Maternity Monday: Tie-Waist Tunic Shirt

A week or so ago we were looking at Nod chairs for my daughter. However, over at the Crate and Barrel website, they’re getting poor reviews for quality. Are they OK? Is there a better quality option out there? I see some at Pottery Barn for about $30 more, but would prefer to keep it under $125. Thanks!

Did anyone else have a rough weekend with their new kindergartener? Our Ker was sometimes okay, but we we had a disastrous swim lesson this weekend where she was all out of sorts. She loves the water and loves to swim, but she was totally unnerved by the chaos of 150 or so parents and kids assembling on the pool deck waiting to be sorted into lessons. She was sobbing before she was even assigned teachers. She ended up in a small group with two super nice teachers and only four kids, but she never recovered from the cattle call beginning. She wailed through the whole lesson, to the point that I’m pretty sure they’re downgrading her to a lower class with the 3yos next week. She was frustratingly inconsolable and I was the recipient of so much judgment from the other parents and coaches who all thought I signed up a kid who was afraid of the water for big-kid swim lessons. I had no idea there was going to be so much chaos or that she’d react that way. They were just swimming lessons for goodness sake–she’s been in various swim lessons off and on for the past 2 years. She’s been in lots of other activities without problems (though she also had issues with soccer which also started with a cattle call start). I’m sure a lot of her overreaction is that she’s still adjusting to K. Then when I got home I caught my husband googling ‘helicopter parent’ because he thought I was asking too much of her to participate and not wail at the top of her lungs for an hour. This is a kid who spent the summer diving (really diving) off the diving board and swimming to the bottom of 9′ of water to retrieve rings. I signed her up for swimming because I thought she’d love it. Now all involved consider me the bad guy. My kindergartener is still an emotional wreck and now claims to be terrified of swimming. My husband is doubting my parenting. The other parents are pissed that my daughter spoiled their kid’s lesson. And the coaches are hoping that we don’t come back, even though they make you pay for a full year up front so we’d be out like $800. Gah.

My employer told me (via email) this morning that because I am a highly compensated employee, I can only contribute $3800 for this year to my dependent care FSA, which is within $100 of what I have compensated to date. Based on the test used for me, I don’t think my DH would qualify as highly compensated. Anyone else faced a similar issue? Is it too late to have DH sign up for a dependent care FSA this year at his job (no idea whether this would be a qualifying event)?

This is for the Friday poster looking for backup care while her nanny travels to her home country for several weeks.

Just wanted to offer a different perspective on backup day care. My employer has a contract with Bright Horizons, and we had to use it when our nanny suddenly was unavailable. Up until then, my kids (twins) had only been home with her or a parent or grandparent. To everyone’s surprise, they did great at BH. It ended up being a really positive experience and one that helped us realize they were ready to start preschool.

TL;DR I wouldn’t rule out backup day care, especially if you can send kiddo 1-2 days/week while nanny is away and keep him/her home the rest of the week. It could be a great transition to out-of-home care.

Update from poster “I need sleep” – I’m getting more of it! Thanks for everyone’s encouragement. Kiddo is now waking up only once per night (instead of 2-3+) after two weeks of intensive (ugh, for both of us) “cry it out” sleep training. I read The Good Sleeper as recommended and essentially gave myself permission to let him cry. I wasn’t sure about CIO at first, but when I tried interval checking in he ended up crying way harder after I left.

I tried to get him to drop all feedings, but I’m happy now that he’s at one feeding per night (and falling asleep v. easily after the feeding).

Thanks all, and happy sleeping!

Sorry for the TMI…has anyone had kids with food allergies that only had GI symptoms and not hives or rashes or other more classic allergenic symptoms? My 6 month old woke up vomiting on Friday night and puked her guts out, about 8 times in an hour (all over me, my husband and the family dog…it was quite an iniation into the grossest parts of parenting!). Then she went back to sleep and seemed fine in the morning. She never had any issues with the other end. I called the doctor this morning and they said she probably had a stomach bug, but she doesn’t go to daycare and none of her caregivers or immediate family members have been sick. I’m wondering if it could be some sort of food allergy. She had dinner maybe 3 hours before she got sick, but it was avocado, which she’s had several times before (and I had some of it too so I don’t think it was rotten). She had a new food – mango – much earlier in the day.