Yes, I would say something. I would get him aside privately and I would say to him, "Listen, you're an adult and I can't tell you how to think or feel, but you need to know that I draw the line at you making racist comments in front of my children. They don't need to hear that, and I'm asking you not to do it again."

Realist who HATES winter and doesn't like fall days that are TOO cold, but doesn't mind early fall (except to get a bit depressed that it means winter's coming soon), and who loves spring and loves summer even more. :D

Oh, I love it!!! That's awesome! I didn't see this thread til after I just posted my thread- I have a feeling there will be quite a few "Halloween" threads lol. Anyway, you can see a pic of me (which will be a first and quite likely a last lol) and my kids in my "Did YOU dress up for Halloween?" thread :)

My husband painted my face for me with a cherry blossom face painting, and we put a few fake flowers in my hair. I thought it was pretty neat :) (And here is the first and perhaps the last picture of me you will ever see on this site lol). How about you guys? Want to share pics of YOU dressed up for Halloween? While I'm at it, here's a picture of a pumpkin we decorated while camping this weekend- it won first place in the pumpkin decorating contest :D And I will also include a pic of Ben (almost age 5) dressed as a knight and Alexa (just turned 10) in her fancy dress.

I'm sure it is quite normal. My daughter was only 5 or 6 when she asked where babies came from, and I read her a book (by Dr. Ruth) about it geared toward children and told her she could let me know whenever she wanted to look at the book, and she could ask me if she had any questions. I think your son is definitely old enough for a book/conversation that is more specific than flowers. :) And I don't think you need to shy away from anatomical drawings either, it's just a body, not a secret. Kids handle that sort of information very well, even when Mom and Dad are rather embarrassed by it lol. And it's much better to have the correct knowledge than the half truths his family and friends will talk about at that age.

My daughter didn't learn to ride without training wheels until she was 8. My husband and I tried to teach her, but no luck. We were trying to get her to learn to balance, pedal and steer all at the same time, which was apparently ineffective for her. Finally, two neighborhood kids/friends taught her and within two days, they had her riding like an absolute pro. What they did was have her keep her feet out (off the pedals, almost touching the ground) for balance and to just focus on steering and balancing that way. Eventually she got the hang of it enough to add in pedaling, too. ETA: I do want to add though that she WANTED the training wheels off and WANTED to learn to ride without them. If your son doesn't even want to, you may as well wait a while longer. Maybe in the spring/summer he'll have more of an interest in trying.

I always have to check if I'm spelling "misspelled" right. :D

:lol:

I saw the cutest idea- I think it was in Family Fun magazine... ...make a meatloaf and try to shape it like a mummy with crossed arms... and then when it comes out, wrap it in strips of American Cheese :D

I won't use a towel more than twice. And often only once. Just one of my 'things.'

:) I think that was a good decision.

I don't have a scary Halloween memory. But I have a sort of sad one. I was maybe 10 years old. My father had disappeared. My mother I guess was broke. And she was going somewhere (probably an AA meeting or something), so we were to be with a teenaged babysitter who was willing to take us trick or treating, except I had no costume, and I was hysterically bawling over this. So my mother gave me her fake fur coat and put makeup on me and said, "You can go as a fancy lady." I was totally pleased with this until we ran across some teenaged boys and one of them said to me, "What are you supposed to be? A wh0re?" I wasn't even sure what that meant. But I knew by his tone and his friend's snickers and so on that it wasn't anything good. I think I started crying again and just wanted to go home. Worst Halloween Ever!

Well. In 8th grade, I took Home Ec. And the teacher taught us to sew and we were supposed to sew these little stuffed animals. I wasn't very good at it. I wasn't very interested in it. I don't even think I finished it. Instead, I ended up spending most of the class working on a story I was writing. The teacher let me do this. She actually encouraged my writing, showed an interest in it, read my story and looked forward to its updates etc. Some people might think that was pretty lax of her but I thought it was wonderful of her. I still do. I never tried to sew since. Fortunately, my husband knows how to sew so in an emergency, I will call on him. :lol: And when my daughter had to learn to do a cross stitch last week for a 'home craft project' which was part of her social studies- he was the one who taught her.

So, today was my 9th results weigh in. Status Report: 8/26/10, Week "0" Weight: 237 1/2 lbs BMI: 37.2 Height: 5'7" 9/2/10, Week 1 Weight: 235 1/2 lbs BMI: 36.9 Weekly Change: -2 lbs Total Loss: 2 lbs 9/9/10, Week 2 Weight: 234 1/2 lbs BMI: 36.8 Weekly Change: -1 lb Total Loss: 3 lbs 9/16/10, Week 3 Weight: 231 3/4 lbs BMI: 36.3 Weekly Change: -2 3/4 lbs Total Loss: 5 3/4 lbs 9/23/10, Week 4 Weight: 229 1/2 lbs BMI: 35.9 Weekly Change: -2 1/4 lbs Total Loss: 8 lbs (I'm out of the 230's!!!) 9/30/10, Week 5 Weight: 226 3/4 lbs BMI: 35.5 Weekly Change: -2 3/4 lbs Total Loss: 10 3/4 lbs 10/7/10, Week 6 Weight: 226 1/4 lbs BMI: 35.5 Weekly Change: -1/2 lb Total Loss: 11 1/4 lbs 10/14/10, Week 7 Weight: 224 1/2 lbs BMI: 35.2 Weekly Change: -1 3/4 lbs Total Loss: 13 lbs 10/21/10, Week 8 Weight: 221 1/4 lbs BMI: 34.6 Weekly Change: -3 1/4 lbs Total Loss: 16 1/4 lbs 10/28/10, Week 9 Weight: 218 lbs BMI: 34.1 Weekly Change: -3 1/4 lbs Total Loss: 19 1/2 lbs (I'm out of the 220's!!!) Summary: Goal- to lose 58 lbs. 19 1/2 lbs down, 38 1/2 lbs to go. --- My husband has lost a total of 11 lbs so far (he lost 3/4 lb this week). --- Check out my fun weight loss picture updates here: http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/139113.html Thanks again for your support and encouragement, all!

Good for you! Generally speaking, try not to eat under your points. If you do it consistently, your body is going to get used to having to eat less to lose. And when you reach the maintenance stage you might find yourself forced to maintain on less calories than you otherwise would have been able to :) (I know it's tempting to think well if I eat even LESS I'll lose faster but WW is a healthy and effective program as is so just try to be careful of that way of thinking) :)

My daughter is in 5th and we can finish in 3 hours or less a day for the most part. We tried K with my son and it was taking an hour or less a day, but then we decided he wasn't really ready so we're holding off on K for the time being.

Nowhere near often enough. I think I will do it today though. Especially since I was laid up in bed all day yesterday with some nasty 24 hour stomach bug. Thanks for the reminder lol.

You're mean. This is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night. I hope you're satisfied! :lol:

If my 10 y/o is waiting for me to prepare something for her schoolwork or to do something with her brother or whatever, I'll often tell her it's "silent reading time."

Does it count that when I was in labor and delivery with my first child- a labor which lasted about 35 hours, and I was nearing the end with extremely little sleep and some Demerol in my system, that I TRIED to ask for more ice chips but instead apparently asked for "12 more Hershey's kisses" and nobody knew what the heck I was talking about....? :) (I mix up my words all the time these days, though, and have been known to say: "Melissa! Ben! Uh, Alexa... whatever your name is!" when trying to figure out which of my kids I'm trying to boss around.) :)

Our pets are saltwater fish, a gecko, and two turtles.

I'm curious how it went, too! I weigh in again tomorrow (it will be my 9th week on the WW program). I am 5'7" and I started 9 weeks ago at 237 1/2 lbs! I already kissed the 230's goodbye (thank goodness), and according to a sneak peek on my home scale today (which said 219.8), I think I'll officially be out of the 220's tomorrow! Yay!

aw that's great, and I love the pictures!

:grouphug: I've had days like that, too.

I would let my kids decide when THEY want to stop trick-or-treating. Trick-or-treating was exciting and fun for me until I was probably about 16 years old. It's once a year, it's harmless, and if they're willing to dress up and go out for a night of harmless fun, people are going to be willing to give them candy. They will decide when they've outgrown it. I wouldn't force a premature stop on them before then.