Stephanie S

I was thinking of sticking with a theme of using names with 'y' as the first vowel. Which names do you like the most for each category and if you don't see one you like, add your own suggestions. Thanks!

Boys:

Tyler

Dylan

Ryan

Byron

Cyd

Girls:

Cynthia

Lydia

Sylvia

Dyana

Brynn

If you haven't figured it out by now, you are probably doomed to be fat and unhealthy forever. Just saying, eating a healthy diet and getting ample exercise is the only way to maintain a healthy weight. There is information OVERLOAD on this topic. Everyone in America should all know what is healthy and what is not at this point, just like EVERYONE in America knows that smoking is bad for your health. You know what to do, if you are not doing it right then you are just making up excuses, end of story. Just like a smoker who knows better, excuses excuses and excuses holding you back. I don't care how difficult it is, it is not impossible, and if you want it (a healthy lifestyle) you can attain it, just suck it up and do it. Enough excuses, and I'm sick of this still being discussed in a million places all over America (TV, radio, endless infomercials, internet, news... I've had enough!)

We speak English and Spanish at home, but I would like to introduce a 3rd language using video and music media. I can't decide between a couple of choices, but I think Chinese or Arabic would be a good choice. Personally, I love Japanese and Japanese culture and I can see myself bringing my baby to Japan and Japanese-oriented cultural activities, but I'm not sure how practical learning Japanese would be later on. Any thoughts?

It seems like cooking is becoming a dying art. Didn't they used to teach people how to cook in school? Nowadays, more than ever, we should be encouraging people to cook healthy meals at home. It also saves a lot of money.

What has gone wrong to create this society of people who no longer know how to cook... or are unwilling or unable to do so?

So... my baby is almost 6 months old now. He started on solids at 4 months because he has always been a very active eater and his motor skills were appropriate. He took to it right away and LOVES eating from the spoon. Now that he has had the spoon, he won't go back to the bottle, but he will take the breast, but is very violent with it and I am trying to wean him now. He will drink from a sippy cup, but it is still a little too fast for him.

Anyway, I feed him 4-5 times a day, he will take 4 oz of formula mixed with 3-5 tablespoons of cereal and will eat 1-2 jars of baby food at each feeding. I also breast feed him about 3-4 times a day now. He eats like a wolf. He starts whining and moving around in his chair a lot if I don't immediately fill his mouth with more food after he's gulped down the previous spoonful.

He is peeing and pooping normally. He used to spit up a lot, but now that I am making him fresh baby food he is not spitting up anymore.

He was less than 5th percentile for weight at the last doctor's visit and he has been gaining weight steadily, but still remains very small for his age. He does not look underweight, but is not chubby like most other babies his age, he is a lean little guy... like his dad.

I have not read anything about this, it seems that most of the kids are having the opposite problem these days (being overweight). According to everything I read, I am WAY over-feeding him, but he is underweight so I figure I should let him eat whatever he wants and I do... even though it seems very excessive to me. He eats as much as I would eat, it seems. He is VERY happy, everyone comments at what a happy baby he is, and he is really active, so maybe he's just fueling all of his activity?

Anyone have this problem and have any solutions or thoughts on it? Where is the food going?

I left my job this year to relocate for my husband's job. The timing worked out because I was at the end of my pregnancy and was happy to stay at home with the baby in the beginning. Now it is 6 months since he was born and I love staying at home with him. My husband makes enough money that I do not have to work, but my family and I have invested a lot in my education, all the way to a doctorate degree, and I have only worked for a year after school and now am staying at home. It sort of feels like a waste of my education, as lame as that sounds.

Anyway, I'm at an age where I want to have the rest of my children within the next 5 years. If I went back to work now, it would be a very demanding job for the first 4 years, but after that, I would be more independent and could go part time. But those 4 years is when I want to be having more children. I am so torn as to whether I should go back and just deal with having children while in a rigorous job for 4 years, or if I should stay home and have the next 1 or 2 children and then go back to work when the youngest one is at least 6 months old and they can be put in day care.

Moms who have been there, please give me your advice. I would also like to hear from children of working and non-working moms who want to tell me how their lives have been.

For some perspective, my mother worked at a very high-level job and I was basically raised by a nanny, who was like a mother to me, but I just feel like I would never find someone as good as she was for my children.

We are deciding on our menu and can pick 3 of the following:

Beef dish

Chicken dish

Fish dish

Vegetarian dish

We need a vegetarian dish for sure, and I figure people would like to choose between a beef dish and a fish dish. I personally don't like chicken and never order it out, so maybe I'm just biased. What would be best for guests.

I'd vote for them if they were to quit it with being against gay marriage or being anti-evolution. It is 2011! Get into this century and modernize. I wish they'd quit aligning themselves with religious extremists who'd try to keep us in the stone age. I agree with their financial policies, but cannot vote for a group of people who would limit the freedoms of its taxpaying citizens.

I've seen both truly disabled people and not really disabled people all collecting social security disability money. Some of these people make more than my paycheck, just to be "disabled". Most of them smoke, many of them use drugs or are addicted to pain killers and benzos and abuse these drugs and shop around for doctors to get more drugs than they should have and all the while the government is paying them for this behavior with no incentives to stop. Why are we doing this?

Also... why do people not want to get well? I had a guy tell me he was trying to get disability because he pulled a muscle at work, well... pulled muscles heal and I asked him, "wouldn't you rather get better and become able again?" and he said, "no, because I can just get the same paycheck I was getting but not have to deal with the bullshit of working". He is in his 30s.... Good job America! Way to keep our citizens productive.

We had a girl's name all picked out, but we just found out it is a boy and cannot come up with a boy's name. I really do not like all of the new-wave names out there like Jaden or Caden... nor am I a big fan of last names as a first name like Riley, Bailey, Cooper, etc.

I'd also like it to be a name that is somewhat different, but not unique... like it's definitely a name everyone's familiar with and familiar with spelling and is clearly a boy's name, but not overly common like John or Thomas.

Some ideas we had were:

Cedric Scott

Grant Owen

Douglas

But we're not CRAZY about any of them... they are just the only ones we have not disagreed on... clearly we're having some trouble. The father is VERY firm that the name can't be anything ridiculous, like it definitely has to be a name that is recognizable as a name. I like nature themes typically... and neither one of us is crazy about biblical names.

So... clearly we're an impossible case, but you guys out there sometimes come up with GREAT stuff, so have a go at it if you don't mind. Thank you for the help!

So... I am white, I like the name Cedric for a boy. Everyone I've told this to has said that Cedric is typically more common a name amongst black people. I really don't think this is true... I was thinking Cedric Diggary from the Harry Potter books?

Yes, I know there was Cedric the entertainer too... but is this not an equally used name? And equal-opportunity name if you will? Honestly, I don't really care either way, but I was surprised that so many different people kept having the same reaction and I was wondering what the general consensus was out there?

What are your opinions?

The boys were Greg, Peter and Bobby Brady

The girls were Jan, Marsha, and Cindy Brady

The mom was Carol and the dad was Michael.

What would sit better with you? Knowing your coworker is Jewish or knowing they are an Atheist? Also, would you still try to convert them?

If you are the parent of a very out of control child, I would like you to introspect and think about why that may be. Is there anything you regret? Anything you might have done differently if given the chance? No excuses, just honest answers please. Thanks.

I have always been a big metal head. Over the years I have built up quite a collection of band t-shirts from all of the concerts I have gone to. I still like and listen to the music, but I am about to graduate professional school with my doctorate and move into a real profession, I am also nearing 30 and am ready to have a family etc.

Currently the t-shirts are sitting folded in a corner and I don't ever wear them, haven't for years. I find it hard to let them go since they are like souvenirs of all the shows I've been to. I also think that it would be cool to pass them down to my kids, if they get into that kind of music, but then again, I'd like to just minimize the unused things in my life so "junk" doesn't accumulate.

HELP! I'd like some reasons and good advice on why to let them go or why to keep them? THANKS!

I want to hear everything, good and bad, about these names. Obviously, I like them, but I want to hear why others don't and why they are bad. Or... why you do like them. And if you have suggestions to make them better, go for it! Thanks!

Boys:

Adam Benjamin

Arthur Allen

Arthur August

Peregrine Pascal

Perry Evan

Daley Evan

Robin Vincent

Girls:

Portia Millicent

Portia Ruby

Evelyn Beverley

Nightingale Leah

Nightingale Joanie

Roxanne Ruby

Ruby Coral

Millicent Coral

Just curious how a gay couple would be treated there, and how their children would be treated in school. Anyone from that area of the country can answer.

Brooklyn seems to have become a very popular name, and Ashley Simpson just named her son Bronx... does anyone know of anyone named Manhattan?

I see these huge thugs walking around wearing these over-sized black jackets, but the jackets have little sesame street characters on it or they say M&Ms and things that I wouldn't associate with gangstas at all. What is the connection? What am I missing?