Parenting Catch-all

My not yet four year old helps with emptying the dishwasher and clears his plate from the table.
Get ‘em while they’re young.

Especially since things are a lot slower with the oldest who is on the spectrum. Although I do have him bringing his plate when he wants more Nutella crepes, so there’s that.

I mean, Nutella crepes are a pretty good incentive for just about anything

chixor7 wrote:

I mean, Nutella crepes are a pretty good incentive for just about anything :lol:

So true. We learned pretty early on that chocolate anything was a great incentive to teach him new things (not an easy task for him).

So my third daughter (4th child) was born last night. GWJ meet Tabitha. Coming into the world angry and healthy, weighing a solid 8lbs 13oz.
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/SmxpiX2.jpg)

Hey-O! Congratulations! 4 kids, you're one brave man.

Congratulations!

Congrats!

Congratulations!

Oh she's a beaut. 4 though! O.O

Four might not be that bad. Here's how I see the kid numbers.

1. Changes the whole world you live in. Makes it better but more difficult then you have ever been told or could imagine.
2. Burns the world down around you and forces you to change from the already difficult world of the one child.
3. World is already on fire. A third kinda takes away some of the air your were using to fight the fires. Also the fires are not now as bad, just a little less breathing room.
4. Might kill the fires more by taking away even more air. But really it's to be determined.

My impression is that the big changes are from 0->1 (aaaaiiie, I really have to be the responsible adult now!) and 2->3 (one-on-one to zone defense).

But I'm one of those that stopped at 2...

Katy wrote:

My impression is that the big changes are from 0->1 (aaaaiiie, I really have to be the responsible adult now!) and 2->3 (one-on-one to zone defense).

But I'm one of those that stopped at 2...

This has been my opinion. I'm glad my wife had us stop at 2. Although we nearly stopped at one, but decided a little late.

Aside from cost, I found the transition from 1 kid to 2 kids infinitely easier than the transition from 0 kids to 1 kid. Kid #2 wasn't so much burning the world down as it was a relatively brief (6-12 month) period of "oh right, this part kinda sucks." Though the fact that my kids are 4 years apart and thus the older one wasn't quite so needy probably helped a lot.

mrlogical wrote:

Though the fact that my kids are 4 years apart and thus the older one wasn't quite so needy probably helped a lot.

Yeah that changes things. The age thing can be rough. My four are ages 5, 3, 2, and 3days old. When my third child was born we had 3 that we're 3 and under.

I wouldn't change a thing though.

*meme* Y'all 3+ kidders need to get yourselves to the vasectomy thread. *meme*

Flying with my 20 month old tomorrow. Tips?

Bring goodie bags for the passengers around you

Download some Daniel Tiger episodes (or a favorite movie) to your tablet/phone. Some children's tylenol before landing might help with ear pain, or something to encourage swallowing (sippy cup or a lollipop as a special treat) can also help equalize ear pressure.

Toys that can roll away on the plane are probably not the best idea, but would work fine for the inevitable hour or so waiting in airports.

Best of luck!

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Flying with my 20 month old tomorrow. Tips?

Missed the window, but for future use

https://www.artofmanliness.com/2015/...

Mixolyde wrote:
UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Flying with my 20 month old tomorrow. Tips?

Missed the window, but for future use

https://www.artofmanliness.com/2015/...

Those are good ideas, but more for like a 3 year old than a 20 month old in my experience. Bookmarked for when my kid gets to that age!

Still very early, so not sharing with the public, but GWJers don't count: my wife is pregnant with our third, due around Thanksgiving! Yay! Between kids 1 and 2 we had a miscarriage at 19 weeks, so we've been trained to be a bit wary about getting our hopes up, and of course it is very early so who knows, but it is still exciting and happy news. Fingers crossed.

Complicating matters slightly, my wife is currently waiting to hear back from a possible new employer after a job interview a few weeks back. If she gets the new job, it would mean a paycut, and also would mean she'd go from having 6 weeks of paid maternity leave to 0 weeks paid. Because she will not have been employed for a full year at that point, it will also mean she will not be covered by FMLA and they could just fire her if they wanted. I don't imagine that's what they'd do, but it's something they'd have to talk about ahead of time if she is offered the job and wants to accept. I'm really hoping that if she does get an offer, it's an offer that we can afford to accept.

Oh, also: this prospective employer is also my employer, which would be very weird for me! She'd be in a different office, but our bosses would have the same boss, and we'd be attending occasional office-wide events together, which would have some benefits (a person I like who I can talk to!) and some drawbacks (my wife and I have had occasional disagreements when she has told stories about me to friends and family that I'd prefer she not; I dread having to worry about that in a work setting).

But anyway: another baby is more fun and love and joy in our family, and that is great. I am doing my best to hold out several more months before I start hyperventilating about how the hell we're going to pay for another kid and where we're going to fit all of his/her stuff. We have two girls right now, so it would be really fun to have a boy for our third (and definitely final!) kid, but I love my two girls more than anything and so I don't really care about the sex of the baby (but okay I do a teeny tiny bit).

Congrats!

Exciting times!

Early congratulations and good luck! You know you'll figure out where to put the kid and the stuff. It'll be amazing.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/Y84tqmB.jpg)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/5aa0iiL.gif)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/971nMhll.jpg)

Parent of the Year!

Any mama who's breasfted her baby while gaming has you beat.

I've Skyrim'd on my PC while BF'ing! That's good old mouse and keyboard. Only worked the first few weeks though.
Regardless, that's a super cute pic, Mixolyde! Looks like she's doing really well, the little angel!

Oh, that's you, Mixolyde? I thought it was a random dad. It is indeed a cute pic, and I didn't mean to disparage you.