One, what's the best way to watch DVDs on an iPad? (It looks like I need to get a converter program for my desktop -- which one?) Two, the iPad is equipped with cell capability, Verizon, I think, but we don't have (and don't want) a data cell plan, so we'll just use it with WiFi. Is there a way to get a data plan that is not in any way connected to our regular cell plan, like a pay as you go plan, that we could use only for emergencies (like if we got really lost and needed the iPad's GPS feature) or for when we travel on vacation or the like?

Oh, don't consider it a bust yet -- that's how both of our boys started with Legos, with a parent sitting next to them, scaffolding by looking a step or two ahead and lining up the pieces. At 7.5, DS1 can do the harder sets on his own, but DS2 is only 4, and we do it with him. It's actually a bonding experience, especially for me, since the boys have so many "boy" interests that I don't share -- it's really nice to have things I can share with them. Also, following the set directions might be less overwhelming than free building, so if you have one of the free building sets, maybe check out one of the Lego idea books from your library and see if that gives some inspiration. I've found that our boys build the prescribed sets and enjoy them for a while, and then they use the pieces to build their own creations -- but the prescribed sets give them some inspiration.

Well, that would certainly be irritating! It is true that it seems to go out more often when the weather is bad, but that's more the DSL/internet in general, rather than the router. I think it's not the phone company's fault, but either the router or the speed.

We have DSL, not the fastest speed, but it works fine for streaming and everything when we have it connected directly to our desktop computer. However, to use other computers/iPad, we have to go through the router, and it, predictably, splits the connection and makes it slower. It's too slow to stream to any of the machines, but we can surf/do e-mail pretty well, so we make do, since we don't really want to pay for the higher DSL speed. If we want to download something, we just either set it up to download to the iPad overnight, or we shift the DSL to the desktop and download it to there. That works okay enough. However, sometimes, completely randomly, when we're using the router, it just appears to quit. Like, I'll be surfing, no problem, and then bam, sites won't open. Hitting the "reset" button on the router usually fixes it, but that's kind of annoying. So, is this just something that routers do every so often, or is it a symptom of a router that needs to be replaced? (It is 7 or 8 years old.) Also, is there any way to optimize the DSL speed when using the router without upgrading the DSL?

As other people recommended, I got the Notability app and really like it so far.

No major fails, just a couple of clothing items for DD that need to be exchanged for a different size (which we knew would be a strong possibility, since she's a little hard to fit right now). And a couple of DS2's gifts are a bit complicated for him, but that was also expected; he's 4 and really wanted a Transformer toy, as did his 7yo brother, so I got one for each of them, but someone has to help the 4yo with his. Thankfully he doesn't mind.

Eighty bajillion Lego sets, including the totally-not-expected-AT-ALL Lego Millenium Falcon (because Mama stalked amazon until the price was reasonable). That got the "I can't believe it" rubbing eyes fabulous dramatic response that we can always count on 10yo DD to do. ;) DS1 got a winter coat, and even though it was a necessary item, he was thrilled and very excited to see it. MIL was quite amused by that. 17mo baby DS3 is in love with the little pull-toy puppy. He's been taking it for walks around my kitchen island, petting it, woofing at it, and holding a bowl up to its mouth to feed it. He also got a bunch of new board books and has had a great time, flipping through those (I think he's amused because they never open to the same page twice, so it's always something new). He also got an adorable little turtle that rolls and giggles when you push a button on the top, and that's been a big hit with him too; he giggles back at it. Oh, and let's not forget the tissue paper to rip. Of course, none of that compares to the great gift -- SNOW!

Oh, what a wonderful gift -- congratulations!

I have a toddler, and my house is semi-toddler-proof. There are rooms he can be in without direct supervision, and there are others where he can only be if someone is directly watching him (largely because the big kids have toys with eighty bajillion small pieces for the toddler to dump out). But even those rooms don't have things like outlet covers. (Funny story: when my first started walking at 9 months old, I dutifully put in outlet covers. One day, DD, 11 months, toddled over and handed me one. I figured I'd left it out while vacuuming, so I shrugged and replaced it. A few minutes later, she handed it to me again. I put it back and watched her walk over to it, bend down, and use her TEETH to pull it out! Needless to say, I removed all of that day, and in a decade of parenting four toddlers, I've only ever had to direct a child away from an outlet a couple of times, and none of them have covers.) If I go to a friend's house for a playdate for my older kids, I would expect that I'd need to watch my toddler closely, though I'd appreciate if she put anything really fragile out of his reach. I would not expect that she'd have gates or have the Legos all put away or whatever; I would expect that I'd need to be right with him at all times. When I go to my parents' or ILs' house, especially for a few days, I would expect that they do a bit more if needed -- move stuff, maybe put up a gate, etc. It's not relaxing if DH and I have to be in constant close supervision of the small people, and we find that that sort of stress means that we end up not wanting to visit. Thankfully, our parents and ILs are all reasonable people and are happy to keep doors closed, keep medicines well out of reach, move fragile items, and so on. We do still keep an eye on our little guys, but we're able to sit down, chat, and relax. :) That to me seems like common courtesy for grandparents.

Oh wow, those are gorgeous!

That sounds delicious and SO fun! As a Christian, I normally appreciate the symbolic celebrating of the Light of the World at the darkest and coldest time of the year, but a picnic, frisbee, and swimming sounds like a wonderful way to celebrate the Greatest Gift too! I love reading about other people's traditions!

We live several hours from all of our family, so it's not a day trip, and we prefer to have people come to us for Christmas. My mom and MIL both do big TG dinners (and we travel to their houses for that, as they live in the same town). My ILs are here for Christmas this year, and what MIL and I realized is that if we cook a big dinner, she and I have a much harder time enjoying seeing the children play with their gifts. So we have opted for more casual food and a more relaxing day. Last night we had chili (DH's request), and today is "eat what you want, when you want it, and just have fun." We have: cranberry bread sticky buns sausage and ham more chili spinach artichoke dip rolls and sandwich fixings pasta salad cheese balls and crackers cake and lots of cookies root beer from a local place The best part is that I made it all yesterday or Sunday so all I have to do today is cook the breakfast meat (which DH will do) and heat the spinach artichoke dip. (I wrapped everything early too. I'm normally a last-minute person, but I could get behind this prep-early stuff!) We don't generally do a lot of grains or sugas, so it's fun to indulge once in a while. I totally love the PP who said that she buys sugary cereal for her kids -- genius, and I may have to steal that next year, because my kids would love it!

We have opted not to have a specific video game system at this point, but the kids have a few computer video games. DH and I enjoy computer games ourselves, usually the Myst-type adventure-puzzle games, and we've had fun playing some of those with the kids too. The kids have a Lego Star Wars game that they really enjoy, and they're getting a couple more games for Christmas. I do limit their screen time, whether that's video games or e-mail or drawing programs on the computer, and during school weeks, they're only rarely allowed; usually, computer time is a weekend reward for completing work and chores quickly and pleasantly during the week. I also don't allow really violent/gory games, especially realistic ones. My biggest complaint about video games is that many of them don't have reasonable stopping points -- you have to play a pretty long time before you get to a point where you can save your progress -- which is why they're left for the weekends only. If I see too much dependence on screens (constant asking to play, complaining about not having anything to do without a screen, etc.), I get really strict and allow none for a while. I guess I look at video games like I do ice cream or anything else that is a treat -- in moderation, ice cream isn't a big deal to me, if their overall diets are pretty healthy. As long as they're reading, drawing, playing outside, creating things, etc., I'm not too worked up about a little bit of video game time.

Oh, Heather, you are far from a terrible mother -- you are a wonderful, caring mother who braved the mall on Christmas Eve for your little girl. That puts my amazon stalking to shame, LOL! I'm sorry you couldn't get the doll in hand for her, but I love the idea of wrapping a picture of it, or even making a catalog for her so she can choose just the right one. (As an aside, the stereotype bothers me too. Although my children and I are Caucasian, DD and I have brown hair and blue eyes. It always bugged me that dolls were either blonde and blue-eyed or brunette and brown-eyed.)

We did that with our second child -- put a "big sister" shirt on our 2yo DD. She knew what it said and was super excited about the new baby, so she kept sticking out her chest, trying to get people to read it. It took a while before they did, which was really funny. We got less creative with the two little boys; we just called people up and told them. Actually, I believe we let some of the big kids call and tell. (When DS3 arrived, unexpectedly early, I let almost 3yo DS2 call my parents and tell them that he had a new baby brother, which was adorable.)

Google to see if there's a way to treat with grapefruit seed extract. You might also look for garlic oil; our health food section of our grocery store has some brands of ear support that have garlic oil in them. (I would personally put some breastmilk drops in my ear, but that only works because I happen to have a nursing baby in my house.) The last time I had an ear infection, I did end up taking antibiotics, but mainly because I was pregnant and didn't want to mess around with waiting to see if it would get worse or better.

I love the idea of giving grandparents a photo album or collage frame, leaving an obvious space with a "to be filled on X date." Or, figure out what food the baby is the size of at the time (grape, appleseed, whatever) and ask them what could be that small and yet so big at the same time. And congratulations! Four is fun!

Band-aids and scotch tape are always hits with my kids. New toothbrushes too. Hair doodads for DD. Nail clippers/files. New crayons/markers/colored pencils. Fun socks. An extra pair of small gloves if they need them. Flashlights. Batteries for things that need batteries. Individually packaged snacks, like goldfish crackers; they could take those in the car on the trip. ETA: As someone else said, definitely chapstick/lip balm. For some reason, all of the kids (well, not the baby) think this is the best. Small bottles of hand lotion might be good too.

Oh. Duh. I can't believe I didn't think of that myself. Scissors or eraser, either one would still be pretty time-consuming to do on several sheets. Transferring a new copy definitely would be the right way to go. And since I'm using Dropbox to transfer to Notability, it should be super simple. Many thanks!

Oh, you so did the right thing, difficult as it is to make that decision! And as far as the choir director -- sure, now he only has 7 kids to sing, but I'm sure the parents of those 7 kids will thank you heartily for not spreading that particular gift.

I transferred some pdfs to the Notability app (which I love -- thanks for the recommendation, Hive!). DD has decided that doing math that way is way more fun than using paper, and I'm happy to print just the occasional page for the portfolio and not have so much paper around. So my question is this: if DD writes on the pdfs and then I want to use them again for another child in a few years, what's the best way to do that? Do I actually need to cut (with the scissors tool) everything written on every page? If it was, for instance, a Word document, I'd just do "save as" and give it a different name, keeping the original clean and ready for future use. I think there's not a way to do that in Notability, is there?

This might not be what you want, but I signed my DD up with a gmail account, and we've been very pleased with it. Gmail has very reliably caught spam for me for years. DD is not allowed to use her email address for signing up for anything, and I have it set so that I get a copy of everything she receives, so I can view it first if need be.

/Cringing./ Done with my shopping, and everything is wrapped, except for one gift for which I need to find the right-sized box. The big kids also need to wrap the gift they got for DS2, and the gifts they wanted to give each other will arrive this week and will need to be wrapped. But that's not really my responsibility. I'm normally a very last-minute wrapper. The year we moved here on December 20, I had not wrapped a single thing prior to Christmas Eve. It's really nice that I'm not going to be doing it last-minute this year, but it will probably never happen again. :)

That means my family of six would be expected to have roughly 3000 square feet at a minimum. Ugh. We have about 2300 square feet, and it's plenty big. (It's also got an odd layout, and a lot of strangely wasted space that's really not usable for anything.) I have also read that 2000 square feet is about the amount that one person can maintain, and that's true -- it's hard for me to keep my house tidy by myself -- so I definitely would not want another thousand feet.

Our libraries have lots of audio books that we can borrow, right from our home. DH does this all the time with his mp3 player; the audio books are only good for a certain period of time (2-3 weeks, I think), and then they won't work any longer. I've also gotten lots from librivox.