Where the Deer and the Antelope Play - Living in the USA (visitors welcome)

[SuperBunny]

East Coast
MaNanny - Boston
Twinmommytobe - Boston
MuminCT - CT
Greatgooglymoogly - NY State
Yesthereare4ofthem - NY State
Brooklynmom - NYC
alarkaspree - NYC
MKG - New Jersey
Mummimamma - PA
Poetmum - PA
Twirl - MD

South
Earlybird - TN
jabberwocky - AR
Sunchowder - Florida
Marls001 - Bentonville, AR
Tinpot - NC
MadameDeathStare- AL

Midwest
SuperBunny- Chicago
Dodgykeeper - Dayton, OH
Chocchipcookie - Ohio
MonkeyLover
KickAssAngel - Ann Arbor, MI

Rockies
Alipiggie - Boulder, CO
Ribena

Northwest
AnnieLaurie - Seattle, WA
Dooneygirl - Oregon City, OR

California
SittingBull - nr San Francisco
Califrau - Milpitas
loopsngeorge - Brentwood, LA
Syd - Manhattan Beach, LA
SofiaAmes - LA
LATyke - Redondo Beach

Texas
Texan - Dallas
Tiggyhop - Houston
Vixie78 - Houston
BananaPudding - Austin
Cosmicdust - East Texas

Canada
Hellish - Ottawa
Shouldlistenedtomymum - Hamilton
Nooka - BC
Jacksmama - Langley

Exotic Islands
Anorak - Bermuda
cp - Trinidad
Barefeete - BVI

Brazil
Albert

Sounds awful Dooney.

Kickass, Target had lots of camping stuff on sale today.

Poor dooney, sounds really awful.

Baby has arrived! Girl born sat afternoon 8lb 3.

Was very impressed by the care I got - only complaint is how do they manage to need to check blood pressure / temp etc about 2 mins after you've fallen asleep??

Baby is gorgeous but noctural (most awake 10pm - 3am) so any tips from anyone whose experienced this v welcome. Thought each baby was meant to get easier?!

Hurrah! A baby! Well done Bunkups

Nocturnal babies right themselves eventually, don't fret. Some take a lot longer than others. I have lots of fond memories of dancing with newborn DS at 3 in the morning. Do you have a name? Or is it private?

Ooo, I'm so excited, I don't think we've ever had a baby on this thread. Hope all is well.

Thanks Superbunny I am sure she'll get the hang of sleep eventually! Name was a challenge because of massive time pressure! Was a real shock to find out she had to be named before we left the hospital.

DD has been lovely so far but DS is totally unimpressed!

congrats bunkup!!

your life has been quite busy these last few months!!

dd was nocturnal, i just found something that kept her awake & happy during the day. (walking FAST over bumpy fields & singing to her) & when it got near a time she usually started going to sleep during the day, would rush around the village like a mad thing for about 20 mins, then let her have a sleep, so that she was getting enough during the day, but not too much. then she slept a lot better at night. i also MADE her get up in the morning, tempting though it was to both sleep through to 10 am, which is what she wanted.
(whipsers - i inflicted a routine on the poor innocent babe, but don't let other mners know).

i started doing this around 4 weeks though. before the routine she spent 6pm to 9 pm screaming, i think the sleep hormones were kicking in, but she'd slept too much during the day.
mums & toddlers kept her happy as well, although she would be too happy & enterrtained to feed unless we went to sit in the corner.

congratulations again, hope you're all a very happy family

Congratulations!!

Congratulations, Bankups.

Sorry about the sleeping thing. Both mine were awful sleepers. DD would average waking up 9 times a night. (Not exaggerating, as I would make marks on a paper every time I got up) DH would go to bed a little early, and wake up at 4 am, so I could at least get an hour or two in before he had to get ready to go to work.

Dinner was like that too. Nightmare.

Congratulations! Hopefully the nocturnal thing will right itself nice and quickly. My first was a really easy baby, so when dd came along and everyone said how lovely second babies were I felt a bit sucker punched! Oh the joy of nights of jiggling and pacing! She is lovely now though

WHat is a sucker punch? I hear it a lot it I don't know what one is.

i think it's a real big hit to the face/mouth. when people say they were sucker punched it means they felt knowcked out by something. it think. would love to know if i'm right

It is a "hit" that is unexpected. It came from boxing, and then evolved to mean some sort of negative thing that befalled you when you weren't expecting it.

Ok, thanks. I knew the colloquial meaning but didn't know what the actual original thing is. Boxing makes sense.

More snow

Both of mine were bad sleepers. I had assured dh that it coulsn't possibly happen twice when I was convincing him to go for baby #2....oh well, ds2 finally started sleeping through the night right before his second birthday

Got into an interesting conversation on an education thread with scienceteacher a few days ago. Apparently there are still some states in the US who do not do full day kindergarten. Am I the only one who did not know this?

I know nothing about kindergarten. I am struggling to get DS into preschool atm. They cost $10,000 + (and that price is the neighbourhood school)

Oh, I know, it's awful isn't it? We paid $6K but that was in a small town in TN so can see where it would be significantly higher in your area.

1/2 day here. Some do full days every other day.

Crazy preschool fees. $2100 here for my TWO for a full year, but I get a several hundred dollar price break for helping. I don't even think Montessori here would cost that much.

half days are quite normal but fading out. in mi schools will start tobe fined if they don't provide full days, although it won't be compulsory for the parents to take up the availablility - K is optional. it does, of course, cost schools more to provide full days, so either way they lose out.
have to say, dd's half day is more intense than a full day at reception was in the UK

however, as an old teacher i'm and at how much time the class teacher gets each day without the kids around - they go to art/music etc for about 45 mins EVERY am & pm, and she has that as time to mark, ridy etc! that's more than a uk teacher gets in a WEEK!!!!

I got so bored when I was teaching over here - I had an hour without kids every day. There was little planning and marking too. So much easier than teaching in England (but less challenging and rewarding) . That said, I didn't get a lunch break or morning playtime either.

When I was in elementary school (back in the '70's...) every teacher had a teacher's aide all day. It was just a standard thing. Now ds1's class of 22 shares a teacher's aide with the other kindergarten class.

I'm glad I started this conversation, btw. It has been very enlightening. Who would have thought that at least two southern states - AR and TN - would be more progressive than CA and OR?

It absolutely kills me that the teacher for my best friend's daughter's kindergarten class apparently has a huge panic attack when she has less than 2 parent helpers for the day, and will beg my friend to stay if she doesn't have 2. She also has a paid helper, too. That school is very unique in how many SAHMs there are, and I guess all the classes through grade 6 have 2 parent helpers and 1 paid assistant almost every day, where most other schools are lucky to get a parent helper.

I don't remember ever having a teacher's aide in school until junior high, and even then it was just another student that was doing it as an elective, and mainly helped pass out things or grade things that had clear right and wrong answers.

Substitute teachers really freak me out. Both SMIL and DH's aunt are retired, and sub often, because it is good money. SMIL will take anything, and teaches calculus, when she doesn't understand it at all, and often just shows movies or brings in her Playstation and dance pad. DH's aunt has called me during when she was watching a class, because she didn't have anything to do, because her specific instructions were to not do anything.