It Takes Two

My son and I played a game on the computers tonight in co-op mode.   He's played some with his father, but I thought this would be a good time for us to do something together.   He had a very good time, as did I.   He talked the whole time, telling me which button to push next even though I was already pushing the button.   He had a good time though, as did I.   Tomorrow, we plan to do more.

The Big Boy Update:  My shoulders and back hurt badly so I'm telling my son he can stay up as late as he wants to and that I'm going to bed.   We'll see how late that really is tomorrow morning.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I picked my daughter up from school today and she was disappointed I wasn't her father, ready to leave on their last Y-Guides event ever.  They're at a camp at the beach that has been around since before I was born.  

Reopened

Today we decided to reopen the trampoline.   I was enjoying having a quiet backyard in the same way as I enjoyed having a quiet house when lockdown started.   We still don't allow other children inside and at the rate things are going I am hopeful we'll be able to get away with not allowing it all through the summer.   But we shall see on that as pandemic cases evolve. 

We still have a large number of cases here in the United States.   I was talking to a friend online recently from a sizeable city in Australia.   They were put back on lockdown for four days not long ago which prompted me to ask how bad things had gotten there.   They had one case, and then two, and then four, so they decided to reinstitute a short-term lockdown.   

Cases where?  I was confused about what that one, two, and four meant.   Not thousand or even hundred cases, just one that doubled to two that doubled to four.   In their whole city, that's all they had.   He said they'd experienced relatively normal lives for some time and they didn't want to lose that with a resurgence of the virus. 

Jealous, I was, to hear those numbers.   Hopefully, we'll be in a similar situation here eventually.   Time will tell. 

The Big Boy, Tiny Girl Final Word Ruling:  With the updates to the rules for the trampoline and yard (no food, take your belongings home, no sand in the trampoline, plus other rules that should have been obvious, I told the children they were the final word on rules—and that they had better not abuse that privilege.   If I'm called out to verify or confirm a rule, I was not going to be pleased and they could tell the other children that.   This is to give them some control over the peer pressure they've felt.  

The Penis Model

Yes, yes, I printed a penis model for my daughter.  But think about it: she has no frame of reference.   She took showers with her father some when she was very young, but those memories are fleeting at best and not locked in.  

She has spent a lot of time in the tub with her brother and has perhaps brushed against him, but they play, not investigate each other.   He can see everything on her so he's not interested in what something looks like and she doesn't realize things are different than her, so she doesn't ask.   Until penises came up the other night. 

Interestingly enough, and this is no dodge, I don't remember how it happened.   It is probably my aging brain but is also just how my mind has always worked.  It's done via connections and if I don't have a starting connection to get to the place, I can't get there at all. 

So I printed her a penis, and let me tell you, finding what I needed was tough.   A friend told me about a place I could find all manner of prints along that vein online.  Only I didn't need *those* kinds of prints.   Not with spikes or wearing things or as the head of a winged dragon or involved with a lady or man in any way.   "anatomical penis" didn't help.   I just needed a boring, child-sized, non-veiny or bulgy or modified penis in any way. 

I finally found a key chain model.   I printed it out and gave it to her the next morning.   The children don't think anything bad about this.  They have no body shame or even ideas of why this is anything other than normal.   Other than telling her the ring part was for hooking on something, I decided to let her brother explain it to her.

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Penis Conversation:  I missed the conversation, but I suppose it went well because when I asked her later she understood that they don't always stick straight out like the model she was happily holding in the back seat of the car.   She said, "I know, mom, they coil up."

I Fell Asleep, Again...

Yesterday I lay down just before six o'clock.  I had a phone call come in shortly afterwards and then I was out.  I don't even remember hanging up the phone.   My daughter tried to wake me up but to no avail.  I thought she woke me up enough with the dog's assistance jumping on my chest to help get her next wanted audiobook.   I think I convinced her to bring me noodles, no sauce, which I ate in bed.  I never eat in bed, I'm too messy.   

And that is the story of why there was no blog post yesterday, well today as I'm back-posting it.   I woke up close to five a.m.   I guess I still wasn't over being tired from the second vaccination shot. 

Exhausted

I’ve been in bed all day. I'm fine, but I just have zero energy after the second round of the COVID-19 vaccine. No fever or other symptoms.  I'm feeling better now at close to eleven o'clock at night.  More tomorrow about the children and a very special 3D printed model my daughter requested.  

Closed Again

Word has gotten out that the backyard is open again.   More and more children are arriving, knocking on our door, and asking if our children can come out to play or if they can jump on the trampoline.   We like the positive and beneficial social interactions, but we also expect the trampoline and all other equipment to be respected and taken care of. 

Today I came home after getting my second COVID-19 vaccination shot and found five to ten pounds of sand on the trampoline along with food wrappings on the ground.  I stormed downstairs and said, "that's it, the trampoline is closed."

It turned out my son was involved.   He had been the partial victim of peer pressure from the older children.   I told him I'd clean the trampoline, but it was closed until further notice.   My son was upset and I had a discussion about letting people talk him into doing things they know are bad, especially if they could break something or worse, cause someone to be injured, 

The closure will slow down the number of children in the yard for now.   That was a positive side-benefit to me because it was getting too busy out there. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son has trouble covering his tracks.   He does something he shouldn't, like eating pretzels in the living room, and leaves the wrappers behind on the end table.   Or he wants to play outside and decides to sneak food to the other people, and they leave the wrappers on the ground.

The TIny Girl Chronicles:  My son has been doing a lot of flashing of us lately.  Through a conversation that followed we found out my daughter has no idea what a penis looks like, her brother doesn't want to let her touch his, and she thinks that's awful and would never touch his, even if he would let her.   Solution: I'm printing her a model of a penis.   

Some Prints

My allergies are bad.  Last year it was like this but this year the trees must be trying to propagate even more than ever.  Here are some 3D prints for tonight.  I'm heading to bed.  

Sample filament spool for some samples I got, made with leftover bits of filament I had from other prints:

A little vase with some striped filament

Little Dot Jars with holes for things that need airflow

The Mariner Vase, which has a different pattern on the inside from the outside, and yet is still printed in one continuous flow rather like a super complex Slinky

A box.  For putting things in.   In a filament that transitions through colors over time.