Flexibility, patience, and more flexibility. Most likely you'll be getting your children one at a time. There is always a possibility of twins or triplets or quadruplets or adopting a group, but for now, let's just assume one at a time :D. And it's like any other new adventure, you try something and either it works or it doesn't. If it doesn't work, you try something else until it does. If it does work, you keep going until it doesn't anymore. I wish someone had told me how important it was to be flexible, especially with toddlers and babies. With little adjustments here and there, it's not so overwhelming.

I had Digby and Chuck at home. With Digby I labored in the tub and got out to push. Chuck was facing the wrong way, so I walked forever trying to get her to turn before finally getting in the tub when I couldn't take it anymore. She was born in the water. With both, I used Hypnobabies and that kept me comfortable until I started pushing. Luckily pushing only lasted about 6-8 minutes for me, so it was over quickly.

I love mine. This is how we use it (scroll down to the middle where the pictures start). I just keep everything we need in there so that I don't have to go hunting for anything. Love, love, love!

Those women probably have older children who can occupy the toddler for 20-30 minutes at a time. I remember even Michelle Duggar commented about how much harder life was with so many little children. Her life now isn't quite so hard.

I recommend Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer and More Don't Panic Dinner's in the Freezer. Everything I've made from them has been really good. Except the Colorado White Chicken Chili, which would have been good without the cloves.

yes, your daughter sounds fairly normal. yes parenting "normal" children is exhausting and hard. thats just how parenting is, although I'm confused because first you said she was easy, then you said she was hard. to me, she sounds like my easy child. when I just had the one, I thought I was a really good parent; consistent discipline, kept my temper, etc. then I had my second. if you ever have a spirited child, you will know it. mine is a thousand times harder than my "normal" child. the pp are not slamming you or judging you, they are saying they've been in your position before and have since learned a lot. you might want to consider their advice before getting so upset. also, what this board really dislikes is people judging others. so when you talk about how poorly the other parents you see are, people will get upset because they've been in that situation before.

Piggy had it done last year. Didn't hurt and it drastically reduced the amount of nosebleeds that he had

:smilielol5::smilielol5::smilielol5::smilielol5:

You know you want to:D

I'm not divorced, but my parents did after 30 years of marriage. It was very painful, but I truly think it's better for my mom to be away from his verbal abuse. I don't know all the details about your marriage, but wanted to offer you some :grouphug::grouphug: With the counseling, I'm going to assume this isn't a decision you're taking lightly. One person cannot make a marriage work; both need to work at it. I truly hope everything works out as best as they can:grouphug::grouphug:

So, so sad. My sister said her friend was in the same theater, just a different showing at the time. Luckily my sister wasn't there too. What is wrong with people?

Not shopping yet, but starting to plan stuff I need to make. Apparently I can't start making things after Thanksgiving and get it all done. :glare: And I really, really, really, really, really want to try homemade soap.

What we did at age three: Pigby played on starfall.com. Once he maxed out on the free section, we moved to Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. We had to do a lot on the whiteboard as he thought it was more fun and less boring. He is an amazing reader. A lot of it just came naturally, but when he hit a wall, I put it away for a few days. When we came back, he picked it up right away.

I would do SOTW 1 and the Activity Guide.

Don't compare someone's best with your average. Don't read everything and think you have to do it all too. I know Lewelma has amazing science posts. And Spycar does a lot of math. And SWB does a lot of language arts. Etc, etc. That doesn't mean that you have to do that much for each and every subject. If you had a successful year, celebrate it. The all knowing, "they" say the first few are the hardest. Sounds like you did a great job. And sometimes people's signature lists aren't always an accurate reflection of their real life. I was told to start with the 3 r's for preschool and kindergarten, so I did. I was told that when I had those down, I could add the extra subjects, so I did. That's what I think is still in my list. But it was all too much for me and Pigby. Not enough time without crazy toddlers running about. Trying to hurry through the less fun things so we could get to the fun things but by then, Chuck was awake and we couldn't get to the fun things. So we cut FLL and WWE and alternate days of science and history. Our days are much shorter and much funner. But I think I forgot to update my siggy to reflect that. Thanks for the reminder :D

She also contributed a lot to this discussion about evolution. It was amazing. I definitely think she needs to write a book. Preferably in the next two weeks :tongue_smilie::lol:

Thank you all!

We just got each boy a $3 bound sketchbook from Hobby Lobby. We walked down the sidewalk, picked some leaves off a tree, went back to our yard and started to draw. Then a spider started crawling on Pigby, so he freaked out and we went inside.

Which would you pick? I already have ES Biology but I find it kind of boring and the lack of order drives me crazy. I know I can rearrange the order of the animals we study, but....the whole thing seems boring to me. Boring to Pigby too. He loves sciency stuff. RSO is so expensive though. Is it worth the cost? What is a fun science program? (Trying to not have to put together my own thing. I need something easy to use. We have BFSU, just don't use it right now)

Lockable filing cabinets. Everything they want to get into goes in there. The key stays with me.

Yes, this is really important too. As much as I joke about wanting a stiff drink, Digby is very sweet and so incredibly charming. He's wonderful, he's just really hard. Yesterday he took a two hour nap from 4p-6p. I knew he'd never go to sleep with the other two so I didn't even try. I just let him stay up with me and we watched some Next Food Network Star and I read him some books and we played and were silly. I let him "help" me make dinner and breakfast this morning. Yes he's still hard, but I hope he remembers those good memories too. I'm trying to work on good memories for all three. Also, my SIL sent me this picture on FB. I totally get it. I would never do it, but it sure made me laugh.

you can freeze them in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Once they're all frozen, you can put them in a freezer bag. They make really good snacks just by themselves, kinda like frozen grapes. My kids love eating frozen blueberries.

For us that the beginning, it was hard. It was all mostly my fault. We were friends for a year, then dated for a year before we got married. During that time, we worked through things, talked through things, I thought it would be easy peasy. What we didn't count on was my dysfunctional family life affecting us after we were married. During the heat of the moment, I'd react poorly and even though I knew it was wrong, it took a long time before I got the self-control to work things out and communicate well. Growing up in my family, we didn't communicate, if there was a problem, we ignored it until it went away. Also, I started pushing DH away because I was sure eventually he'd try to push me away. I didn't want to be the one hurt, I wanted to be the one with the power. Again, I knew it was wrong, but it took me awhile to gain some self-control. The times after our children were born were very stressful. Some things that strengthened our marriage: Me learning how to say I'm sorry. It took about three years, but I did learn it. Doing Dave Ramsey's program gave us some skills to communicate with each other without fighting. We applied those to other areas, not just finances, and we hardly ever argue anymore. Discussions, sure. Disagreements, sure. But not angry, out of control anymore. His period (18 months) of unemployment. It was extremely stressful. And in the middle of it, I found out I was pregnant again, which was even more stressful. But I came to the realization that I could either face him and fight him or we could stand side by side and take the world on together. I chose the latter. I don't know. These are just my experiences; I don't know that they're right or wrong or that other people are right or wrong for having easy marriages or hard work marriages. For me, parenting is 1000x harder. I feel like I'm doing something wrong and if I were better at it, I could have 5-8 kids and love it. Constant second guessing myself, constant feelings of inadequacy, constant struggles.

:grouphug: Thanks, I hope so. I'm worried he'll get it all out now and be a nice teenager but Pigby will be a mean, wild one. Yeah I used to think I had this parenting thing figured out before I had kids. And I'm indulging in the chocolate now:D nom, nom, nom

The part about doing what it takes for each child is what struck with me. I know I need to figure out how to deal with Digby. Crying and eating chocolate all the time aren't going to help. You gave me a much needed kick in the pants.