Mac Help

My best friend got a new Mac laptop.   It’s bothering me that it’s not set up completely, not integrated fully with her iPhone and watch and that everything isn’t talking to each other the way it should be.   So I’ve told her I would help.  

I think there is a need on my end to make sure she’s configured more so than there’s a need on her end.   I went over to her house today and worked on her old Mac and her new one, as well as her phone and watch, getting everything talking, tweaking the user interface and operating systems and updating things.    It was fun.   Maybe that says something about me, I don’t know, but I like getting things all put in order and having them work the way they’re suppose to.

I had my husband come over too because servers are his area and we need to get them set up so her two machines and her husband’s are backed up to a server and their files and other data are in a shared storage location.   He has a plan (even though he’s a PC guy primarily) and we’re going to implement that as soon as we get a chance.

She sent me a thank you text this evening for helping.   I told her we weren’t done yet, I’d only started, but that it was a good start.   My only hope is that when it’s all finished and working as I conjure it should be that she doesn’t think to thank me by giving me another orchid…

The Big Boy Update:  My son was talking about Minecraft when he said this, but I had to laugh because it just sounded wrong when he said, “you shouldn’t spend your diamonds on hoes, because they’re useless.”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Edna, who cleans our house, was leaving on Friday.   My daughter went out to send her off from the front yard.   She came back inside and said, “that was the best game ever. I waved bye bye to Edna and she honked her horn—because she knew what I was saying.”

Gigi Strikes Again:  I went with my best friend to pick up her youngest daughter at school today.   I asked her what her favorite color was and she told me, “all the colors in the universe except vomit color”.

No Action Taken

My husband and daughter were in Detroit today for an Evaluation Under Anesthesia (EUA) on both her eyes.   She hasn’t seen her retina surgeon, Dr. Trese, in three months and has since that time had another EUA with her pediatric ophthalmologist to get a refraction, has had bifocals made to match her actual prescription and has been doing fairly well, or as well as can be expected given the general state of her eyes.

As a general update on what she can and can’t see, here’s a rundown on what we’ve observed over the past several months.   She seems to have some form vision in her left eye.   She can see and recognize large shapes, including numbers and letters.   She isn’t the hazard she once was because she’s got enough general sight and peripheral vision to avoid obstacles.   She has no depth perception because her right eye is completely occluded with scar tissue.   Her vision fluctuates from day to day, but the fluctuations have seemed less dramatic than in the past.   And lastly, her ability to tell colors is fairly poor, and not by just shades, big color differences.

After looking at her eyes Dr. Trese said the left eye looked good.   He saw a light pigment change behind the retina, which was likely the cause of her inability to distinguish colors well.   This may resolve but might never go away.

The pressure in both eyes was at seventeen, which is good.  Very good considering the amount of time it’s been since she’s had Healon injected into her eyes to artificially increase the pressure.   He thinks there is improved or healed ciliary body function as a result.   This is great, because the only alternative would be to have her eyes artificially brought up to pressure for the rest of her life and low pressure can cause more damage over time.

Her right eye is almost completely occluded.  He wasn’t able to do surgery today due to time (he wasn’t planning on surgery this visit) but we’ll come back next time and have him open up her field of vision in the right eye.  He was positive about this step now that the left eye seems to be stabilized.   They did do an ultrasound on her right eye and he thinks he sees some, “disorganization” which might affect function, but we won’t know until he gets a clear line of sight into the back of her eye on the next visit.

After her next visit he plans to do a procedure called a VEP after opening the eye up to see what amount of light processing she has in the right eye.   We’ll try to schedule that before the end of the year and see what she can see, literally.

I get a lot of questions asking if her sight will be “restored” or made better.   I tell people the same thing we were told by Dr. Trese back in December of 2015: the goal is to not lose more vision.   Given the state of her eyes and the congenital malformations they have in concert with the insults she’s had via infection and injury, we’re just hopeful not to lose more.   There is a possibility she will regain some vision, but she’s never going to have normal or even near-normal vision.   But we have some vision, and that vision is better than it has been at certain times in the past.   And for that, we’re grateful.

The Big Boy Update:   This morning my son wanted me to have breakfast with him.   He made me a plate of mini muffins but I told him I was in pain and wanted to lie back down.   He told me, “mom, you can lie down on these two chairs right here.”   He was very sweet, trying to make me feel better.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My husband and I know that when my daughter wakes up from anesthesia she’s really difficult to deal with.   She never remembers it because the anesthesia is still in her system and we aren’t particularly bothered by it.   This time my husband tried something different, asking her before she went back, “can you do me a favor and  not be angry at everyone when you wake up?”  They’re on a flight home right now so I haven’t found out if his request made a difference or not yet.

Peaceful Solution

There was a mess upstairs yesterday.   My husband was out and I was responsible for getting the children lunch.   They were hungry and had placed their orders—my daughter demanding hers be microwaved first.   My son was not happy because I had interrupted him in the middle of something, saying the mess had to be cleaned up.

Obviously there was a lot of blame going back and forth on who it was that had made the mess.   If stories were to be believed, neither child had even touched a toy but had merely stood by while the mess appeared on its own.

That wasn’t a problem, I said and told them I knew they would do a good job cleaning up while I got lunch ready.   I explained their lunch wouldn’t be ready (meaning available) until everything was put up.   There was grumbling, followed by angry words back and forth.   I told them I was sure they could work out a peaceful solution and they could come down when everything was cleaned up.

My daughter appeared downstairs first and when asked, confirmed that the mess was now tidied.   Her brother yelled down from upstairs that it hadn’t been cleaned up and he wasn’t doing it by himself.   When I explained to my daughter she would not be having lunch without helping, she got mad and stormed back upstairs.  

As a side note here, my daughter lied to me, knowing her brother would tell on her and that I was going to check anyways.   I need to find out what’s going on in her mind because she’s got some interesting behavioral patterns going on, including making demands like her food being microwaved first.

As I was finishing microwaving the requested soups I heard my son say, “how about I hand the toys to you and you put them in the bin?”   Wait, did I just hear compromise and cooperation suggested?  I think I did.   Yes, they had come up with a tenable solution to cleaning up the single pile of dumped toys from the one bin in their bedroom.  

Two minutes later they were downstairs without a word said about the now clean room.   Their lunches were ready and on the table, which is all they cared about.

The Big Boy Update:  My son asked us to call him Michael yesterday.   Today he told me he wanted to be Michael in the game we were playing and what name did I want to be.   In the car going to dinner I asked him why did he want to be called Michael?   He replied, “it’s my favorite name.”  He further explained to me that he now had two middle names with Michael being the added, new name.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was having some issues with a puzzle on her iPad.   I helped her complete the one and then told her she was on her own for the second puzzle because I had something I had to get done.    Mostly I wanted her to apply the information I had told her about lines meaning edge pieces to see if she could finish the next puzzle without help.    About ten minutes later after asking for help a few times she said in an exasperated voice, “I’m telling you, I’ve been working for DAYS on this!”

Head to Head Humidity

Seasons are changing, temperatures are dropping, then going back up, then dropping, then going way up in the day and getting cold in the middle of the night.   My thermostat strategies have been numerous, which is saying a lot considering we have the NEST, predictive thermostats.   But they predict with guidance and if you tell them you want nothing but air conditioning, you’re not getting heat even if there are icicles of the posters of your bed.

Suffice it to say I’ve been going back and forth across the various modes, trying to keep us comfortable inside regardless of what temperature is happening outside.   Or weather in general.    I was thinking we’d had a lot of rain lately.   I was thinking this because I got this smell I didn’t like when I went into the basement.   I also got it from time to time in the master bedroom.   I’ve got a pretty sensitive nose and I don’t think my husband had noticed it as much but it was bothering me.

It seemed to have started at the beginning of the month, only a few days ago.   I was so annoyed by it that on Friday I got my dehumidifier and rolled it into the master bedroom, planning on taking it to the basement next.

The timing of this was just as I’d decided Mother Nature had finally decided to let summer leave for good and I would be able to leave the thermostats on Heat instead of the Heat/Cool range I’d been tweaking for weeks.  

I don’t do anything without a calendar entry to remind me.   If I tell you, ‘happy birthday’ I assure you, it wasn’t my memory, it was my calendar letting me know.  My own birthday has snuck up on me before.   On the first of the month I have entries on our calendars to do things like: turn on/off the pilot light, change air filters, empty central vac, plug in winter pipe heaters and open the humidifier damper.

November 1st I had, based on the calendar, changed the humidifier filter in the basement HVAC system and turned the flow damper to open.   The other thing I did was turn the thermostats to heat only (which we had needed based on night temperatures).

What I didn’t do was make the connection until mid-day today on what I’d done.  First, I’d turned the basement system (which is also the master bedroom system on the main floor) to heat only.    Second, I’d turned on the humidifier option at full force for the system.   Third, there was a humidity problem in the basement and the master bedroom—one that I decided would be best handled by bringing in a dehumidifier.   The only thing to do was to shove the stupid hat firmly on my head, bolt it down, add rivets and then go tell my husband I’d figured out the problem.

The good news is that with the humidifier off on the system the humidity has been dropping quickly.   The  NEST thermostats display humidity percentages and it’s dropped quickly in only a matter of hours since it was only going on for four days.   So at least I’ll sleep more comfortably in my stupid hat tonight.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has been asking for the Movie Music station when we’re driving in the car lately.   There are a lot of super hero movies out it would seem because the entire way to school we got songs he was pretty excited to hear.  He had a few comments to me though.   After a piece got particularly loud he asked, “Mom, can you turn the music down?  I don’t want the windows to crack.”   Then he started listening.   He commented to no one in general as he was listening to The Avengers theme, “there are violins in this…hey, there are horns too.”   His music teacher would be pleased to know he’s paying attention.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   At dinner tonight my husband challenged the children to see who could say the alphabet backwards.   My son was thinking about it fairly intently and he and dad were talking about order.   Then my daughter just started saying it backwards, catching herself from time to time but passing the point where my son had gotten in short order.   My husband and I looked at each other while she effortlessly made it to …C…B…A.   She wasn’t particularly impressed with herself, I think she just thought it was a fun thing to do.   My husband and I were impressed though.

You’re Really Good at This

I used to love carving pumpkins.   But I got over it.   Initially it was carving pumpkins in the typical, old-fashioned way where you make up some pattern on your own, mostly a variation on the standard Jack-o-Lantern style and carving it rather inexpertly.  

Then the pumpkin patterns on paper started to come out.   I collected the books over a number of years, each booklet coming with another set of the carving-specific tools that made making more intricate patterns much easier to do well.   Only I didn’t do them well.   I think this was largely due to a lack of patience on my part.   I would do the bit where you make punctures around the permitter of the pattern areas to be cut out and then I’d cut out one section, taking my time, and then realize I had a lot longer to go time-wise before I was done.  

So I’d hurry and the results weren’t ever that great.   Once there was a candle in a dark night in the pumpkin though my lack of precision was mostly unnoticeable.   But each year I got less and less interested in carving pumpkins—even though I continued to collect pattern books and printed patterns online.

I changed my interests to roasting the pumpkin seeds, collecting the castoffs from the gutting of our families pumpkins and preparing them for salt (lots of salt) and/or other seasonings.   This worked well because around about the time my interest in carving pumpkins was waning, I met my husband, who is an expert in making the most detailed and challenging pattern look perfect when he’s complete.

This season my husband and son decided to carve something my son wanted to carve—a Creeper from Minecraft.   This is about one of the most simple patterns and my husband most likely free-handed it.   After they had collected the seeds and my husband was helping my son carve I heard my son say to him, “dad, you’re really good at this.”   And he’s right, dad is.  

So my plan now is to just do the seed roasting, a holiday activity I can eat, which I prefer, and let dad do the carving for our family for Halloween.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has decided nudity is bad I think.   The other morning I’d just gotten out of the shower and had to come into the kitchen to tell the children something.   My son told me, “from now on mommy, before you come out here you have to put your pants on and your shirt on.   I do not want you naked.”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was asked me, “do you know why I like my sandwich with mustard?  Because when I eat it it tastes good.”   Sound reasoning, I told her.

1/3rd of the Brain

I was watching a show on the brain the other day.   There is so much that our brain uses to make decisions on based on vision that our visual cortex takes up nearly one-third of the brain.   That’s a huge percentage.   After almost two years of blindness (or very poor vision) with my daughter I’ve come to a completely different understanding and level of appreciation for how incredibly important vision is to us.

I stopped counting the number of times each day that I’d see or hear something that specifically references vision (in a song, for instance) or about information gathering (such as what color sign indicates clearance merchandise) or even a closeup of someone’s eyes in a commercial, which is a lot more common than you’d think.

My daughter goes for another EUA on Monday.   Her right eye is covered in internal scar tissue and she can’t see out, that is if she can see at all.   We’re hoping to have a plan for her right eye after Monday.   If it doesn’t function then we’ll likely abandon it for now.   But we do want to give it a chance because age six is when amblyopia will have a much larger impact.   Meaning that one-third of her brain dedicated to vision will get permanently remapped to other things.   

And while its good that the brain is flexible, we’d rather it be used for vision if there is actual functional vision.    It’s not a high hope, but it’s a hope I still hold on to in part.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son wanted to do round offs and cartwheels and back bends and hand stands and a lot of other things with me in the front yard today for special time.   I could hang with him on some of them and even taught him a few new tricks but I told him I was going to pull a muscle.   He kept telling me he’d help me pull a muscle.   It wasn’t until we were back in the house that he finally understood pulling a muscle was bad.   He said, “oh, I thought you wanted to do that to exercise.”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter explained to us tonight at dinner what a lockdown drill was at school.   She knows the entire procedure, including why the bathroom doors should be shut because the echo was making too much noise.   She talked about how the principal announces it over the intercom and then said, “you know, the principal I pied in the face”.   Putting a cream pie in her teacher’s face was it seems, memorable.

First Report Card

We’re new to public schools this year with my daughter in Kindergarten.   She was in the Kindergarten-level class at her school last year but Montessori schools are a bit different in classroom makeup and classifications.

One thing we’ve never had before is a report card.   Our children have been going to a Montessori school since before they were two-years-old.   My son is in Lower Elementary there now as a “first year”.   What this means in non-Montessori terms is he’s in a blended classroom of students in first, second and third grades.   Approximately one-third of the class is at each “grade” or level.  

My son is loving it.   He’s seeing what the children one and two years older are doing.   He’s seeing how well the can read and write and the research projects they get to do like “Mystery History” that happened in his classroom yesterday where the third-years dressed up and talked about who they were as a famous person in history.   The rest of the class and visiting parents got to guess who the student was.    My son is also helped at times by these older students who are able to help solidify their knowledge on a subject by helping someone else.

So my son is loving his class and is very motivated to learn because of the environment he’s immersed in.   We have always had parent/teacher conferences, even when my children were in a Toddler House classroom and didn’t have words to speak yet.   But no report cards.  

Montessori doesn’t give report cards.   We are made aware if there’s a problem where the child isn’t able to progress reasonably given skill and age, but each child’s education moves at their own pace and not at a standard expected by the whole class.  

My daughter is in Kindergarten in public school now.   I like every one of her teachers including her kindergarten teacher, two assistant teachers, Braillest, VI room teacher and O&M teacher.  They’re all kind and caring and my daughter seems to like them all as well.   But what should we expect from progress for the first nine weeks from both my child and this fine team of educators?

It was confusing.  The “here’s what we’re working on now and your child should be able to do XYZ” letters that came home didn’t apply to a blind child in some parts and not at all in other parts.   My daughter also had her own education plan from the county that was being tracked.   Instead of worrying about it I decided to let the experts do their jobs and they’d let us know if we needed to do something.

We did do some homework when needed but other than that, my daughter was in good hands.   Her IEP (Individualized Education Plan) from the county had it’s own report which came back that she was meeting and/or exceeding all the goals set.   Some of the comments were very warming, hearing how my daughter, once she got braille, sort of attacked it with enthusiasm.

She also got the standard report card in which she got Proficient on everything but one thing, attendance—because we went to the solar eclipse.    I think I’ll take the hit on that one for the experience alone.  

The Big Boy Update:   My son was looking at himself in the mirror tonight, looking under his arm and asked me, “mom, do I have any hair under my arms?”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My son was at a free running class tonight and got in late for bed.   I’d put my daughter to bed already but she didn’t want to go to sleep.   I dropped in on her via the Alexa in her room and told her her brother would be up shortly and to please try to go to sleep.   She said crossly, “but it’s boring up here”.