How cute! Big Daddy is playing the part. Those are seedlings. It must have dropped some seeds last fall. They aren't attached to the main plant. You can gently lift them out and pot them or move them to another location if you want them to continue grow. Pam

Even 'greenboard' fails eventually by moisture penetration. Walls that the shower can play on need cement board. Do NOT omit a moisture barrier under the cement board. 15 pound tarpaper is enough, or even one of the newer membranes. Cement board is 'waterproof' only in that IT is not damaged by moisture. Being a cement product it wicks moisture VERY well. Tile can be waterproof AND stop wicking (the glaze layer on wall tile) BUT the grout does wick moisture. This is what kills using plain drywall or greenboard for a backer. Older houses leaked enough that the small amount of moisture through the grout and into the mud bed did not stick around long enough to cause problems. The mud bed could also hold a lot of water before it really started to work through. Newer tight houses and the relative thin cement board require a little more protection from wicking moisture. A single layer of correctly lapped 15 pound tar paper does the job very well, and the stuff remains cheap.

Great idea to form a log for slicing. Is that 8 oz. cream cheese? Thanks.

I have trouble motivating FDH to parent A__ too... And like you, I think that FDH is just totally unaware of his son. If I'm not home, FDH will have A__ all darn day without feeding him a proper meal. It's easier for him to let A__ play on the computer all day than to think up stuff to do with him. But I just do things my way, and he goes along with it because he realizes that he's sort of a slacker if left to his own devices. For example, right now, FDH wants to watch Trailer Park Boys, and A__ is right here in the room, so I pointed out that there is too much swearing in that show for a 9yo. He changed it back to the ball game. FDH would probably do the same thing with Meet the Teacher night as your DH did... He's the king of "Oh, and we're supposed to be at this place at 6:30" when supper is already on the stove and it drives me nuts. I think it's inconsiderate of him to spring last minute plans on me... But I think it's a Mars/Venus thing: I plan ahead, while he ignores my planning ahead - He makes last minute plans, while I get mad about it. I've found that most men are like that (with some exceptions of course) For things like chewing with his mouth open, it's quite probable that DH doesn't notice. A__ can have his face LITERALLY in his food and be poking it into his mouth with his fingers and FDH looks confused when I remind A__ of his table manners. When I was a kid and I chewed with me mouth open, it was always my mom or my older sister who reminded me to close it - I don't recall my dad or brothers ever reminding me. Maybe that's a Mars/Venus thing too? It puts you in a hard spot though. Either you say "DH, your son is chewing with his mouth open" or you remind SS of his table manners yourself. Option one makes it seem like you're purposefully avoiding interaction with SS and he'll probably react poorly to that. Option two is that you're doing the parenting for DH, which you seem tired of. I guess for me, it comes down to this: If I do the crappy stuff like wiping dirty handprints off the wall and telling A__ to use table manners, FDH gets much less frustrated with A__ and they have a better relationship. The difference between our situations is that A__ has improved from where he was last year (which is a lot like where your SS is now) while your SS is still in a rough patch. I know you're still frustrated and SS is still misbehaving, but it sounded like he was progressing a little... Is he still?