Here's one both my sons and daughters enjoyed. Get a water gun and let her fill it up in the tub. Then buy her those soaps that come shaped like Crayolas and are all different colors. She can then color on the tiles and spray the wall clean w/ the water gun. Another winner is just a small hose, you know the kind you can attach to the sink when you want to wash your hair w/ the shower attachment at the end? You can give her the hose without attaching it to the spout, for some reason they love this because they can blow air out through the attachment part and make their own "shower" by forcing the air out to the other side. Little boats w/ small "guys" or action figures that can take boat rides is also fun. Betty

please accept my sympathy to you and your family. i think it doesn't matter when you have lot someone that feeling never goes away. in afew weeks i will have been a widow for 4 years. everyday i think of my husband. i remember what we had for supper the night before (roast and veggies) and i haven't made or eaten it since. i still wear my 3 diamond ring he gave me for our 25th anniv. still proudly with my wedding band on my left hand. i also rec'd a diamond tennis bracelet for my 50th bd (all ths jewellery within 2 months of his passing) along with a puppy gracie joy devine (i swore we would never have another pet) i live in northern ontario so i know about cold and snow today it was minus 43! i walk 21/2 miles one way everyday to visit him at the cemetery. i hate him for leaving me. my husband was just loved by everyone, he had that kind of personality. our son hAS taken over some of his dads traits like volunteering etc. and i don't think our daughter will ever get over losing her date, she was home when the firetrucks and ambulance came to the house, but she has learned to be a nicer person. life is so funny those mean people we all know seem to live forever and ever. it took me about a year to mention Al's name but now i make sure that the kids (well 22 and 27) hear atleast one story about their dad. again i'm sorry for your loss

Hi jojo, we love our OKM stove! The oven has a more stable and accurate temperature than our old one. Each of the burners has a double burner, so it can do both fairly high heat and a low simmer. There are a couple drawbacks though. The ovens are small, and the left "oven" is a height-adjustable broiler rather than a true 2nd oven. The racks are also a spaced too closely together to fit cake pans and pies on the middle 2 racks. The stove also has a little quirk in that the right burners sometimes have a hard time lighting if the oven is on (we use a match or use the left hand burners when that happens). We still love the stove though. It is magnificent and everything about it (the knobs, the doors) feels so solid. One thing that is helpful is that there are a lot of repair folk in our area that specialize in these old stoves, and a wonderful man checked it out and adjusted the burners for us when we installed it. I might be more reluctant to get one if that were not the case.

"I forget: does your SS have any learning disabilities or behavioral disorders?" Ceph, it is hard to say. I think he's very borderline. Granted, he is only in 2nd grade and most LDs aren't diagnosed much earlier than this stage. But each school year, his teachers have all said "he exhibits some signs of ADD, etc, it might be worth getting him tested" yada yada. But they all kind of downplay it, and shrug it off like "could be a problem, could not be." So my theory is if he DOES have some behavioral issues/LDs, they are very mild. He is definitely a young 8. He's always been young for his age, from the start. It doesn't help that he is VERY small (shortest kid in his class) and has a slight build. I feel bad for him because people will meet him and say "let me guess, are you in kindergarten?" OR "are you 6?" It's hard on him. If anything, it has taught me that when guessing a child's age, ALWAYS err on the older side of what you think. Most kids are FLATTERED to have someone think they are older than they really are, but not so much if someone thinks they're younger. Anyway, he kind of acts the same way he looks. He has DEFINITELY matured over the last couple years, so I think he is on his own emotional growth curve, just not sure it's on par with his peers. For example--he sucks his thumb A LOT. Is very into stuffed animals/Littles Pet Shops, etc. I know this sounds bad, but it just seems to me these are things either a younger child or a girl would like, as opposed to an 8 year old boy. So I guess it's not surprising that his language seems delayed. And I DO think a lot of it is BM's poor influence in this area. Another thing he says a lot is "was" in place of "were." As in: "Was my dad and mom there?" (When he really means "Were my dad and mom there?") He's going to be working with a reading specialist 2x a week this summer, so I think DH will speak to her about the language/grammar concerns.