I *think* I am happy to announce that Robby is done with the bottle and the pacifier officially! He hasn't had either since early last week. He's still got his taggie, but that's OK...and puppy...his stuffed dog, and that's OK too...he doesn't walk around with them, they're for night/nap time.

Next step...potty training!! OK, I'm thinking it'll be awhile for that, and I don't have ambitious expectations...it's just the next step.

I love this thread!! I so much prefer to talk about my kids rather than the fact that I am not losing weight.

I am Angela (32). I have been married for 11 years. I am a 4th grade teacher.

Brantley is 4. He is brilliant! He is spelling, reading (a little) and adding now. He hasn't even been to preschool yet. And next year he will still be too young for Kindergarten. I am a little concerned that he will be bored in Pre-K.

Jonathan is 8 months. He is all smiles. He is also on the move. He crawls very well on his knees (something his brother never did) and has even pulled up to standing twice. His newest accomplishment is clapping. It is so cute! He claps after he has done something and he is proud.

Angela, WOW, Brantley IS brilliant!! Must be mom the teacher! When is his bday? My boys never *really* crawled much either. They went from army crawl to walking it seems!

Brantley's bday is 11/10 I may be the one teaching him but he got all of his brains from Daddy.

I'm Nancy, 38 and a stay at home mom for now. I have two kids (a daughter Shelby, age 6 and a son Ryan, age 2-1/2). I had previously lost 65 lbs back in 1993 and kept it off until 2000 when I had Shelby. That did it for me. I just couldn't seem to get the weight off! Then I had Ryan and got even heavier. The stress of everyday life with the kids seems to take all the energy I have and I don't seem to have any left to concentrate on myself (I need to change that!). My husband works until 9 every night so It's mostly just me taking care of them. Now my daughter has been diagnosed with precocious puberty, starting her period last month at age 6! We have been seeing a specialist to determine where this is coming from and so we can stop it since it can have a detrimental effect later on. Whew. It feels good to get that off my chest. Sorry!

Otherwise Shelby is a real tomboy, loves soccer and horses. Don't even point a bow or dress in her direction! She's in first grade this year and is doing very well despite her health issues.

Ryan is a sweet huggy type of kid who loves trains, cars and monster trucks. He also loves everything Shelby does and tries to copy her whenever he can.

hamptonsnrh ~ wow I've never heard of such a thing. You have a lot on your plate. I have three kids (8,6 & 4), stay at home, and my DH works a lot. When he is here though he helps a ton!

How do you explain menstrual cycles to a 6 year old? My heart goes out to you! Hang in there. You are *NOT* alone! Come join us on the daily thread.

Hi Nancy! That's a lot for a 6 y/o to deal with. for both of you! Come join us on the daily thread! Ryan sounds a lot like my little guy, it's all about the Cars & trains!

Hi - I'm new - just registered today! I'm 35 and have 3 kids - Chris is 18, Dustin is 12, and Janna is 6. No, I didn't plan to have them so far apart - that's what life dealt me I guess...

Anyway, Michelle - I can relate to your 17 year old daughter - that's when I had my first one, and he and I have kinda grown up together. We had some tough years together, but he is a great kid (a Sr. in HS - yea)!

I look forward to getting to know you all more!

Cheryl

Welcome Cheryl!

This is one heck of a fine group ~ come join us on the daily thread.

Hi Cheryl!! Welcome! As Joan said, come join us on the daily thread if you'd like!

Ugh. I am having trouble with Alex with night training. Out of the last 7 days he has wet the bed 4 of them. Well, he had a wardrobe malfunction. He wears pull ups to bed and they are leaking. It's a brand new box from Costco of the same kind/size he has been wearing.

He goes to the bathroom right before bed and I tried getting him up in the middle of the night to go last night. All he did was stand there and cry (I can't blame him either). And woke up wet this morning.

I am SO TIRED of changing the beds and washing sheets!

Karen, are the Pull-Ups getting small on him? Try the next size. Peter actually wears GoodNights in size small. He was soaking himself through every night in the Pull-Ups, but once we switched, he was fine...except for the nights he doesn't make sure he's "facing down", if you KWIM!!

I tried getting Peter up too, but the same thing happened, he just cried...wouldn't even stand up by himself! That was back when I thought he would eventually potty train overnight too. Silly me... So now I don't worry about it, if he's still wetting himself at night when he's 8, I'll get concerned (and the ped said the same thing).

I have one son.. He is 9. I am a single mother so life can be challenging with him somedays.. Right now we are struggling with his grades.. He has developed an I don't care attitude about everything.. He doesn't want to study, he doesn't want to shower and he most certainly does not want to talk or listen to me... Can someone please tell me, is this just his age and a stage that he will SOON out grow??? Any words of advice???

Lauren: I'm not sure about the next size on the Pull Ups. I will have to check, but he's been wearing the same size since he day trained. He has been the same wt for the last year. He hasn't had a problem before this new box (and of course there are 80 of them in the box!). I thought it was a "pointing" issue myself, but I put it on him last night and made sure it was right.

Jnn: I'm sorry, but I don't have any advice for you. My DS is almost 4 and I just haven't had those issues yet. I can only offer you a hug and hope that someone else has some ideas for you. Have you tried counseling?

We also had the parent's nightmare on Saturday of Alex meeting a stranger and asking him why his nose was so big!! OMGoodness. I wanted to sink through the floor!

Oh the joys of parenting!!

Karen, I can just imagine the way you must've felt when he said that!! I hope the guy had a sense of humor!!

Jnn, I have heard that sometime around that age is rough for kids and they start doing stuff like that. Hope it's just a phase that passes quickly!