Frasier has been my go to middle of the night show for awhile. It's funny enough to be interesting, but soothing enough that you can fall asleep quickly. And there are something like 11 seasons, so you can watch for months! I recently watched Rules of Engagement on Netflix and liked it and I just started HIMYM. I can't remember if they have it on Netflix, but Bunheads was a great show. Gilmore Girls too. Beautiful baby!

Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree is a favorite in our house. My parents read it to my brother and I when we were kids and I've been reading it to DS since his first Christmas.

We've got some nasty weather heading our way tomorrow night. I gave DS a heads up that trick or treating might not happen (I'm sure people will be trick or treating, but not us if it's bad out) and offered to buy candy and set up a trick or treat scavenger hunt around the house for him. Kind of like an Easter egg hunt for Halloween. He's now more excited for that idea than trick or treating.

I went a few states away to college for freshman year, hated it, came back to my home state (RI) and went to one of the state schools that I had pooh-poohed as a hs senior. Got an apartment with my hs best friend and we finished out our college years together there. My parents paid for my living expenses through college (state school + apartment was still about 75% less expensive than fancy out of state school). Got a job during college that translated to FT job when I graduated - then I took over my own expenses. That's when I count myself as being on my own. :-) Moved out of the shared apartment at 22 and lived by myself until I met DH at 24. We've been together 12 1/2 years now.

I had english muffin pizzas every year growing up, and I've carried on that tradition. I also make carrot/squash soup and everyone decorates their bowls like a jack-o-lantern using sliced black olives. :-)

Um, I think that's very inappropriate of the hospital. DH was in the ER as a patient last month and nothing like that was presented to him to sign. Additionally, he is in and out of multiple ER's near us for work and has never heard of such a thing. I googled and don't see anything either. What hospital is this?

Yahtzee, Quirkle, Clue, Chess, Settlers of Catan, Sudoku.

I wonder if this deal is randomly generated. I've got Prime - spend a couple hundred minimum a month on Amazon and buy at least 5 books a month, sometimes lots more than that and I got the "sorry you get nothing" coupon.

Thank you everyone! TracyP - we're in north central VT and I believe the outside thermometer in winter was DS's first experience with negative numbers as well. And we see them quite regularly from the end of Dec-Feb! Mathmarm - I wasn't sure if there if he would lose out on anything by skipping ahead. I really like the puzzle corners and word problems. And DS loves those as well, so I think I'll have him do those solely until we come to something he hasn't seen yet. Spycar - thanks for the book recommendation. I just put it into the amazon cart to add to my next order. I think that's something he'll enjoy. He's s number loving kid and I want to encourage that without being overly pushy. I realized this week, while we were playing Yahtzee, that he can add up the sum of all five dice as quickly as I can (and I'm pretty quick). He can figure out change in his head when we're out grocery shopping - which I think is due to the love of his play cash register, loves the cuisinaire rods, all things mathy. :-)

I got so excited for a minute! My original kindle died a few months ago and this would have been a great replacement. I use my Fire HD for most stuff now, but it's nice having one exclusively for books. I'm a pretty heavy Amazon (and Prime!) user too....we don't have too many stores near us, so most of my non-grocery shopping is on Amazon.

Thank you! So I'm on the right track. I just flipped through the rest of the subtraction chapter and I'm thinking about skipping it and going to the place value stuff - that he doesn't know yet, and since he can subtract stuff like 65-18 in his head, I'm thinking I don't need to ask him to do pages of 6-4. He knows time and money really well too, but I think that chapter will be really fun for him, so I won't skip it.

DS is working through MM 1 and it's pretty easy for him - he can do pretty much any addition/subtraction question in his head and a fair bit of multiplication as well. I didn't want to rush him as this is his first year so we're moving at a brisk pace through MM 1 and keeping it fun. Today we are working on the section "when can you subtract" and the premise is that not all subtraction problems are solveable. DS immediately announced that the book was incorrect and the answer would just be -3, -2, etc. I changed the instructions on one of the pages from "find the subtractions where you can't take away that many and cross them out" to "Find the subtractions that equal a negative number and cross them out". Is that how I should be handling this? He knows and "gets" negative numbers, I don't want to confuse him by telling him they don't exist. We are cruising through pretty quickly - maybe I should accelerate him more? We're doing all of the word problems, I'm double checking some of the other ones and having him do 1 per section to make sure he gets it and then I let him do anything that looks fun to him just because he likes math. Thanks for the help!

I think my kid will roll up FLL and hit me over the head with it if I go over the definition of a noun again with him one more time. I'm listening in on this thread!

I have an early reader and we skipped a reading program and began with AAS. I love it, DS loves it and it's helping solidify reading skills. We're reading still, both together, me reading to him and him reading to me.

Vermont Coffee Company is hands down my favorite. Great coffee and easy to drink black too - smooth and tasty. I frequently do half VT coffee co. decaf and half green mtn coffee flavored in my coffeepot. This morning was half decaf and half pumpkin spice. yum!

mmm - right now I have (all yankee): Harvest Macintosh Pumpkin Spice Ciderweb I like a bunch of the Christmas-y ones in the winter, but sparkling cinnamon is my favorite and always gets me into the Christmas spirit Sage and Citrus is my go-to spring and summer candle and one medium jar will usually last me from march-september.

I know you're probably not reading this thread anymore, but if you are, a good way to pay rent and not have to worry about when the check will be cashed is to pay through online banking. The money is deducted from your checking account as soon as you "write" the check and the bank guarantees it delivered on time.

White pants with red lobsters all over them, red tank top and a dark grey sweatshirt. Wrapped in a fleece blanket. I was in not-jammies earlier...

DH and I are going to take an overnight trip to Lake George a few weeks before Christmas to relax, be touristy and Christmas shop. We go down to RI to my dad's house for Thanksgiving weekend and our tradition there is Black Friday is decorating Grandpa's house for Christmas and doing Christmas that day - gifts, etc. It's our Christmas season kick-off. :-) No ideas on gifts yet. I don't like to do it too early. Half the fun for me is the pre-Christmas excitement. Then I wait and wrap everything on Christmas Eve while watching Elf or some other fun Christmas movie after DH and DS go to bed. Christmas Day we usually have an open house here - it's pretty small (and so is our house) but fun.

I add a couple of tablespoons to the oatmeal as it's cooking and usually some dried cranberries too. Then sprinkle on some pumpkin pie spice and a little bit of maple syrup. I find it's got enough protein as is for me, but if you cook the oats in some milk, that will up the protein content a good bit and make it creamier. :-)

Pumpkin Jack is one of our favorites. We bought Room on the Broom this year and love it. Ollie's Halloween by Olivier Dunrea. Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson. Nate the Great and the Halloween Hunt.

Every year I get a bushel of dropped apples from one of the local orchards. It's a fair amount of work to cut away the bad parts, but for $16, I get a ton of usable apples. I'll make applesauce and apple butter and pies! The best ones we'll save for eating. Apple cinnamon oatmeal and pumpkin oatmeal and various yummy muffins. Mini apple crisps and pumpkin bread. mmmmm. Lentil soup, potato, leek and corn chowder, chili, shepherd's pie, chickpeas and dumplings, and so many other fall favorites are on deck. We've transitioned to mostly plant based since last fall, so I'm planning on reworking some of my fall favorites, like braised pork chops, onion and apple and some of my favorite cheesy dishes. Pumpkin coffee is back in my morning coffee rotation and I can't wait for gingerbread in a couple of months! I love fall....

There was a dusting on Mt. Mansfield (highest peak) in VT the other morning, Monday i think. The rest of the state has had amazing early fall weather. High's in the 60's, lows in the 40s, sunny and low humidity. Blissful! These are the days I daydream about in February when it seems as if the snow is going to never melt.

Arrange for your mother in law to call just when math time is starting, then get stuck on the phone for 20 minutes. :-) (MIL interrupted math today and by the time I managed to break free of the call, DS had finished 3 pages of MM)

Love these suggestions and it's essentially what I did with my DS until this year. We still play with the cuisinaire rods regularly and play games like Zeus on the Loose. He has a Melissa and Doug clock with shape blocks: http://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Wooden-Shape-Sorting/dp/B000GKATU0/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1380226303&sr=1-1&keywords=melissa+and+doug+clock Playing with it over the past couple of years has taught him shapes and made him a time telling expert. He got a cash register as a christmas present a couple of years ago and now he can add and subtract money easily. We started Math Mammoth this year and love it - when you're ready for a curriculum. :-)