Hi Summer. Happy New Year's. You heard right, Crotons are fussy. :) But, they're also beautiful, colorful tropicals. Do you know which Croton you have? Can you post a pic or describe? The reason I'm asking, some Crotons are hardier than others. Location makes a big difference too. This is how I care for my two. They're in an unobstructed west window. Room temperature is around 70F during the day, 65/6F at night. Crotons need humidity and fresh circulating air. If the area is too dry and stuffy, Spider Mites are likely. I spray/mist daily, and shower in the sink once a week. Keep away from heaters. Far away. Dry/gas heat will suck foliage dry. Fertilize with a balanced fertilizer, (10-10-10 or 20-20-20) during growing season, when new growth sprouts..then stopped when growth slows down or stops completely. In winter, place in the brightest window, color fades if given poor light. In summer/ soil should be kept moderately moist, but when days shorten, soil needs to dry between waterings. Don't let plant sit in water. The aquarium will help, as long as the bottom of pot/roots aren't sitting in water, where it can be sucked up through drainage holes. Inspect your Croton for insects, once a week. This is most important. Look under leaves and between stems. That's about it...good luck, Toni

I got some decently lit pics today, here's a few more from the collection! A better view of the big one: A bonsai-esque dwarf variety of some kind: This one is a broadleaf cultivar with blotchy colours.. I had to cut it back as its old leaves were not acclimating well and spider mites were starting to have at it. So, I went for a drastic haircut, which seems to have worked out okay, as it's been growing back slowly the last couple months! Might be same cultivar as the big one, not sure though as the "rippled" effect seems to appear in some leaves. I've cut it back each year for two years, hoping to develop a nice looking bushy plant some day out of it. Hard to get a good pic of this one on an iPhone camera but it's certainly one of the stranger ones I have. I think the cultivar was labelled as "devil's paintbrush" or somesuch. Didn't handle going from the garden centre to the home very well as first, but after a couple haircuts its growing well enough. Haven't fully recovered the colour yet though, wondering if it needs more or less sun. Bit of a weird one I haven't seen at any garden centres since getting it.. long leaves like the Banana cultivar but fades to red/pink instead: The second croton I ever bought. When I got it it was very leggy and in a tiny 2" container, I've given it regular haircuts which have done well for it. (The third one I ever bought has since died, as has any of that cultivar I've bought since.. the very-long-leaved brght-yellow ones just don't last long with me for some reason!) This one seems to be a relatively close cultivar to the previous, but the leaves seem different to me, enough to nearly convince me it's a different cultivar.. it certainly grows slower and with larger leaves: Bought this one last week. I noticed today as an added bonus it has started to product a flower stem! I guess it likes me. As usual, came with spider mites, I have it in quarantine away from my sunroom at the moment: Here is a link that might be useful: All these photos on a Google Plus Album

I have a 7 y/o DD, too. But she has three brothers, two older (14 and 11) and one younger 5). When DD has friends over to play they are often fascinated by the older brothers and their friends who might be here, especially my 11 y/o. I subbed in a 2nd grade class last week. My 11 y/o came to the room to meet me at the end of the day. The 3-4 girls still in the room were instantly little flirts! I didn't know they had it in them, but they wanted to be right next to DS, snuggled up to let him read stories to them, show him their "cheerleading" routine. I told people about it later, it was a phenomenon I had never seen before. And I have talked about this phase of girlhood with other moms of young girls. My DD is one of the minority who is not at all boy crazy. The thing she has in common with the other girls in that group is that they all have older brothers (older seems to make a difference). Between DD's brothers and their friends who are here all the time, DD has an immunity or something. LOL. Boys are not a new mystery to her, they are an extremely annoying fact of life. She doesn't see them as cute and charming, she sees them at their worst. She just can't seem to convince her friends that boys are really just mean and stinky and generally "not all that." The other thing I've talked about with other moms is how annoying it is when adults notice a pretty little girl and only comment on that trait. I try really hard not to do that, especially in front of the girl. Some of us make a point, when we hear someone say our daughters are pretty, to say "Thank you. You should see how well she writes." Or reads, or play soccer, or piano, or how kind and caring she is, or how funny she is, etc. Especially in front of our daughters. There is too much around young girls that reinforces the idea that their value in life is in getting the attention of boys. I think with the private parts exposure, you should just calmly tell your DD that should never happen again. That the boy was not funny when he did that, it was rude behavior. I might also ask her how it made her feel, pick up on the "weird" part of what she might say and say that's whey it's rude, it makes other people feel weird. I also really think I'd tell the boy's parents. Not in an accusatory way, but b/c I think they should know. Maybe it's something they've dealt with before with him, and they need to know it's still happening. Even as if it's the first time he's done it, they need to know so they can have a conversation with him. Not b/c I want him punished or to make a big deal of it, but for 100 reasons, I just think I would give another parent a "heads up" on that kind of behavior. I absolutely agree it's probably innocent and within the range of normal, but a parent should still be informed. If a kid has fun with the response he/she gets from showing private parts, he/she might be encouraged to try it again and maybe take it farther next time. As for the dancing, I think the next time I had my DD in the car alone I'd start a conversation about dancing. How she likes to dance, why she likes to dance that way, and how sometimes in life what's OK for adults is not OK for kids. From dancing and clothes to certain drinks and certain words. Then when I saw her dancing that way again, I'd remind her "we talked about that, that's a grown up dance, not a kid's dance." I'll confide, I think little girls are encouraged, in subtle ways and sometimes not so subtle, by our culture to behave much older. From their clothes, to music, to toys even. It's not right that 6 y/o girls are encouraged to emmulate a 16 y/o young woman. I cringe at the latest Barbie commercials for products that come with pretend credit cards for pretend shopping sprees. I even say outloud w/my kids in the room "That is so wrong!" Maybe I'm a little freaky, but I am picky about the dolls I let DD have. I think she should play with dolls that that look and act like little girls. Not ones who wear make-up, mini-skirts, high heels, and shop and have boyfriends. I choose books for her about girls who are fun, strong, and smart, and make sure she learns about real women to look up to for their accomplishments. I have no tolerance for relatives or family friends who tease any of my kids about having a boyfriend or girlfriend. I remember how that felt as a young kid and teen. It's embarrassing and feels invasive. My mother would never do that, but I have some aunts and adult cousins who think it's funny. As soon as I hear it I just say "Come on, that's not nice." and to my kids "You do not have to answer that." And change the subject to something my kids are happy and proud to talk about, like the latest "A" in school or score in sports. Oh, and you're so right about the job being harder in a new way as the kids get older. It was physically exhausting when they were little, with feeding, cleaning up, diapers, etc. Now, it's emotionally and intellectually exhausting, trying to stay ahead of the next hurdle. I tell people I think the job of parenting changes when your kids reach an age which you remember being. Make sense? I remember small things that happened when I was 7, 11 and especially 14 and how those small things stuck with me, for better or worse. So I am conscious of how my choices and responses will stick with my kid who are that age now.

We added an addition and converted a half bath into a master bath suite and we love it. Our shower is huge. 5x7. We have floor to ceiling glass, hinged door with a transom over it. Although it is not a steam shower we waterproofed it as such and tiled the ceiling. The important thing we did is to put the on/off controls on the opposite wall of the shower heads. Otherwise we would get wet and cold. The shower is plenty warm and not drafty with the door closed and the transom open. However, when the door is opened you can feel the temperature change. The shower is plenty large for 2 people. In fact, I think it would be fine for 2 if it was 4x6. We opted to get a teak bench. We like the flexibility to move it around. We also went for a full length niche. Once we completed this. We had our main bath redone. We did not have the space or money to indulge in a large shower. We took out the tub and replaced it with a shower. The location of the bathroom door concerned us that if we moved the shower out more, our teenage boys might swing it open to hard and hit the glass shower door. The shower is 33" x 60". We panicked that it was too small, but it was too late. We put in a full length niche that is perfect for extra elbow room. I do think that 3 inches wider would have been better. It would have been thousands more to move walls, pocket doors, electric , moving pipes ect. Besides myself and my husband don't use it. Just like our shower, we put in a rainhead. Both boys just use this and not the showerhead. The pictures of the smaller bath are dark, but it is light and airy in reality. It has a beachy feel and we love our drain cover and glazzio glass bubbles on the floor.