My daughter is really slim, but I think her height is average among her peers. She turned 8 in November. 49" tall 43 lbs (approximately. She hasn't been weighed in a while) Size 13 shoes

Birds can be really fun pets for a family! I don't think they are very hard to care for, although they do need attention. However if you get the right kind, you can't help giving it attention because it will amuse you so much. I also think that birds are pets that children can be successful caring for mostly on their own (with oversight). As children, my brother and I fed, watered, and cleaned the cages quite easily. I grew up with birds and have also had some as an adult. I have had many parakeets, cockatiels, lovebirds, a quaker parrot, and a green-cheeked conure. I would recommend the conure as the easiest, most affectionate, funny little bird. Make sure that you buy one that was hand raised! That way it will already be tame and love people. My conure was a really funny little guy!

We had laminate flooring in our last playroom and it was great. Held up well to art projects, rough play and easel painting! We just bought a different house and we are going to put pergo laminate flooring in the playroom with one area covered in a fun area rug.

My 7 yr old begs for American girl dolls, but in reality she plays with them very sporadically. She enjoys nature activities, like catching bugs and pressing flowers and leaves. She loves craft kits, like pot holder looms and beading. She reads a ton of books, so those are always good gifts. She listens to songs and audio books on her ipod. She loves board games. I hope this gives you some ideas.

I am pregnant right now as well and I was not prescribed a prenatal vitamin either. I take a multivitamin when I remember to. I try to eat fairly healthy and I do eat quite a bit of spinach salad. My ob practice, which is very well respected, doesn't freak out about vitamins. They actually told me that Flinstones were fine.

We just made an offer on Thursday on a house that had been on the market for over 400 days (and is empty). They had reduced the price a few times over that period and so it is currently listed for about $36,000 less than last year. Not a drastic difference, but I guess they are not desperate. Anyway, we offered about 15% less than asking price and thought that was a reasonable starting point for negotiations. They countered at their SAME list price and just a few thousand to us in closing costs. We were shocked. I think you just never know what people are thinking. Clearly, even after 400 days, our people are not that motivated to sell their house. Everyone has a different situation though. Good luck!

Just emailed you from Durham!

Thanks for the feedback so far. It is really helping to narrow the choices. I had no idea that Camden, Colton, and Logan were considered trendy! I don't know anyone with any of those names- I just pulled them off of baby name lists. Camden reminded me of Camden, SC, which has good associations for me (love their steeplechases!). Now that people have pointed out Camden, NJ though... Plus I don't want a really trendy name. So, now I am trying to think of some new names. I still really like William, but dh said no way. It is listed as the #1 most popular name in North Carolina. Daniel is #7 in the country, so another no go for him. A few people suggested Evan, which I love, but it is already taken by a close family member (as is Andrew). Someone suggested Emerson, which I also like, but I think is too similar to my daughter's name. Several of the names that people suggested are names that I like but that my husband has already rejected. He is great at rejecting names, but not so good at suggesting them. I love reading everyone's ideas. A few new ones for your consideration: Everett (still a contender- I think Emmaline and Everett sound good together.) Elliot Connor Ronan or Rohan (I have a feeling these might be trendy too) Liam (I think this is getting really popular though) Carter

We found out that we are having a baby boy and I am having such a hard time with names. Girl names are easy for me- I have tons that I love. I think boy names are so much harder! Even though I like the names William and Daniel, my husband doesn't want anything too popular. He likes more unusual names. We have one girl, who is named Emmeline (pronounced em-ma-line, like caroline). Our last name is one syllable. What do you think of these names? Everett (nickname of Rett maybe?) Camden Colton Logan Troy (my husband likes it, I'm not so sure) So, what says the hive?

I sent you a pm!

I will be there on Friday and Saturday. I have never been to a conference before and I am so unprepared. I have no idea which sessions I want to attend and I have no plan for the vendor hall. I don't even have a hotel booked yet. I feel so stressed out about it, but I haven't had the time to plan things. We are leaving on Friday morning for a big trip and we won't come back until March 15th, so all my energy has been focused on that trip. I am happy to see that so many forum members will be attending!

I just thought of something else that could possibly be helpful. When I was going through this process as a Senior in high school, I had scholarship offers at a few different schools. I was originally offered a $20,000 scholarship to my top choice school, but my dad was able to negotiate a much better scholarship with the school. He simply called them up and told them I had scholarship offers at other schools and that although I would love to attend their school, I would need a better aid package. A few days later, they offered me a "Trustee Honor" Scholarship. I think it was $32,000 instead of the original $20,000. I also negotiated a partial scholarship with my law school after they originally told me that I had not earned any merit based scholarships. A different school offered me a scholarship and I simply said that I could not attend unless I was offered a similar deal. So, maybe you could try to negotiate a better aid deal. It doesn't hurt to ask.

I just want to let you know that student loans are not the end of the world for a young adult. My husband had to take student loans in college and I took a lot in law school. Anytime over the last 10 years that we have been in a financial bind, we have easily been able to get a forbearance on our loans, so it has never been a hardship. We consolidated them several years ago and now we pay $350/ month for $78,000 of student loans. That's a lot more debt than your daughter would be saddled with and we don't consider the payment too onerous. We drive older cars and have the student loan payment instead of a car payment. Plus, all the interest we pay is tax deductible. Maybe your daughter could talk to the financial aid department at the school she is really interested in attending to get an idea of what kind of payments she would be looking at after graduation. Just a different perspective for you to consider.

I know it varies from child to child, but I totally agree that a 8 and 9 yr old should be able to follow a checklist to clean their room. I don't think that is an unreasonable expectation. My 7 yr old will clean her room without me having to stand over her and direct her progress. I agree with a previous poster that the problem may be expecting them to work together on it! I love the earlier stated idea of giving each of them certain items on the checklist that they can work on alone in the room. Maybe the sibling who finishes his or her tasks will ensure that the other sibling does as well, so as not to miss out on an activity. I hope you find a solution that works for you.

I'm so glad you found a house. I was looking around some too (on the local property management company websites) and the pickings were pretty slim! My husband drives around all day and hasn't seen anything either. Congratulations! We are in a subdivision off Hope Valley Rd. Is your new house anywhere near us? Let me know if you need any local help!