Thanks, Melissa & Patricia! jumbojimmy.....Yes, Mme. Plantier's blooms do always look like that for me. Not sure if I can answer which is better of the two. They both have pure white blooms with a green button eye, they both are fragrant and they both are hardy. The blooms are similiar. Maybe the difference is in the size and shape of the BUSH. Mme. Plantier can reach near-climbing proportions whereas Mme. Hardy is more of a manageable-sized bush. I grow my Mme. Plantier on an obelisk so that she can drape her smooth, supple canes over and around it and she grows like a short climber that way. Mme. Plantier has little to no thorns to contend with; Mme. Hardy has thorns. Maybe someone else can tell you which they prefer, but I think they're both great roses. Personally, I like Mme. Plantier better. Celeste MME. PLANTIER...(again)...to show how she grows on the obelisk and her smooth stems..... Close-up of Madame Plantier bloom..... Now, for a photo of Madame Hardy.....

I have loved reading all the posts and gives me comfort that there are a lot of people who are experiencing the same thing as me. I too miss both my parents, still. My mom died 9 years ago from ovarian cancer and my Dad died 6 years ago after a long battle with renal failure and being on dialysis as a result. I cared for both my parents for years while they were ill. We had always been close and saw each other almost every day of my life. The last few years we all lived together while I was working full time, married and raising two boys. I was so busy with everything that I did not have time to stop and think about what was going to happen when they were gone. I miss them terribly every day and wish I would have just stopped and talked for hours on end to them while they were ill instead of doing the laundry, cleaning the house or grocery shopping or cooking. I am thankful I was able to provide them a safe home to live in and never had to place either one in a nursing home. Both boys are now grown and away from home, my husband works out of town a lot and recently my Uncle (my Mom's brother) has moved in with us after having several mini strokes and can no longer live alone. This has brought back the memories of caring for my Mom and Dad and makes me miss them more and more. I still work full time and this was a huge adjustment as my husband & I were just getting used to being empty nesters and had begun taking trips. We have adjusted accordingly and I am thankful once again that I am able to give my Uncle the care he needs without going to a nursing home. Grief can only be dealt on a day to day basis. Sometimes I can handle it and sometimes I just need a good cry. I think about all the great times we had and that makes me happy, but then the grief creeps back in because I can no longer talk to, smile at, laugh with, cry with or hug my parents ever again. My only comfort is knowing I will see them again one day in Heaven and that is what keeps me going day to day.

I started the weaning process at 10 1/2 months, and we stopped nursing at one year. At 10 1/2 months I started to introduce a small amount of cows milk (whole milk) with the expressed breastmilk that she got while at the sitters. I would still nurse her at home first thing in the morning, dinner time and at bedtime. Weekends I was nursing her for all feedings. So I also gradually got her to all sippy cup feedings during the day on the weekends so I was just nursing the morning, dinnertime, and bedtime, for all 7 days of the week. I then eliminated the dinnertime nursing, because that was the one she was not really nursing anyway. She was getting more and more playful. So that one was easy. Meanwhile, I was gradually increasing the ratio of cows milk in her sippy, while decreasing the amount of breastmilk until it was all cows milk. I then eliminated the morning nursing, and the bedtime nursing was the last to go. I thought she was going to freak about that one, but she was TOTALLY fine with it. It was ME that was freaked out!! (LOL) We just made sure we adjusted her routines so she would not miss it. For instance, at bedtime we replaced the nursing with a bedtime snack, and extra bedtime stories. I also did not have an engorgement problem when I stopped nursing, I believe because we did it so gradually. To specifically answer your question about should you worry about how much formula he is getting - I would say no. At that age, they are taking in less and less breastmilk/formula and taking in more and more food. Hope this helps. If any of my rambling did not make sense, just let me know. I would be glad to answer more questions about how it all worked for me.

The likes and dislikes from age 10 to 15 let say are very different . I would ask him what size bed to start with . For us we need to see a floor plan and some info as to size of closet , what style he likes the more info the better.. IMO kids need to have input in their spaces but with some guidance. LIke no black walls (BTW we had our son paint an album cover mostly black on his one wall took 7 coats of white to cover it when we sold.