Makeup & Beauty Monday: The All-In-One Facial Starter

Any specific recommendation for plastic toy food? Seems like there are a million different options on Amazon and I’m at a loss (this is a gift and the recipient specifically asked for plastic rather than wooden).

For those of you who have kids on the autism spectum (but esp. if they are what use to be Aspergers, where they go to school in regular classes), any advice on social skills?

I have a kid who has a dx of ADHD, but in a girl, that is presenting with some Aspergers-like social skills, so I’d like to explore what more there is that I should be doing for her.

It may well be that she never scores enough to trigger a diagnosis, but her screening scores are also not typical and it presenting issues in social settings that I think she is bright enough to learn through training since she isn’t inuiting how she should interact with people. [E.g., you don’t go up to a grownup you don’t know and touch them; looking at people while they talk to you or while you talk to them; acknowledging people who talk to you with more than a flat “hi”; when you have friends over, you don’t just walk away from them to watch TV by yourself.]

My friends with autistic kids tend to have them with full-blown autism, which is very brutal and which I am 100% sure my daughter does not have. But I know she needs some help and I don’t really know where to go (our peds practice just shut down; the one psyciatrist we saw wanted to talk about her pretty brutally with her in the room which she did NOT like one bit; is this where a kind MSW-type (which I do know) would be a good start)?

Need some advice. I am having issues with my Mom concerning boundaries. My parents occasionally babysit for our son who is 2 years old (i.e. Saturday night Christmas party, etc). I have asked my Mom to not do certain things i.e. laundry, unplug night light, etc. She does not listen and does whatever she wants to do and does not respect what I ask. She is extremely nosey and thinks that if there is information to know she needs to know it (she would look through private documents). This is a much larger issue that but I feel as though I hesitate to have my parents babysit b/c my Mom doesn’t listen. My parents live about 1.5 hours away so when they do watch our son they stay overnight, etc. I am basically looking to see if anyone else has had experience with settings clear boundaries that are respected by parents. I am working with my therapist on this as well but wanted to see if anyone else has had experience with this. FWIW my parents have 6 other grandchildren (3 from sister and 3 from brother) my sister has basically distanced herself geographically and emotionally and my brother sees them in small snip its 2-3 hours at a time. It makes me sad to think about withholding our son in a sense b/c of her behavior. Thank you in advance.

Returning to work later this week after maternity leave. My return to work after my first is a total blur — any tips for the first two weeks? I just turned on my phone and, of course, have THOUSANDS of emails, calendar invites for meetings I know nothing about, etc. It’s an internal consulting role, FWIW. Luckily there’s Christmas and New Year’s, so I’ll have three short weeks in a row counting this one. Baby will be with family for a couple weeks before starting daycare, and I’m not pumping so I don’t have to worry about that. Planning to meet with my manager asap, but any other tips for structuring those first few days? And not going insane?

Hi! Does anyone have a mother’s helper or sitter come to help in the evening, and can share what that looks like? Ie hours, duties, parental involvement, etc.
I work a lot of evenings (i.e. Home after 8:30p) and weekends so we are contemplating hiring help for my husband in the evenings because he is really getting burnt out with our two kids, ages 7 and 1yr. However, he is very hands on and we are not quite sure what would be the most effective way to use an extra pair of hands in the evenings. It’s the kind of thing where for so long he has been the sole one in charge of dinner/homework/laundry/ bathtime/ pick up/ etc. etc. that it will take a bit of a mind shift to figure out how to let things go and give himself an easier time in the evenings.

I have an extreme first world problem – I’m supposed to go to Hawaii next month with my parents (they’re paying for everything). Flying solo with my then 11 month old. We flew (also with DH) last week and she wouldn’t sleep a wink in her carseat. After being awake for 12 straight hours, meltdowns understandably resulted. We dealt, the people on the plane dealt (I can imagine they weren’t happy, but at least there were other crying babies and it wasn’t an overnight flight) but it just really broke my heart seeing her so unhappy and not being able to fix it. I’m used to being able to give her what she needs, whether it’s a hug or pain medicine for teething or food…but she just wouldn’t sleep in the airplane/airport and I couldn’t fix that (I tried letting her sleep in my arms as well). The flights to Hawaii are significantly longer and the flight home is overnight. I know I’m incredibly privileged to have parents that want to fly me and my DD to Hawaii to vacation with them, and I don’t want to deprive my parents of time with their granddaughter (I know that’s who they’re really paying to see ;)) but at the same time I feel like a pretty selfish mom for putting my daughter through this travel h3ll with no benefit to her…she’d be much happier just crawling around on the floor at home. WWYD? Should I back out (and offer to reimburse my parents) or should I go and just figure the travel madness will be worth it for the memories (at least for me and my parents)? Fwiw, they live a couple states over and visit (or we visit them) every 3-4 months, so it’s not like this is her only chance to see them.