We're just about to start kindergarten the week after Labor Day. We're excited to begin our homeschooling journey. And yet, I still have to be at the mercy of the public school system. It's putting a damper on my excitement. My DD takes speech through the local PS. The ONLY time slot they have since she is not going to kindergarten there is at 1 PM. That really cuts into my day! Every Tues and every Thurs at 1 PM I have to have her at the school. And every Wednesday is homeschool group. I feel like our school time is getting cut out! She's not there for long, but by the time we get ready, drive there, sit there for 30 minutes, get back out to the car, drive home, and settle down to do some more school work, that's going to cut out like 1.5 hours or more. I know, I know, kindy is easy.....but I still gotta have time for it LOL. I just hate going to something that takes a out a slice right smack in the middle of our day. Cause it takes us out of the swing of homeschooling and then we have to get back into it. Easier said than done since I'm easily distracted LOL.

Actually, people probably do not consider me a likeable person. Especailly until they really get to know me. I'm very quiet, very introverted, will sit all by myself in a room full of people, and I'm not that great at carrying on a conversation with people whom I don't know very very well. People may view me as stuck up and snobbish, but soooo far from that. People who know my very well seem to like me though LOL. But you have to know me EXTREMELY well.

Is it okay to take several things at once? Such as probiotics and vitamin D and a multivitamin or elderberry syrup, etc? And how much vitamin D and elderberry syrup should kids take? What about adults?

I used to attend a very large church, the biggest in our city (which is big), and the church services were broadcast on TV and everything. The pastor was an awesome man of God. He would get up there in front of all of those people and those TV cameras every Sunday and preach awesome messages. And you know what? He was the most introverted person ever. He was afraid to talk to people he didn't know, he didn't go out in public very much, etc. He was just so introverted....and yet God gave him boldness to get up there and preach His word. So I do not necessarily think that pastors have to be extroverted and everything.

The link does not take me to anywhere.

My nursing toddler was 26 months old when I got pregnant with #2. I think my milk probably changed taste, as well as started decreasing, because she self weaned about a month later. And this was a kid who loved to nurse a lot. So mine was affected.

Oh EWWWW!!! I detest maggots. One morning years ago I awoke and walked into the kitchen where there were maggots all over the kitchen floor. They were spilling out over the top of the trash can. We must have left some food in the trash can and a fly laid its eggs in there. I took out the trash as quickly as possible and swept up those icky creatures and threw them outside. They I lysoled the floor! Ick!!!

Yes, there's some things that are inappropriate for kids, I believe. Prostitutes and stuff like that. But I agree with another poster....I was really bored during this movie. And it is nearly 3 hours long!

She may not know how to tell you no. I'm like that....I hate refusing when someone is generously offering me something. When it came to my babies, I loved picking out matching things for the nursery and cute new clothes. Maybe she just wants the chance to do soemething like that and doenst know how to decline without hurting your feelings. I'd give her a few more days and then just donate elsewhere.

We do not even know that many kids! I do not mind big expensive birthdays (whatever floats their boat) but we do not have the money to do something like that. I try to make a really nice themed party based on the money we can handle. I love planning themed parties for my kids. We've had Dora, Pirates, Zoo, Mickey Mouse, Webkinz, Happy Feet, etc.

Oh, and I wanted to add.... The computer is MUCH more of a time waster for my husband and I than the TV is. I will sit at the computer and just "surf." I need to cut down on my computer time. I'm fine with the TV LOL. There are many days when my husband and I watch no TV whatsoever. The kids still like their shows in the morning right when they wake up though.

I have not read all the other posts.....but I see it like this....everything in moderation. I know some families whose TV's stay on ALL DAY LONG. That is sooooo not us. We only turn our TV on when there is something specific that we want to watch. We never "surf." My kids are allowed two 30 minutes shows per day. And ocassionally, they will watch one more in the evenings while I'm cooking dinner. And I monitor their shows closely. They are only 5 and 2 now, but I will continue to monitor even when they are older. DH and I watch our favorite shows together after the kids go to bed. We DVR them so that we can watch them at a convenient time and we are not a slave to the programming times. It's our time to relax together.

Mine are 3 years apart, which is what we planned. We LOVE that spacing. DD #1 still got to nurse past two years old, got solo attention as a baby, etc. And when DD #2 came along, our first DD was turning three a month later. She wasnt as needy as a smaller child. And now they are 2 and 5 and they are truly each other's best friends. They play together all the time. I wanted another child about three years after we had DD#2. But I'm just not ready to be pregnant again. I have really bad allergies that make me feel absolutely horrible at times. And I would really love to lose about 25 pounds as well. I'm thinking we may wait another year or two, then have two more kids, with them being about three years apart.

Oh my gosh, I'm soooo cracking up about the little girl who just wants to hug them because she misses them LOL!!! I nursed DD #1 until she was 27 months old. The only reason she weaned (on her own) was because I got pregnant with DD#2 and the taste of the milk changed and was drying up. I remember her going through stages of wanting milk all the time. Now with DD#2, I went through the same thing. Right about the time she was turning two, she wanted to nurse ALL THE TIME. Now she's 29 months and it has tapered off a lot. She nurses maybe three or four times a day now. I can handle that.

Am I the only one whose babies sleep in the crook of their arms while they are small infants? My babies sleep in bed with me...I'm curled up on my side and my babies heads rest right where my elbow bends. I dont trust the medical field in regards to my baby...I trust myself. I've done my research. I believe that SIDS probably has something to do with the fact that a baby will fall into a deep sleep and possibly his/her brain "forgets" to breathe. Maybe because it is still developing, who knows. Hence the whole "Back to Sleep" thing and the current push for babies to use a pacifier. Both of those things keep babies more "awake" during their sleep. But then, I also worry about spitting up and aspirating. Especailly with my second child. She was a chronic spitter, and usually in her sleep. When my babies sleep with me, my breathing acts as a regulator for their breathing. They sleep on their backs, right beside me in my arms, and if they spit up I automatically know it. It works for us. Plus, nursing is waaaay easier when baby is directly beside me.

It's not the sending kids to public school that upsets me. It's how they seem to act like time with their children is just dreadful and they cannot wait to pawn them off on someone else for the whole day. Poor kids.

Yes, it's the moms who say "I cant wait to send my kids back to school" that make me cringe. My aunt talks about it all the time....she cannot wait for my cousins (who are 9 and 11) to get back to school. I always wonder why people have children if they cannot wait to get rid of them for majority of the day, five days a week?

The two best ways to see princesses and not wait a long time.... Book a princess meal. Epcot has one in Norway that several princesses are at. There's Cinderella's Royal Table. There's 1900 Park Fare. But Epcot is the one with the most princesses at it. Another way....we do this often...Get to Magic Kingdom at rope drop (AKA the opening time). Hop on the railroad, take it around to Toon Town and get off there. Wait at the rope till Toon Town opens (it is usually a bit later than MK's opening). Usually Mickey is waiting there. We are often one of the few waiting there. Upon the opening of Toon Town walk directly (and quickly) towards the big "tent" where there are 3 different rooms for meeting characters. Each room has about 3 different characters so you pick which line to get in depending on which characters you want to see. Line 1 is usually something like Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto....Line 2 is usually princesses like Belle, Aurora, and Cinderella....and Line 3 I think is the Tinkerbell fairies. Get in the princess line and you are probably among the first there. Dont walk through the park to get to Toon Town, this is what everyone does. Most do not jump on the railroad and come around the other way. This way you'll fight fewer crowds and be closer to the character greeting area.

I had been praying for ma23peas daughter after I read her post months ago about all the strange symptoms her daughter was having and the doctors could not figure it out. Here's the original thread, followed by two updates, for those who do not remember - http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75707 http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79938 http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86354 I know some of you have probably been praying as well. I got a recent update from her and she gave me permission to update you guys as well. Here's what she wrote: We are scheduled to go to the Mayo Clinic in October, we went to Vanderbilt last week and I wanted to shoot the immunologist with anything...water gun would have worked. Eliza had her tonsils out in June after failing on 6 antibiotics for strep...I'm not sure when I last wrote on WTM..but she had her first positive strep March 1..she failed on omnicef, clindamycin, amoxil, zithrom..etc. We went to an ENT but he said her tonsils were fine....6 more weeks of strep and her tonsils were puss filled and huge...ENT said out they come and it will end our strep saga. We're now 8 weeks post op and she's tested positive for strep 3x...we've had penicillin shots, rocephin shots, and more amoxicillin...I begged the immunologist to just give her a round of IV antibiotics..she REFUSED saying she thinks that my daughter is a carrier...that's the phrase I get now, the problem is she is SYMPTOMATIC and ALL this stems from her infxn at Christmas...how in the world did her tonsils go from grade 1 to grade 4 in 10 weeks??? Since her tonsillectomy she has had daily abdominal pains, makes sense to me that with her tonsils gone, the strep is being swallowed down to her GI...she was scoped yesterday and he wants to put her on proton-pump inhibitors..also ignoring the positive streps..they ignore it because her fevers don't go over 100...ever since March they've been 99.1-99.9...she complains of sore throat, lethary, her pallor is pale with circles under her eyes, muscle weakness, muscle spasms, knee pain, chest pain..the ped/cards refuse to diagnose rheumatic fever b/c her migratory arthralgia in Jan/Feb never resulted in swollen/red joints...finally, I found a ped/card at Lebonheur who says 40% of his patients do not present with redness/swelling...so we see him in 2 weeks...it's just time for her to be well and live the life of a 10 year old. The Vanderbilt doc suggested that she was feigning it and/or needed a child psychologist to teach her how to handle the pain...I about flipped! Pain is a gift from God to let us know something is WRONG!! This child does not even flinch while being given penicillin/rocephin shots/IV's/having blood drawn, she took a bad fall off a horse a few years ago and her helmet CRACKED, she never cried but had a concussion! So when she is woken in the middle of the night with horrible abdominal cramping/muscle spasms in her legs, there is no amt of 'therapy' that can stop her pain...they need to find out what is CAUSING IT!! I so hope our experience is not repeated with other children...if it were only mandatory that they do a strep test on children who complain of sore throats before giving steroid only therapy...this all could have been prevented in my mind. God is good, we take each day as it comes and welcome the little blessings..He is going to use this somehow in her life...she is so empathetic and concerned about those who suffer...just wish she didn't have to!

I havent read all the other replies....but here's what I do... If the child acts pretty good despite the fever, no matter how high it is, I do not medicate. But if the fever gets to be about 104, I start to get a bit nervous. I've never had a child feeling good with a fever around 104 degrees though. If they begin to feel really lousy, laying around, lethargic, etc, I give them medicine. If they are running a fever at bedtime, I always medicate at bedtime because I do not want the fever to spike really high overnight and I wont be aware of it. And I set my alarm for the middle of the night to check their fever as well.

I sooooo want to do a Disney cruise. I get dizzy/off balance/sick so easily though. I'm scared of spending days at sea being sick and desperate to get back to land. And I know there are things that I can take or wear....but my mind tells me I'll still feel sick!

Hmmmm....I would be hesitant. Especailly the 12 hours away part. And especailly due to the food allergies. I guess it all depends on how close you are to your mother and how much she knows about your children's food allergies. I would definitely have her stay at your house with them as opposed to hers. That way, you can create a "safe zone" and tell her not to bring any food into the house other than what you already have in there. And no taking them out to eat while you are gone. I'm not sure that I would be able to relax. My kids are 5 and 2 and we've never left them overnight (my 5 year old does spend the night with my parents sometimes though). I trust my parents with them completely, but I'm just not ready yet. And mine do not have food allergies as yours does. Time with hubby is definitely important, but you would need to trust your mother with them completely for it to work.

Thank you soooo much for all of your replies! It's good to hear other people confirm that what I'm seeing is not just in my head. On another board I'm a member of, someone mentioned to me that I should stop trying to label her because the world is full of labels and putting one on her is just hurting her. That's not what I'm after. I'm not after a label. I'm after any possible help that she might need so that she can grow into a well-adjusted, confident adult one day. I think I'll print out this list and make a visit to the ped soon. I'd love to make a visit without my DD....I'm not sure how I'd do that though.

She's a rule follower. Sometimes to an obsessive extent. For example, she knows I do not allow them to eat a lot of junk food. But I do not ban it completely, I still allow them to have small amounts of it. If she's over at my parents house and they offer her a BITE of a cookie or a tiny piece of candy, she will not eat it until they have contacted me. Even if my mom says it is okay for her to eat it, she will tell them to call me and ask me. And she does it frantically, almost like she's scared to eat it till I say so. She has never been yelled at for eating junk food, never gotten in trouble, never anything like that. She just knows that we try to steer away from it most of the time. Even if my husband tells her she can have a cookie, that's not good enough for her. She tells him that she has to ask mommy. And here's an extreme example. One time she saw the Spongebob show on TV. I nicely explained to her that I would prefer us not to watch Spongebob. She willingly complied, as she always does with specific rules that I set. A few days later, we were walking through the store and she suddenly becomes very withdrawn. She looks afraid, she puts her hands over her eyes, and she will not speak and tell me what's the matter. I was completely lost....I had no idea what was wrong with her. It took 15 minutes of coaxing before I finally realized that she had seen a shirt with Spongebob on it. And that's what caused the reaction she displayed. I tried to explain to her that seeing a shirt with Spongebob on it is fine, seeing toys and pictures of him is fine....I just didnt' want her watching it on TV. But this same reaction continued every time she saw a picture of Spongebob for several months. And she asks "Why" all the time. All. The. Time. I'm sooooo glad that she's curious and inquisitive, but she asks "why" non-stop. I find myself saying things like " I dont know" or "It just is" most of the time, because her questions really do not have answers. Questions like "why did they paint the wall white?" I'll say "because they liked it." And she'll say "why?" And my answer will be "they just do." And things like "what is that spot on the ground?" I'll say "I dont know sweetie." And she'll continue with "But what is it?? What is it??? Why is it there???" She's extremely tempermental. We just feel like we walk on eggshells sometimes to keep her from having a meltdown. I just get so frustrated sometimes. I know that in the grand scheme of things that could be wrong with a child, we have it easy. But it is so frustrating a lot of the time. Does this sound like OCD or just a quirky child? Or something else? Some of these things go through stages or phases and then taper off. I just wonder if I should take her to see someone, and if so, who? I've mentioned things to our pediatrician before and she seemed to just say that kids have quirks sometimes. I believe it is more than that. I do not want my DD medicated or anything like that.....I guess I just more want something for me. Maybe how to handle things with her better. Do I give into her "quirks" or do I stand my ground and make her do things my way? Do I repeat things just how she wants me to? Or do I stand my ground and refuse to repeat them how she wants? I just don't know. I know that all of this has made DD seem horrible.....but let me add that DD 5 has some truly wonderful qualities as well. She loves Jesus and talks about him often. She loves singing to Him. She is the absolute best big sister that a little sister could ever ask for. She watches over her little sister, plays well with her, loves her. She has always been mature for her age. She has NEVER gotten into anything that she is not allowed to (never, not even as a toddler or baby). She follows the rules. She's responsible. I could honestly leave her alone with our two year old to babysit her and she would do an excellent job of watching over her (of course, I would never do that though). She's very curious and inquisitive about the world and how it works. She's eager to learn, loves to do crafts, plays on a soccer team, very empathtic and caring towards people. So has a lot of good qualities....but I cannot help but wonder if she'd benefit from some sort of therapy? Does anyone have any insight? Any recommendations or advice? If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading!!! Again, I'm sooooo sorry this is so long LOL!

Please help me decide whether my daughter is merely quirky or whether she has some form of OCD. I've always wondered whether or not she may have OCD, but she is getting to be very high maintanence here lately. She is five years old. I dont know whether or not to take her to talk to someone or if I'm just looking too much into her quirks. I'll just list her "quirks" and see what you think.... She's always needed the food on her plate where it is not touching....at all. She must use different utensils for each food. And if something intermingles, a meltdown begins. She has a sensitive gag reflex. If she sees a crumb of food sitting on the table, she gags. If there's lint anywhere, she gags. If there's food dropped on a shirt, she gags. We have to make sure there's no crumbs or little particles of anything in sight so that she doesnt gag and "freak out." And by "freak out" I mean that she goes into "drama queen mode" where she'll get up and run across the room telling us to "get it! get it!" And she will not sit back down until the crumb, lint, etc has been cleaned up. She went through a particularly frustrating time last summer. Suddenly, she refused to go into her Sunday School class, she would not go play soccer on the field with her team, she would not leave our side. We talked to her endlessly about whether someone was mean to her, whether she got in trouble by a teacher, whether someone touched her inappropriately, whether she was afraid, etc, etc. Nothing ever came of it. A few months passed and she was fine again. She went into Sunday School again and played soccer without crying. And also, during this time, she began "hoarding" trash. She'd see a piece of trash on the ground outside and want to pick it up and keep it. She wouldnt throw away any trash in our home. She'd stuff it into her desk and keep it there. She'd save the wrappes to fruit snacks. She'd cry and freak out if she got a new toy and we tried to throw away the wrapper. Thank goodness this only lasted for a few months because I was losing my mind. She also went through a stage last summer where she would ask "what" all the time. We knew that she could hear us, but we took her to the pediatrician anyways for a hearing test. Her hearing was fine and her ears were clear. But every time we would say something, her response would be "what?" However, if we stopped and said "Paisley, what did we say?" She could tell us what we said. So it's like the "what" was just another quirk. Same thing happened late last year. She would "hurt" herself and say "ouch". We HAD to repsond with "it's okay" or she would freak out and cry until we responded that way. However, she didn't really hurt herself....if her leg would brush something, she would say "ouch". If she barely bumped her arm, she would say "ouch." And we know it did not really hurt her. She'd never cry unless we failed to respond with "it's okay" and we even asked her if it really hurt and she would say no. Lately she's been licking her arms, fingers, hands. And she tells me "Mommy, I licked myself." And I have to acknowledge her and say "okay" or else she gets upset. Not to mention I've been working with her on NOT licking herself due to the hygeine issues. But when I began bringing the licking to her attention, that's when she started telling me every single time she licks herself. She's very very very shy. When someone talks to her and she does not know them, she will not even acknowledge them. Doesn't look at them, doesn't respond to them, just pretends they are not even there. But with our family, grandparents, aunts, she is just wonderful. She's interactive, playful, loving, etc. But if she does not know them, she'll ignore them. I've worked with her over and over about this. I think there's a line between being shy and rude. I'm very shy myself....I cannot carry on a conversation to save my life. You'll find me sitting alone in a group of people. So I know what it is like. But I feel she's just being rude by ignoring people she does not know. I feel she should make eye contact and give them a one word answer if they ask her a question. But she will not even do that. She has no friends. The only kids she plays with is her little sister and her 2 cousins that we see about once a month. She will not talk to kids at church, at soccer, storytime, etc. While I'm thrilled that her little sister is her best friend and would not have it any other way, I wish she'd at least make some contact with other children. But she will ignore them if they make any contact with her. She wont speak to them. She's always had a speech issue. At 20 months old she was still making noises only, no words at all. So I had her evaluated and she qualified for therapy. She was in therapy for about a year. At the end of that year her vocabulary was normal, her sentences were normal, etc. But her articulation was still bad. Her therapist said this would come with time and she tested out of speech. This was right before she turned three years old. By the time she was four years old, she was still having articulation issues. Even I could not understand her often. So I had her evaluated again and she qualified for therapy again. So she took therapy last year through our public school system. She'll qualify again this year too. I still have LOTS of trouble understanding her. Again, her sentences, structure, and vocabulary are all within (if not beyond) her age....but I have trouble understanding her. I understand her and our two year old about the same. I often wonder if some of her issues with not talking to anyone stems from the fact that she's scared they may not be able to understand her. Because honestly, I dont see how anyone outside our family understands much of what she says. I've asked her if she's scared people will not understand her, but I dont think she's old enough to grasp that fact and vocalize it to us. She's very particular about things sometimes. She is not over excessive about washing her hands, but she's very conscious of if they are dirty or not. She will not touch money very often because she has to wash her hands afterwards. This is her doing, not mine. I mentioned ONCE that money is pretty dirty and we should not handle a bunch of money and then go putting our hands all into our mouth. Now she washes her hands after she handles any money. She's very conscious about washing her hands often. And again, it's not over excessive like I've heard of some OCD people doing, but I can see where it could very easily migrate that way one day. Hopefully not, but I can see the possibility. If she gets a new stuffed animal, she does not want her new one to touch any of her "old" ones because they are "dirty." They are not old and they are not dirty by any stretch of the word. She takes very good care of them and keeps them clean. But she has a meltdown if a new stuffed animal touches and "old" one. She has started a tic where she will blink her eyes all the time. I understand tics, I have mild ones myself. But I wish she didnt have to go through the annoyance of tics. This is her first one and it has actually gotten better of the past few days. But it was definitely noticeable by our family members. She makes it difficult to go into stores with her. She will talk obessively about everything in the store. This seems to be more than just a talkative child thing. She'll point to things, tell me to look at everything she points at, and if I do not stop and look, she freaks out and has a meltdown. A quick trip into Wal Mart could easily turn into thirty or fourty-five minutes because she must point to things and I must look at them if I want to avoid a meltdown. Whenever she watches a TV show, she calls me every few minutes and tells me to look at something on the show. Or tells me something they said. I mean this can be something like "Clifford said he's hungry." She will pause it, call me, and tell me this. ALL THE TIME. In a thirty minute show, this can easily happen 10 or 15 times. Random things like "Clifford is holding a ball." ****CONTINUED IN NEXT POST.....IT SAID I HAD TOO MANY CHARACTERS IN ONE POST********