Okay, my heart just skipped a beat when I read this post and got to the part of your tooth just coming out. Oh my goodness. Supergluing a tooth sounds like something my mom would do, though. LOL.

Press coffee is undeniably more delicious, but I have read that unfiltered coffee increases cholesterol so I've always been hesitant to make a full-on switch.

This person sounds nuts. As much I love to swim, I do not want a pool in my yard, and if we did have one, I would never in a million zillion years let people come and swim in it when I wasn't home. In fact, just THINKING about it makes me kind of anxious and twitchy. I would have that thing locked up like Fort Knox. Yeah, I can't handle a pool. Anyway, another vote for crazy person, don't pay her any attention.

Oh, I'm so sorry! I am always very upset by dental problems and often have nightmares about my teeth crumbling. :grouphug::grouphug: As others have mentioned, has your dentist said anything about tooth grinding? My DH grinds his teeth in his sleep and he did terrible damage to his teeth before getting a mouthguard.

No (graduated in 1990) but when I went off to college the top floor of the LIBRARY (!) was reserved for smokers. I believe that had ended by the time I graduated, though.

Our Maclaren Triumph just bit the dust after 6 years of faithful service, most of them on the bumpy streets of NYC. Last week one of the metal pieces underneath just gave out -- there's no way to fix it and getting it repaired by a Maclaren retailer would be more expensive then a new stroller, so we are in the market for a stroller, too. (The poor baby was actually in the stroller at the time and toppled to the ground. He was MAD but, thankfully, just fine.) In general, I liked the Triumph well enough but didn't love it. We are more babywearing people than stroller people, so that might be part of it, but I did not like that (1) it tips backwards very easily if you hang too much on the back; (2) it is totally useless in the snow; and (3) you can't fit much in the basket underneath. If I had it to do all over again, I would have gotten something with pneumatic wheels. The wheels and alignment also did not hold up all that well, although in fairness, we were brutally hard on that thing. I had the wheels replaced either two or three times (for $40 each time) over the life of the stroller. It is supposedly one-hand steering but as soon as the wheels started to wear down the alignment would get so off that it required two hands pretty much all the time. On the up side, the stroller is extremely light and folds very easily. I'll be interested to see the other replies since, as I mentioned upthread, we are also looking for a stroller, and I don't think we're going to get another Maclaren. Others have suggested the Uppababy G-Lite or G-Luxe to me, but I haven't investigated them yet.

Our family is also complete, but my DH will not hear of me getting a tubal -- he thinks that it would be absurd for me to go through that when a vasectomy would be much easier and safer, and in any event he feels that my body has been through enough. And I can't say that I disagree. So it will be him, for sure. But it's me who's holding off on the whole thing; I know in my heart that we're done, but making it final ...

I am so sad about this. It's not like it was unexpected, obviously, but still. My 6yo will be crushed when I tell him in the morning. He is a huge Jobs fan -- he and his 3yo brother went through a phase last spring when their very favorite game was to pretend to be "Jobs" and "Woz" building Apple computers out of blocks. What a loss.

Back in 1947 or thereabouts, my mom changed elementary schools and wound missing the times tables above 4. She never learned them, and despite the oft-heard claim that there was no social promotion back in the day, she went on to win full scholarships to a private high school and then to a Seven Sisters college. However, if you say "Ma! What's 8 x 7?" she will look at you dubiously. "42?"

A friend of a friend was 49 when she became unexpectedly pregnant with her first child. Uneventful pregnancy, uneventful birth.

I have had three inductions with epidural and never heard of "directed pushing." Do people still have epidurals that block so much? None of mine were like that. The epidural took away the pain of contractions (loved them!) but I always knew when I was fully dilated because I would start to feel a massive pressure and an absolutely irresistible urge to push. I just told the midwife when I felt a contraction coming on and she and DH would then cheer me on until the baby crowned. It never took long, in any case. The one thing is that with #1, I didn't hear her tell me to stop pushing for a moment when the baby crowned and I tore a bit. DH said that the baby just came FLYING out! WIth #2 and #3, I tried to be a bit more careful at that moment and didn't tear at all, with either one.

:iagree:

We leave ours off, but in your circumstances I would leave them on. I know that criminals are not necessarily known for razor-sharp intellect, but really? Burglarizing the house right next door?

I'm not sure if I would qualify (cancer history) but if so, then yes. My brother and i are not particularly close, but I could never look at my parents again if I said no.

Good news! Glad it went well.

Agreeing that it's never too late for Winnie-the-Pooh. My boys, especially my 3yo, are absolutely obsessed with Winnie-the-Pooh, and the audiotapes of Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner (the ones by Judi Dench et al) are in constant rotation. They reenact scenes from the books all the livelong day - -most notably, the scene from The House at Pooh Corner in which Pooh (played by my 6yo) falls on top of Piglet (the 3yo). All done with pitch-perfect English accents, thanks to the tapes. It is hilarious. While I confess that I sometimes beg them to change the CD to something, anything else, just because I can't take it any more, I have to agree that the books and characters themselves are just wonderful, for any age.

For math, I usually put check marks next to correct answers and then we go over the sheet again to 'get' any missed answers. Sometimes DS prefers to mark his sheet himself, which is fine by me. I have also been known to offer sound effects as well, calling "Ding ding ding!" for correct answers and making a buzzer sounds for incorrect ones. :001_smile:

I had no idea that many (most?) dentists didn't permit parents to come back until I read it here on this board, and I actually asked our previous (we have since moved) much-beloved pediatric dentist about this issue a few months ago. At his practice, parents were expected to come back with this kids -- just like at the pediatrician. Anyway, he said that there is a serious disagreement on this matter among pediatric dentists, that he himself thought that children were much more comfortable with their parents nearby, but that probably the majority of dentists disagreed. He said that I would likely have to search quite a bit in our new city to find one that allowed me back. :confused: I have not taken on this task yet, but I find the whole idea of my young kids negotiating with the dentist just absurd. I mean, this is their health we're talking about. OP, particularly given your son's communication problems, I would be very pleasant but absolutely immovable. And don't bother arguing with the nurse if she says no; insist (pleasantly, always pleasantly) on taking it up with the dentist. My mom and I have both done this for various medical exams and procedures in which family members were officially not permitted to accompany the patient but we felt it was necessary. I have almost always been able to get my way on this sort of thing.

This is me, too -- always measuring a couple of weeks ahead, and carrying it ALL in the belly. Ultrasounds always showed the babies to be right on target, though, and they were all average-sized at birth: 7'5", 7'7", 7'13". I have a very short torso, which may have something to do with it as well.

nono, you rock. This is a brilliant idea. We have one credit card in my name only and the limit is ridiculously low. I am calling Fidelity today; we'll see if this works!

I sweat a lot AND have a hypersensitive nose, and if I do not wear antiperspirant daily by the afternoon I will be both (1) wet; and (2) smelly. (And if I don't shave my armpits often enough, even antiperspirant can't save me.) Attractive, no? :tongue_smilie: By way of comparison, DH never uses it, rarely sweats, and hardly ever smells, although his clothes definitely need washing more often than he thinks they do. That said, I am not at all convinced that antiperspirant is all that safe and when pregnant have just thrown social nicety to the wind and gone with mostly useless natural-type alternatives. DH has never seeemed to notice, but my mom -- from whom I inherited the hypersensitive nose -- once showed up when I was pregnant with #2 and pointedly started opening all the windows. ("It's so STUFFY in here!") So as a general rule, I don't think I can really go without, but I would love to find another option that actually worked.

I own the MCT Island series and have read it carefully but have decided that I prefer, for now, at least, Galore Park's Junior English. I'm not selling the MCT quite yet -- I think we'll use bits and pieces of it over time -- but the Galore Park is a better fit. My son enjoys it quite a lot and I am pleased with his progress.

Our previous library system had the same issue -- I found that if I couldn't renew because a book (with multiple available copies in the system) was on hold, more often than not if I just waited and tried again a day or two later, the renewal would go through. I have no idea why this worked, but it usually did. Might be worth a try.

I haven't had this experience, but I am kind of boggling at your mom delivering this news by text message.

I've never been to a ped that asked so many questions, either. My DH would be able to answer them all, I think, but he would not ask nearly enough questions himself. And even if he asked (i.e., I wrote them down for him) he would not PUSH for answers. Drives me batty.