DD has always been interested in books and letters and was always asking me "what words start with M?," etc. when she was younger. I bought the Leapfrog DVDs for her last spring, and she was off and running. Since then, we've been reading together and she reads on her own, and her fluency has been improving. She is a bit resistant to sounding out unfamiliar words, though. A bit of laziness, I think, because once she tries, she almost always figures it out. Most of the time, she tries to guess the word first. :glare: I've been a little worried about her memorizing words, but I suppose that's what we all do eventually, right? Today her preschool teacher told me that she was listening to DD read and commented to me that "she knows a lot of sight words." I don't think her teacher has had much of a chance to listen to her read before, so maybe she is mistaking her fluency for knowing lots of sight words?? :001_huh: I told her that I'm trying to make her sound out words whenever possible -- not teaching sight words unless they come up in reading and are not possible to sound out normally. I guess I'm just feeling insecure. I think that her teacher worries that I'm "hothousing" her. She asked me if I was using Hooked on Phonics or something, and when I said no, she said, "oh good -- best not to push." My approach thus far has been to encourage her when she wants to read, but not force it, but I've been planning on starting a more formal phonics program in the fall for K. Now this teacher has me feeling unsure. :confused1: Any words of wisdom?

I labored for 38 hours with #1 and 4.5 with #2.

I second the Penzey's idea. We received a gift set from DH's aunt for our wedding, and we've been in love with Penzey's ever since!

With both of mine, the baby weight hung on for at least the first year. I didn't lose weight quickly like some do while breastfeeding. When my first was around 18 months old, I signed up for the Daily Plate (I think it's part of livestrong.com now) and tracked everything I ate. It was a lot of work to keep track of everything, measure, etc., but it really worked. It was a lot easier to identify which foods were sabotaging my efforts. I was a lot better about portion control and knowing what things to eat after #2, so the weight came off more quickly. And I didn't have to wean to do it. :001_smile: Lots and lots of luck to you!! :grouphug:

Our local elementary school is a 3. Definitely not an option for us.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough :001_smile:

I personally don't like seeing babies with pierced ears. I can't imagine causing a baby girl pain just so she'll be "cuter." I got my ears pierced around age 9, when I knew what it entailed and was old enough to care for them. I wore earrings a lot for a few years and then stopped. With DD (and any future daughters), I'll wait until she's old enough to take care of them and really wants to have it done.

My SIL and her live-in boyfriend (together two years or less, I think) are planning on coming to see us and her parents after Christmas. My ILs were already talking about coming here then, so she proposed that they stay here too. DH told her that he would put the boyfriend in one place, SIL in another, and the ILs in our guest room. We anticipated that she wouldn't agree with this, but we had hoped that she would respect our wishes. She argued her side, but ultimately said that she would respect our rules, but that DH may have to talk to the boyfriend, because he would probably not go along with it (meaning he would sleep where she was regardless of where we put him). At this point, I'm not sure if they'll still come, but I wondered if anyone still separates unmarried couples. Maybe I'm one of the last?? If if matters, we're not religious, but we made this decision because we want our DC to value marriage and its privileges. We don't foresee being okay with them sharing a room with someone before marriage in our home when they're older, so I don't want to normalize it now. If this had come up before we had kids, we probably would have allowed it, though.

That was the plan, but she's been bugging me to go through the book and saying, "but I want to read it, Mom!" :001_huh:

My DD4 was very excited to learn a foreign language, so I bought Song School Latin, thinking I could introduce her to some of the vocab and play the songs. She really wanted to get into the book, but after seeing the first lessons, I'm reconsidering. She's only been reading English for about 5 months, and I'm worried about confusing her with the different letter sounds in Latin. I'm tempted to switch to French, because there seems to be more out there for young children (word books, music, etc.). But she's been so enthusiastic about the Latin songs...ugh.

Congratulations!! :001_smile:

:grouphug::grouphug:

I use Stanza on my IPod, and I've been satisfied with it. I don't think I'll get a dedicated e-reader. I'll probably wait for the IPad to get a little cheaper. :001_smile:

No "obey" or "submit" in our vows. We were married in a Presbyterian church, but I don't think the minister had them in there to begin with.

We try to eat whole fruit instead. I'm not totally anti-juice, though.

So pretty! :001_smile:

One of my favorites! Happy reading!! :001_smile:

Thanks so much for the GB link! :)

DS is intact, and any future sons will be as well.

Organic 2% for me and DH (and for cooking). Organic 1% for DD.

We have lots of Penzey's stuff, but here are a couple we really like: - Italian Sausage Seasoning (I just mix some in with ground turkey and add it to pasta sauce when I need a quick, tasty meat sauce.) - Mural of Flavor (DH puts this on all kinds of stuff -- and it's salt free.)

We just went in June and stayed at Staybridge Downtown. It was a bit expensive, but we had a suite with kitchenette (and we saved 5% using Ebates). They had a pretty nice pool. (There is a free downtown shuttle that stops pretty close to the hotel. You can save a lot taking it and not having to pay to park near the aquarium, etc.) We went to the Creative Discovery Museum (a hit with my two), the zoo (nice -- you can get up close with most of the animals), the aquarium (wonderful), and Ruby Falls (not bad). My favorite was McKay Used Books; I could have spent all day there! :D

Hi! :001_smile: