Weekend & Family Friday: Zip-Front Half-Sleeve Swimsuit

The discussion yesterday left me thinking, how do you guys outsource what you outsource? Cleaning and lawn care are easy to outsource, but then I saw things like meals and I wonder how to outsource that while eating healthy, and grocery shopping and laundry are tough to fully outsource (groceries still need to be ordered, even if laundry is cleaned elsewhere it still needs to be taken there and put away?)

This is so dumb but I’m going to ask anyway – is it weird that my kid’s feet barely grew since last summer? Pretty much all her sandals still fit, albeit with a bit less extra room. I keep hearing parents say how they’re constantly buying their kids new shoes but I have been waiting to buy new shoes forever and just don’t need to. Her feet grew maybe half a size in the last year and her younger brother is basically the same size at this point even though he’s two years younger. We don’t have any pediatrician appointments coming up and it seems silly to make one for this. Just looking for anecdata really. She’s not huge, but growing fine otherwise (& I am on the smaller side myself so it’s not like I expect her to be a giant).

I always wanted a daughter and I’m fortunate to have 18 month old twin girls. However, lately I feel like I’m missing something by not having a son, which is kind of funny to me bc i never really wished for a son (though to be honest when we found out we were having twins, i kind of hoped for one of each). Reading the main page of all of the women who can’t find an SO and end up alone makes me sad. I know many more single women than men and I know there are more women than men in the world so that makes sense. Maybe me daughters will be attracted to women – who knows, but I worry they will end up alone like many of the women on the main page, who I’m sure are wonderful people with fulfilling lives, but they do post about wishing they had an SO…

How do you know when it’s time to move?

My husband and I unexpectedly found a house that checks all the boxes of what we’ve said we wanted, but we’re really unsure about leaving our neighborhood, friends, etc. Our family lives walking distance away right now and this house would be about 7 minutes away in a much-less convenient neighborhood.

But it’s an enormous lot with a pool and grass (a rarity in our part of Southern California). The house is not ugly inside, but not pretty. We’ll have a little wiggle room to make some upgrades right away, but not much. The kitchen remodel would be a 5-year plan, etc. It’s the top end of our budget and money would be tight for a little while. Or we could put some money into this house to make it function better for 2 kids and revisit buying the next house in 3-5 years.

We decided to put an offer in yesterday and immediately started second-guessing the decision and picking apart all of the ways it was bad.

Help us make up our minds?

How much do you spend on your kids’ clothes and shoes each year? And what kind of stuff you do you tend to buy?

I get a ton of hand me downs for casual/school clothes, but I live in the south where froofy boutique dresses/smocking/etc. is very common on little girls, and I big puffy heart love it, and spend a lot of money on fancy dresses. I also have been burned by trying to cheap out on shoes and now usually buy pediped, which is not cheap.

I usually spend about $550-$600 a year, almost entirely on fancy dresses (usually bought on consignment or on sale) and shoes, with an occasional casual piece from target or old navy to round out wardrobe holes.

I posted the other day about struggling with maternity leave three weeks in (partly having to do a “triple feed” every 2-3 hours of breastfeeding, supplementing with pumped milk, and then pumping to have a supplement for the next feeding and partly because I’m not used to the physical monotony of being home and feed/diaper change/repeat of taking care of a newborn). Just popping in to say “thank you!” For your comments and words of encouragement. We talked with the lactation consultant/doctor who determined that we can try not supplementing all the time, give the baby a bottle sometimes and I’m making enough milk to not have to pump every time either, all of which is a huge relief. Also, I appreciate those of you who chimed in to say that you didn’t necessarily *love* maternity leave- it’s so different going from a desk job that is mentally challenging and not physical to a physically demanding job. And I talked with my OBGYN and a therapist in my OBGYN’s office about how I’m feeling and that make me feel a lot better to just talk about it. So, long winded way of saying thank you – it’s nice to hear from women who have been here and gone from intense desk job to maternity leave and know I’m not the only one to struggle with this sort of thing.

I’ve been a lurker for a while but this is my first time posting.Not sure if this page or the main one is best to post this on, but here goes….

I’m 12 weeks pregnant with my first child. I haven’t yet told my employer. I am wanting to wait to inform them because my manager has told me he told the CEO I should be promoted. Promotions typically happen around July 1. I don’t want to give my manager any reason not to give me the promotion (I know, legally, that shouldn’t be allowed to happen, but it would not shock me for him to find a way). I’m fortunate my symptoms haven’t been too bad.

We just won a new piece of business (I work in advertising) that I want to work on, and my manager feels I am the perfect fit. It culminates with some events in February, which is during my planned maternity leave. The “responsible” side of me is like “I should say something about me being out”. But the other side is like “hell no, because then he definitely won’t give the account to me.” Am I right to keep quiet for a few more weeks, at least? If nothing happens on the promotion front in the next month or so, I’m going to have to say something because I won’t be able to hide it.