Well, we had quite the evening Wednesday night! Katja talks a lot on Instant Messenger, especially AIM from AOL, for which we have set strict rules: only people you know personally and have met, no going to chatrooms etc and I regularly check her buddy lists. Unfortunately, yesterday, she broke those rules and added a guy who’s supposedly a friend of a friend to her list. And then proceeded to give him her password to her Yahoo login. Needless to say, she’s offline in her room now.

However, the guy decided to contact me on my account with an age/sex check and I thought it was Katja at first (though weird behavior for her). When we both realized who the other was or was not in my case, he proceeded to write threats of rape and a bullet through my head.
So, I called the police. They sent out an officer, who thankfully really made sure Katja was aware of how dangerous what she had done is. She created a case and said a detective would be on it. I don’t know how far they’ll take it, but I’m glad they took it seriously.

We also wrote the Yahoo abuse address, hopefully they’ll work on it too. I have to say that in six years daily Internet usage nothing like this has ever happened and it’s very scary when the words come across your screen!
Katja is definitely a child who needs to feel before she believes and it’s always worried me about her. I hope this sends a strong message to her, that all our warnings aren’t so ridiculous as she thinks.

I have to admit, I feel like all my time is being consumed parenting my daughters these days. It’s exhausting! I’m almost wishing I only had boys (my sister has similar trouble with her stepson, but somehow it feels less scary with a boy, is that sexist of me or what?).
The guy had been very sexually explicit with Katja too, so yesterday we basically talked about what is or is not appropriate to talk about with boys and how we need to be our bodies’ protectors etc. Sigh!

This morning a detective from the police department came by to pick up the chats between Katja and “Chris” and asked if he could come by to talk to us and Katja this evening.

When he arrived tonight, he first said that his hunch was, that this was someone Katja knew, but after talking to her, he was convinced it’s not. He talked to her for a long time and Katja said he was quite stern with her (yay!). He told her about some of his experiences with this that didn’t end so well.

He took her computer with him to be analyzed and is subpoena-ing AOL and Yahoo for information on that screenname. He says it can take a few months. If it is an adult posing as a teen, the FBI will get involved. If it’s indeed a 16 year old boy, the local police and his parents will be informed.
Phew!

I also took Kai and Saskia to the eye doctor and Kai turns out to need glasses, about which he was quite upset. Saskia’s eyes are still fine, but he said the readings were thus, that she probably would need correction at some point as well. None of the kids inherited Rick’s excellent eye sight, unfortunately. I did find out that Kai is not colorblind like Rick, because that gene is passed on by the mother. The girls however have a 50 percent chance of passing the gene to an eventual son.

And with all that, we painted our bathroom peach and have started on the kids’ bathroom, a bright sea green, we’ll finish that tomorrow.
Phew, I’m exhausted!

I painted all day today and it looks great! I painted the area around the tv and fireplace in the family room dark blue. Saturday, if it works out, Rick and I will paint the rest of the walls there a lighter blue.

And Dina, our housekeeper, and I painted the powder room pueblo rose and aztec dawn (rosy brown and ochre yellow). Beautiful!

It's finally really fall here, cool and crisp. The leaves are turning nicely too. So I'm hoping to go for walks with Brynna and take pictures.

This afternoon, Saskia's teacher called. Saskia's been easily distracted and a little insolent in class. Her teacher is the sweetest lady! She was worried about Saskia and therefore called. We brainstormed and are going to try a snack in the morning, as Saskia is very susceptible to mood changes when she's hungry and she's not a big breakfast eater.

Tonight was the ice cream social at school and Rick went with the kids. It's too cold outside for me. I'm exhausted, I'm going to bed after this, yay!

I'm uploading some pics of our paintwork: