Ack, I hit the wrong selection. I'm younger (35), and I do mind the word; we were never allowed to say it growing up, and I still find it crude. I'm not big into cutesy names for things and prefer the actual names for various body parts (p*nis is not exactly a bad word around here with three little boys, LOL), but we settled on "toot," and that seems to work.

We're having burgers, french fries, and roasted broccoli. And chocolate cake and ice cream. It is DS2's birthday, and those are his requests.

Getting rid of ALL sippy cups was the best thing I ever did. No more clutter of them, no more leaving them in the car to collect. Each child (and DH and I as well) has ONE Kleen Kanteen water bottle, and they're responsible for keeping track of their own (except for the baby; I keep track of his). Doing a couple of loads of laundry every day works much better for me than a day or two of many loads.

I'd let it go, but I do think it's really impolite if it's close family that spells it wrong continually. I really think grandparents, for instance, ought to learn how to spell their grandchildren's names! My name has two common spellings, one of which is more typically Biblical; I have the other, so it gets spelled wrong a lot, but close family made it a point to get it right. Same with my sister; her name has a bunch of spellings, and my parents chose one of the least common. Her name gets misspelled more often than mine does, by far, but again, the grandparents get it right. My youngest son is Zachary, and I've seen people spell it "Zachery," but not more than once; we call him Zach most of the time anyway, and since the Biblical form has an "e" in there (though not in that spot), I think it's relatively easy to get it confused. I did go with the more common current spelling, though.

I like Ronan, and Rowan too (but if you care about sounding male or female, Rowan is more ambiguous to me). I think after a few times, people will understand Ronan and remember it; I don't think it's *that* unusual. I like William a lot too, but I think it doesn't fit as well with your other boys' names. (It would fit with my kids' names, but I think it's a lot more traditional than your other boys' names.) However, I think Billy is adorable as a nickname.

Only one Tuesday birth here, none of us induced. We have three Mondays, a Sunday, a Saturday, and finally, a Tuesday.

I take out all gum first; gum is not allowed in my house at all. We don't get a lot of candy, just enough to make the walking and costume prep worth it. (There's a small town near us that is just the perfect size for the kids, and the people generally get into the costumes and decorations, so it's fun.) I let them eat the candy however they want. I kind of figure that in terms of teeth and blood sugar, it's better to have it all gone in a couple of days, rather than spread it out (and possibly argue about it). So I know that they'll be on sugar highs for a couple of days (and I'll push protein during those days), and then either the candy will be gone, or they'll self-moderate, but after a while, at least things will be back to normal.

LOL! How about "why is the pig in Richard Scarry, who is the butcher, chopping up FRANKFURTERS??" Or how about the one Richard Scarry book where the rabbit family (I think) is getting ready for the day. The little children head off to school, and there's a comment about Friend Mr. Owl watching the children. Yeah, I'll bet the friendly owl is "watching" the rabbit babies. . .

LOL! For that matter, why do *some* of the characters from the Hundred Acre Wood wear clothing, while others don't? Tigger, I understand -- he's kind of wild. But Owl? Isn't he a bit more refined? What about Rabbit? (And I suspect the answer about Little Bear is -- he's a kid. Kids often prefer to be naked. LOL.)

Food, especially anything favorite. Hat or sweatshirt or something related to his favorite team? Anything he's mentioned needing for his car? Movie tickets or something like that? I remember feeling kind of bad that my boyfriend always paid for things when we went out, so I bought movie tickets for him one time. I've bought him a fair number of books over the years too, and he likes ThingGeek-type gadgets too. Of course, these days, bullets are generally on his wishlist (he's a competitive target shooter), so I just buy those when we have money to buy each other gifts; he appreciates that I pay attention to his hobbies.

Ah, thank you. I was looking at an iPad 2. The price isn't too bad, but with warranty, it's a little high. Maybe the iPad 4 means the 2 will come down even a bit more by the time I've saved a bit longer. :)

When is the iPad 4 supposed to come out? (I am so not up on all the tech but am wanting to get a tablet; I'm just trying to figure out the right time to get a good deal, because I don't necessarily need or want the latest and greatest.)

Best. Thread. Ever. Forget about the man with the yellow hat's career." I want to know why he wasn't arrested for stealing a monkey from the jungle, and I want to know why nobody makes him pay for damages that his monkey causes. And why has he not learned that YOU CAN NOT LEAVE SAID MONKEY UNATTENDED because he ALWAYS gets in trouble?? As for Max and Ruby's parents, they don't need them -- they have Grandma! (At least they have Grandma in one of the books; I've never seen the show.) Oh, but Mom is hanging out the laundry (shown in one of the books). I used to wonder about a whole lot of things from the Pooh books that didn't make sense. And then I had a four-year-old, and suddenly, a lot more made sense to me. Pooh rather thinks like a four-year-old. Do they still make Barney episodes? It's easily been over a decade since I've seen any children's programming. Barney is the one character I dislike more than Jar Jar Binks.

I think it depends on the item. Soda is cheaper than milk. Crackers, bread, etc. made with HFCS, white flour, etc. are cheaper than the whole grain varieties. Chips are cheaper than apples, and the sales are better. Our local grocery store sometimes has bags of chips on sale for a dollar; even on sale, a dollar's worth of apples doesn't go very far. I can see why people opt for chips, soda, etc. Processed foods are more likely to have coupons too. Now, if you're talking meat, less processed is usually cheaper, when you're talking a whole chicken vs. chicken parts, or even beef vs. pre-made hamburger patties. Or ingredients for cookies vs. pre-packaged cookies. (Yes, and making your own chips from tortillas, or your own crackers, is going to be cheaper still, but I really doubt a lot of people do that.) And some of it is just plain time. I feed my family well, and I sometimes opt for a processed (or slightly processed) item because I just don't always have time to do everything from scratch. I do a lot of things to save money, and sometimes I just don't have the currency of time to spend.

I do most of the grocery shopping; DH occasionally picks up an item or two on his way home. I almost always have all four children with me, though the older two don't necessarily stick right next to me (they wander around the store and look at things, or they take books to the cafe area and read; I come through and check on them frequently, but I live in a very safe, very homeschooling-friendly area, so nobody hassles them). Once in a while, like last week, I go with just the baby and one older child (last week, it was the almost 4yo). That's a treat for all of us.

I would sit down and have a talk with your doctor about what he/she recommends for *your* child in *your* lifestyle. I know with one of my infants, I opted to do only Hib and Prevnar; the ped suggested DTaP, because she was concerned about pertussis. So we did those three, in a rotating schedule -- A & B one month, B & C the next appointment, C & A a couple of months after that, and so on. Because of the delayed schedule, we did not need to do every shot in every series, and he's considered to be immune to them. I'd look at overall risk. How much at risk for Hep B is your child? How about pertussis, etc.? Your doctor should be able to help you figure out what the biggest concerns are.

Not uncommon, and it wouldn't bother me. If my kids came down with CP (one of them has had it; she probably got it from me, as I'm fairly certain I had an outbreak of shingles several years ago), I'd probably tell my friends that they were welcome to come for a playdate if they wanted their kids to get it. Would I take my kids to a CP playdate? I don't know. It might depend on what else we had scheduled for the next few weeks, and it probably would depend on how old my children were. I'm not sure I'd do it right now, since my 15mo is still pretty little (though DD got it at 15 months, and she got the best-case scenario -- only a handful of spots, no itching/discomfort, and the doctor says she is probably immune to getting it again).

I chose not to give the rotavirus vaccine to any of my children, but my friend did. Her little girl, who received the vax, came down with a stomach virus. We're fairly certain it was rotavirus, because of the timing. Unfortunately, she played with my son a day or two after she got the vax (within the incubation period), and *he* got rotavirus from her, and then the rest of the family got it as well. Blech. (Thankfully, it was fairly mild. Our friend's little girl had it much worse.) Just something to keep in mind -- if you do choose to do the vaccine, please stay away from other young children for a few days. (That is probably less of an issue with an infant than with a toddler, like my friend's daughter.)

We learned how to make toast. In a broiler. In 1989. We also spent a lot of time sewing holes on the lines of notebook paper. Not so much actually creating anything.

I tell them to look at their state laws, and I suggest they read anything and everything they can about educating at home. I especially suggest something like the Clarksons' Educating the Wholehearted Child, because it has a good overview of a lot of different styles. I tell people that after a while, they'll start seeing some of the same names, terms, etc. over and over, and they'll start nodding along with some of them. Then they can read more in depth about those specific topics. If they're in my area and have questions, I answer the best I can, to a degree, but I generally direct them to my evaluator.

I have this one, in the 7-qt. version: http://www.amazon.com/Lodge-Logic-7-Quart-Spiral-Handle/dp/B0000DDTVO/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1350837203&sr=8-10&keywords=7-qt.+dutch+oven+cast+iron I love it and use it frequently. It holds a whole chicken, or a big roast, plus vegetables, etc. and would make a lot of soup/stew. It holds enough for a full meal for my family of 6, and I expect we will not outgrow it too soon. It also fits the 9-inch burner on my stovetop nicely for when I want to use the pan juices to make gravy, or whatever. However, I think for an older person, especially, I'd go with one with bigger handles. Mine doesn't really have much of a handle on either side, and I'm not comfortable lifting it out of the oven with the wire handle. (For camping, though, it would probably be great.) I have a smaller dutch oven (2-quart maybe?) that works for cornbread and such like that, and it has the side handles; I think those would be preferable in a large one too. ETA: I looked back at my notes where I'd sent DH some ideas when he asked for them, and I think we went with the dutch oven with the spiral wire handle because amazon had it on a HUGE sale. As I said, it works fine, but if I was buying again, I'd go for the one with the bigger handles on the side.

My concern about taking the higher mortgage, lower taxes now would be what if they raised the taxes? Our area did a county-wide reassessment, and it hurt us terribly -- we had purchased an older home with low taxes, even for this area, and our taxes ended up going up quite a bit. Stuff like that can happen. I might still want to go for the higher mortgage, lower taxes now, especially if I expected to be there forever, but it's something to consider.

Yum, Indian food! Enjoy! Samosas are huge hits with my children, as are the mango lassis. And naan, of course. My DH orders lamb rogan josh almost every time we go to our local favorite place. I'm more of a paneer person and almost always order that, especially with spinach.

:hurray::hurray::hurray: for your mom! I'll bet you felt about a thousand feet tall after that and never doubted that your mom had your back!

How ridiculous! I remember our school locking a lot of the bathrooms, and it was annoying. I remember timing bathroom trips according to what teachers would be nice about it. I think in the OP's DD's situation, I'd see what letters to the principal, etc. yielded, and if that wasn't satisfactory, I think I'd start going to the media. Getting her to ask for a pass to the nurse solves her problem but doesn't fix the overall issue, which is the poor treatment of young people. I really think we're not going to fix a lot of the stupid issues in our country these days until we collectively stand up and say, "NO." And I think getting news stations, etc. on board might be the way to go. Go to school board meetings and bring up the issue, frequently. Write to the people running your town/state/etc. And so on.