My current nursling is 22 months. I never hesitate to nurse her in public. My older kids all nursed beyond 2 yrs, all nursed in public. P.S. I'm so brazen these days that I even NIP without a blanket or sling over her. ;o)

My cycles always start 17-18 months pp. At that point I'm still nursing frequently day & night. We co-sleep, so that helps with amennorhea. I don't wean early to make ready for the next baby, instead go with child-led weaning. For the poster who was asking about how to know when you ovulate: http://nfp.marquette.edu/ http://www.tcoyf.com/

If you PM her contact info to me, I can post her request to the moms group I belonged to in Alexandria. Most members of the groups live in the Del Ray or West End neighborhoods--near Blessed Sacrament church & George Mason School. There are also several homeschooling families in that area.

Caveat: what I'm about to type isn't approved by any safety standards. We loved our co-sleeper as well, but got rid of it with baby #4. Instead we bought an extra long bed rail(intended for use on a kid's twin bed). I installed it on my side of the bed. Baby slept btw me & the bed rail. I stashed my water, dipes, etc on a bed side table just over the bed rail. Worked like a dream for us. Still using it and baby is 20 months. Although this doesn't offer the option of a baby-free bed, it does allow for baby to be placed far enough away from mom & dad during snuggle time without fear of roll out. Good luck as you make your decision!

Check out Lou Mitchell's for breakfast. http://www.loumitchellsrestaurant.com/ The food is average diner fare, but they serve Milk Duds & donut holes while you wait. My kids (& my parents) love it!

We're a military family, so we move a lot! I always purge the excess first! Then I purge some more, then a little more. You get the idea. I love it--it's a bit painful for my packrat DH. I don't do yard sales. Instead, we donate to Goodwill, Airman's Attic(base thrift shop), etc. A friend of mine wrote about moving on her blog: http://www.janas3dresses.com/moving-tips-just-ask-a-military-spouse/ Good luck! Enjoy the new house!

Bump

I'm in dire need of updating my makeup. I'm creeping up on 40, so would like products that minimize lines & will help me take good care of my middle-aged skin. I'm interested in a product line that offers a make-over so that someone can help me relearn makeup application, match colors, etc. A bonus would be products that score well on the Environmental Working Group Skin Deep site. I'm curious if anyone has tried Origins. A group of my girlfriends love Merle Norman--any experiences with that line? What other lines should I consider? Thanks!

We just replaced ours. DH owned it prior to our wedding, so the mattress was about 14 yrs old. The mattress was really uncomfortable, but we LOVE our new Sealy Embody mattress!

I'm an L&D nurse. I used to work in university hospitals. There's a written rule that medical students, residents, etc. are not permitted to have sex on hospital grounds. It's not just athletes. It's humans.

I'm not surprised a bit. My college roommate was on the tennis team. It was the same deal for many of the college athletes I knew. They work so hard, sacrifice so much during their sports season, then when the season is over--watch out! It's party time! :cheers2:

Yes, you can do that with voice memo. I don't know if there's a time limit with that app, but I use it all e time for our memory work: poems, lists of English monarchs, Bible verses, Latin, etc. I plug the phone in when we're on the road & we all listen to a few repetitions.

It stinks! We've been lucky-last deployment was in 2008. Does it help at all that you're in HI? :grouphug:

Our kids get a schultuete on their first day of kindergarten! Everyone else gets a smaller goodie bag. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schultüte We take pictures, enjoy treats, chew gum during school, have silly string fights during recess, etc. Then I post all our first-day-of-school photos on Facebook. :D

Ours is 3x5, wall mounted for use with AAS. We use it for short dictation, too. We also have an easle mounted one from ikea. Fun for my little ones to play on while we work. Also great for math.

:iagree:

No screen time at all during school days (M-F for us). Sat & Sun are open for approved tv, educational & just-for-fun ipad/iphone games. If a child misbehaves 3 times during a school day, that child looses all screen time on Sat. Screen time continues to be withheld if the child misbehaves again during the week. We have had to enforce it. One child had no screen time for 3 weeks because of continued misbehavior! Honestly, our kids have more fun, fight less & imagine more when they don't watch the tv. Weekends aren't free-for-alls when it comes to screen time. We spend a lot of time outdoors, doing family stuff, etc. It works for us.

3 of my kids take cello lessons. They are 9, 7, & 5 yrs old though, so my advice might not apply to your teen. Check into Suzuki lessons: http://suzukiassociation.org/ I think most people think of little ones when they think of Suzuki, but the program we are with runs through high school. With little ones, a lot of parent involvement is expected. I doubt this would be true for teens. Good luck & enjoy. We love the cello!

In southwestern Illinois, it's Ski. Yum!

Lots of good wisdom here. I'll just add my $0.02. When I worked L&D we encouraged women to come in for an evaluation if they had 6 or more contractions in an hour that did not go away after emptying the bladder,getting a big glass of juice, milk or water (for hydration) and relaxing in bed/on the sofa for a while. From my personal experience, with each of my pregnancies, I had BH ctxs all.the.time. Beginning around 24-25 wks. All were full-term healthy births. I think my uterus just likes to workout ;) Enjoy the rest of the pregnancy!

We just finished our second year, and I'm not sure how long we'll homeschool, but when we are finished, I'll take up doula/birth assistant work and maybe go to midwifery school. I love labor & birth. :001_wub:

I was taught with Saxon books beginning in 7th grade with Algebra I. I LOVE math & have always been great at algebra. I didn't really struggle with math until the end of Calculus during my Sr. yr of public high school. Based on my personal experience, I use Saxon for all my kids. It works, they know their stuff, and, as I like to tell them, they are "math masters!" :D

Thank you for all the encouragement! Movers will be here Tuesday. I'm almost ready :D

:iagree: Also, you might try recipes from The Sneaky Chef. She has some cleaver ways of getting nutritious foods into picky kids. http://www.thesneakychef.com/

Excellent point! Thanks for helping me keep things in perspective.