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Sending you a pm.

I say boy. I also asked my dh who is ridiculously good at these things (no training!). He knows long before I do, or before the tech says! He also says boy. ETA. We have a dissenter. I asked dh to tell me what he saw that made him say boy, and he said that the angle I was holding my laptop made him focus on the wrong place, and he thinks it could be a girl now that he looked while holding the laptop himself. Sorry for the terrible sentence. I'm in a hurry and exhausted!

The one that we didn't find out, I was sure was a boy. The baby wasn't in a line up of a string of one kind, so I wasn't invested in it, but I felt like I would have some upset if I was wrong. Well, I was wrong, but the second she was born, I looked at her and just knew she was my baby. She was just who she had been the whole time, and I already knew all about her. It didn't phase me at all, which I found rather shocking.

Me, too. I realized all those comments were getting between me just loving my baby, and that they were all being really rude. The baby is MY baby; and I was very thankful to get the chance to tell people before so that when the baby was here, I didn't get a lot of "oh, I'm sure you were hoping for the other kind of baby." Babies aren't a disappointment, even if they aren't a girl, or whatever.

Tell him you need new clothes! After my 3rd of the same kind in a row, I was ready to look at some new outfits!

Double like! Thank you to everyone who replied! Lots to think about!

Tibbie, I have read quite a bit, but I still don't feel the measure is clear. I know what I would like for my children, but that doesn't answer the question of what is really enough? And sometimes I wonder if I am missing something? Regentrude thank you for that. That is still a fairly subjective list, based more upon the norms of the local culture than something concrete. Math standards, sure, but not the interpretation of data. Unfortunately, I have to step away from my laptop for a bit. Thanks for discussing!

Both. There has to be some measure of "good enough," if we can say that certain people aren't doing it. So what is "enough?" And what does it mean to do well?

I feel the same about the standardized tests, honestly. And, regentrude, what does that mean?

I read threads like the one going on right now, and wonder if I'm doing enough? I'd love a list that I could check off. An "if your kid can knows x stuff, and has y skills you are good to go" sort of list. As it is, I feel like I just have to put my faith in a curriculum, or wing it, and hope I know what I'm doing. Is the IOWA a good measure? What other measures are there?

Sword girl is a chronic offender, and from a newish family in our neighborhood. The kids try to avoid her when they can, and we often just don't go out if we see her. The sword was foam, but the real problem was the stick, which was thick and sizable. It is frustrating to me because the kids used to play outside with a bunch of kids, and this girl has really changed the peaceful dynamic. Maybe I just need to befriend the mom. ETA: The point of my OP wasn't really to figure out how to deal with this girl, but just because I was curious about these sorts of situations in general.

I think that the "thing to do" around here is that the kids shouldn't deal with the other kids, verbally or otherwise, and that the parent should take a situation to the other parent. I didn't mean over and under in this way. I actually meant it more in the way that that kid is not supervised enough to be able to act like that, but if my kid got in a fight with her, then my child would seem to be the problem. As another pp said, it's the second kid who gets in trouble. If we aren't going to watch them, then let's not watch them. As it is, I feel like we only watch enough to let the bullies get away with it. I should probably add, dh and I followed the kids outside, lagging by a few minutes. The bullying happened just before we came out, and stopped afterwards, except for the threat to my oldest, which we didn't hear and happened quickly. I don't know if the girl would have dropped it if no adults turned up.

So, the fight didn't actually happen. But, I just wondered what if it did? My girls ran away screaming to the safety of a large crowd of kids. The girl did come over and get in my older dd's face and said, "Be thankful you aren't my priority right now." Older dd was hanging upside down, totally vulnerable at that moment. The kids just ignored sword girl after that, and she left. So, it worked out. I was just wondering if it would have been a terrible thing if my younger two had run at the girl instead of running away? We teach our kids not to fight, too, but I am worried about the doormat thing. I dunno. It's like all kids (mine included) are under and over supervised all the time.

Even if it involves a fight? 2 younger kids (ages 6 and 7) were chased by a girl (5th grade) with a sword and a stick. She was definitely at least making it appear that she intended to hit them, and she spit at them, too. How would you feel if that child were yours (the sword/stick/spitting one) and was beat up. Not past the point of whatever it took to disarm her, and remember the ones fighting back are significantly younger? How do people feel about this sort of thing these days? Are the parents always supposed to work it out?

If death or frostbite could be the result of forgetting, I'd remind anyone.

It depends on the bruise, and what I know of the woman. To me, for some people it never would come to mind, for others, it would be a pretty big flag.

I have a child with stomach trouble, also 7. We have tried benadryl, but tylenol helps her more. Also, a friend suggested we try giving her a little grape juice every morning. We did that for a while, and it did seem to help. I hope yours feels better soon!

She also might just need smaller tasks. One of mine could clean off the table, and wash it, and the chairs at 5. My current 5 year old cannot. She is still at the, "Put all the cups by the sink. Great job! Now can you get the plates? Sometimes I like to stack them. Etc" phase. If that's too exhausting for you, just give her one section of that, and then switch her work to other similar narrow tasks.

Is she one of the middle ones? My middle has a terrible time paying attention and staying on track, and I think it's because she is constantly trying to keep up with the bigger ones. Since birth, she has been watching and reaching for the next thing. Sometimes, I think she hardly knows herself because she just copies everything her older sister does. (We are working on that.) She is so attuned to all the things going on in the room, because that is how she learns, that she really struggles. I have found isolation to be the most marvelous of things for her. So, if I need her to clean off the table, then she's the only one in there, and I try to shoo the rest upstairs until she is finished so the auditory distractions don't overwhelm her. If I need her to do school work, I put her in my room, with the door shut, and turn the fan on. And, sometimes, just for her, I banish her (nicely) to watch a movie alone, or read a book, or do a project, just so there are zero distractions. The other side of this is true, too, though. She is a great worker in groups. She notices the thing that needs done next, and happily goes off to do it. She is very much about social hierarchy, and happily finds her place and fills her role. So, you can isolate her, or make everything a group task. Nothing in the middle works for my middle child, lol.

nm. I might not know what I'm talking about.

I hope I'm not being disrespectful, and I'm not trying to convince you of something that isn't there for you, just trying to share how I am seeing the things you are saying. Maybe I'm wrong. Belief isn't an all or nothing thing. It sounds to me like you are seeing God. You are seeing him in your desire for order and peace, and community that is like family. Those things are from him. Do you want to believe in life after death? Did you know that the only act of worship left in Heaven is singing? I really like what Monica said. I believe because it is a truth-telling thing. All the truth and wisdom I ever need to teach my kids or guide my life has been distilled into the Bible. It's all there, and it is right. Maybe consider that you don't disbelieve. Maybe you do believe, some. Maybe, for you, it is more like when you hear someone tell you about an improbable event, and you listen with skepticism. By the end of the telling, they have convinced you. Maybe you do believe, some tiny bit. Maybe you are feeling that pull of your tiny belief, and maybe it will grow. For now, let the concrete convince you, and then go from there. Belief isn't so much, to me, like believing in fairy tales, but rather, it is choosing who I am going to trust.

I think you just cured my craving. :ack2:

I think this is it. Basically, it's my body's way of telling me to eat and sleep more. Those are actually my New Year's Resolutions. I don't think it is just a random craving, or an emotional thing, especially because we didn't do much of either when I was a kid. My body feels "off" when I start craving it, though, so I thought there might be a physiological reason. And, yuck! Don't put them together! Just eat a pile of bacon, and later drink some root beer. Not together. Did I say, "Not together," yet? Because that's gross. :/