Can't offer advice about what to do today, but call Dyson customer service tomorrow or Monday. They are absolutely awesome. Explain that it is less than a year old and it wouldn't suprise me if they send you a brand new one. I did that with my little Dyson handheld, which I LOVE. Their customer service is a big reason I just got a new Dyson cannister vac for my 10-year wedding anniversary:)

Me too:( When we go to FIL's house at Christmas in England he keeps it just at 65 during the day and off at night😩 AND he turns off the hot water, says there is no need for it?! He boils the kettle for tea and to wash dishes, the rest is icy cold water. Misery, sheer misery. We are skipping this Christmas and traveling to Europe in May:)

Lol, how about writing three numbers greater than 912,000 AND three numbers less than 900, 250. Write all six from least to greatest:)

One other thing--get there super early if possible. You can no longer assume that you will be reasonably seated near each other. Lat time they actually tried to insist that my then 4 yo would be sitting 2 rows away from me and her dad up one row and over 2 seats. Because of this try to pack snacks and toys in the bags of all adults. Ziplocks are your friends so you can grab out things quickly:)

Ha, I had forgotten about that, but we take inflatable balls too--they double as a cushion to lean forward/sleep on:)

Well, the last time we did it I told hubby I was buying one of these babies for next time. For me. http://m.hammacher.com/Product/Default.aspx?sku=84391 Short of that, you have gotten great advice. I also put together these little packets with ear plugs and individual Tylenol sachets as a comedy way to apologize to the people around you:) We do give our dd a small dose of melatonin at the regular 'new' bedtime so that we can switch schedules as quickly as possible. You won't have trouble getting enough sunlight in Hawaii:) Lots of pillows help too. If you don't want to carry theirs, ask the FA for extras. Lots of snacks, new and novel toys, books on kindle, apps, and endless patience...

Dd5 (turning 6!) has the National Geographic Just Joking collection in the bathroom and absolutely adores it:) It is a nice mix of limericks, jokes, and riddles. All geared toward kids, a bit of potty humor, and some are really clever/funny. http://www.amazon.com/Just-Joking-Collectors-Set-Boxed/dp/1426316143/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1448244910&sr=1-1&keywords=just+joking+national+geographic

Dd is having her first real bday party with kids. Ironically, when she attended part-time preschool she really didn't have people to invite- nor did she even want to. Now that we homeschool we are expecting 10-15 kids, parents, and siblings. Many will be from a small coop we attend, and the kids/families are incredibly supportive. This means we will have kids ranging in ages from 5-16:) It is winter, but it IS Texas. I really, really wanted to have it outside my home but at Christmas time every feasible space for the time we need it was booked for holiday events. So it will be here, at my house. I am desperately hoping for clear weather. I specified a winter theme in the invitations and requested warm clothing. We have a large yard with a huge play structure and trampoline. We will open the garage as it is a climbing wall/monkey bars/swing/trapeze, etc., play place. We rented a bouncy castle and dd wanted a snocone machine😠So, if weather holds the party will double as a coop winter party. I need a couple more games for mixed ages though! Here is what I have so far: 1)hubby is building two large painted castle facades out of plywood that will be forts later. I purchased 80 of those fake snowballs for a kids snowball fight. 2) I bought two XXL white sweatsuits and balloons. The kids will form two teams, put one member in the sweatsuit and race to stuff it with balloons to make 'snowmen' then decorate with scarves, hats, and the like. 3) I guess we could do some sort of snowball relay with the snowballs from the snocone machine as there WILL be extras? Any ideas?

That was one my dd5 memorized because she loved it so much:) Other favorites were "Sarah Cynthia Silvia Stout" by Shel Silverstein and "The Worm" by Ralph Bergren.

Oh no! I went through this last Christmas! My dd5 has listened to audiobooks independently since before she was 3 on an old IPod. When it died we went looking for a suitable replacement for her bday. After much consideration we bought her the new iPoD. After daddy spent 2 hours loading it with all her favorite audiobooks we discovered that the newer generations LACK INTERNAL SPEAKERS!' Huh? I get that adults want buds, but I was not about to put buds or headphones on dd at bedtime (which is when she uses it the most.) Back to the store it went... The only other option was the IPod touch. We do not want apps or anything available to her at bedtime. She has an IPad so would be very knowledgable. Then we realized it is cheaper/easier to just give her an old iPhone. We upgraded ours and gave her one of our old 4s phones. It has been perfect. Huge capacity for audiobooks and she takes pictures with it as well:) ETA: you can put controls on it if you want to eliminate/restrict app or other usage.

I am working on this with Alex, who will turn 6 next month. I honestly don't think she means to brag or even really appreciates what bragging is. She just is so loud and boisterous that she wants people to pay attention to her. I think she really has a hard time not being taken seriously though...so she seems to want to qualify everything. For example, if she worked hard on something that day she might want to tell people and it comes across as 'I am only five but today I did this.' It is unfortunate and ai am trying to balance helping her understand how it might come across to others with understanding her need/desire to be treated as though she knows what she is talking about. At coop the big kids class was discussing their English and trying to figure out a sentence diagram and ignored her telling them what to do. She got louder and louder, finally saying something like 'I am only five but I know how to do it because I am working on X-grade English' or something similar. It is a tough one. Or something like this: I am tutoring a 6th grade PS boy in math. He is lovely, but his family cannot help him and he lacks confidence/practice. I usually tutor him whilst daddy takes her to gymnastics, but occasionally she is home. Then she wants to 'help' by teaching him. Right now he is doing ratios and she will say something like 'oh! Ratios are easy! I am only 5 but I can show you. And if my mom can't tutor you I can!' ðŸ˜awful!!!! But she is so earnest and really wants to help:(. It doesn't help that she has trouble with social cues and such:( I am hoping that time and continued talks will help...

We used the CÇ songs via the app. I also made little cards with the numbers on them. We would make a line and then sing the song. Then I would take away a couple of the cards and sing again, different ones each time, until they were gone. It was fun game and really made them stick faster.

So sorry that happened. I HOPE they are trying to help...but I have been on the receiving end of that vitriole too often to be sympathetic. I had one woman tell me the reason I was in a wheelchair after my Army service was because I hadn't heeded God's messages to stop killing women and babies?! And another tell me that I must have done something truly awful to have God punishing me that way. And yet another kindly tell me that it was good that I was in a wheelchair because God never gives people things they can't handle.... Most people truly just don't know what to say and what comes out is their clumsy or stuttered attempt at consolation. This I can at least understand.

I love Sebastian:) in fact, I named our son Maximillian Sebastian Charles! Caleb Sebastian is sweet...

Timely thread (he,he!) as dd had been begging for one for her bday. She is only going to be 6, so I have been very reticent. I always considered the beginning machines to be junk, but everything I read about the Hello Kitty model seems positive. Granted, for a 9 yo I would probably just go for a nice used model of a good machine!

I didn't, although I felt quite sick to my stomach! Dd is very interested in the laxative properties of soap and asked if she could examine uh, the toilet, to check for bubbles. Ummm, let me think...NO! Although I did offer to report:) of course, this is the kid that wanted a sample of baby bro's meconium, and could.not.wait for bro's umbilical cord to fall off so she could look at it under the microscope. I sometimes think she sees us as her personal science experiments..

Ugh. The first day of lab in college chemistry I remember the prof telling us a little rhyme: Little Daniel was a heavy drinker, but he shall drink no more. For what Daniel thought was H20 was really H2SO4! The moral is, never assume a clear liquid is water (or otherwise drink anything of unknown origins!) However, I totally wasn't expecting that to be a problem in my own kitchen:) I came into the kitchen and found a kitchen glass full of just the right amount of ice and water, lovely with condensation. Being thirsty, I greedily gulped down half of it before realizing something was wrong! Turns out dd5 decided to conduct an experiment to see if soapy water freezes at the same rate at plain waterðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜. I guess I should be grateful it was ONLY soapy water, right? Anyway, I remembered a lesson and dd got a lesson on remembering to label all future science experiments. Anybody else have stories on home science gone wrong?

Because nothing says Happy Birthday more than bromeliad lollipops:) I hope they are not poisonous:) Planning Alex's first party with kids is proving to be very interesting as well. Lots of gentle conversations about choosing activities that everyone can join in on. Maybe less of a math circle event and more party since it will involve mostly 4-10 year olds. Still, she chose a winter theme because we are in Texas? I bought tons of fake snowballs and we will be having a snowball fight as one activity--she said, maybe we could have a game where if you answer a math question you get to throw the snowball! Um. How about we do that today instead:)

Some of the worst I have come across were in SC at an elementary school. MIL had two students (siblings a year apart). Their names were Maryjuana (Mary-ju-wanna) and Cocainee (Ko-can-ee). And I personally had step-sisters named Brandy and Sherry...

Ooh, fun! I just searched for it and decided we will have a rabbit trail today😄

Isn't it funny how much it can mean? I happened to schedule an appointment at the Toyota dealership to have the bars for a luggage rack installed yesterday and had the scheduled maintenance done at the same time. The service staff chatted with me (and 5 yo and baby were decorated for the Veteran's Day parade!), so it came up in conversation that my wheelchair use is due to an injury in the army. No biggie, people are curious... BUT when I went to pay, the staff had gathered to thank me and gave me the oil change/tire rotation portion free of charge! It was soo sweet and heartfelt. And I will never forget it...

That was my first thought. Spurgie? spurge? My time in the Army introduced me to wayyyy too much bad language and icky euphemisms for me to even say that with a straight face😳 However, this child will most likely never run in those circles and thankfully (hopefully?) will never be associated with anything other than a preacher. Still. Different strokes, eh?

Thanks, that's awesome! Totally makes me much more inclined to get dd that doll she is asking for:)

Have you seen the knotted quilt set for kids? I ordered one of them for Alex for her bday. One of her friends (age 6) did one with no problems:) https://www.fatbraintoys.com/toy_companies/alex/knot_a_quilt.cfm?source=google_pla&kwid=AL009-AGE-9&gclid=CMbMosfz_cgCFY-CaQodUMMG4g#tab-3

Awesome:) Will PM both dates and locations...