LOL, we are the movers too. We sure will get our workout with this move. Glad it is the twins going to have bedrooms on 3rd floor and not me-LOL.

Yep, and we are moving in two weeks... the heat of summer to the maximum. We are moving from a two story house to a 3 story 1/2 duplex. And the duplex doesn't have A/C yet :crying:. Hopefully it will be cooler in PA than in IL :glare:. But I am excited about the move... exhausted already, but excited. I have Vietnam Vets scheduled to do a pickup this Tuesday. Educational books going to library this week. Big stuff that VV won't take... going to Goodwill. Bunch of stuff that is in really good shape (kids stuff) I am taking to a kids used store to see if I can get enough credit to buy clothes that Ds#2 and Ds#3 will need. It looks like in the ps schools they will attend, there is a uniform dress code. So 90% of the clothes they have won't do. I am feeling so good about getting rid of stuff. Spent 10 hours in Ds#2 and Ds#3 bedroom the other day. I have about half the house packed. Rest is pretty much needing to wait until nearly last minute (current school stuff the kids are using, kitchen stuff, bathroom stuff, and of course summer clothes).

IMO, follow your instincts. If your worried, then have her evaluated. It can't hurt to have her evaluated by Early Intervention. If they see an issue, they will tell you and recommend therapy. And it can't hurt to start therapy early... but it can hurt if it is delayed. My twins were non-verbal at 18 months old and were evaluated as they were seen by specialists since Ds and Dd were also preemies. They measured at about 9 months old for expressive language, and 18+ months for receptive language. They just didn't feel the need to talk. They were on pretty strict daily routine schedules, and if one needed/wanted something.. the other pretty much got it too. They also did not babble as babies much, and they did not do "twin speak". They didn't speak more than handful of words (and only single words, never combined them) until they were 2yrs old. They didn't start combining words until 2 1/2 and by age 3 they were talking in full sentences with very clear pronunciation . At age 3, people were surprised at how well Ds and Dd spoke. Very clear and advanced language. Just as they turned 5 they were evaluated for kindergarten and "measured" verbal language at 8+ yrs of age. So they were way ahead of their peers. No speech issues at all. Once our twins were evaluated at 18months, we were told to give them more opportunities to request things, to have conversations with them, to read a lot to them. In otherwords, to do just as you have described that you already do with your DD. But my youngest had speech delays. For him we had other issues that we were watching for... his hearing was very poor from birth and he had surgery at 10 months. He was still not talking at 23 months, so he was placed into Early Intervention. He recieved speech for a year and got caught up very nicely.

Cool, I didn't know about this little feature. Great to know in case I ever need it.

:iagree: This is how I do it. I am very selective on who I friend to start with. I only "friend" family and close friends. A few times I friended a few friends of DH's and that didn't work out so well. If after I friend someone, I find their posts inappropriate and I just don't want to see their posts I will hide them. If the individual is offensive, then I will unfriend them. I won't tolerate offensive/bad behavior in person and sure won't tolerate it on-line. So far I haven't had problems with family (close or extended). But I won't tolerate offensive posts/behavior from them if they ever pulled something like that to me. But then again, Dh and his parents and siblings would not tolerate it either.

We always do a family party on the bday. The bday person gets dinner and desert of their choice. They also get to pick the group activity. Some of the picks were go-karting, movies, Chuck E Cheeses, Nerf war at home, laser tag. They usually get to pick 1-2 friends to join along. We have a set bday budget for each bday person each year. For their 13th and 16th and 18th bday we spend a bit more. We tend to budget about $250 for each bday child. That is for them to get something special that is expensive. We don't do big at Christmas (we budget about $75 for each child on Christmas) so we make up for it on bdays. Twins had a friend party about five times from ages 1-8. A few times they did a separate party, a few parties at home, a few parties at public location. Younger two boys had only a few parties as we sort of just allowed the parties to dwindle out. It was just getting to be too hard for me to do parties so close together. Ds#2 bday is about 6 weeks before the twins, and Ds#3 shares a bday with the twins (he was born on their 6th bday). And then Easter and spring break was always in there too. So having 4 bday parties, Easter, and spring break was just too complicated in scheduling parties. By around age 8, the twins didn't want a friend party anyway. They usually just wanted to do something special with 2-3 friends with the family. Younger two boys want friend parties and we have done two or three. Usually they rather get more gifts from mom/dad than to get a few gifts with a party. When my kids are invited to a party, if it is someone who is more than just a "recess" friend (they have to actually play with the friend outside of school), I try to allow the my kid to attend. Thankfully in our area, it seems that bday parties are minimal. I think each of my kids were invited to only 2-3 parties in their elementary years. Twins attended PS through 8th grade and younger two still attend. Bday invites are not allowed to be passed out during school or on school property in elementary.

Here is what we have for our kids... Storage cabinet that holds the text books, spirals in current use, DVD's and CD's for the courses, and assigned literature books. Storage cabinet that stores all the extra school supplies... paper, folders, binders, pencils, pens, crafts materials, etc. This is for all the kids school supplies. A table top sized 6 drawer plastic storage thingy. Each drawer holds a category of supplies... crayons, colored pencils, markers, math supplies (rulers, protractors, calculators, compasses), craft supplies (glue, scissors, single hole punch), writing stuff (pencils, erasers, pens, white-out, high lighters, paper clips, stapler, 3-whole punch). Desk in each of the kids bedrooms, desk in living room (with computer), desk in dining room. They also have kitchen table if they need a larger surface. Book cases in bedroom hallway... these are the kids free read books. They also keep books in their rooms. We are moving end of this month so where we have the cabinits and such will change... so I didn't mention where we keep them. Specifically for the twins homeschool... I have three binders. One for each of them for current year. This has their syllabus for each course, a table chart that lists exactly what they are to complete each week of the school year. I print out about 2 months at a time since what I plan out from start to finish of the year changes, and a table chart for logging their grades for each course, graded work that is not in a spiral. I keep one binder for previous years syllabus and grades, medical forms, IEP for Ds, SAT and other test scores, etc.

I don't get loud myself, but once I did get irritated and had to work very hard to not take it out on the staff. I had a scheduled appointment, I got there 15 minutes early, the doctor wasn't there, the staff didn't tell me, I waited 30 minutes then asked, they then told me the doctor hadn't arrived yet, I waited another 30 minutes before asking again, doctor still hadn't arrived, and then finally the doctor arrived about 10 minutes later and it was still another 25 minutes before I was taken back into a room. I was the first patient of the day. Lucky for the doctor that he apologized profusely for the delay and he waived my copay -LOL. :D. One time I did let loose on a dental staff. It was a dentist appointment for nephew (county health dept). From time of scheduling... it is typically a 3 month wait. I scheduled an appointment, they cancelled/rescheduled it twice. Their cancelation/reschedules put the appointment back nearly 6 months. I had to take him out of school a full day. I get there (after a 50 minute one way drive) and get checked in. 45 minutes later they come to me and tell me that the appointment was cancelled and needed to be rescheduled. The dentist took the week off. I was livid. For starters this appointment was necessary for school and the school was giving me a hard time (Nephew was state ward and was not allowed to homeschool without court permission). And they couldn't call me? I made them write a letter for the school explaining that the lack of dental care was not my fault (and I sent a copy to the judge so I couldn't get blamed for not taking care of nephew per court agreement when we got custody of nephew just in case the schools "complained" to the courts). :mad::angry: For some reason, nephew got a new appointment for two weeks later and we didn't have a wait time-LOL.

That is just so wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My 16yr old Aspie hasn't shown such articulation in showing appreciation. He isn't big on showing appreciation to begin with... He will just say thank you and keep on going-LOL.

It depends... My kids pretty much only see their pediatrician (primary doctor) 98% of the time. If they need a specialist then they go to one. Dd sees an orthopedist, chiropractor, and PT/massage therapist to treat her leg/hips disorder. Her condition is chronic and a primary doctor can't/won't do the treatments she needs. Ds#2 had to see a cardiologist once to check a murmur when he was 3yrs old. He also had to see a urologist and needed surgery when he was 9yrs old. Ds#3 had to see an ENT for hearing issues from birth and he had surgery at 10months. He also needed physical therapy to learn to balance, crawl, stand, walk. He also had to have speech therapy for a little over a year until he was 3yrs old. All this was related to his ears though. Their pediatrician takes care of all their routine needs and treats their asthma and allergies and monitors/manages what goes on with the specialists. Me, I am another story but then again my doctors are in the Veterans Administration Hospitals and they pretty much specialize everything. And my kids are not allowed to go there. I see my primary doctor once a year and usually she does the PAP. I went to GYN when I had issues that needed treatment that went beyond primary doctor. I see my asthma/allergy doctor every 2-3 months. I see a cardiologist once a year, endocrinologist once a year (as I take prednisone for my asthma). And then add in my lab and other tests that have to be done once a year.

For doctor visits that are routine I will wait up to 15 minutes after my appointment time. If it is a sick visit but not urgent... I will wait up to 30 minutes after appointment time. If the doctor is so busy that he/she can't see me or my kids in a reasonable time, then I leave. Period. I often have more than one appointment in a day, or I have to take or pick up my kids somewhere and I can't be late. I am polite but firm when I tell the receptionist or nurse that I am leaving and need to reschedule. And if I paid a copay already.. I ask for a refund or that they put a note in the records that I will not owe a copay for the next visit. To be honest, this includes specialists as well. IMO, if my appointment is not urgent then I do not need to waste my time waiting beyond the 15 minute mark. I understand emergencies happen. So I figure if I volunteer to reschedule, then I will be one less patient the doctor needs to see when he/she is already back logged. I try to schedule my appointments first thing in morning if it is a doctor who tends to always be back logged. Otherwise I will call the doctor office up just before I am leaving for the appointment to check if doctor is running on time. Most of the times, if doctor is running behind, the nurse is fine with me coming in a bit later or I reschedule the appointment.

I had a phobia of needles, doctors, nurses growing up... I was very bad. :blushing: :leaving: I remember my dad trying to convince school nurse to ignore the fact that I was behind on shots when I was in 5th grade. He knew that taking me in was going to be rough for him. I would bite, kick, scream, etc. He never was without trauma himself anytime I had to go to doctor and he really didn't want to take me in when I wasn't sick-LOL. I still can't stand them, but I try hard to behave.. I don't want my kids to be so terrified like I was. But then again, I was born 3 months early and my first 5 yrs of life was pretty much me living in the hospital.

I refused to give this to my DD (she is 16 now). I just didn't feel that the unknown of the risks of the vaccine outweighed the risk of future cancer. It just made me nervous to give it to her so I said no. I did have my kids get the chicken pox vac. But that is because I didn't have chicken pox and doctor said it would be safer for me (being on long term prednisone) and my kids (asthma) to get the vaccine. But also several of my nieces and nephews (older than my kids) had severe chicken pox (two of my nieces/nephews were hospitalized). And that because my kids had asthma dx as infants, they were at a higher risk of complications. I just didn't want to take a chance. Ds #2 did get the vaccine but then two days later he broke out in the rash. He had already been exposed. And unfortunately, just as the pox was healing, he broke out in head to toe hand-foot-mouth disease (literally head to foot).

Not sure, but I figured I better not have anymore babies after my #4. My kids kept getting bigger. Ds#1 and DD are twins... they were 4 lbs 7 oz and 5 lbs 1 oz. And they were a month early. Before pregnancy I was only 5 ft 2in and 95 lbs. Ds#2 was 7 lbs 8 oz and he was two weeks early. Ds#3 was 8 lbs 8 oz and he was right on his due date. I figured the next one would have been a 9 1/2 lber and be over due!!!!! :svengo:. So I stopped-LOL

I didn't push any of my kids. They learned to read simply by being read to from infancy. When they started school they learned from there. All but one of my kids learned to read at a typical pace/age. They just being read to when they were little. Twins would sit in my lap for hours looking at the books while I read to them. Ds#2 was too hyper to read with me, but he loved being read to while he was "practicing" his gross motor skills. Ds#3 loved to sit with me while I read, but "only" for about 30 minutes at a time (twins would go for over an hour). I would sound out words for them when they asked what a word said (when they were about 2-5 yrs old) and so they got a little phonics in, but never any lessons. Simply we just had fun with reading. Ds#1 was a "poor" reader until summer before 3rd grade. But at end of 3rd grade he was tested (IQ and achievement thru psych) and he measured at reading post high school level. He could.not.do phonics. He had to memorize what words looked like and that was how he read. But then between 2nd and 3rd grade it just clicked for him. And from there he was reading way advanced for his age. Now writing was/is another story. He measured at 1st grade level when he was going into 4th grade. He still struggles a bit with writing. It isn't the mechanics of writing that is difficult, but the thought process and getting from brain to paper is the challenge for him. It takes him a long time. If he is very knowledgable with the topic then it is a bit easier. And funny thing is, Ds #1... the one who struggled to learn to read, is the only one of my kids who will read just to read for fun. Dd, Ds#2, Ds#3 will not pick up a book for fun. Dd will if it is poetry or a topic that she wants to learn about (Kung Fu-LOL). She can't stand fiction literature.

Yes, I think the key thing is to get physical custody of the child before seeking guardianship. Not sure how the OP situation can go... her brother is still "in the picture". For me, my sister was in a mental nursing home, she was in it for many months before I even got custody of the children. We were granted legal guardianship based on the mother was not capable of taking care of herself let alone her children and the fathers were not located. So when I filed for legal guardianship, there was no one to contest the petition. And since it was based on the mother was non-competent, she could not get the kids back without hiring a lawyer and proving to the courts she was competent. And she would have had to pay all the fees and lawyer. Since the kids were never in DCFS care, never in foster system... we did not recieve any monetary assistance from DCFS. We did get a very small stipend from public aid and the medical card. Niece and nephew are now adults... niece 24yrs old, nephew almost 22yrs old.

This was not so for us. When we went through DCFS for my niece and nephew... we did not have to comply to any of their rules and regulations. They connected us to Catholic Charities and CC gave us a lawyer, filed the paperwork with courts, and the lawyer went to court with us. And at no cost to us. It was some sort of family assistance program through DCFS that we went through. We did not have any visits from DCFS. Niece and nephew were never in DCFS care. Here's what I found at our DCFS website: Extended Family Support The Department and its community partners provide assistance to adults who are already caring for their relatives' children. The children may not be abused or neglected but social services may still be needed to stabilize the relative caregivers' household or prevent a later placement away from the relatives. An array of services - provided through collaborative efforts between DCFS, probate court, the Department of Public Aid, the State Central Register, and public schools - focus on short-term interventions to help relatives continue to provide quality care.

Ask your child services dept and/or Catholic Charities (if there is one in your area). My sister's 3 kids moved in with us at ages 18, 11, and 8. My sister was in a mental nursing home at this point. She gave me a notarized letter giving me permission to take care of her youngest two kids. After about 6 months I found out this wasn't what I needed to be their legal guardian by the state. But up to this point we had no issues with getting them medical (they were already on state medical and we just had to get it in our name as caregiver) and enroll them in school. I called DCFS and through them, I was connected with Catholic Charities. I forget what it was called exactly, but it was a program where a immediate blood relative (Aunt, Uncle, Grandparents) could get a lawyer and get the paperwork filed and go to court for legal guardianship of minor child(ren). The lawyer helped us through the process all the way through. And it was free. It was paid for by Catholic Charities... and no you don't have to be Catholic. Catholic Charities also gave us a one time cash assistance for the kids. I think it was about $500 for the two younger kids. This helped pay for what the kids needed as they came to us with nothing.

Wow, I don't recognize many of these vacs. Vacs my kids have had DTP, Polio, MMR, Hep B, HIB, Tdap, Varicella, and the one for menigitis. My 10 yr old hasn't had the Tdap or menigitis shots yet. No Hep A, MCV4, or HPV for any of my kids... yet.

Another Navy brat and I was also in the Navy. Yep, I get the itch to move every 3-4 years. My parents divorced when I was young and I did move back and forth a few times also.

Thank you everyone. I am going to check out the links a few posted and see if we can get a better deal. Moving is not that much fun-LOL.

LOL the poll should have included dysfunctional disaster or some sort of "severe dysfunctional" category... and that would be my FOO.

I totally relate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :party::party:Definitly a proud Momma moment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wish my Aspie would do this!!! Maybe he will one day, or maybe not :tongue_smilie:.

Dh is the driving instructor in our home. Not me, no way no how!!!!! Niece and nephew took drivers ed at school and then Dh taught them to drive the rest... and he made sure they knew how to drive. Dh loves to teach the kids how to have fun driving... donuts, skidding, etc. After the kids have done at least 25 hours with Dh, then I will let them drive with me in the car-LOL. Ds#1 and Dd turned 16 end of April and both are itching to drive. We move to PA in a few weeks and they will go for the permit test as soon as we can get them in. Then Dh gets to have fun-LOL.

I started wearing glasses when I was 12. By age 16 couldn't see without glasses. I also have bad astigmatism. I started wearing contacts... oh wow, I can't remember when I started. At age 44 I had to go to trifocals-LOL. I feel so old now that I think about it. I wear contacts during the day when I am going out of the house. But I can't see print with them. At home I wear my glasses. In my family... My mom wore glasses, my dad started wearing them in his 60's for reading. My sister and oldest brother wear glasses. My other older brother started wearing glasses in his 30's. Dh wears glasses but he can still pass drivers vision test. He also uses contacts on occassions. 16 yr old Dd wears glasses, she just barely needs them. So far doesn't want contacts. It has been interesting with her. She got her first pair of glasses in 6th grade, but then in 7th grade she didn't need them. Then in 9th grade she needed them again. She has mild astigmatism. 16 yr old Ds wears glasses. He started wearing them in 6th grade also. So far doesn't want contacts. 10 and 12 yr old Ds's... so far they are have good eyes. 12yr old complains about not being able to see board at school, but when examined by doctor... he passes exam with 20/20.