I absolutely love the Junior K name :) It's now being adopted by us and I'll share it with his teacher as well. :) It really is just that in our mind. Olliesmom...too confident LOL Ya my little red headed stuborn monster with too much confidence....it's enough to scare me under the covers at night LOL If he gets cocky I'll start erasing his homework at night so he looks like a slacker to avoid any chance of a cocky red head heh heh I scoped out the other kids today and will finish on Friday at their end of the year party, but it seems that only one of the six will actually be going on to the same school as him. He thinks she's 16 so I don't think he'll notice they didn't go together (everyone taller than him is 16 now since I told him he could drive the car when he was 16) :) I was hoping they'd marry (we have a couple crush on her parents cuz they're old and fun like we think we are LOL). But maybe the stigma of dating a younger (and likely much shorter) man will wain before 2025 and they will still have a future ;) But the other kids are either going to public school or the other private school and two (brothers) will be moving after this year, so aside from the one little girl he's going to be with different kids in his real kindergarten anyhoo. He goes with the flow on stuff like that anyhoo so that's not a horrible worry. I think it would be harder to be at the preschool and then have his friends go into class and not get to go with them. TT it is kind of a luxurious safty net to have isn't it? Worst case, it's too much for him and we back off but he never knows there was an issue. Best case, it's a good prep or Jr. Kindergarten before he moves to the other school for K-8 the next year. It's kind of a unique opportunity to have and I'm grateful for that coming our way. Lyfia my son has selective IgG deficiency which is a rare complication of prematurity. But for preemies, immunoglobulin deficiencies aren't as uncommon as many expect, though it's more often A that's deficient (he also had that but has grown out of it). Typically if there is a feeding disorder it's the opposite of your problem. They associate food with pain from the beginning of their life if their problem is not recognized early enough (as was the case with our son) so they learn to control or disasociate themselves with hunger (but not with the grumpyness that accompanies hunger LOL). IgA is fairly common at something like 1 in 300 or so. Very common in preemies (they're just not done cooking yet ya know) but gastric issues in general are always worse for preemies, even the close to term ones. One of the issues with preemies (even near term) can be problems with the way their body processes foods. Jesse has a very slow gastric system. (delayed gastric emptying) so if he's full and you give him one more bite he bursts! (a nice way to say he vomits with wild enthusiam which sucks!) He really is "full". We have to be careful not to overfeed (since he will eat what we make him eat even if he's full because of his nazi like feeing program training). But the opposite problem can also be a preemie issue...their gastric systems process foods too fast so they don't ever get full. It's called Rapid Gastric Emptying Syndrome or "Dumping". Dumping is normally associated with adults who've had gastric surgery but they are finding some babies have it as well and most likely a preemie. It causes the food to go through the stomach too fast and "dump" into the lower intestine. Milk (in both our case and a rapid system) is a problem because the large fats are difficult to process anyhoo, and even more so for those with gastric issues. Jesse isn't "allergic" to milk...it's more like a poison in his body (or was...this is something he's growing out of). For him, in the early years it caused a low level bacteria to form and that was the cause of his diarrhea. He couldn't even have highly processed milks that are supposed to be ok for kids like this but we learned later that's partly an issue with the IgG problem (hind sight is a biotch!) Anyhoo, both gastric emptying issues are diagnosed with a couple of simple tests. One is a barrium swallow where they give the child a bottle or meal with barrium in it (Jesse loved it LOL...it was the only time he ever slept well in the first year...I asked if I could buy it by the ton heh heh). Then they do a series of xrays to watch the food travel from the mouth through the system until it comes out (yes it takes a while but they get breaks...it's not terrible...probably one of our easiest tests). Then the other thing they do is an ultrasound after feeding with something laced with a dye. That was less fun because they have to lay still for 45 mins to an hour...we had to drug him. But that one is used to track more in debth how the lower gastric (stomach on down where as the other is more focused on the top end) system is flowing. Both of these issues tend to be seen in fail to thrive babies...you rarely see a "fat" baby with the problem so if your little dear is retaining all of the calories and gaining weight they won't do the tests, they'll just be incredibly helpful (eyes rolling) and tell you not to feed her or some other nonsense. Both issues can be corrected surgically if I remember right, but then they might have to be uncorrected later (in our case) so we decided not to put him through it. The positive thing is that normally in a few years the system does grow stronger and starts to do it's thing correctly, some as early as the first year. But there are some steps you can take feeding wise to help them retain the calories they need to grow if you know what the problem is, and in many cases adjust how you feed (for us that means more meals more often than a normal child, but smaller meals overall). I didn't say in this thread, but one of the reason's we want him to go to this school another year is that he's developmentally fine everywhere except for feeding issues. He still does not have a normal appetite (does not recognize hunger well) and would rather starve than eat. He also didn't learn to eat at the right time so he has difficulty with the process (can't separate foods correctly in his mouth so can only eat one texture at a time). I don't know how big your little doll is, but if I had the knowledge that I have now I'd have known how to deal with his problem and he wouldn't have a feeding issue now :( That kills me as a mom. The school he's in understands his issues and works with him, so there's a benefit to him getting another year of "normal kid" eating to see if we can move him forward before he goes to the big school! I tell you this only because I am thinking your little one is still pretty little??? If they aren't testing her gastric system get her to a gastroenterologist and have the tests run. They're not hard on the child, and could answer some of your problems so you can address them now verses being stuck with a 4 1/2 year old who can only eat food the consistency of mashed potatoes :o( I don't want anyone in the world to go through what we did with our son. Yes part was because of his rare blood issue, but the other part....we tried soy milk when he was just a few weeks old. The gastroenterologist we were seeing didn't tell us to stay on it for at least ten days (important with formula changes) so when he continued to have issues we took him off the soy and moved onto the next formula. I would happily run that man over with a car if he walked in front of me in a parking lot...(don't tell) :oP Sorry if I bent your ear too much on that lyfia!!! After our little saga I just have this burning desire to fix all babies with tummy issues so their mommies won't suffer!

I find that using a timer really helps me. I time e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g, chores, work breaks, computer time, tea time, making the bed...beat that timer. You can't do everything at once; no one can. You can tackle one drawer, shelf, small stack of papers, box, etc. for 15-20 minutes. It helps me to look at my task. Yesterday I had to purge one box of fabric. I have to get rid of x number of pieces so the rest would fit loosely in a smaller container. I gave myself 20 minutes. I had a box for the Thrift Store; I had the new container; I had the large, overstuffed container. I set the timer for 20 minutes. Sort, sort, sort. The projects I no longer wanted to do; the projects I didn't think I'd live long enough to even contemplate completing, LOL, went in the donation box. In just 16 minutes the "keep" container was 3/4ths full; the donation box was full and out in the boot of the car. It was scarier to think about that it was to do. Someone is going to find a great deal and have fun using the fabrics that were choking my mental space. Some things I will FreeCycle or offer on Craig's List, but often it's just important to get it out of your house and off of your mind so "life" can be about living, not about sorting and churning "stuff." Keep going; the more stuff that is out of your house the more room you'll have to live!

ahhhh Slow.. I remember you saying that you had a problem using weldbond outside, which is why I mentioned it, but I'm so braindead I can't be positive I DID use that, sure hope so, don't want a problem like that. There is still one teeny piece left on both pots, debating on cleaning them up and slapping more thinset on. or just give up on it totally.. You do make me feel better knowing you had a similar problem. Thanks , I was extremely annoyed with myself, I will never used weldbond outside again.. oh no.. I sealed my yellow brick road clay pot for Sir Wiggle. Screaming.. Oh well.. If it falls apart too, you'll hear me screaming. We'll call it a science experiement. I'll post it as soon as I get my camera set up again...

I would do moulding around the whole room as if it were cornice (like the room existed before the kitchen) -I would wrap the upper part of the range hood as if it were chimney breast. -I would run cornice across the entire front of the fridge run as if the fridge and those cabinets were set back into an alcove. (These cabinets would be the same height as now with a soffit essentially, but only one the height of the cornice itself. -For the counter height cabinet and the sink uppers you have a couple of options: *make them shorter and run the soffit all the way around the wall over them and only have a simple moulding at the top of the cabinet *have the cornice die into the sides of the cabinets which still go to the ceiling and top them with a simpler moulding that then dies into the cornice. The over hang could be practical so I would keep it. Are there fluted elements anywhere else? If there are and you want to keep them it's fine, if not you may want to go with a simpler leg. Either would be correct. I think you could run a Danby splash the entire height of the counter to cabinet (or hood) space from left to right. It has a natural spot to die into the corner cabinet then. Over the sink I don't think you need anything except something narrow perhaps to engage the height of the window sill. I would run it all the way across. Again it has a natural stopping point at the corner cabinet. If the sill is true counter height you may not need anything on that run. Next to the fridge I would probably just do a wood panel that matched the cabinet doors. Your designer must have a Palimpsest voodoo doll by now :/