No. 2
 

I tried to kill my brother with a tooth pick when he was 6 weeks old and I was 20 1/2 months. Three adults were supposedly "watching" the kids, and yet I managed to get him in the eye.

He lived.

Good luck!

Double stroller update
 

We ended up getting a Peg Perego Pliko P3 with the matching car seat so you just pop the carseat out and click it onto the stroller. The stroller is slightly heavy so I don't really wrangle with it.

Babies are such a blessing and they stay little for such a short time, Congrats! and enjoy.

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

This was one of my earliest posts, sometime before the frantic "She had a 106.7 fever last night" posts. I looked back because tomorrow, Vietbabe (31 lbs, healthy and in the 25th percentile) is starting her first day of kindergarten. All the other Moms on my street are teary-eyed today but part of me is just astonished I've kept the 7 lb four month-old I was handed, alive for almost 5 years and that I could ever love someone this much! Just wanted to say that this board has been so helpful to me, especially in the early early months when I'd post at 4 am and have responses by 7 am (thank God for different time zones). Thanks to everyone again. Feel free to share your "First Day of School" stories. And now, I return to inscribing her name on everything with a permanent marker.

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

Thank you.

As you can imagine, I win awards and accolades frequently, weekly actually. but stil, to this day, the award that gives me the most pride was being voted "Most Helpful" here on the parents board.

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

Maybe you can help with this.

The neighbor down the street leaves for work early and drops her daughter off with us in the morning so she can walk to school with my kid and her grandmother.

The neighbor's kid has the habit of hiding and not responding to calls, whether or not a game of hide and seek has been officially declared. She freaked us out at my daughter's birthday party over the summer by doing this, since the house was full, the doors were open, kids were in the backyard and she could have been hitching a ride on the highway by the time we found her, hiding quietly behind a sofa and ignoring our increasingly frantic summons.

Today she was dropped off, I came downstairs and was getting ready to leave when my wife asked where she was. I found this odd because I had heard my wife talking with the girl's mother and assumed somebody knew where she was. So we both hunted around for a few minutes, calling (she doesn't answer) until we found her.

This annoys the shit out of me. If she ends up down in the basement drinking bleach because I can't be fucking arsed to search for her after the fiftieth time she does this, where should I ask the trial venue be moved to?

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

often children have remarkable self-preservation skills. this could actually be a finely honed survival technique. Has anyone ever mentioned that you might have split personalities with one half possessing anti-social tendancies?

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

I hardly ever drink in the mornings anymore, so I don't think that's it. But thanks anyway.

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

Did anyone ever tell you that blackouts are one of the big warning signs?

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

As a mom of a kid with special needs, this actually sounds like possibley a hearing problem, or maybe even sensory issues. Have you talked to the mom about the kiddos lack of responsiveness? Mom could be in denial about it.....

Homeowner Stuff
 

Can you sue in Virginia

My 6 y.o. was on an AYSO team last year that was about 50% Latino. This year, not so much. And the coach is German. I mean German-German. He looks like Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List, only about 15% less handsome maybe. It's a bit unsettling when he coaches his own son in German. "Julian, schnell!" "Julian, achtung!" "Nein, Julian!" "Julian, gunter glieben glauchen globen!"

Anyway, I need advice: Should I tell him that some of us are still a little raw about the Holocaust?

Is his name Jay Goppingen by chance?

It can be strange to hear it, I know. I took German in high school from an elderly lady and she sounded like Hitler too and I winced when I first heard it. Except she was Jewish and had lost every single one of her relatives at one of the big death camps. Still hate the language, though.

Homeowner Stuff
 

Interesting article. My favorite part was the picture's caption that says "Arborist hangs from a crane to trim branches from the tree after a neighbor refused to give property access."

For now, I've already disposed of the part of their tree that smashed down on our treehouse and fence. But the rest of that tree is coming down on me in the future (and it's a Sweet Gum tree too!). I think I'll I'll do what Atticus said and do a note to the people saying as much and that "I assume, therefore, you'll be removing the tree". These people have the money to trim that tree. Why are people so cheap! I should start sending the bills I get twice a year for cleanup of those prickly gum ball things that fall from their tree! They are murderous on Vietbabe's bare feet!

Only if you want your kid to sit on the bench.

did she teach Russian too? maybe we went to the same high school . . .

No. 2
 

With a comparable age spread, we had very few problems. We just worked hard to make sure No. 1 got lots of attention at first, so that he did not associate the arrival with being ignored.

Cool site.
 

http://www.babynamemap.com/

Google Maps mashup with Social Security etc.

Cool site.
 

Why the hell is Brooklyn such a popular girl's name?

Cool site.
 

Because eventually she'll get a spin-off show from "Flavor of Love: Skilled Nursing Facility."

Dammit
 

Does anybody else out there look at the title of the current FB thread and think of this?

http://www.mistershape.com/blog/uplo...atv-736301.jpg

Dammit
 

No.

Dammit
 

Scary big red bumpy fanged penis!

Gabba Gabba, hey!
 

No, it reminds me of Ollie Ramone

Dammit
 

Well NOW I do. Thanks.

mo $$$
 

L'il Ty is getting an allowance now, and as I give him money to squander and misplace, I would also like to give him ("give him") money that'll go into a savings account so he can see it grow. Does anyone know how I do this? Ideally, I'd like an account in his name from which he cannot make withdrawals until he is 18, or 21, or 35, or some mature age.

mo $$$
 

Ah, time to teach the boy about bank fees - "See, L'il Ty, you made $0.19 in interest last month, and the bank only charged you $5.00."

Look for a small community bank or co-op, possibly through a school program, with a special program for kids. Otherwise, buy savings bonds (I think denominations go as low as $20.00.

mo $$$
 

Hell, set up an excel spreadsheet for the little guy instead and keep his funds in your own account. You're already paying the fees anyway. Unless you're talking about serious cash.

I did have my own separate bank account by the age of five. I was the sole signatory. It was kind of a pain in the ass to have to go to the bank and withdraw money, I think I would have preferred the Bank of Mom/Dad. They would have been more likely to float me a loan on bad credit anyway.

mo $$$
 

you were different though. you couldn't let mom/dad know how you were getting the money. I remember when the cops busting the kiddie porno ring, your parents grounded you for like a week and we had to find someone else to play right field. if they knew you were pimpin yourself out to married guys at the bus station, I bet you'd have missed the whole season. nttawwt.

mo $$$
 

Jealous much? Remember the time you taped a picture of Webster to your face and you still got no offers?

mo $$$
 

Friends of ours swear by activeallowance.com. I've never used it because it seems a little advanced for our kids at this moment, but they've been using it since their oldest (a girl, FWIW) was 7. It has a lot of custom options for mandatory savings, budgets and charitable donations. It's an annual fee, but I think there may be free trials.

mo $$$
 

yeah:(

our neighborhood was in that recession. I remember you telling me you kept active because you wouldn't set a minimum sales price, and I had to adapt to market conditions.

it wasn't until college econ that i realized you had flooded the market and turned "young boy's ass" into an underpriced comidity.

mo $$$
 

Look at that! The furiner's kid kicked the americun boy's ass at his own game. Viva America!

mo $$$
 

My bank -- a large, faceless, heartless, national institution -- has no fees for accountholders under 18. But I'm wondering if he can withdraw funds if it's "his" account.

I suppose I could ask the bank, but you all have avatars, if no faces.

eta: Apart from the Webster thing, that is.

mo $$$
 

At my bank, you can set up an account under the Uniform Transfer to Minors Act, whereby you become Custodian of the account.

Your kid can't touch the money until (a) you say so or (b) they turn 21.

All of the Brazenette's cash gifts (at birth, at birthdays, etc) go into that account. In addition, I have my bank withdraw I think it's $15 every two weeks from my account into hers. I'll probably stop that once she's old enough to earn an allowance, and make her a deal that I'll match whatever of her allowance she decides to put in the bank.

mo $$$
 

our big faceless bank had kid accounts. the kids could deposit and withdraw IIRC, but one of would have been there so maybe we had to sign something. Even the most heartless bank teller would perk up and smile when the kid walks in to deposit $2 or whatever small amount is being diverted from his candy fund.

mo $$$
 

And, L'il Ty, here's the time to learn to read the fine print. Most of the big bank's free acounts for kids either have a minimum account size or have an activity requirement (if nothing goes in for a year it starts disappearing). Some of them have special fees for more than a given number of transactions in any month.

It's possible there's a big bank out there that doesn't do this, or some state that restricts it, but most do.

mo $$$
 

It's been my experience at my big bank that if I ask for something, I usually get it.

Which is, I suppose, the benefit of doing all your banking in one place. That big bank has my 2 checking accounts, my 2 savings acounts, my UTMA account, my Visa, my MC, an investment account and my mortgage.

So when I tell them I want to open an account and I want to pay no fees, they usually say "We're happy to waive those for you."

mo $$$
 

TM, do you have a macro that can do the translation?

mo $$$
 

one doesn't need to hold such economic might to achieve this. at least some banks assume customers tend not to switch, so they grab them young by offering free accounts to the kiddies.

Ty, as usual, all you need read is what I've written.

Hank's post are all, the rest is commentary.