That's only reasonable if they live close enough to sleep at home or are wealthy enough that they won't care about the cost of a hotel. Unfortunately, neither of those were true for me. I compromised by saying grandparents who wished to take the time and money to come meet the baby but not stay at my house were welcome to come right after the birth for a short time (24-72hrs). Any extended visits which would mean staying for a week or more at my house would not be welcome until after DH went back to work (2 weeks). I also wanted a week to rest between visitors. BUT- the twins were premature and everything went out the window as we needed babysitters for our oldest son, and no babies were home anyway. When they were released from the hospital, however; same rules. I feel this is so often ignored or minimized.

We had the letter people in my 80s K class. I still remember Mr M's entire song. We didn't have inflatables or anything like that, though. We only had the songs and I think some stories.

Size inflation. I also search Thredup for brands that I think usually fit. You can search only petites and they're supposed to give the actual measurements of the clothes which I appreciate and trust more than the manufacturer's charts, but the accuracy seems hit or miss. You could try sticking to items you can return until you get a better feel for your brands.

I like white house black market

I haven't seen it mentioned but I'd definitely include something from Tennessee Williams and maybe Arthur Miller if you have room for more plays. I also like to include Their Eyes Were Watching God and Catcher in the Rye.

That's about what my daughter's studio charges give or take a little. We live in a high COL area, but I don't think any of the other schools are cheaper here. The worst part is they never fit my daughter and we have to pay for alterations too. We measure carefully but her measurements don't match the sizes. And then the alterations man says they can't be altered because of sequins or something and I have to beg him to do whatever he can because she has to wear it and we don't care what it looks like up close. Put a x10 for lessons for a year! This year the studio offered a winter recital too and we opted out because I didn't want to deal with the costume headache.

I think you have to have kids used to listening to chapter books when young and kids who have a specific personality to continue read alouds in middle school+. Starting that habit with older kids would be harder and I think many kids who enjoyed it when young will resist as they age anyway. People who say their older kids/teens still love read alouds? Good for them but you aren't a failure and you didn't necessarily do anything wrong if they don't. The other issue, IMO, is that classics are not as important as some would suggest. First, they aren't always actually that well written or compelling, and they aren't all paragons of virtue- many are extremely problematic with racism, sexism, and other -isms that we may find appalling today. Some are great, some are worth the read despite their issues, and some could fade away without any great loss. I think it's important to have familiarity with a wide variety of "classics" for cultural competence but they shouldn't always be preferred over modern books which may be more exciting or relevant to kids today and are just as rich and wonderful. You can also expose them to the works with graphic novels, picture book adaptations, cartoons, and movies. I'd read your younger kids whatever they want and maybe take turns picking books with them so you can occassionally stretch them. Your older kids? Let them off the hook as long as they keep up with their schoolwork. I think it's just as important for them to see you read and if you read and discuss what you're reading with them then they may want to pick up a book too.

Put her in a small room for a few weeks and she should get better. Not sure how long it will last, but we kept them in my daughter's room for about 3 months and it helped. They'll use the litter box if they have to live in there with it. You could also try kitty prozac.

Congratulations! Twins are so much fun! She should be prepared to be a celebrity wherever she goes for the first few years! Mine are 18 now. I was worried about how big I'd get but I really didn't get that big and mine were di/di. I think I gained about 25 or 30lbs and I carried to the side more than the front- I could feel them behind me when I sat back! I was only 5'2 and about 90lbs when I got pregnant with mine and my doctor didn't seem to think my size mattered. I ate SO MANY calories and drank so much water. It was ridiculous but I think it definitely helped. My girls were early because of PROM but they were mostly feeders and growers. I rarely tandem fed- hated it. I much preferred to feed them one at a time. I felt like a cow when tandem feeding. My milk supply was no problem. I pumped in the NICU, did not breastfeed at all until we got home (b/c I didn't like the NICU helpers/rules) and we transitioned to breast feeding within a few weeks once they got home. It was much easier than bottle+breast. Like Farrar I was pretty upset at first. I had the world's colickiest first child and couldn't imagine 2 babies like my oldest but the 2 were easier than the one. Mine are identical and the nature/nurture stuff is so much fun and fascinating even now. They would fill out short answer questions exactly the same way and can't play guessing games like guess the animal with each other. On the other hand, I can clearly see how if they were raised separately, they'd likely be more similar in many ways. You can see them making choices to differentiate themselves that probably wouldn't have happened without a twin.

My DS (4) has been obsessed with dinos since he was 1. His lasting favorites have been dino stuffies, The Dino Dana Field Guides, kinetic sand with some plastic dinos, dino mask/claws, clothes b/c he literally only wears dino clothes and there's never enough, dishes/water bottle, dino puzzles, and for a non dino toy he loves his geosafari binoculars and has been carrying them everywhere for 2 years.

Very normal. I have had kids who would just clean the room, but those kinds of kids didn't usually need to be told to clean their rooms because those rooms rarely got messy. The messy kids could never. I think cleanliness/messiness is 100% personality and neurodivergence will impact it a lot on either side. I don't think anything you do as a parent can change this for them. You can help them consistently and have a relatively clean room (because of your help) or you can not help and they'll have messy rooms until something changes within themselves which may or may not happen until they are into adulthood. I'm sort of in the middle myself- I can handle cleaning my own space but I'm messier than my dad would have liked and messier than my ideal self would like. I'm mostly neurotypical though. I've been reading How to Keep House While Drowning to help my 14yr old and I find it very compassionate. It's not a big eye opener for me as far as practical ideas, but it has helped me see things from my kids' persepctives and has given me a few ideas to propose to DD that might actually make sense to her. It's a quick, easy read if your library has it and you suspect either of your kids may have ADHD or some other kind of neurodivergence.

This drives me crazy too. In my family, it always seemed like it was always a few men who'd show up to my grandmother's at Thanksgiving or other events and just sleep in the middle of the room. Every year. My dad didn't but I see it in DH's family too- always and only the guys. So rude, IMO.

My students have classes taken in PS where the school's grade scale used pluses and minuses. For myself, I prefer to keep it simple and use a straight ABC scale. When I include those classes (indentified as transfers) into my school, can I wipe out the pluses and minuses and calculate the GPA on my scale? They will see the original school's scale on that school's official transcripts but I don't like seeing the mix next to mine. There's about an equal number of +/- on the school's transcripts so I don't see it as benefiting or hurting the GPAs, although if I calculated them as the school did with mine I feel it would make my class grades look unfairly low since + was not an option. Sorry if this is clear as mud.

Me too. I had to wear nursing bras 24/7 when nursing unless I wanted wet shirts,. These are so comfortable that I prefer to wear them all the time even after weaning even though they don't do much for my appearance. I used to take bras off at night but now I prefer not to. I have other bras that fit better and look better that I wear when I want to look nicer and I take them off as soon as I get home and switch back to the nursing ones. My daughters hate bras and I bought them nursing ones to see if that would help but they still don't really like wearing them.

I would be furious and if she were my child, I'd probably be emotional and who knows what sort of not best practices knee jerk reaction I'd have. As an outsider, I can have sympathy for her and the children she risked. I would want to handle both sides of it. First, I think she should apologize to the families whose children she put at risk and your mother who she placed in a terrible position. Then maybe have her read some info about food allergies, kids who have died, etc and write up a proposal for how camps can stay accessible and fair. Sure, she probably knows all of this because of your family history and from what she's already said, but I think it would reinforce the message plus my kids hate extra homework and it would be a sort of consequence. 2nd part would be addressing the emotional side for her. I'd try to approach it from this is unlike you, cry for help, what's going on....and listen to her. If she expresses unmet needs we could try to meet them. If not, I'd proactively try to have some one on one time with her for a while which would increase supervision and give her room to open up later. I had some acting out as a kid that my parents really should have paid attention to and shut down but they didn't- I'm cautious about letting things slide. Lastly, kids that age can be a real PITA and sometimes act out randomly. It doesn't mean she's a budding psychopath.

When I get it they give me 2 shots in the butt (prednisone), plus a prednisone prescription and zantac+zyrtec by mouth. It really helps. If you don't want the shots, you could just try zantac and zyrtec OTC- you need to take both for the best results. I'm pretty sure they give me higher doses than OTC but it may be overkill. I break out pretty badly.

I want to spend some time on comedy writing and literature for Senior Year. I plan to pick a few of Shakespeare's comedies and A Confederacy of Dunces, but I'm not sure what else to consider. Three Men is a Boat may be good but it's not a personal favorite. What are the funniest books you've read that aren't just memoirs? We've already done The Importance of Being Earnest.

My current favorites are Ambrosia but I don't see them often. I usually pick Pink Lady or Lady Alice unless they are too expensive, but I can accept any apple.

We used to use Climbing to Good English. I think it's gentler for the littles.

Is your oldest very thin? The cardiologist found an abnormality w/DDs heart and wants to be proactive because of it, but she said that having muscle and fat on the body helps control the heart. DD is under orders to gain some weight. We also really want DD to be able to take her stimulants for ADHD.

I hope your DS is doing well! Maybe you could give him some caffeine regularly until he gets into the cardiologist. They would give it to my babies in the NICU to keep their heart rates up. I kept drinking caffeinated drinks so they'd get it through my breastmilk when we got home. It may help. My DD had the opposite issue- her resting heart rate has been hanging out around 130 and sometimes up to 150/160 and the doctor did not care. She's tiny and has never had covid as far as we know. After being dismissed by the familiy doctor for months, we got into a cardiologist who takes it very seriously and I feel better about that. DD feels better too with some medication. We were able to get into the cardiologist relatively quickly. Unless you are restricted in who you can see, you might have some luck if you call around.

For HSA, they would do an evaluation and place her into their system based on that. It doesn't matter what they call it. It's her 4th year of Spanish and it will be at the level she places in so she'll be learning. Call it Spanish 4 on the transcript regardless of what less she places into with HSA. HSA is personalized so they can meet you wherever you are. I would not recommend someone transferring into Fundafunda Spanish at level 4. They go fast and if there are significant differences in the curricula between them and the previous provider it will be difficult to keep up.

I'd sign up for Homeschool Spanish Academy unless the cost was prohibitive. You can jump in with them anytime.

I don't. I always hated dealing with meat when cooking and enjoy side dishes more. We are mostly vegetarian now and I don't miss it at all. My girls had seriously low iron and the pediatrician specifically recommended multi grain cheerios. They have 100% of the daily iron reccomendation.

I never figured out tandem nursing either. I could do it if I had to- I mean they could latch, but nobody was comfortable and then I really felt like a cow who couldn't move. They took turns. I may have done it more if they had been my first, but I knew what comfortable nursing felt like.