Princess Zelda. Your dh could be Link.

I don't know if there's a "normal" time for a fight to break out, now that I think about it :laugh: Guess I was thinking more along the lines of "right as doors open on Black Friday" LOL

Ahh I see. 9 am sounds like an odd time for a fight to breakout, so I don't know if shopping before 9 am only is warranted. Might be a fluke. Is there better/more staff before that hour? I don't know if I understand.

I'm thinking it is unusual, but it could just be my personal experience. I only like gravy on meat. I won't touch the white gravy I see on biscuits and I don't want gravy on my mashed potatoes. I like to eat my rice with butter and veggies or part of a dish (like inside gumbo or under a pile of chicken n dumplings).

Is that a typo? 9am? I'd be upset that a child that young was told to leave the building. I mean, sure, go stand by the pharmacy or something. But leave the building?? I'd rather him stay near an associate I guess. I would be looking around inside before I went outside looking for my kid I'd think. Guess I should have a talk with ds about where to meet me if anything crazy like this happens.

Well it's been a while since I had a 4yr old boy in the house so I don't remember at what age he could reach the toilet easily. Some kids maybe start out standing on a stool at home, which they won't have in a public restroom. Anyway, my child had a lot of obstacles with independence and toilet training so my experience is not the norm. We were dealing with encopresis and constipation. Also some of the underwear has a hole for the crotch and some does not, so there's an issue of do you have to pull your underwear off all the way to go. I have heard stories of no stall available... like the stall was occupied, toilet clogged, door broken, etc. etc. so no, I don't assume that's always available.

If not a rolling library cart maybe just a shelving unit kept closer to the room where you work. We once got a metal book shelf and little brackets that keep it secured to the wall. I didn't want to pay the steep price of solid wood so I found metal. My main requirement was that I could store binders on it. I wish. I showed it to dh once but I guess he thought it'd be a pain. There's a similar item on etsy which you can buy unpainted or in a color I think and save a little. I have seen it go on sale on the Land of Nod site like once. You have to pay shipping no matter what. A long time ago we bought an item on LON and I got free shipping. I wish they would still do that. The item we own is a white book shelf that is mounted above ds' bed. We keep the recordable books there that we don't want the toddler to mess with.

What I was thinking is the older child, if he needed to help, would have to stand next to the younger child. Therefore making a tight fit for other people if the place was busy. I don't know if public urinals are usually adequate height for a 4yr old. I didn't know if big brother would have to lift up the little kid or just go in there to remind him to wash his hands or what. If your 3 yr old could use a urinal I guess some are mounted a lot lower than I thought.

I've been wanting this book caddy for a long time, but can't afford it right now. https://www.landofnod.com/white-good-read-book-caddy/s612293 In the living room we currently keep a milk crate with some of the toddler's books. We have books everywhere, too. I don't know what to tell you lol. You could try a rolling cart? I got one from Target, but I don't think it would hold all your regular use books. Maybe keep a book shelf closer to where you use the books?

off the top of my head, She-Ra: Princess of Power :)

I wouldn't trust my 9 yr old to assist another child, but I don't know if he's NT. For example, if the 4yr old didn't want to cooperate (play in the sink or something) the older child might not have much control. Would they go in a stall together or huddle around a urinal together? I think that would be awkward if grown men came in to use the urinal and there wasn't a lot of personal space.

Dd has something on her arm and I still don't know what it is. I took her to two doctors, her regular ped. and a dermatologist. We did one application of anti fungal cream before she went to the derm. and he said it wasn't ringworm because it wouldn't have cleared up that fast. It was not red when we got to him but you could see the round area of tiny bumps. He discounted my theory of eczema because he said eczema is symmetrical and would be like behind both knees or something. He told me to buy over the counter hydrocortizone. Well, I did and we applied it for a couple days? but then I covered it with a band-aid because I don't like steroids and didn't want it rubbing off on her or furniture, etc. She got a reaction to the band-aids. Ugh. I just came home with new "sensitive" band-aids and I'd like to try again, but now I've misplaced the cream. All this to say it's very confusing with skin issues and very frustrating! He said it was probably a bug bite because she had several bug bites, but I don't think so...

Of course. My point was I don't know that people necessarily always know when someone comes down with cancer. If you live in a big neighborhood and chat with your neighbors at the mailbox or whatever, you may not know that so and so was just diagnosed with cancer. I mean, they might offer that info. But they might not.

Did you interview all your neighbors to ask if they have cancer? lol. It's one of those things where it's hard to prove or disprove where people's cancer came from, but I'm pretty leery myself.

I wanted to buy one (fellow nerd lol) but I didn't know what to get. When we talked about ds going to the public school I thought about bringing it with me to the school.

No. In college we watched some video about this town that had them and a lot of kids had leukemia. It's actually one of the reasons I'm not too eager to send ds to the nearest public school. I did get some comfort reading some comments here on the board because there was some space between the school and substation, but it really isn't ideal for me. Also, I am the type of person that will go batty hearing a certain noise. If the power lines make a humming sound or something I would slowly go mad. When dh and I were dating he lived in a duplex where you could hear these noises from a plant in the distance at night. I'm sure he didn't notice when he toured the place because of the time of day. It might have happened during the day, too, but I wasn't usually near that window when it happened. It drove me crazy.

I will eat a few of these things in my own home, but not order them (like butter beans). If you eat somewhere with "Southern style" food then imo the veggies are overdone, soggy, and cooked in too much butter and/or meat. Maybe you just want veggies but they come with bits of bacon. It just doesn't seem to resemble veggies to me anymore lol It was a while before I had decent okra. At first it was just some slimy mess. Ick. I enjoy some grits but many places cannot make them taste good at all. Guess you have to have them homemade or go to the right place. When I first moved to the South I liked the grits at the local McDonald's, but I tried ordering them a few months ago and they were horrible. I don't think they even gave me butter in the drive thru. Waffle House and Church's Chicken had pretty horrible ones, too. Now at our church potluck a woman makes them and they are good. She adds cheese, but it's not an overwhelming cheese flavor. As for the person asking about squirrel. I don't think I've ever seen it/been offered it. I do remember them eating it on Duck Dynasty and I think the mom was cooking the brains. :ack2:

Yeah, he should have kept you updated via text if possible. But sometimes that doesn't solve things because you can't get home right away. Check out the Dunstan language and share it with your dh. Might help a little. Glad you like the carrier. I have one of those (all seasons). You actually don't need to upgrade nipple flows. I learned that from the LLL facebook page I think. Moms nipples don't change sizes so bottle nipples don't need to, either. They also recommend paced bottle feeding. I guess the main thing is to notice when the baby is showing first signs of hunger so they don't get ravenous/impatient at the bottle lol. Easier said than done sometimes. Also maybe the baby has a preference for milk temp and it wasn't to her liking.

I'm still scared to try crawfish. People here have crawfish boils. All I think is they look disgusting and like way too much work. I can't try them when they boil them with all those cajun spices, anyway. Can't handle that.

They are having a human trafficking talk coming up later this month about an hour from me. I am really curious what they have to say there (to discuss our area specifically). But I doubt I will make it because it's an area I don't know well and will be at night. If anyone here has seen the show American Housewife there's an episode where they have a discussion similar to what I see on the boards. One parent says, "statistically kids are safer now" and the other parent says, "but statistics don't mean anything if your kid is affected" or something to that effect. They go on to use a drone to try to watch their child walk to the library lol.

I'd have him spend more time with her while you are home and leave for shorter periods maybe? Mine is/was like that. But once I'm out of the house she does fine with Dad. Except one time he said she refused to go to sleep til I got home.

*drops jaw* I don't like fruit pies which seem to be very popular so I guess I kinda get it.

I'm sure this wasn't meant to be funny but it amused me. I wouldn't worry too much. If a nut was drinking water it doesn't mean you chose a bad drink :)

Oh yeah and we have a million Walmarts in my state so when I go anywhere I know I can *usually* find a Family bathroom inside a Walmart. I will lug ds and dd in there if necessary and just have him look the other direction lol. I have been known to awkwardly pull my whole shopping cart into the family restroom with dd in the front seat and ds standing next to her to make sure she doesn't try to tip it or anything. My father has the same type of issue because he has to assist my mother in the restroom. So they generally just go to places like Walmart and Target to use family bathrooms.

Haven't read all the responses. I have a 9 yr old boy. I have this problem everytime we go out in public. Sometimes I let him stand outside and sometimes I make him come inside. When he comes inside I try to get him to stay out of the way and if there's room to stand away from the stalls. Yesterday we went to a restroom in the mall. He came inside the restroom with me which was empty. I was in the stall and then a whole family came in. Boys and girls, younger children. I thought I heard a girl comment on a boy being in the bathroom (ds). When I came out of the stall I saw that one of the moms was using the changing table to change a girl (older than I would use a changing table for). I instructed ds to leave the restroom and wait outside while I washed my hands. I discussed it with him when we left. To be honest I might have made them more uncomfortable than ds did because I peered around the corner to see if the girl was strapped to the changing table when her mom walked away to grab a paper towel or something. I wasn't trying to leer, but I was worried about a child being left on the table. So yeah, we deal with this often and I never know what the "right" thing to do is. I guess I just try to follow my gut. Sometimes that means choosing a different place. Like we were in the mall but instead of using the overcrowded food court restroom where ds would be standing there and having people maybe wonder what he's doing alone or potentially being approached I chose a restroom in a different part of the mall inside a dept. store.