I take cranberry concentrate tablets every day and I've not had a UTI in years

This is very useful thing to know about. I hate cranberry juice, but I'm always having it recommended for UTIs. I'll look into the tablets thing.

Can you replace Buffista-assured with self-assured? I have faith in you.

Aw. Heh. Thanks. I shall try for that. Buffista-assured!

Aims, I echo what everyone here is saying. I am not a mother, but I've been an English teacher, and I was a nanny before that. In the US, Britain and some other countries, we expect our kids to be reading much earlier than in other places, where they start school around 7. (Sometimes I wonder if that isn't better for them. In the UK system, we're currently pushing our kids through a punishing schedule of standardised testing almost every year, in order to meet 'targets' on their learning. I've seen some kids get turned off learning, long-term, by that experience.) At 5, enjoying stories and knowing letters sounds like a good place to be.

Yeah, I saw that one. I sent it to Fay, too. She has been very British about not mentioning it...personal favorite moments include Emmy-as-weapon and finding out Grenier has powers over the fish concession. Even though I did want them to give the guys a break, I've seen the show before.ETA; Seska, me too! You could cheat and put citrus soda in it...Sprite or whatever that's lemon-lime in the UK. Or take the capsules, which are the same as one glass,iirc. Because I already found the juice too tart, and now it reminds me of doctor's appointments...sexy! With the soda in it, it's a bit like a wine cooler or something, though.

Aims, DC has put out some awesome kid level comics with Batman!

I'll put Joe on it!

Funny story - Santa brought Emeline one of those ginormous coloring books. It is all DC characters. When she wouldn't clean her room and was therefore not allowed to leave her room on Sunday, she colored. She colored Green Arrow. She colored Green Arrow pink and magenta and gave him blue hair. Boy, talk about Joe's issues having to be held back. I thought he looked awesome. Oddly, Joe's face was the same shade of blue as GA's hair.

Can you replace Buffista-assured with self-assured? I have faith in you.

IME, Buffista-assured is the first step to self-assured. It's not a replacement but it certainly helps get you there.

She colored Green Arrow. She colored Green Arrow pink and magenta and gave him blue hair.

That's...actually fairly apt for him.

I just ordered $60 worth of books from the Scholastic school ordering thingie. Overcompensating much, Aimee?

Steph-- What kind of pain did you have that was tendon related (so I have an idea of what to look out for).

I sort of lost my taste for cranberry juice and I'm trying to get it back. I grew up only drinking cranberry juice because of the UTIs and citrus being bad.

Just as I got older I did what I wanted damned what I was supposed to do.

So I'm on day one of no caffeine- no sodas. I'm trying to figure out if drinking iced herbal tea would be a good beverage choice. I think I asked the doctor but I don't remember, I do remember that at one point when he came to check on me he was drinking a diet Dr. Pepper.

Chiming in late to say it's perfectly normal. I was an early reader, so I had no real clue what was the normal curve until I researched it.

At Lillian's age, I had books with chapters and no pictures about which I was really excited. I guess I figured that at 4, most kids were reading picture books, but not yet novels. Which is not the case.

Lillian's right where she should be. She can spell a few words, and sound a few out, and has what feels like dozens of books memorized, but she's not reading yet, and I have to look at reality to stop my freak outs.

Owen's reading level is freakish. I'm proud of it but it is also hard to keep him interested in what the rest of the class is doing. And his social development is way behind.

I almost failed out of kindergarten because of the above! But I turned out mostly okay. And while I wouldn't say my social development ever caught up, or will ever be normal, I learned to cope and deal with *way* less official support and structure than the O man, so he's gonna turn out AWESOME.

Joining Plei in the lateness to say that I didn't start reading much until I was about 6, and then one day it just clicked.

My brother taught me to read when I was 4 or 5 (sometime before kindergarten). No one knows how (including he or I). He was tired of me asking him to read to me, so he taught me how to read so that I would leave him alone.