When DS1 was about 8, he came to me one evening carrying "It's Not the Stork", pointed to the page where it described sex and asked "is that REALLY what happens?" A cashier asked the same child if he was excited about the brother/sister "in mommy's tummy" at the time. He looked at her and said "The baby is in her uterus, not her stomach. If it was in her stomach then her stomach acid would digest it!".

I typically do the laundry, though for now I'm having DS1 carry the basket up and down the stairs for me. Our washer & dryer are stacked so while DS1 and DD1 can start a load of wash, it's difficult for them to reach the control panel on the dryer. I sort it all on my bed and the 4-10 year olds put away their own laundry, I put away the adults' laundry (unless it's in the evening & DH is home to help), the toddler's laundry, and the linens. Kids fold & put away the kitchen towels, napkins, & washcloths (that's a dedicated load). We need to do about 2 loads a day to keep things under control.

My older two are in group lessons for strings, I just drop them off and pick them up when it is over. DD1 is in chorus and last year I would sit in the back of the room (with other parents) and read my Kindle. This year I drop her off, go get a coffee and read for a bit, then wait out in the car her class to be over.

"Barbie Girl", by Aqua. For some reason it got stuck in my head about a month ago and still occasionally pops up. :huh: Come on Barbie, let's go party!

I had suggested it since I'm not going to cook anything this year, we did it a couple years ago when I was very pregnant with #5. DH wanted to cook though, so he's doing all the (scaled back) cooking and cleaning up afterward. I still think it would be less stressful to just go out to eat though. :leaving: Instead, I'll just sit at the island and drink some hot cider, keeping him company while he cooks.

Crap, now I want Cuties. But not bad enough to brave Costco on Friday.

The ones we just got from Costco lasted for one snack, neither DH nor I got any. The 1.5 year old ate waaaaay too many. DH can change all the diapers tomorrow. :ack2:

We use chairs for seating. We had a bench on one side with our last table but opted to go with chairs this time around, the kids are happier with the chairs (and none of the adults ever wanted to sit on the bench). We have 8 of these chairs in the same finish as the table and just keep the extra (2 for now) in the garage. One reason we liked this set is we could get it in a medium/light finish that went better in our dining room. Most of the larger tables we found locally were a very dark finish which would have looked great in my mother's formal dining room, not so much in ours. Plus I did NOT want chairs with upholstered seats since we still have young kids, I need something that can be wiped down after every meal! http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10242838/

If you aren't going to be back at your doctor soon, you can pick up a mail-in A1C test kit at a drugstore. I picked up one from Walmart for under $10, mailed it in and had the results back in about a week. I'm currently a good bit overweight and have a history of big babies (but never had GD), so I wanted some data that went farther back than the blood sugar checks I did at home.

We have the Stornas from Ikea. It comes in the average family seats 4-6 size, and the "are they all yours?" expands up to 10 size. The price was right, looks better in person than in the picture, and for this point in our lives where the table takes much abuse, it was a good choice. We have it set up for 7/8 right now, with the other leaf stored underneath. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60152340/ I really want one of the large ones from the Amish furniture store, but that will be several years down the road. This one will last us until then.

This happened to me a little over a year ago. I had an account (unused in years) but did not have any CC information saved to it. Somebody used another person's CC and bought some kind of gift card. I happened to be out of town (and luckily in Eastern time zone instead of Pacific) when the order was placed and the email came to me. Since I was already online I was able to cancel it right away before the email gift card delivery was processed. I canceled the WM account and then was able to look up the CC owner's contact information online and called her and let her know her card had been compromised.

The kids don't use them, we have one on our bed because DH likes it. I would put one on a guest bed.

I never used vinegar in mine, it lasted less than a year.

My problems with my gallbladder started after a significant weight loss. It happened in a fairly quick manner, but was still lost at a reasonable & healthy rate. Changes in my diet didn't help, I was still having excruciating attacks every other night. I had it out 2 years ago and, once I got past the initial recovery discomfort, it's been wonderful. No digestive effects, and even greasy meals don't cause me trouble. I'm so glad to have mine gone, that was the worst pain I've ever felt. I'd rather pop a baby out every other day than go through a gallbladder attack again.

We don't have a home phone, so we just got an additional iPhone added to our Ting account (still less than $65 a month for 3 iPhones). We mainly keep it charging in the kitchen, so DS1 (who now stays home by himself for brief periods) can call or text us. DD1 (8) has an annual overnight chorus event and last year I was wishing we had a cell phone that she could take with her, so it will go with her this year. DS1's music class overlaps with DS2's speech therapy, so if he'll be waiting afterward for longer than usual I'll have him take it with him. So it's not really a phone for a specific child but serves multiple purposes. Since we don't use it often enough for it to affect our phone bill, it just adds the $6/month device charge.

My 10 year old has been watching it for 2-3 years now, he's a big sci-fi fan. Whenever he would run into an episode that he thought was creepy, he would (his choice) download it onto his iPod Nano and watch it several times until he processed it, that was what worked for him. 8 year old DD1 just started getting into it more this year, she's a bit more sensitive with nightmares about certain things. For a while episodes about the weeping angels or vashta nerada would be too much for her. 6 year old DD2 likes to watch it when we watch it as a family or if the older kids watch it during the day but isn't that into it yet. DS2 (4) likes to incessantly hum the theme song. Of course, when DS1 switched the background on the homeschool laptop to the changing weeping angel background, that caused a brawl between him and DD1.

On our shelves we have OPG, Phonics Pathways, and McRuffy LA that are unused. I'm currently using Dancing Bears/Bear Necessities with DD2 (finally, some progress!) and just got in on a classroom buy of Headsprout at a great price so will add that in also.

We live a bit north of Gig Harbor but are down there about once a week. It seems to be a nice area, I think the biggest potential drawback may be the toll bridge as a PP mentioned. I take my daughter down there once a week for chorus, I'm not familiar with the athletic offerings though.

OK, this blog was for toddlers recovering, but it was definitely eye-opening and I'm glad I read it before DS had his out. He had a miserable recovery, even with setting an alarm and keeping up with the pain meds. We did end up alternating with ibuprofen too, kid was miserable. I agree with the others, it really just takes time. (And do be prepared for the roadkill-breath that hits around day 4-5, I don't remember when. Yeesh.) http://typeamama.blogspot.com/2008/05/recovery-for-toddler-tonsillectomy.html If nothing else, reading through the comments is helpful for seeing the wide range of normal for recovery. I wish his doctor had read it, because he giving the impression that after a day or two, DS would be much improved. I hope she feels better soon!

Why did I look at that chart right after raiding the Reese's Cups? :leaving: "I'm just taking Thing 6 trick-or-treating." That's what I told DS1.

Thanks for posting that video! We're currently in an 8 passenger Sienna and are looking to move up to something larger, the NV is at the top of our list.

I've had this happen a couple times now. They were both Prime items, not very expensive, and we rarely return things. I was pleasantly surprised both times!

I'm 32 weeks with #6 and I feel much the same way. My iron is on the lower side but still within normal range, I went ahead and started Floradix to get my levels up higher. (Floradix is worth every freaking penny as an iron supplement. I tried a different one for a week and regretted it very much, never again!) I think a lot of it is just that I'm older (39) and have a lot of other kids to take care of. I'm just exhausted.

We do this one (link, since I'm too lazy to type one-handed with sleeping toddler right now): http://caloriecount.about.com/tastes-like-summer-green-smoothie-recipe-r1297300 Though if you're avoiding tree nuts, I'm not sure about the mango? We omit the basil (my preference) and the kids like it.

10 year old DS1 and 8 year old DD1 watch: My Little Pony Star Wars The Clone Wars (going to start Rebels soon) Doctor Who Star Trek (finishing up Voyager right now) Ninjago and some obnoxious cartoon on Netflix called Zig and Sharko