Totally off topic, but this reminds me of a friend of mine whose mom used to tie sliced potatoes to the bottom of her feet with socks whenever she had a fever... she swears it helps bring down the fever every time... :confused:

We've had a lot of success with adding a high quality liquid calcium/magnesium supplement to dd's diet. It's not an instant fix like ibuprofen is but certainly it does make the pain go away. If we stay with the supplements the pain doesn't come back, but she will complain of leg pain if we take her off the calcium for a longer period of time. We see a naturpath regularly. According to him, growing pains are not a normal part of growing up and should not be present if the child has good stores of calcium and magnesium. Again, this is NOT my opinion, just what I have been told. I take this with a grain of salt because I don't think our naturpath has the answer to *everything* He is very knowledgeable however and I do trust his opinion.

Can I come too?? Please... :001_tt2:

Hhhmmmm. Now all this *bossiness* is going to make us feel like we HAVE to do it. :gnorsi: :D And there's always that part of me that just wants to rebel. I will not conform... I will not conform... :willy_nilly: Good idea, though. I like it! ;)

I usually always measure big for my dates and I tend not to get worked up about it unless it happens consistently from appointment to appointment. For me, I'll have one appt. where I'll be like you- really big for my date, but by the time I go for the next one I'm closer to measuring where I *should* be. If you really don't want an u/s (which I understand, I avoid u/s whenever not necessary too) can you wait until the next appointment and see what you are measuring then? If you are still really big for dates, then have an u/s then? That's what I would do. But, the blood pressure is a bit of a concern. That being said, with this last pg, the nurse I had always too my bp 3 times b/c it was always really high the first time. By 5 min later it would be back to normal. She would laugh and say, "must have been the walk down the hall!" I appreciate her doing that b/c if we'd gone with the initial bp each time my doc would have had a heart attack! Congrats on the pg and hope all goes well...

ooh. That's a tough one. My initial thought was to go with the theme/amusement park because I know how difficult it can be to have 3 kids in the water at one time. It can get stressful trying to keep any eye on them all. Your kids are older so that isn't as much of an issue, but still... a 3yo in a pool is busy work for mom! I also find it a lot of working getting kids in/out of a pool but... mine are girls and have long hair to deal with. As for the theme/amusement park... are there enough rides that all 3 boys can go on? Will one of them feel left out if there are only 2 kids allowed on per ride? Will you be going on rides with them? If one of the boys will tend to be "left out" or will have to wait his turn to go on rides, then you'd be better off with getting water park passes. Hmmm. I guess that wasn't a very decisive answer, was it? :001_huh: sorry.

Granted, I am NOT the most experienced one to be answering this, but here goes... My dd6 does this too! It drives me completely batty! I would get really frustrated with myself for what I was doing wrong. She still does the rolling around, scrunch face thing (I can't seem to put an end to that), but I have noticed that the content of what we are reading has a big influence on how she will answer the questions. We had similar issues with SOTW and I noticed it mostly when we did the earlier chapters re: China, Africa etc. I would get "I dunno" almost constantly even though we had just finished reading the sentence and reviewing the answer! When we got back to Egypt and other topics that are of great interest to her, she never missed a single question- she could name all the Pharoahs even though the SOTW AG stated that the kids wouldn't remember the name etc. Even her narrations were filled with better detail and she would give them back to me with much enthusiasm. Perhaps it is the same with your dd.

CONGRATULATIONS! I'm so glad to hear that it all ended well and that you are both doing good! YAY! Can't wait to see pics of him!

We do about 1-1/2 hours of actual, in-your-seat work each day. Daily we do math, reading, spelling, science and grammar (FLL). History and Latin 3x per week so that would be extra time added on in the afternoon. On the days that we have difficulty remembering what 6+6 is or when EVERYTHING is a distraction, she can spend up to 2-1/2 hours in her seat, though not all at one time! ;)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Hope the year ahead brings you much happiness.

Baking soda. Just sprinkle it over the diapers if the pail get smelly. I find, I usually wash the diapers each evening or every other evening and that usually isn't enough time for the pail to really stink. If it does, baking soda has always done the trick for me.

I'm trying to understand what is behind this behaviour. I have caught my 6yo in several lies over the past few weeks. I don't get angry but give her a chance to tell the truth instead. She only does about 1/2 of the time. The other 1/2 she either tells another lie or lies while trying to make an excuse for the first offence. Is this a "normal" phase kids go through or have I totally failed parenting 101? We've always read books on virtues and she is quick to pick out little stories of kids lying & how it is wrong. Neither dh or I lie to our kids, white lies or not, it just simply isn't done around here. What have you done with your dc to help them to stop?? What is appropriate punishment for lying??

It hasn't been 5 years for me, but it has been 2. I always seem to go when I'm pregnant... so no x-rays. The dentist is getting a bit annoyed with that... :D and the hygenist thinks we're crazy.

I was in line at a store one day, preggo and with my little group of 3 young ones as a gentleman in the line up was staring at us in amazement. He was very kind and asked if they were all mine (duh). After that, he exclaimed "and you look so happy!" I just looked at him, smiled sweetly and said "if you can't find happiness in your own children, where are you going to find it?" He looked at me again for a moment, thought about what I said, and said, "you know, that is very true." Then he smiled and left us alone... I shocked myself by actually saying something like that to a stranger as it's not really my personality. But it was a great feeling afterwards!

Sounds wonderful! Enjoy! Have a super time! :cheers2:

Am I the only one who is going through this with dd6 right now? I can't get her to listen. It's frustrating me to the point of tears. On top of that, she is so easily distracted when doing her school work lately that doing 1 lesson of Horizons math is taking up to an hour and a half. And even then, she is getting some of her math facts wrong. Granted, not a majority or anything but 1-3 per lesson, depending on the day. With how long she is taking with her math & all stuff that comes with a new baby, we are barely getting any school done. I need her working on school work b/c if she isn't busy her and the younger ones terrorize the house and it's like a tornado ran through here after 10 minutes. It's like she has suddenly forgotten the rules of putting toys back and picking up after herself. Granted, I know at this age they need reminding but it's getting ridiculous around here. I'm going crazy!! I'm trying to keep her busy with things and she will get interested in something, ask me to take out the supplies (paints etc.) do it for 4 min. then take off. She asks for a picture to colour (printed from internet) colours 1/6 of it and then she's done. I want to blame it all on the new baby and hope that things will be better in a month but the groundwork for this seemed to have started before babe was born. It's just that much worse now. She doesn't complain about doing school, in fact she rather enjoys it... but... if I leave or I stop watching her for more than a few minutes she's off somewhere doing who-knows-what... until I call her back.... then start cycle again. Someone help me. I need encouraging words... I'm going to lose what little is left of my mind!....

:party: Happy Anniversary! So glad to hear you found so much happiness in your lives, despite the sadness. Congrats!

:001_tt2: Ha Ha! Cute joke!

So true. I couldn't have said it any better. :iagree:

LG front loader... all the way BAYYBEEEE!!! :thumbup: We love ours!!! Yup, I'm in a GREAT, SUPER-DUPER mood today!! :D

Mine likes to read: Burgess books Little House on the Prairie Boxcar Children Pathway Readers Amelia Bedelia Barbie chapter books Oh gotta run, I'll add to the list when I can... :001_smile:

We're almost done year 1. I was put off purchasing it due to the reviews on amazon as well. I'm glad we went ahead and got it anyways. DD LOVES it and is learning and retaining a LOT! I think it's just the information she needs for her age level & have never felt that it is "talking down" to her. We use the AG as well and I try to get as many of the supplemental books out from the library that I can.- although, this doesn't mean they all get read :rolleyes: Dd enjoys most of the activities and History is the subject she looks forward to the most. If she had her way we would do 2 chapters of SOTW every day!

But I have read in many places, and have spoken to a health nurse about food poisoning (not recently but about 1 year ago when dd ate some uncooked hamburger meat (ground beef) and I was a basket case about it). Apparently some forms of food poisoning can take up to 1 month to manifest themselves. That is why it is often difficult to find out what food was responsible. When I was concerned about dd, the nurse told me that if she were to get food poisoning it could happen anywhere up to 10 days after. It was a stressful week!

You have a Great Dane??? :drool5: We SO want to get a Dane for our family!!! I'd be upset too if it meant no second Dane... I guess that isn't helping you feel better about this situation though, is it? :D

Honey-Mustard Chicken SAUCE: 1/3 cup dijon mustard 1/3 cup honey 2 tbspn dill (dry or fresh) 1 tsp freshly grated orange peel Preheat oven to 400*F. Combine mustard & honey in small bowl. Stir in dill and orange peel. Line baking sheet w/foil. Place chicken, skin-side down, on pan. Brush sauce on top of chicken; coat well. Turn chicken over. Gently pull back skin & brush meat w/sauce. Pull skin back over sauce. Cover chicken with remaining sauce. Bake until juices run clear, about 30 min. Enjoy! Our whole family LOVES this recipe. It's delicious and perfect, (I think) for a rainy day. Goes wonderful with rice.