Only 15 feet? Yes. And this is coming from someone who is queen of the paranoid parenting club. I'd lock the doors of course and have the keys with me. No way would the keys be left in the car.

We see a pediatric dentist. We have insurance and only pay about $10 per child, per visit. In my opinion, pediatric dentists just seem better equipped to handle children. Their office is more kid friendly, colorful, welcoming, etc. They expect obstacles like shy children, frightened children, etc.

16GB? 32GB? 64GB? Do you wish you had more space? Or is it sufficient?

I have "heard" you mention your renovated home, the old church in other threads before. I would LOVE to see pics of this!! Do you have them on a blog or anything? I think that would be so neat!

DD3 is just about to turn 4 this next week. She's still nursing. I only allow it at bedtime. Occasionally she'll ask at other times, or even wake in the middle of the night, but I just remind her that we only nurse at bedtime. Like you, DD and I are the only ones who think it's a good thing. DH doesn't mind but he does make comments sometimes like "don't you think she's too old to nurse?" I plan on weaning very soon. I'm 6 weeks pregnant with #3 right now and I really want a break in between. I'm just nervous to do so because she nurses to sleep, and has every night since she's been born 4 years ago! That means bedtime is probably going to turn into an unpleasant experience for a while LOL. She does accidentally nick me with her teeth sometimes, but I know it is not intentional....and it usually happens when she's falling asleep. I'm not sure how to wean without it being traumatic.

Thanks everyone! Looks like I'll be sitting down tonight (or maybe lying down LOL) and planning some independent things for the kids to do. And looking through Netflix too.

We have a family bedroom and our two DD's sleep on a full size bed in our bedroom. We have a one story house. My only real plan is to open the window and have all four of us hop on out. I do need to install a few more smoke detectors in our house though.

I'd give her a time limit. There's no way I could have stood in Target for 3 hours. What I would have done in that situation is grab a zooble, a Moxie girl, an LPS, or whatever else she wanted and line them up side by side on a shelf. Say, okay, you have 5 minutes to choose. Start clock. If she's not finished in 5 minutes, you put them all back and leave. It just depends on the situation. Sometimes, like for clothing, I'd say "Okay, look through your closet. I'll be back in 10 minutes. If you are not dressed, I'll choose an outfit for you." Yes, this would result in a fit sometimes from my 6 year old, but I can't wait hours on kids to do things.

Celebrate them both. It's okay to continue to celebrate your son's birthday even though he is not physically here with you. I'm sure your mom would love to have a part in it as well.

I'm not sure that it would work. There are TONS of men that have lots of testosterone and a high sex drive. There are NOT lots of men that are sexual predators. It takes more than just lots of testosterone to make a sexual predator. I think they are crazy for releasing this guy. Yes, castrate him for punishment....don't release him.

Thanks everyone! I do live in Florida, so you are right in that our summers are just too unbearable to do anything else but swim or stay inside in the A/C. I had already planned to school through the summer since we are a little behind. I guess we'll just have to double up through the summer if we can. I guess we'll just try to do what we can, when we can, and watch educational videos when possible. I have Liberty's Kids on Netflix, so even though we are not learning about that part of history this year, it will be better than nothing. I wonder if School House Rock in on instant streaming? I'll have to check. Maybe I can get together work that DD6 can do on her own with minimal help from me. Reading is not really an option right now. Any time that I talk for more than a minute or two, I start gagging. Ick. Maybe that will ease up and I can read to them more often soon. I thought about trying to give them one "center" per day. I'm not exactly sure what, but something that's easy for me to set up the night before and that they can sort of get into and do by themselves. I'll have to see what I can come up with. Thanks for all the congrats and well wishes!

I am pregnant with #3. With #1 I didn't have morning sickness and with #2 I had it, but DD1 was only 2 years old, so there was no schooling to do. Now I'm trying to homeschool a first grader as well as a preschooler. I feel absolutely HORRIBLE all day, every day. I'm only 6 weeks, so I possibly have 6 or 7 more weeks of this. :blink: UGH. I seriously don't know how I'm going to do it. I hate this feeling. Yes, I'm whining right now. How do you school through the morning sickness? All I want to do is curl up in a ball and block out the world. Disclaimer: I have sea bands, Bonine, Lemon Heads candy, lots of Sprite and lemonade, crackers, etc. So far I'm not actually vomiting, but I feel like I could all day long.

I second the iTouch suggestion. Games are not nearly as expensive, you can add educational things too. My kids each have one and I put home movies, kids movies, kids TV shows, educational apps, games, family photos, songs that the kids love, etc. DS's are nice, but my kids LOVE their iTouches. We have a Leapster too but the quality of the screen and stuff isn't nearly as nice and it rarely gets played.

I was taught to use my middle finger for the C and that's what I've always used.

My girls are 3 and 6 and enjoy the following the most: Trouble LCR (left, right, center) Zingo Uno Yahtzee Jr (we have the Toy Story version) Flapdoodle

Yes, those drive me CRAZY. The water never comes out! My kids bring regular toys in....like people, figures, and animals....without holes. They've been checking their toys since they were like 2 LOL. They come up and say "This one doesn't have a hole, right?"

Thanks for the great ideas! What y'all said about props, I do think that's what it's all about. They always bring their little people and animals outside to play. But I think that I'll get some swords, maybe a stroller, and things like that to keep outdoors. I don't want them dragging their inside toys outside and then having to worry about cleaning them up again. I don't mind doing that to plastic people, but not doll strollers and such. I'm off to check out craigslist for some things!

Ooh, good idea! Is that the kind that can have all sorts of junk in it though? I bought some organic garden soil last fall and it had some pieces of glass, plastic tubes, etc. I got online and it said that was normal to find. :confused:

I really like the idea of a dirt area! Kids love dirt! I wonder how much it would cost to bring in a small hill of dirt?

That was the thread that I posted.....I really like the idea of a dirt area with pails, shovels, cars, etc. I wonder how much it would be to bring in a small mound of dirt to put back in the corner of the yard? My girls would absolutely love that. I'm not sure that I would love little black children wanting to run through my back door, but I bet they'd have a lot of fun with that. It has all sorts of options....building roads and cities, digging holes, playing archaeologist/paleontologist, etc.

I know that I never used our Boppy while nursing either of my children. It was easier to just plop down and nurse. I'm interested in the nursing covers though. I'm due in October with #3. I never had a nursing cover with my other two and would just use a blanket. That was a pain! Seems like baby would always pull it or kick it off of my shoulder. Not to mention, I couldn't peek down at baby without it falling off. And at the very beginning, when you are still spraying everywhere, it was most difficult to keep baby from "drowning", control the spray, see what I'm doing, and still keep the blanket from falling off my shoulder. I'll definitely be getting a nursing cover this time around. I'll have to take a look at the Hooter Hiders. I bet that Etsy.com probably has a lot of good ones too.

I wasn't impressed with last night overall. I LOVE Paul and Scotty. But those are the only ones. I like that James has overcome both Aspergers and Tourettes, but I don't like his style of music. Brett.....just no. Nice guy, but definitely not an American Idol. I can't stand Tyler's mouth. Not sure why he feels the need to cuss all the time. I like Jennifer a lot. And Randy is just like always. I miss Simon, but if Tyler would clean up his mouth on a family show then I think the panel of judges would be really good. Glad Kara and Ellen are gone.

My girls don't seem to know what to do when they go outside. I'm thinking "Seriously?????" I practically lived outside when I was a kid. We live in a normal suburban neighborhood. Normal average sized, fenced backyards. There's no trees in our backyard due to the fact that we have an inground pool. We have a measly little metal swingset that they use sometimes. They have a sandbox and a Step 2 climber. And we also have a water table, which they love. However, like today, I didn't want to drag out the water table and have wet, dirty kids to clean up because we have to leave to pick up my dad in an hour. Anyways, I sent the kids out to play. They were like "What can we do??" I told them to pretend, use their imagination. They are awesome at this indoors and can play together for hours, making villages, building things with Trio blocks, setting up towns for their people and animals. But when I send them outside, all that creativity seems to fly out the window. If you live in a suburban neighborhood with not too many trees, no woods to roam in, smallish to average sized lots....what do your kids do? When we go in the front, they ride bikes, trikes, use sidewalk chalk, etc. But I have to be out there with them. I like to send them in the back by themselves sometimes and they just don't seem to know what to do back there.

My favorites are the exact two that you mentioned....Scotty McCreery and Paul (McDonald, I think). They were great. Everyone else was definitely not favorites. Some of them (Jordan) were just way off the mark. Then that curly headed guy with the beard (I think he sang last) just creeped me out with all that yelling and grunting LOL.

I just went and watched the video about it on Apple.com. Honestly, it doesn't look like there's very many changes. The best two things is that it is thinner and lighter....plus faster. There's no USB and it didn't mention anything about printing capabilities (and if it had them, you would think it would have mentioned it because that would be a major selling point). I've been holding out on getting an iPad to wait for the second version....now I'm not so sure about getting one. Not much different. ETA: They did add a camera on both the front and the back, but this is not a selling point at all for me. I'm not going to hold up an iPad to be taking photos of things.