@eatinwatermelonseeds - We got into a spat with our neighbors over our fence, too it's dilapidated and a major eyesore so we hired someone to spruce it up for us. Our neighbors got angry at us for... improving their property? Like, what the hell? We added new posts where others broke, sprayed off the moss and weeds, and had it varnished a nice deep brown. Apparently it's their fence on their property and they intended to tear it down. Super, I'm fine with that. But a timeline would be nice. The thing is also a hazard because there's a gaping hole with splinters at the end of it where my 3 year old could hurt himself. The couple who own the fence are a pair of mean old bats. Another reason I can't wait to move.
Fences and property lines are like the #1 neighbor disputes. And trees. @eatinwatermelonseeds if they continue to drag their feet, you could always just put up your own fence a few inches onto your property.
That post about circumcision was a WTF?!?! I can’t believe they said that was ok @chloe97. He’s a crazy dude not an expecting mom.
@eatinwatermelonseeds I love A Christmas Story!! I just visited the house where it was filmed (it’s a museum/ tourist trap now). The inside shots were on a soundstage but the owner redid the house to mimic the inside shots from the movie. Pic is me in the living room with one of the rifles from the movie.
My worst nightmare has come true! I was doing an individual assessment on a student today and a FUCKING BED BUG was crawling all over her while she was reading! This was a chronic issue for this student last year and her teacher had to spend $3000 having her house fumigated for bed bug because she ended up taking them home! I stripped naked in garage, am sanitizing then in the washer and SCRUBBED in the shower. I’m still itchy. Gross!!!!! 🤢🤢🤢😷😷😷
@mrskoz428 omg omg omg!!!! I got anxiety just reading your post. Are you allergic to them, as well? I am. One of the worst experiences of my life!! Those things just need to go extinct, already!!!!
So if my daughter is a total girl and loves pink and make-up and heels and handbags I don't really care. It's more that I don't want messages of silence, obedience, subservience, sweetness, and external pressure to please everyone foisted on her. Same with negative body image. I'll do what I can to shield her from that but I'll happily take her to get pedicures and browse the shoe aisles if that's what she's into.
I actually do the same thing for my son with toxic masculinity. I don't buy him shirts that say "tough" or "fighter" or anything that encourages violence.
@mrskoz428 Ugh!!!! Gross! DH travels so much for work and it’s my fear that one day they will be trying to save a few dollars and have him stay somewhere that has bed bugs and he will bring them home.
We went to the mall today and stopped in at H&M. I found the cutest skinny maternity jeans for only $7!! Also a dressy shirt for the sprinkle the ladies are throwing me at church in two weeks. That was only $8. They had a ton of stuff on clearance. I also got a long sleeve T-shirt that was regular price.
Ivy: July 2010 | Stella: Dec 2012 | BFP#3: MMC at 11Wk's, July 2017 | Wyatt: April 2019 | BFP#5: Twin Girls due Sept 2020
@wishiwaspreggo I totally missed that comment until it was quoted lol. I agree, it's crazy how innate some of the things DS does and likes are. He's all about fixing things, loves cars, dinos, anything inherently "male." But then he has moments, like baby brother bear (have I mentioned him? Little blue bear he carries calling his baby brother) where he cuddles him, wraps him in blankets and shushes him. ... He also throws him in the air and catches him sometimes... So, we have a little work to do before the real baby brother gets here. My husband is an engineer, and for a while I suspected DS would be too, but he's so empathetic and caring, he might surprise me and become a nurse (or doctor, but nurses are better 😂).
I'll be interested in seeing how this baby is. His big brother has such varied tastes now, it could go either way lol.
@expandcontract not allergic, at least not to my knowledge. I’ve never had experience with them. I’ve been lucky to not have to deal with any creepy crawlers. Of course, this student and her brother are in my classroom and my colleague’s classroom who is also pregnant, due 5 weeks before me. Like, why?!? 😭😭
@robyn2201 I just can’t do bugs! I didn’t realize how BIG they are. I always thought they were microscopic! Nope, clear as day the size of a tick but completely flat. 😷 They are fumigating my classroom this weekend so hopefully it has killed every living thing in there before I get back!
@mrskoz428 is there anything the school can do to control this from becoming an outbreak? I would imagine if a teacher was infested last year by this poor girl, then I'm sure other students probably did, too.
@mrskoz428 Omg! That is gross! I would have been freaking out and itchy afterwards too! It is so sad the conditions some people live in.
@eatinwatermelonseeds ha ha, I know of girlfriends that have had to multiple times tell their sons to use the toilet as they have decided to test their targeting ability elsewhere in the home. A few drops on the toilet can’t be too bad 😆 I was actually thinking I need to learn what moms of little girls do when going to public toilets to deal with nasty toilets when girls can’t yet squat over the toilet
Fence update: turns out my neighbor was working, so we just now got to talk. They're 100% open to have H do the building and we discussed type, how to pay, etc.
@eatinwatermelonseeds my SIL and Brother held a birthday party for my nephew who was turning 5 this summer. My SIL said it took days the clear the urinal smell out of their bathroom! Granted it was in August, about 95°+ and super humid out, but I guess it was expected after that pack of little boys peed all over the toilet and floor!
@knarlytaurus for the longest time he sat to pee, and I never taught him not to. But his best friend at daycare stood to pee, so he started standing. That was a sad day for my bathroom.
@dfirstimer Most public restrooms here in CA have the paper toilet seat covers you can use, so I have them use those when available. If there aren’t any, like when we have traveled internationally we never saw them, I wipe it down the seat it looks like there is pee on it and they just have to sit. We watched a show that said a public toilet seat has less germs than your phone/iPad screen or your cutting board in your kitchen.
Ivy: July 2010 | Stella: Dec 2012 | BFP#3: MMC at 11Wk's, July 2017 | Wyatt: April 2019 | BFP#5: Twin Girls due Sept 2020
@dfirstimer I’ve seen some moms talk about carrying disposable toilet seat covers with them in their diaper bag for potty training, some even seem to have fun designs on them to I guess make the whole thing more fun and inviting. Not sure where they get them, but I’m sure you could search around and find something like that.
Personally I don’t really think it’s all that necessary though. Toilet seats arn’t really the germ havens you might think they they are - just wipe it down if it looks like there is pee and sit.
My bathroom will forever smell like pee. Ds1 does not focus on aim and is constantly moving while he pees all over the floor.
@mrskoz428 bedbugs and head lice are a constant issue in my classroom too. One year it was so bad I had the nurse check my hair before I left every day and then I would go home and wash my clothes and shower before picking up ds1. Fingers crossed you didnt bring any home with you.
@brie_and_almonds, @robyn2201, @beccaneu, thank you for the advice. When I was growing up in Latin America public bathrooms were simply so gross we would stop drinking liquids way before leaving anybody’s house to avoid ever using public bathrooms, so probably why i was so worried, especially when no seat covers are available. Thanks for the reassurance ladies
@dfirstimer wow, that sounds extreme. I remember I was at the zoo with one of my friends when her daughter was around 4, and my friend tried to get her daughter to "hover" (and tried to help her do it) and the little girl accidentally peed all over her own dress and was uncomfortable for the rest of the day... so I definitely don't recommend that.
@dfirstimer Honestly we just avoid any stalls that have any obvious grossness to them. If there's something on the seat I just pick another stall, I don't wipe it down and sit. Now if there's something in the bowl, my girls are grossed out, but I just flush it and tell them it's no different than when they don't flush at home. We teach our girls hygienic habits but we also don't want them to be so blocked from interaction with the world that their immune system sucks.
Also I'm *psyched* DH now will have some bathroom duty outside the house. He's always been fine changing diapers and helping the girls in the bathroom at home, but we were at Disney once when DD1 was 2, he took her in the bathroom with him and said there was one creepy guy who kept looking at her, so he now refuses to take them into a public restroom if it isn't a family stall. So grateful that he can now take one of the kids for restroom stops out when this little guy is bigger (but diaper changes out publicly, yep he'll be handling some of those now too).
@knarlytaurus they are fumigating my classroom this weekend. It will kill any living thing! The principal called the family to let them know, as well. Thankfully, I saw nothing on my clothes or body when I showered but this is my true nightmare...
@Stormiewinter my biggest surprise is that they “took care of it” over the summer. How are they back?!? Plus, they are a military family. How?? Why?? Ugh!
1) Gendered things with kids are so weird. My son has absolutely zero idea he is a male much less what gender he identifies with or what colors he should or shouldn't like. People are weird.
2) I don't like shirts with sayings with the exception of "strong like mom" type shirts for both genders because yes, mom IS strong. Mom carried you for 39 weeks, endured 20 hours of med free labor, tried to push you out for another four, had emergency abdominal surgery with painful recovery, used up precious sleep time icing her boobs due to nursing pain, etc. Mom is an effing badass. As is the mom with a quick labor, the mom with an epidural, the mom with a planned CS, all the moms. You should be so lucky to be strong like mom.
About boys peeing: my religion actually requires men to sit down because it's considered cleaner so we're going to teach DS to sit. He may teach him to stand for when sitting isn't an option but I'm really going to push him just going into a stall and sitting. Definitely no standing at home. This is not judgement on standing, just sharing what is the norm for us!
I remember walking in on my husband sitting on the toilet once and was so embarrassed! Then I realized he was peeing... I had NO idea men sat to pee. So much cleaner and we will definitely do that also once potty training time comes.
@kaitcrystalline my husband sits too, and we had a moment like that as well 😂 that was why DS always sat, but now he always stands. He saw his friend do it, so he does. I won't teach baby to stand either, but I'm sure he'll copy DS.
I just suddenly got this panic that I have nothing for the baby. It is so silly because we have 5 months 😂 but at this point, we had most of the nursery put together last time. This time we just have so many expenses. H wants to put off buying a crib until after baby is born, since he won't use it until 6+ months anyway. But it is driving me crazy that there isn't a crib in his nursery. It's completely throwing me off.
@eatinwatermelonseeds I have nothing set up yet either. The nursery is still set up like a guest room and is being used to store random stuff. I have a few small items that we were gifted for Christmas but non of the necessities. I haven’t even really started putting together the registry yet. We’ve been way too busy with getting the rest of the house in order and all our money has gone to things like appliances and fixing plumbing issues.
@beccaneu yeah, this fence, and then other repairs, decorating the house so it feels like home, just everything house related is kind of overshadowing baby stuff. I'm trying to tell myself it's okay because we have plenty of time, but it's bugging me and I want to have more for him.
So, I just called Comcast because when we moved, we had two cable boxes but they deactivated one that was still at the old house and replaced it with the most basic box. I called to have the original box reactivated and was super excited by how easy it was. Then I walk into the other room to find out the lady reactivated that box, but deactivated our main box 😒 thanks lady, big fucking help.
I decided to finally tackle my basement today. I have been dreading doing it, but I couldn’t start on the baby’s room until the basement storage was cleaned, purged, and organized. I’m exhausted, but it feels so good to have that project done.
@eatinwatermelonseeds the way I see it, once the baby comes I’m not going to want to deal with a lot of the house stuff so getting a lot of that stuff out of the way is in a way getting ready for baby too 😁
Comcast is the worst. I was so excited that our new house lets us get this smaller local service. It’s so much cheaper and they are way less frustrating.
@beccaneu exactly. I've also been kind of like um, the baby really isn't going to care if he gets here and his nursery isn't covered in cute dinos 😂 so, I should stop stressing that part, but I am stressed about having enough stuff for him.
Our room that we'll use for the LO is still set up as a guest room, baby stuff storage and tool storage for our upstairs bathroom project. It's a mess, but I think I'm more focused on getting the bathroom done rather than getting the nursery done right now I'm starting to have trouble cleaning my feet in our tiny downstairs shower, so we need our upstairs shower asap. It's definitely our focus right now to get it done before LO comes.
Re: Randoms week of 12/31
@eatinwatermelonseeds I love A Christmas Story!! I just visited the house where it was filmed (it’s a museum/ tourist trap now). The inside shots were on a soundstage but the owner redid the house to mimic the inside shots from the movie. Pic is me in the living room with one of the rifles from the movie.
We went to the mall today and stopped in at H&M. I found the cutest skinny maternity jeans for only $7!! Also a dressy shirt for the sprinkle the ladies are throwing me at church in two weeks. That was only $8. They had a ton of stuff on clearance. I also got a long sleeve T-shirt that was regular price.
I'll be interested in seeing how this baby is. His big brother has such varied tastes now, it could go either way lol.
@robyn2201 I just can’t do bugs! I didn’t realize how BIG they are. I always thought they were microscopic! Nope, clear as day the size of a tick but completely flat. 😷 They are fumigating my classroom this weekend so hopefully it has killed every living thing in there before I get back!
@eatinwatermelonseeds ha ha, I know of girlfriends that have had to multiple times tell their sons to use the toilet as they have decided to test their targeting ability elsewhere in the home. A few drops on the toilet can’t be too bad 😆 I was actually thinking I need to learn what moms of little girls do when going to public toilets to deal with nasty toilets when girls can’t yet squat over the toilet
Personally I don’t really think it’s all that necessary though. Toilet seats arn’t really the germ havens you might think they they are - just wipe it down if it looks like there is pee and sit.
@mrskoz428 bedbugs and head lice are a constant issue in my classroom too. One year it was so bad I had the nurse check my hair before I left every day and then I would go home and wash my clothes and shower before picking up ds1. Fingers crossed you didnt bring any home with you.
@knarlytaurus that is funny!!
@brie_and_almonds, @robyn2201, @beccaneu, thank you for the advice. When I was growing up in Latin America public bathrooms were simply so gross we would stop drinking liquids way before leaving anybody’s house to avoid ever using public bathrooms, so probably why i was so worried, especially when no seat covers are available. Thanks for the reassurance ladies
Also I'm *psyched* DH now will have some bathroom duty outside the house. He's always been fine changing diapers and helping the girls in the bathroom at home, but we were at Disney once when DD1 was 2, he took her in the bathroom with him and said there was one creepy guy who kept looking at her, so he now refuses to take them into a public restroom if it isn't a family stall. So grateful that he can now take one of the kids for restroom stops out when this little guy is bigger (but diaper changes out publicly, yep he'll be handling some of those now too).
@Stormiewinter my biggest surprise is that they “took care of it” over the summer. How are they back?!? Plus, they are a military family. How?? Why?? Ugh!
2) I don't like shirts with sayings with the exception of "strong like mom" type shirts for both genders because yes, mom IS strong. Mom carried you for 39 weeks, endured 20 hours of med free labor, tried to push you out for another four, had emergency abdominal surgery with painful recovery, used up precious sleep time icing her boobs due to nursing pain, etc. Mom is an effing badass. As is the mom with a quick labor, the mom with an epidural, the mom with a planned CS, all the moms. You should be so lucky to be strong like mom.
About boys peeing: my religion actually requires men to sit down because it's considered cleaner so we're going to teach DS to sit. He may teach him to stand for when sitting isn't an option but I'm really going to push him just going into a stall and sitting. Definitely no standing at home. This is not judgement on standing, just sharing what is the norm for us!
Comcast is the worst. I was so excited that our new house lets us get this smaller local service. It’s so much cheaper and they are way less frustrating.