More stuff about boobies
 

Thanks for that image. I will treasure it.

More stuff about boobies
 

Are you trying to pretend you are still in your teen years?

More stuff about boobies
 

Thanks for that image. I will treasure it.

Reading Material
 

Here's a fabulous book that no one's mentioned: BABY 411.
It's by the author of BabyBargains (Denise Fields) and a very practical pediatrician Dr. Ari Brown.

The subtitle of the book is "Clear Answers and Smart Advice for Your Baby's First Year" which is dead on. I have a bookshelf of patenting books (I have a 1 yr old) and this book is BY FAR the most informative, least insulting and has the most balanced and down-to-earth tone of all of my books. As far as I'm concerned it's the only book any parent of a newborn would ever need. It's also a lot of fun to read (I'm not kidding, the authors have a genuine sense of humor).

Breastfeeding stuff
 

A recent search for info on gentian violet (yay, yeast!) turned up Dr. Jack Newman. Here's his stuff: http://www.bflrc.com/newman/articles.htm Very helpful. I'll be calling my local compounding pharmacy for some All-Purpose Nipple Ointment on Monday. Gosh, they might even be open tomorrow.

tm

Breastfeeding stuff
 

Purple breasticles. That's Hot.

Potty Training
 

When did those of you with potty-trained kids start? How did you introduce the idea to the kid, if she/he was fairly young? Mine is 18mos and I am dying to get him day-trained, but I'm not sure I am up for it with a new baby to deal with. He seems interested in his little potty as well as the big ones. If I had tile all over I think I might just put him in undies and try that route, but alas, we have carpet. Any ideas?

Potty Training
 

18 mos is way ambitious. I've known one kid who did this at that age. She was a girl and a second child (two factors in the plus column, upon which you cannot capitalize here), but she also had accidents until she turned 4. I regard it as incontrovertible proof of my parenting superiority that our first was trained shortly after 3 and has had precious few accidents.

Wait until the child expresses an interest in Special Underpants. Without this critical leverage, success is not assured.

Potty Training
 

We started putting Magnus on the potty after meals (when he would usually poop) at about 16 months. We would read books to him until he pooped or we could tell he wasn't going to (usually not very long). Then we usually didn't stick him on the potty again that day, since he was usually a once-a-day pooper. That whole year you could probably count on your fingers the number of poopy diapers we changed.

Oh--and we've never used a stand-alone potty. I'm not into cleaning up shit, so we've always used (and my mom used for all of us) a seat that fits on the regular toilet. I highly recommend the one from Baby Bjorn. When we started, it was just hard enough for him to get on and off the toilet by himself that he didn't think to do it without us => no wandering poopy-bottomed child. You can see the benefit of this.

We waited a while to tackle the pee issue--it just seemed so not urgent. We finally did it when he got out of preschool for the summer a few months short of his fourth birthday. The benefit of waiting was that he was really really ready and it was relatively painless--only a few accidents and he was very shortly able to go entirely by himself with no reminders and no one needed to help him pull up his pants, etc. We still maintained a strict after-lunch poop schedule, but this summer (approaching 5) he's gotten away from that. Sometimes I'll remind him that he should try to go before we're going to be out for a long time, but generally he just goes when he needs to. Now if we can just get the bum-wiping thing completely mastered . . . .

tm

ETA that cornstarch works pretty well for cleaning up pee accidents, even on carpet. Some people swear by baking soda, but I never tried it. Maybe when little Thor gets to that stage in a couple of years.

EATA that he's still wearing a pull-up at night. I come from a family of bedwetters (one brother did it regularly until about age 12) and don't like doing laundry every day, so I haven't been pushing this issue. Suggestions? Do we just need to try it and see what happens? I seem to recall talking about it with him and agreeing that he should start at age 5. In that case, I may be doing lots of laundry next week.

Potty Training
 

Start as early as possible. Don't listen to the disposable-diaper-company propaganda that seems to suggest that you wait until the child is "ready".

Potty Training
 

I sort of feel better now. I've been wondering when a 4 year old might make it through the night. Periodic success, but I haven't wanted to wash sheets in the middle of the night, so I'm still allowing the nighttime pullups. I waited until over 2 to start trying the daytime, but the second time around I think I'm going to start as early as possible - #2 is overall a more predictable and obedient one, plus there is the "want to be like the big sibling" factor that, as someone said, cannot be underestimated.

I've been ignoring chiding from my mother for years, who claimed the kids in my family wree all day-trained by 18 months.

Potty Training
 

HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA.

Oh sorry, I thought you were speaking in general terms.

Potty Training
 

Are you telling me I'm deluded and that the second one is really going to be a terror, more of a challenge than the first? Say it isn't so, or I'm heading to the doc for meds now.

Potty Training
 

Make sure you get refills.

Potty Training
 

Damn you. This is the only thing that gets me from bedtime to bedtime - the prospect of #2 never giving me the same experiences #1 is.

Proud moment
 

This morning, I dropped the Brazenette off at pre-school. She hugged me tight, kissed me hard, and rubbed noses. And then she said, and I quote, "Mommy is a poopy head. See you later!"

She likes me. She really likes me.

Potty Training
 

Conventional wisdom is that you should start slowly during a time of few interuptions in their lives and great stability.

So I took the baltspawn on a two week vacation without balt[soontobeex]spouse (who had been working on them without success for months), including a week with just the baltgrandparents (their first time longer than 48 hours away from both parents), and brought them back potty trained. No idea how it happened. They were just shy of 3.

My one piece of advice is go with the potty seat on the big potty with a stool, and if he's too little to get up there, or at least stay up there, without being afraid, it's too early. Cleaning out those little potties is for suckers.

It'll happen eventually. There aren't a lot of 16 year olds in diapers. Even Hank was out of them by law school.

Potty Training
 

I've found a maintenance dose of clonopin and xanax prn as a backup work best. The kid generally doesn't taste it if you grind the pills up and mix with a spoonful of peanut butter.

Potty Training
 

Do not waste the klonopin on the kid. If you don't want to take it, you can always send it to me.

Potty Training
 

I'm clearly underutilizing my physician.

Potty Training
 

But there are quite a few lawyers with skidmarked briefs.

Public elementary/Private High School
 

Any of you been there, done that?

Proud moment
 

That is so cute. Don't you just love their honesty?

Public elementary/Private High School
 

I attended public elementary school and private middle/high school. So yes, actually, I have personally been there, done that.

Potty Training
 

The klonopin is mine. I always assumed the "as needed" directions on the bottle of xanax meant it was for the children.

Potty Training
 

PM me and I'll refer you to mine. He's in Panama and doesn't even have an office. He does all his business over the internet and works out of the breakroom at a warehouse.

Potty Training
 

Awesome. I heard you were the one to PM.

Public elementary/Private High School
 

Not personally, but my two best friends in HS did. One is now an M.D. The other is a Ph.D. YMMV, o/c. I don't think they had any particularly unique transition issues, but they were probably identifiably nerdy in middle school, too. That path is the one we're most likely to follow with any identifiably nerdy Grinches, too.

Public elementary/Private High School
 

Translation: *I* never was so prole as to have attended a public school at all.

Public elementary/Private High School
 

This is getting kind of stalky.

Public elementary/Private High School
 

In the sense that I am tall and thin and wave in even the gentlest of breezes, and that my face is like a beautiful flower?

Public elementary/Private High School
 

Do you like celery with peanut butter? It has never done it for me, but a tart apple with PB rawks.

Public elementary/Private High School
 

I am not a fan of raw celery. I like it as an ingredient in soups and stuffing, though.

Potty Training
 

I'm finding this whole discussion (disturbingly) fascinating. The CW has changed so much in the last century or so (what with disposables and Goddamn Hippies and all). Sibling and I were both trained before 2 years, which was pretty average in the '70s. Average age now, I understand, is 36 mo for girls, 39 for boys (but is still in the 24 month range for cloth diaper babies).

M-i-L informed me that, when she was growing up, and so far as she knows back a couple generation before her, CW said kids were pottie trained by one year, and, generally, this was successful, despite current CW that kids aren't trainable at all until 18 months. And, it doesn't seem that as many were permanently emotionally scarred by early training as the Goddamn Hippies would have you believe.

Then there's my friend Pete. Pete was a military brat, and, when he and his siblings were all untrained and between 12 and 36 months, his mom got word that they were being moved to Mexico in 2 weeks. She decided she was not dealing with diapers in Mexico, and reportedly looked at all 3 of them and announced "you are all potty trained RIGHT NOW!" And so they were. I can't vouch for the long-term effects of this method, but the younger two are reasonably well socialized computer geeks, while the oldest is a really smart but scary-as-shit special forces guy who gets lots of decorations & commendations for killing people professionally.

I have a distinct suspicion that the "right answer" to this one is just a question of balancing (i) your patience with diapers, (ii) your patience with training, (iii) kid's fastidiousness and (iv) kid's general orneriness. If you feel an urge to try at 18 months, go for it. If you feel like it's just pissing the kid off more than it is worth, just back off and try again later.

Potty Training
 

Good points. I was surprised at how long it took. I was expecting more like 2 than 3. They just weren't getting it. Then, suddenly, they got it.

Potty Training
 

There's been a bunch of local press lately about a revived interest in early potty training. Like, infant level. Lots of holding the kid over the toilet. Diapers are a pain in the ass, but it sounds like too much work to me.

Potty Training
 

Yeah, I also read that Oregonian article with morbid fascination. But what it comes down to is to join the diaper-free movement requires much much more closeness with your child than I would want. And I'm no anti-AP type, by any stretch.

tm

Public elementary/Private High School
 

Wrongo wrongo. I went to public school as soon as it was my choice to do so. College and LS. Suck. It.

Potty Training
 

2. My mother was always too much the lady to teach me to wipe properly.

Public elementary/Private High School
 

I did catholic, public and private.

Catholic school (I was thrown out when I was quite little, shockingly), is the biggest waste. But at the time, it was the only decent school nearby. Public was by the far the best in re: actual learning. I loved public school. But private high school has the best parties/social life.

I can't think of any difference between private college and public college except size.

Law school is, of course, a bag of shit no matter what variety you select. Mine was runny, wet and smelled like a superfund site... beer and taco diahrea.