I have had students or known kids named Princess, King, and Legend. Charleigh Brown. Atilla Hunt. Harley Quinn. Their name just becomes the collection of phonemes you use to address them. It’s funny when you see it, then you don’t even think about it anymore.

Paid refers to money. Payed is a nautical term.

Our current “game” is figuring out if my toddler is ok with me coming and getting her out of her room or if she wants me to come in, get her clothes, and leave (closing the door) so that she can get up and meet me in the bathroom by herself. If I choose wrong the entire morning is filled with crying over everything else. My husband walked in the bathroom the other day and asked “what seems to be the issue” at her end-of-the-world screams. “I brushed her teeth”.

Just because a person doesn’t have a memory of a traumatic event doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect them. Kids can have lasting trauma effects even from things they were too young to remember.

This sucks. Hopefully they’ll keep the program going. Our local Imagination Library is run through a small non-profit and they have fundraisers with small and corporate donations. They’ve even partnered up with the local hospital to sign kids up automatically when they’re born. It’s such a great program.

I have ONE good picture of both of my dogs. I got it by taking a bunch and splicing two pictures together. Even then my one dog isn’t looking at the camera. He refuses.

I think my hospital bills were around $5,000. What I didn’t anticipate was the fact that once my daughter was born I was paying hospital bills for me and for her. I think without insurance it was around 30k? So insurance covered 25,000 and we paid the rest

Give him some words to use in stressful situations.

“I need some space”

“I don’t like that”

Especially if he hasn’t been around other kids a lot. They’re loud. They’ll take what you were playing with. They won’t give you the toy you want. They’re in your space. They’ll run into you. Pack 10+ kids in one room with 1-2 adults and there’s bound to be some chaos.

Teach him to ask for help and vocalize what he needs. Sometimes kids won’t advocate for themselves because they’re so used to the adults in their lives knowing them so well that they anticipate their needs.

Also, I second all the independent stuff from the one poster.

My husband recently broke his foot (second time in 5 years). While at the doctor they discovered he has an extra bone in some parts of his leg, then they’re looking at things on the x-ray and asking if all these various parts hurt because apparently his leg is all kinds of fucked up from high school sports.

I recently read the Oh Crap, Potty Training book and thought a lot of her ideas made sense. Admittedly, her method is not how we trained our almost three year old, but if I could start over I think I would. The recommended method is: a day (or two or three) of completely naked with the potty in the room. You’re trying to get your child to move from the realization of 1. Clueless 2. I peed 3. I’m peeing 4. I need to pee. You’re also looking for their signs of needing to go. Then you go pantless, then commando for awhile. You’re trying to have fewer things to take off but also removing the “comfort” of having the poop and pee close to them. You’re also having them go every 30 minutes or 1 hour.

A few suggestions about your specific situation. 1. The more you “kinda” potty train, the longer it’s going to take. It’s confusing for kids when you’re only trying once or twice a day. They don’t learn their bodies that way. We had the most success with our kid when we just decided we were done with diapers. I know I could’ve trained her at 2 if I actually gave it my full attention. We did no diapers during the day and no diapers at nap. We still do night diapers but honestly they’ve only been wet maybe twice this month. We also did diapers on an eight-hour road trip, but again, still dry. 2. About her fear, poop is a big thing. It took a long time for our kid. Pantless and leaving her alone is what eventually worked (full disclosure, she did poop on the floor and even step on it before she figured it out). Bring her in the bathroom when you poop. Have her sit on hers while you sit on yours. But giving kids a little privacy can go a long way. There’s an entire chapter in the book about poop if you’re interested in checking it out.

My mom refused to vaccinate my siblings. God told her not to.

We have it for our dog. We got it first when she was spayed and needed to chill out in order to not rip stitches and now we have it to give before stressful situations (guests, vet, etc). It definitely makes her more tired, but she will still fight through it to be crazy.

It was a Christmas gift, but thanks for the heads up!

I have a soda stream and then several flavoring options. I have mio and other brands, then soda syrups, and cocktail mixers. That way I can control the amount of sweet. I personally don’t like the flavor of artificial sweeteners or stevia so I try to find ones that use real sugar and real fruit extract. There’s some with caffeine too.

Around this age I started transitioning to the crib in the middle of the night. Fall asleep in our room. Wake up. Get changed. Get fed. Sleep in crib in her room.

I did this! You have to send them by next week I think, but they’ve also partnered up with ToysRus to have a small online store that ships directly to the family. The letters are only ones sent to a specific Santa address, meant for the operation Santa.

It took awhile to find a letter. Like some of the comments said there’s a lot of expensive stuff on there. But they’re kids. They just want what their friends have. They want to fit in. They’re writing a letter to Santa, who can gift them anything. I tried to cut them some slack for their wishlists.

The most heartbreaking one was a letter that said their house had just been foreclosed on and they had to move. They asked for beds, mattresses, and bedding for their two kids.

The letters can be from anyone. Kids, parents, even just adults without kids. I also appreciated that it wasn’t religious or military affiliated.

Some places are more mayonnaise-based and some are more ranch-tasting, because it’s just a Virginia thing I don’t think anyone has standardized it

A lot of places will only give it to you if you ask for it now. But yeah, don’t ask for white sauce outside of Virginia because everyone else will look at you crazy. (Similar to being from Pittsburgh and just wanting some French fries on my salad…)

Yes, but teaching kindergarten is 24 at once. I am so thankful for my toddler’s daycare teachers because I couldn’t do it. My one is challenging enough.

When we do testing in schools to determine giftedness it is the top 95th percentile of different tests. It wasn’t just reading and math but also nonverbal tasks (like tangram type things). We used state testing and IQ scores as well. We tried to create a whole profile of a child and then determine which ones met the criteria of requiring gifted services (95th percentile and above). I don’t think there’s a federal guideline so each state (or even each district) sets their own parameters. The twice exceptional kids were the ones with ADHD or other diagnoses. But yes, it was possible that these kids were not the “smart, model student” though I’ve had plenty of those as well.