My daughter (now 3) was born with hip dysplasia and had to wear a cast from her toes to her chest from three to six months old. I had a FEW people ask, "Did her brothers do something to her?" :glare: On the other hand, I say a baby in Target once who had a cast on her feet that looked like my daughter's cast had. She was covered with a blanket over her body though so I didn't see that the cast was only on her legs and didn't go all the way up to her chest. Anyways, I think I acted a little too excited (because I didn't know anyone else with a baby with hip dysplasia in a cast) when I asked if she had hip dysplasia and showed the parents my own daughter in her cast. They weren't excited and explained that their own child had club feet. I can see them writing about the encounter on this sort of thread. :blush:

I voted for the first option although we do own an iron. It is used for crafts. Dh takes his uniforms that need ironing to the cleaners. I am not allowed to do it. ;)

Do you throw a birthday party for each child every year? Just certain years? Never? Do you do something else for the birthday child? Let them choose between a party or special event? If you don't have birthday parties for your kids, what do you think about friends who do and invite you to them frequently? I've been throwing birthday parties for my kids every year. I started because my friends did when my oldest was little and it looked fun, and I enjoy the planning that goes into it. My kids' birthdays are all spread throughout the year so I always get to be planning. Again, I enjoy the planning. I make cute crafts for decorations and party favors, dh decorates awesome cakes. Sometimes we do generic parties (ladybug or alligator) and sometimes we do character parties (Mario Brothers or Curious George). The day of the party I do get a little stressed trying to get everything set up but during the party itself, I have fun, and my kids love them. I don't throw the parties because I think kids *deserve* parties or because I didn't have many as a kid. I genuinely just like to do it and I love how much my kids enjoy them. I don't spend too much money (in my and dh's opinion), usually $75-$150. We have parties at home or at parks, rarely at a paid venue. We usually include lunch or dinner for the guests (hotdogs/pizza type food). Dh has talked about not doing them every year anymore (he doesn't really care for parties), but my kid's talk about their next birthday party right after their last one so I don't know who to stop at. Dh has suggested letting them choose between going somewhere fun or having a party, which I think is a good idea, especially as they get older. I just wanted to see what others outside of my group of IRL friends do and think.

My mom is 51 and I voted that I make my kids change out of pj's most days. Maybe a few times a year they don't have to. Sometimes they are in pj's until late morning, but they still have to change.

:lol:

The Fourth Amendment "The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects personal privacy, and every citizen's right to be free from unreasonable government intrusion into their persons, homes, businesses, and property -- whether through police stops of citizens on the street, arrests, or searches of homes and businesses." Although I've heard it defended because entering the secure area of an airport is implying consent to be searched unreasonably.

I go by my first name, Jami, which I've never really cared for and thought it was made worse by dropping the 'e' off of it so I'd have to correct people if I wanted it spelled correctly. Now I don't care enough to not like it and I also don't correct the spelling unless it's for something important. Some friends in school would call me "James" every once in a while to shorten it I guess. But my brother's name is James, so it didn't ever stick. Now I get called Jill quite often by people who don't know me well enough to remember my name correctly. It rhymes with part of my last name so I guess people just combine the two. It's frequent enough that I answer to it if I ever hear the name said and sadly, I don't correct it sometimes if it doesn't matter. And it happens to be my mom's name, which makes it even more odd. We never called my two oldest kids by the shortened version of their first names and so it's not comfortable to do so, but some of their friends do. My oldest doesn't care, but my middle prefers his full first name. We made sure to use the shortened version as well as the full name of my third son's name from the time he was born, so he goes by both and likes both. He does NOT like it when people call him Gabey-Baby or Gabe-the-Babe, which is pretty often for some reason. He is very dramatic and will usually let out this "I don't LIKE it when they call me that!" whine type deal, with dramatic arm movements and everything. :lol: It's funny to think about. My girls have short names and we don't shorten them unless we shorten it when we make it a silly nick name. (Lee-Lee Belle or Ann-Buh-Nan) My older daughter (3 years old) corrects us if we ever change her name to something silly. "No, my name is Yee-uh." Silly girl.

We're military and have to do what is set up where we live. Right now the kids have to see a pediatrician. They are not allowed to be seen in the clinic that I have to go to. When we lived in Nebraska, they had a family residency clinic (yes, you see a resident doctor) you could opt to go to and have your whole family seen by the same doctor. We did that because the Women's Clinic that I would have otherwise have to go to did not allow children at the appointments, even simple OB check-ups, which doesn't make sense at a military clinic because there are a ton of young pregnant moms with hubbies deployed. If anything comes up, we have to go see specialty doctors who know more about the issue, which I'm thankful for. The more we go to the doctor, the more I realize how much they don't know that I thought they did (and they sometimes act like they do). Although I am thankful for all that they DO know too. (I don't want to sound too insulting.)

No, I don't think that. I generally think, "Yayyy!!!" I don't think of myself in that moment really. Most people that I hear about being pregnant want to be pregnant and I'm excited that they get to be, just like I was always excited. (Well, except for the first month or so with my first who was not planned and I was 18.) And just in case anyone doesn't realize this happens, but I HATED hearing "better you than me" when I was pregnant. I thought it was rude and implied that I was doing something stupid that would be a big inconveinance to me. It ranked up there with my family saying "So this is the last one, right?" after my second through fifth pregnancies. I know we all get annoyed by different things that others say, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets irritated by that. Just a FYI. Think it all you want, but I don't recommend verbalizing it. My feelings about not having any more children don't make sense to me. I enjoyed different things about all the stages we've gone through with our children but I'm also relieved that I won't be going through some of them again. But at the same time, it makes me sad that I won't get to go through them again. I think it's mostly that I want time to slow down. My kids are growing up too stinkin' fast!

My dh and oldest son were able to visit my MIL for the launch, who lives right by Cape Canaveral where it was launched from. I'm thrilled that they got to witness it (we live in Texas). I'm also sad that it's the end for now. I've thought about what to tell our kids who want to be astronauts when they grow up and figured I'll tell them they can be the first astronauts to start up a new space flight program and they betterstart designing a new space craft. I've heard about the 'turning it over to the private sector' idea (hey, then Lance Bass from N'Sync can really go on his space trip!) but who knows what will happen. The space program was one of the few government programs that didn't seem to be a corrupt, failing program.

That reminds me of what our set-up is. We have a living/dining combo room in the front of the house and a family room in the back. Our kitchen is not big enough for a table to fit us all. Anyways, we use the living/dining combo as only a living room, and we use the family room as a dining room. I'm not sure what the floor plan is of your house, but I agree with putting the table in the living room rather than going without.

I don't see a problem with it. As long as she has taken responsibility for herself and is working and not mooching off of others, and understands that she may never have a high paying job (not that a degree guarentees that either), then it is her choice. She can always go to college if she decides she wants to go later. I'm sorry your family has to deal with other family members being negative about her decision. :glare:

Is this the only table in the house? I'd prefer not to sit on the floor for meals and school, and my dh would plainly tell me 'no' if I asked him to put our table in the garage! Could you look on Craigslist for a smaller one while you wait to move?

LOL, I don't think he'll like them more, but it sounds like they will challenge him a bit more. :) Thanks for all of your input everyone.

My son just finished 4th grade and is finishing up Singapore Math 5B this summer. He does one lesson a day, five days a week during the school year and three days a week during the summer. We have the textbooks but rarely use them. We are math-y people and he gets the concepts quickly and gets impatient when I would try to teach him with the textbooks, so I pretty much gave up and just explain it in my own words, if I need to explain it at all, which isn't very often. Anyways, he ends up spending 10-15 minutes on math or even less if the lesson is really short (the geometry lessons come to mind). He gets the problems correct for the most part (only simple math errors on occasion) and rarely needs help. He does fine during the reviews and remembers how to do everything. Reading on the curriculum forum, it seems like those who use Singapore Math use the Intensive Practice and Extra Word Problems (whatever it's called). Is there any reason I should consider giving my son more math problems each day? My just-finished first grade son is in 2A right now and looks to be strong in math as well and also finishes quickly. While they are both strong at math, they don't necessarily enjoy doing it so much that they would want to do more each day (although I don't do all of school based on what they want to do). I think they have a good grasp on what they are learning and I am comfortable with having them just do the workbook. However, I learn new things everyday and am wondering if I am missing some information about if and why they should be spending more time doing math. Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks!

I'm near San Antonio and it rained most of the night! Whoo-hoo! We got almost two inches.

This is the first time I've heard not to dry them in the dryer. Whoops. I'm not a clothing tag reader. I will say though that I pass clothes down to my younger boys and I've never had a rash guard shirt wear out. And we swim all the time in the summer.

My oldest in ten right now. I consider him right on the top of the fence between little boy and older kid. He does things that fall into both categories. He has not started puberty yet (that I've noticed) and still plays little kid stuff sometimes but he just seems like he's ready for more responsibility and has an 'older kid' mentality about some things. It makes me think more about how my kids really are going to all grow up (and leave me :crying:), but at the same time, I'm excited to see the young man that he is becoming.

I haven't given all that much thought to this problem because once you start a welfare program, you pretty much can never go back. However, if it were ever possible, I think that charitable healthcare organizations would work better than any federal government health program ever would. There are many out there that are already helping people who can't afford their own healthcare...Shriner's, American Kidney Fund, American Red Cross, etc. I'm guessing that by now they are probably subsidized by the government though. :glare: But usually smaller organizations have less waste and corruption than government programs. Those who want to would donate to those charities that are set up to help those who want health insurance but can't afford the premiums. There may be many who think that Americans wouldn't step up to help people out, but just look at the big disasters that happen (tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes) where Americans DO send millions of dollars to help. I don't know if that would work. I doubt we'll ever get the chance to see unless our government gets so in debt that everything crashes Atlas Shrugged style. :tongue_smilie: And besides, would it even be a significant tax cut where it would free up more of people's money to be able to give it away anyways? There's so much other stuff that we're paying for with federal taxes. I have no sources, no proof, just a thought in my head that I though I'd share. Again, I can't really see this happening as people are way too "entitled" to have others pay for their lifestyles for it to actually be a choice people should be able to make, so I guess it wasn't a very realistic suggestion. I'm interested in what others will suggest though.

We use it and love it. We'll be starting our fourth year with it this fall using Rome to the Reformation.

The boys wake up at about 7AM. They play on the computer (M, T, W...each boy gets one day a week) for an hour and then play. The girls and I get up at about 8 or 8:30AM. We eat breakfast and read a little from the preschool Bible books we're using this summer. Anything out of the home that we do (park, Bible study at church, etc) we do in the morning at about 9 or 10AM. If we don't do anything, the kids just play. Then at noon it's chores, lunch, and the girls nap at 1PM and the boys do school, which only takes about 45 minutes in the summer (science and math) four days a week. Everyone has free time after that. At about 5:30PM, we eat dinner, do chores, have more free time, girls to bed at 7PM and then we do some reading with the boys and bedtime at 8PM.

The way I choose our book basket books? Our library only has about three MAX of the books on the list each week. :glare: We loved ECC. Have fun and make lots of good food (that was my favorite part).

I LOVE our pencil sharpener. It's called the "Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener". We've been through so many and this one we have stuck with (because it still works!) When we first got it, I caught my then four year old breaking the pencil point over and over to sharpen his pencil again. It's about $20. http://www.classroomfriendlysupplies.com/

Of Ayn Rand's books, I've only read Atlas Shrugged and I thought it was a good read (other than the long monologues that I tended to skim through). I also saw the movie and thought that it was entertaining as well, and didn't notice the bad acting that so many claim. It's not a typical Hollywood movie so of course the common critics will not like it. I thought the book was way too extreme in many ways to ever be an ideology to base my life philosophy on but points can be taken from it to think about as we become more of a welfare dependent country. And when I read the recent "Entitlement" thread on this forum, it made me think of that book. Yikes. :ack2:

That's so funny. I felt the same way when my daughter said her first word at six months. She saw a DVD box at the store for the movie "The Retreivers" that had some dogs on the cover and said "dog" when she saw it. I kept hiding it from her, showing her others DVD boxes to see it she'd say the same thing when she saw them (because I couldn't believe it), but sure enough, she only said it when she saw the correct one. My dh didn't believe me until he heard our daughter himself. She only said a few more words repeatedly before she turned one, but she sure can talk your ear off now (at three). :tongue_smilie: I had thought then that she was just making up for not being able to learn gross motor skills. She had hip displaysia as a baby and was in a chest-to-toes Spica cast from three to six months so couldn't move anything but her head and arms. I didn't realize that some babies just start talking that early. I didn't like telling anyone else either because I knew they'd think I was just thinking she'd said it but she wasn't really. She makes up for my now 17 month old who only has a handful of words that she says...although her first word(s) was/were "thank you". That's gotta make a mom feel proud. :tongue_smilie:(Even though she has yet to say "Mommy"!)