Mom of Marley

My two-year old son has been throwing up at night for the past two nights, around the same time. The first time, he seemed to feel somewhat ill and climbed into my lap. he was sitting upright when he vomited a very large amount (larger than ever before). He also woke up in the middle of the night and without gagging vomited again a very small amount that had the consistency of drool. Tonight the same thing happened again. He started becoming visibly ill (whining, seeming uncomfortable, holding his mouth), when without any gagging, a small amount of drool-like vomit started coming out of his mouth. I cleaned him up and gave him some water to drink. About five minutes later, exorcist-like vomiting occured, again a very large amount. He was fine during the day today, playing and acting normal, and woke up in a good mood. I am very worried, so I'm taking him to the doctor in the morning. However, I have a feeling they won't really do anything- just tell me to give him pedialyte. I am worried about everything from parasites to epilepsy. Can someone give me any advice? The only thing I can think of is that both nights he had milk within half an hour of the vomiting episodes.

I would like to do a creative project with my ninth grade students in which they create their own Victorian-style calling cards that they can distribute to each other during our Mad Hatter-themed Victorian tea party. I am toying with the idea of buying buisness card paper and printing each student's name on twenty of the cards (there are twenty students, each student would need twenty cards for a total of 100 cards) and letting them decorate them in class. Can anyone else think of a better idea or have any creative suggestions or advice?

Someone I live with was busted shoplifting at walmart. They say it is their first offense, but I read the arrest report in the newspaper and the fine that was given was much higher than the first offense fine mandated by the state of MS (which is "not to exceed $1000"). Either way, they hired a good attorney and it will be stricken from the record if they complete six months probation and 30 days house arrest. The house arrest has begun, but this person is smoking weed every single day (at least once a day). What are the chances that their PO or whoever will pop a drug test? I know it is none of my business, but I'm curious, and if my room mate is in prison, I have to come up with their share of the rent.

I have a school bus that is broken down, and I need to have it towed about 237 miles. I have no idea who to call. I have looked up towing services but most of them only serve a local area or can only haul light loads. Ideas?

My mom's best friend's unemployed high school drop out loser son knocked up his teenage girlfriend, and her babyshower is this weekend. Let's call the son "Steve." Anyway, Steve broke into my car two times, both times failing to steal anything of value except my son's insurance card. He did it for money to buy drugs. Yes I know for sure it was him. I really have no love for that asshole, but his mom gave me some baby things she got at thrift stores when I was pregnant, so I feel obligated to get her something. I DO NOT feel obligated to actually go to the baby shower. For some reason, at all the teen baby showers I have been too (and this is mississippi, so I've been to several), the baby's father was present. I'm not sure why, but I don't really want to see that jerk again or become friends with his girlfriend. Last night my mom called me acting like not only did I HAVE to go to the shower, but I also had to buy an expensive gift! I wish I could just give Steve's mom the twenty dollars she spent on me back. What should I do?

My grandmother and great-grandmother live together. I used to be really close with them, but when I got pregnant (my son is now 20 months) that pretty much changed. I know they are disappointed because I didn't wait longer (I am 24), but considering that I am the first person in our family to not have a teen pregnancy (my mom: 17. Her mom: 16. Her mom: 14 Her mom: 15) you would think they would be a little happy. Anyway, they also feel like I don't appreciate them, which isn't true. I also get the feeling that they think I am trying to gold dig them or something, but when they die I really don't want anything. I just want them to be involved in my life and my son's life now, while they are still alive. What should I do to help make our relationship better? I call, write letters, and remember birthdays and send Christmas gifts as well but it does not seem to be good enough. Whenever I call I get the impression that they are mad at me. Last time I called my great grandmother she asked me a lot of hurtful questions, trying to make me feel like a bad mom. Like, she asked me if the doctor had ever told me to do something different with Marley. I said, "Well, one time the doctor told me to pull back his foreskin, but I got a second opinion and they said that that could cause a lot of problems later on in life". She also asked me if my son was underweight, did I have him on a nap schedule (the tone in her voice suggesting that I didn't), did I make him eat his dinner or just give him other stuff to eat later (the tone in her voice suggesting that I do). It seems like just because I'm young they think I must be a bad mom! I don't care though. If we were closer, they wouldn't feel that way or at least they would have an educated opinion, right?

The other day I got on craigslist to sell the car that my partner totaled (after he took my car without permission). He has refused to do anything about the situation himself, and now I am about to be going back to school (twenty six hours a week, eighty miles away from our house) and I have no vehicle.

Anyway, I got on craigslist and noticed that the casual encounters section was highlighted . . . long story short, I found all the profiles he had been viewing. When I confronted him, he said he was just masturbating to them . . . but that seems like bullshit to me. Why would he click on something like " 22 year old wants casual discreet sex" when something like " I want your dick in my mouth XXX etc" is two entries above?

Needless to say, I'm pissed. I don't know what to do. I admit I am not a very sexual person. He wants sex every single night, but we end up having sex 1-2 a week because I'm not in the mood. It just feels like a chore to me. The sex is hardly ever good. Maybe once a month he will follow through and do something for me, if you know what i mean. But I don't complain.

Basically, I don't know where this relationship is going. I shouldn't be forcing myself to have sex with him when I don't really feel like it, while he is trying to screw strangers on the side anyway. I am seriously thinking of booting his *** out of MY house, but we have a son together. We planned the pregnancy, but I knew the night I was in labor with our child that things were messed up. For one, he slept through most of my labor. He just laid down and went to sleep. That really hurt. He has never had a single night of interrupted sleep since our son was born (20 months ago). If he has to change one diaper a day, he will ***** about it. Whenever we go visit his family (he hardly ever takes me to visit my family, even though they live the same distance away) he usually just ignores me and I spend the weekend sitting on his moms couch watching our son, usually watching the same crappy movie over and over again (last time it was "The Spy Next Door" three times in a loop . . .) while he goes off and does whatever he wants. When I ask him to take me anywhere, he complains about it even though HE wrecked MY car! I just don't know what to do anymore. I don't want my son to grow up with an absent father, but I am miserable right now. Whenever I try and talk to my partner all I hear is excuses. No solutions. I have suggested counseling but then again I am sick of trying to solve every problem on my own, with little or no help from him. Someone please give me some real advice. We have been together for over five years now. I owe it to my son to do everything I can to make this relationship work, but if I am the only one trying, how can I succeed?

I'm putting this in the parenting section because I think other parents will be able to relate better.

My sister and I live together. I'm the oldest, there is a three year age difference. We don't really get along at all, and we barely communicate. When we fight, either I apologize to her or nothing happens, whether the fight was my fault or not. I have never gotten an apology from my sister for anything, even when I caught her red handed stealing from me and my partner, she told us it was OUR fault, that we should just drop it, and stormed off (the objects stolen was an antique machete from Guatamala and various dvds). If we so much as take a potato chip from her, she freaks out and accuses us of being theives. She locks her bedroom door AND her bathroom door, even though we have never stolen anything from her. Ok, once I took a lighter, but I felt guilty and put it back where I found it (on the fireplace) a few days later. My partner says it is because she has a guilty conscience about what she steals from us (the knife and dvds were just the tip of the iceberg, but they were the only things we actually confronted her on). I just found out from the newspaper arrest records that my sister was recently arrested for guess what? shoplifting. She didn't tell me about it. Her ex fiancee's family posted bond. Yet WE are the thieves.

Yesterday my sister left six newborn puppies (eyes still closed) outside during a heat advisory (117 degree heat index). I came home from work, heard the puppies crying outside, and went to check on them. One was dead. When my sister got home from work, I told her that one of her puppies had died. She didn't care at all. I got pissed off and told her "there are much more humane ways to get rid of unwanted animals." (she was pissed off about these puppies being born, but refuses to get her VIOLENT dog fixed (see other questions . . .) She started yelling at me and I basically just told her to stop. I told her I was disappointed in her because she obviously did not feel guilty at all about what she did. Her excuse was " I didn't want to leave them locked up for eight hours (inside)." So instead she left them locked up for ten hours OUTSIDE in the heat? Basically, she didn't want to risk her dog having an accident on her floor and having to clean it up. Now a puppy who never even had the chance to open its eyes and see the world is dead, and died in a very painful way.

I really want to move. I hate living with her. She is a compulsive liar and a thief. You can't confront her on anything. She will just lie about it, even if it is the most ridiculous lie in the world. For example, she told our landlord that *I* broke our washing machine, even though the load that was in the washing machine when it broke contained twelve pairs of HER jeans and I wash on average two small loads of clothes a week (my partner and I are enviro-freaks.) I was standing about ten feet away while she told this lie, but it didn't matter. She also treats me like I'm her maid. She never vaccuums, sweeps, or mops unless she is throwing a party while we are out of town. I once confronted her on this, and her excuse was "I'm too busy to clean". She's a teacher's aide. She is out of work for the summer, but she only mopped the kitchen floor one time the whole summer, and it was after a party. To my knowledge, she has not vaccuumed the living room even one time this summer. I have not even bothered to ask her excuse. She has also done things like put pubic hair on our toothbrushes.

I can't afford to move right now. If I could, I would. I have to live with this bad situation for another year. Can someone give me some advice?

My partner and I have moved a few times in the past couple years, and both of us have lost our voter registration cards. What is the process of getting new cards? My card was for the district we live in now, his card was for the district of his home down, so we also need to know how he can get a new card so he can vote here, instead of having to go all the way home to vote (and of course, election day is always on a weekday . . . ).

My partner has a step brother and sister who are 9 and 11. I know this is a wierd question, but when they come to my son's 2nd birthday party they will be the only kids there older than three. There will be six toddlers, including my son. My question is, would it be appropriate to make them different gift bags since the gift bags for the toddlers are going to be boring toddler stuff (thomas the train theme) that I don't think will interest them . . . Plus it seems that many party favors are sold in sets of five, so I would also save money by not having to buy an extra pack of something . . . yeah I know, I'm cheap. I just don't want to buy a lot of extra stuff that won't get used by my brother and sister in law, but they are still kids and I don't want them to feel left out if I don't make them a gift bag. I guess I could just not give anybody a gift bag at all, but I think that is not a bad tradition, and it is enjoyable for the kids. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas? I know this is a really stupid, wierd question . . .

I read a question from a little while ago about a mom of a seventeen month old with an intact penis, and now I am completely paranoid. My 18 mo son is intact (that is to say, uncircumcised) and I am paranoid that I may have retracted the foreskin. His doctor told me when he was about seven months old that I should be pulling back the foreskin after his baths, and during that visit he attempted to pull back my son's foreskin (as he was telling me I should be pulling it back). I quickly told the doctor to STOP. My son immediately became very aggitated and started screaming worse than he does when he gets his shots.

Well, I didn't mess with his foreskin again and disregarded the doctors orders because I felt that he was wrong (and I still do feel that way). However, lately I have become concerned that I am not cleaning him well enough, so the other day I pushed his forskin back until I could see the tip of his penis, which was a little red. Then I stopped, and haven't messed with it again. I'm taking him to the doctor this week, but I am paranoid that I or the doctor may have caused damage by messing with the foreskin. My partner is circumcised, so is my father, so I have no idea about these things. Can someone please give me some advice or guidance about these things? I know you arn't supposed to retract the foreskin, but I did not try and force anything, I just pushed it down and it came easily down. Please help I am afraid my son is going to get some infection or have to be circumcised, which is the last thing we want.

My eighteen month old son has been co-sleeping with us from birth. I always said I would let him co-sleep until he stopped breastfeeding at night, and now he has. He has no trouble taking naps in his crib. He recently changed from the two naps a day schedule to one nap a day. Does anyone have any advice about the night transition? We will be starting tomorrow night (while my sister, who lives with us, is out of town for the week).

My son is eighteen months old, and his aunt is constantly making snide comments about how he is spoiled. I really don't think my son is spoiled, but if he is then I am the one spoiling him I guess, so maybe I just don't see it. He does throw fits, but when he does his father and I ignore it. His father never gives in. Sometimes however, I will tell my son "no" and then realize seconds later that it really isn't that big of a deal and give in (especially if I realize that I just told him no automatically or because I was irritated) - things like wanting to go outside and stuff like that, never for toys or treats. He is not allowed any sweets at home, only at grandma and grandpa's house. He does have a lot of toys, but I do not feel like he manipulated me to get the toys, and we don't buy him toys when he is with us at the store. . . .can someone please tell me am I spoiling him, and if I am, what I can do to fix this?

I am thinking of getting my son (who will be two the week of Christmas) thomas wooden railway stuff. He already likes going to toy stores and booksamillion and playing with the train table there. The only concern I had at first was if he would be able to make the track stay together (the train tracks at the store are fastened to the tables). When his cousin was two, his parents got him the trackmaster sets, which seemed to fall apart really easily. I found these things online called Sure Track, however, which seem to solve that problem. Now my concern is whether or not to get him just the basic oval track set, or a more involved track set like the figure 8 or something. I just worry that a bigger track will be considered "over the top" for a two year old (our family is very critical of what we buy for our son- fair enough, since I do tend to go overboard for Christmas and his birthday since they are so close together). Then again, his cousin got bored within a day of his simple oval track (but that might have had something to do with it falling apart every five seconds). What do you guys think?

The past week my partner has been planning to take our 1 1/2 year old for the weekend to visit his grandparents. His family hates me so I planned to stay home this time, because I'm tired of going down there and being treated like ****. Anyway, we had talked about it before several times, and even as recently as tuesday my partner agreed to sign a temporary custody agreement. He didn't make a big deal about it, he agreed to it. I am just a paranoid mom who has heard enough horror stories about parents disappearing with kids that I feel like I need to protect myself. I don't think my partner would take flight with our son, but I know that all the other moms who have had it happen to them felt like that too, or they wouldn't have allowed the father to take the child in the first place. Anyway, this morning was the morning they were supposed to leave, but when it came time for my partner to sign the temp custody agreement, he freaked out and yelled and screamed about how I don't trust him, and how insulting it is to have to sign it, etc. Basically, I didn't care and made him sign anyway. The way he acted about signing it after he had already agreed on tuesday just compounded my decision. Anyway, they have gone and I at least have some sense of security that our son will be back on monday. I know his family is going to throw me to the dogs for this, but I'm just trying to protect my rights to our son because my partner and I are not married. In fact, we have been having alot of problems lately, and we're starting counseling next friday. Was I wrong for making him sign the agreement? He seems to think so and like I said, his family is going to be pissed too. My partner has also demanded that we talk about this in counseling as well (which I don't have a problem with).

I'd like to add that if I was going to go away for the weekend with our son, I would have no problem signing an agreement if it gave my partner peace of mind.

My partner and I and our son are roomates with my sister and her fiancee. A few months ago, my external dvd drive for my laptop was stolen when my partner and I were out of town. My sister and her fiancee had had a small party (3-4 people) and we figured that someone had just taken it. It sucked, but we got over it. We found it yesterday, hidden in the closet of the guest room under a bunch of clothes. The last place we left it was in a drawer, so how the **** did it get there?

Then, a month or so after that, my tomtom disappeared from the kitchen drawer where I had stashed it temporarily. My sister and I had both had company over during the one day where it was placed there. My friend and her boyfriend had visited. I met them at starbucks and asked my friend's boyfriend if he had seen the tomtom, because my partner remembered opening the kitchen drawer at some point to get some cards out and someone asking about the tomtom, but he couldn't remember if it was my sister's friend or my friend's boyfriend. He thought it was my friend's boyfriend, but he couldn't be sure. Basically we were just trying to establish a time line. Anyway, my friend's boyfriend did kind of act suspicious. He said he didn't even know what a tomtom was. This is extremely suspicious because the first time he ever came to our house, he was using a tomtom that he said belonged to his parents. If his parents own one and he uses it, how can he not know what it is? Either way, I didn't care and I told everyone that it was fine, it's just a tomtom. I shouldn't have left it out like that, it's my fault. A month and a half later, my tomtom was found, underneath the drivers seat of my car. Here's what pisses me off though: That was the first ******* place I looked. I searched all underneath both seats because that is where the tomtom gets stashed occassionally, and the most likely place we could have put it and forgotten it when we used it the day before it was taken.

Ok, my car has also been robbed twice. Both times they took my purse and the second time they took my bookbag as well. Thankfully they decided to leave my bookbag (and my TI-84 geeks you know what I'm talking about) at the end of the driveway. The first time, my wallet was returned to me. Someone found it in front of their work about a mile away. The second time it was gone for good.

My partner is a painter, and has many had many tools disappear. We have also had gardening equipment stolen (shovel, shears, etc.).

We have an extensive dvd collection, 400+ movies that we now have to keep under lock and key in a closet because of the rate they would disappear.

Anyway . . . this morning I woke up and my purse was missing. I stupidly left it on top of a countertop in the living room. I have searched everywhere. I'm so depressed. My drivers liscense, insurance cards, important buisness cards, etc . . . all that I can replace. What really depresses the **** out of me is that my ipod nano, along with a pair of thirty dollar ear buds I bought myself for mothers day (the only thing I received), was in my purse and is now gone as well. Maybe I'm just paranoid. Maybe I will find it, like the dvd burner and the tomtom, both of which I would gladly trade to get my ipod back.

Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with the negative feelings that I have about getting robbed over and over again? I live in the country. There is a cow pasture across the street for ***** sake. I don't know if it is my room mates playing pranks, or what is going on. My partner and I try and make sure that we never leave anything out, because obviously if we do even on the rarest occassion it will get stolen. He is insisting we start locking our bedroom door when we leave as well, now. My sister and her fiancee have always kept their door locked, and they even have a lock on their bathroom door, I guess that's why nothing has ever been stolen from them. I'm just really pissed off and bitter because the only way I could ever have afforded an ipod in the first place was because I wrote a term paper for a rich spoiled brat who traded me the ipod for the paper. It will be years before I can even think of buying another one. I'm just so pissed! I guess I just needed to vent, but I really would appreciate some advice. Peace.

I have cocoa, flour, eggs, butter, milk, powdered sugar, and peanut butter. What kind of dessert can I make with just these ingredients?

I am in a situation right now where I need money bad. I just stumbled across this egg donation thing. The company I am looking into is Extraordinary Conceptions. All this donation stuff sounds too good to be true. I am smoke free and drug free, I'm not overweight, and meet all other requirements for donating. I'm just wondering what the catch is besides having to inject yourself (which I think I can handle). Anyone know anything or have any suggestions?

Well my boyfriend totaled my saturn out on tuesday. Bent the frame, cracked the radiator, obliterated the headlights. Anyway, this morning he ran out on me and his son, so now having a vehicle of my own is a huge priority since I am now a single mother I guess. No accident report was filed at the scene of the wreck, since the person my boyfriend hit was a coworker and there vehicle was barely damaged. What can I do legally so he has to pay for my car? I take night classes and stay at home during the day so it wasn't a big deal. Now of course I will have to get a job and drive myself to my classes. I don't know what to do.

If it makes any difference, he didn't have permission to drive my car at the time. He took it early in the morning and later said he took it because it got better gas mileage and I wouldn't need it that day.

I'm posting in this section so I can get perspectives of other single mothers.

I found a dog playing in traffic today. It looks like a maltese. I knocked on the doors of all the nearby homes and no one recognized the dog. He is just a sweet as can be. I'm going to put an ad in the paper, but for now I am worried about the dog because his teeth are extremely crooked. He has a snaggle tooth that completely protrudes from his mouth, and it looks like several teeth are missing. This dog's teeth look seriously messed up, like the kind you sometimes see on dogs who are left outside for long periods of time and chew chains and what not. He has not eaten any regular dog food. I tried mixing it with water and with chicken broth, but the dog still didn't want it. Could the dog be depressed, or could it be a tooth issue? If the dog hasn't eaten by morning I plan to try wet dog food next. Any advice?