She should practice putting the wrap/sling on by herself, but if they make her take it off completely, I understand that she'll need somewhere to set her baby so she can retie it. The only carrier I can put on completely while actually holding the baby is a ring sling, so that's what I'd use for the airport. (I love an Ergo for a toddler, but I actually hate it for front carries, and at 4m, he might be just a wee bit little for a back carry.) I think she could do it without a stroller if you wanted to; put the baby in the sling, check a suitcase, and carry the empty carseat and a small bag/backpack. When she needs to take the baby out of the wrap/sling (if she does), she can set him in the carseat if she needs two hands to put the wrap/sling back on. If she's not bringing the carseat on the plane, she can gate-check it. (Alternately, if she checks the carseat early, she could have a small blanket in her bag on which to lay him while she puts the wrap back on.) She could also consider renting one of those luggage carts at the airport; I have used them when flying solo with 1 and 4yo's, and they were great!

DH and I both pretty much just picked up reading; so did DD, and she was reading chapter books before she turned five. My DS1, otoh, is 6 1/2 and just now learning to read; he really wasn't ready before. He has benefited very well from doing 100 Easy Lessons with me. In his case, he might have just picked it up at some point, but I think actively teaching him worked perfectly (and it would not have a year ago; he was just not ready then).

When you finish The Long Winter, then you get to read my personal favorites, Little Town on the Prairie and These Happy Golden Years! LTotP had such a joyful, happy feel to it after TLW and was so fun!

We do French from Nallenart and Latin from Getting Started With Latin and are considering Getting Started With Spanish as well.

Oh, she's a cutie! I agree with the PP that said she looks like she could be a Lily. (Our kitten is Molly, fwiw, officially "Molly Pitcher Fuzzball Lastname.")

We have both, and I'd get the kitchen, especially if the playhouse would be outdoors. Kids can toss a blanket over a table or something to make a playhouse, but they really seem to like the more realistic setting of the kitchen, and its little doors and everything. (You might look for a pop-up tent or something that they could play with and then fold down and tuck away, so it doesn't take up room permanently.)

Okay, next year it sounds like we'll have to get one of the Lego ones -- they sound hilarious! My kids wanted the Lego Star Wars one; Santa Yoda sounded pretty good to them. We were given the Playmobil castle one this year; I had to assemble it, so I saw the pieces, and they are really cute. My 3yo has asked me about eighty billion times when we can open the next one.

Congratulations!

I think you need to discuss with your DH his specific reasons about not wanting your 4yo to sleep with you. IMO, "I just don't think you should" isn't really acceptable, and I'd be inclined to ignore it. If he has some concrete concerns, like, "I don't sleep well when she's in the bed," I'd give more weight to those. Perhaps you can find a compromise, like your daughter sleeping on the foot of your bed instead of directly in your sleeping space (this works for toddlers and preschoolers at our house because I'm short), or perhaps putting a toddler bed or sleeping bag next to your bed would work, or maybe limiting it to one or two special nights a month would be okay. If he's worried about what people will think, well, I think more people have young children sleeping with them than is commonly mentioned. (We've had at least one child sleeping with us almost every night for almost the past decade, sometimes two.)

:iagree: Congratulations!! (I know friends who have just simply not told the grandparents until very close to the birth, because they knew they'd be negative. Really, though, the people who are negative are the ones who lose. A baby is something to celebrate!)

I am sure I felt my DS1 that early. And congratulations!

I cleaned my house last week before we left, and it was so nice to come home to that!

I did chicken and peaches picante for a potluck last summer, and it would work well in a crockpot (with rice in a separate dish). Cut chicken breast and red bell peppers into chunks, and saute until mostly cooked. Add salsa (whatever kind you like), peach juice (if using canned sliced peaches, and orange juice (enough to make a good sauce -- more if you use frozen peaches); bring to a boil, and then simmer until chicken is cooked through. Add sliced peaches and a sprinkling of cilantro; heat through, and serve over rice. My friend said she thought pineapple would also go well with it.

I had the same question a few months ago and ended up going with the Canon Powershot SX30 IS, and I've been very pleased with it. A DSLR was way out of my budget. We had a Fuji Finepix S5000 for years, and we absolutely loved it (until it died and was so old that Fuji couldn't find parts to fix it), so maybe the S4000 is good too, not sure.

I think I'd see exactly why the sister who is a nurse isn't working more. Could she pick up more hours? If so, then I'd help minimally, if at all, paying a specific bill or two, or providing grocery gift cards. But I'd ask her, to be sure. Maybe you'd think she should be able to pick up more hours, but in reality, maybe the area isn't hiring for more hours or something. If that's the case, and they're just waiting for a couple of months until the BIL's job starts, I'd be more inclined to give them a bit of cash now and then a bit in a month, rather than a larger chunk right now. Help them learn to budget.

This looks about like the one that DH has for his hair and the two older boys' hair: http://www.amazon.com/Wahl-79300-1001-26-Piece-Color-Coded-Haircutting/dp/B00006IVEN/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1322676901&sr=8-13 I think he's on his third set; they last about 6 or 7 years for him, I think. He has thick hair and trims it frequently. I want to say he paid about $15 for the first set (actually, I think I got it for him back when we were in college), and I'm thinking he paid about $25-30 for this set. So really only about $5 a year, and if he does about three haircuts a month, each cut is costing about 15 or 20 cents a cut -- not bad!

I took DD when she was 7, and I took both DD and DS1 last fall when they were 8 1/2 and 5 1/2. Of course, I also had DS2 (then 2) along, and HE insisted on an exam too. The eye doctor is really great with the kids and did tests that were appropriate to each of them, and he was happy to take a few minutes to check DS2 as well. (Their insurance does cover eye exams; if it didn't, I'd have waited on DS2.) I have excellent vision (and see the same eye doctor every two years), but DH, DH's sister, two of my siblings, both of my parents, and both of my ILs wear glasses/contacts and have for years, most of them as kids/teens. And without my kids being in a classroom setting, I don't have a basis for comparison (like complaining of not being able to see the board), and I'm clueless as to what to look for, so I prefer to take them to see the eye doctor about once a year.

I do hope my children choose to wait until they're married to have s*x (DH and I did and are glad we did). There's something sweet about figuring it out together and finding that it just gets better and better. :) If they choose to wait until they're married to kiss, that's up to them. However, methinks DH and I should make it a point to kiss in front of them, so that they know what a good kiss looks like. :)

I think if I'd met the doctor before and felt okay with him/her, I'd be okay if my teen requested a solo doctor visit. If I felt that my teen was asking about sexually-related things, I might discuss that with the doctor ahead of time, maybe ask that he/she respect our personal family's beliefs and see what the doctor would relay to me afterward. However, I would absolutely insist that another doctor or a nurse be present in the room at all times that I wasn't, and I would probably also insist that one of the two medical professionals in the room be of the same sex as my child. Perhaps a reasonable compromise would be for me to be in the room for the initial general discussion, and then for me to leave (and be replaced by a nurse) for the actual exam.

Block feeding works like turning on the hot water faucet. If you turn on your faucet, it takes a while to turn from cold to hot. If you wait several hours before turning it on again, it takes a while to go from cold to hot again. However, if you turn it on a few minutes later, it is hot much faster. With block feeding, if you keep using the same breast for several feedings in a row, the fattier hindmilk comes in faster, like the hot water. So the baby gets more hindmilk, which can help the baby grow and which has less lactose than the waterier foremilk. Too much lactose can overwhelm the baby's bowels and lead to gas, green foamy stools, and fussiness.

Last I knew, stuff from book22.com comes in discreet packaging.

Can I give you my best advice for when you talk with the GF, whether that's this week, or in the future? Please remember that you both have one incredible thing in common: you both love the same boy. That overwhelming love is the tie that binds you together. It's about him. Keep your focus there. (That being said, she might have been a little careless about your feelings, but hopefully it was just her excitement that got in the way. I don't think she was out of line to want to see him without everyone else there, though as a mom, I know it must be hard. Not looking forward to that day; I am insanely jealous of my three future DILs, because they get to take my nice, sweet, amazing boys home and keep them. Just like I did to my MIL. ;) It's the way things go -- :grouphug:. I would let it go and just focus on open communication in the future, but most of all, celebrating that he is home, safely.) (And for the naysayers who say that him calling his mother first means that the GF isn't The One? Not necessarily true. He wanted to surprise her. When my DH is away, he calls me every chance he gets and calls his parents maybe once for every three or four calls I get. But when he wants to surprise me, the love of his life, with something? He calls the other woman -- his mama -- and she helps him make it work, just like the OP was trying to do.)

19 pounds at 3 months does sound on the large side, but I don't think it's necessarily a problem. My babies have been between 8 and almost 10 pounds at birth, and at 3 months, they were around 15 pounds. They grow really fast at first and then slow down in the second half of the first year, so they're around 21-23 at a year. All breastfed. (My first two outgrew the infant carseat at 5 and 6 months, by length, so we got a bigger infant seat for the two little boys. DS2 used that seat until 18 months, and I think DS3 will be around there as well.) ETA: Around here, nursing is pretty much the soother of choice for everything. Hungry? Nurse. Bored? Nurse. Bonked yourself in the face while practicing random waving of hands? Nursing fixes that too. My babies learn pretty quickly how to suck so that they don't get a lot of milk unless they really want to, but they have strong sucking needs aside from thirst/hunger. (None of them have had pacifiers; DS2 liked to suck his thumb some, and DS3 still likes his fingers or thumb a lot, but mostly, it's the breast that they want.)

Do you have any blankets for wrapping around him, maybe not quite swaddling, but keeping his body cuddled up and his arms still?

We alternate some subjects. Math, history, and language arts are done every day. Bible and science alternate days, or sometimes weeks. French and Latin also alternate days. Then there are subjects that only get done once a week -- concentrated geography, religious biography, music, picture study, and Shakespeare.