Timely update: we got back from our after dinner walk yesterday and the car had knocked a Corelle plate from the counter to the floor. It did not break! We will probably try using the Corelle with the cuckoo when she is plate -ready (she still eats directly on the high chair tray).
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For those interested, here’s what I ordered. I’ll report back at some point I’m how they are working:
Salad plates: Inked Poppy 8.5" Salad Plate | Corelle
Bowls: Inked Poppy 10-ounce Dip & Condiment Bowl | Corelle
Cups & Lids: Stainless Steel Cup 10 oz 4-Pack Set | Klean Kanteen
Silverware: Polish™ Stainless Steel Toddler Fork, Knife & Spoon Set | Munchkin
*Upgrading Pipsqueak’s dishware and reorganizing her accessable kitchen drawer to “big kid” dishes is going to be her main birthday present from us which is why I’m getting everything at once.
**Her other gift will be a jump rope that she most certainly won’t be able to use effectively but has been asking for for months after seeing kids use them at the park 
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Inked Poppy! What a cute design. Now I want to pass on all my perfectly-good Corelle plates and bowls that I bought a bunch of after being frustrated by plates and bowls getting broken all the time and get all new Corelle in Inked Poppy. (I won’t, because that’s not a good use of my money, but ugh! Those are cute!)
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Haha I tried to convince spouse to switch out all our dishware. It’s 50% off! He assured me there would be other sales in the future…
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Hello! Curious on everyone’s thoughts.
Lately, Meowlet has been avoiding all of the kids at school and insisting he plays alone. He gets furious and starts shouting at his classmates pretty mean stuff if they even come into his space - not touch him or his activity, just get into his space. Happens inside or outside.
It’s very unlike him - just this weekend we were at a party full of people and he was fine and not screaming at others even though it was packed. He sought out and was welcomed by a group of 8-9yr olds who he had a blast with.
Today this happened as they were heading in from outdoor play and he wasn’t quite ready. So giving him a 5 minute, “Hey, this is happening, finish you last thing” before the bell rings might help, but it also not sustainable if he’s going to be in kindergarten I imagine.
We are doing an assessment with a mental health group for kids, reaching out to a child psych for some concerns on general anxiety, and an OT to rule out sensory stuff. But wanted to just throw it out there for now and see if anyone has experience or thoughts.
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I don’t really have advice. Pebbles has a similar thing going on with play. She prefers her own company or a certain kid or two who chat to her while she utterly ignores them. However if it is not those two kids, or if someone tries to take her stuff or elbow in, she freezes and says/does nothing and that’s it. And then sadly tells me the story as we’re tucking her in bed, or at another point where it is completely too late to do anything useful other than talk about it (again), and encourage her to say something (again), or to tell a grown up (again). We are also working on assessments etc. So, uh, solidarity to you, and good job to Meowlet for using his voice. Maybe we could mix them together and average out their responses?
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Hmmm. Sounds like it’s specific to either the environment, structure or people at school. I hope you guys can work out which one (or mix) it is. Definitely agree it’s odd and that bringing in support sounds like an excellent idea
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We got Duckling to talk to his teachers with us (which he haaaaated and still hates when I make him do it) to talk about the problems he was having, even if after the fact, so that he built the skill of talking to his teachers. But we had the benefit of him actually telling us the problems he was having eventually. He’s better at it now so 
Pebbles works it out too and your assessments & support help!
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I’m so glad Pebbles talks to you. Meowlet is a complete black box. He is perfectly fine with walking into school, no fear or anxiety or concerns. He just dislikes everyone in his school? Unless I am with him, in which case he seems okay? IDK. Good luck on all the assessments. Feeling a lot of gratitude that there is so much support for kids these days.
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It happens most often when I’m tucking her in bed, so I’m fairly certain it’s solely a (successful) bed-delaying tactic. 
Outside of that she rarely talks about school, and never ever to DH.
ETA: Kids, man.
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Interfaith/intercultural questions
- ideas about talking about my beliefs without causing my kids to say things that will be very bad to other relatives who are v monotheistic
Or better yet, librarian question - any books (like illustrated encyclopedias DK kids is fine, that covers religions? These questions are coming up due to a mythology and folklore book)
- cultural bathroom stuff. Help
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Gosh these are SO HARD. For the first I end up monologuing while reading books and saying a lot of “Auntie Y believes X, we don’t share that belief, one day it will be up to you to decide what you believe because no one truly knows the answer”. Mostly so far this has been about outward behavioral indicators of religion- prayer, head scarfs, different holiday decorations. Since that’s what’s tangible to her right now and most likely to result in very loud questions otherwise 
(ahem I had forgotten to address the ‘eyes closed’ part of praying in advance and she asked VERY LOUDLY at a birthday party why our eyes were all closed. Oops).
I’m waiting on “circles all around us” from the library and it’s supposed to be good. There’s a little feminists one that I’m blanking on the title, but all their books are great for the physical aspects of religion. “This is how we do it” is about food and schooling and stuff, religion isn’t super mentioned but it was still a good jumping off point for discussing a lot of things with her.
This is such a hard one for me because it’s such a priority but feels So Big 
I’m glad you asked and hope to see other resources people use too
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There is a zero percent chance that your child will not say something embarrassing to someone on any given topic.
Eventually you can explain why we don’t discuss Catholicism/Imbolc/the Flying Spaghetti Monster to Great Aunt Heather, but it takes a long time, and even then I only give it a 25% chance of success.
Also true of what they will tell their teacher…
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I haven’t read either personally but it looks like DK does have such a book and so does Usborne!
https://www.amazon.com/Usborne-Encyclopedia-World-Religions-Internet-linked/dp/0794527531
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I have two very different questions!
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What size snow boots should I buy for the cuckoo if she will need them from October ish until March at least and she currently wears about a 3.5 at 14 months? Or do I need to buy two pairs?
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What would you do if you had a 14 month old who has no consistent, recognizable words? If she’s not pretty strong on Mama and Dada by 15 months I will have her evaluated, but what can I do this month? I haven’t done EI speech therapy since 2014 so hoping that someone who has done it more recently with a kiddo might remember some tips/exercises?
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Does she make consonant sounds? D1 wasn’t making consonant sounds yet at 15 months and that is when she started speech therapy. In the early days there was a lot of just playing with items and pointing out our mouths while we said the beginning sound, like “ba, ba, ba, ba” etc. That’s also when we started the LENA program, through your library! LENA was wonderful and I highly recommend doing it. We learned lots of tips and tricks with that too
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For number 1 I would get a 4 if they grow slowly. Our youngest wore a 4 for last winter and she’s super tiny still. Fair warning finding a size 4 snow boot is really dang hard. Finding a size 5 is way easier!
For number 2 I wouldn’t be terribly worried just yet. But an evaluation is always a good idea if you are worried!
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Yes, she does make consonants! So we have that going for us.
I hadn’t even thought about doing Lena 
. I will see what the Boy thinks!
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I’d say it also depends on how long she has been in current size. Larva was in size 4 at 15 months but about to outgrow it, was in size 5 a couple months later at first snow, and went to 6 mid season.
So far I’ve been “lucky” enough to need two sizes each winter.
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The little boy has worn every pair of snow boots for two winters! I’ve always gotten them a little big because we wear heavy socks.
I believe that the winter he was 1.5 I bought inexpensive boots at the consignment sale, because he wasn’t going to be out for hours and hours.
None of my girls said a consistently recognizable word at 14 months, but they had good receptive language.
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