I love my experience of pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding, even when it's been hard, but I think in many ways my life would have been much easier if I had been born a boy. We had a boy and then a girl. I remember someone telling me that we must be done, since we had one of each.

When we rented, our leases began on the first of the month and ended on the last day. Landlords always offered to let us move into a vacant apartment on the last weekend of the month, before the lease officially started, without charging extra. It would have been a logistical nightmare otherwise. However, we never had access before paying first and last months' rent plus a security deposit.

My oldest will probably change her name. We hyphenated her last name, as she was born before I married my husband, and at the time, I felt like two long last names made her name long enough without a middle name. Well, she hated not having a middle name since toddlerhood, and she has used a particular name as a middle name for the last five years, more than half her life. We will probably eventually legally change it. I feel kind of bad that I didn't give her a middle name off the bat.

If I love Love Actually and Practical Magic, what other romances would I like on Netflix?

My family of origin think I'm a total helicopter mom, because I carry noise cancelling headphones so many places for me and the kids.

This kind of set up would really challenge my nine year old. My nine year old, too, struggles with social and emotional maturity, especially impulse control. She would really struggle staying on task, especially if she had peers to distract. My kids are Suzuki kids, where there's a lot of focus on parents as at-home teachers. I have a very hard time at group lessons taking off my teacher hat and enjoying my children play. However, when I can, honestly the group classes are some of the most rewarding parts of these activities. I'd really try to let go of your desire to push during group lessons and funnel that energy into somewhere you do have more influence, such as encouraging the stretching twice a day.

My mother is 60 and still dyes her hair to cover her grey, and I think this still looks good on her.

I haven't had one since we moved to a less populated area, but when we lived in a city four years ago, missionaries knocked on our door a couple times a year.

The kindle edition is $10

I have definitely left playgrounds (designed for human children) and beaches because someone let a large dog run near my young children.

We did A, but unless you are starting with a very young kid or a kid with no previous math exposure, I'd go with B.

We went to the dentist yesterday, and my dentist made a referral for an orthodontist for my nine year old for some gaps she has in her teeth. The dentist predicted that she will need braces once all her adult teeth emerge a few years from now. I feel very nervous! What should we expect? Anything I should know before going to this initial consultation?

When we lived in an apartment, we had a neighbor who constantly complained about our noise. He even complained about the noise when everyone was asleep z thereby waking us all up so we would - gasp - start walking around in our apartment, which was of course unbearably noisy. We moved. No regrets.

I think cost of flights is more important than the length of a flight, especially if you are flying a family it's not hard to get air fare alone to top over $1,000.

My favorite? The Summer Day by Mary Oliver: https://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/133.html

I hate my house. I married someone who works construction, so buying a fixer upper, even if we would only slowly be able to afford fixing it, made sense. Now that we're separated, living in a fixer upper is a nightmare.

Please come to my house. I have plenty of work for you!

When my brother-in-law got married with a kid-free reception on a Friday 20 hours from us a month before my due date for my youngest child, we didn't go. We didn't have the money, what with a very high maternity deductible, losing money from a couple of days of unpaid paternity leave, plus general newborn expenses. We didn't feel comfortable traveling that far and maybe end up having the baby there or him just going and possibly missing the birth of his child. His family still hasn't forgiven me for it, but I still think we made the right call.

To a certain point, yes. I think it's very difficult to find happiness with unstable living conditions, food insecurity, lack of access to healthcare. However, I think once people have basic financial security, money plays a much smaller role in happiness.

:eek: :eek:

\ I don't know. I have friends who sell on Etsy, and I find their posts promoting their businesses interesting. Maybe I wouldn't if we didn't share a mutual interest in crafting, but even though I almost never buy it, I find what they made interesting. MLM posts, though? It's not just that I don't have an interest in the product. It's not even that they typically tend to post at a much higher volume - several times a week at least - about their business. It's that a lot of these posts are formulaic, that they don't even sound like my friends. I've unfollowed many people - sometimes even pretty good friends - because I couldn't stand getting multiple MLM business posts a day, and it makes me sad that then I miss hearing about their families and their lives.

No, I don't. I mean, I love collecting eggs, but they are definitely pets.

I don't think telling a toddler to leave a dog alone is particularly effective, based on my experience of toddlers, which is why I'm a big fan of keeping them separated. Just as a dog could bite when they have food, any young toddler could hit just because the dog got in its space (not defending - just saying it's normal toddler behavior), walk by the dog while it has food (like the toddler I know who got bit), etc... and I think it's just too harsh of a consequence for small children to get bit by a dog for that.

Wow. I hate my neighbor's dog for killing my hen, but I couldn't imagine shooting him!

So far, I have always resolved it with a phone call, but truly, I would call animal control if my neighbor didn't answer or refused to come collect the dog.