Congrats!!!!!

Old news, but I've refrained from watching any video. Reading was enough. Till now. I just watched the video of the baby walking with a toothbrush in his mouth, across the muddy planks. And falling. :( So dirty. Then I watched the little one face plant after the slide. Why is she videoing this stuff and not parenting? What the heck? And why post this stuff?

Responding only to your thread title: I often wonder the same thing. :D

Amending my previous "ouch" to "holy moly!" My mother is allergic to some types of spider venom. She ends up in the hospital. Your bites sound similarly horrible. Keep an eye on it, and get well.

Ouch. :(

Lyme Disease and co-infections. He sounds like me, as a teen. :( I went 20+ years undiagnosed, remitting and relapsing. Lyme often shows false negatives. I would not rule it out based on a WB from Quest or Labcorp, certainly. Go to a LLMD, or at least find an open-minded doc who will send blood to Igenex. Test for babesiosis, erlichiosis, bartonella, etc as well. You can get info on more co-infections from many of us here, if you want. I had 13 co-infections. Eek. But still initially tested neg for Lyme, so it kept being missed.

Little Adventures makes nice quality, washable dress up clothes. We have an 11 year old knight costume that looks brand new.

2 more! We did the Music Truck. My parents had convinced my brother, when he was small, that the ice cream truck just played music. We continued the tradition. And I had forgotten this one... When DSS was 12 or so, we were on our way to the Grand Canyon. DH and I were joking around, and didn't realize DSS was taking us seriously, but somehow we convinced him the GC was very deep, but narrow enough to jump across. Made seeing his face when we actually arrived all the more priceless.

Oh! I forgot about that one! We have the Switch Witch. :) She comes to kids with food allergies, and switches out their bags of candy for safe treats and small toys. One year we were at Great Wolf Lodge on Halloween, and they have a witch that will come to your room and deliver a bag of goodies. We told them about the Switch Witch and they played along! So my kids think they've actually met the Switch Witch.

We have a fairy door that looks just like our front door. A la UFO (Urban Fairies Operations, in Ann Arbor). Okay, we have several doors - inside and out. And the fairies decorate for holidays, too. :leaving:

:grouphug:

Not me, but FIL hated when DH and his sisters would get peanut butter in the jelly jar by using the same knife. So he told them that if you left peanut butter in the jelly jar, it would make poison. DH's sister believed this till she was in her 20s. :lol:

Here, no - they don't have our contact info. Everything goes through the SW. The visit seems very unlikely. It doesn't make sense.

DS has been binge-watching. :hurray: We met Bill Nye at a science and tech convention a couple years ago, he's like a rock star here.

Wait, you're married to my DH? :laugh:

Can you post a link to the pics? For the morbidly curious non-FB people? :)

I have a lot of thoughts, and not as much time, so will come back to post more. But if you haven't already, check out smoms.org. I haven't been there in a few years, but was one of the original members in 2000, and stayed till my skiddo became a young adult (he's 23 now). Cathryn, the founder, was a huge inspiration and help for me, esp getting through the teen years. Very supportive forum, and focused on creative problem solving. You may have to join to post, as I vaguely remember that we were all trying to find a way to make posting more private. Some of us had issues with skids and bio-moms reading our posts. But it's worth the time to join, and a great resource! More later. Step-parenting is hard! ETA: I just peeked at the smoms site, and it looks like there's a fee? Hmmmm. I'll be back with thoughts later, not sure when that happened, like I said - it's been a few years since I've been there!

I'm going to jump in here and suggest hiring a cleaner as well. You would be surprised how liberating it is. :) My DH and I have never had the issue that you're having, but I do understand the mindset that his time is worth X, and we can pay someone to, say, mow the lawn for less than that. The difference, I suppose, is that DH views my time as worth the same amount, so he hates to see me using my (limited due to health issues) energy and time on chores that we can afford to outsource. If you're both working, and you can afford it, please consider hiring someone to help out.

:lol:

It's more of a P & P. Poop and Pallet.

I hope she feels better quickly. It's been a bad year for strep.

What would possess anyone to publicly post such a pic?!

Is that a saw behind the baby? On the ground?

We did it. Worked fine. :)

Depends on what needs to be cleaned, but generally if the choice is mowing - I'll clean. :)