My DS is nearing the end of Saxon 76. I think he could benefit from a side move math book before moving onto 87. Any suggestions for a different curriculum that would cover similar materials as Saxon 76, but in a different way? Help him to go deeper vs. wider? If that makes sense.

Unfortunately I can't just send him home because I'm usually babysitting and he lives 15 minutes away. And it's almost immediately after walking in the door that the boredom talk starts. And it lasts pretty much the entire time he's here. I make food that I know he likes and he still says he doesn't like it (mac n cheese, frozen burritos--both purchased specifically for when he comes over). I pull the chore card on my own kids (they rarely claim boredom because they know what will happen). I could try it on him. And he is whiny all the time, not just at my house. All of the kids in that family are whiny. Which is unfortunate because my DS chose this boy to be his best friend and it is hard for me to like having him over to play with my DS because he bugs me so much. And his mom is one of my best friends. So I don't want to hurt the relationship--just want the kid to stop whining all the time.

My DS has a friend that drives me INSANE with his whining. "What is there to do?" "I'm bored." "I don't like this food." On and on every time he comes over to the point that I don't want him to come over anymore. I give him snappy answers--"That's for you to figure out" or "I don't care. You have a brain that can come up with things to do. Use it." of "Then don't eat." Much as I would say to my own kids. He just looks at me like I'm crazy and walks away. I assume his parents respond to his whining? How do you deal with whiny friends? We have very little tolerance for whining in our house so it's a rare occurrence around here.

We buy Davids brand sunflower seeds, already shelled. I also just found sunflower seeds from Walmart that are also not cross-contaminated. That would be the only options I've found locally. We were going to Menards once a month just to buy sunflower seeds since they are the only place I could find that carry them once my usual store discontinued them. For almonds, I am no help as my DS is allergic to those.

I got one yesterday and my arm hurts really bad. But no fever or tiredness. And because of this thread I just realized that I got more than just a tetanus shot which is what I asked for. I got the full Tdap. Blah! Not what I asked for at all!

Have you ever had a c/s? Because I've done it both ways and a c/s is soooooo much easier. My first was an emergency c/s due to preeclampsia and DS being transverse. No question it was necessary. Despite being on bedrest for the three months prior to delivery, I was up and running within days. (Okay, not literally running, but walking). I opted for a VBAC with #2. OMG! It was horrible! The labor itself wasn't so bad. I labored drug free for about 12 hours before opting for the epideral. But the recovery...horrible. It took almost a YEAR before it didn't hurt to have tEa. It took a lot longer for even the basic recovery after that delivery. Blah. So when it came time to decide about what to do with #3, I opted for the c/s right off the bat. So much easier. I scheduled it around Hubby's work schedule (I had DD on a Saturday), I could line up childcare, etc. I was fully back to normal by the time I left the hospital. No lingering pain. No painful tEa. Now you can say you have officially met someone who would purposely choose a c/s despite having successfully had a VBAC. When my dr offered me the choice, it was a no brainer. My own personal opinion on why so many c/s's? I bet it's in direct proportion to the number of inductions. The majority of women I know IRL who have been induced from a cold start (meaning they weren't dilated at all) ended up laboring and pushing and ending up with a c/s after hours of labor. They are exhausted after being awake for over 24 hours, sometimes 2 days. They are hungry because they haven't eaten in that entire time. By the time it's time to push, they just don't have the energy. I can name over 10 women off the top of my head where this was the case.

It's from Art Van, a big box store. I would just trash it and buy new except it's the love seat that matches the other couch. Bla. For me to fix it will involve removing upholstery, which I'm not opposed to, just more skill than I've ever used before. I am currently looking for a DIY site to fix it. Maybe I will just try to fix it myself and if it doesn't work, take it as a sign to buy a new one.

Our couch needs structural repair. The back of the couch was sat on one too many times and now it flops backward on one side. Anyone ever get a couch like this fixed? Trying to decide if it's worth fixing or if it'd be cheaper to just replace it.

I never knew that could cause it. I get night sweats a lot and now I'm going to have to pay attention to see if it coincides with what I ate for a snack before bed. And I'm only 34 so I am pretty sure it's not menopause related. :tongue_smilie:

When I was pregnant with DS, I made chicken in the crockpot with basil. OMG. The smell alone made me sick. Years later and I would still get nauseous just from the smell of cooking chicken with basil. I still can't eat crockpotted chicken over 9 years later. And it took me a good 5 years to get over my extreme aversion to basil. Now I love, love basil. And I used to drink slurpees (icees) all the time until about 2 years ago and now I can't stand them. And fruit loops. I lived on them during my pregnancies. I bought the kids a box of them last week while we were on vacation. I tried a handful and thought it was disgusting.

My experience is that they are only willing to do so many tests based on the child's size. When DD was 2, they'd only do 2 trays of tests (16 total tests), but with my DS they did 3 or 4 trays this last time when he was 8 (so 24-32 tests). Plus they don't have tests for everything that you could be allergic to. So maybe a blood test can be more specific? I just know that when DS reacted to mangoes and I asked the allergist about it, he said they don't have a mango test but that it's related to tree nut allergies which DS does have.

My understanding is that even under 16 they have to at least have the passcard which is a lot cheaper, but only good for Canada, USA, and Mexico. We wanted to drive from Michigan, through Canada to see Niagra Falls and then onto New Jersey back when my brother got married in NJ, but the cost for passports nixed that idea.

A talking epipen would be nice for when someone else is taking care of my DS. They always ask--now how do I use this thing again despite the directions right on the pen. Oh well. I saw this a while back and called not really expecting much. But my coupon came in the mail a few weeks ago and I took it to the pharmacy to refill our epipens and my copay really was $0. So if you buy epipens and want to save up to $100 off your copay per epipen, call the number and get the coupon. http://www.bargainst...-carrying-case/

His last hearing test was when he was 6 with an audiologist in the special room. The full workup. He was in kindergarten when he had that after he had his ear tubes removed. He was premature, was on oxygen, and had multiple ear infections that led to the tubes. Delayed talker which took off after the tubes were put in at 2.5yrs and then articulation issues. He had to have OT as a baby because he threw up when he ate anything with texture. He's been evaluated by 2 different psychs for giftedness, ADHD and spectrum issues and came away with a highly gifted dx and nothing else. But I haven't pursued anything speech related for him in about 2 years and it seems to have gotten worse after he lost his front teeth and got his new ones. I get so frustrated seeing specialists, paying a lot of money, only to see no progress. Yet I know I can't keep ignoring the problem because he's not getting better and it's hard for him to communicate and that's not fair to him.

Thanks for the suggestions. I am going to look into this further. I don't know about praxia. I have never heard of it but will look into it. He drops word endings, skips over words when reading out loud, has a hard time pronouncing several sounds, etc. No one can understand him very well--his siblings seem to understand him the best, with Hubby and me being second best, but even then I understand about 60% of what he says when he gets talking. He's only been to the regular dentist who has never said anything. If you had a cross bite, would it make you jut your chin out? DS does that a lot when he's talking. When I push on his chin when he's talking, it seems to help a bit. He has year round allergies so it's hard to say if he is a mouth breather because of that or because of his tonsils/adenoids. He has never had strep, he doesn't snore, he's been seen by an ENT many times for ear infections when he was little (had ear tubes put in), so I would imagine the ENT would have said something if they were abnormally large.