I'm looking to make my family healthier. We have already significantly cut down on high fructose corn syrup and dyes. I try to eat as organic as possible and purchase fruits/veggies without pesticides as often as I can. I try to only purchase meat that is raised without hormones. Now I want to introduce vitamins/herbs. What do you take on a daily basis? I just had my blood levels checked and everything is right on track except that I'm borderline low on calcium and B12. So of course I'll need a slight supplement of those. But will I need more than what's already in a multivitamin? The doc said my vitamin D looked good, but I'm not sure what the numbers were. Also, what can I give to my kids on a daily basis? I try to give them a multivitamin already (organic) on a daily basis. But what else? How do you know if any of your daily vitamins/herbs have any interactions with each other? Also, does anyone know anything about Olive Leaf Extract or phytocillan? A friend of mine uses these when they are coming down with something and says they really work at getting rid of whatever it is. Any advice is welcome! I feel like I'm stumbled upon a topic that I'm completely clueless about! And there's so much information on the web to sort through....I dont know where to start! Or what's true!

Oh my word. That is utterly horrible. That monkey ruined that woman's life. I pray that she is able to live a life filled with joy despite what happened.

Definitely the DS. The game choices are endless. My DD got a Leapster when she was 4 (she's 5 now) and she has taken over my DS as well. She doesnt play them too often, but plays both about equally.

It never hurts to get an evaluation. Our DD was 20 months and not forming any words, only babbling. We had her evaluated and sure enough, she needed therapy. Five years old and still in therapy now too.

Thanks everyone! I didn't know that I could dissolve it.....I'll definitely try that next time. And I'll look into the Sambucol.

Awww! She seems like a wonderful lady!

I thought about getting Keva planks for Christmas this year too (my girls are 2 and 5), but like you, I think I'm waiting. Duplo blocks didn't get used and I sold them on craigslist recently. I think I'll wait till they are a bit older. I think I decided on a marble run or a domino race set instead.

I just recently bought some Oscillo to keep on hand for flu-like illnesses. DD started running a fever (she's 5) so I tried to give her some. She about freaked! As soon as some got onto her tongue, she started gagging and gagging. I thought she was going to throw up! Finally she spit them back out. :glare: So much for trying out the Oscillo. Do your kids take them without problems? My other DD is 2 and I have not tried them with her yet, but I'm not expecting good results when I need to use it LOL.

My 5 year old DD got a Leapster for her 4th birthday. It's great! I love that she's actually learning while playing a video game. She doesnt use it all the time, but she uses it off and on.

In May, my DH and I will celebrate our 10 year anniversary. I'm wondering what I should plan for us to do. What did you guys do? Or will you do if you have not reached it yet? I do not fly, so we wont be going anywhere too far. Plus, our children are still small (5 and 2) so I will not be venturing too far away for too many nights. We love Disney and are 2.5 hours from there so I thought about there. Or maybe on the beach somewhere? Not sure....I need some input. :D

:001_huh: Wow, you are on top of things LOL! We'll put our tree up about a week before Thanksgiving.

Thanks for all the replies and advice! Fevers scare me! We're back from the ped and they said it's viral, which I was afriad of. I was hoping it was something non-contagious like an ear infection, but that hope kind of diminshed when her fever rose to 104. Right now her symptoms are just fever and a runny nose. I hope it stays that way! Her ped said that there's things going around right now and they all seem to cause high fevers, but she didn't act like 104 was anything to worry about. I didn't like it though LOL! She has not had any meds since 12 PM. And her fever is still staying fairly low. I'm going to keep a good eye on it though so that it does not get up to 104 again. And with night time approaching, it worries me because fevers tend to rise then. I hope none of the rest of us catch it!

Thanks pianoplayer! I'm going to go get those ice packs and towels right now for her arm pits. Our ped okays the motrin/tylenol rotation every 3 hours.

Thanks for the reply! I'm watching her closely. It's been about 30 minutes since the Motrin so I'll retake her temp again soon. Just added some cool wash clothes to her feet and gave her some cold water to drink. I also do not medicate for a fever unless it gets high. I checked her hours ago and it was 101 and I didn't medicate. Checked it again and it was 104 and definitely decided to medicate.

My DD is 5 and started running a fever last night. It is at its highest point right now....right at 104. Is this okay? My kids do not really run high fevers often so I dont have much experience. She has a docs appt at 2 PM and it is 12:15 right now. I gave her Motrin....hopefully that will bring it lower. And I put cool wash cloths on her head and chest. I tried giving her some of that Oscillo stuff, but she gagged and spit it out. I'm just nervous about it being H1N1. She's had a cold and now she seems to be developing a cough. She's not TOO lethargic though....definitely not herself but she can stand up and walk around. Just a nervous mama needing reassurance!

We've been a cosleeping family since Day 1 when we brought our first DD home from the hospital. It just came naturally.....she seemed so tiny and sleeping alone seemed so lonesome....so she slept with us. Same thing with DD #2. We just recently moved DD #1 to her own bed on most nights (in the same room as us) because the bed was getting really crowded. DD #2 still sleeps with us. When DD#2 moves out of our bed, I plan on DD#1 and #2 sharing a bed. I'd love to be able to fit that bed into our bedroom. So I think that it is just fine!!!! I'm not sure at what age to seperate a DD and a DS, but I'm sure you will just know when it is time.

We just purchased Artistic Pursuits for my kindergartener, who loves art. I havent started it yet, but it looks great! It even touches on real-life artists and painting, then you create your own that's in a similar style. We'll probably go to the local art museum at some point while doing this curriculum.

We are Disney freaks so I definitely want to see this. I may take my 5 year old, I'm not sure. She does not scare easily at all (loves Scooby Doo, monsters, haunted houses, etc). I haven't completely decided to take her, but I'm seriously considering it. Edited to add.....I will not be seeing it right now though. I just cannot do Christmas before Thanksgiving. So hopefully it will still be out after Thanksgiving.

Thanks! The ones at Discount School Supply are cute!!! I forgot to mention that they do not have to be career ones. Any type of chunky wooden people that will stand on their own will work.

I saw this on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/Lot-of-12-4-Chunky-Wooden-Professional-People_W0QQitemZ110451894083QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item19b7722743 I think that my 2 year old DD would really like them. Just wondering if there was anything out there similar to this to purchase new? I also found these: http://www.daxstores.com/gc-166.html But those are really more than I want to pay. Just wondering if any google wizards out there can find them LOL! :D

Thanks for all of your suggestions! I wonder if DH will hint around about what type of magazines they subscribe to. However, that will seem sort of odd to FIL because they do not usually talk about things like that. I also thought of a cookie bouquet....wonder if they would like that? We've done the snapfish books before, but I'm not sure if I have the time to put one together this year.....I usually start doing that in early October. I'll have to see.

DH didn't actually meet his father till he was about 18 years old. They live about 3 hours away from us, so we do not really have a close relationship with them. We see them maybe twice a year for a few hours each time. They are nice people, not religious, had good jobs till FIL got laid off a few months ago. So they have everything they really NEED. We usually just get them a gift card. Sometimes we do framed photos of the kids too. But the GC's are so impersonal. Yet we are not close enough to them to know them too personally. I'd like to get them something unique that they can actually use. After FIL married his wife (about 7 years ago) we got them a name plaque for their home. Not sure if they use it or not since we never go to their home. Any ideas?

Most all Disney movies....Enchanted, Bolt, Up, Parent Trap, The Kid, etc. I also absolutely LOVE Big Fat Liar and My Dog Skip. Because of Winn Dixie is good, as well as The Polar Express.

I was just like you! A few months ago, right after my 5 year old DD turned five, her bottom tooth fell out. Then, a few days later, her other bottom tooth fell out. I wasn't expecting that till 6 or 7 years old!

My 5 year old DD actually likes doing workbooks and stuff like that. So on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday we do school work. It usually takes us about 1.5 hours per day. We do phonics (Explode the Code), Science (her fave subject by far, lots of hands on stuff), Math (just switched from the Critical Thinking Company to Horizons), Bible (stuff that I put together myself), AWANA memory verse for church, and we practice speech (she attends speech therapy twice a week so we go over that). I also just purchased an art program since she's quite the little artist (Artistic Pursuits) so we will begin doing that probably once a week. And possibly some sign language as well since she is really interested in that. On Wednesdays she attends a 4 hour long homeschool group where she goes to different classes with other kids her age. She loves it!