When we were doing playgroup in between waves, ALL the baby toddlers we’re still mouthy and the playgroup lady says she thinks part of the switch is social and something something she’s an ECE so she should know? 
Is doing less but still A LOT
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Like so maybe Latte would do it less if she was around other children more?
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That is the theory. Maybe we’ll be able to identify 2019, 20 and 22 kiddos because they will be sucky
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PT friend and her coworkers say they def are delayed on milestones. They’re getting waaaaay more referrals for mild delays.
I keep telling myself that Lattes language delay will be totally fine and is in keeping with all the other kids right now 
they’re just gonna be a lil delayed. But they’ll catch up.
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Kiddo definitely back slid a month into the pandemic when it comes to language - and everything else too, really, like instead of being potty trained we had a spike in accidents because he couldn’t be bothered to walk away from the tv, or he’d it to go out to the backyard just to pee once he discovered backyard peeing was a thing.
Anyway, for language we’re finally correcting him more now since who know when he’ll be back in a classroom and all the subtle reinforcement there just interacting with others. My hat is off to all the teachers next fall who will be dealing with various ranges of feral in any given age group.
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That makes sense! I have definitely noticed the wiggler learning things after he sees other kids doing them, and I suspect he would be a lot more interested in the potty if he were around other kids who use it.
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Our lot is .4 acres, and the front and back lawns are mostly grass. I want to get a rider mower, but everyone in my life thinks it’s a bad idea (I had to quit driving cars bc I “kept running into things,” luckily no harm done besides dinged up cars).
Should we: buy a regular mower, buy a rider mower, or hire a lawn service until we figure it out? I am an Anna Kendrick-sized woman with limited upper body strength. I am not asking for feedback about getting stronger.
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Honestly? I’d hire a local child at reasonably budgeted rate. Mowing lawns sucks
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How flat is the land? Assuming you haven’t operated a ride on mower- Have you ever ridden an ATV and how was the experience? How are you at mowing with a regular mower?
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We have a gas powered push mower and it sort of helps propel itself so my upper body strength isn’t really an issue except when I have to turn it at the end of the yard to do another lap. Our lot size is 0.25 acres, mowing is only annoying because once all the mowing is done then there’s still the trimming to do and it gets stupid hot here by the time the dew is dried off the grass. I would favor the riding mower more because of time than strength. And in summer when it’s rainy and hot, after one weekend conquering the lawn the grass grows so fast that the next weekend you have to do it all over again, sigh.
How many things could you potentially hit? Our house has foundation plantings so the mower doesn’t get near it. There’s the mailbox post, that’s kind of annoying. Any trees where the grass grows right up to the trunks? Large landscaping rocks? Sheds?
If you don’t own any kind of mower now, what’s the cost of the mower vs. hiring a service or even just a nearby neighbor (adult or teen) with a mower who’s looking for a side gig.
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I run into things with gas and electric mowers, less so with push mowers (the hippie kind I like). I would not get me a riding mower…but also how worried are you about the things you’d hit?
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A self-propelled walk-behind mower is great for someone with limited strength (unless you want to walk faster then the mower goes and end up pushing it anyway).
Mowers come in varying sizes. With the size of your yard, I wouldn’t recommend anything with less than a 24-inch mowing deck or you’ll be mowing forever.
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I have a self-propelled walk behind mower now and it works great. I have 1.79 acres, but only about half of that is open (partially wooded), and a portion of that doesn’t really have grass, so really I am mowing about 0.5 acre.
I used to have a tiny 12" (or maybe 14") corded electric mower in Utah. It worked fine but the cord was annoying to have to keep track of (I had to replace the extension cord once in 4 years because I ran it over in the last 30 seconds of the last time I mowed that year because I was trying to keep an eye on the dog 
and heavy duty long outdoor cords are expensive!). It also took forever, even though I was on a small residential lot, because of the small width.
My new mower is an 80-volt rechargeable battery operated 24" mulching mower (with bag for when I want to collect clippings for compost or when I wait too long to mow and then the clippings are super long). It has a self propel function, and though it eats through the battery a lot faster boy howdy does it fly! I use it on my slight slope sometimes, or when I am tired, but I find I don’t need it on the flat areas or on the down slope pass, only the up, even though the mower itself is fairly heavy. I bet it takes me the same amount of time to mow as it did in Utah, even though the area is easily 4x as big.
Everyone asked me if I was getting a riding mower when I moved here, and a lot of people around here do have them (my sister has one (though it was my parents’ before they moved)), but honestly, I didn’t see it being worthwhile, and they are expensive unless you can find one second hand that is in good condition still, and you still have to maintain them, and unless you have a zero turn radius mower ($$$) they take more passes at the edges than you think they will. I also don’t mow part of the yard that is mostly mossy, and part that is mostly cool season grass that grows quite slow so I’m letting it just be meadow (lots of lawn flowers there as well). Plus no one can see my back yard except me. And I plan on transitioning part of the yard to growing beds/orchard and other non-grass areas gradually, anyway. I am estimating that the mower will pay for itself over one summer, rather than paying someone else to do it.
My experience, YMMV!
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If you want something that’s faster than a typical homeowner sized self-propelled mower, you could look at the commercial stand-behind or walk-behind mowers that give you a mowing deck basically the same size as a riding mower but they’re a bit easier to operate in smaller spaces.
If you do get a riding mower, then it’s a matter of whether you want a lawn tractor type or a zero-turn. If there’s no awkward turns or tight spaces a tractor type is fine but if there’s a lot of weird turns a zero-turn might be worth it.
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Oh I also wanted to mention, Memorial Day sales will be coming up. 
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Perhaps consider hiring someone/ a service until you figure it out. I use a reel mower and have just a smidge less acreage than you and completely flat… and golly do I hate it. I do my real crappy job once a week and then hire someone once a month to come and actually do a good job on it. It’s worth it to me.
Prior to my reel mower/help combo I used a gas push mower… still hated it.
Note: the person who mows for me also hit something once (my fence and busted a panel), so hiring someone doesn’t erase that risk. 
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I would rather do almost anything than mow my lawn. I pay someone to do it for me and it’s totally worth it.
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Thanks, all, for the advice! I’ll do some more looking with this in mind. Depending on how things go, we might hire someone to do it.
@Bracken_Joy it’s pretty flat, although there are some tree roots, other plants, etc around. I’ve never driven an ATV but I have ridden on the back of a snowmobile and hated it, and once crashed a motorbike (everyone was ok in the end, fifteen years later my scars have mostly healed, etc). Me and motor vehicles don’t super mix, apparently? For more insight into why my family is so insistent that the rider mower is a bad idea 
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Sometimes when I use my thumbnail for something, like peeling an orange or scraping stuff, something pushes too hard under the nail, shoves back the nail bed, sometimes gets a bit stuck, and hurts. Does this happen to anyone else? Is there anything I can do about it besides wait?
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I think this might just be a “human bodies are just bags of goo” thing. Happens to me too.
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