srobersonnc

as in, foods that you wouldn't usually associate with kids.

My 3 year old daughter devoured sushi for lunch today- miso soup (she loves the tofu and kelp), and a cucumber special roll- she goes for the smelt roe FIRST! The only part she didn't eat was the avocado, but loved the crabstick and cucumber. This is the same kid who won't eat a hamburger! She also loves broccoli and lima beans, along with plenty of other kid foods (chicken nuggets, PB&J, mac and cheese). But she has to be in the mood to eat- some days she hardly eats at all!

We had awesome portraits taken of our almost 3 year old, and we have planned to give nicely framed photos to several relatives (mostly grandparents who don't really need/want other gifts) for Christmas. We've done this before and all photo recipients have seemed happy with their gifts, but there's a part of me that thinks this is a bit tacky or narcissistic, as in "Here, our child is SO cute we want to give you pictures of her for Christmas!" Which, true as it may be (lol), is it a cop-out? What do you think?

We will be flying around Christmas with our almost 3 year old daughter. It is not even a 2 hour flight, and we'd love to just check her carseat instead of bringing it on the plane. We've flown with her before but always had her carseat. I know it isn't a requirement, but does anyone have any experience with preschoolers on a plane without one?

I started keeping a little Baby Bjorn potty in the car for those times when my 2.5 year old just can't wait. Hadn't had to use it til today, then I realized I wasn't sure the best way to dispose of the pee! We were in a parking lot. I'm sure I'm not the only parent who keeps a potty in the car, so my question is, what do you do with the pee??

My daughter has just learned to conquer our baby gate. We had her gated into the living room, which was great because it kept her out of our kitchen/dining room and away from the stairs, unless we were with her. She's 2.5 and is pretty confident on the stairs (which are carpeted) and is good about holding the rails. Now that we've taken the gate down, she can access all areas of our house (she's LONG been able to open doorknobs). We're going to make sure the dangerous kitchen areas are secured, of course. The main thing I worry about is her getting on the stairs alone - I almost always am near her when she's on them.

My question is, how old was your kid when you allowed them to go up or down stairs by themselves? I don't figure she'll start kindergarten with someone holding her hand on the stairs, huh? =)

A few months ago my daughter (who is now almost 2 and a half) learned how to open doors. Just about any doorknob is no longer a barrier for her. We've taken to locking doors from the inside and using the little key (which actually is a spare part from a toy car!) to pop the lock when we need to get in. Our bedroom is right off the family room, and she loves to go in there and then into our bathroom, where she can wreak havoc. All the other milestones have been great- this one- not so much!

What about you?

I was reading some comments on a website about the big voluntary recall of Benadryl, Zyrtec, Tylenol and Motrin and people are seriously freaking out! Having done some research, evidently the recall was issued upon inspection of the plant where these drugs are made. They couldn't find a specific cause for a problem, but that there MAY have been a problem with the equipment that COULD cause problems with active or inactive ingredients. No adverse reactions have been substaniated. When you think about ALL the kids that take these 4 meds each day, I just can't be bothered to work myself into a frenzy about it. I just gave my daughter some Motrin tonight, because she's running a fever and I forgot about the recall. I'm more worried about the fever than the remote possibility that there is something in the medicine.

I personally think that all these recalls for various things (practically every Toyota made!) are alarmist and ridiculous and is corporate America's response to our litigious society- cover your **** and all that.

I just woke my 2 year old daughter up from a sound sleep to give her some Motrin, as she's running a fever (and I forgot to give it to her before she fell asleep). She sat right up, drank her medicine and then asked if her Wubby-dog (her lovey) was clean yet. She remembered that I had asked if I could put him in the wash when I put her to bed, and I had told her that I would give him back as soon as he was clean. So I had to go fish him out of the clean laundry and she commented on how all clean he was and that he smelled good!!! OMG so cute. He *was* pretty stinky before his trip through the washer. Then she laid back down and went right back to sleep. What a good kid.

What's the cutest/sweetest thing your kid did recently? (since I ought to ask a question)

It irritates me to no end to be scolded by Y! Answers for actually USING correct punctuation! It's almost like people have become immune to the use of commas, quotation marks, etc. these days. Heaven forbid people actually type correctly.

Not really a question, just a rant. =)

My 2 year old daughter has started telling us (mostly her daddy) to "Go away!" when we do something she doesn't like, such as refusing to give her candy or scolding her for misbehaving. It is starting to hurt my husband's feelings, even though we both know this is her way of expressing herself when she's mad at us. It just hurts to hear this sweet little girl say mean things to us (after all we do for her!).

Any ideas for the best response when she says this? Totally ignore it? Correct her? I was expecting to hear "I hate you!" when she's a teenager, but not this at 2!!

My mom saw how good my 2 year old is with using my iphone and decided to buy her an ipod touch. This may sound overindulgent, but at least I have my phone back, LOL! We have quite a few of the free apps loaded on it for her (educational ones, mostly), and a few favorite videos and songs. We've been restricting the use of it to car rides and waits (such as in a restaurant or grocery line) and using it kind of as emergency entertainment (not letting her have it in our house where there are plenty of other things to entertain her). We will use it on plane rides and such as well.

Does anyone else let their child(ren) use their cell phone or ipod for entertainment? When do you let them use it and what do you consider to be too much?

My daughter will be 2 in less than a month. We've been working on potty training (having the potty available for her and letting her go naked in the house) since she was about 17 months. She does really well at home- heads for the potty about 80-90% of the time. We reward her with a chocolate chip when she goes. She recently learned how to pull her pants down so we're working on that. She wears pull-ups at night and when we leave the house, because I'm afraid she'll have an accident and make a mess in a high chair or grocery cart and nobody wants to deal with that in public. Often she'll tell me she has to go potty, but she has about a 5 second window after she says it- not enough time to get to the bathroom on the other side of the mall! She's not afraid of public toilets or anything.

Any advice on getting her better in public? Or should I just count my blessings that she does so well at home and figure it will come with time?

My almost 17 month old is having some fantastic potty training success. She stays dry almost every night, as long as I can get up to her room before she gets very awake in the morning (sometimes I hear her first moving around, other times she's quiet!) and get her to the potty. She's still in a crib, but it coverts to a toddler bed. I think that if she had a potty in her room and could get out of her bed, she'd use the potty when she needs to. Anyone have any experience with this? I hate to hold her back from using the potty if she needs to go, but I don't want to freak her out by putting her in a bed too soon. We'd have to gate her in because her bedroom is upstairs and we have a loft with a dangerous ledge (not to mention the stairs).

My daughter is 16.5 months, and about a month ago we started introducing her to the potty. My MIL watches her during the day and is willing to work with her to get her trained soon- she said her kids were all trained by 2. My daughter did great at first- peed on the potty (when placed there) several times and liked going in the bathroom- was even using the word bathroom (ba-room) right before she'd pee in her diaper. Recently she pooped a couple times (again when we placed her on the toilet) but now won't pee on the toilet and I haven't heard ba-room in a while. She has no aversion to the potty, but isn't keen to sit on it for long- she has too much else to do. She's also in an independent phase right now.

I know she's smart enough to train early, and that maybe this is too early. But will it really hurt to keep trying (gently) as my MIL seems determined? Just by putting her on the potty regularly, using the word a lot and just calmly working on it?

I had a mom rant at me during carpool at the school where I work (in SPANISH which I don't speak very well at all) because (I think) her daughter had to walk about 20 feet in a light rain to get into the car. I think she was mad because there was one adult who had an umbrella (the rest of us did not and WE were getting wet) and she had expected that person to walk her kid to the car so her precious baby didn't get wet. Was she out of line? I mean, send the kid with a raincoat or her own personal umbrella if it's that big of a deal to you, right?

We went out to breakfast this morning and the family beside us had 3 kids- maybe ages 11, 13 and 15- who played their hand-held video games the ENTIRE time they were there!!! They barely touched the huge amount of food that they ordered and when they DID take a bite were eating with one hand while playing with the other! I was disgusted. I will never let my child play video games at the table (at home or out). I see it all the time, though. Families need to spend the time together talking at the very least.

I can understand letting the kid play while waiting for a table, but really, is the stupid game THAT important that you have to play it while eating?! I even expect my ONE year old to eat while we're eating, and she only gets a toy to play with if she finishes before us.

Just tonight I did away with my daughter's last bottle (the bedtime bottle). She has no problems with giving it up, as she's been using a sippy for months now. But I want a good bedtime routine. Tonight I read a short book then held her and let her drink a sippy of milk before I laid her down- to make the transition easier. Eventually I think I want to give her a small snack and sippy, then read, then lay her down- is that a good idea? I don't bathe her every night, so I don't necessarily want a bath as part of the routine, since it just winds her up anyway. She eats dinner around 6:00 and bedtime is 8:00. Any suggestions? What are your bedtime routines? Also, when do you brush your child's teeth?

I took my daughter for her 1 year check up yesterday. I haven't been exactly thrilled with the drs. to this point, but they've been ok, and the office is close by. We requested one doc that we had seen a couple times before and he had been very sweet with my daughter, if not so great with us. We arrived on time for our 9:00 appt. and of course had MORE paperwork to fill out (an update sheet that I had to complete in its entirety- I even asked if I could just fill out the stuff that had changed, but no). We got called back just as my daughter found a toy to play with, and I'm glad hubby was with me as I had barely started on the paperwork. We had a nurse with zero personality who totally botched the measurement of my daughter's length- I even questioned why she would measure her height laying down when she was perfectly capable of standing up- her measurement was 2 inches more than I got just the other day, putting my daughter's height OFF the growth chart!! She then pricked her finger and told us she had to get 3 shots, even though I had checked the office's website and it only listed 2 shots for the 1 year visit, and when I mentioned this the nurse acted like I was an idiot. Then we waited, and waited, for the doc, with a naked toddler who did NOT want to sit on the table- I ended up putting her socks on her so she could wander around the room- we waited for 45 mins before he came in. In this time I noticed how grungy the furniture in the room was and that there were no outlet covers on the outlets. The doc was NOT friendly and had my husband hold the baby's arms as he performed the exam- and she cried through the WHOLE thing- he didn't even give her a second to adjust or let us offer a distraction, just powered on through it. Then he barely remembered to ask if we had any questions as he was walking out, and basically refused to acknowledge my concerns about the MMR vaccine. I totally forgot any other questions I had wanted to ask, as I was ready to get the hell out of there!

After all that, should I give them another chance, or find another doc? How should I go about finding a new one, if so? It is hard to find reviews of doctors in my area.

I have an 11 month old and we eat out a lot. She is well behaved, but obviously makes a lovely mess when she eats her finger foods. We usually end up with a pile on the floor (cheerios, ravioli, cheese...). We are DILIGENT about cleaning the bulk of that mess before we leave. We use those disposable placemats so the tables doesn't get all gunky, and it is usually my husband's job to clear the floor. Some restaurants have thanked us, some have told us not to worry about it (we still clean it). But I have noticed some parents let their kids wreak havoc on the place and just LEAVE it! I figure they better leave a hefty tip if they're gonna make someone else clean all that up, but I doubt they do.

What do YOU do?

My daughter (who is walking) is almost one, and is increasingly picky about what she eats. Up until a week or so ago she'd eat just about anything you put in front of her. Now she refuses things she previously liked for no apparent reason. I know toddlers are picky eaters, but I thought that didn't start until the terrible twos!