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Monthly review: June 2020

Posted: - Modified: | monthly, review

  • I made a font based on my handwriting using FontForge, Python, Org Mode, and Medibang Paint.
  • I drew with crayons and with my tablet. I tweaked my Krita workflow by remapping buttons. I sketched an overview of the Ontario Kindergarten 2016 curriculum.
  • I made my journal more visual, and I updated my Emacs configuration.
  • A- learned how to ride a pedal bike! She also worked on learning how to type with all fingers. We built lots of LEGO sets together by using the bricks we already had, and A- started to build the habit of tidying up. She liked listening to me talk in Tagalog. We worked on play skills and making sure both of us have fun. She played with Khan Academy Kids and Scratch Jr on the tablet, and she encouraged me to consult while she did so. She pretended to be a baby yeti and a plant. We spent some time browsing through Childcraft and the children's dictionary.

Next month, I want to get better at taking advantage of the space created by screentime and independent play, maybe by preparing for kindergarten.

Blog posts

Sketches

Time

Category Previous month % This month % Diff % h/wk Diff h/wk
Discretionary – Productive 5.3 9.6 4.2 15.5 7.1
A- 48.8 51.7 2.9 84.1 4.8
Discretionary – Social 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Discretionary – Family 0.4 0.4 0.0 0.7 0.0
Business 1.3 1.2 -0.1 1.9 -0.2
Personal 4.9 3.8 -1.1 6.2 -1.9
Discretionary – Play 1.3 0.0 -1.3 0.0 -2.2
Unpaid work 5.1 3.0 -2.1 4.9 -3.5
Sleep 32.8 30.3 -2.4 49.3 -4.1

Monthly review: May 2020

| monthly, review

I've missed reviewing my journal entries. My weekly and monthly reviews had gotten a little unwieldy because my daily journal entries captured so many of A-‘s adventures.

  • Household
    • I experimented with using Grocy to track our pantry inventory, and I tried to modify the source code to make it easier to get the views I wanted. We decided to just keep things untracked, since we get through stuff in a reasonable time.
    • I set up a Tasker profile to lock the screen after seven minutes of watching videos, since I didn't like fighting A- about it.
    • W-‘s takoyaki pan arrived. He made shrimp balls, and we enjoyed eating them.
    • W- took apart the garden boxes near the shed. He built another one near the bottom of the dock stairs, and he moved the mint closer to the house. We added another container for the bitter melon, and we took off the chicken wire and added pea supports.
    • W- dug a trench around the shed and started stapling wire mesh around it.
    • We experimented with making ice cream cones and cups.
    • W- practised cooking outside with the butane stove. We tried baking bread outside too, since the toaster oven is portable.
    • I wore a mask and picked up my business mail. It was the first time I'd been out for a long walk in a couple of months.
  • Education
    • A- finished the online kindergarten readiness program.
    • I printed out the ELECT framework and updated my kindergarten readiness checklist. I think this will help me focus on specific areas and take notes. I also reflected on learning how to have fun with A-. I started reading through the kindergarten curriculum expectations. It has a lot of tips on how to respond, extend, and challenge kids while playing.
    • W- moved the printer upstairs to accommodate all our printing. I started printing worksheets for A-, since she sometimes asked for them. In addition to the worksheets I downloaded, I also created a bunch of worksheets about chess, taho, and other interests.
    • A- carefully completed a colour-by-number worksheet that had eight colours. She sometimes coloured outlines slowly so that she could scribble inside them faster. She tried to keep most of her crayon marks within the lines. It was pretty amazing.
    • A- breezed through almost 30 Christmas-related worksheets, asking for more. Towards the end, she developed the routine of doing two thumbs up after completing a sheet. She grinned and asked, “What's my reward?” I said, “That feeling of being proud. And more challenges, if you want them.” She asked for another sheet. I think we had that exchange four or five times.
  • Tech:
    • I started making a font of my handwriting using FontForge. I wrote a Python script to generate a font template, figured out how to compile autotrace against GraphicsMagick instead of ImageMagick, and experimented with class-based kerning.
    • Well, that was really exciting. I upgraded to Focal (Ubuntu 20.04) from Bionic (18.04), broke my server config in half a dozen places, and stayed up late to fix most of the pieces (I think). And I even ended up dockerizing Quantified Awesome (although the app directory is still mounted), since Passenger was getting annoying.
    • I set up a Docker container for developing Quantified Awesome, and I managed to initialize my database and log in. Whee! Next step: remember how tests work…

Blog posts

Sketches

Time

Category Previous month % This month % Diff % h/wk Diff h/wk
A- 45.1 48.8 3.8 84.8 6.4
Discretionary – Productive 4.1 5.3 1.2 9.3 2.1
Sleep 32.2 32.8 0.6 56.9 1.0
Unpaid work 5.2 5.1 -0.1 8.9 -0.1
Business 1.4 1.3 -0.1 2.3 -0.2
Discretionary – Social 0.3 0.0 -0.3 0.0 -0.5
Discretionary – Family 1.4 0.4 -1.0 0.7 -1.6
Personal 5.9 4.9 -1.0 8.5 -1.7
Discretionary – Play 4.5 1.3 -3.2 2.3 -5.4

Monthly review: April 2020

Posted: - Modified: | monthly, review
  • Lots of work on my web-based journal. I added IDs, edit in place, and a dark mode. I also reviewed my journal entries going back to 2018-10, creating monthly summaries and putting them back in my web-based journal. and I updated my code to hyperlink the icons to the entries for easier editing.
  • I fixed my email setup.
  • I sewed a mask for A-.
  • I took our sourdough starter out of the freezer and started baking with it again.

Blog posts

Sketches

Category Previous month % This month % Diff % h/wk Diff h/wk
Discretionary – Play 1.6 4.5 2.9 7.3 4.8
Unpaid work 2.8 5.2 2.4 8.4 4.0
Personal 4.5 5.9 1.4 9.6 2.4
Discretionary – Productive 2.9 4.1 1.2 6.7 2.0
Business 0.8 1.4 0.6 2.4 1.0
Discretionary – Family 1.0 1.4 0.3 2.2 0.6
Discretionary – Social 0.0 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.5
A- 48.5 45.1 -3.4 73.3 -5.8
Sleep 37.9 32.2 -5.7 52.4 -9.6

Monthly review: March 2020

Posted: - Modified: | monthly, review
  • I rated photos and figured out where rating data is stored in darktable's sqlite database (images table, mask field & 7).
  • I sewed more cloth masks just in case.
  • I helped my mom transfer emergency assistance funds.

Blog posts

Sketches

Time

Category Previous month % This month % Diff % h/wk Diff h/wk
Sleep 34.7 37.9 3.1 67.9 5.3
Discretionary – Play 0.1 1.6 1.5 2.9 2.6
A- 47.5 48.5 1.0 87.0 1.7
Discretionary – Family 0.8 1.0 0.2 1.8 0.4
Discretionary – Social 0.1 0.0 -0.1 0.0 -0.1
Personal 4.6 4.5 -0.1 8.1 -0.1
Business 1.7 0.8 -0.9 1.5 -1.5
Discretionary – Productive 4.5 2.9 -1.7 5.2 -2.8
Unpaid work 6.0 2.8 -3.2 4.9 -5.4

Monthly review: September 2018

Posted: - Modified: | monthly, review

Weaning was a big thing this month. A- did not like it at all, and started resisting both comfort and bedtime routines. We're slowly settling down into new patterns.

A- was also very interested in letters, spelling, and writing, and in riding her balance bicycle.

  • Kaizen:
    • I added my library card barcode to my phone case and put the Presto card in a cardholder. This made getting out the door so much easier.
    • I checked out a daycare and interviewed a babysitter's references. We decided to go with the status quo of my staying home with A- instead.
    • W- and I talked about workloads and our coping plans when we're both under heavy loads. I started doing more household maintenance during the week, like sweeping the bathroom while waiting for her to use the toilet and taking out the litter boxes while she napped.
    • I organized A-'s drawers, putting away warm-weather clothes and bringing out cool-weather ones.
    • I experimented with using voice dictation to do my journal entries.
    • I experimented with putting a movie on my phone. It looks like I might be able to watch things in 5 minute increments.
  • Us
    • I woke up early and sewed a pair of shorts for myself!
  • Gross motor
    • A- liked running up the hill and coming back for a hug whenever I blew the whistle. Sometimes she even ran a little out of sight. She also enjoyed being chased and picked up.
    • A- learned how to pedal a tricycle.
    • A- learned how to coast on her balance bike.
  • Fine motor
    • A- used chopsticks to pick up a piece of shredded duck.
  • Language
    • A- said, "Teach me how to write!" I suggested that she start with tracing lines and circles with her finger. I also showed her how letters are made up of simpler shapes. We practised painting over letters, too.
    • A- liked substituting ideas in books. Little Excavator became Big Excavator, and Never Follow a Dinosaur became Never Follow an Excavator. She corrected us whenever we used the original words from the books. (4. Cognition)
    • A- loves reassuring me that she's prepared. "Don't worry, I have a water bottle when you get thirsty."
    • A- was very interested in letters. She asked questions of the form, "What starts daddy?"
    • A- read several books to herself. It was awesome.
    • A-'s been insisting that we call her M-, and invariably corrects us when we call her A- (even when I'm talking to W-). We made a nametag for her to remind us. I called her A- again, and she said, "I have my nametag on."
  • Eating
    • A- tried egg yolk, carrots, and rice with a little curry sauce.
  • Sleep
    • Weaning and teething disrupted sleep a lot, but being more firm about bedtime seems to be paying off.
  • Emotion
    • A- asked me to draw a lonely A-. Then she asked me to draw W- hugging her.
    • Even during tough moments, I'm glad I'm the one here with A-. She's going to test and run into her limits, and I have more patience than a babysitter would.
    • A- got overtired on the way home, and she threw a big tantrum. It was hard to carry her home while rolling our grocery cart too.
  • Social
    • A- reminded me to look both ways when crossing the street, and insisted that I do it again whenever I forgot.
    • A- had a small owie and insisted on W- for comfort. "Mama's kisses don't work. Daddy's kisses do."
    • A- played with independence. She asked me to say, "You're not allowed to go up the hill." She ran up the hill, then wanted me to chase her and carry her down.
  • Pretend
    • A- had fun playing with the big cardboard boxes in the schoolyard. She pretended they were houses, and we visited each other. She also pretended that one was an oven and that she was a carrot muffin.
    • A- asked me to use the long, thin towel to tie a pretend bike trailer to her balance bike. She had lots of fun bringing it around.
    • A- really liked the giraffe that W- made for her using the Little Engineer set. They added wheels and wings to it, and she flew it around the house.
    • A- merrily typed on her cardboard laptop. She said, "I'm getting a thought out of my head."
    • We reenacted the put away video.
    • We put paper slips and elastics around books, and then pretended that they were requested books that A- could check out.
    • W- made a megaphone out of a piece of paper. A- had lots of fun shouting through it, just like in the book "Go, Dog, Go."
  • World
    • W- went for a haircut, so A- and I came along and watched the hairstylist work.
    • We followed the garbage truck around. The worker showed A- how the compactor worked.
    • A- saw a bird die. It hit the window and then fell on the deck. She spent the rest of the day talking about dead birds, pretending to be a dead bird, and asking about death.
  • Self-care
    • We're all done with weaning.
    • A- took some of the magnetic tiles to a corner away from the other kids, saying she wanted a "quiet area." (2.2 Self-regulation)
    • We went to the ocularist for a checkup. A- was pretty anxious, and often reminded herself about the toy box. The ocularist said she'll get a new conformer in November. In the meantime, the ocularist polished her conformer, and A- picked a box of crayons from the toy box.
    • A- tied a scarf around her waist all by herself. (5.2.1 Dressing)
    • A- ate lots of crackers, cheese, and peaches during snack time. She kept asking for permission and serving herself with tongs.
    • A- figured out how to turn the door knob even with the knob protector on. She went between rooms a few times.
    • A- turned the lights on and off by tapping the light switch with a roller.

Blog posts

Sketches

Time

Category Previous month % This month % Diff h/wk Diff h/wk
Sleep 33.0 37.7 4.6 61.2 7.8
Unpaid work 7.3 9.3 2.0 15.1 3.3
Personal 8.3 9.9 1.7 16.1 2.8
Discretionary – Play 0.3 0.7 0.4 1.2 0.7
Business 0.8 0.9 0.1 1.4 0.1
Discretionary – Family 1.6 1.0 -0.5 1.7 -0.9
Discretionary – Productive 3.4 1.7 -1.7 2.8 -2.9
Discretionary – Social 2.3 0.3 -2.0 0.5 -3.3
A- 43.0 38.5 -4.5 62.6 -7.5

Monthly review: August 2018

Posted: - Modified: | monthly, review

  • Field trip
    • We went to the Horse Palace and caught the show.
  • Gross motor
    • A- got the hang of doing forward rolls, wheelbarrow exercises, and ladder exercises.
    • Lots of balance bike practice. Still taking short strides, but starting to be okay with slopes.
  • Fine motor
    • Interested in drawing letters, and can sometimes make pretty good approximations.
  • Sensory
    • Lots of wading in wading pools and enjoying summer in the playground.
  • Language
    • A- bruised her toe the day before. Right after she woke up, she said, "I don't want to go to the hospital. I will try not to go to the hospital."
    • "We can do kids' yoga later." "I want to do it now." "You're impatient." "I wait patiently."
    • "I don't like Mama's friends. I like my own friends. I like E-."
    • "I don't know that word. The water word," A- said, referring to the word "gulp" from a book we had read earlier that afternoon.
    • Talking about thoughts: "I thought about the cart."
    • I said, "I got you." A- said, "We both got each other."
  • Self-care and independence
    • A- practised separation by going up and down the stairs several times, saying "I will come right back downstairs just like I promised to." She also pretended to go to school and come back, and to go to work and come back.
    • A- went upstairs to get her own clothes all by herself. She came down with a shirt and two pairs of pants. Turned out she wanted to wear one pair of pants as a hat.
    • At A-'s 30-month checkup, she measured 88 cm and 10.3 kg.
    • A- was crawling around when she stumbled and cut her lip. She didn't ask to nurse, although she was happy to do so when I offered.
    • A- mostly sat still for the ultrasound exam. The cardiologist said that the VSD is pretty insignificant now, although there's a slight leak in her aortic valve and the muscle bundle continues to grow slowly. We'll follow up next year.
  • Emotion
    • A- is definitely not a big fan of weaning.
    • A- stomped down the hallway, hangry tantrum in full swing. She stopped at the end of the tape on the floor and did a few squats just like the ladder exercise that W- taught her, and then resumed her tantrum.
  • Household
    • A- was very interested in mending, and wanted to put tape over the holes I made in a piece of paper.
    • I was feeding Neko some wet cat food. I noticed I had reached the end of the can, so I said to myself, "I'm going to need another one of these." As I scraped the last of the cat food into a bowl, A- fetched another can of cat food and gave it to me, all without being asked.
  • Social
    • A- had fun hiding something behind her back and showing one empty hand, then holding it with the other hand and showing the first hand empty.
    • We went to Sunnyside Beach with Jen and E-.
    • We had dimsum with W-'s family.
    • I was exhausted. While I cat-napped, A- read me a story, and then she wiped my face with a damp washcloth.
    • A- had fun playing a shushing game. She asked me to make a loud noise, and then put a finger to her lips and hushed me.
  • Pretend
    • Multiple levels of indirection! A- pretended to be S- pretending to be a cat, labeling herself as "S- cat" while eating pretend wet food.
    • A- wanted to copy the way the Cat in the Hat held his hands.
    • A- pretended to play a tug-of-war with an imaginary carrot, roleplaying the scene from "Warning! Do Not Touch!".
    • A- reenacted scenes from the Curious George book. She liked pretending to be caught in a hat or blown away with balloons. She also liked pretending to go to the zoo and distribute balloons.
    • A- did the motions and sounds that she remembered from watching the video of her sticking her tongue out when she was an infant. It's fun watching her reenact things with surprising attention to detail.
    • We're slowly moving away from plastic toys, so we made a cardboard kitchen for A-. She had fun cooking an egg on the stovetop and baking a pizza in the oven.
    • A- asked for a pretend microwave. I glued white paper on a cereal box, drew the microwave interface, and cut the door open.
    • I made a cardboard point-of-sale terminal with a coin drawer, a scale, and a slot for pulling out a receipt. A- liked it very much.
    • A- played pretend ultrasound quite a few times, raiding the sticker bin after each exam. She also kept revisiting dental surgery in our drawings and stories.
    • A- liked pushing books through a slot in the coffee table legs, pretending to return them to the library. She also pretended to request one of her favourite books from a librarian.
  • Cognition
    • "I want to nurse." "Remember, we may need to stop nursing soon." "I want Mama to buy me a pacifier."
    • We played the Opposites game.
  • Kaizen
    • W- fixed his glasses and I started patching my carrier.
    • We were able to go on a family bike trip, yay! W- and I biked up to Walmart, and I brought A- in the trailer.
    • W- got our land line converted to a dry loop for DSL. I should probably memorize my other number for messages.
    • I updated my ledger to reflect my conversion of many of my TD e-series fund units to ETFs.
  • Us
    • We met up with Linda Ristevski for a library tour.
    • I met up with Curtis and his family at Sick Kids.
    • David Ing dropped by since he was biking through our neighbourhood.
    • I realized I was all done with nursing.

Blog posts

Sketches

Time

Category Previous month % This month % Diff h/wk Diff h/wk
Unpaid work 4.4 7.3 2.9 12.3 4.9
Personal 5.9 8.3 2.4 13.9 4.0
Discretionary – Social 1.6 2.3 0.7 3.9 1.2
Discretionary – Productive 2.8 3.4 0.7 5.8 1.1
Discretionary – Family 0.9 1.6 0.7 2.6 1.1
Discretionary – Play 0.2 0.3 0.0 0.5 0.1
Business 1.7 0.7 -1.0 1.2 -1.7
Sleep 35.1 33.0 -2.1 55.5 -3.5
A- 47.1 43.0 -4.1 72.2 -6.9

A- switched over to strongly preferring W- because I'm weaning her, so he handled more childcare. I worked less because I needed more sleep and patience to help with the disruption to A-'s routines. Next month: Music classes, other plans

Monthly review: July 2018

Posted: - Modified: | monthly, review

  • Field trips: It was a busy month with lots of going out. We went to Maker Festival and friends' parties, took the bike trailer to Vermont Square park, and went to nature classes.
  • Motor skills: A- figured out how to climb up the twisty slide barefoot, and she enjoyed imitating yoga poses from a storybook we read together. She practised riding her balance bike and buckling and unbuckling her helmet.
  • Sensory: She discovered the joys of splash pads and wading pools, and ranged further and further afield. She made handprints with tempera paint.
  • Self-care: She practised picking out her clothes and occasionally dressing herself. She dealt with big emotions ("I hate everything!") and we patiently helped her figure out what she really wanted. She skinned her knees and got them patched up.
  • Household: She helped with laundry, mopping, and groceries.
  • Social: She learned how to ask librarians to request books, and I made a book about the process. She showed her grandparents lots of things she could do, and started preferring to spend time alone with W-.
  • World: She enjoyed eating grape tomatoes and strawberries from the garden. She played with her shadow and her reflection.
  • Language:
    • On reading My World: "He's looking at his watch to see if it's bedtime for the kid in the crib."
    • New protocol for reading: she signals when to turn the page. This gives her room for lots of observations when she feels like it. It would probably be better for her to turn the pages herself, but she'll get there someday.
    • A- asked for something and said, "I would be happy."
    • "I'm not awesome. I'm brave."
    • Planning for tomorrow: "The park with the big swings. Tomorrow, let's go there." (4.6 Temporal)
    • Making a request and providing a reason: "Nanay, take your glasses off so I can brush easily." (3.2.2 Sentences)
    • "I think I will have some blueberries."
    • I took A-'s dry diaper off as soon as we woke up. A- said, "I am practising toilet training."
    • "Ow." "What happened?" "I want kneepads."
    • W- was trying to teach A- knock-knock jokes. "Knock knock. Now you say, 'Who's there?'" "Who's there?" "Interrupting cow." "Moo cow!" … I guess that works too.
    • W- told A-, "After we dry my glasses, I'll brush your teeth." A- replied, "Savvy."
    • A- was laughing. Then she said, "Hahaha, I'm laughing so loud, hahaha." This cracked us up, of course. Then she said, "Hahaha, we're laughing together, hahaha."
    • A- experimented with describing people, identifying herself as "someone in a yellow dress" and me as "someone in a blue shirt."
    • A- now makes up songs and stories while waiting. She sang, "Avocado, avocado, what do you see?" and a few other stanzas, and then said, "Once upon a time, there was a little girl named A- who wanted to eat an avocado but Mama said it was not yet ripe."
  • Pretend
    • W- made a Duplo flower shop and roleplayed that with A-.
    • A- wanted to ride her balance bike with a pretend bike trailer.
    • A- pretended to be a dead bird, so I brushed her beak while she lay on the floor.
    • A- picked a Duplo figure to represent W- – the one with a cap. She pretended all three of us were on an airplane, and she also pretended he was pushing her on a swing in the playground. (4.7.2 Representation)
    • Someone had dug a small pit near the edge of the sandbox, so A- had fun pretending to be a dinosaur trapped in the pit. Also, we picked up a bunch of free IKEA kid's cups on the way to the playground, and they made good sandcastle molds.
    • A- wanted to pretend that W- was the ocularist. The post-appointment toy chest was definitely her focus.
    • A- started pretending to be S-.
    • A- pretended to be a cat. She wanted to lick pretend wet food (yogurt) off a saucer on the floor.
  • Kaizen
    • I drew and printed visual routines for walking up, daily chores, and weekend chores on index cards. I covered the cards with contact paper to protect them.
    • I made lots of red bean buns, and I experimented with making red bean rolls. The rolls were easier to make, but the buns were prettier.
    • I shifted to drawing more while waiting for A-. It's a good way to use time.
  • Us
    • I returned my old work laptop after setting up the new one.
    • I made a book about asking for books from the library.
    • Somehow I managed to find time to write and draw. It's hard to imagine that now, since we're in a bit of a time crunch because of changing routines, but maybe we'll figure it out again.

Blog posts

Sketches

Time

Category Previous month % This month % Diff h/wk Diff h/wk
Sleep 29.8 35.1 5.3 61.0 9.0
A- 42.9 47.1 4.2 81.8 7.1
Discretionary – Social 0.9 1.6 0.7 2.8 1.2
Business – Build 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.3 0.1
Discretionary – Family 1.1 0.9 -0.2 1.5 -0.4
Business – Earn 2.3 1.7 -0.5 3.0 -0.9
Discretionary – Play 1.2 0.2 -0.9 0.4 -1.5
Unpaid work 6.5 4.4 -2.1 7.7 -3.5
Discretionary – Productive 5.0 2.8 -2.3 4.8 -3.8
Personal 10.2 5.9 -4.4 10.2 -7.3

Hmm. This says I got an average of 8.7 hours of sleep a night, and that childcare still managed to go up. Interesting. I think some of it can be explained by leaving the tracker on Childcare instead of switching it to track that I'm walking when I'm out on a walk with A-. Less discretionary time, but it feels like better use of it. I should try prioritizing sleep again and see what happens.

August: A couple of medical appointments, the end of nature class, and general summery things.