As evidenced by my other threads, I'm at the site almost every day, as I only live two miles away and pass it going to/from shopping etc. It's a spec town home being built in the builder's development, and they have a great policy of letting you visit as often as you wish, as long as you suit up in a hard hat. Now I also have to pick up a key since it's done enough to be locked down when workers aren't there. I've taken full advantage of this policy and have videotape and photos of everything behind the walls and even of the shared wall with the next door unit, as well as detailed photos from every stage of the build. I've also caught a couple of incorrect things early, like an incorrectly placed hose bib, so they were able to be corrected before it became a lot of time and trouble later. Because I don't own the home yet, I can't really tell the workers what to do. I say "hello" and chat with them about their work if they bring it up themselves, but mostly I try to stay out of their way. Still, it's handy to be there sometimes, like when the electrician was putting in the hot tub box, as he had a question that it was easiest to ask us (we paid for that added work, so I felt comfortable talking to him about the specs). Even though I have some minor bones of contention with the builder at the moment, overall the policy of letting me have unlimited access to the construction site has given me a lot more confidence. I marvel at people who don't get a good look before the final walk-through, as that's much too rushed and stressful of a time to get a good look at everything. I plan to go through by myself a few days before that so I can test and scrutinize things at my leisure. That way, I'll know exactly where to focus on that final day.

I agree, it is definitely easier at this age than, say, 18 mos. At least they don't have tantrums! I'd rather take a baby out than my 2 year old. So, I took them out early, earlier with each one because life just demands it. I had #3 at a school play for #1 they day after we came home from the hospital -3 days old. What am I gonna do, not go to DS's things? I found they slept pretty well when we went out. A lot of restuarants have special seats to put the carrier in. The constant hum of a crowded place would put mine to sleep every time. Though I got pretty good with the sling, too, eating over the baby. Sometimes the carrier is just in the way. Trade of holding her, do your best. Go at off peak times, so you don't have to wait, or call ahead for a table if you can. We very rarely managed dessert -unless we took it to go. Start out by going where you are familiar with the menu and so you can order as soon as you are seated. I really had no problems with movies, either. They slept, and there is no better place for discreet breastfeeding than a dark movie theatre (even the slurping sounds can't be heard :o)). It happened a couple times things didn't work out. But, you go with the flow. We asked for take out boxes for out meals. We left a theatre once when it wasn't working out, the manager saw us, thanked us for our consideration, and gave us passes to come back another time! You don't know until you try, and it's worth it to get out. If you start taking them young, it becomes familiar to them and they go along with it just fine. Go out this weekend and let us know how it goes!

I think you're doing the right thing in moving home. The joy of being with your grandchildren while they grow up will compensate for "projects." And having lots of social/family contact is even good for your health. You can take "volunteer vacations" where you do good works while traveling - that should help him get some of his projects out of his system. Or what about a woodworking class? I'm not being facetious - my DH and I are building a house next door to my son and his family, and he wanted (and we got) a large lot so he could garden. I know he'll enjoy that as a project and it was a life dream, so I am happy to support him. However, it is the grand baby that is the real motivation, for both of us. Love and people are more important than almost anything else IMHO. FYI, I gave up the fast track on my career to move back home with my family years ago and have never regretted it. I look back now and wonder why I thought it was such a hard decision at the time... Good luck!

Attention, shoppers! If you take a half-gallon of fudge ripple ice cream from your supermarket's freezer case and then remember you are on a diet, don't leave it to melt on the rack where the tabloid magazines scream "Tom Cruise Marries Alien!" Likewise, in a department store, if you suddenly realize that a pink poncho will be passe in a month, don't fling it over a display of men's socks and walk away. Nor should a four-pack of 60-watt light bulbs be wedged between the boxes of fettuccine and ziti. For a few minutes, pretend I'm your mom -- your shopping mom: Were you raised in a barn? Will you never learn to pick up after yourselves? Stop rolling your eyes and look at me when I talk to you! Listen up: More and more of you are not putting things back where they belong when you go shopping. It happens at high-end and low-end and everything-in-between stores. It occurs in supermarkets, clothing stores, toy stores, stationers and any place where merchandise isn't too heavy to lift. It even goes on at the Gap, despite clerks -- only those with eyes in the backs of their heads are hired -- who attempt behavior modification in customers by pointedly refolding polo shirts milliseconds after they are mussed. It occurs even in bookstores, where, as in libraries, there are often tables or carts with posted pleas to place unwanted books on them so that people who know exactly where they should be shelved can do so. Still, you'll find a John Grisham tome next to "101 Ways to Cook Cauliflower." Especially during sales, the dressing rooms of department stores look like pigsties -- clothing in dumping grounds on the floor or falling off hangers and hooks -- because customers won't even return them to collection racks at the mouth of the dressing room so employees can restock them. Don't make the excuse that everybody does it. What if everybody jumped off a cliff? Would you? Experts who study what is called "shrink" -- the term for inventory loss due to shoplifting, employee theft or error, and damaged or "distressed" items -- estimate that less than 1 percent of all shrink is caused by shoppers who act as though they are royalty being shadowed by a maid. (A major grocery chain has about $500,000 worth of shrink a year, according to recent studies.) This number would be higher if alert shoppers and employees didn't see wrongs and right them, says Larry Miller, president of Trax Retail Solutions in Scottsdale, Ariz., and national director of the National Supermarket Research Group. Miller estimates that shoppers (acting as mothers the world over do) or store employees rescue about 60 percent of dumped grocery items. "Most people don't look at a pound of ground beef sitting on a grocery store shelf and ignore it. They take it back to the refrigerated meat section," Miller contends. "This has always been a problem, and it occurs at all stores no matter where they are," says Barry F. Scher, vice president of public relations for Royal Ahold NV's Giant Food LLC chain. He notes that the cost for supermarkets is especially high when the item involved requires refrigeration or freezing. Even though employees are instructed by managers at various times during the day to scout for misplaced items, perishables most often have to be thrown out because it is not known how long they've been sitting around. Scher says that Giant stores don't have staffers dedicated to performing the task called "shop backs" but that it takes employees away from other duties. "Stores also lose out because the stock isn't where someone can find it and sell it," says Jon Schreibfeder, president of Effective Inventory Management Inc. of Coppell, Tex. This means that, to be confident that they have enough of any product, managers must overstock items. Schreibfeder, whose company advises retailers on ways to control inventory, says that although the practice isn't nearly as large or troublesome as shoplifting or employee theft, "we talk about the [dumping] problem continually" with clients. Schreibfeder's prescription has been to have his clients schedule regular "stock straightening" for several times a day, especially when the store isn't busy. He also said a retail customer in Bermuda learned that nothing works as well as a departing ship in making people evacuate a store, leaving stick deodorant next to the asparagus. "A cruise ship would come in and the passengers would begin shopping. They'd find they were running out of time and would leave stock scattered everywhere," Schreibfeder recalls. He and his employees helped the store employees realize that they should scurry to round up misplaced products in between dockings. He also advised the owner to mark shelves that were most often victimized by shoppers and to have employees combing those prone areas. Schreibfeder says it's conceivable that, down the line, radio frequency identification (RFID) might be able to beam out an all-points bulletin (APB) to store managers, saying, in effect: "I'm over here -- and I'm defrosting!" to help in the roundup. Both Schreibfeder and Scher are inclined to be soft on consumers who dump products thither and yon. "People these days think they are too busy. Everybody's in a rush," Scher says. But Dorothea Johnson is unforgiving. Johnson, founder of the Protocol School of Washington and an etiquette teacher for 40 years, says we all must put things back because it is right and proper and is a tiny thing we can do to keep the world from chaos. She can think of no excuse for not returning merchandise to its shelf. Practicing this daily has the side effect of increasing self-esteem, she says. "Oh, you see, not putting things back is not being mindful of the next person who comes along. Although salespeople are trained to watch out for such things, I always put things back. I can then tell myself I did the right thing," says Johnson from her home near Portland, Maine. Even parents who spend the livelong day harping on children and spouses about tidying up can slip up now and then and ignore their inner Miss Manners. The other day, in a fit of fitness, someone left a pound of bacon next to a mound of tilapia packages after glancing about the store furtively to see if anyone was looking. But do as I say, not as I do. And don't run with a stick in your hand. You'll poke your eye out.