I second the nomination. :001_smile:

Life is Beautiful, when the little boy says, "We won! A thousand points to laugh like crazy about!" (Of course he says it in Italian which I can't speak :001_smile:) That movie makes me cry like a baby. Anne of Avonlea: Paraphrasing of course from the scene when Anne goes to Gilbert's bedside as he is close to death. Anne: It's a wedding present(referring to her book which she had dedicated to him). Gilbert: There's not going to be a wedding, Anne. Anne: Gilbert, don't talk like that. You're going to get better... Gilbert: No, Anne, I mean I broke it off, there couldn't be anyone for me but you...blah blah blah, sniff, sniff, sniff Swing Kids, at the end as the brother swings the umbrella while shouting, "Swing Heil!"

Top 5 so far: Tale of Despereaux The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane The Borrowers Charlotte's Web The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe We've also enjoyed the Little House series.

I am somewhat envious of the moms who seem to be able to do it all--homeschool very well while keeping a clean house and feeding healthy foods to their families. Of course, people could be lying, but I do think there are some very accomplished teachers with great organizational skills and healthy habits here. I am very grateful for my wonderful husband and his fantastic family. My in-laws are very dear to me and the boards help me realize that that is not terribly common.

Congratulations on your beautiful addition. She is a cutie, and I love the name. We had considered it for my now 6 dd.

Congratulations! Our wee one turned one on July 3rd. I think the fourth is a great holiday to be born on or close to. Hope you get some sleep! Happy holding :001_smile: They stay little for such a short time. Dawn

Co-slept and fed on demand with #1. I tried to be more scheduled with #2, but soon fell back into familiar patterns. While I am opposed to rigorous scheduling, I think that some structure is good for them. As Flo said, being proactive about naps is a very good thing. It helps avoid the meltdowns that come with baby being overtired. Sawyer goes down much better when he just starts to get tired than if I wait much longer. Currently I rock him and sing. But I have just started letting him cry a little in his bed. I'm hoping to gently encourage him to be able to go to sleep without me. I would advise you to brush up on latching techniques and troubleshooting tips re: breastfeeding. I made the mistake of thinking that just because things went so well the first time they would do so this time. Sawyer was what they call tongue-tied and had trouble latching on properly. I was so sore, felt like a failure and almost gave up. However, after a little coaching from Dh who did some research on the computer, things got much better. I purchased a hand-made Moby-like wrap. It was great for those early months and even helped tremendously when we traveled by plane later on. I don't think the baby wipe warmer is necessary. Lots of burp cloths--I bought a package of cloth diapers for this--and lots of onesies are helpful to have on store. Zout is really good at getting the baby poo out. Be prepared also to take your time getting back into the swing of things postpartum. Recovery was better for me the 2nd time around (mostly because I had some idea of what to expect), but I jumped the gun a bit and assumed I was recovered when I still needed to give myself a little more time.

:grouphug: So sorry you are going through this. When I first moved to CA after graduating from college, I fell into a similar relationship. There was an older lady attending the young singles class. She was rather ostracized and I felt sorry for her. I befriended her, and quickly discovered that things were not as they should be. She wanted to do everything, EVERYTHING together. When I got invited to a new church I was ecstatic at the opportunity to sever ties. I called and told her that I would not be coming to church. She insisted that I pick her up and take her with me. I said no. I told where I would be going, that she was free to attend, but she would have to make it there on her own. I got in late that Saturday to a note that she had a flat tire and needed me to pick her up Sunday morning to take her to church. Ugh. I totally felt stalked and emotionally manipulated. It was difficult, but I had to shut down the entire relationship. It wasn't safe, it wasn't edifying. As a Christian I really struggled with making that call, but know that it was the right one. Things were getting quite scary. I don't know if you have to completely cut off the relationship, but you may. If she is unable to work with you re: boundaries, cutting the relationship off may be the only way to move forward. Again, I am so sorry you have to go through this right now, and your poor daughter also. It breaks my heart, as I know that individuals struggling in this area desperately need something. But, it is something that they truthfully cannot get from us. Dawn

I recently tracked down my college Greek professor to ask a similar question. Here was his response: HTH, Dawn

Lanacaine Maximum strength helps my daughter who suffers from very big welts when bitten. I don't know how young it is safe to use on, but we've used it for the past two years. It's the only thing that has given her relief.

My baby was one yesterday! And, yes the time does fly. She's just beautiful!

The cast cracked me up several times. The show is generally about cluttered homes, not dirty homes. They all seemed rather mortified by this one. The "litter box" was the kicker. Ugh. Niecy said she was glad for the viewers that there was no such thing as smellevision. They even gave a tutorial about removing smells. I love watching this show, but this particular episode was so depressing to me. Not just the mess but the apparent hopelessness that the couple would actually be able to maintain the home without falling right back into the same patterns.

Our most recent hit was The Borrowers by Mary Norton. My dh LOVED reading it to dd. However, he doesn't want me to get the sequels because he felt the one book was so perfect and complete; he's afraid there's no way the sequels could be equals. :001_smile: Other than that, Kate DiCamillo books have captured us all.

Well, I actually didn't like this season until the last three episodes or so. I would definitely encourage you to watch. It's a bummer that we have to wait so long for the rest, but as a LOST fan, I'm used to it. :001_smile:

Dd doesn't change many diapers now, but when ds was a few months old she changed a couple of wet ones. Now I have her on entertainment or hand-holding duty as ds's hands go straight to his diaper area as soon as he hears the velcro. :001_smile: Since his birth, we have used the correct terms for male and female parts. It's only natural that they observe differences and are curious about them. It has gone no further than, "Hey, boys are different than girls." I think it is easy to over-think these things, especially given the distance between them. However, I think your dh will soon see that this isn't as big of an issue as he supposed.

Someone posted this link--St. Nick for kids--last year. It may be of some help.

Right now, and for over a year, the staple goodnight song for dd is "Hush, Little Baby." My routine is always sing the song, pray, start a cd, say goodnight. With my little guy, I'm always singing while I rock him, and he "sings" along. I like to sing "Hush, Little Baby" to lots of different tunes. Sometimes I sing hymns, praise songs, show tunes or other kid songs. I sang "Rock-a-bye Baby" all the time to dd when she was smaller. When she got older, I let her pick her goodnight song. She always picked the longest song she knew. :001_smile:

As Julie already said, Attic is the older of the two and is referred to as "classical" Greek. Koine came from Attic and is more simplified. The two are very similar, and it would be very easy to go from Attic to Koine. Going from Koine to Attic would require more work, but Koine would still provide a good start for a child who would later want to study Attic. The vocabulary of modern Greek is very different from either of these.

This time around I loved Pampers Swaddlers as long as they fit...they only go up to 2 or maybe 2/3. When he outgrew them I switched to Cruisers. He started to get awful rashes, big welts. I thought the rash was food related and couldn't figure out what was causing it. A nursery worker suggested it might be an allergy to the diapers. I, of course, pshawed that since I was using top of the line pampers for goodness sakes...:001_smile: However, as soon as I switched to Huggies, the rash completely disappeared. So, it is so child-specific, I think. I do love the Swaddlers though for the wee, wee ones.

I'm not certain, so maybe someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you just give them the email address you have attached to your paypal account. Then they send the payment to that address and paypal emails you to let you know you have received a payment. I think it's that simple, but, as I stated, I may be wrong. I think that you will be set up to accept non-credit card payments. If I remember correctly, the first time I received a credit card paypal payment, the email from paypal asked if I wanted to accept the payment since there was an added fee for credit card payments at that time. Now it seems that there are fees taken out of every payment. I hope I've helped a little, but at least I've bumped you up so someone more knowledgeable can help more.

I really enjoyed that book, too. I'd also recommend H.C. Trumball's "Hints on Child Training." I haven't finished it yet...but it has already impacted me. I rarely have time to actually finish books anymore, and just glean when I get the opportunity. I'm also enjoying "Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit," and I'm looking forward to reading Lou Priolo's "Heart of Anger."

I've been using GWG 1/2. It has been a very good fit for us. Our homeschool group had a Language Arts night where we brought all of our LA materials to share with the other moms. I was so excited to share GWG because so many of them had never seen it. However, after that night I was very intimidated by Shurley. GWG is definitely not as "intense" (not sure if that is the right word) as Shurley. GWG 1/2 spends a lot of time on each part of speech, and is divided by nouns, verbs, etc. Shurley seems to throw them all together quickly so the child sees them integrated in sentences. So, in my panic :001_smile: I went out and purchased a used copy of Shurley. I do like a lot that it has to offer--jingles, parsing, vocabulary--but quickly calmed down regarding my discontent with GWG. My daughter is doing well with retention and a more gentle intro to grammar is completely fine at this age. I may add some of the things I like about Shurley into our year next year, but I don't think it is necessary. I have not seen any other editions of GWG, but have gathered from posts here that diagramming begins in GWG 3. Her plan is probably to introduce the children to the parts of speech in 1/2, using repetition and workbook exercises to increase retention, in order to lay a foundation for seeing all the pieces working together in 3. I'm an English major and love grammar for all that's worth. I do feel that this is a very good program, and my daughter LOVES it...to me that is the most important thing.

youtube has this...not sure if this is it or if the two parts make up the whole show, but thought I'd link it in case.

Unfortunately, as we get older losing the weight is a little harder. With my first child it was gone in 6 weeks, with this last one some is still here a year later. Don't be so hard on yourself. I am the one who needs to be hard on myself. I'm not even exercising more than running after my wee one. I'm glad the styles this season are good for camouflage. :001_smile: I'm chanting with Ree "7.9 years, 7.9 years..." (read here if you don't know what I'm talking about). My advice would be to buy just a couple of less expensive items that you feel comfortable in. Continue exercising, drink lots of water and be gentle with yourself, and I bet you'll be where you want to be before you know it.

:grouphug: Being lonely is hard. I'm sorry you are feeling this way. I've enjoyed facebook, but all of my old friends are scattered across the country. I can imagine if they were all together while I was alone that would add insult to injury. I'm with you on the tiaras and lattes though. :001_smile: