If the caffeine does not seem to affect your baby or your milk supply, I would not worry about it. If it does affect your LO, as they get older and nursing spaces out a bit, you can time your cup of caffeine to be right after a nursing session to allow maximum time before baby nurses again too. As for herbal teas, kellymom has a good list of herbs to avoid while breastfeeding here: http://kellymom.com/bf/got-milk/herbs_to_avoid/ I would just read the labels and make sure your herbals don't contain those. When I want caffeine free, I love the rooibos teas (usually vanilla rooibos or chai rooibos) since I can still put half and half and sugar in them like black tea.

Beyblades are a huge hit with my boys right now. You don't have to know the show, just having tops that "battle" is really fun - and no batteries! Ok, this takes batteries, but it's not like a "toy" that takes batteries if that makes sense. But snap circuits. Got my ds his first set at 6 and he LOVES them! I think they sell a solar panel thing for them if you are totally opposed to batteries, but it does not go through tons like most toys and the toy itself is very educational. My boys didn't like legos all that much when younger. My 8yo REALLY got into them a year ago. My 6yo is just getting more into them - mostly because of big brother. But you might be surprised. Right now they love the Ninjago and Chima sets. Oh, and musical instruments are a huge hit here too.

I have a friend whose daughter reacts to corn behaviorally. It probably is a hard one to figure out, and to avoid, since it's so common.

If I do leave cash (at any restaurant) but pay with a card, I do write "cash" in the tip area. I dunno why, I just feel better doing that. But I rarely leave cash tips - I just don't carry cash!

I think it is the age (8-9). Especially if they are the oldest child... I would look into external factors as well. Is he getting enough sleep? Is it possible there is an undiagnosed food allergy/intolerance that might make him feel yucky? Either of those things could make his body not feel good and affect his mood/attitude.

usagymnastics youtube channel has full videos of the events. You don't have to go to universal sports.

I didn't read all the answers, but seeing my ND for an acute illness visit is less than the minute clinics. And I think they bill separately for any testing (as a doctor would). My ND also offers 20% off if you pay in full in cash day of (which is nice if you don't have insurance or your insurance does not cover naturopathic) as well as a sliding scale for those who need help paying for medical care. I think not charging exorbitant amounts and having providers charge reasonable rates is more in line with ACA, but it's not happening on a large scale...

I already got ds8 and ds6 some legos. Dd4 is getting a princess sophia dress (thank you costco). They all will get souvenir money for our vacation in January. Not sure if we'll do much else other than what they ask Santa for. I am looking at investing in some home gymnastics equipment (mainly mats, maybe a bar if I can find a good deal) for my little monkeys, so that may count as a bulk of the "gifts".

I know a couple of people with amicable divorces, but many more where it is not. No two situations are the same. As for me, my personal beliefs are that God hates divorce. But, I do find Biblical exceptions for Adultery and I would make an exception for abuse (especially physical, but also emotional if the person was not willing to realize what they are doing and get counseling, etc to change and stop). That being said, I know couples where one has cheated on the other, was truly sorry, and they've reconciled and now have great marriages (but it took a lot of work). So even if my dh were to cheat on me, I can't say for sure what I would do. It would very much depend on the situation. For us, smaller things are not reason for us to get a divorce. It's a reason to work through things, go to counseling, etc. Fortunately we've been able to work through any issues we've encountered so far. That does not mean I've always been happy in my marriage, everyone has their rough patches.

xtramath.org is great for learning how to do those math facts quicker. It takes maybe 10 minutes a day. I have my boys doing that and we are moving on in Singapore. Ironically, my 6yo has nearly mastered addition while my 8yo is behind him on mastery. But that's mostly because my 8yo doesn't put much effort into it. But he is working 2b and doing just fine with it, just takes him longer to do the problems then it would if he actually spent time to master the facts.

We got some for my son when he was 6 or 7. He and my younger son (2 years younger) just love them. The younger one does need some assistance (or did, they haven't used them in a bit). If they can build legos with simple directions, they can follow the directions for snap circuits.

I'm going to revive this kind of old thread to join in. My boys are both in rec gymnastics (pretty much in the level 1 class). They love it, and oldest ds has some talent, but isn't interested in competition or anything like that. Our gym has an exhibition boys team he may be interested in in a few years. We actually started out at a different gym, but their boys' program was awful. No progression. One summer ds was doing handspring fall flat on the vault, and the new class (same one, new coach in the fall) went back to just doing jump from a springboard and land on your feet. He was really frustrated. So we switched gyms and it's the best thing we've done. The coaching is much better! The gym switch also helped my dd quite a bit. At our old gym she was too young for pre-team by 2 months (1 tryout/year). She just turned 4 over the summer and has been asking about being on the team since she saw the Olympics last summer. Her brother's class last fall was during team practice, and she loved to watch the older girls and asks when she can learn to do those skills. She just moved from the preschool class at the new gym to the pre-team track in their advanced preschool program. I believe she is the youngest in her class, a lot of the girls are turning 5 this fall/winter. Her class is 2x/week for an hour and she would go more often if I would let her! I can already see how the skills they are learning will progress to bigger skills, so it's really exciting to see that. She just got her full unassisted handstand (with the ability to hold it) and is working on her pullover on bars with either a block or the coach assisting. The coach also assists with fhc and bhc (she can do the fhc herself, but doesn't hold it whens he comes back around to keeping her body up with her arms, rather drops off). It has been amazing to see her huge jump in skills since we switched gyms 7 weeks ago. The coaching at the new gym is far superior, even if it is a further drive. At the old gym they never even taught the stick position! Nor proper body alignment. Anyways, kind of kicking myself for not switching sooner!

I completely forgot - limiting and avoiding sugar and refined carbs. Both tax your immune system.

http://www.gaiaherbs.com/products/detail/746/GaiaKids-Black-Elderberry-Syrup

Ah, missed that part of your post. :) Yeah, that whole part really bothered me. I never got through the first 1/4 of the book and decided it wasn't for me.

We are similar to others (no vaccines here either). Hand washing. Vitamin C, echinacea, vitamin d, elderberry. Raw garlic and raw honey if feeling ill (though the honey is better for more bacterial things). Also, sipping hot liquids and such throughout the day can help kill the virus, as it enters through the respiratory system (i.e. hot liquids can help kill the virus if it is lurking in your throat, etc).

Didn't read the other replies, so sorry if this is a repeat. I cut the larger ones in half and then toss them all with some olive oil and salt and pepper. Then roast in the oven (you can google for times). Meanwhile, I slice up 4-6 slices of bacon and then cook it until nice and crispy. Pull the bacon out and then caramelize some onions or shallots in the bacon grease. When the brussel sprouts are done roasting, toss them with the bacon, caramelized onions, and bacon grease. Sooooo good - probably because of the bacon!

Yes, they recently changed it (sometime before I ordered it in Fall of 2012) to just get the CD and then an email with the PDF of the worksheets.

WOS = Woman Only Submission (as opposed to mutual submission). I'll disagree with you on the red thing, but that's my interpretation. And I would be ok if she said "most likely" red headed or something. :) As for Adam, if you really study the Hebrew and context and compare it to other verses, it seems that God holds Adam MORE accountable than Eve. The Bible says she was deceived, it does not say Adam was deceived, which implies he made a more knowledgeable choice. But that's a whole other rabbit trail...

If the bear does make a mess of your garbage (scattering it), make sure you get it cleaned up. Left out food scraps like that attracts rodents towards the area. And that's a whole other problem when they start finding access to crawl spaces and such...

For example, she talks about Esau being red-headed as if it were a fact. A lot of her interpretations are written as if a fact. For example, Eve was responsible for Adam eating the fruit (because he couldn't have possibly made his own decision, right?) and has a very strong WOS spin on that story. You just need to watch for her opinion being spewed as fact. Some of it was contrary to how I interpret the same scriptures/stories.

I like it too. I used it for 2nd grade with my oldest (he's moved on to IEW now) and I'm using it for first grade now with my middle child to lay the foundation of writing before starting IEW.

We get them here, but we are a bit more country than you. I just educated my kids on what to do if they see any wild animal while out playing (don't approach, hollar for mom, and get inside asap without putting their stuff away). We never have seen one, but we get lots of dropping in our yard and they have destroyed garbage cans.

I would HIGHLY recommend, if you budget at all allows, enrolling him in a gymnastics type class. Most of them are parent/child at this age. My oldest was a climber and maniac like that. Gymnastics gave him a safe place to rough and tumble and he learned how to do so safely. At home my "no" turned into "this is not gymnastics, we can do that there" and the safety aspect of gymnastics helped him be safer when he did climb on things at home, etc. He's 8 1/2 now, still does recreational gymnastics and loves it!

I will caution you to pre-read. I read part of the first MOH book and found some of her stuff to be extra-biblical and some things in stories she just assumed that was not in the Bible at all. So that is something to keep in mind.