Sorry, Can't

My arm is bad.  I'm sorry, I can't sit at the computer any today.  I have to pack and moving helps.   The children and my husband have made it to Myrtle Beach.   Riding in the car does not cause this pain, I will be fine.   It's positional, I can't isolate what to do to make it go away at the computer.  We'll figure it out. 

Building a Zoo

My son doesn't have screen time during the week.  This weekend, even though it was a vacation weekend with my in-laws at Myrtle Beach, because he snuck the Switch on Monday night and was up past Midnight.   But today, my husband made an exception.  

I came home from getting some new pants for my daughter because she had grown out of every single pair she had I think, even though I'm fairly certain I bought her pants last week—has it really been that long—to find the two children in front of the television in the basement building a Minecraft world together. 

And by together, I mean my son is doing everything in the game, and my daughter is participating in the creation process verbally.   They were working together.  My son wasn't half listening to her or saying sure but doing what he wanted instead.  He was taking her advice, talking about how they should do things, answering her questions about what could be done, and then implementing it in their world. 

A while later my son came upstairs and came to talk to me.   He said, "mom, I know sometimes when you see me playing a game, and my sister can't do it that it makes you sad.  But I don't think you should be sad this time because she has some really good ideas, and she knows all about Minecraft, and we're building a zoo together."

He was really sincere, and I could tell he was proud of his sister.   I told him that sometimes I was sad when there were things she couldn't do but very much wanted to.   In this case, I told him, I wasn't sad, I was happy, watching them work together and build something they were both excited about.   They can't wait to keep working on it and my son is very happy to be doing something he knows his sister otherwise wouldn't be able to do.  

I was very proud of my son for coming to tell me how it was a positive thing they were doing, not a sadness.

I Got The Call

Whew, I got a call from the orthopedic neurosurgeon, and I'm going to see him next Thursday.  I'm writing short posts because sitting at the computer is getting harder and I can't get out of pain.   I've had a lot of pain come and go and some of it is situational that recovers and calms down over time.   I'm really hoping this is the same, but losing feeling down the back/underside of my right arm isn't a good sign.   I very much hope it's a flare-up of some kind, but strong anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxants (mild, I don't like them) aren't helping at all.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to play with the boys tonight.  She wanted to so badly.  But she couldn't.  She said, "I can't play four square because I'm blind."  I hate it for her.  My heart breaks when she says things like that. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son let me show him an origami model tonight.  I'd told him about the Butterfly Ball.  He totally got the complex interleaving of the twelve pieces and called his father down to watch the fun where the butterflies appear out of the ball.   I'm going to link the video here.  I don't usually put videos in so we'll see if this works.  It's saying "processing" still. 

Overdubbed

I am having the hardest time writing blog posts when my husband is editing videos.  I'm trying to think what to say but I can't think straight because I hear myself talking as he plays parts over again and cuts bits out.  

My right shoulder is driving me crazy and the lack of feeling is getting distressing.  So I'm going to end tonight with a story about each of my children and go to bed. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and I are reading Coraline together.   I am so interested in what happens next but she isn't always ready to have me read to her.  Tonight we got to find out more.   It's a really interesting story.

The Big Boy Breakfast Update:  My son likes to watch what's happening on Alexa in the morning.   But he can get distracted.   It was getting close to time to go and my son was still eating.  I heard his father say to him, "Eat.  You can worry about Singapore later."

Numbing, Do Not Want

My right arm is going numb.   Which is not good.   It's pressure on the spinal cord.  It is possibly trigger points that are so tight that there is pressure around the nerve bundle going to the back of my arm.   It is hard to sit at the computer and type when it's like this, so I'm going to sleep. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Someone wanted a new audiobook.   The same someone didn't want to read.   No reading, no new audiobook.   She read.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son is starting to care about how he looks.  He's informed me he will be twelve soon.   He did not inform me that meant he would be a "tween."  

Only Trees

Ian had very little impact on us in comparison to many other people.   We had a tree splinter completely in half, falling over the driveway and tearing off the gutter, but it was at the property that is being torn down for the school's expansion so other than clearing out the main broken bits that are hazardous, there isn't much else that needs to be done.   Well, the grass (weeds) need to be cleaned up there as well. 

We did lose a good portion of my favorite tree in our yard.  We have a Chinese Fringe tree that has (had) a beautiful shape and flowered small, white flowers every year.   It must have been weakened because the whole middle section just fell over around dinner time last night.   We didn't hear it fall and didn't notice it until this morning. 

I'd call that fairly unscathed given that Ian was a strong hurricane over parts of the southeast. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son loved the dinner he and I made last night.  The one thing we didn't have time to do was to fry an egg and put it over the meal.  Today his father showed him how to fry eggs.  My son loves eggs and had to make several more after learning how. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter opened her electric skateboard she got for helping raise money for her school.  She gave a lot of her own money as well.   It's a nice skateboard.  After seeing her sitting on it and seeing how fast it went with her holding onto the bottom with her knuckles two inches from the ground at fast speeds, I had her put on some sturdy gloves I had that would protect her.  I like her knuckles as they are. 

Windy, Powered, Dinner

We have made it through a not hurricane again with no damage or destruction here.  It was quite windy and there was a lot of rain with leaves and small branches coming down, but by the time things had gotten to our area, the storm was mostly just a bad storm.  

We also survived with the power intact.  Which was a good thing because my son wanted to make his father a special birthday dinner.   He and I went to the Asian market to get Oyster Sauce and Fish Sauce.   We got the remainder of the ingredients at the grocery store and then came home and prepped things for over two hours. 

My son wanted to make the first dinner he had ever cooked with his father: Thai Holy Basil Chicken.   The holy refers to a variant of basil used in the recipe, although we just used regular basil, that being what was available to buy.

We didn't eat dinner until nine o'clock, but everyone ate it all.  I'm glad we made a double recipe because we ate a lot!

The Big Boy Update:  My son was so excited to make a special dinner for his father.  He took a lot of pride in his birthday present.  His father loved it and loved having the night off from cooking. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter came into the house yelling, "WHO LET OUT THE DOG?"  She had been out in the rain playing in the drain on the road in the dark.   I let the dog out to go to the bathroom, expecting her to come back after staying only in the yard but when she found out my daughter was outside she went to investigate, which meant she was in the road.  A car that drove down the short dead-end road stopped to tell her the dog was in the street.  My daughter was so embarrassed.