Serious topic
 

Depends on whether the crack addict did something to create the dangerous situation, other than forget. Like having a pipe or two and going into a stupor for six hours while her kids baked in a quite different manner.

Otherwise, if you're just saying "crack addict" to make her less sympathetic as a defendant, you could just as easily have said, "Would you prosecute him for forgetting his baby in the car --- if he were a child molester?"

Could Use Some More Help on the Food Questions - Thanks!
 

Hi everyone. Vietbabe turned 9 months the other day and though she's 28 inches, I can't get her over 15 lbs. She's "clinging to the 5th percentile" on the weight charts. Still has no teeth but still won't let me put pureed food in her mouth and she can't put it in herself (and doesn't want to). She wants to eat food she can hold and put in her own mouth.

I'm having a hard time and I don't want her to drop weight. Any more suggestions (I know I asked before) would be great. At this point, I have had to stop the wonderful homemade pureed food I was making her (organic veggies and chicken of course) and I'm feeding her things that ghastly!!

Here are the things she'll eat. I'd like to add cheese, but she says no to Mozzarella and Chedder (she can't pulverize it to her liking) so I don't know what to try. What about pieces of tofu?

1. Aunt Jemima's mini pancakes, microwaved a bit and then dipped in the homemade pureed food I had been making her (squash, chicken, etc.) but they don't absorb that much of the pureed food. She can really suck in the pancakes.

2. A product by Gerber called "Meat Sticks" and "Chicken Sticks" that are these awful tiny sticks that look like teeny hotdogs that have a light casing around them that keeps the meat together. I peel off the casing. She sucks down that meat voraciously. It's almost like pureed food she can actually hold and feed herself -- they are in holdable "stick form" until they hit her mouth -- then they go to pureed form basically. Perfect. But oh the preservatives and sodium in there, but....there's protein and potassium too.

3. Same product by Gerber but it's mini pieces of green beans, carrots, apples, pear dices etc. I tried to make them myself but they are not as soft as the ones that come in these jars. They're almost as soft as canned fruit.

4. These popsicle-looking things that are long plastic things that have frozen yogurt inside them she can hold the thing and squish the yogurt in her mouth.

5. A banana - can hold it and squish it in her mouth.

6. Rice - usually the "sticky" kind you get at Chinese restaurants but not much goes down the hatch - more on the floor.

Not so successful with these:

Mini waffles (not as easily eaten as the pancake).

Eggs - but not crazy about them even with the Herbs De Provence.

Ground beef (doesn't seem to go down; it may be too hard).

Someone on here suggested I "pouch" chicken breast so it is squishable in one's finger. Do you mean a boneless think sliced breast? And how do I "pouch" it? I tried a hotdog but it's too hard for her and she can't pulverize it.

Thanks everyone!

food
 

is the pediatrician worried about her weight? just a thought, but the growth charts are (I think) based on US population, and maybe she's actually closer to normal percentiles for her demographic.

some ideas anyway:

Land-o-lakes american cheese singles- it has some junk in it, but less than Kraft, it squashes up quite nicely, and doesn't have the strong flavor of cheddar.

pasta of a size and shape she can hold and stuff in her mouth- well cooked it pulverizes well, and the enriched pasta has a lot more protein than you think. Plus you can sneak other stuff on as sauce.

If she's into pancakes, you can make pancake batter with extra egg and some yogurt instead of the milk- she'll never know she's eating eggs.

mashed potatoes that you don't mash very well, so there's some squishy chunks she can grab- again, you can load up on the butter (really, fat is good at this age).

I never understood the baby food meats. They smell like an open grave, and I can't figure out why they don't turn kids off of food forever. I wouldn't sweat the meat group until she's ready to eat the real stuff- others might disagree, but you can sneak a lot of protein into them with other foods. If she's still drinking formula, she's getting most of her nutritional needs already, and just needs calories.

Also, do you eat with her? I only ask because I know when I'm on my own with the kids, I tend to feed them then forage for myself rather than sitting down like we do when the whole gang is here, and at her age watching mom eat sparks an interest in doing the stuff you do- learning how to hold a spoon, etc, and makes eating something interesting to do.

Final thought: if you don't care how much of a mess she makes, she can eat the things with her fingers that you'd rather have her eat with a spoon. Mine sucked a lot of squash off their fingers. I just fed them without a shirt on so I could hose them off afterward.

good luck, and unless the doctor tells you to worry, don't get too caught up in the percentiles.

Could Use Some More Help on the Food Questions - Thanks!
 

my wife listened to our Ped and took our oldest off sole brest milk at 4 months to begin to introduce solids. the kid lost weight and stayed bony to the point where once at an emergency room (out of town bad cold) the attending asked "why are you starving your baby?" then he told us to have her checked for CF. turns out most babies get fat from milk fat for the first year so make sure you don't scrimp on milk or formula to give her all this other solid food. maybe that'll help. once we realized milk fat was how babies get fat and that solids are secondary, our kid did ok.

Could Use Some More Help on the Food Questions - Thanks!
 

I think that was me, and I meant "poach." Poaching is a method of cooking in liquid below boiling. For chicken, the water temp should be around 185. It's hard to tell temperature of non-boiling water, but 185 is about where small bubbles form on the bottom of the pan and the top of the water steams, but there are no rising bubbles.

Try this: bring a two cups of water to a boil in a fair sized saute pan or saucier. Lay in a chicken breast, and cook on one side for 20 seconds. The water should come up over half the side of the chichen. Too much water isn't something to worry about, but if it's too low, add more. Flip the breast with tongs and immediately turn down the heat to medium low. Let the water drop below boiling until it is just steaming a little with a few bubbles forming. Let the chicken poach like this for a while (20 minutes or so), and then flip and give it some more time (another 10 minutes, but a little longer won't hurt it). Since your water is around the target termperature for the food, it's not going to overcook too readily.

Take it out and let it cool. It will be squishable, especially when cut into small cubes. The first couple of times, you might want to try cutting it open to check for doneness before taking it out - it should be white all the way through the thickest part. One of the advantages of poaching is that it doesn't seem to make much of a difference if you cut a breast open while cooking (cut open a grilled or sauted breast while it's cooking and all the juices will run out).

This method of cooking is also great with fish (for you, and for baby when she gets a little older I suppose), but there the cooking temperature can be even lower.

I learned to poach from watching "Good Eats" on the Food Network. I was going to refer you to the transcript page for the episode, but I notice that it's replaying soon:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show..._19118,00.html (spree: food)

The show is weird, but the techniques it shows and explanations it gives are great, so I recommend catching the episode if you can.

Food Question
 

Little Ritz is also in about the 5th percentile but keeps dropping off the chart. He is on a doctor-prescribed high fat diet with lots of butter, etc. We've had some success with french toast - cut up, chicken nuggets cut up (the purdue white meat kind), mashed potatoes, smiley fries, sweet potatoes cut into large chunks, grilled cheese. Also, Gerber Little Entrees seem to be a big hit (even though they smell like cat food). I have also given him tuna, boneless white fish, etc., which he seems to like. Another suggestion is to make basic chicken noodle soup - chicken and carrots boiled for about an hour with noodles added later - and give it to Vietbabe without the broth.

I wouldn't worry about Vietbabe's lack of teeth. Little Ritz did not have any teeth until about 14 months. He still does not have any back teeth. My doctor wanted me to start table food at 9 months and have him completely off baby food by age 1. I was kind of worried about table food given his lack of teeth, my doctor pointed out that people chew with their back teeth and told me not to worry about it as long as I served age-appropriate food.

low weight
 

We had one child who hovered in the 5th to 10th percentile (while often in 80th and up for height!) for a long time. Tried a bunch of ways to fatten 'em up, though the Doc said as long as the kid was healthy we shouldn't worry. Sure enough, a time came when the weight just came on; still on the skinny side, but no longer quite so skinny.

I don't think I can offer any advice to help, since nothing we did worked, but maybe it's comforting to know someone else went through the worries for naught.

food
 

Urban legend has it that the growth charts are based on German and Scandanavian farming families. In other words, Vikings.

So while at least 5% of kids are in the top percent in school, and there are at least 25 top twenty law schools, there are also probably 20% of all kids in the US who are in the bottom 5% in weight.

food
 

I thought the growth charts were based on emaciated children of Appalachian miners. L'il Ty has checked it at 95% and 90% in height and weight. Maybe we're dealing with a non-Bell curve distribution? I feel like I hear about lots of kids at either end of the spectrum, but no one in between.

Then again, I live in the Viking neighborhood.

growth charts
 

Well, I did a quick google, and learned that the most commonly used growth charts come from the CDC and cover the US norms. But, more to the point, I found a growth chart on a web site dedicated to Vietnamese adoptions that is supposed to be good to consult for kids of Vietnamese extraction.

asian growth chart

Does this help?

Good Stuff!
 

I can't thank you guys enough. All the food replies were just great. And the poster who said the "meat sticks' smelled like "an open grave" was hilarious. How do you guys come up with these things? Funny because at my sister's I fumbled with the jar which has the meat sticks floating in a liquid (embalming fluid? formaldyhde?) and boom - the liquid went all over me - even in my hair. I smelled so raunchy that night. Thank God I sleep alone.

And yes, I spelled "poach/pouch" wrong. Funny! Okay will try that.

I tried many of the suggestions and had some success so thanks! (recap: 9 month old with no teeth; will not eat anything spoon fed and must hold the food herself; except the food has to immediately disintegrate in her mouth; these are apparently the rules). I've added more to her diet that seem to work:

Potato Knish (defrosted and sliced in long pieces, she can bring to her mouth and suck the potato stuff out of there)

Swedish meatballs (pretty easily disintegrated).

Thanks for that growth chart for Vietnamese kids. Hey! That's Allison Martin's site (I know her and Vietbabe's picture is on there somewhere). I can't seem to figure out that chart as I'm bad with that stuff. Vietbabe is now 16 lbs (finally past the 15 lb mark) and 28 inches and is 9 months one week. Strange thing is she is walking now. It's kind of eerie to see this skinny little thing walking at you, mouth agape with no teeth in it.

Sleepless at 1:45 am,

Vietmom

food
 

Feel thusly no more. 35% weight; 40% height. Em takes after em's mother, apparently.

sizes
 

Magnus, despite his name, has pretty consistently been 80-90th for height, 50th for weight, and >95th for head size. Got the noggin from his 7 7/8 daddy (no we're not Scots).

tm

sizes, and a gender question
 

Turtle no. 2 has been off the charts (big) in all the categories almost since birth, though he's finally growing into his head, which was even more ridiculous than the rest of him at the beginning (ouch, but I'm getting over it). Funny thing is, the pediatrician gave me a little speech at his 3-y-old checkup about how I should be careful not to let people expect too much of him because he's big for his age. All true, but I left remembering that turtle no. 1, equally tall and strapping for her age but a girl, never inspired such commentary. Do we take for granted unrealistic expectations for girls, or do you all think the fact that the dr. thought of it with him and not her was just random?

Percentiles for Dummies
 

For those like me who go blind reading those "growth charts" you can input your babe's height and weight at this site www.growthpercentile.com and it will tell you what percentile your babe is in for both.

Vietbabe is in the 75% percentile for height; 10% for weight. I still find it freaky she's walking. She even claps her hands when she walks, and dances (just bopping up and down and clapping while standing).

Vietmom
(Still waiting on those teeth)

Growth Charts
 

Sadly that chart actually put LittleRitz in a lower percentile than his doctor did. He is on the low end for both height and weight. My Ped attributes it to pregnancy complications that I had. My OB suddenly packed up his office and moved out of state and apparently didn't think that it was necessary to notify me that I was developing a life-threatening condition, he thought that my new doctor would see the note in my records. Unfortunately, the records were misplaced for several weeks and by then it was so bad that I had to have an emergency c-section and LittleRitz was born way too early. Still he has made amazing strides considering his birth weight. We've been through the whole thyroid-testing process and are considering some other options.

It is getting really hard to find an OB in my area. Is anyone else having similar problems? Next time around, I am going to make it clear that I want to be told about any potential problems - can process information, will not freak out, etc. A lot of these doctors are way too condescending.

Pedagogy
 

Some of you who have small children may have perhaps been put in the embarrassing position of being unable to do your child's arithmetic homework because of the current revolution in mathematics teaching known as the New Math. So as a public service [Tom Lehrer offers] a brief lesson in the New Math.[SPREE: THIS IS A MUSIC FILE. LOTS OF CLAPPING, LAUGHTER, and CORNY PIANO EFFECTS:exclaim:]

The lyrics are here.

Web Page Stuff
 

A friend created a nonprofit to help Vietnamese Orphans and wants to set up a website for it. He's computer challenged so I guess he's going to have to use a third party service. Is there a place to use that will set up your site but also update it when he wants to add or change stuff? Do you send them the pictures and text and they upload it? If anyone knows of a relatively cheap service could you share? He also has to register I guess for a domain name which I guess will be a .org. Thanks.

Vietmom

True Confessions
 

I think I'm developing a crush on Kim Possible.

the boutique route
 

Thinking Small

Search for Flexibility Leads Some Women to Start Their Own Firms

Jason Dearen
The Recorder
07-07-2003


Michele Ballard Miller was tired of seeing the mommy track treated like a case of the mumps.

By the time she quit big-firm life in 1998, she'd become an equity partner at then-Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May.

But even as a partner, she couldn't square the conflicting demands of her children and the firm's clients. Something had to give. So Miller left Crosby and started the Miller Law Group in Larkspur with another woman wanting out of big-firm life.

"The primary reason is the hours we were required to work," Miller explained. "The lack of flexibility made it very difficult to be a mother and an attorney." Downshifting wasn't a workable solution, either. "The idea of the mommy track is absolutely true," she said. "You're not viewed as committed at the firms if you work part-time."

Attorneys who leave behemoths to start boutiques cite everything from a desire for greater control to hopes for a friendlier culture. But for some women, the flexibility to fit in some family life is a large part of the allure.

This may help to explain why a number of women-founded boutiques have sprouted up in the Bay Area in recent years.

"The in-house route was historically what women looked for when leaving a big firm -- it was still considered prestigious, but the hours were better," said Dana Stone, co-founder of 2-year-old San Mateo commercial real estate boutique Steppe, Stone & Lakey. "But in-house jobs have dwindled a bit and the hours have increased."

Stone chose to start a firm with two other women after their employer, real estate investment trust Spieker Properties, was acquired in 2001. The three had fled big-firm life before, and weren't eager to return.

Before going in-house, Stone had been a senior associate at Allen Matkins Leck Gamble & Mallory. Co-founder Pamela Lakey had been an associate at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, while Sara Steppe had been a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

Stone and other escapees agree it wasn't so much the hours, but the lack of control over when they were required. If the goal is working less, Stone said, starting a business from scratch isn't the way to achieve it.

Hours at Steppe, Stone & Lakey rise and fall with the work. "It comes in cycles," said Lakey, whose firm has since added five lawyers. "During the first few cycles, when the work slowed down we would get nervous. But now, if it's slow for a week or two, we know the cycles and we can appreciate the downtime and find that balance in our lives."

For Ellen Friedman, Cecily Dumas and Jane Springwater, who opened Friedman, Dumas & Springwater in April, the spark had a different source.

The three were happy at San Francisco insolvency and commercial finance boutique Murphy Sheneman Julian & Rogers. But that firm's merger this year with Chicago's Winston & Strawn created a conflict with a major client. Rather than take the work to another established firm, Dumas and her colleagues chose what they saw as the next career step.

"It was a new challenge -- having a firm where my name is on the door," said Dumas. "You're doing the same thing as working for a larger firm, but it's your own. It was the next logical professional challenge," said Dumas. "I want a legacy when I retire, and I want to provide jobs and professional satisfaction for the people who work here."

Friedman, who says the firm has gotten off to a good start with work from Hewlett-Packard Co., Cisco Systems Inc. and GE Capital, agrees that "it's not a matter of hours. It's a question of decision-making and being at the forefront of that and being able to set policies."

All three of these boutiques report booming business, attributing that to their ability to offer partner-level services for a lower cost than much larger firms can. As businesses continue to cut costs in a dour economy, many clients are looking to boutiques for lower billing rates, attorneys say.

Andrew McCullough, general counsel of Century Theatres, said his decision to send work to Miller's management-side employment boutique made good sense.

"Having sampled both -- we have used large employment firms before -- I came into it with perspective," McCullough said. "When she staffed a particular matter we knew we'd have a high-caliber attorney working on it. Michele Miller left a big firm to create an environment that would allow her to charge less."

Miller's firm now has five attorneys -- all women and all big-firm refugees -- and a client list that includes the Pepsi Bottling Group Inc., Chevron-Texaco Corp., Century Theatres Inc. and The North Face Inc.

Leaving big-firm life to start your own shop isn't without risks. Miller said the first year was tough.

Now, though, she says she makes more money than she did as an equity partner at Crosby, Heafey. While her billing rates are $150 to $200 lower than they were, there's less overhead. "If you stabilize your attorneys and client base, most people at boutiques make the equivalent of what partners make at most mid-size firms," she said.

At Steppe, Stone & Lakey, partners charge $100 to $150 less than they did at their previous firms.

Lakey said she and her colleagues made very little money in their first year of business. "We made capital contributions and decided to go for it for a year. We bypassed taking any money from the firm," she said.

Lakey won't say how much she's making now. But, she says, "if I weren't covering my bills and I didn't enjoy the work and the people, I wouldn't do it."

Angela Bradstreet, a former president of the Bar Association of San Francisco and a partner at 76-lawyer Carroll, Burdick & McDonough, wants to see big firms put up more of a fight for women like Lakey.

In her "No Glass Ceiling" initiative, Bradstreet has called on Bay Area firms to offer lawyers greater flexibility. She wants to see part-time programs "with some teeth," adding that the option makes financial sense. "Statistics show that part-time attorneys are equally if not more profitable than full-time attorneys. These days, people are always accessible by cell phone," Bradstreet says. "How is a mother at a playground less accessible than an attorney in depositions for a week?"

Of course, the same could be said of fathers.

Like Friedman and Dumas, Miller and Stone say their firms' lack of gender diversity is not by design. Miller said it's simply that more women than men have applied. "It's just the way it's happened. We would have no issue with hiring anyone competent, but I don't find that many men calling me saying 'that's the lifestyle I want,'" Miller explained.

But for male attorneys hoping to make the jump to one of these boutiques someday, there is hope. Steppe, Stone & Lakey recently hired its first male attorney and Friedman, Dumas & Springwater already has two.

Teething - The Horror!!
 

Thank goodness for a forum where different parents can give input. I had been thinking Vietbabe was teething a long time ago. She was not. But now she is. First tooth. Felt that razor sharp edge of a tooth coming in about a few days ago. Today, I actually see the whole top of it coming through (bottom front of course).

Here's the thing - I don't know if some new behavior is teething related or not so if anyone can help I'd sure appreciate it. New behavior:

Usually, she's happy-go-lucky and b/c she's walking already, I hold her a bit when she gets up in the morning or a nap but then put her down on the floor where she can walk around, play with toys, etc. Over the last few days, she cries non-stop unless I am holding her. And standing while you're holding her, of course. When I put her down to play with her on the floor, she flails her body around, throws her head back and cries.

So there it is. Is this teething related do you think? Or is she in a stage where she is so clingy that she cries when I put her down? I don't know what to do!! If she's in pain I want to hold her, but I held her so long yesterday I ended up walking around my backyard sobbing myself!!

(Of course, it doesn't help that I found out Sunday night that the babysitter had gone and left the country over the July 4th weekend and wouldn't be "coming back to work for a month." Huh? Yes it was the slacker I never fired. Oh give me strength!!!)

Teething - The Horror
 

It is most likely teething-related. LittleRitz had no teeth until after age one and then started getting them all at once - it seems like they come in in 2's and 4's so Vietbabe may have another one that you haven't noticed yet.

LittleRitz was extremely clingy during the teething period - I think that they can't understand why they are in pain or that it is only a temporary situation and are looking for you to make things better. Once the teeth came in, he was back to his usual self. The only thing that seemed to really help was Tylenol or Motrin. Orajel would give him some relief for a few minutes but wore off quickly. I also tried one of those teethers that can go in the refrigerator (or freezer although the directions say not to put it in the freezer - I did but not to the point where it was frozen solid). That also seemed to help. The best thing that I can say about teething is that it doesn't last forever.

Good luck.

True Confessions
 

Ever find yourself alone in front of the TV, turn it on and (unsurprisingly) find it tuned to Disney Channel, see Kim Possible on, and ... you find yourself engrossed in the episode?

If the FB has mancrushes, perhaps this is a cartooncrush.

Maybe AA can make room for us.

Teething - The Horror
 

I agree. According to our Ped, it's better to alternate Tylenol and Motrin rather than give another dose of one or the other sooner than indicated on the box (one's every four and the other every six, I forget which). They can even be given at the same time because they are completely different types of medication and work in different ways (the same is not true for other adult pain relievers - aspirin, Motrin, Aleve, etc are all in the same family, and so should not be taken together, although can be taken with Tylenol).

We found the cool rings helped some, but only a little or only when the pain was minimal. The baltspawn also like chewing on washcloths, either dry or cool and wet.

True Confessions
 

I Tivo it. I'm shameless. That is one sweet, sweet piece of cartoon ass.

http://epguides.com/KimPossible/cast.jpg

(Before anybody gets too upset, please note that Kim is voiced by a young woman who is quite real and quite legal in all 50 states, and probably drawn by a team of balding fat guys who are also quite legal, although perhaps a little lecherous.)

True Confessions
 

Noting also that her midriff is about the same diameter as her arm.

No wonder why some girls get insecurity complexes.

Thumb-sucking, take two.
 

L_P (and anyone else who's dealt with this issue), when did your kids start sucking their thumbs? Little chevy is four months old and has just discovered his opposable digit. Before, he liked to suck occasionally on the heel of his hand. He does it in his crib sometimes (self-soothing), when he's hungry, and when he's lying under the Gymini or when nobody is paying direct attention to him that minute (bored?). He doesn't do it when actively playing/interacting with people.

Is this something chevette and I need to be worried about at this age? Should we actively, but gently, try to discourage it? We've never used a pacifier - the one or two times we tried, when he was about eight weeks old, he rejected it out of hand.

Any advice would be appreciated...thanks!

Chevy

[Edited to clarify that the question is age-related - at four months, do we need to address it now? (Is this early or late for the beginning of thumb-sucking?) Is it just a phase? So many questions...and the little ones don't come with a manual. :)]

practical advice needed
 

Friend is having second baby boy imminently (1st is about 2 years old), so they've got a ton of gear and spit-up-on baby boy clothes already. I have no kids and am clueless. What do/don't parents need or want as a gift for the new baby in this situation?

Many thanks.

practical advice needed
 

Don't get them any things. Having Baby 1 these days overfills your house with things, some of which are discovered to be useless. Get them delivered meals --- try to find a local freelance caterer, a person who works out of em's home etc. who will deliver, say, two cooked meals a week for the first month. This will be pricey, so go in on it with some friends.

Do this, and you will be remembered in their nightly prayers for the rest of their lives.

practical advice needed
 

How 'bout a certificate for a day of maid or overnight nanny service, food gift certificates (for non-pizza places that deliver), gift cert. for babysitting and a spa for mom, your own time watching the kid while mom takes a shower or nap, or food you actually make yourself (casserole, lasagne, etc) wrapped for the freezer?

You could also go with items for when the kids are older, nice photo albums (they'll get used eventually) gift certificate for diapers, or a gift certificate for any kids store that she can use to buy whatever they need. Also, books for kids are always fine gifts.

-TL

Edited to add that whatever you take, also take something small (token gift - nothing $$$) and wrapped for #1 - a big brother gift. The parents will appreciate it and #1 will not feel so left out of all the fuss.

Thanks for Advice
 

Thanks. I have found a couple of 'personal chefs' listed in their area and there are many places for good gift certificates as you've suggested.

Out of sympathy for the child who would be subject to my utter ineptitude with tots, and for their own well-being, I won't offer to babysit or cook for them. :)

Thumb-sucking, take two.
 

Sorry, I haven't checked in here in a while. I've been busy at my amazing new job.

99 kids out of a hundred have no problems with thumb sucking. They do it for a while and stop. Ours was the 1 in a hundred who didn't stop and now she has a stretched palate. When our second was a baby (maybe 4 months, I don't really remember) we didn't take any chances and pulled her thumb away. We only had to do this a few times over a few days and she lost interest in it.

Thumb-sucking, take two.
 

What are the signs of a stretched palate? Our 3 y.o. has been thumb sucking for ever, usually when he's tired, and I've never worried particularly about it.

Thumb-sucking, take two.
 

When she bites, her top teeth are way in front of her bottom teeth. They don't stick out (i.e., they point straight down), it's just the top of her mouth comes out too far.

I should add that despite this, she's still drop-dead gorgeous

:)

Recitals
 

So next Saturday is my younger daughter's first dance recital. Between the entry fee, costume, and 3 tickets, it's costing me over $40 a minute in stage time.

Any other dance moms/dads out there?

How much do you spend a year on extra-curricular activities?

For us, tap, ballet, gymnastics, cheer, piano, swimming (in the summer), skiing (in the winter)--over five grand a year for two kids.

Recitals
 

Heck, between football, soccer, basketball, snowboarding, and skiing, I think we spend more than that just on the med co-pays.

Recitals
 

You are doing very well if all of those activities for two kids are only five grand. We do about $5,000 per kid in summer activities (including drama/music summer camp for six to eight weeks each). And you even get to ski!

Our best activities come via a local university -- we've discovered that the swim team gives lessons to kids during the off season and that there are many talented undergraduates looking to make some money on the side. Our kids have learned to ice skate with an undergrad who just missed the US olympic team and is wonderful with them!

Hey, what else do we have to spend the money on?

Thumb-sucking, take two.
 

My one-year-old niece was among the 99% who have no problems with thumb sucking. She started occasionally sucking her thumb around six months or so, and lost interest within a few months after that. Never used a pacifier.

LP, congrats on the new job!

Allytigator

Help!
 

My three-year old son is going thru a severe whiny/grumpy phase. He'll be fine, having a great time, then suddenly turn whiny, start moaning or screaming, whatever. Most of the time he's great. And when he's not, he's miserable. This is exhausting our capacity to say "just a stage,we'll ride it out."


Any advice????

Help!
 

Is this prevalent as the day goes on, and related to being tired? Has his routine changed recently (like giving up naps)? Is he going through a growth spurt?

One of the greed seeds had a similar problem that we discovered was tied to growing pains;muscle pains or other problems triggered a whiny, needy search for security. A little tylenol helped. Another greed seed experienced a whinny stage related to giving up naps, but wasn't going back to the naps. We lived through it, tried to get the kid to bed earlier, and it has pretty much let up.