A blood test will tell if she qualifies for an Iron IV. I had one after my first section that involved a lot of blood loss and I think it helped. Something to consider. Otherwise definitely orange juice with the iron pill.

I really like Paul Noble for a completely audio based course. There are multiple levels for Spanish, they are reasonably priced on Audible.

The easiest way at that age, if you don’t mind screen time for him, would be to have him watch television in your target language. Assuming you want him to learn English, something like Daniel Tiger or Dora the Explorer would be very accessible at that age. I was afraid that my kids wouldn’t watch TV in a foreign language, so I didn’t start until they were around six. I was totally wrong. They loved watching cartoons, and since only let them watch cartoons in French they were very eager to do so. I wish I had started when they were younger! Eventually you will want to expand from television to reading books and speaking etc., but daily television will build passive understanding of the language, and that’s how kids start to learn their native languages. Passive understanding is a great foundation to build on.

Lawn mowing, grocery delivery for sure. I’d love to pay for cleaners, but Dh is weird about having people in the house, and then we had a Pandemic… But my number one willing to pay expense is having movers pack for me. It doesn’t cost that much more than buying your own moving supplies, but they do a much faster and better job and you don’t have to deal with any leftover boxes. *So* worth it.

I’m still friends at 43 with the boy I dated at 15. We would never have made a good long term match, and I mostly knew that then, but he is a lovely person and I hate to think that my relationship with him was a waste of time. Some people help us learn and grow, even if we aren’t meant to be together. He’s the only person I ever dated that didn’t go to college. He’s the only friend I have who isn’t a professional. (He’s a bike mechanic.) He is brilliant in ways I’m not, ways that don’t show up on standardized tests, and knowing him has given me a lot of perspective over the years. I guess we could have been “just friends” since he wasn’t husband material for me, but honestly I’m glad I actually dated him. I’d like my daughters to date some guys that are different from the types of guys they will eventually marry. High school may be the time they have that opportunity.

You did it!!! Yay!

ULAT is great. I also really like Paul Noble, starting with the “for kids” version and then graduating to the regular course. I would pick one (ULAT, Paul Noble) and add lots of immersion (dubbed cartoons on Netflix, eventually easy readers) and call it good. My kids have absorbed a huge amount of French with this approach.

You don’t need a separate login for each DNA submission. You just need a name, and it can be anything. You can submit your DNA as Daffy Duck if you want. (This of course works better if you only do the medical testing. If you agree to the relative matching your real identity is very likely to be revealed.)

I’m on Ancestry. DNA matches can see my initials. That’s it. No full name, no picture. Choosing to put your full name and picture on your profile is a choice that this person made. Just like choosing to allow her DNA to show up in the relatives matching database was a choice. Scarlett didn’t make these choices, the new sister did.

The new sister was already informed of the match by the DNA company. She would have this information regardless of whether Scarlett ever messaged her or not. DNA matches are listed in order of shared DNA. A sibling would appear right at the top of the list, underneath any parents who had been tested by the company.

This is such a foreign perspective to me. My quirky as hell Autistic family understand me better than any total strangers, and if I had a sibling or first cousin I didn’t know about I would absolutely want to meet them. I would expect we would get along smashingly. At the very least I might be able to answer some questions for them. “Yes, we are *all* like that!” Maybe that’s just what comes from being a genetic outlier. We don’t fit in with a lot of people, but we fit in with each other. I would want to welcome them to the club.

Help me help a family member: What’s the current over the counter recommendations for acute COVID? I’ve been reinfected several times, but I always just stay on my usual LongCovid supplements, so I don’t know what to recommend to a first time COVID patient.

I would love to find another sibling! My family is already a complicated mess, there would be no disillusionment involved, just joy. I hope your new sister is excited to discover her new siblings too!

My mom’s birthday was December 26. Honestly, I think it’s the worst possible day. As she put it, “it’s the day that everyone is physically, emotionally and fiscally spent.” She hated it.

This Japanese tourist in Wisconsin is a must see: Here is a story about him: https://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/2022/09/15/youtuber-george-japan-makes-viral-wisconsin-tiktok-during-world-tour/10381819002/ From an outside perspective, American culture is real!

That’s what I meant. Just something to ponder. And if that’s not something to worry about, that’s great.

I had so many peers in law school who went to teeny-tiny regional no name schools. They had all sorts of awards and recommendations and stellar GPAs. Big fish small pond is certainly a viable path. My only concern is the bright kid who inadvertently struggles in a small pond. As an undiagnosed Autistic kid I had some major bumps in my undergraduate career, and I think the UC Berkeley name did me some real favors when it was time to apply for grad school. Just something to think about: Would the school still work if your kid somehow ends up in the bottom of the class?

Dd7 was six weeks premature. I had to pump, not only because she wasn’t able to nurse at first, but because we added formula to the pumped milk to give her extra calories. She spent 16 days in the NICU, but once she was home and had put on enough weight, we switched fairly painlessly to full time nursing. She’s had no lingering issues from her premature birth, I hope your little guy has an equally uneventful post-NICU experience.

Dd7 was six weeks premature. I had to pump, not only because she wasn’t able to nurse at first, but because we added formula to the pumped milk to give her extra calories. She spent 16 days in the NICU, but once she was home and had put on enough weight, we switched fairly painlessly to full time nursing. She’s had no lingering issues from her premature birth, I hope your little guy has an equally uneventful post-NICU experience.

He just sent a very nice response!

I remember in college “common culture” being defined as “being able to predict what another person is going to do in any situation.” Who you share a common culture with is really situational. I remember when I was in grad school in London I had a classmate who grew up in rural Mississippi. Not someone I, who grew up in coastal California, would usually think I had a lot in common with. But in London we were very much both Americans. When I’m in the US and I think of my cultural identity it’s easy and tempting to look to geography, religion and ethnicity. But I think this is misleading. While I am absolutely influenced by my Midwest Irish Catholic roots, I think if you want to predict how I’m going to react to any situation, class and education is far more relevant. The food I eat, the clothes I wear, the books I read, the way I vote is almost entirely the same as all the other upper-middle class post-graduate professionals in the United States, regardless of geography, religion or ethnicity. I remember someone saying once that there is an “Arugula Belt” located in every US city, and I think it’s true. We are a small nation scattered across the country and the Whole Foods is our embassy. Our New Yorker subscription is our passport. We send our kids to our Parish school and we try to cultivate a Catholic identity, but if I’m being honest I have more in common with the doctors and lawyers who send their kids to the public school down the block than I do with the Catholic parents at our school who are electricians or police officers. They are fine people, but they aren’t *my* people. I’m sure religion was defining for prior generations of my family, but it doesn’t hold that same power for me today If you are trying to figure out who *your* people are, try to figure out which aspects of your identity are most predictive of how you actually behave in 2023. The first labels that come to mind might not hold the predictive power that they did for prior generations.

Okay, I can totally argue the other side too! A c-section is not a failure! A scheduled section would reduce your stress! You can have it first thing in the morning, instead of the middle of the night! You can make plans for your other kids!

As someone who had an emergency c-section for a preterm breech baby, they are totally available unscheduled! I agree with the wait and see what he does on the day idea.

We have a ton in our neighborhood. Some stale genre paperbacks from the 1990s, but we’ve found lots of good kids books. The good stuff goes fast. I’ve donated too, but most of our discarded books end up at Goodwill. I don’t see a downside to LFLs. They are only adding to the book ecosystem, not replacing bookstores, libraries etc.

Oooh! Just received a lovely response from an archivist at the Wade Center. You guys made the best suggestions!