my question is, for those of you using the ipad, how do you get it away from those little hands? plus, how do you stop them from closing things all over the place. my daughter constantly closes all the apps and when it's time to say good bye to the thing, there is instant drama. any help?
liza

has the signing helped? i have noticed that my daughter is a lot happier now that she can get her point across. but she was never much of a whiner to begin with. she is a clinger though. i still have to carry her a lot and she is 20 months old and weighs a lot! especially when there are new people around, like in the street, she will say "dog" and "scared" and stop and i have to carry her if we don't want to freeze right then and there. it should get better on its own.

i also find it preposterous that we could be eating gm foods without even knowing about it. apparently, the companies that produce them have successfully stopped the efforts to label gm foods as such saying that it would unfairly scare the customer. what a load! it would fairly scare the customer. i think that we as consumers should be able to choose. so, i don't feel safe eating any corn or soy products since these lean heavily on the gm side. it's tough being a conscientious parent and person nowadays.

wow, that account of slow weaning was really something. i am also just feeding at night, and giving up daytime feedings was easy enough. but the night, that's another story. there are neighbors to consider. and i feel like my 20 month old daughter is just getting worse and worse at sleeping at night. maybe i should cut her nap (2 1/2 hrs) but that is the only free time i have during the day and i would sure be sad to see them go. she wakes up every 2 hours now, at 12, 2,4,6, and finally 8. i feed at all of these. so,  i wanted to wean at 2 but it doesn't seem that easy. maybe i should start sooner to get there. i don't think reading would work, in the middle of the night? maybe she would be rocked to sleep once but the rest of the time she screams "mama" with such an intensity that it makes your blood curdle.
good luck to all of us in the same boat,
liza

congratulations!!! it's always so exciting those first days where you seem to float. i agree that nursing is your best bet. you can also put some breast milk drops into his nose and see if that helps. good luck

hi, i must start by saying that this will not be a really useful sort of post, but still. you mention the ipad. i specifically bought the ipad for my daughter to use as a teaching tool but the whole time we use it, we spend fighting over its control. do you have this problem and how did you solve it? i try to tell her, first we will see the words and then you can play, and she says "words, words" but as soon as i put them on she says "bye bye" and turns it off. she is 20 months old and was very quick at figuring how to turn things on and off. i think it's a shame that we can't lock the screen to prevent our children from clicking all over the place. also, would you mind telling me which apps you have used and like?
thanks so much,
liza

i am probably not the right person to answer this but my daughter didn't really crawl properly either. she is walking beautifully now. i think that it really depends on the child. some children are just more sedentary. also, it might be the diapers as i think was the case with us. we used these really bulky cloth diapers that restricted movement somewhat. i tried rocking her and stimulating, but nothing worked, she would sort of sit on her butt and jump using her arm as a lever. in any case, i don't think that it matters all that much. sorry for not offering any more concrete things, but really, it's not such a big deal.

hi svetlana,
you are right, things are a lot easier when you are teaching someone who is not capable of running away 
i have tried showing the words to my daughter's bear and that worked a bit better but still, she doesn't really care for them. there are many people posting here and a lot of them have a lot a lot of experience. if you have time, you can find some mind boggling things, like people teaching their children a different language everyday and so on. i am happy with the three that we speak at home. but i'll have to wait and see if my daughter has actually learned any words. i might try sound, but i am showing flashcards through a cool app for an ipad and it doesn't allow new things to be put into it. maybe i'll have to switch to ppp.
see you around,
liza

really?
i don't remember reading anything of the sort, but you are right, it does make me feel a lot better 
we'll see what happens. for now i am showing home made flashcards and waiting...

yes, i think it would have been better of them not mention anything about year's end if they were not sure about keeping the promise. now everyone is nervously checking the forum just to see what's new. does anyone have any idea of how big of a discount to expect? knowing this would really help with the wait...
liza

thanks svetlana,
this is good information for encyclopedic knowledge, something that i haven't even started to look into. have you taught your child to read in russian? how old is she? i have been trying to show my daughter some flashcards, on the computer, but most of the time she says "bye bye" and tried to take it away from me to play. it's a little discouraging. have you used zaizev's cubes? i have ordered them but am still waiting to receive the package.
liza

welcome. thanks for posting your site. i am a russian speaker too. there is a russian board here on brill kids, you can try to introduce yourself there. they are mostly concerned with translating the reader into russian though. since you, i gather, want it for your children in english, this is the place for you.
see you around.
liza

i have yet to try this option out, but thanks for making it available already!!!
we are having some problems showing things on the ipad because my daughter has discovered the games and just wants to close and open things the whole time, not paying any attention to what i am trying to show her. it's too bad there isn't a close screen option.
thanks again,
liza

My daughter seems to have a good ear. She is singing the songs and although you cannot understand most of the words, you can recognize the melody. Sara is a year and 8 months. Can anyone give me an advice as to how develop her musical talents?

I am also interested in other parents' experience with multilingualism. My baby is growing up listening to Russian language (mother-grandmother), Spanish (parents) and English (all activities she is involved in). I hope she won't get all confused about the languages. Has anyone been in similar situation?