mattresses at dorms etc are notoriously difficult to get sheets for. They are often extra long or long. When DS1 went to a summer intensive in which he was housed in a dorm, they kept stressing on all the dorm paperwork that the beds did NOT require extra long sheets, that regular twin sheets would be fine. They said it over and over and over again, lol. I am guessing that is because they were the exception and not the rule.

I actually googled this when ds1 was 13 and a little guy compared to everyone else. The average boy experienced the most rapid stage of growth at ages 13.5-14.5. FWIW, my son went from being in the 5% of height and weight to being in the 68% of height and 40% of weight in that year. OMG he ate a lot, and he has stretch marks running across his lower back from growing taller so quickly. It slowed considerably from 15-16. He's still not that tall compared to many of his peers, but he doesn't stand out as being my pixie boy any longer. He's pretty average. His dad is of average height 5'10" and I would say that ds1 is that height now. He will prob end up being a teensy bit taller than his dad, but not by much. and just a reminder that the dead average of height in men in the US is 5'10". We have a friend who is 'basketball tall" and he is at least 6' 6". I am 5' tall (60 inches) and I come up to his bellybutton, lol. When we talk he has to bend way over, and I instinctively get on my tippy toes. It's pretty funny to see. That guy's son was as tall as me in when he was a 5th grader. So while your son might be a little taller than he his dad, it is unlikely that he will be that tall, but very few people are. and OMG, supplements to make him grow? please no. His potential growth was cast a long time ago and is out of your hands. I seriously doubt he his experienced the kind of malnutrition that would actually impede height or development to any significant degree. A vitamin or supplement can't rewrite his genetic code, but it can lighten your wallet. And if it is being sold as something that will cause growth beyond what his body is capable of, it might be dangerous. He needs a healthy varied died with healthy carbs, fats and adequate protein. But living on cereal, juice, pizza and chicken nuggets isn't going to slow his growth.

My son has some red scarring from acne. His derm gave him a retinol, adaptalene, that both fights acne and will help reduce scaring over time. He uses it once a day and makes sure to use a sunscreen. The derm said he can use it very long term (like his whole life) to fight acne and scarring if need be. The derm said that he himself has been using it for years to keep his own acne under control. My son has been on adaptalene for about a month now and the results have been dramatic. His red scars are fading quickly as well. His face looks SO much better. He is also on an antibiotic to reduce inflammation etc. If we want, we will follow the antibiotic with accutane, but at this point in the process, I am not sure accutane will be necessary. But any retinol will work to reduce scaring and marking from acne...but they are all prescription medications. There is also laser treatment, but that is quite expensive.

peds see kids until age 21. My family doctor is a GP, so he treats the entire family, we don't have to go to different practices. But I was having to see my family pediatrician when I was in college.

I've made my own for years. I buy powdered Vit C powder at my local coop. It comes with a cute teensy tiny gram spoon in the jar. I just take enough to cover the bottom of the spoon and mix with a teaspoon of tap water. I make it in a dixie cup in the bathroom. I then apply right to my face. Done and it takes 30 seconds to mix up. I don't bother with making the whole thing with glycerine etc. I am now on my second bottle of serum from Amazon. I am using the original C20 serum. The first bottle I bought went dark quite quickly, so I keep this on in the fridge. It has lasted a really long time and hasn't gotten dark so I know it's fresh. C20 is a sister company to Cosrx, which is one of my favorite companies. I'm...ok, with the serum. I might just go back to doing what I was doing when this is done and then decide if I want to buy it again. I'm not crazy about the glycerine stickiness. My favorite active that I buy is the Cosrx AHA serum.

Cerave works so well because it protects the acid mantle of your skin. Our skin is slightly acid, it's covered with an acid mantle that protects it and keeps nasty germs from growing on it etc. But, most cleansers are basic...that 'squeaky clean" feeling is really the feeling of skin without it's acid mantle. Cerave is one of the few western low ph cleansers. This past autumn I switched the whole family to low ph cleansers, so I use Cerave, both the foaming and the lotion soap and a low ph shampoo. Amazing. Last year my ds2 had such terrible winter excema that I wanted to cry. Dry and flaking bumpy skin all over his body, cracking knees and elbows, flaking and red around his eyes, itching head..the whole thing. The doctor told us to just keep putting lotion on it. I was on a twice a day lotion routine just to keep him from scratching himself until he bled. This year.... not a problem. We switched to Cerave cleanser for all cleaning, even hand washing at the sink and ZERO flaking and no cracks etc. We switched to a low ph shampoo called joico (at Ulta) and dh's winter dandruff didn't show up at all. For anyone interested in Korean skin care, I got two books out of the library: The Little book of Skin Care: Korean Skin care basics for healthy glowing skin Korean beauty secrets: A practical guide to cutting edge skin care and make up I think the author of the first book started a website that also sells stuff, so keep that in mind. And korean skin care moves quickly..so exact products in the books could have been discontinued. A couple blogs I like are https://fiftyshadesofsnail.com/ http://www.fanserviced-b.com/ http://www.snowwhiteandtheasianpear.com/ and of course reddit has a thing https://www.reddit.com/r/AsianBeauty/ I personally have a routine this winter of oil cleanse lotion cleanser (vitamin C serum every other day) hada labo toner snail bee high content essence Cosrx snail power essence jojoba oil around eyes Cerave nigh time cream or daytime depending. During the day I use a 30-50 spf depending on the season. This time of year I am fine with a 30. In March I switch to a 50 by Biore, which is a japanese sunblock. It's not greasy at all. My routine changes though. At this point I've picked up this and that. I have days my skin feels drier and I have days I have more and less time. And it changes with the season as well. In the summer I use more gels and I need a lot less. Right now my skin feels like a desert. I am not above putting a very thin layer of petroleum jelly on my face before I go to bed. It is that dry here and it works.

I'm a fan of Korean skin care, but it's sort of a whole other world, lol. You learn about the products and brands and build your routine. I like it because the lower end products are much nicer (to me) than high end american products. And there are lots of options depending on what you are looking for. I prefer unscented products, and have so many more options. Plus there are blogs to read, reviews to buy, even a podcast..it's fun for me. And now so much of it is available via Amazon that it's dead easy. I never spend more than 20$ on a product. My son uses korean products as well and it has worked well for his acne. In the end he needed to see the dermatologist for a prescription, but what he was using definitely helped. If he had more of the 'occasional acne' type situation it would have been all he needed. And because people who have heard about korean skin care ask me: yes, I put snail goo on my face and I LOVE it. And so do my kids, lol. Snail goo FTW! But, if you want actually effective, then go to a dermatologist. You can get a script for retinin-A and that will absolutely work. Now, it's not usually covered by insurances, or at least it's not by mine. And it's not cheap. BUT, if you consider what everything else you can stick on your face costs, it makes sense to at least consider spending your money on something that is proven to work,and work well. There is also Curology, which is an online dermatologist. Their website seems to really focus in on acne treatment, but that is new. It used be about acne and ageing and a few other things. I am willing to bet they will help you if you don't have acne. You pay 20$ a month and get a monthly delivery of their prescription mediation that has been formulated for you.

not a real quote, but a real assessment of the situation. This is a great resource https://genius.com/albums/Lin-manuel-miranda/Hamilton-original-broadway-cast-recording It allows you to go through the lyrics and see annotations. Not every line is historically vetted, but there is a lot of information.

nah, one's yer lot

I'd really like to think that being against domestic violence and sexual assault isn't political.

I love twitter and I use it constantly. It sounds like you gave twitter explicit permission to go into your contacts and check for emails to help you get followers. I have a very vague memory of being asked that when I joined but I said no. Facebook asks the same question, but again, I said no. Instagram did as well. You can create an anonymous account or use your regular email..but you don't have to give permission for twitter to go into your email account to open a twitter account. It is optional and I am willing to be most people don't allow it. I have many friends on twitter and facebook and instagram and have never been contacted by any of those places to ask me to follow someone. Now, the trying to open an account but getting told there is one... is it possible you did and forgot? Is it possible you got halfway through and quit with it unfinshed so it thinks you have an account? I got into a feedback loop like that with google dropbox and still don't have an account, lol.

And let's not forget that it has really only been a generation that domestic violence in America has even been talked about. Many towns have hotline and agencies to help victims of domestic violence, and I can promise you, they are very busy. So someone doesn't have to go full on Duggar to be patriarchal enough to think he is entitled to control his partner with violence or other kinds of abuse.

My friend's kid flushed the whole family's collection of toothbrushes down the toilet, lol They did end up pulling the toilet up and getting them out. It would have been easier to call a plumber, but they didn't have the money. It was a job, but they managed it...and the toilet worked perfectly after that.

What do you think the American perspective is? I can't speak to specific laws on a world wide scale, but if we are discussing attitudes and behaviour, from what you and others have described, I don't think Russian widespread acceptance of violence against women stands out in any particular way. It sounds fairly typical of a country embracing traditional patriarchal values This new legislation is definetely scary...and I do wonder if a larger crackdown on feminists or on women's autonomy in general is coming. Taking away women's ability to go to the courts for protection will only serve to strengthen patriarchal attitudes and force women into a more subservient position.

Yes, and I think it's important to point out that their ingrained acceptance of abuse of women isn't specifically Russian. It is specifically patriarchal.

That is exactly why a community needs well trained law enforcement, DAs, judiciary and medical staff. It is also important to vote in law makers at the state and local level who understand the problem and want to be a part of the solution. VAWA is part of that. Through my advocacy and working with other area professionals I've worked on teams that helped put lots of abusers in jail.

That is common in every patriarchal culture and religion, it isn't specific to Russia, not by a long shot. Where ever women are seen as possessions, as being the person in a relationship who must obey, who is need of protection, who has a 'sphere' she belongs in....

VAWA also provides money for training law enforcement and medical staff on issues of domestic violence and sexual assault. So, if a town decides that it wants to have several officers trained to specifically handle sexual assault or domestic violence, the money is available to them to spend a few days out of town getting trained. That is a pretty common thing for a town to do and is usually seen as a good thing. Same goes for a hospital and it's medical staff. They also do the same thing for DA offices offices These aren't rinky dink conferences, btw. They are taught by people in the field, so police officers training other police officers or doctors training other officers, lawyers training other lawyers. There are standards and protocols for these crimes and if the professionals don't know them...or think they kind of know them but not really....then the crimes don't hold up in court and abusers go free. That is a big waste of money for a community and it makes people less safe

the Russian establishment has been trying to move the country closer and closer to a super patriarchal vision, often using christian religious words and ideas to provide cover. Things like their persecution of and flat out murdering of gay men under the guise of preventing child abuse and stopping anti biblical behaviour are part of that. Making the physical abuse of women and children into a non-legal issue strengthens that vision. They have made common cause with others around the world who agree with them on this larger vision. And yes, VAWA is at dire risk of being totally unfunded. If that happens, make no mistake about it, women and children in this country will die. It will have repercussions in every city and town where there are domestic violence and sexual assault services. It won't legalize physical abuse, that is something different. But, getting rid of VAWA will defund or cripple the not for profit agencies in every town. There will be no one to provide help to victims in the court system or train police on how to handle these situations. It will be argued that parts of VAWA are specifically for providing assistance to immigrant women and undocumented women so the whole thing should be scrapped, rather than allow a gov't program to help a woman who doesn't have legal citizenship. However, what that argument ignores is that there is a whole class of men who prey on women who are not citizens or who are immigrants. I have personally worked with women who came here legally, yes, commonly referred to as 'mail order brides', only to have their American partner take their paperwork, refuse to file the paperwork that would allow them to stay legally etc. Once that happens she is totally at his mercy. You can only imagine how that goes. There are also immigrant and refugee women who want domestic violence or sexual assault services when they finally come to this country. However, if that means that they are no longer living with her partner, that has caused a change in their paperwork and can cause them to have to leave the country. VAWA allowed for protections for those women. It allows them to get the help they need but not lose their status or in some cases not get put to the end of the line for legal status. They shouldn't be penalized for being an immigrant or trying to immigrate but then needing sexual assault or domestic violence services.

How old is he? My older son has a very deep voice, like his father. When his voice changed he spoke so darn quietly we couldn't hear or understand a word he said. In part, it was getting used to the new voice. It's embarrassing to suddenly sound like a different person, and it didn't help that his voice was so deep. It was also in part to the deepness. If he doesn't speak up and enunciate clearly it can just sound like a low rumble People would comment on how deep his voice was etc and he would just get quieter and quieter. He really didn't appreciate the attention. He is almost 17 now and has grown into his voice. It still stands out a bit due to it's deepness, but he's taller, bigger and it's not so dissonant. But there were a 3-4 years when we felt like we were constantly saying "What? speak up, we can't hear you"

There is a very good chance it's just low blood pressure BUT I would call right away and let the doctor know. It makes total sense she didn't understand, so just make sure he has all the info. and :grouphug: We are dealing with a mystery heart problem right now, as well, and it is so stressful

his height AND weight are in the 98th percentile? So, he's a big kid and in proportion. Now, he were in the 25% for height and 98% percentile for weight I would say to keep an eye on it, continue encourage healthy eating and see if he's about to have a growth spurt. And those percentages tell us so much more over time, not just a one time thing. It would be more useful if he were older and you had more data

Ok, I made a page for my thing. I am very proud of myself, lol. Such a lot to learn! I made a name for the group, a mission statement, and put up a cover pic and a profile picture. Now I guess tomorrow I need to start sharing information? and lol, my actual personal page is empty. I will get to that at some point

In NY I is (I think) a standard part of the 1 and 2 year old check up. There are signs around saying "At 1 and at 2 lead testings what to do" I see them in the grocery store, library and doctor offices. It was presented to me as a thing that the doctor just did at those check ups. It was just a fingerprick test. If it comes back high they do another fingerprick test with extra hand cleaning etc. If that comes back high they do a blood test.

That is good to know. I would LOVE to have a much nicer looking webpage, but I suspect it is currently not worth the effort. I am guessing that most people won't go beyond facebook. It just looks so awful...I am surprised the company thinks it's acceptable.