Threads like this make me worried that I am constantly offending people, because it would never cross my mind that I couldn't make plans after a scheduled activity for fear of hurting someone's feelings. Or drive myself because of those plans.

My mom buys yogurt from an Amish family. But only plain, because they flavor them with kool-aid.

I feel absurdly passionate about my Dohm.

My friend puts on a solstice spiral walk. Everyone rolls beeswax candles, walks the spiral made of pine boughs contemplatively, lights their candle and places it along the path.

Well, darn. I sent my DH with the 3 older kids. They had a great time. They saw Howl's Moving Castle, just because it was my daughter's favorite, and it was playing a few weeks after her birthday. So we kept it a surprise. Unfortunately leading up, she kept asking to watch the movie (which we don't own, we'd have rent), and I kept trying to put her off until the trip.

Lol. Pom Poko! I just saw it mentioned. Heavy use of testicles in that particular selection.

Howl’s Moving Castle is the most beloved here. Lots of the others listed. Just so you know, there’s a Studio Ghibli theatre tour going on right now. We just went. Also, we love the book Ronia the Robber’s Daughter, and enjoyed the Amazon series adaptation.

Well. I did it last night. I hope so! I don't know why getting something COLD would be a food safety issue though.

I was scrolling to see if someone mentioned this one.

http://www.umbra.com/usd/catalog/product/view/id/7793/s/1-bayview-darje/ This is how we covered a similar window. We actually ended up having to hang the curtain rod from the ceiling because the space above the window was too small, but it worked like a dream.

Thank you everyone for your input. He had chromosomal testing sent out about 48 hours after birth. The geneticist seemed to think he has separate unrelated anomalies that were not part of a syndrome, but we await the results of the microarray. His kidney ultrasound was mostly unremarkable. Some dilation that the neo thinks is developmental related. He will repeat that ultrasound as well as his echo between 4 and 6 months. They are waiting for more myelinization prior to MRI. He had to go back to full time on the tube as the Dr. Brown's cleft bottle was making his mouth bleed. We are going to try the Haberman part time to see if that will work and not irritate his mouth. We have had SLPs coming to assist with feeding from the beginning. I appreciate the collective experience of the Hive.

I had a little guy on 10/8 at 36w4d. He was born (unexpectedly) with a bilateral cleft lip and palate and syndactyly. I found a sacral dimple, which was examined via ultrasound, but they didn't see anything amiss. It did however reveal some swelling in his kidneys, which will be imaged tonight. We have very little information so far. He's little and has those more minor challenges that come along with being a little early, which compound some of the other things. The hospitals readily available to us are in Chicago. Lurie, Advocate, UIC, U of C, etc. Though we are willing to go wherever we need to to get him the best care we can. I don't know that I have a specific question other than any advice you may have if you've navigated this. He has had a microarray, which we will wait for for a little bit. I am aware of all the google results in terms of syndromes that match and don't match his particular birth defects. Since I don't have that information yet to determine conclusively if he has any of those, I suppose I'm most interested in navigating the cleft palate issues. He is on a feeding tube. He can effectively use a bottle, but unfortunately the compression in his mouth is causing some bleeding. So for now we are back to only using the tube. Also, his name is Crispin. He's super cool and I like him.

Okay, I literally had a conversation with a neonatologist about this an hour ago. I have a guy in the NICU right now. There can be overriding of sutures in the skull. That gives them a ridge, and it is normal for a period of time. He manipulated his skull to show me that it is not craniosynostosis because they can move and are not fused.

I have a nostril piercing and a septum piercing. I got the nostril at 19 and have gone years with nothing in it, but have had something in it regularly for the last few years. Last year I got my septum pierced. I'm 38. Neither interfere with blowing my nose, as long as I don't push really hard on the stud and stab myself. I have a straight stud with a little ball on the inside, rather than a screw. I lose them regularly and buy them in sets of 20 on amazon. Neither really hurt much as far as I'm concerned, and aftercare is pretty piddly. I don't look trashy. Punky maybe? I don't know how people see me, because I'm a homeschooling mother of (looks like today it will be 5), and I have green hair and nose rings. Who knows. It's fun to be incongruous, honestly.

I would marvel that I'd managed superfetation.

I agree. This is also how I feel about people bemoaning short shorts on 3 year olds for modesty reason. Purity balls have a different ownership/chastity vibe and that is what disturbs me about them. I have one daughter who would scoff at a daddy/daughter dance, and one who would likely be thrilled.

:lol: Motley Crue in their heyday is not who I would want to be in a warm soup with.

A member of Survivor was a regular at my Starbucks. DH served Rod Stewart at his Starbucks. He had no clue who he was.

No rash?

It's so funny to me when people say they love Violet. My first I named Violet, and while she was IN THE NICU the neonatologist said to me "Violet? You named her VIOLET? I guess it's okay if you call her Vi or something." So that was literally like the my first observation of someone's reaction upon learning her name. That's not even close to the worst thing that happened during that birth, so it doesn't really rile me up anymore, but there it is.

Ha! That's how my Mississippi Mammaw pronounced my name.

Yes. And I think it is an interesting thought experiment.

I don't think there is anything wrong with some guidelines. Like if someone wants hair down to their knees but won't let you brush it, that probably won't work. But yes, I would let a 4 and 5 year old basically get what they want. My oldest DD has super short hair now, and my oldest DS has long hair.

Old enough to express an opinion.

I'm a boring old Sarah too. ;) I'll tell you what, it's been an easy name to have. Nobody ever comments on it. It basically only has one variation. People have a pretty good shot at spelling it correctly.