Randoms

[DGM]

Just to liven it up around here.

[DGM]

I'm so glad our local library has a fun play area for kids along with the many books.
ETA yes, I'm a nerd who tries to liven things up by talking about libraries LOL.

[DGM]

I lurked the old gang's new home this weekend bc I'm ISO for my NB stash. I couldn't bring myself to register though once I saw the swap thread is really slow.

[pipsqueak]

Jul 30, 2017 16:01:43 GMT -5 DGM said:

I lurked the old gang's new home this weekend bc I'm ISO for my NB stash. I couldn't bring myself to register though once I saw the swap thread is really slow.

I've visited there a few times but see no point in registering since I have yet to have a desire to respond to anything.  It's almost like in the time since the Exodus part 1, I've gone one direction and the group went another - maybe it's a generation thing.  Maybe too much of the threads sound like conversations with my adults.

[freezorburn]

I feel like the Swap threads were never the same after the first exodus. That was the one thing that seemed most affected by the lack of new posters.

I'm mostly trying to sell through a local FB page, but I think whatever I don't sell by end of summer I will end up donating.

[freezorburn]

I wish our neighborhood library had more space for a children's area and other programs. It's pretty tiny and it doesn't feel like a place where I want to spend time, in spite of having recently gone through renovation.

The city's library system is actually pretty good. The web portal is great, it's enabled for e-book lending and it's easy to put a hold on books that are out, or to renew books. And also have books delivered to your branch library for pickup. That's mostly what I use it for.

But for a physical library where we might explore, or spend time sitting and reading, we have to go 1-2 neighborhoods over.

[pipsqueak]

My like button didn't want to cooperate today.

The library with the bubbles during story time held the story time in one of the meeting rooms as the library itself is small and the sounds of story time would disturb other patrons.

The library we've been going to without bubbles is bigger and so they can hold story time in the children's section without disturbing others.

Bubbles aside, I'm liking the one at the bigger library because it is in the children's section so it has a more friendly feel.

[pipsqueak]

Am I the only one that gets the kitchen floor "mopped" by giving the child a small bowl of soapy water to play with while cleaning up the rest of the kitchen?

I did learn to rotate where Pip sits in the kitchen so that the whole floor gets washed eventually.

[freezorburn]

Jul 31, 2017 16:23:40 GMT -5 pipsqueak said:

Am I the only one that gets the kitchen floor "mopped" by giving the child a small bowl of soapy water to play with while cleaning up the rest of the kitchen?

I did learn to rotate where Pip sits in the kitchen so that the whole floor gets washed eventually.

We do this sometimes. I learned this one from DS's preschool director. In her version, though, it's a whole basin of soapy water on a chair. And then finish the whole thing with a big bath towel that you walk-drag across the floor.

That said, we have recently graduated to the stage where DS absolutely MUST have control over the steam mop. So if I am mopping during his waking hours, he seems to drop whatever he is doing and takes control of the mop. I will manage the cord behind him. Takes about 3x as long as doing it myself, but I love that he is helping me, so it's all good.SaveSave

[freezorburn]

I have annoying health randoms. Last Friday night I started seeing big gloppy floaters and flashes of light in my right eye. I went to my eye doctor, he dilated the eye and took a look and said it was too soon to tell if it would settle down on its own or if a retinal tear/detachment was developing.

So we cancelled our weekend plans to go camping and camped in the backyard. Which turned out to be plenty of fun anyway.

The eye seems to be settling down, but this morning I woke up and a filling came loose. So got to get that fixed, have an appointment next week. No big deal, but I feel like things happen in threes, wonder what's next.

[pipsqueak]

Jul 31, 2017 16:37:55 GMT -5 freezorburn said:

I have annoying health randoms. Last Friday night I started seeing big gloppy floaters and flashes of light in my right eye. I went to my eye doctor, he dilated the eye and took a look and said it was too soon to tell if it would settle down on its own or if a retinal tear/detachment was developing.

So we cancelled our weekend plans to go camping and camped in the backyard. Which turned out to be plenty of fun anyway.

The eye seems to be settling down, but this morning I woke up and a filling came loose. So got to get that fixed, have an appointment next week. No big deal, but I feel like things happen in threes, wonder what's next.

Yikes.  Hopefully whatever is next is easy to recover from and not expensive to treat.

[jnu76]

Our neighbors had us over for margaritas yesterday, and juice for the kids. I told my 2yo we were going next door for cocktails. She yelled "Daddy! We're going next door for peacocks!"

[pipsqueak]

I was just thinking it would be no fun if a baby was allergic to the components of PUL/TPU covers, lanolin, synthetic fibers, and disposable diapers.

Why this thought crossed my mind I have no idea.

[DGM]

L used to like helping me "mop" the kitchen floor by spraying it and wiping with an old prefold. Now she's in her scared of certain rooms and shadows phase so she avoids the kitchen unless MH is holding her. Sigh.

[freezorburn]

Aug 1, 2017 16:55:59 GMT -5 pipsqueak said:

I was just thinking it would be no fun if a baby was allergic to the components of PUL/TPU covers, lanolin, synthetic fibers, and disposable diapers.

Why this thought crossed my mind I have no idea.

I think it means you are an empathetic person. Even in a non-specific way.

Could also be that you are at a pretty good place with whatever life has tossed at you. But I have no idea. Are you? Cuz maybe some stranger out there is thinking it's no fun to be pipsqueak, but here you are, totally rockin' it.

Maybe this means empathy is one of your many superpowers.

[pipsqueak]

Word of advice/warning: never give your child grape koolaid (or better yet any koolaid) until they are 100% independent with pottying. It took me a bit to figure out why Pip's diapers contained a bright green mess.

[DGM]

freezorburn, how is your eye?

[freezorburn]

Aug 4, 2017 9:53:43 GMT -5 DGM said:

freezorburn, how is your eye?

Thanks for asking. It seems to be settling down ... no more flashes of light anyway. Still a few junky floaters, but hopefully those will also clear up soon. My doctor said that your brain just learns to ignore them after a while.

[DGM]

I finally registered and started posting in the old gang's new home. I'm starting to have so many NB questions run through my head, and their pace seems slower/more do-able than when on TCF and TD.

[freezorburn]

DGM, hope everyone over there is doing well. I've realized since moving over here, that for the amount of time I spend posting (hardly any at all), that I don't feel as drawn to following quick-moving threads that I am barely able to participate in. The snail's pace here suits me. I maybe post a half dozen times a week, between here, Special Needs and Working Parents.

[freezorburn]

At long last I've completely turned off my Tapatalk notifications for TCF. The only new posts I've seen lately are from new registrations and they seem to all have the same style of typos or bad grammar. Wonder if they are AEs trying to get clicks or something.

[freezorburn]

So, I may or may not have been impacted by the Equifax data breach. There was also another data breach in my state over the summer, and it had been in the back of my mind to look into what steps I might take ... but the notification letter looked like a phishing scam, which gave me pause.

I've started a thread about this in WPs to share what I've learned, for those who are interested --

pandce.proboards.com/thread/584645/equifax

[freezorburn]

I was just thinking about how I have a tendency to write posts and then delete them before posting because I'm not sure where they should really go. And then I remembered, oh -- Randoms!

That's all for now.

[DGM]

I joined my local CD FB group (and Tech Support LOL) yesterday. My local group is definitely polarized of those who love Fluff Love and those who don't. This will be interesting!

[pipsqueak]

Jan 21, 2018 16:47:18 GMT -5 DGM said:

I joined my local CD FB group (and Tech Support LOL) yesterday. My local group is definitely polarized of those who love Fluff Love and those who don't. This will be interesting!

That seems to be true in every cloth diapering group these days - even the BabyCenter group. I think the pendulum has swung back to center a little bit but it's definitely not at a center point yet. At the same time, it's odd to think that it's been more than 3 years since FL began overdosing diapers - not sure how long the underdosing diaper wash folks were "in charge".

[freezorburn]

I don't know why I still bother with CD groups anymore, present company excepted. I haven't been able to sell anything in my local groups. I give advice occasionally, but I feel like there's enough balance in my local group that I'm not some lone holdout who thinks FL is crazy.

I still like CD Tech Support for nostalgic reasons. And I'm glad that it's there and seems to have grown to a size where it's not just the original group that is perpetuating the problem-solving approaches that we were trying to promote in the first place.

[pipsqueak]

Jan 22, 2018 0:14:59 GMT -5 freezorburn said:

I don't know why I still bother with CD groups anymore, present company excepted. I haven't been able to sell anything in my local groups. I give advice occasionally, but I feel like there's enough balance in my local group that I'm not some lone holdout who thinks FL is crazy.

I still like CD Tech Support for nostalgic reasons. And I'm glad that it's there and seems to have grown to a size where it's not just the original group that is perpetuating the problem-solving approaches that we were trying to promote in the first place.

I went through recently and removed myself from a few different groups that I wasn't really active in or otherwise just seem to have been outgrown. Hoping that will encourage me to spend less time mindlessly scrolling through Facebook. If not for a couple groups that I need to keep in contact with, I would seriously consider turning off my Facebook account for a few months - I might do that for Lent this year anyway.

[freezorburn]

Happy Valentine's Day!

[pipsqueak]

How many here are gearing up for kindergarten already?

In the not too distant future dh and I will have to make a formal decision on Pip's placement - regular Ed classroom, ACP(alternative curriculum program) classroom, or homeschool. I'm leaning towards homeschool but dh isn't 100% sold on the idea.

We find out in March/April what placement the school district recommends. I predict Pip not being potty trained is going to be cause for friction in either school placements.

We had his IEP meeting on Wednesday. All of his speech related goals/work was centered around the idea of him responding to questions. They were caught a bit off guard when I asked what kind of system did they have in place for him to initiate conversations or report an incident/event to an adult.

I haven't been over to the Special Needs board in a long while, but reading

adayinourshoes.com/ways-the-special-education-system-really-is-stacked-against-parents/

made me realize why I'm pushing for homeschooling - I'm burned out from dealing with school districts with my older two and I still have 13+ years to go with Pip.

[freezorburn]

DS is about halfway through kindergarten ... we've been fortunate that our neighborhood school is actually pretty well-matched for his needs. But we did go through a process last year of touring different options and weighing what would be the best placement for him. I was actually pretty worried about sending him to the neighborhood school, because I heard the kindergarten class ahead of him had 90+ kids in it. And I wasn't sure how he would do with the large class size, since a year ago he was still exhibiting a great deal of social anxiety around his peers.

Finances were obviously a concern. I was absolutely in love with a private school that is 2 blocks away from us, and DS loved it too, when he got to visit. But he wasn't accepted, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. There's the expense, obviously, but the important thing is that he is happy where he ended up at our neighborhood school ... which is largely funded by property taxes, which have been skyrocketing.

The only way I could possibly have entertained homeschooling is if we were to do it with a group, in such a way that I would be able to continue to work. One of our preschool friends was putting together a group last year, and I told her that if public school didn't work out, she would be hearing from me.

Something that has been really helpful for me this past year is parent FB groups in my community. Maybe you're already in a few for your area? There's a PTA group for DS's school, as well as a district-wide SN PTA group. Also an ASD moms group for our city, so people are in a variety of educational situations but I see people swapping advice and experiences there all the time.