Barnyard Dance will forever be our favorite Sandra Boynton book. All of my kids have adored it and my oldest loved it so much as a toddler that we had a Barnyard Dance themed first birthday for him.

I used to put gifts out as they were wrapped/arrive, but my kids have no restraint, so now I've started waiting until Christmas Eve!

No rug and our floor is littered with crumbs and all sort of food! Even my oldest at 7 still seems to spill half of his meal!

I love having professional pictures done of my kids. We've had newborn photos taken with every child and also photos around Christmas and at 1 year birthdays. I'll slow down once they're older!

I never watched basketball and my husband is German so only interested in soccer. I did brackets for fun a few years at the firm where I worked and won twice despite knowing nothing!

I went to college down the street from Villanova :)

Definitely! The fall time is the worst because my kids are up before 5 instead of before 6, it's pitch black for ages, and they're ready for bed in early evening. I love the spring time change now.

Agreed. My youngest just turned 2 and I've been saying goodbye for months now (if I ever didn't?), but she is also a barnacle, so there's no chance she'd ever be distracted before I actually left! On the flip side, I barely say bye to my 7yo, because he's so excited for the sitter.

I'm impressed with everyone; I don't have it in me to add another holiday ;) I do think it's cute that the kids always make leprechaun traps at school though!

Mine also ranged! My first was 16 months, but when he started he was completely steady, it was as if he waited until he was fully balanced standing before even trying! My second was about 11 months and my third 12 months.

I also started leaving gold dollar coins after the first high payout. My son seems happy!

NOW Elderberry Liquid. I give my kids a half dose because it's so concentrated.

My in-laws are in Germany so we've been there multiple times, but only once since we had our third child - my 23 month old. It's definitely tough and I think I'd wait until our kids were older if I had that option, but we survive! I have many friends that travel internationally regularly though.

My 7yo reads to himself now, but we still read together on occasion at the beginning of the year, so I kept it up with him until he turned 7. He's an advanced reader though, so I would imagine if it was more challenging for him to read himself, he may have been more open to continuing to read with me. Some of my fondest memories are reading longer stories with my parents before bed, so I hope one of my other kids will indulge me!

Ha, I'm glad to see so many of us are in the same boat! I barely even saw my husband that day, though that was partly because I had the flu ;)

I've been giving it to my kids pretty regularly this winter and we did have a better fall than usual and actually my oldest hasn't been sick much, but it's hard to tell why the change. My younger 2 have definitely been sick, but I figure it can't hurt, and hopefully it helps a little bit! I buy a liquid concentrate from Amazon, which is more economical than the gummies or sugary syrups.

I've been much more conscious of my social media use since I stopped working. I'm not sure if I actually spend more time online or if I just notice it more because I otherwise wouldn't be sitting on a computer/phone. As I see my 7yo's obsession with his iPad, it definitely makes me want to model healthy behavior and put my phone down more!

I also followed that approach and waited until 6 months. My kids were all preemies, so with my youngest, we even waited until closer to 7 months because she still wasn't sitting up well at 6 months!

Same here. I don't have the energy or time to cook every night, so I love having leftovers to pull from several nights a week.

Timely post, Amanda! My second son is nearing 5 and no sign of being night-trained yet. With my oldest, we just waited until we was consistently waking up dry, which happened shortly after he turned 4, and then it was a seamless transition. My almost 5 year old sounds like your son; he's not waking up and he always pees in the middle of the night. I've also been told that it's developmental and some kids just don't have nighttime bladder control until they're older.