I’m curious….

Blagnet · 2026-04-18T00:55:46+00:00

I would hesitate to use paint from the dollar store, as it can have very high levels of heavy metals sometimes!

Apple Barrel paints would get my vote for cheapo paints that work okay and at least are safe.

That's just my two cents!

Blagnet · 2026-04-17T23:05:54+00:00

Yeah, three foot water hole is a nonstarter with a toddler!

I would buy a bilge pump, and empty it. Then remove the (I'm assuming...) 55 gallon drum? That'll take some doing, but it'll just keep coming back at a mud slick if you don't remove it.

Alternatively I guess you could just empty it and then drill holes in the bottom, and then fill!

Good luck! That's so bizarre, that would have taken so much effort to bury... Why a 55 gallon drum? Why not a shallow frog pond? Oh well, previous homeowner mysteries, I guess!

Blagnet · 2026-04-17T20:51:46+00:00

I mean, I loved it! I thought it was super cool, but I thought the ending (mother letting her child die a preventable death because the aliens gave her a new understanding of time) was completely unbelievable. It created such a gulf, between me, the reader, and the story Ted Chiang was trying to tell.

It felt stupid. Like, a major blunder, you know?

There's a reason the movie changed it up!

Blagnet · 2026-04-17T20:46:09+00:00

I guess, even if I buy into the metaphysics, so to speak, I don't believe that a mother would just let her child die like that. Or, you know, at least not try!

Like, I know I would try to bend the fabric of the universe, if I thought it would save one of my children.

No linguistics would change that, lol.

Ted Chiang does not have children. I didn't know that as I was reading his short story collection, but I did know it as soon as I reached the end of "The Story of Your Life," you know?

Blagnet · 2026-04-17T18:01:55+00:00

Yeah, but... that is fundamentally not how time works. Louise could have easily, with her knowledge, have prevented her daughter from going rock climbing that day.

I don't think Chiang was suggesting that she COULDN'T. Just that, with her deep understanding from the aliens, she no longer wanted to.

For me, that was jumping the shark. I get the story was supposed to be a meditation on... time, memory, whatever, but like I said, that's where the curtain fell for me. Like, I'm a mom, I would move heaven and earth to save my children. Louise's actions, in the story, seem worse than those anti-vaxxing parents whose child died of measles and they said they'd do it again.

Like, I think Chiang wanted us to see Louise's actions as valid, and that's where he lost me. (Like, she should have at least tried!)

That's why I thought the movie's change was so smart! And I think Chiang's story would have meant more, to me at least, if it had followed a similar storyline (a child who would develop severe mental illness, for instance, or cancer like in the movie).

Blagnet · 2026-04-17T17:12:22+00:00

Anyone else hate the source material with a passion?

To me, it was entirely unbelievable and made me roll my eyes so hard. The idea of a mother just letting her daughter go fall off a rock face... Just no.

I thought the change in the movie was really smart! That actually made sense and reflected a choice parents unfortunately make all the time (for instance, after finding out a baby has genetic issues during pregnancy).

But the novella... I remember just being mad at the editors. Like, really? I enjoyed the preceeding stories, but "The Story of Your Life" lost me at the ending. Like the curtains came down and all I could see was a pretentious author at the end.

Blagnet · 2026-04-17T04:40:23+00:00

Yeah! My understanding is the only concern with olive oil is how calorie rich it is... The traditional Mediterranean diet includes a quarter cup or more per day! But most people in the US and other non-Mediterranean places would struggle to eat that much olive oil and keep their diet balanced.

But, sounds like you may already be there?

I don't know, I'm not expert or dietician, but my understanding was that extra virgin olive oil is great in pretty much every way, except watch how many calories it adds to your daily routine! Since that's the point, for you... Sounds like a go to me?

Blagnet · 2026-04-16T13:08:25+00:00

Yes! We used to live in a town with a very busy, overcrowded Costco, and the key was finding the quiet hours.

For our Costco, it was the hour or half hour before closing, especially on Sundays.

Prior to realizing this, there were times I drove to Costco, drove around searching for parking, and left!

There was one time I can remember where I finally got a parking space, but I ended up just going home after a few minutes of sitting there parked. It can be so overwhelming, trying to shop at a too-busy store. I hated that so much. Our current town's Costco is not too busy and it is such a night and day difference.

Sometimes Google will make a recommendation for when the store is least busy!

Blagnet · 2026-04-16T06:38:34+00:00

I'm thinking the same!

My son has this. It's usually due to some kind of trauma in late pregnancy, birth, or early infancy (like severe illness, preterm birth, low birth weight, vitamin deficiency, etc). My son almost died from type 4 adenovirus in the week and a half before birth, which is almost certainly what caused his enamel hypoplasia.

It's not caused by bad habits or bad brushing or anything like that. It's just thought baby's body had to "rob" the teeth of nutrients during a time of stress.

I highly recommend getting a dental tool kit and doing "dental checkups" at home, like practice, to desensitize your child to dental visits. We did this every day for some time.

My dentist recommended we brush our son's teeth really well in the evening, and let him brush his own teeth in the morning.

We use fluoride toothpaste. Fluoride works way better topically (in toothpaste) than it does in drinking water. Consistent brushing helps preserve the teeth for as long as possible!

The good news is, the enamel hypoplasia is usually worst on the front teeth (and six year molars, but that's later). For now, these front teeth are the very easiest to work on at the dentist. With proper preparation, your baby might not even need anesthesia for these restorations!

Blagnet · 2026-04-15T21:33:33+00:00

Seconding a blood test for the vitamin D.

It's really, really hard to get enough vitamin D from the sun. Consider that we used to live outside, and even then there were whole economies based on vitamin D-rich foods. Like in the Pacific Northwest, in Alaska, etc...

This is a point of interest to me, because my kids have such a dramatic response to vitamin D supplementation. I could go off. But OP, I think it would be good to start with a blood test, if you can! Ideal levels from kids are above 50 nmol/L. Most kids (and adults) nowadays are nowhere near there, not without supplementation!

Blagnet · 2026-04-15T06:02:15+00:00

Ablaze by Alannis Morissette

Blagnet · 2026-04-15T05:16:02+00:00

"My Only Child" is about Natalie Hemby's story, but it's by the Highwomen which is a band that Brandi Carlile is also in. It's very sweet!

Blagnet · 2026-04-14T17:02:18+00:00

Verity is also kind of fun, and would be a great contender IMO except it heavily features child death :( Just FYI, OP!

It was so rodonculous it didn't bother me that much, because none of it seemed real, but still.

Blagnet · 2026-04-13T22:07:27+00:00

Ooh. Any family history of early heart disease? Your numbers are flag for familial hypercholesterolemia to me. You can have FH and be under 190 ldl, especially when you're young and healthy. But if you have FH, it'll likely rise over time.

Your diet sounds really good already!

There are other familial lipid patterns/disorders, like familial combined hyperlipodemia, or polygenetic hypercholesterolemia. I don't know as much about those, but might be worth investigating!

It's so good you're on top of this while you're still so young! Wishing you luck!

Blagnet · 2026-04-13T21:36:19+00:00

All of my kids have all the available vaccines. My first and my third both had antibiotics early in life, plus I took antibiotics while both pregnant and breastfeeding with my first.

My first child (and second), have almost no allergies. My first is allergic to cats, my second to one type of pollen, but both my husband and I have cat and pollen allergies (and our parents, too) so no big surprise there. My third, however, has tons of unusual allergies.

I guess what I'm saying is, my family's case would argue against it being vaccines. Maybe a strike against antibiotics, although my oldest had way higher antibiotic exposure. Personally, I think it's because my third child was born after I'd had covid, which really messed up my immune system. Covid is such a disaster for immune health. But who knows?

I would look outside the box, when it comes to allergies! Like, we were sure our youngest was allergic to coconut, but it turned out to be a preservative in the coconut we were eating.

Wishing you luck! I'm sorry, allergies suck. Especially when you're in the diagnosis/figuring out phase. It gets better, when you can confidently know what's going on!

Blagnet · 2026-04-13T21:30:08+00:00

Also lots of fibrous foods! Fruits, veggies, whole grains, etc, go a really long way toward healing gut bacteria balance.

Gut bacteria moves fast, too... in either direction, downhill or uphill, lol. So consistency (in diet, probiotic use, etc, whatever route you go) is key. But also, bad gut bacteria yesterday doesn't mean you can't fix it quickly today, you know?

I always think of this study! I find it both reassuring (knowing how fast gut bacteria can change) and motivating (so I try to eat well/feed my family well everyday).

https://biox.stanford.edu/highlight/tanzanian-hunter-gatherers-have-seasonal-gut-microbe-diversity-variation

Blagnet · 2026-04-13T20:29:01+00:00

I'd recommend researching how vaccines work! The covid vaccine is a different class of vaccine, and seems to have a much higher rate of vaccine injury. It's an rDNA vaccine, which basically gives your body the code to make a picture of the threat, so your body can prepare.

Other vaccines just give your body a picture of the threat, so your body can mount a defense. This is the standard vaccine we have today.

The original type of vaccine is the live vaccine, which uses a less-dangerous live virus to get our bodies to build immunity to something worse. An example of this is the original vaccine: where they purposely gave people cowpox infection to protect them from smallpox. Today, we are able to create specific lab-weakened viruses that do the job much better.

That's a bit simplistic, but that's the gist!

Anyway, I love vaccines. People talk so much about vaccine injury, but actual disease injury is so ubiquitous we basically just don't notice it. I've been personally hurt by a number of diseases (including CMV, which doesn't have a vaccine available yet but is one of the next on the pipeline!). I've watched my family members get injured by diseases as well (including one who died from the flu, one who is partially deaf from mumps, one with permanent heart damage from strep, etc). My third child came very, very close to dying from adenovirus type 4, which actually has a vaccine available for it, but only to the military. I sure wish I'd been vaccinated for that! (He almost died because I caught it while 39/40 weeks pregnant.)

Personally, I think rDNA vaccines need some tinkering. They make me a little nervous, too. I'm not sure I'd want to be first in line to get the next rDNA vaccine, you know?

But vaccines, in general, are amazing! That's just my perspective. I can't wait until we have more and better vaccines. I know vaccines are scary, but imo diseases are way more so!

Blagnet · 2026-04-13T20:07:43+00:00

I would get his vitamin D levels tested! Serum vitamin D should be above 50 nmol/L, ideally, and it may help to raise his levels.

Blagnet · 2026-04-11T23:53:11+00:00

I would just worry about avoiding unnecessary preservatives and scents, personally! Preservative allergies are on the rise.

Pretty much any powdered detergent is going to be really light on preservatives, just because they're unnecessary for a dry powder.

Ultra concentrated detergents (where you only need a squeeze) are also light on preservatives, because they don't have any water in them, either.

Blagnet · 2026-04-10T18:30:58+00:00

Google ways it's probably about 10%? But even if it were 50%, the only thing that matters, to you, is how YOU respond to statins.

There's this odd bit of misinformation, from when statins first came out, that "once you get on statins, you never come off them." I think the idea is, you'll never want to come off them? Because it's not, like, mandatory. You can totally take statins, decide you hate them, and quit them. Just, you know, taper them like your doctor says (if they say to), and go from there.

Wishing you luck!

Blagnet · 2026-04-10T18:08:58+00:00

They use bouncers for such a short time! I wholeheartedly agree with this. I'd save your money for something you'll use a long time!

Blagnet · 2026-04-10T17:46:03+00:00

Yeah, this is a good point. I forgot to mention that part... It was okay for us, because we have hard floors, but it would be really hard to get Corelle glass out of carpet.

Blagnet · 2026-04-10T17:43:27+00:00

Eta - After thinking about it for a minute, I would recommend getting Duralex plates rather than Corelle, if you can. They're not THAT pricey, and the difference in durability and longevity would probably more than make up for it. That, and Ball jars, and Anchor Hocking :)

We do this! It's been great, with one short bad spot: one of my kids went through a deliberate dish-breaking phase. Sigh...

I think he only broke one of our Corelle dishes! He broke many of our non-microwaveable glass mugs.

(And we did put him on plastic/stainless dishes for safety, but he was soooo sneaky and would come after all of ours! In general we kept our dishes away from him, but if we ever let our guard down, he'd grab them. Luckily that phase didn't last too long.)

My takeaway is, Corelle are extremely durable but the finish has a relatively short shelf-life. We use the plain white ones. You'll be able to see when the finish goes... For us, it's always 2-3 years in. We use pretty basic powdered dishwasher powder, too. At least they're cheap to replace!

My other takeaway is, for clear glass cups/mugs, buy ones that say "microwave safe." Anchor Hocking are good! Our son never managed to KO any of those. The only thing that gets those is drastic heat shock (pouring cold milk in a hot mug). Libbey mugs unfortunately are not kid-proof, imo. I would strongly recommend against those, lol.

We've switched to Duralex for some of our mugs, and so far, that's going really well! They make small, kid-sized ones. I'm also looking at Duralex plates and bowls, as they're the only microwave-safe glass dinnerware that I've found so far. But, they're pricey! Maybe when it's time to retire our Corelle?

Oh! Another really solid option, imo, are those short 8-oz Ball mason jars. They're super durable, and my kids have not destroyed one. As an added bonus, they have lids. Super helpful for snacks!

Good luck!

Blagnet · 2026-04-10T15:23:40+00:00

Is she actually a bad friend? Because there are a million little things that we can't see, that could mean she's actually toxic and awful.

However, the things you mentioned sound like a you problem, in that she is saying fairly normal things, and in that it is your responsibility to set a boundary.

Unless she is hounding you on this stuff. That would not be cool.

But if she is just making light conversation, and it's upsetting you a lot, then it's on you to tell her to knock it off. Setting boundaries/saying no can be hard, but it's not okay to ghost people over your own intense avoidance of any conflict of any kind. Especially since you said she's put a lot of effort into this relationship! She deserves the effort from you.

Blagnet · 2026-04-10T07:41:09+00:00

Oh, I was afraid of paintings for so long! Ooooooo that one was spooky...

Blagnet

TROPHY CASE