A Very Down Daughter

Oops, my post from last night was sitting in drafts mode.  I hate when that happens. 

My daughter had a very bad night.   I thought she'd had a good day, singing in the choir concert and then getting to see Santa followed by a massage.   But before she went to sleep she broke down and told me about how awful it was to be blind.   She was saying things like she didn't know that there was a reason to go on, that there was never any happiness.   Bad things.  Sad things. 

Does she really feel that way in the way an adult feels depressed?  The things she was saying were alarming, but she also is adjusting to being blind and does have significant mood swings.  I am going to keep talking to her and see how she's doing.   She does have lots of happy moments but when she's in the deep depths of a mood swing, she's very down. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son went to his sister's concert tonight to be there for her.  He was very sweet all day long. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter said she has to ask for help all the time, for everything.  She hates it.  Absolutely hates it.  

Catalogs

My daughter is excited about Christmas.   She is wanting to help with just about anything and one thing she knows we need to do is look at the catalogs we have from the mail and determine if anything in them might be a good present idea for someone or be something she or her brother would like on their wish lists. 

She's been wanting to help with the catalogs for days now.   Tonight I went up to her room while she put up her laundry and told her about the things in the catalogs.   She had a lot of wants.   I told her too many things on your wish list and you won't get them all and you might not get the things you most want, so we need to rank them and consider how many things to add. 

She was fine with all that and just had a great time hearing about all the possible things available to but. But it's a very constrained world she's in in this way.   She can't see all the items in the catalogs; all she can do is listen to what we tell her are in there.  

And there is no time to tell her about all the things our eyes glance through in the span of a two seconds, thinking, "nothing on these pages" and move on.   So many words to describe what we see so quickly and easily.   

But she was happy.   And she will retain every single bit of it too.  She is a vault when it comes to memory, that's for sure. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Laundry Difference:  My daughter doesn't want to do her laundry, but she does it and takes time to do a good job.   Her brother fights it and puts it off and dawdles and then gets in trouble, even though he was given multiple opportunities to get it done himself, encouraged to.

Headaches and Fevers

Each of us in the family had some sort of mild side effect of the vaccination or booster yesterday.  The children, who had their second vaccination shot had headaches.  My daughter had a mild fever.  My husband and I felt tired and had headaches.   But all in all, not too bad.   Tomorrow hopefully we'll all be, "right as rain."

First Friend Met

Today my first 3D printing friend and I met.   He was on the way to Florida and stopped in for two hours to meet us.  It was during the time the children were in school but he may stop in another time on another trip to meet them.   It was short, but it was a busy time and we caught up like we'd known each other for years. 

In the entire time I've known him I've only typed to him on a social media platform where a group of 3D printing enthusiasts gather.   We met early on when we both had just joined.   He messaged me when he saw I liked filament and from that point on, we've been friends.  

He and his wife are retiring soon and relocating to Florida and this trip was to bring some things down as well as to help his parents move from their home to one closer to where he and his wife will be living.   Last year during COVID-19's worse and more isolated days he lived alone there, working from home and being close to his mother who was quite ill.   His wife remained up north with her jobbed for months, the only people he talked to was via this community that grew up around a creator we all enjoyed printing from. 

It was just a very easy and fun two hours that ended far too quickly.   

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Round Two Injections:  My son forgot about the second injection today and was mad when I picked him up after school and insisted he was going to boycott the injection.  My daughter was terrified for not really a good reason since the last time it didn't hurt much.  They both managed fine and are now fully vaccinated.  My husband and I got our booster today along with them. 

The Lost Shoes

My daughter will be buying a new pair of shoes for herself.   I bought her two new pair recently.   They were not inexpensive.  She's grown recently and it was time and she had done a good job of wearing out the old pair.  

Three days after getting the new shoes, specifically after wearing them twice, she lost them.   She has had over two weeks to locate them.   We've looked everywhere and she knows she will have to buy a replacement pair if she doesn't find them.   Why? she asked.   Because we bought them and you lost them and you need two pair of shoes. 

Today we talked more about this.  Why she needs two pair of shoes is because come time to leave for someplace, say school or choir or anywhere, what if she can't find her shoes?  Having a second pair is the answer.  Also, it's nice to have more than one thing you put your feet in every day as well. 

She's left them in the rain for days.   She's hidden them under the bed so she could find them later, only she forgot she put them there.   There are so many times we need a backup pair of shoes for her as well as for my son. 

She has agreed it is necessary, but she was surprised when I told her she would not get her money back if she found the pair later.  Why?  Because we had to buy the pair a second time.   If we had found them before buying a second pair, she wouldn't have to spend her money.  But once it's spent, it's not un-spendable. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son had a little note card taped to his pencil when he got in the car today saying, "Vote for Davis".  He decided David would be a good class officer and he is lobbying for him to be one of the newer students to replace him and his other two classmates as they step down after half a year of being officers managing the classes responsibilities. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted, begged, pleased for us to let her buy her brother a very expensive computer keyboard for his Christmas present tonight.  Because he was her brother, she said.  Because she loved him.   And, because he spent his money to get her a big present last year.   He did and we allowed that.   So we let her spend her money to get him a nice present.   He will be very excited when he opens it on Christmas Day. 

Left the Love Zone

We got to see my nephew Kyle today.  And my in-laws and my brother- and sister-in-law.   It was a good day seeing them all.   It was even better actually getting to hug someone not in my family.   I've never been a huge hugging person, but all this time alone with COVID-19 floating around and I was ready to hug my parents and Uncle Bob and Uncle Brian, and everyone else in my family.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son just came downstairs complaining of having not a nightmare, because he wasn't asleep.   He had "bad thoughts" trying to go to sleep.  I told him even adults sometimes had that happen to them.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was happy to have two dogs to pet tonight with Daisy also at my in-laws when we went to dinner.   She was on the ground, petting Matisse and Daisy.  Daisy wandered off and my daughter said to her, "Daisy, you left the love zone."

The Phone Call

I had an odd experience today.   Things are just happening with the filament videos at a rate I wasn't expecting, and by that, I mean fast.   We're going to work with one filament company and then we're going to meet one of the most well-known content creators in the 3D printing arena.   This is because the filament company has worked well with them before and they have a good relationship.  

Today I got a message on Instagram and then ended up on a phone call with someone I've been watching his videos for several years.  He knew me and I knew him because of the content we put out.  So in a way it seemed like we knew each other, only we'd never met. 

The meeting we're having with him has turned into two days with multiple videos and a live stream and who knows what.   It was a bit surreal how easy the conversation was.   I'm looking forward to the trip. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Puzzle Story:  My son and daughter were doing some puzzles tonight.  My daughter had to do them blind, because she is, but my son also decided to see if he could figure it out.   It is not easy—at all.   He got it with a little bit of help.   I really don't know how my daughter does all the things she does.