I really miss that part of COVID-19 where no one came inside.   

Summer Hours

Dear me, it's only the second day into my daughter's summer vacation (what with it now being past midnight) and we're already running late hours.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son kindly cleaned everything up but now he's lost all track of time and is bouncing around upstairs on his iPad, eating, and I caught him at it which is why I know, potato chips and cookies.  After midnight.   He was not happy that I caught him.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter doesn't like to sleep under the covers but prefers to sleep on top of her bed.   And I just realized today that the comforter bed spread thing hasn't been washed in a month of Sundays.   Literally.   I mean I really think it's been that long.   Which is a bit horrifying.   It is in the washing machine as I type this.  

School Is Out

Both of my children are officially on summer vacation as of the end of the school day today.  I slept a lot and my son played with friends a good bit after Nana and Papa brought him home.  

I'd write more, but I've not been having a good few days.   We had to make a change with a medication that stopped being supplemented financially and the base price is outrageous.  Changing medications is always annoying.  I'm trying to acclimate to the change, which will be fine shortly, it just takes a bit of time. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is happy to have some friends in the neighborhood to play with.   It was raining today and he asked if they could come inside, something we really haven't allowed since the start of the pandemic.   It was odd having children in the house/

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  The inside friends went downstairs and saw the 3D printers and things that have been printed.  I now have orders to print their dragons.   It's sort of nice that they're interested in the printers and things printed.   Although it will take several printing days to get it all done.   But I have the filament.  And the printers.   Might as well put them to good use. 

Home...Almost

I made it home.  it's 1:30AM.  My husband and daughter are going to be here shortly, I think.  I'm exhausted and going to bed.   See you all tomorrow.    

Win, Place, Show

My daughter looked absolutely beautiful in her floor-length gown for the awards ceremony at the Braille Challenge finals.  There was a fire drill and the ceremony went on, and on, and on and everyone thanked everyone and finally things were announced. 

My daughter didn’t win anything, but she knew the tests were much harder and the competition was significant.  She was a little disappointed, but I am hoping it will encourage her to do some things like read more this coming year so she will have more experience reading contractions and seeing how words are spelled.   I think she will make it to the finals again in the future, but I think she is going to have to work hard if she wants to win. 

We are very proud of her.  The accomplishment of making it to the finals is significant.  I hope she can keep that thought in her mind and not that she didn’t win overall. 

The Good Luck

My daughter has received Many text messages wishing her good luck tomorrow with the Braille Challenge.  She responded to all of them in a very sweet way, thanking them for the luck, saying, “I’m going to need it!”   We arrived safely and have met many new people in the short few hours before retiring to the hotel room on the USC campus for the night.  Tomorrow is a big and long day culminating in a ball with dancing and announcement of the winners.  I don’t know what her chances are, I suspect the competition will be significant.  I’m proud of her for making it this far.  Every student was welcomed with a big round of applause by the staff when they arrived.  Everyone is so friendly.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son is at our house with Nana and Papa.  They said he was outside with friends a lot today, getting some exercise for his frontal lobe. 

The Tiny Competitor Chronicles:  my daughter is looking forward to the tests tomorrow. She actually likes them and has had fun taking the practice tests.  

Clap Out

My daughter had something very special happen today.   At the end of the day, the principal announced to all the classrooms that my daughter was heading off to the Braille Challenge and could everyone head into the halls and sit on the walls.   As she passed by everyone would clap and cheer her on. 

There have been other changes though.  I had a flight cancellation and through some heroic efforts on the part of my husband, I am departing ten minutes earlier, going through a different airport and getting to LA a half-hour earlier.   That is if nothing else cancels, although the chance is lower because all the airports are bigger.

The Big Boy Update:  I am going to miss my son while we're gone.   He was very sweet when we left him.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and I "refreshed" the color in her hair tonight.   It looks beautiful.   I love the colors.   

 

Go Away And Search

My daughter and I have just created a game not unlike Go Fish, but it's with tactual with plates and shapes that fit into them.   She came up with the alternate game title.  We tied on the first game so we're modifying the rules and trying again. 

Everyone Is A Mess:  we need to clean house.   It is distressing to me but I just haven’t been able to get enough energy to do what I need to do to take care of the family and house and everything this month.  It will be much better next month with some changes 

Test Taking Tips

Today my daughter and I talked more about test taking tips.  When you have three of the four answers that all indicate there's an error in on spot it's a higher chance that there is an error in that spot.   If you have one sentence that isn't listed in any of the answers as including an error, then you don't even need to bother reading that sentence.  

We went over things that would help her in a situation where she thought she had the answer but wasn't sure.   We talked about looking at the answer choices first in some cases to help her hone in on what areas she needed to pay the most attention to in the sentences above.  We talked about ways to save time while also being able to mark things for review later in case she wasn't sure. 

She is doing well.  She can spell so much better than I could at that age and can spell things now that I still struggle with because she knows rules and exceptions to rules.   She has decided she hates the English language for spelling because there are so many exceptions.  I told her I didn't blame her, it didn't make sense.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son pitched a fit about folding his laundry this morning and then did so without complaining further because I was holding every piece of digital he had hostage.  I changed the passcodes on everything and have them at one-minute lock intervals.   He did get some screens back today, but only one thing at a time, and when it locked, he had to do something else.   He spent a good bit of time outside with friends. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is very upset.   There were four children in the rather modest tree in our front yard and they broke some live branches.  My husband spent a lot of time trying to splint it back up in hopes of being able to save the branch.   It may not work, but he told her they were too big to be out on the small branches at this point.   She was upset they hurt the tree.  And that she wouldn't be able to climb it anymore.

Balloon Talk

My daughter and I played this game today where you talk into a large, inflated balloon.  The result is your voice echoing around inside the balloon and with your mouth pressed on the side of the balloon.  I told my daughter about the dangers of balloons popping and inhaling the latex (because I know that is exactly what my father is thinking right now).   

Your voice is hard to understand—and funny.  She and I took turns having the other person guess what we were saying.  We did word guesses and worked up to passage comprehension with multiple questions after hearing what the other person was (trying) to say.   We scored points and gave grades.   You might think this is potentially related to my daughter taking her EOG's currently.  

EOG's are End of Grade (year) tests to see the progress and level of the student's knowledge.  The start of the year has not surprisingly named BOG's so there is the fun of starting and ending the year with testing.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son had a lot of screens today and all was going fine until he was asked to turn it off for a few minutes which he decided to not answer respectfully to his father.  I came in and basically lowered the boom as the phrase goes.   He did not like it and responded even worse to me.   So I now have all the devices and they have had their passcodes changed because I just caught him sneaking downstairs after midnight while we were working in the basement.  He hasn't gotten television privileges back and his computer has a broken part.  He might have to do something non-online tomorrow.  How ever will he survive?

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter doesn't seem to be bothered by standardized tests.   She's going into school practicing for the Braille Challenge and not even seeming to mind.  It's been a nice time getting to talk to her about the why of spelling or what to look out for in questions about where an error might be in a sentence.  Those are so tricky. 

No More Carseats

When my son turned eleven he was just done with the booster seat in the car.  The shoulder strap in our cars isn't adjustable so we had the booster seats for longer than we might have otherwise kept them just to be safer.   

My daughter has always kept pace with him in growth and she's been tall enough for a while not to need the booster seat but she's wanted to keep it.  Until a few weeks ago when she started preferring the empty seat for rides when her brother wasn't in the car.   The other day I asked her if she was ready to be done with the booster seat and this time she said yes.  

Eleven-and-a-half years we've had some sort of contraption or other in our cars to keep the children safe.  Rear-facing car seats, five point harness car seats, backed car seats and then finally booster seats or the prior iteration without the backs.  

It's odd to not see them in the back.  It's also very nice not to have to move them around when we have other people ride with us.  I won't miss them.

The Big Boy Update:  My son "forgets" he's brushed his teeth and then eats something like candy just before bed.   Not that he's allowed, but he was tempted tonight by his sister's piñata busting and honestly, how can you blame him when three pounds of candy is flying all over the living room?

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  For Father's Day tonight my daughter wanted to have him break her piñata that she bought with her own money.  He graciously let her break it apart for him after he took one or two hits. Every time candy would fall she would dive down and find it.   She could find it without fighting against sighted, scrambling children.   She was so very happy with just the joy of collecting it.   I don't think she even ate any.  

Washed Out?

My daughter went to a birthday party today.  It was a mad dash to Target to get some presents for Ashley and then rush home to get her bathing suit on and then run over to the pool and drop her off.   It was a pool party and I was worried about her hair and the chlorine.  

She was in the pool for hours and hours today.  And she had a wonderful time.   It's permanent color, but it doesn't fare well with the chlorine, which is a bleach.   So it doesn't look like it did.   Fortunately (I hope) by great good luck one of the stylists mentioned a conditioner that refreshed colored hair with a conditioner you could do once in a while.   I ordered it and it will be in tomorrow. 

Maybe we can save her hair before she goes to school on Monday. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son got caught eating a doughnut with icing in the top and inside it at eleven-thirty tonight.   He got in trouble.   I hope he brushed his teeth.  Sigh. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I couldn't get my daughter home after the party so I cleaned up for them and she stayed for pizza with Ashley and the one other friend from the neighborhood.   She had an amazing day.   She was so happy and exhausted when she came home. 

My Word That's Colorful

My daughter's hair is done.  My hair is done.  I spent over seven hours in a salon today.  My son spent four there himself and he wasn't even having anything done but as my husband was out all day it was the only way to go.

My daughter got a lot of length cut off, which I think works best for her because she hates to do anything with her hair.   The color is permanent and her hair had to be lightened some beforehand so the color would be more intense and look less "muddied" by her natural hair color.   

This is going to fade, but it's going to last a lot longer than her prior coloring.   She is quite pleased.   She went with half purple, half blue right down the middle.  Little bits of hair go on either side and give a nice variation in the color.  I like it very much.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son was a little bit rowdy some of the time than necessary but considering he had to be with us for hours, he was really great.  He wanted to spend time with us and not play games.  I had a nice time with him. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter originally wanted purple and gold but the gold was really yellow since there aren't metallic hair dyes.   The other colors weren't going to go well so we suggested the blue.  I really like the blue.  I'm so glad she picked it. 

Principal For The Day

My daughter was the principal for the day at her school as an auction item she wanted very badly and won.   I was so excited to find out what they did today.  I told her to expel all the bad children.   "We don't expel people at my school, mom."  Okay, then suspend them, I told her, "we don't suspend people either, mom."   Okay, then give them detention!  "Mom, we don't have detention at my school," she sighed exasperated at me. 

So what did they do today at school with my daughter as the acting principal?  "Stuff."   That's all I could get out of my daughter.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son is doing a lot of screens.   We can't find other things to occupy him with outside of the house activity-wise that he's willing to commit to.  Like soccer or camp or anything.   He is playing with friends outside some of the day, but he's on screens a lot while we work something out. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter got scared of a thunder and lightning storm today and wanted to come hang out on the bed with me.   She was so sweet.   She still wouldn't tell me what she did at school today, though!

YMCA

My daughter was very nervous about singing the National Anthem at the baseball game today.  I've never seen her like this before but she took a tums and lay down in the back of the car the entire ride there and then was fine the whole time at the game.   Once she was there with her choir mates it all was okay.  

They were lovely singing and then we went and she wanted dessert for dinner and I didn't mind getting her ice cream given that it was over ninety degrees.  Heck, I had some too, although I'd already had a hot dog.  

We watched the game with me explaining what was happening and Papa, Nana, her father and brother in the row above and diagonal from us because we couldn't easily get to them and there were open seats below on the next row. 

She wanted to get a souvenir and decided on a little wooden bat, which she got for the piñata she had waiting at home.  Then a lady came over and asked if she and her brother would like to help out with the YMCA song in a few minutes.   When my daughter said yes and then we said she was blind a look of worry came over the young girl but I said I had it covered and we went over and I showed her the YMCA moves which she immediately memorized even though she didn't really know the song. 

After the song, which went quite well with some other children helping too, she didn't know it but they were bringing the mascot over to meet her.  Mascots don't talk, so he took her hands and showed her his horns and ears and face.   Oh, and his huge shoes.  Then he hugged her and put his hands to his heart.   She was so happy.  

The game went into overtime and we left because because it was quite late.   My daughter took the opportunity to fall asleep in the floor of the back.   She was very tired. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son was very sweet today but he was much too cool to do the YMCA.   I think he would have liked doing it, but he's hit that age. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is growing weary of me telling everyone how she's going to the Braille Challenge national finals.   But I think she likes it a little bit just the same.  

No Phone?

My parents are elderly, although they are both quite healthy but I got a call tonight from my aunt saying my parent's phone number was saying out of service, and were they okay?   It was evening and their cell phones were off so I sent a text message, knowing that my mother checks it on her computer regularly. 

I know it's not rational to worry just because the phone isn't ringing through, but there is always the worry that something has happened.   My mother messaged back after they finished watching the news that one of the phones hadn't been set back on the cradle completely and all was well there. 

Text messaging is really so much more than the chit-chat time waster businesses thought it would be when it first came out.  It is used in so many ways these days in conjunction with pictures and sound bytes.   I can't imagine a world without it.

The Big Boy Update:  My son got in huge trouble today for having a beverage in the living room again.  I got very angry at him.   Instead of him being upset and angry at losing all television privileges, he was actually in a good mood and didn't even complain when he had to sit in the car and read while we had his parent/teacher conference. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter found out she was going to miss a popsicle party because they scheduled it at the same time as her hair appointment.   She wanted to miss something that took weeks to schedule for a popsicle—that she could have at home.   They may have a second party for those that can't make the first.   If not, we'll have a popsicle at home with her and enjoy them together. 

Space Camp!

Do you remember when they started Space Camp?   It was the thing children got to go to that were very lucky when I was young.  I don't remember when the program started but it was at some point in my childhood.   There was a very limited number of spots and I don't know how difficult it was to pay for the travel and other things associated with the week of camp, but it was rumored to be the camp of a lifetime.  You would get to do the things the astronauts did to train.   

You would be there, right where the astronauts were.  You would get to do the same training things astronauts got to do.   It was as real as you could get.  Realer even, if realer is a word than anything you could ever hope to do other than actually becoming an astronaut. 

My husband found out there was a specific week at Space Camp for visually impaired students.  He's been watching it every day waiting for the signup to open for the specific week for VI children.  And today was the day.  He was almost surprised sounding when he told me like he couldn't believe it had finally happened.  And then he was a bit disappointed that it only was a simple form.  

But later in the day and he'd gotten confirmation back and we now have approval from her doctor that she can participate in all the activities including the high motion ones.  

I can't believe it.  I would love to go.  I would almost want to go back to being a child so I could get to go, but I'm very happy for her. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son chews on things.  He loves to chew on things he shouldn't.  Today we discovered he'd chewed off the covering on the cord to his headphones.   He got in trouble for that.  It is now covered with a lot of tape.   I'm debating on covering the whole thing on 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was so worried.  She couldn't decide who would get to go to take her to Space Camp.  She wanted each of us to go and didn't want to leave either of us out.  But then I said one of us could take her down and the other could bring her back.   She was happy about that because she wanted us to each see where Space Camp was. 

Three Hour Livestream

I did a livestream on the 3D Musketeers podcast on YouTube today.  We talked for three hours.  At the end I was beat.   The children arrived home while I was streaming but were wonderful and left me alone since they knew I was live.  

When I came upstairs I said hello to everyone and then took a nap.  I was tired.   But what amazed me out of the whole stream was the people who showed up.  People who are meaningful to me as a content creator and as someone in the 3D printing community.  People who I was touched that they considered our live stream something important enough to attend.  

The comments were so nice and we had a great time talking for three hours.  Afterward, I got to meet Grant, the owner's, girlfriend, who was just as nice.   It was a great day.  

And while I was livestreaming for Filament Storied my husband was defending his club championship, winning for the second year in a row and winning the club championship for the third time since joining.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son was eating cereal when I came upstairs, dropping it on the floor.  He had eaten a powdered sugar candy and had gotten it all over the floor.  He yelled at me for saying he had to clean it up.  That did not go over well for him.  I said we weren't yelling at him or correcting him—unless he wasn't holding up his end of the bargain and this was not holding it up. 

The Tiny Girl Update:  My daughter does not have COVID-19.  She has had multiple screens that have been clear.  But she has some congestion.  She missed two days of school and while none of us have any signs of symptoms of anything, she's worried she won't be able to go to school.   She feels fine.  Completely fine.  She missed an important play date this weekend as a result and is not happy about the congestion. 

Not Feeding the Dog

Not having your dog around is an odd thing.   Wondering if you've fed the dog, going to look for the food bowl to see if it has already been put on the floor by one of the children or your husband only to find both bowls back in their starting spot for the day and you think did you not feed the dog breakfast?

And then as you're about to call for the dog you remember she's visiting, along with your children, Nana and Papa for the evening.   It's odd not having anyone around.   The house is quiet.  No television blaring at a volume my son absolutely doesn't need to have it at but one he inched up to as other things around him became louder so he increased the volume to match. 

And by blaring I don't mean super loud, I mean I can hear it from the next room loud.   I remotely connect to the television and inch it down over the next two or so minutes and as his ears adjust he never knows it's happened.  

I hope they're having a good time on Taco Saturday with Nana and Papa.  We're enjoying the quiet.

The Cultured Children:  Nana and papa took the children to a concert in the park tonight.  I believe it was a symphony production or at least it was something that the children likely wouldn't jump to go to if you invited them.  But my son absolutely loves classical music and my daughter loves music in general.  I'm interested to hear what they thought about it when we see them tomorrow. 

The Teeny Tiny Piñata

My daughter wanted to buy a Piñata to take to her friend's house for a play date tomorrow.  A play date that unfortunately had to be canceled for her because she was coughing this morning, only for an hour, but I had to keep her out of school and give her another COVID-19 test.  She was so sad but she understood. 

Her three-pack of Piñatas came in today as well as the candy she ordered to fill them.  It was then that we realized the dimensions were correct but very misleading.   She could only fit a few pieces into the tiny almost hand-held-sized Piñata.  

But she filled it up and then with the help of her father she put it on a string, hung it over the bridge, and beat it up—and she got all of the candy this time.  No one beat her to it.  Children didn't swarm and get the candy frantically while she slowly felt around for a few pieces.  

This is why I let her get the Piñata and candy.   And it's why I've let her order a regular-sized one now that we understand more about how they're listed.   It was a little thing for some children but it meant a lot to her. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son played video games and watched YouTube gamer shows all day.  It was the first day of summer, why not?

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  After beating up the first Piñata my daughter wanted to do the same with her second one.  I said let's wait for tomorrow while her father is competing in the club championship.   I guarantee you she won't let me forget that offer of help. 

The Only Sixth Grader

My son will be the only sixth year at his school next year.  This isn't that uncommon as this year there was only one sixth year in his class and since we've been at the school it has happened several other times.  Typically, students leave to start middle school in the sixth grade because they either want to get into a private school when the main enrollment period is happening or because they want to make friends with the initial group of students all coming in together. 

My son is happy to be staying at his school and not overly worried about the following year.  We'll find out more when we know more next year.   He will have a big responsibility to be the leader of the class in many things, something that being in a multi-year classroom has as an advantage.  You get to see the other students helping take on leadership roles and then you can model that behavior when you're older.  

My son does have a lot of maturing to do though as he is not the most calm of his classmates.  We are meeting with his teachers next week.  I know there will be challenges next year for him.  I hope there will be more successes than ever in the past. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter doesn't feel well today.  She is tired.   Is she sick?  Normally we wouldn't worry, but this is pandemic times.   So we worry.   We'll know more tomorrow.  She has no fever and she ate a normal dinner, but she is definitely tired.

The Big Boy Update:  My son will be officially a middle schooler (age-wise at least) starting tomorrow when school lets out mid-day.  He will insist he isn't actually a sixth year until the first day of school.

A Tan

I don't wear makeup, something that every now and again we get comments on, but I do put on moisturizer to keep my face from looking as old as I suppose it actually is.   I found the product I use with a self-tanner in it and thought I'd try it.  

Three days later and it looks like I've been to the beach for two weeks solid.  But only my face.   So I suppose I need to use it only every few days or I'll have a face that in no way matches the rest of my body, which might be obvious in the videos. 

Can I also say that it is very odd to have companies and people online be so happy to have you talk to them.   It's just odd.   It isn't me.  It's that imposter syndrome thing going.   But it is very nice to be able to be gracious and talk to people and answer questions and give advice which, I hope, is good advice. 

We also get things like companies wanting to know if we want to be a distributor for their 3D printers, which clearly shows they haven't watched our videos or they would know we sell nothing at all.   It's so odd.   Are companies just asking random content creators if they want to sell their products? 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is almost a sixth grader.  He has two more days of school.  He is so mature some days.  We played a game with him tonight and he lost in last place but he wasn't one bit unhappy.  He was just glad to be playing with us.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter told me a secret today.  I would love to tell everyone the secret because it's about her, but it's personal and I can't in good conscience do so.  It was sweet of her to tell me though.  It's nothing bad, but very endearing. 

A Real Man's Weapon

My daughter has been wanting to go down to the creek for over a week now.   She can't go by herself because it is a world of hazard for a blind child between the door out our back down a steep hill, over fencing with rebar that has bent over after years of trying to hold back silt which is now holding back the hill itself.  There are brier blackberry bushes and all manner of weeds and vines.  Once you find a spot to traverse the original silt fencing from when the neighborhood was made and have gotten into the woods proper it gets no safer. 

The creek she could hear, but there are saplings and low tree branches with sharp pointy things that could poke her in the eyes.  The ground covering is highly irregular with roots, fallen branches, and rocks.   If she managed to somehow safely make it to the creek she wouldn't know how to get down to it.   For a sighted person it's difficult enough to find a way to get down the embankment to the water, requiring you to evaluate along the water's edge until there is a low-treachery level where you can get down without slipping that has handholds you can grasp safely. 

Then once you're at the creek level what is a rocky outcropping of pebbles and what drops off into a foot or two of water?  Where are there large rocks you can step on or if you can't see them you can fall on them and hit your head, knocking you out face down in the water?  Ir's 100% hazard for a blind child and a cane does no good in that level of complex terrain. 

But she wanted to go and today my husband and she went down with him helping her get through the gauntlet of hazards safely.   And she had the absolute best time.  She told me all about it, saying at one point, "And I got to hack down a vine with the machete!  Ah, a real man's weapon."  

I tried really hard not to laugh but I failed.  I said I thought it was how she said it that was so cute.  She didn't bristle.  She was still happy from just getting to the creek she knows is so close yet so far away to her personally.

The Big Boy Update:  We found out today that the one middle school my son wanted to go to was now full and would be taking no additional applicants for next year.  My son was okay with it, saying that it had been a hard decision because while he wanted to go to that middle school, he also wanted to stay for the final year at his current school.   We have more information about next year and there is possibly a better chance for him to get in.   We don't know where he or we failed on the application.   I thought he did fairly well on everything although there is one part he might have been able to do better in that we can improve on for next year.   We did tell him there were a lot of siblings applying and that they were all getting priority over him.  I don't want him to think he failed at anything.  I think he's fine with it, but as a mother, I always worry.    

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is getting lazy at the end of the school year, not doing homework because she's forgetting but because she's fast she's able to do it quickly in the morning once she gets to school before class starts.  Tonight she remembered again that she had work to do.  She is rushing to get it done before it's too late. 

Just not into it

I'm not burned out with Filament Stories but I think I want a break for a few days.   I've been wanting to not do big videos and spend a lot of time editing them.  I've just wanted to go to bed.   Tonight is no different.  Speaking of, my husband is ready to film me.  Let's see what we can film in a few minutes and if it is just as interesting to our audience as the ones we make that take hours and hours to make. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to wake her father up at least six times this morning.   When he finally got up she convinced him to go get us lunch.   And then somehow she convinced him again at dinner time to go back to the same place—Qdoba—to get us dinner.  

The Big Boy Update:  Now that my son is back from the school trip to Washington, D.C. he is apparently too cool for baths.   He took a shower every day while on the trip but he's not overly interested in a shower every day as he told me, "but I just had a shower on Friday!"

Relatively Calm

We went to a friend's fiftieth birthday party today.  It was at a shelter at a large lake with plenty of room to be nowhere near each other and yet in the same open space at the same time.   We saw friends we haven't seen in ages and got to be outside on a very nice day.  

My daughter wanted to bring the dog but I didn't want to because I was worried it was going to be too hot for her.   The weather stayed clement for June though and we brought her along.   And unlike the dog's usual highly fearful nature she accepted people's friendship to pet her and almost didn't shy away most of the time.  

Some things scared her like the Pops that you throw on the ground that are little pieces of balled up tissue with a tail that snap and explode.  But not so badly that she was shaking.  She wanted to follow any of us if we left to go anywhere, including my daughter.  She did her heeling very well and didn't stray while we all talked and hung out in the shade under the shelter.  

It was such a lovely time seeing our friends, especially to celebrate with Jen for her birthday.   

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter made a new friend today too in one of the party guests who had helped coordinate the event.  She was a teacher and knew all about special needs children.  My daughter absolutely loved her.  She said she would be glad to help out if we ever needed someone to take care of her or if we wanted to have a date night.   She was so sweet and my daughter adored her. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son came home from his five-day trip to Washington, D.C. today.   He let me hug him.  He had a good time but I think he was glad to be home.   I think he missed us too. 

Rather Unfortunate

There was a filament manufacturer that made a rainbow filament and then hid it inside a black spool on all sides so I bought it and unspooled it in a video to see what it looked like.  People were triggered by that video because they knew how hard it is to respool something without getting it tangled.  But it was worth it and the video got lots of views as well as the filament company got a lot of press from it (good, not bad) from the follow-on videos I made of the prints. 

The owner contacted me and said they appreciated the videos and after some time got back to say they had moved to transparent spools for their three transition filaments.   He has been wanting to send me more filament and we decided it was a good time so today, along with several other filaments, his new clear-spooled transition filaments arrived. 

I pulled them out of the box to find that they have a full coverage sticker covering both sides—covering up everything.  It was no different than the prior spools.  I sent him a video where I showed what had arrived and asked what to do.   I suggested that I could send these to JC, the friend I sent him to when he asked if we wanted to make videos for them.  

The partial good news is that JC sent me a video of the three spools he had and they had only one sticker and showed the filament as you would expect it to be shown.  So something happened in the manufacturing process and someone stuck stickers on both sides just as they did for the other, black spools.  The downside is that they can send more spools to me with only one sticker, but I don't feel it prudent to do a video until I know their existing stocks have been sold on Amazon and their main company page.  

It's a shame, but I suppose if they hadn't come to me, someone who was expecting to see something different, no one might have caught it.  I was going to be the person to announce the new see-through spools for them.   

Content creation can be hard. I can't imagine how challenging it would be to run a business with products to sell and manufacturing to make those products. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is so much happier today on the field trip.   He was given a leadership position, took his role responsibly, had two doses of Advil and his back wasn't hurting and as such he wasn't corrected at all and he didn't complain any.   Sometimes it only takes small changes.  The trick is what those changes are. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and I are playing a game on the iPad together.  She and I are combining things to come up with new items with a total of over eight hundred combinations that go from elements to forces to all kinds of life including hardware, inventions, people, families, and more.  It's a lot of fun.   She sees nothing but she's still very much involved. 

The Typewriter

My daughter's typewriter arrived today.  I got her an older one that had been refurbished with all keys working that was of the traditional "whacky key" kind, not the newer (but still older overall) selectric variety so she could feel the keys pop up and understand how it worked. 

She was so excited to get it out of the box, open the case up and get to typing.   And this is where she impressed me.   It was similar enough to her braillewriter while also being different but she understood it in no time flat.   

In ten minutes she was typing me something, figuring out how to X out her mistakes (there is no correction on this version, and even if there were, she wouldn't be able to feel if she had corrected correctly).  Her biggest challenge was hitting the keys hard enough.  

I am very glad I got it for her.  She wrote me a note and left it at my bedside table.   It's going to be a lot of fun for her. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is having some challenges on the trip.   We had a call with him and his teacher today and I think it helped him.  He missed us in part, but his back had also been hurting him a lot.  He is going to take an Advil tomorrow and hopefully, he'll have a better outlook on the trip as a whole from the call tonight.  He sounded so small and far away on the phone. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I am continually amazed at how my daughter can do things I could in no way have done when I was her age.  We're practicing spelling words in the car in the mornings and she is spelling words that are so complicated that I don't know when I would have been able to spell them myself.   

Banana Bread

I don't know how things are going with my son, but we haven't heard much so we're assuming all is going well.  My daughter isn't missing him, something that he usually does when she's away from home.   It's nice having only one child for a while.  Even if I miss the other child. 

The Big Boy Update:  There was an issue with the hotel rooms and they had to make some changes.  The students won't have connecting doors to the rooms with teachers but will be all by themselves with teachers on either side with the students in the rooms in between.  The teachers aren't concerned as they will be checking in on them frequently but they also have confidence in their ability to behave appropriately.   I know how they run their classrooms, I'm pretty sure they'll be just fine. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter made banana bread after school today.  She brought me a piece and it was so good I almost begged for a second one.   Wow, it was delicious.  And to think I thought the bananas were beyond the point of being too ripe.   

Final Hugs

The Big Boy Update:  My son came into our bedroom this morning, climbed into bed with us, and wanted, "snuggles" before he got up and got ready to go on his school five-day trip to Washington, D.C.   I was surprised and happy that he wanted to say goodbye to us.   I was really happy.   Then, he got up and went to get some breakfast and was off with his father.   He didn't seem worried about being gone at all.   He was looking forward to the trip with his classmates.   He very much likes being in school with his friends and his teachers.   It's not always that a child likes their school situation; I'm glad he does. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is staying after school two days every week to do extra work to prepare for The Braille Challenge that's less than four weeks away now.   She's excited but doesn't seem overly worried or anxious in any way.   She might be, she hides strong emotions well.  She has more practice to do at home that I told her she could do if she wanted but didn't have to do because this was up to her and we would help her as much as she wanted but that she shouldn't feel like she absolutely had to grind to win the challenge.