Joanne, Vivey and I did a RR. She helps feed my addiction. As do you! ;) I got: Cajun's Popcorn Caribbean Blue Dean's Lucienne Harmony's News Flash Little Bo Peep Ma's Second Thoughts Ness' Orange Pekoe Painted Silk Rebel's Quiet Riot Rob's Zinfandel (cool leaves!) Sequins 'n' Ribbons Snuggles Little Dreamer Storybook Princess Tatiana Toy Castle Woodland Sprite and others! Linda

Thank you Maria!! It's such a weight off my shoulders to have this project done. It was truly embarrassing. Although fortunately it was on the second floor so there was no reason for most people to see it, periodically someone would need to go upstairs or I would think "my gosh, what if there was a fire?". It had just gotten so overwhelming that every time I looked in there, I would basically shut down mentally. I didn't even know where to start because literally every single surface in that room was covered. Finally I just took a deep breath and started in one corner. Getting started was definitely the hardest part. I forced myself to put in an hour a day in there (every morning before I had to leave for work) so that I would start seeing some progress immediately and that was a huge help. After a couple days, seeing that floor appearing before my eyes was a huge motivation and I WANTED to get in there - so I was throwing in an extra hour or two here and there to move the project along. It was actually pretty amazing how fast it went once I got started, even working in relatively small chunks of time. Imagine, stressing about something for a couple of years that when you actually started working on it, took only a week. What a waste of mental energy (usually something I am extremely protective of!).

MY thoughts on several of the subjects mentioned: Childproofing a home can be defined as a lot of things. To me doing it is mainly a safety and a convenience issue. Tot Loks on the cabinets means that my children couldn't reach chemicals and I didn't have the storage space to move them somewhere else. Chemicals, knives, sharp objects, special plugs in walls. Anything from the waist down was dealt with. Precious tchatkes were put up merely because they can walk before they can really understand 'no' consistantly. Not precious things can be killed in an instant with you standing right there. Did you know that a portable baby monitor can fit perfectly into a coffee cup? No? My son did that to my husband. My hand was inches away from it. He was mighty durn fast, that kid.Faster than me. Monitors don't like cream and sugar. ;) You're right about the exercise equipment. No toddler should ever be left alone with it. Kids have ripped off fingers, have fallen from them in a moment. Serious injuries have resulted. CP for your MIL would be about her saving her personal sanity. If SHE wants to work with her daughter about it, then that is on them to work it out. But if it's happened more than once, and the daughter is unresponsive, it seems silly to me to watch destruction happen and then tsk tsk about it. If you can see the train coming, do you get off of the tracks? I understand those mothers who don't CP. I understand the idea that some things shouldn't be touched. But I take exception with things that are dangerous, no matter who's home it is. Close that bathroom door, a kid can drown in a moment. Their center of gravity is high and if they fall forward, they cannot pull themselves back out. Chemicals under a sink. A tightly wrapped bungee cord around the handles will do it. Enough that you can hear the kid attempt it and stop them. My own mother used to keep one in an adjacent drawer for when the grandkids came to visit. Simple. On and off in a matter of seconds for an adult. Purses. Please put them up. Especially older women. Oftentimes people without children are giving prescription drugs that do not have childproof caps. I personally know of a family that lost a toddler one Easter. Grandma came to visit and the two year old found her blood pressure medication. Child died. If a particular room is really dangerous, just shut the door and don't allow the kid in there at all. As to breastfeeding? I breastfed two children, three years each. My best advice to you is to read up on the subject, take at least one class if there is one in your area (demonstration is very helpful) and learn about the physiology of the process. (Not just you, but any woman interested in actually doing this.) Breastmilk is digested in approximately one and a half hours. Much faster than formula. That is one of the reasons why you see BF babies being fed much more often. Breastmilk production is a neurological feedback loop. Supply is based upon 'demand'. The more the mother nurses, the more milk is supplied and vice versa. The less that she nurses, the lesser her milk supply. This is an important point because often a new mother who BFs frequently has a lot of milk, and then the body slows down and basically makes what is demanded. For SOME women, skipping a feeding means a bit less milk later and a baby who is not satisfied. This means that giving a bottle isn't necessarily a simple thing. Breasts are not faucets. Some women don't experience a dip. No way to know what your breasts will do until you literally do it. Some babies also experience nipple confusion, especially the very young ones. The mechanical action of sucking on a human nipple is different than a synthetic one. Some kids can easily flip back and forth. Some will give up BF entirely and stick with the bottle becuase the milk flows faster. Some will never ever take a bottle, no matter how and when it's offerred. My first child was like that. She would NOT do it. When babies go through normal growth spurts (which is frequent during the first year), nursing increases. Baby nurses more to stimulate the breast to make more milk. Another reason not to give a bottle during that time. Without the stimulation, milk supply may not keep up with the demand. So it's really not as simple as "I'm tired, give him the bottle". I seriously advise new mothers (especially first time nursers) not to give a bottle or anything else like a pacifier AT LEAST until the kid is four weeks old and then occasionally here and there. For most of us, nursing is established by then, so is supply, and the baby is still young that they MIGHT go for the rubber nipple. But never during a growth spurt so as not to mess with supply nor the baby. (You know when that is, you nurse constnatly for three or four days.) There are many ifs ands buts and ors in this process, specific for different unique situations. In no way does this tiny post address everything that a mom needs to know. I just wanted to add this because there is a lot more going on than just hooking a child up. Breastfeeding is a particular kind of commitment. It does mean that you are the one that is feeding that child, morning noon and night. It comes iwth the territory. And yes, sometimes those BF babies can look chubby. My son had three rolls on his thighs and two on his butt at six months. He's now four years old and is in the 50/50 club for height and weight. Right dab smack in the middle. If the baby isn't walking or grotesquely misshapen, I would wait to see what the kid looks like about two or three months after he/she starts walking. They start to shoot up and slim out. And then somewhere in their second year they can really start getting to be a picky eater and it's about trying to get them to EAT at all...and so on and so on... I would also add that 'fatigue' also comes with the territory of motherhood. Especially sleep deprivation in the early years. It's part of the package. And even if a child is bottlefed and Daddy takes over here and there, I just don't see that making a darn bit of difference in the overall scheme of 'tired'. Being tired is what happens. But no one ever died of sleep deprivation. There are merely some days that you don't drive or play with sharp objects. ;) Finally I wanted to comment on the person who mentioned eating their words. That made me smile. I was an aunt to nine before I had my own. I had many opinions and made many statements... And when someone asked me what I had learned after being a mother for about a month, I said "the first lesson of motherhood is humility. My only regret is that I have so many words to eat". Or as I said to my best friend "How many words did you say or think?" and she moaned and said "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall of them! sob!" (oh hugs to her!) I told her "well, then break out a spoon, you've got a long road ahead of you". :D I say this for entertainment purposes, but I do want to kindly say that you will certainly find something in your passel of opinions to 'eat'. We all do it. It's a rite of passage. Kindness and compassion in your words and thoughts will come back to you. Btw, I told my own sister while pregnant with my first "I just HAVE to find a way to get EIGHT hours of sleep. I can do anything if I have sleep. Somehow, I'll figure this out!!" (One of those Gone with the Wind, 'as God is my witness' moments...) I said this to my sister, a mother of three (who also had four stepkids). Years later I said to her "My God, why didn't you say anything?" and she dryly said "I figured that you would figure it out soon enough". It's GOOD to have answers to theoretical questions. I means that you care about the subject matter. It's good to think about these things, but it's also good to know that you will change something in your thinking. You won't know what that is until it happens. And a lot of mothering is punting. Because there are definitely days when you say "my kid is not in those books and neither am I!"

I've given up on trying to use that tiny tab to get the foil seal off cans of Melitta ground coffee. I use a sharp knife to break the seal, then peel it away. I have 'spilled the (coffee) beans' all over the counter. I have failed to cover the grinder, too -- beans flying everywhere! The second time I used our Capresso coffee maker I warmed the carafe with hot water and put the lid on it to keep it warm. I filled the water container on the coffee maker and put the ground coffee into the Melitta filter at the top. When I came back, I set the carafe under the filter and turned on the machine. Ack! Why was hot coffee running all over the counter? (I'd forgotten to dump the warming water out of the carafe! The coffee had nowhere to go.)