I'm interested in this as well, as I'm thinking of getting these for my girls. They are only 5 and 2 though.....I imagine they need more as they get older and start building more elaborate things.

We do not really have a set amount. But I estimate that we probably spend about $100 per kid on birthday......and probably about $400 - $500 between them for Christmas. It's hard to break up that amount per kid because they share quite a bit of gifts, and then have some of their own as well. Plus, we do a few gifts from Santa. And we do a "Jesus" gift when we have our birthday party for Jesus on Christmas night (they get a "christian" related gift).

Yep, you are exactly right. Which is why, in addition to refusing most vaccinations, we also eat as much organic food that we can.

:iagree:

I think I'll put the following on my list....but my list is nowhere near finalized LOL.... new camera lens laptop Super Mario Wii That's all I have so far but I'm sure I'll think of more.

For us, I judge it by the chance I think my child has of catching the particular illness, and the most likely severity of it. For example, we do not do the chickenpox vaccine. It's usually a relatively mild childhood illness. However, if my children have not naturally gotten chickenpox by the time they are late teens, we'll probably have a titer done to see if they have an immunity to it. If not, I may get them the chickenpox vaccine since shingles can be pretty painful in an adult. And of course, I pray about it as well.

Perplexing and sad? Really? Have you read up on vaccinations? You are injecting a foreign chemical into your child's body. I think it's a bit far fetched to deem it as sad. Don't we all do what we think is best for our childrens lives? While we choose not to vaccinate, I would never tell another parent that it is sad if they choose to vaccinate. I would hope that they have done their research though, before injecting a foreign chemical.

Wow, really? We really liked it. And believe me, I'm one to screen my kids movies well. I was really NOT looking forward to seeing this movie because I thought it might be really cheesy.....but I was surprised. I actually liked the story line of the girl being a nerd, then trying to be "cool". Why? Because it happens. And at the end, she went back to being "nerdy" because that's who she really was and she didn't care what others thought, even when they made fun of her. Because people WILL make fun of you in real life if you are different. The only part that was really stupid was the diaper baby/man. And especailly when he became a chicken. :confused:

I have several reasons for not getting it. For one, the mercury really freaks me out. For two, it was so rushed. Anything that I'm injecting into my body that is so rushed to create really makes me hesitant. I want a test group to be followed.....for long enough to see long term effects of the vaccine. And for three, I'm hesitant of ALL vaccines. We selectively vax.

LOL! That was hilarious!!! The chair in the sky comment was great!!!! And the Kanye comment was great too LOL!

Mine is 5.

I hear ya. I've been keeping my eye out for some new clothes for my girls. I refuse to let my 5 year old dress like a skank.

My husband would probably do it....he LOVES to buy things and resell it. Me, however, I do not. The extra money is nice but it is SOOOO time consuming. It also depends on how big of a discount you can get on it all. I've found that only certain things sell really well online.

Two weeks is definitely not enough time yet for the nipples to "toughen up." Tell her to stick with it and it will get easier and easier each day. I nursed DD #1 for 27 months with no issues whatsoever. My nipples really never even hurt in the beginning. When DD#2 came along, I thought that I would be a pro since nursing DD#1 for that long. Uhhh, no LOL. DD#2 had a correct latch, but a small one. She would not take the nipple deep enough into her mouth. Nothing really helped except for time. I went to see the lactation consultant at the hospital who checked her latch (which I already knew was fine). Other than that, I used lanolin a bit when they were cracked. It just took a few weeks of DD#2 adjusting to nursing and how to suck. It was a painful few weeks!

Me too....I tell DH that I have to have my ice cream "chunky". He just doesn't understand it LOL. I'm not sure I do either.

I consider us to be conservative Christian. We do not "go all out" for Halloween. We don't decorate, we don't do gore, we don't put it "high" on our list of priorities. But we do dress up and trick or treat. In fact, we attend Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party each year at Disney World. We don't dress as witches, bloody, gory, evil, revealing costumes. Just simple and fun and lots of candy. We would not be offended at a Halloween party unless it involved the things I listed above.

Ewww, sorry, I could not even imagine it. I couldn't even come to terms with second cousins either.

Oooh, I totally forgot about that! They have a huge clearance section! I'll be hitting Books A Million in the near future!

Thanks for all of the great suggestions!!! I really like the book idea. Would it be totally cheap to buy them paperback books as opposed to hardcovers? I'm not sure if I could find hardcovers for $5. I saw the $5 hardcover books at Kohl's, but those are so popular that the kids may already have those books. I like the gift card idea as well, but I think I'm going to keep that in mind till they get older. At this age, they will probably like something more tangible better. When they are older, I really won't know what to get them LOL, so gift cards to McDonald's or an ice cream shoppe will be great. I may put some sort of Christmas candy with the books, not sure yet though. I guess it depends on how much the books cost. I can handle books for 0-6 years old.....but what do kids after that like? What about 10 year olds? What kind of stuff do they read?

DH has lots of little cousins on his side of the family. There's probably about 10 of them, ranging in age from about a year or two old until about 10 years old. I'm trying to get a jump on Christmas shopping. I hate wandering around a week before Christmas and wondering what to get those hard-to-shop-for-people. And these cousins for the bill. Because there are so many, and we are not really close with them, I dont want to spend a whole lot. It would be awesome if I could stick to around $5 per child. I have no idea what to get that wont seem like junk. And the thing is, their families have quite a bit of money, so I always feel like I get them things that will end up in the trash. It would be great if I could find one item that I could get for each kid....the same item so it would make shopping easier and I could just purchase ten of them. But that's tough with that age range. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Ummm....wow. I don't even have any words. She's really got to be nuts, right? If that was MY kid, they would be in bed for the day! Shoot, if my kids even have a bad cold, I keep them out of the nursery at church so I do not expose other children. And honestly, even if she is not concerned for the well-being of other children on the team, why would she risk having her son out there and potentially having him pass out or something due to exerting himself when he's obviously very sick? Looks like she doesn't even have any concern for her own son either.

Doesn't bother me at all.....I use it often. Like someone else mentioned, it sounds fun and affectionate to me.

I got married at 19 years old. That being said, DH is three years older than me and already had his college degree and had just gotten a stable job at a good company. I was a year out of high school, had only done a little college, and was working part-time. It would have been rough had DH been the same age as me.

I totally forgot this was coming on TV! After I saw this thread my husband and I watched both episodes on Hulu. LOVED it!!! I can't wait for Thursday's episode.

I think of "mathy" as good at math and enjoying doing math. I've never used the word, but it's shorter to write then "is good at math and likes to do math."