A Lot of Tired

My husband had an overnight flight home from skiing.  We were going to get a full day's work done today and then head out to see my in-laws on Friday.   Only things didn't turn out to plan.   

My husband was so tired.  He fell asleep on the chair in the great room.  He slept there for hours and hours.   When he finally got up  it was late in the day and we weren't going to be able to get as much done as we had hoped.   

We did ger enough done.  Enough to have videos for all of the days we're out of town.  

The Children Missed Their Father:  The children are always happy to see either one of us when we return from being away.   It is always nice to see how each of them gets excited to have their father come home.   They are each different, and I like them both. 

Preparing For Departure

We have a lot to get ready for the trip to visit my in-laws next week.   I am the sort of person who likes to prepare well in advance of a trip.  Or at least trips like this one, I do.   When I was a business traveler, I would pack right at the last minute and rush off to the airport just in time to catch the flight.  But in the case of traveling with children, there is a lot more that needs to be considered, packed, not forgotten, etc.

I typically have a packing document I edit from the prior trip to that destination or something recent in time.   For years, I would make the file for this trip a new version of last year's trip.  This year I've been so busy I haven't even made a new file yet.

I haven't even started packing, which is all sorts of unlike me.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter started packing some of her things.  She and I went and got some new clothes that fit her.   I rather hope she slows down growing. in a bit.   She's looking almost like a little lady now. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son said sure, not a problem, he would get some things packed.   He has gotten zero things packed. 

Two Days Behind?

 I can't believe I missed posting for two days.   My children and husband were so sweet while I was resting.   Right now I have to make word searches for my daughter, so I'm cutting this belated post short. 

There Was A Young Lady Who Swallowed A Fly

My children know that song.  They know variations of the song and we have spent many a car ride calling out the different things the poor lady happened to swallow.   Today, however, there was another fly issue and this time it was in our house. Somehow, we have no idea forty or so houseflies are in our house.  They are full grown, black, fly well and are not termites—something I had happen in a prior house.  

The buzzing is annoying and oddly frightening. I've been running around with two flyswatters to try and get them out a window or door, or if not, to dispatch with them as succinctly as possible. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son was quite scared of the flies.  I was really surprised by this.   He wanted to have nothing to do with them.   They had landed down in a soda bottle from the night before and he was repulsed by the thought of them being there when he took a swig of the drink.  I can understand, that sounds very unpleasant.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's eye doctor had messaged me on another topic the other day.   She has said, "Have you heard the news about Dr. Trese?"  Dr. Trese was the visionary that did all the complex things with my daughter's eyes.  He had been working on a big research project and had also talked about retiring.  Had he received an award of the highest honor?   My husband said, "he might have died."  I sucked in my breath and said, "oh no, I hope not."  He was in his seventies when he was treating and doing surgery on my daughter.  He was still working because he loved it.   He had died from pancreatic cancer.   We are all sad.   He was simply wonderful in so many ways.  

Livestream With Help

Today was a nice day with the children.  No one was in a hurry and nothing had to be done.  Well, the house had to be cleaned up and the dishes were a mess, but I got it all done in preparation for a live stream I had planned with my producer with his channel and ours.   

The children were very sweet.   They knew I had to go into the room and shut the door, and their father wasn't around.   They had some friends over and I let them stay with a very stern warning of, "If you think your parents would not approve at home anything you're thinking of doing here, then don't do it."   I got some yes ma'am's and nods and then I headed to the basement for the live stream. 

After being in the stream for thirty seconds I had a guinea pig delivered to me.   Ten minutes later he was returned home.   That was sweet of my son.   Then a bit later I went out to get something and I found out two of the people in the live stream were my son's friends.  How sweet of the boys!

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is blind.  She can see almost nothing.   And yet today she went out to ride her bike again when the rain stopped.  Nothing stops her.   She really is amazing. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son wanted to go to dinner with us and picked a restaurant.  When it was time to go he lost his mind because there were friends at another house and I was killing his future forever by making him go to dinner now.  I told him to go back, I coordinated with the mother, and my daughter and I had a lovely dinner together.  She is a sweet girl.  

Waiting on a Miracle

Today my daughter had her solo with the girls' city choir.   She said she had her song well-practiced, even though she missed one of the main practices for the soloists (she was performing with her school chorus at the time) and she hadn't been practising at home.   So I wasn't so sure. 

I brought up the recording of the specific arrangement for her to practice and she had significant problems singing to it.   And we had three hours before we headed out.  I got nervous.   But my daughter figured out a short bit later that she had missed part of a measure when the pianist recorded it for her, and that was causing all the trouble.

The director asked if my daughter would be up for coming to the performance hall a bit early for a final practice, something I jumped on with an "absolutely, we'll be right over." My daughter looked lovely in all black and when we arrived she went straight in as one of the only performers there at the time.  I heard her song moments later and her singing.  

I think they practiced the song twice.   And my daughter was right, she totally had the song.   She sang so beautifully.  They recorded everything so hopefully next week I'll be able to get a copy of it for posterity's sake.  I was very proud of her. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son didn't want to go to a performance, much less one where he would have to wait for a good while before the concert began.  I let him take the iPhone the children use when there is a need.  my son would love to have that phone full-time, but that's not happening for a bit longer.  The phone entertained him, although he talked to Jessica, another mother, and me and was so polite.   He wanted me to play a game with him, which does look fun.  I'm going to see if we can play it tomorrow.   I was proud of him today. 

I Have A Dream

My daughter is tracked out for four weeks.  Or is it three weeks?  For a while.  It's her last holiday for elementary school.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: She came home with this today: 

The Big Boy Update:  My son's ear is hurting a lot.  I have to go see if I can help.  I'm not sure what it could be.

Roses

My daughter did well in all three of her performances with her school chorus today.  It was a bit poignant because it was the last day they will ever do chorus for elementary school.  She loves the teacher and the group is friendly and supportive of each other.  But things do end.  It's the only way to make way for new things, which in this case would be middle school. 

I have seen parents bring flowers for their child when they've done a performance but I never thought about it until I was at the event and it was too late.   Today, though, I had time between dropping my daughter off and coming back for the performance.  So I dashed off to get some flowers.

I smelled them all and was disappointed in that they all smelled mostly like nothing.  They have been bred for being sturdy or lasting for longer or looking better and smell has gone by the wayside.   Which is fine, unless the person you're getting them for is blind.   My daughter didn't mind, she loved them.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is amazing how she can hear someone speak to her, and she calls out their name.   She can recognize classmates and teachers in a loud room.   It's quite impressive. 

The Big Boy Update:  I gave the roses to my son and said he could give them to his sister.   She was very happy, I could tell.   Her brother was very nice about everything today, even going to her performance when he'd already heard a good bit of it last week. 

Chorus Day

My daughter tracks-out on Friday.  Tomorrow. she sings with her school chorus three separate times, twice during school and once after school for families.  She does love her school chorus. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to give her schoolmates a 3D printed articulated model.   I have been printing them for a while, and tomorrow they go to school to be handed out.  I hope her friends like them.

The Bit Boy Time Is Running Out:  My son has a lot of work to do before his capstone years is finished at his school.   He has to get working or he won't finish it all in time.   Hopefully, he can stop doing math work and get working on the other things he needs so he can complete everything before the year is over and he leaves his first school forever. 

Another Abscess

Did I mention that Kix has another abscess?  I am tired and it's late and I have to be up early and I'm not even sure at this point so if this is repeated, my apologies.   Kix got an abscess in the same spot as before, give or take a centimeter.  It got large, but not quite as large. 

I didn't want to go through another surgery, so I ordered some larger gauge syringe tips and waited until they arrived.  I figured it would barely hurt Kix because it was not much more than a bit of skin covering it.   He peeped a bit but after that held still and we removed a lot of thick pus from the abscess. 

It seemed like there was a second pocket so we tried a second spot and got a lot more out.  We applied some antibiotic ointment after that and was planning on waiting it out to see what happened.  Later in the day it seemed to be partially filled back up.   I really didn't want to have to do another surgery on him.  

Then, two days later, after giving him a bath, it popped and the skin fell apart around it.  He now has a nice, clean scab covering it.  I am very relieved.  This is a much better path than big surgery like before. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter doesn't like any of the medical parts.  She is afraid of the scab, but I told her a hard scab is wonderful as it's his body going through a healing process and it is the best thing that could have happened. 

The Over-Screened Son:  My son has had a five-day weekend—with a lot of screens.   He is back to school tomorrow.  Then he is screen-free for a bit.

The Rock Present

We were over at the new property today, and my husband found a rock he wanted to bring to my daughter. She loved it.  It was a rather large rock, so I suggested it live outside.   Our friend, JC, said it was a good present because it was being brought home today as a gift and then it would be brought back to its original home when we move in a few years. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son came downstairs today and said, "Can someone give me a hug?"  I launched out of the chair to take him up on the offer.  He doesn't ask often. 

The Solo Child:  I found out tonight (although my daughter told me she already informed me) that she had the first solo in a song the city girls choir she's in is doing on Saturday.

Sushi Mistake

We were debating what to get for dinner and ended up selecting sushi.  My husband said I should place the order and he would go and get it.   I made some selections for us, getting the specific thing my daughter wanted from the children's menu.   I got rolls with fun sounding names I thought my son would lilke.

When the sushi got here my son ate the first piece and had a mild allergic reaction.  How is it we had completely forgotten he had developed a rather meaningful allergy to fish over time?  Not all fish, but some were significant.  

Fortunately, we had other things he could eat.   Still, we're not sure how we missed this important piece of data about our own child. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son wasn't upset at all about being unable to eat the sushi.   He is sometimes ornery and a huge challenge.   Then other times he is a complete sweetheart. 

The Tiny Girl Sameness:  My daughter wanted lo mein, what she almost always gets.   Hopefully, someday her taste buds will grow up.   Food is such a grand adventure. 

Planning to Start Work

I'm so tired, I'm going to bed in three minutes and no later.   I have a friend here who is wonderful.   We have our differences in how we approach work though.  Tomorrow morning he wants to get up and discuss and plan what we're going to do.   I want to get up and just do the things we need to do and figure it out along the way. 

Neither approach is wrong, it's just two different ways of approaching a problem.  I'm glad he's here; we're going to have fun making content. 

The Big Boy Update:  We had my son's parent/teacher conference today.   He is doing well in some things, but he's not doing enough in other areas.  The reason why?  Because he's doing so much math.   He loves math.   They are going to try and balance him out for the rest of the school year. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "Mom, I need your help" I hear on Alexa across the house.   What does she need?  Not help with the guinea pigs of course.  No no, she wouldn't have both of them in the bed with her, would she?  Yes, she would.  She loves them so. 

Surprise Attire

I just got off a three hour live stream.  We had a lot of fun.   The best part though was when I got back at the male host for the evening.   He was hosting along with Britt and me and he had been teasing us.  I decided to take him to task with his words.   I found a black, string top shirt and I put it under my t-shirt.  

Shortly before going live I took the t-shirt off, saying I needed to get into my CreatrisBritt attire for the evening.  He put his head in his hands and Britt and I laughed and laughed.   It was so worth it.   The shree hour stream was nothing but fun. 

The Big Boy Update:  We are starting a five-day weekend with a parent-teacher conference tomorrow.  My son is ready to overload on screens the entire time. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and I washed the guinea pigs today.  We put them in a tub of water and found out with my daughter in the tub with them that they cam swim quite well.  They far prefer climbing up on her and scratching her in the process.  She giggled and loved it all. 

Coming to America

I just found out a friend of ours from 3D printing will be coming to one of the large festivals later in the year from very far outside the US.   This information is fairly exciting, because when the event finds out he's coming, they may want to promote it.   There will be a lot of people coming, but this will be a first because he doesn't go to a lot of events. 

Suffice it to say, I excited about him coming as well.  I told him a lot about the events from last year because I thought it would be something he'd enjoy.   I say that not having ever met him, but it was the sort of thing I can't imagine someone who loves 3D printing not having fun at. 

Meeting people is a big part of the fun.   No, a huge part of the fun.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter almost never brushes her hair before she's in the car these days.  Am I starting a bad habit because I'm not making her brush it before she leaves?  Here is my rationale:  She doesn't care.  She is perfectly fine going to school with her hair a total wreck.   She will care later when she is interested in dating, but for now, I feel like I'm the one who loses when she doesn't brush her hair...so I let her brush it in the car. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son never brushes his hair.  His hair is short and never really needs brushing.   I don't really make him brush it either, because it does what it wants and brushing doesn't make any real difference.  

Riding In The Front

I asked my daughter if she wanted to ride in the front seat yesterday.   I'm not sure why, but she's eleven, she's plenty tall enough and weighs enough, they just always ride in the back.  My daughter was excited about riding in the front. 

You forget what children don't know.   She can't see the front area, so she knows very little about it.  She felt around and asked all kinds of questions.   Her favorite thing though was reclining the seat.    She got in the front seat after school today and she got into slouch mode with the chair all they way back.   She loves the front seat.   I remember when I used to get in the front seat at a similar age.  You really do feel like you're all grown up. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son wanted one of those huge sweatshirts that's also a fleece that's also a massive body blanket.   We call them, "Cows" not because they're large, but because my daughter's is in a cow pattern.  Mine is a boring taupe.   I got my son a navy blue one that came in less than a day.  I thought I'd get it now and take advantage of the cold weather.   I had my son open an odd thing tonight.  It was a dark brick of a thing shrink-wrapped.   He cut it open and out expanded a fluffy "cow" in navy blue.   He hugged me.   I didn't even tell him I was going to get it for him.   He wore it to sleep he was so happy wearing it. 

Totally Out of Contact

Last night we had the power go out in the neighborhood.   We didn't know why at first, and even now, we're not sure of the reason.  Different people have talked to people working in the area down the road where the outage was, but the stories weren't at all the same.  

My husband took this video shortly after the power went out.   Some of us didn't notice the power had gone out on account of a headache and lying in bed in the dark.  

What turned out to be more interesting was that a few hours later, our Internet connection went out and our cellular service was barely working.   Our providers weren't the only ones taken out.   Someone or something took out some connector boxes or something major.

Today, there were upwards of nine trucks working on getting their section of whatever was wrong back up and running.   It was odd being almost completely offline today; I sort of liked it.  

The Children In The Dark:  The children were excited to have some of their friends come over to our house while the rest of the neighborhood was in the dark, so they could submit their homework before going to bed.  They did not make it easier to get their work done, but no one complained. 

A Happier Home

My husband is a wiz with things.  Some things, not all things, but he's pretty good at whatever he sets his mind to.   In this case it was to make a very specific configuration for the Guinea pigs.  I've been rearranging their cage situation since we got them, watching videos online and trying to find something that would be the most comfortable for them, give them a lot of moveable space, would be easy for us to come see them, pick them up, feed them, etc.  And be easy to clean.   

We're going out of town and I need someone to watch them for a week and it's going to be a lot to ask someone to pick up lots of poop from your darling little creatures—every day.   It wouldn't be so bad if I could tell them to take everything in the cage and dump into a laundry bag every three days and I'd clean it when we got home.    But there is still the issue of all the cleaning up of hay, poop, pellets, etc. around the cage.  

I had the height at a good level, but the sweeping and cleaning around things has been a real pain.  This new situation will be so easy to clean because it's solid PVC walls with two foot depth.   They will love it because it won't hold smells and no one likes lingering smells. 

I'll take a picture when it's all done (hopefully tomorrow) and then ask if our neighbors would be willing to watch them while we're gone.  I am going to miss the little guys. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son went from having no friends and worrying about not having friends to having five or six boys coming over to play with him all the time.   He seems very relaxed about the whole thing, which I hope means they are all communicating well.  They use all the special words of the day, and sometimes I have no idea what they're talking about.  They all seem to get it though.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was bored today.  I would have gotten on her case for not trying but she told me she'd talked to not one, but three friends around us.  One was at her mother's for the weekend, the other was out visiting family and the third was doing something with their grandparents.   I'm sorry.   She made it through most of the day before saying she was bored and could we take her someplace because she was SOOOOO bored.

Living In Filth

The whole family loves the guinea pigs, but at this point, they are dependent on me for their food, water, and cleanliness.   That's not entirely true, as my daughter does a "poop sweep" when she comes to see them, picking up the current deposits and throwing them away in the trash can.  Which is really helpful, but it's only one of the many things that have to be done to keep the little guys living a clean and healthy life. 

Last night I was tired and didn't go up to do my nighttime clean and reset of their space.   When I got in today after the bring your parents to school with my son I checked them out and I was so upset to see them huddled in hidey spots with poop under them.   They were out of pellets (they had enough hay to last a week, but it also gets urinated on in places so I keep small amounts in different spots.)

I cleaned everything up, put clean covers down and gave the some green beans which they were quite happy about.   It takes a lot of time, but they are very sweet and we all love them. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter will bring us a guinea pig usually once per day.   Tonight we talked about how one smelled bad.   I told her I'd learned they really didn't need a full bath, just their underside.  I took him up and washed him in the sink.   He is funny when you try to dry him; he hates his underside being touched but I needed to dry all the fur between his front and back legs—and there's quite a lot of that.   He had a fit, but the fluffy towel didn't get upset and finished drying him as though it hadn't even noticed. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son had us in his class today and we were the students.  We did math word problems and binomial equations and the word of the day, which we both got correct.  I learned that the huge OED in the classroom had a magnifying glass with it because each page had nine pages in tiny, tiny, tiny font on them.   I finally found the word.  It was tough!

Home Alone Is Okay?

We left my son at home this morning because he was sick but we had a meeting at a cabinet place.  It's an odd thing.  I don't remember the time before I was able to be at home alone without my parents.   I know in high school I would be sick and my parents would let me stay home while they went to work.  

It didn't seem odd at the time, I was sick, they had to work.   It was nice sleeping in and not having to do much.   The next day there was always a lot of catching up to do.  Was it worth it?  I suppose it depends on how sick I was. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son didn't seem to mind being left home alone.  He was up before we left and locked in at the couch with an iPad and the television on.   He had a phone he could call us with but he didn't call.  He answered when we called about lunch and said thank you and was very sweet. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has a lot of homework to do tonight, but when she got home, she went straight outside to play.  That's a good thing, but she forgot her homework assignment yesterday and the Mantis on which she needed to do it.   Today, she has a lot to catch up on.  I wonder if she'll be doing homework in the car in the morning again?

Back OFF

We have someone who is going too far when it comes to trying to contact us.   He isn't what I would call a stalker because that isn't his goal.  He wants to talk about a product he's trying to develop.   We've tried to have a call a few times, and it didn't work out.  Tomorrow we will try again.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter does not want me telling anyone that she was working on her homework in the car.   I wonder why in the world not?

The Big Boy Sickness:  My son went to bed early and called me up to say he didn't feel well.  He had a fever, which means the COVID test comes out.  He was negative, but he is definitely staying home tomorrow.

6.5

It is confirmed.  At eleven. years of age, my daughter wears the same size shoe as I do as an adult.   I bought the six-and-a-half shoe because that's what she insisted fit, but I wasn't so sure they were the right size.  Today, she came home and said they were great and fit perfectly.  

I suppose I do wear a larger shoe size for running, so maybe my daughter still has a bit to go.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son had to put up his laundry tonight in preparation for the cleaners coming tomorrow.  He finished putting up the load.  When I came in to check his progress I discovered the PRIOR week's laundry sitting in a corner, not put up.   My son has excellent procrastination skills. 

Watches For Money?

My producer has been closing business for us left and right.  Why I didn't hire someone before now is beyond me.   I suppose it isn't that simple.  I didn't think about finding someone to help out with the business side of things for a while because it didn't seem like it would make sense.   But boy does it. 

The initial thinking is that you're paying someone to try and close business for you.   So you have to make their cost on top of whatever else you're doing.   The thing is, I wasn't doing a good job of closing business  mostly because I hate that side of things.  I didn't feel like telling a company they should pay us for something.   

Companies wanted to work with us.  Lots of companies did.   But they weren't going to up and offer to pay us money without us asking.   And I was just not interested in saying what a good job we were doing or these were our rates or any of that.  So the overall money we were bringing in was less because I was asking for money less frequently.  

I had lots of messages on the various social media platforms and via email from companies that wanted to work with us, that I needed to get back to.   And my producer is on top of them all.  He likes doing this bit where he says this is what we're doing, and these are our rates.   He's really good at saying the right words, and companies are responding.  

He closed multiple things today, one of them, and the reason I'm writing this post tonight is because a company is going to pay us three hundred dollars to talk about their 3D printed watches in a one-minute video.   They'll mail the watches, we try them on, talk about them, return the watches, paid in advance.  

Amazing. 

The Tiny Girl Shoe Shopping:  My daughter said her shoes were falling apart.  I took her to the Sketchers store today.   The shoes looked a little like she needed the ones in the adult sizes.  I gave her a six.  Too small, she said.  She is wearing the same size shoe that I wear.   What?!  

The Big Boy Deception (Again):  Does my son think we are morons?  He is the worst at hiding when he has a screen.  His subterfuge is just abysmal.   He lies and thinks we don't know.   I suppose it's good he isn't better at the deception.  

More Grace

My daughter has a VI friend named Grace.  She and Grace do things together from time to time.  Last weekend her parents were so kind to come and pick up my daughter, feed her lunch and dinner and have her over for most of the day.   And my daughter loved it. 

We wanted to return the favor as well as get the girls together again because they had so much fun.   Today they made lemonade and spent a good bit of time outside.   My daughter had found her electric skateboard.  I didn't realize how long it would propel her for.   Grace wasn't interested in riding on the skateboard but she did like to control the speed and direction. 

Which worked out well.  They did all sorts of different things with the skateboard today, including going to a neighbor's house to taste test some popcorn to vote on which microwave popcorn tasted the best for one of their children's science fair projects.  

They made a huge fort and then ended the night after dinner.   I am happy they have fun together.  Most of the time my daughter has to play with sighted friends.   Two blind children together is a nice equalizer and they appreciate having someone in the same situation as they are. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Grace asks my daughter a lot of things blind-related, such as do her numbers and letters have colors associated with them in her brain.   They compare notes a lot. 

The Big Boy Social Captain:  My son had boys over all day.  They mostly played video games.   This week I have informed him all the playing will be outside.  

More Babysitter!

We went to dinner with some friends this evening.   We used to have loads of sitters we could call upon but it's been a pandemic of time and a lot has changed in our neighborhood as well as children have grown out of sitter age.  

So when I found a sitter for tonight I was very happy.  I even messaged her, "Hooray!"   Many people might not say that word, but I find I say it a lot.  

We went to dinner tonight and got home several hours later.  Maizy said our children were very well behaved and that she sits for children in the neighborhood and ours were the best she's spent time with.  I was so proud of my children.  So proud. 

The Big Boy Update:  Friends came over while the sitter was here tonight.  My son said it would be okay. Maizy messaged to confirm.  I said as long as they were being responsible, it was fine with us, but if she felt uncomfortable to tell them I'd called and said they had to go home.   I didn't want her to take the blame for the fun ending.   But Maizy was fine with the boys, whom she said were all so well-behaved.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter didn't want Maizy to leave.  She had a game playing partner for three whole hours.  She wanted Maizy to stay and be her new best friend.

Do Not Wake Your Father Up

Why is this such a hard thing to understand?  If your father is asleep at any time during the day—then he is tired.  Let him sleep.  Don't stand right beside him and ask if he's awake, multiple times.   Don't stand outside the bedroom making loud, banging noises and then act surprised when he is woken up.   And whatever you do, do NOT keep using "Alexa, tell everyone" again and again, especially when I have found you and told you expressly to NOT do this.  

"oh, I forgot" is the common answer I get when chasing down a child two floors away to let them know if they announce over the intercom one more time, <insert consequence event>.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter needed help getting, "the little car" out of the garage for Leo, the next-door-neighbor's adorable three-year-old.  Or maybe he's four now.   He is talking very well and wow, can he drive a tiny Tesla Model S car well.  His grandparents were visiting and they were the nicest people to talk to while Leo was driving around and not running into anyone or anything. 

The Big Boy and His Friends:  My son has friends come over a lot now.  Why they don't go to the other houses is a bit of a mystery.  My son, upon one coming in today said, "don't message everyone else, this is enough people over."   He came downstairs and made himself a makeshift dinner and I asked how many friends he'd left upstairs.  Four, he said, but they were okay playing without him. 

I slept through Thursday...I think

I slept a lot on Thursday.  I didn't even realize I missed posting yesterday until after midnight on Friday.   I don't like when days go by like this. 

Partially Covered, Still Majorly Exposed

We have no sitters.  We used to have a deep bench of people we could call on to watch the children.   Now, they have graduated and gone off to college, graduated from college and gone even further away, moved away, or just not interested in sitting anymore. 

We have a dinner on Saturday night with no sitters.  Fortunately, I found a neighbor to watch the children for three hours while we have dinner with friends. 

I have only part of us covered for our upcoming trip to Florida to visit my in-laws.  The dog is going to be boarded, but I have no one for the guinea pigs yet.  I'm going to try and find some children in the neighborhood to watch the littlest of our family members. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter got in trouble with her teachers today.   We are going to have a call with them tomorrow, hopefully.  I think my daughter has a valid point, but the way she's handling it is not going to win her friends and is definitely making her teachers unhappy. 

The Big Boy Broke It:   I got a new circle drawing tool.  I sort of got it for my son.   I showed it to him and he played with it for not five minutes and broke it.    He said maybe it would have broken anyway.   I wasn't overly nice about it but as I tried to fix it I realized he might have been right.  In the meantime he wrote me the sweetest note: