The Last Memory

My daughter has almost no memory of seeing.   It's so strange to me that that is so given that she had four years of sight, longer than that even until she lost most of her sight.   At least five years she could see and yet nothing.   The brain is still forming during the early years of life and it is quite possible the areas of her brain used in vision were repurposed to other tasks.  

Yesterday my daughter said to me, because she knows I want to know these things and she's just starting to be able to talk about it easily, "I have another memory from before I was blind.  We were going to Pinehurst and when we got there there was a wreath on the door.   I was so young that I had a squeaky little voice.   I went into the kitchen and I say on one of the tall chairs and ate carrots."

She had a very specific memory of going to Nana and Papa's house.  When I asked her if she remembered what things looked like, she said she didn't.   And that's sort of an odd thing.  Her brain told her she'd seen but she's also not sure what it looked like.  She couldn't explain it.

When she has these memories I write them down for her, here.   Because there are so few left.   Anything we can preserve in any way I try to do. 

The Big Boy Update:  As my son was getting ready for bed, we asked Alexa what the weather would be tomorrow.   After hearing he said to me, "Mom, do you know what that means?  It means pants, whatever shirt I want to wear, and a sweatshirt...just like every other day."   He got several sweatshirts for his birthday and Christmas and he loves them.   He wears each of them and thankfully because they're still a bit large on him, we should be able to get another year's wear out of them.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  When my daughter got dressed to go down the hill to get sticks with her brother yesterday. she dressed in jeans and a fitted shirt to protect herself from the briers she might encounter.   I thought she looked wonderful in the clothes as it was a very different look for her from her normal comfortable pants and sweatshirts.   She remarked when she came downstairs, "This is so not my style.   It's more man-like.   I have butt pockets, at least."  Then she headed off into the wild and I hoped she didn't get hurt along the way and was careful.

Multi-color Printing

Remember that project I was working on one blog post ago that we pretended like was yesterday?  When I was first interested in 3D printing it seemed to be a disappointment that models were printed in one color.   You start with a model, give the printer rules on how to extrude filament and in the end, you have a completed print.   

That process happens in a single color though.  And that was sort of sad to me.   Why couldn't models be printed in multiple colors?  Well, it turns out they can, only it's complicated.   Models are printed one flat layer at a time and if you're printing a bear with white paws and a light brown face while the remainder of the model is dark brown, there are different points at each layer that you might need different colors. 

There are several ways this can be accomplished but the current way I'm working on it is via a secondary machine that looks at what colors you need when and splices together bits of filament so that when the printer needs white filament, it's just arrived in the extruder.   When the white is no longer needed and you're back to the dark brown, that color has already been prepared, spliced, and has arrived at the extruder to be melted and added to the model. 

It does all this in a single unbroken length of filament.   Sometimes that length of filament is tens of meters long for complex models.   Crafting the "recipe" of what filaments are needed when and then being able to splice up to four colors together is impressive technology. 

There is an interesting handshake that happens between the machine that's making this chain of filament splices and the printer that's printing the model.   They're not connected electronically.   One has no idea where the other one is aside from the fact that they started at the same point.   How fast the printer prints, if there are pauses by the operator don't affect the device splicing the filament.  The connection is a physical one.   The printer pulls for more filament and the splicer takes that as the message to produce the next segment. 

I'm so impressed.   It's not perfect and there is a lot of tuning that needs to be done to get the filament splices solid as different filaments have different properties.   Alignment is important so that the bear's paws will be white and not the paws and lower legs.   Even if it's not always perfect, the output is so interesting to see, after all this time printing with a single color on one spool

The Big Boy Tiny Girl S'Mores Dessert:  We had a fire in the fire pit we inherited from our neighbors that moved again tonight.  Last nights was fun and my husband was up for doing it again.   My son and he stayed out much longer than my daughter and I did.  She got cold so I went in with her for a bath.   He wanted to stay out and see what types of sticks he could put into the fire and how they'd burn. 

I've Been Work'in On A Project

Sing that to "I've Been Workin' On the Railroad" because that's the song that's going through my head in relation to this project I've been working on.  Also, if you could please pretend it's yesterday and I wrote this before crashing to sleep early last night, I'd be greatly appreciative. 

I'll sum this up with the children and their activities of late and then write about the project for today, I mean tomorrow's post. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Playing Together Days:  My son is still refusing to read Malamandar, the book he needs to finish in order to get screens back.   This is fine with me, although my husband and I are really hoping he finishes before we head to Florida to spend time with my in-laws over the upcoming spring break.   As a result, both of my children have been doing a lot of playing together.  As a general rule, this is something my daughter would love to happen all the time but doesn't that much because my son is busy with his own things, some of which include screens.   With the lack of any digital time though, they've been doing all sorts of things together with my son including my daughter in his play.   She's loving it and I think he's enjoying spending time with her too.  They were going to have a sleepover in the bonus room and got their sleeping bags ready but my son decided at the last minute to go to his bedroom.   My daughter wasn't that disappointed.   She fell asleep to the latest of her audiobooks with her favorite, "stufties" (stuffed animals) surrounding her. 

The Bridge Wreck

My non-COVID-19 positive daughter was in tow with my husband and me as we went to check out a piece of property.  She didn't want to go and pitched a fit but we told her if she was home from school, she had to go with us when we had to do work things.   I wondered if she would like the location, knowing what I did about it. 

It was multiple acres with a vacated house from the 1970s that had never been updated.   When we arrived she wanted to know if there was a gate and upon finding there was, got out of the car to feel it and help open the old, metal frame.   She launched down the gravel driveway with the dog following her.   I gave her directions on a bit left or a bit right until we met her father at the house. 

She wanted to investigate the house all by herself, finding all the rooms and doors.   I tied the dog up and went in and answered all kinds of questions she had.   There was a majestic large stone fireplace that spanned three floors, lots of rooms, and a pool table in the walk-out basement. 

She followed her father upstairs to the second floor which had a bridge overlooking a view of the small pond across the large yard in the back.   She yelled down to me, "It's an awesome view, mom."   It's things like this that are so interesting to me.   There was zero view for her.   But I dutifully responded that she was right, the view was certainly beautiful when I had made it to the second-floor landing. 

We went outside and I let the dog follow us around as we investigated the grounds.  My daughter wanted to know what fun things there were around and I noticed a small metal bridge crossing the creek that flowed into the pond.   We went over and I told her the planks had rotted away, but she could climb out on the rails and sturdy base frame.   

She did so and was very happy, about to make it to the other side when the dog decided to follow her and jumped into what turned out to be body-deep muck to both follow my daughter as well as to get something to drink.   She had stirred up the now dirty water so I had my daughter come carefully back while I sent the dog further into the pond to hopefully have some of the water clean her now-filthy legs and belly. 

As my daughter exited the bridge she said, "I love bridge wrecks.   What else is fun?"  She didn't want to visit the boathouse but perked up when I told her there was an old swing set.   I couldn't take her there until I got the dog, who had now decided to sink into the water to cool off (it was over seventy degrees and sunny—she was hot.)  

My daughter decided it wasn't all that bad, going to see houses with us.   I didn't want to tell her this house was quite the exception.   To her, most houses we would look at as real estate agents, would be just a collection of uninteresting rooms to her. 

I like that there's a bridge wreck

The Big Boy Update:  I was going back over my notes that I take for blog post topics and I saw this one from last year when we saw my parents during which we celebrated my father's birthday.   After singing the birthday song my son said, "Gramps, did you like blowing out the chandeliers?"

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Chelsea, Reese's music therapist, was outside, playing her guitar while Reese jumped on the trampoline and tried to sing off beat intentionally as a challenge.   She told Chelsea it wasn't hard for her at all because she just blocked out the music and did her own thing.   She also added, "I like to be annoying,"

Potential Purgatory

Two days ago my daughter got in the car from school with pain in her eyes.   This was new.  She'd never had eye pain before.  We got her home and gave her some drops for high pressure as well as Atropine to calm her eyes.   The stabbing pain went away very quickly and she didn't say anything more about it.   She complained about a headache, but she was pointing to her temples, which is where her eyes were and she was saying the pain was internal so we thought that's all it was. 

Today, we got a phone call from school saying she had a headache, and since headache was a symptom of COVID-19, we had to come to pick her up from school.   She would be allowed back to school if one of the following criteria were met: 1) she was seen by her pediatrician who diagnosed her as having some other condition, 2) she had a negative COVID-19 test, or 3) she stayed home for ten days. 

My husband drove her to have a COVID-19 test directly from school, the results of which we'll know tomorrow.   There is always the possibility it's COVID-19, however, she as well as the remainder of her family are showing zero signs of COVID-19 so we don't think it's likely.   There is a complication though, in that if she has another headache, even with a negative test, she has to stay home for ten days unless she has that alternate diagnosis by her pediatrician.   

Her pediatrician isn't going to know about her specific eye situation, especially as we had to change offices because of a change in insurance at the beginning of the year.  I had another suspicion though and when she got home I took her to the chiropractor's office.   I told him she'd had a few headaches.   He touched her shoulders and neck and checked one thing on her shoulder muscles, which was obviously uncomfortable when he touched her.   He asked her a question about the headaches and told her to answer yes or no, and that either answer was fine.  

She agreed that the location of her headaches was just how he'd described them.   He told me she had C6 Trapezius Lock Headaches.   Her lower cervical vertebra, specifically C6 was subluxated and her trapezius muscles were in spasm.  She also had C1 subluxated which I knew from personal experience could cause headaches.   

He did some trigger point work on her trapezius muscles and then adjusted her.   Before we left his office she said to me she felt a lot better, which was a good sign.  She iced the area when we got home and I gave her an NSAID and hopefully, that'll be the end of that with the headaches 

In the meantime, I'd gotten in contact with my daughter's pediatric ophthalmologist worked with her glaucoma specialist and amazingly we have an appointment for nine in the morning tomorrow.   That, for the Duke Eye Center, is quite the feat; they have a long wait time to get in usually. 

Again, hopefully, her eyes are fine and we have nothing to worry about.   We wanted to cover everything though.

The Big Boy Update:  My son is a late-blooming drawer.   He hated drawing anything at all when he was young and never colored a single coloring book.   These days, he's been wanting to stay up late to draw.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles;  My daughter didn't want to lie on her back on the sofa or the bed when we got home to ice her neck after getting an adjustment, she wanted to lie in the sun on the trampoline. I took the ice pack out, climb into the enclosure, and got her set up before heading back out to pick up he brother from school.   It was quite warm lying on the black trampoline bed in the sun.   I can see why she loves to do so.  

Preparation and Taxes

In years past, my husband, who does our taxes by his own preference, has needed some friendly prodding to get on the task.   It had even gotten to the point where I would put a daily reminder on his calendar saying, "how are the taxes going?" to try and help get him motivated.   He has always gotten them done with reasonable time to spare, but he procrastinates over this not-so-fun task every year. 

This year we had things going on, projects we'd both embarked on that were encompassing our waking hours not spent doing family things.   It wasn't until this weekend when he said, "you've forgotten something."   I had no idea what he meant until he said, "you forgot to remind me to do the taxes."

We both had some work we'd scheduled for today while the children were in school.  Mine was preparation for recording the next podcast episode.  His was starting on the taxes.   I got my first pass sent off to Scott for review and my husband had started laying things out on the large table in the basement behind our desks. 

In years past, tax documents and related files would fill this table for over a month.   Today, not even at the end of the day but at the end of the school day he said, "the taxes are done and submitted."   This is cause for celebration.  I think for him more than anyone else.   When I asked him how he said he'd gotten better at it every year and with the knowledge he'd gained and the single-focused work he did today, he could get done what had taken six weeks of procrastination in the past in a single, focused six-hour session.  

My day's work seems pretty paltry in comparison. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son told me something yesterday that I had no idea about.   He doesn't like to talk about school and rarely offers any information but he said today would be his last day as a class officer.   I asked him more about it and today, he told me the whole rundown of how each student serves a period as one of three officers.   There is the Seargent at Arms, who is responsible for noise level.  If a student is making too much noise they ask that a reminder be given. If two reminders are given the student is asked to leave the community meeting for a short period.   This officer is also responsible for making sure only one person is talking at a time.   Then there is the Chairperson who makes sure the class is staying on topic and leads the meeting.   They're the overall leader who delivers any reminders the Seargent at Arms requests.  My son was the Secretary, responsible for taking all notes, writing up any reminders for the chairperson to then deliver, keeping track of how many reminders anyone has gotten, noting the start and end times of the community meeting.   My son said he really enjoyed being an officer but he knew it was important for everyone to have a chance to serve.   And secondly, my son not only did not throw a fit when he got in the car today, he said, "Hi, Mom.  Let's go get Reese."  When I told him it was just him and me he asked politely if I was hungry.  I said I hadn't had lunch.  He asked if I would be interested in going to Chick-Fil-A.  If not, that was all right.   I said I thought that would be a great idea.   My son barely eats lunch due to the Adderall so he's very hungry after school.   Something changed in him today.   He was a nice person, not anger-filled.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  LEGOs hurt when stepped on and I noticed the other night the bonus room was strewn with them.   I called my son up to clean them up just as my daughter came in.   I warned her about them but she said, "It's okay, mom; the trick is to drag your feet."   As I watched her I realized what a clever girl she was.  Especially when I asked her where she'd heard that idea and she told me she'd figured it out all by herself.   She said, "you learn a lot from blind people, don't you?"  I agreed, I did.

Twelve Hours

I was at the computer yesterday after picking the children up from school and I couldn't stay awake.   I would type about five words and then I'd realize I had no idea what I'd typed so I'd shake my head to clear it, refocus my thoughts, and then keep writing.   I'd make it about five more words only to have the same thing happen again.   So I went to take a nap.

This isn't uncommon for me.  My sleep is erratic at night and the past week has been not the best sleep-wise.   Usually, I'll get a couple of hours and then I'll be able to finish out the day, sometimes even staying up well past the children's bedtime, catching up on the things I had intended to get done but couldn't on account of the afternoon nap getting in the way.

Later, I was awoken by the dog bounding onto the bed, trying to lick my face in a gesture of excited hello as well as the voices of my husband and daughter chattering.   My daughter was asking me questions I was too bleary to answer intelligibly.   My husband finally got through to me, asking if I wanted to get up and that it was now nine o'clock.   

Nine o'clock!  How had I slept from five all the way through to nine?   I tried to focus my thoughts to get up and help with the bedtime routine.   Both children need a little assistance to go to bed from the, "yes, you have to go to bed now.  Put your pajamas on and brush your teeth."   That kind of thing, only repeated a few times, sometimes followed by us chasing them up to their bedrooms to ensure they don't forget they actually have to go to bed. 

My daughter isn't all that bad, usually electing to go to bed early more nights than not.  She's sort of the opposite problem in that she'll fall asleep in different locations without the pajamas or teeth part of the routine and then is internally hard to wake up to get ready for bed. 

My son just isn't ready to go to sleep.   Ever.   He doesn't need as much sleep as my daughter and we've allowed him to stay up in his room, provided he's reading or doing some other activity like playing with something.  There are no screens in his room, so usually after a bit, he heads to sleep himself without a problem.   It's getting the children to the point of being ready to go to sleep that we're still helping with every day. 

Except for last night, I fell back asleep before I could fully wake up.   I woke up again after midnight, but only for a few minutes.   It wasn't until five-thirty this morning that I completely woke up.  I had slept for a full twelve hours.  I think the lack of sleep finally got to me and this morning, I'm glad I slept all those hours because I feel ready to take on the day.   My thanks, as always, to my husband for helping out while I was sleeping.   He really is the best.  

Pretend I wrote this post yesterday and I didn't miss a day.   I'm pretending I did.

The Big Boy Update:  My son still is very angry.   He told me yesterday in the car after throwing a fit because we had to go get his sister again, that five percent of his brain had been turned off.   Why and what for, I asked?  He said when he finished reading his book and he was allowed to have screens again, he would feel better and it would come back on again.   Why wasn't he reading then, I asked.   The obvious question, it seemed to me.   He didn't want to talk about it, he said.   When he got home, the friends he can play with during COVID-19 were outside, so he asked me to set a timer for forty-five minutes and then let him know so he could come back in and read.   Did he read?  I have no idea, I was asleep.   I'll find out this morning. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter had something alarming happen yesterday.   Her eyes were both giving her stabbing pain.   She rated it a six on a scale of one to ten.   I called my husband and we realized we missed her morning drops.  She also had a pressure spike in the last week so we upped one of the drops to the more powerful one.  She suggested adding in the Atropine drops as well, because they've helped before.   This is a whole post because I learned some interesting things about her eyes I didn't know before but for yesterday, we gave her the drops as soon as we got home and an hour later all the pain had gone away.   Her pressure was well in the normal range, so it looks like it was a short-lived event.   But a scary one.