I saw this earlier, and now my kids are beyond thrilled. A possibility of new Star Wars movies -- woohoo! (Me: :glare: Now they'll never get over the obsession.)

Congratulations!!

:iagree: I do think up until about second grade or so, it may be harder to see what's a learning disability vs. a late bloomer, but maybe not. I think, barring any true disabilities, a child is going to be progressing at least somewhat, even if it's just a little, but I think they can make huge leaps at once, and some kids are more prone to that than others. I think barring any real issues, a child may well catch up very quickly. My DD was a very early reader and has always been pretty quick to meet developmental milestones. My first son simply was not ready to read at 6, and I think if he'd gone another year, I might have started looking into testing for a disability. But in my heart, I didn't think there was a problem, and I could see him making *some* progress, even small. In a year, he's made a TON of progress in reading, math ability, social ability, etc. It seems obvious to all who know him that he's a late bloomer and is just fine but has needed some extra time.

South-central PA here. We're doing fine. Lots of wind but not nearly as much water as we expected. We lost our electricity at about 7:30 last night, but we have bottled water, blankets, and fleece sleepers for the little boys, so we were warm last night. My DH fired up our generator so we could do the necessities this morning but will turn it off in a bit. We've sustained no damage (maybe a few branches), and it seems that the worst of the storm has passed. We're feeling very grateful and praying for anyone still affected.

That's the way to go. When my niece was stillborn, I had had two easy, uncomplicated pregnancies and births, but I had to do some serious thinking about my first pregnancy after that tragedy. My niece died even with my SIL getting excellent OB care -- was it unnecessarily irresponsible of me to plan a homebirth, especially with the limited testing care that I wanted (especially wrt my parents' feelings)? In the end, I had to accept that there was only so much I could do to control things, and I ended up approaching that birth in the way we had intended. And that was right for us. It's really hard to accept that sometimes bad things happen, regardless of what you do or don't do, but I think listening to the experts you've chosen is helpful -- this OB cleared you for a homebirth, so that's good news. Honestly, he sounds fantastic -- comfortable clearing you for a homebirth, but the person you'd want caring for you in an emergency. I do think that if you are still having a hard time processing all of that that it would be reasonable to speak with your midwife about it and maybe see a counselor to help you work through any unconscious fears and worries.

Yikes, wow, that is a traumatic story, indeed! I'm so, so glad the mama and her baby both lived. It must have been horrible to hear. :grouphug:

:iagree: Mine have all gradually weaned, and one nursing a day was what they were down to at the end.

For each subject, I break it down into lessons, which are about a day's work. Then I put each lesson into a spreadsheet, and weekly, I go through and cut and paste the lessons I want to do that week into a different sheet for each day, and I print out the sheets. As we do each lesson, I check it off on the daily sheet, and cross off anything we don't do; that's my record if the school district ever asks for it. (I also put notes like "co-op day" or "went to the library" or "listened to X in the car" or "went hiking in woods" on the daily sheets.) Then if I need to make adjustments, I just write them on the daily sheet. At the start of the next week, I adjust -- maybe we didn't quite get to lesson 32 of math the previous week, so I'll move it to the next week's sheet.

Eh, all kids are different. One of mine insisted upon having a fork at a bit over a year and used it well. Others of mine preferred their hands for longer. My current 15mo loves having a fork but only sometimes uses it. I tend to give them forks and spoons pretty young, and they use them or don't. Probably by about age 2ish, I'd encourage them to use the utensils if they really weren't even trying, but I'd still expect that until 4 or so, they might also revert to using hands in some instances. (I do remember someone, DS2, I think, picking stuff up with his fingers to put on his fork, and then he'd use the fork to get the food to his mouth. That was probably around age 2. It was funny to watch.)

My mom had three grandchildren before she turned 50 (but she was a mom before she was 22), and she's been having a great time (now she has eight grandchildren). She still has some energy to play with them and do fun stuff with them (it helps that my dad is mostly retired now, so they have a fair amount of free time to visit us). My kids will have many years of memories of their grandparents. Congratulations -- enjoy grandmahood!!!

This made me tear up, to see that someone aside from parents played along. I always just think it's so sweet when a non-family member makes it a point to do something extra nice for a kid. DD was allergic to dairy when she was a toddler, and somehow, she heard that Easter meant chocolate bunnies and talked about wanting a chocolate bunny a lot. I remember being so seriously grateful when I discovered a Lindt store near us, and it had dark chocolate bunnies that were safe for her to eat. She's no longer allergic to dairy (no, now it's an anaphylactic reaction to bee stings, sigh), but I feel for all of you dealing with this. And thanks to the poster who asked about what candies were safer for more people -- our street doesn't do ToT, so we don't hand out candy, but I appreciate the info for the future.

I would highly recommend my Sansa Clip; even with the super-duper warranty from SquareTrade, it was under $50. It's very user-friendly; my 10yo uses it with ease. Honestly, with so many nieces and nephews, I'd see about reducing that a bit. Maybe it's a good year to draw names so that each family's burden is reduced a bit there? My SIL made fabric-covered photo albums for some of us one year, and they're really pretty. Maybe that would be a good idea for some of the teens? Or covered journals?

I get some serious pain with ovulation sometimes; it can be quite intense. I think I'd have your DD track her cycles a bit to see when the pain occurs. She might even take her temps to see if she can tell a pattern. Poor girl -- I hope she does not experience that again!

My 7yo son is participating in two co-op classes this fall; one is art, and the other is a pirates class, based on Treasure Island. So far, he really likes both of them. Our co-op often offers a science class, with nature walks and journals, for that age group. I think a hands-on science class with experiments would be fun too. I believe Lego club was a hit with some of our co-op's boys a couple of years ago too; I think the teacher gave them an objective each time, and then they had time to build something to meet that objective, and then they discussed it.

That's making *me* cry, just reading about it -- what a sweet bunch of kids! Hope everyone is better soon.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

If you're 50, and the guy's 70 and financially comfortable, and you generally like the guy, and he's nice and pleasant and all of that, I think there are worse reasons for marrying. I think, especially at those ages, you don't necessarily need to be head-over-heels in love to have a good marriage. (I *am* deeply in love with my husband, but even if I wasn't, he's a good guy, y'know? Being simply his legal companion wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, if that makes sense.)

As I've said before, I would not cut PA off of your list because of the homeschooling regs. It is seriously not that bad. And the weather is generally pretty mild -- we get enough winter to appreciate the warmth, and enough summer to appreciate the cold, and spring and fall are heavenly. Even the worst winters don't generally compare to New England, and the summers are nothing like in the south. We didn't get the drought this summer, and we're not prone to earthquakes or tornadoes or much else -- all of it's possible, but it's just not a big area for anything, weather-wise. And the people -- the people are wonderful here. So friendly, so welcoming. And despite the regs, very homeschooling-friendly.

I don't know if you'd call it for older kids, specifically, but it kind of has appeal for all ages, and I think it would make a lovely intro to a discussion of memories, inter-generational conversations, stuff like that. It *is* beautiful, both in words and in pictures. Patricia MacLachlan's All the Places to Love

I understand. I don't leave my children very often, but I get my personal time in other ways -- usually it involves DH doing the weekend breakfast shift, or me staying up late at night. I do go out once a month to meet with our homeschool co-op's board, and while thus far, I've taken the baby with me, it's still nice to see other moms and not have to deal with the whole crew. Have you tried discussing this with your DH to see if he has any suggestions? (And when DH is away, which is rare, I go for easy meals.) I do remind myself that it's all worth it not to have to get up at o'dark thirty like my DH does to go to work all day. No, thanks. :)

Alexander popped into my head right away. Simon Andrew would be nice too. Simon Lucas Simon Avery Simon David Simon Daniel Congrats on the boy!

I'm sorry. :grouphug:

I first saw a chiro during my second pregnancy, when my SI joints kept going out of place, and I could barely walk. My midwife recommended a great chiro who was a client of hers, and the chiro helped tremendously -- after a couple of treatments, I went from limping around, painfully, to being able to dash up the stairs, pain-free. I was a convert! I started DH going to the same chiro when his back started hurting a lot (probably from hours spent driving). She fixed him up too. Even though we've moved away from her, we still see a different chiro as needed. This one is very fast but does an amazing job whenever DH's back or my neck need a little tweaking. There's just nothing like the way he makes everything pop and loosen up and feel better!

Thank you! He was too excited to eat much dinner, but it was delicious! The cake was pretty amazing too -- hard to beat mocha chocolate with buttercream frosting. :)

Well, that's my quote above, about my DD, and when she was stung badly enough to swell up, she wasn't stung on her feet. (Actually, the time before that wasn't on her feet either.) So wearing shoes isn't exactly all there is to it. I think your doctor is inaccurate; it is certainly possible for bee allergies to escalate. I'd push for epi-pens, and/or I'd see a different doctor (maybe even an allergist). Fwiw, I have not taken DD to an allergist, but that's because our regular family doctor has been happy to prescribe the epi-pens. We do have an allergist that has seen our oldest son, because I wanted testing for environmental allergies for him, but DD's allergies are pretty clear. We know she has an anaphylactic allergy to bee stings; we don't need testing to confirm that. However, if our family doc wasn't comfortable prescribing the epi-pens, absolutely, I would take DD to the allergist (and will if our family doc ever thinks there's a good reason to do so).