I have 12 small size Home Depot moving boxes full of bit cards. They got packed up when we moved 3 years ago and I haven't used them since. Some I made, some were made by others and some are better baby institute cards. I would like $2000 plus actual shipping charges. I paid much more than that for the ones I bought.

The Signing Time video series is also great.  We also liked Baby Signing Time.  I second Wink to learn and Little Pim.

The gap between my children is 2 yrs.  For us it is just perfect.  The children are the best of friends, and older brother loves teaching little sister.  Both my sisters have the same gap in age for their children.  The ideal gap is whatever works for YOU.

We had issues with reading comp with my son.  He could read whatever I put in front of him, but couldn't tell me anything about what he read when I asked questions about it.  Last month we got a new reading program called funnix.  It is basically a computer version of Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons.  My son loves it!  I started him at the beginning of Level 2 because of the reading comp issues.  Every lesson he reads a story and then answers questions about what he read.  He has never gotten a question wrong.  Now when I have him read other things he will tell me about what he read.  Now I dont have to fight with him about doing a reading comp worksheet I might have downloaded from education.com.  Before funnix I was ready to give up on reading comp for awhile, and try again in a few months, now he is reading chapter books on his own and telling me about them without me asking. 

We have the opposite problem here.  My son zips through subtraction and takes FOREVER to do addition!  Its like pulling teeth.  Using manipulatives just makes it take even longer. 

congradulations on your first pregnancy!  Hearing the baby's heartbeat is wonderful isnt it?

Skylark and monica, thanks for the great information!  There are always at least two side to every issue and you have both given great info.  I think what we should all remember is that no matter what side we are on, the best birth can only come from being well informed!  No matter what you chose, do your research.  Good luck!

Yes I second the BabyBjorn little potty!  Ikea also makes one the same size for a third of the price. 

My children put the dishes in the sink after eating, my 5 yr old sweeps the floor, and my 3 yr old waters the cats.  They also help with the laundry, the younger one sorts it before I wash and the older one helps put it away.

We have a 7:30pm bedtime here.  Our children get up around 7 am no matter what time they go to bed.  They usually fall asleep in less than 5 minutes of getting in bed.

We are looking for a new home and took our 3 yr old with us to look at a home that has been empty for over a year.  The house was a bit musty smelling.  We got back and my mother came to visit and asked the children if they liked the houses we were looking at.  My daughter informed her that we were going to move into a stinky house with a yucky pool!

I second the hypno birthing.  And get a good Doula.  I gave birth to my second child on my hands and knees.  It was a much easier birth than my first, which was the normal on your back feet in the air.  I don't know if I could have managed standing without alot of support.  The important thing is to make sure the hospital or center where you plan to give birth will allow you to give birth in whatever position you prefer, and you doctor will allow it also.  Some of them don't because of their malpractice insurance.  They have a standard protocol and if you do something different they might have problems with their insurance if you do something different.  Unfortuantley this is what our overly litigious society has done to obstetrics.

We also get spinal adjustments.  I love our chiropractor.  We also wash our hands constantly!

We used elimination communication with our daughter.  She was nearly potty trained at 15 months.  Then I moved her out of my bedroom into her own room and we started having lots more misses.  She stopped wearing diapers except at nap and bed at about 22 months.  She stopped wearing diapers at nap at 36 months.  We are still working on overnight.  I really think she wakes up and pees in the diaper first thing in the morning out of laziness.  I get up and have her go potty between 10pm and midnight and she is usally dry then, goes potty, but is still wet in the morning.  You can check out mothering.com for some forum about EC. 

I am SOOOO glad to see this finally happen.  Its been just about exactly 2 years since I first approached KL about using LR for EK.  My first file was so large I couldn't upload it.  It was the Great Inventors EK file.  I have uploaded several more EK files since then.  I would love to have my files professionally done!  Ten facts for each picture is the right amount.  My thoughts are that the important thing is that each category facts follow the same order, ie for insects fact 1 is always diet, fact two is always where they live, fact three is always size and so on.  This way when someone else does a second set the information is presented in the same order.  And each set should only contain upto 10 bits.