One more photo, I promise. I just got this one that is a close-up of MacKenzie and the baby leopard. The eyes just tickle me to no end. And her turning 5 yrs old while he's 5 wks old. I swear he almost looks like he's smiling too. They make a pretty cute pair, even if I am terribly prejudiced. LOL. hugs, Karen

Our daughter committed suicide 10 January, 2007. She had attemptes on 2 different occassions, but failed. She had nerve problems for several years and was under medical care. She leaves 2 sons, ages 6 and 10 who miss her very much. On 2 May, 2004 we lost our son to Lung Cancer. He and our daughter were very close, and our daughter took his death very hard. She hid this from her father and I. She would drive to the cemetery at night and sit at his grave for hours and talk to her brother. Her X husband didn't tell us about this until after she died. If he had maybe we could have taken her to the right dr. The anniversary of her death is near. I know it has only been 1 year, but sometimes when the phone rings, I get really excited and just know it is her calling me. I can tell you, the hurting dosen't ease up. She was not only our only daughter, but my best friend, and I need to talk to her.

Wow. It's so unsettling to see that not only are we not making progress on our "ideal image," we are actually losing ground, sigh. Hard enough to compete with beautiful natural models--now they're computer enhanced and surgically altered. I do wish I could do that to my teeth, lol. (I also think the girl looks much better in the before shots, but I'm not anyone who would be targeted for a marketing thing like that.)

nivea, I'm sorry you had a bad experience in your life but a child can be (and a lot of them are) manipulative at age 6-8. My SD, when she was 6, came up to me and said 'my daddy was kissing deanna' and stood there waiting for me to react. She has glared at me when he isn't looking. and she would be a totally different child the minute he walked through the door. A lot of this was happening when we were dating and he never saw any of it. He didn't believe me until I pointed it out and he saw it. Perhaps the difference is that I knew what she was doing and I had been through raising several kids before so I knew how to handle it. My DH's ex (whom my SD referred to as 'horrible Elizabeth') probably reacted to it by taking it personally. She was younger & had three small kids and not everyone can rise above it when you are stressed out. That may not be a good reason or excuse to blame them, but humans are not perfect. Anyone that believes children cannot be manipulative has their head stuck in the sand. It is natural for them to angle things so they get their way. My kids do it all the time. (and nivea, is it possible that you behaved normally as a child, which can be seen as manipulative if you didn't like your step mom? Were you happy they broke up?) Some kids just react like normal kids and their actions can seem the are being manipulative, and other kids 'know' they will get a reaction. I think my SD knew that telling me DH 'kissed' his friend would get a reaction. She was only 6 but had already learned how to get rid of daddy's GF's. (the situation was that his friend deanna had given him a ride home after his car broke down and she always gives a hug/kiss on the cheek. I knew about it and wasn't in any way concerned.) btw, My son came into my room a couple of days ago and we were talking. He told me 'mom, you just like to argue.' and I said 'no I don't' and he said 'yes you do' so I repeated 'no. I don't.' and he repeated 'yes you do' and then I realized that he was pushing my buttons and it was a game to him, to get me to argue with him. I just said, okay and it took the wind out of his sail, I took the fun out of it by not playing.