They are bigger these days. #A1 will soon be ten. He's as tall as the light switches in recent photos. If those switches are at the same height as the ones in my home, he's about as tall as I was at age 16.
In in the pic, blue haired kid and dog are on the couch; kid is watching TV. And kid has gained some weight. He used to wear "slim" and even they were too loose. Now he looks like he's in "regular".
I sent a ♥️, but otherwise did not respond, as I did not want to get him in trouble. Still, I am glad that he's learning to thank people. It isn't something his parents emphasize, so it means even more.
(In case you're wondering, I'm not attempting to set up a chat this weekend with 24 year old #GS2 nor 26 year old #GS1. I will try to get in touch with GS1 for a chat some time in August, and try to have a voice call with GS2 later this year.)
#GS3 and #GS4 are a little younger, so probably too young to get much out of walkie talkies, but I found a pair with Star Wars / Baby Yoda markings ... they like that show, so I got them their own set.
On the other hand, we had toy cars. One brother had Hot Wheels. I had Matchbox. Another brother had Johnny Lightning. I cannot remember what the other brothers had.
We also had original Legos, before the special sets with single use pieces. Legos and shag carpets together are the enemy of shoeless feet.
A few years ago, I was able to purchase over 100 Hot Wheels cars and a couple of trach sets for #A1 and #A2. I still send about 10 cars per year.
I sent a telescope. Well, I sent a telescope for #A1 last year, but it was one of those kids' science kit tabletop telescopes. This year's telescope is an entry level stargazing scope from Celestron. It came with a cellphone mount, so they can watch the screen and take photos of what they see instead of sticking their eyes up to the scope and potentially knocking it down. Oh, and it comes with some sort of astronomy software package.
I asked #sonTwo to call him and find out what we can do to help, but apparently, he recovered without intervention. (I also mentioned that #sonOne is 2-3 hours away, which is about 3 hours closer than #sonTwo.)
Anyway, he's better now and is repurposing a #Raspberry_Pi 3 that I sent for #A1 into a project combined with an #Arduino UNO R3.
The younger one is thrilled with a book 📕 that has places to feel dinosaurs. Not that anyone knows what a dinosaur 🦕’s skin felt like. The older one is pushing buttons on a talking, singing electronic toy.
I told them (and #sonTwo) that the only career that will always have jobs is plumbing, but that I will try to prepare them as much as I can for the things I know.
I also mentioned that their cousin #A1 is getting a micro:Bit and a couple of projects for it.
I looked through these, but they don't look very interesting, in my opinion. I got a micro:bit for #A1 (but sent it to Grandpa's house, so I can send it along with a book of projects and the materials needed for those projects in one shipment) and was looking to see what he'd find after he goes through the projects book.
Meanwhile, cousin #GD2 reports that her phone doesn't take a charge any more. I planned to call her also, but it will have to wait until #sonOne replaces her phone.