I'd ask. "I'm usually finished with the tasks you've assigned well before the end of my work day, is there some other way I can be of service?" "No? If anything arises, please do let me know. In the meantime, I hope you won't mind if I bring my Russian grammar book to study when I'm finished with the other work." Sent from my XT1094 using Tapatalk

I would email, "hey, we're y'all wanting Timmy, Tommy or both for Johnny's party? Either or any of those is doable, I just want to make sure we send the right kid!" This would happen at my house (except girls) and that's what I'd do. And if the other mom makes it awkward, that's on her, right? :) Sent from my XT1094 using Tapatalk

I do CrossFit 3x per week. It's really hard and really fun. I'm way strong after 2 and some years of this stuff. Sent from my XT1094 using Tapatalk

I sometimes pay my kids to babysit themselves. They're 11, 9, 7 and 4. So the big kid gets $1, for babysitting herself and three sisters, the next kid gets $0.75, for herself and two sisters, then $0.50 and the littlest gal gets $0.25 for babysitting herself. They take this job opportunity pretty seriously, and I often add household jobs they can optionally complete for extra pay. Almost always this is when one parent or the other is home but unavailable, so there is a responsible adult, but they tend themselves while on the payroll. Could that work at your house? It's cheap babysitting. Sent from my XT1094 using Tapatalk

Have you read SWB's Well Educated Mind? She deals with how to read. I found that I'd become a bit of a skimmer, without ever trying (maybe wanting to squeeze in more pages before some kid catastrophe struck?). She advocates rereading, taking notes even in a narrative work and has lots of generally useful reading ideas. Plus a killer reading list. Sent from my XT1094 using Tapatalk

I sign people up for seasonal sports - not year round stuff! - and we do AHG. Somehow this fall all four of my girls are playing soccer (same league, same fields, 4 teams, 4 age groups), but because it's only 8 or so weeks, I'll handle it even if we wind up at the fields 4 nights a week for practice plus all day Saturday for the games. Same deal for swim team this summer, they all swam and it was intense but shortish. Sent from my XT1094 using Tapatalk

You're right. I'm trotting her back into the pediatrician's office tomorrow. My feeling was that having information about what causes the headaches would help throughout the kid's life. If I knew, for example, that eating or doing XYZ would cause a headache, I could make a choice about it. But not knowing means there's no power in the choice. Or if there is some sort of underlying issue, I'd really want to get that sussed out and dealt with rather than covering up the symptom, kwim? But I hear what you're saying. We'll sign up for some preventative medicine and see where that takes us. I hope your headaches get better, too.

Thank you, I'll look for it.

Would it be rude to ask what your son is taking for the headaches? If it is, please forgive. If it's not, I'd be interested to know. Did y'all figure out what was causing the headaches, or get right to the getting rid of them part?

Okay, yeah, it makes sense to check up on this stuff, doesn't it? I'll find someone. We're in a major metropolitan area, so I'm sure there's a doc that could screen for vision issues. Thank you.

That sounds brilliant!! Thank you for mentioning it!

I think the kid is adequately hydrated. Plenty of water, anyway. And not ridiculous on the sugar by any stretch. Currently 0 sugar besides what naturally occurs in food. Do you know whether the thyroid stuff would be checked as a matter of course? We're going to the doc tomorrow and I'll ask to have her vitamins and minerals and whatnot checked - would that be included?

Wow, I bet it felt loony buying the kid a coffee at 9p! I did offer a cup of tea this morning for a headache and it helped immensely. All my other girls were completely flabbergasted that this kid was drinking caffeinated tea.

Sometimes there's nausea -- yesterday this kid told me her headache felt "hurlable" but didn't wind up barfing ever. Light seems to make it worse when there's a headache, and she avoids sounds. Those things come along with the more severe headaches, which are maybe half of all headaches this kid has.

Hydrated - I think so. Plenty of water for sure. Would I know if she wasn't getting enough salt? We haven't done allergy testing, but I think that's on the horizon. Vision was fine, I'll ask about the other vision options. She's a stellar reader and doesn't seem to be having vision troubles, but it's worth an ask. Tick diseases?! We've all had ticks at some point, though it's been a good while (hello, summer trip to WI). I understand that these things can be weird, but would I have seen other symptoms? She's generally a healthy robust little kid. We used a cup of tea to combat a headache this morning with great success -- thanks for suggesting it. And we're headed back to the doc tomorrow to ask for some preventative type medication. Thank you for all the suggestions.

Tea fixed the headache this morning! And my hangup was exactly what you said -- I imagined a Coke when people suggested caffeine and thought it couldn't possibly be the right thing. But a nice cup of chai, that I can do. I'll try the food journal. Do you think a month would be long enough? I think I could do almost anything for a month. And thank you.

We're headed back to the doc tomorrow to see what we can get figured out. Because, yeah, a week of headaches. I haven't seen any other signs of puberty - she's still definitely a little kid. But I understand that it starts somewhere. Headaches would be a bummer of a start, though. Growing would be more fun.

We do the cursory eye exam each year at the pedi well check visit. So can you see these letters from there? Great. Can you read this thing up close? Great. It's been a good couple of years since the actual eye doc did the more complete exam (precisely the same year I came to understand that the pedi could do the screening exam).

Thank you all for helping me think about this. I have a list of things to look into now, rather than just feeling sorry and sad for my girl. Sent from my XT1094 using Tapatalk

Wow, no kidding!? That's amazing. Did you do allergy testing to figure out that that was his issue? There are definitely seasons that this girl suffers from allergies (it's cedar in the winter and then oak I forget when for her), and that presents as the typical itchy eye and congestion mess. But we always have some kind of pollen in the air in Central TX...

I've heard that caffeine can help, but for whatever reason I've been a little reluctant to involve the caffeine. We've been using either acetaminophen or ibuprofen. Usually it helps, but sometimes not. And sometimes when we've tried one without success, she'll take the other. There's no congestion. It seems worse now in the summer, but was a factor during the school year, too. I've been doing a more limited headache journal - mentioning the headache, severity, duration and time of day. Adding all food and water intake to that sounds heavy, but I can imagine that it might help. She's had a regular eye exam at the eye doc's office (that's been a couple of years) and has yearly very basic eye exams at the pedi office. I am 99% sure all the kids here will eventually need glasses, but we haven't gotten there yet. When you found that your son had vision issues, were there other clues? This kid has no difficulty in reading and seems at least averagely coordinated with the fine and gross motor stuff. Does the pediatrician send you to a COVD person? Thank you for thinking with me about this.

Do your allergy headaches come along with other allergy symptoms, or is the headache itself the symptom?

I'd say not. I'm honestly not sure of the difference between a headache and a migrane (I think of migranes as being headache++). But we do live in a land of extreme temps (Central TX, man!) and some weather events. So the weather stuff is an interesting idea - I'll try to notice whether the weather seems correlated. I wonder why some people react to weather with headaches...

I hadn't considered that it might be a chiropractic issue - thank you! A neurologist sounds scary, though...

I'll read up on the Autoimmune Protocol -- I think the main difference between that and the W30 is the nightshades and seeds. We're not big on potatoes and this kid hates tomatoes anyway, but actually categorically eliminating them might give some insight. Thank you.