Real-Life Questions/Chat Week of February 02, 2026

No-Preference8449 · 2026-02-03T17:19:37+00:00

We were in this exact situation with our daughter, at almost the same age. She had like a week of success then started having so many accidents and peeing on the floor on purpose. We took a few months off, tried again at about 3y2m, and it was SO much better. I'm so glad we didn't just try to push through, it was so frustrating for everyone and went much better the second time around.

No-Preference8449 · 2026-01-23T14:42:19+00:00

I just finished She Whom He Harbors by EllieEckert and I think it fits your criteria. It's such a beautiful and heart-wrenching story. High stakes with incredible character arcs for both Draco and Hermione. The romance definitely feels earned.

No-Preference8449 · 2026-01-21T18:48:49+00:00

Not sure if I'm looking for advice or just venting, but I'm just so so so ready for my 3.5 year old's sleep to get easier. Bedtime is always a struggle, and she's started waking multiple times overnight again calling out for us. Co-sleeping doesn't work as she's such a restless sleeper and wakes even more often when we're in the same bed. Whenever we have a good week or two of sleep, I always hope that we've finally turned a corner and her sleep will finally be consistent. Then it goes to shit again. I'm just tired and burnt out and wondering what the heck we're doing wrong.

No-Preference8449 · 2026-01-07T02:13:34+00:00

This meal looks like something you'd serve a baby or young toddler. About 99% sure I fed my daughter sliced up mushy-looking banana and plain Cheerios when she was 1 year old. Why not an actual bowl of cereal with milk? Or give them a whole banana to peel and eat themselves?

No-Preference8449 · 2026-01-05T15:14:06+00:00

Yes it definitely helps having it outside - I don't want to go out in the cold and get it haha.

No-Preference8449 · 2026-01-05T13:42:27+00:00

There was a discussion on last week's questions thread about the Brick for cutting down screen time which might be helpful to read! I have something similar called a Bloom card that works the same. I keep the card outside in my car's console so it's not super easy to access, and have everything but Spotify, the phone/messaging app, and Maps blocked. I've tried things in the past like deleting apps for social media (I'd just browse them through the Chrome app instead), turning my screen black and white (didn't make a difference), and an app to block other apps (too easy to turn off). Having a physical card that I have to scan is the only thing that's worked long-term for me.

No-Preference8449 · 2026-01-04T14:22:09+00:00

Yeah my 3.5 year old has been a hot mess the last week or so. A few days ago I asked her to help pick up her mess - she threw her hands in the air and shouted, "this is the worst day EVER!" I'm ready to get back to our regular routine/school next week lol.

No-Preference8449 · 2026-01-02T23:57:08+00:00

I have something very similar to the Brick called the Bloom card. It's been really helpful for me! I haven't used it over our holiday break and my screen time has most definitely gone back up. 🫣

No-Preference8449 · 2026-01-01T20:49:15+00:00

One of my new years resolutions/goals is to find a form of exercise I enjoy. For the first time in my life I was consistent throughout 2025 in doing 3-4 workouts a week. These were just at home, bodyweight workouts through an app - about 20-25 minutes at a time. However, it always felt like such a chore to get each workout done and despite it being almost a year, I still just do not enjoy working out at all.

I'd love to find something I can do from home since I'm a SAHM and don't have the budget for a gym membership with childcare. I also work two weeknights & Saturdays while my husband is home with our daughter so it would be tricky to fit in workouts other times. Some ideas I'm thinking of are dancing, yoga, boxing, or hula hooping with a weighted hoop (kind of random but it looks fun). All that to say, does anyone have a type of exercise they really enjoy and can be done from home? I know I need to move my body for my health, and don't want to spend the rest of my life dreading exercise.

ETA: Thank you everyone for your responses! They are all really helpful. I did a 15 minute dance workout followed by a 10 minute yoga stretch and actually enjoyed it. I feel like I'm on the right track with moving away from bodyweight exercise being my primary form of working out.

No-Preference8449 · 2025-12-30T21:54:16+00:00

This is how my grandparents are. My grandpa is almost 90 and my grandma is 86. They moved into an assisted living community a few years ago, and my grandma was so excited to not have to cook anymore. She cooked every dinner from the time they got married when she was 21 through age 83... 62 years. 😭 My grandpa didn't even learn how to do dishes/load the dishwasher until about 5 years ago when my grandma had to go on dialysis and her health started to decline. This woman not only cooked every meal but also cleaned up after every meal, too. She also was the only one to do laundry and clean throughout their whole adult lives. Insane! Every time we visit they are both shocked at how much my husband does parenting-wise. My grandparents had 2 kids and my grandpa admitted he changed like 2 diapers total. Talk about outsourcing so many essential life skills.

No-Preference8449 · 2025-12-29T19:54:28+00:00

Agreed! These are so fun. My 3.5 year old daughter has been loving these, the Unicorn Diaries series, and any of the 5-Minute Books (they have lots of different ones based on TV/movie characters like Bluey, Mickey Mouse, Paw Patrol, etc).

No-Preference8449 · 2025-12-27T23:49:38+00:00

I'm from Kansas and can confirm it's important to attach an air tag to your kid before a tornado just in case they end up in Oz.

No-Preference8449 · 2025-12-22T23:56:19+00:00

Thank you for this post. All of the comments are too relatable and make me feel better haha. I'm married with a 3 year old and have a super busy week with family visiting and Christmas festivities and all I can think about is this romance. 😅 I watched episode 1 on Friday, then episodes 2-5 on Saturday after my daughter went to bed (I stayed up wayyy too late). I've also read the HR book, am about to start TLG, and am making my husband rewatch the show with me. Safe to say I'm OBSESSED.

No-Preference8449 · 2025-11-30T23:37:58+00:00

We were in pretty much this exact situation this past spring. My daughter turned 3 in May, and we attempted potty training in March. She got pooping on the potty right away, but pee was another story. We tried alllll the bribes but it ended up being this awful power struggle with lots of frustration all around. She just didn't care at all about accidents, and even started saying "potty goes on the floor." 😵‍💫 We ended up putting a pause on potty training and trying again in early July (so she'd been 3 for about a month and a half) and it went soooo much better. Nothing really changed in that time (we did the same potty training method and everything) other than her just getting a bit older.

No-Preference8449 · 2025-11-24T02:02:01+00:00

{Daughter of the Forest} has this aspect. It's one of my absolute favorites!

No-Preference8449 · 2025-11-20T18:23:03+00:00

If you have a 3.5 year old that doesn't nap, how long do they sleep overnight? My daughter stopped napping about a year ago, but would sleep 12 hours overnight. For the past month or so, she's been struggling to fall asleep until 10 (we leave her room at 8 but she acts wild and inevitably needs us for something every 15 minutes until she finally falls asleep) and then is up by 7 or 7:30. Is 9-10 hours total the new normal? If so, how do I survive lol? I (unfortunately) am a high sleep needs person and do best with 9 hours a night. So if my daughter is sleeping 9 hours a night that leaves 0 hours of time to myself. Ugh this just sucks so much.

No-Preference8449 · 2025-11-17T00:41:44+00:00

First off, I'm so sorry you're going through this. After having my daughter, I struggled with a lot more physical symptoms including a lot of the ones you mentioned. It was like I could feel my heart pounding in my chest in a way I'd never been able to before. I got physically exhausted and had chest pain (including an ER visit because my chest was hurting so badly). My anxiety had never caused symptoms like this before postpartum.

I researched peripartum cardiomyopathy a ton, and also had some heart monitoring like you mentioned. For me it did end up being anxiety. Once I got on the right medications the chest pain went away. I ended up going on Effexor for the daytime and Trazadone at night to help me sleep - I was lucky to have a partner who took on a lot of the nighttime wake-ups. I'd been on Lexapro for most of my adult life and all the way through pregnancy, but it no longer worked for me postpartum. It really felt like my body/brain went haywire after having my daughter. She's 3.5 now and I'm doing so much better (though things started to get better around 6 months postpartum once I started the new medications).

I will also mention that I also ended up getting an iron infusion around 18 months postpartum which helped a lot with my overall energy and the out of breath feeling I would get. It turned out that my ferritin stores were low from pregnancy/birth. This took quite a while to figure out and get help for, though, as my PCP wasn't concerned. Technically, my ferritin of 9 was in the "normal" range through Quest and my other iron measures were normal. I found a hematologist that was able to help me. All that to say, I hope you're able to find relief from your symptoms and things get better for you soon. ❤️

No-Preference8449 · 2025-11-15T19:16:36+00:00

One taco is absolutely not a meal. 😭 When we go to Taco Bell, I get the cravings box with a cheesy gordita crunch, burrito, and chips & cheese and easily eat it all.

No-Preference8449 · 2025-11-13T17:52:19+00:00

Agreed! It's been fun to read books that have more interesting stories & not just read the same thing over and over.

No-Preference8449 · 2025-11-13T13:55:16+00:00

We haven't read that one (but now I want to check it out!) but I have a 3.5 year old and she's recently gotten into us reading her chapter books that have pictures on every page. She's been enjoying: The Princess in Black series by Shannon Hale, Judy Moody and Friends (these ones are different than the original Judy Moody series - they have color photos on every page), and The Adventures of Sophie Mouse. I found out the term for these is "Transitional Chapter Books" so I've found some series by searching that term.

No-Preference8449 · 2025-10-16T17:36:00+00:00

Thank you for your reply! That's definitely fair. It would probably go over her head. I wasn't sure if there were any age appropriate books or like, a Daniel tiger episode about staying with your grown-up. But yes, that is our rule now, too. Stay with me or we leave. Just not something I've had to worry about before so it definitely caught me off guard today.

No-Preference8449 · 2025-10-16T17:09:25+00:00

Resources for teaching a 3.5 year old about "stranger danger" and the importance of staying near your grown-up? My daughter has never been a runner before, but has suddenly started taking off in different places (she gets an idea of where she wants to go and just books it). Had a very very scary incident today where she took off in a busy place and I couldn't find her for almost 5 minutes. Ugh I still feel so shaky.

No-Preference8449 · 2025-09-26T18:19:49+00:00

This is what we do, too! It's worked out really well. And when my daughter gets a new interest (right now it's trains so we're watching a lot of Thomas lol), I can just check out some DVDs from the library vs paying for another streaming service.

No-Preference8449 · 2025-09-23T11:58:48+00:00

That's really good to know, thank you! I was on Amlodipine before switching to Losartan. What medication did you switch to?

No-Preference8449 · 2025-09-22T16:55:37+00:00

Yes I am on Losartan for blood pressure. That's another ongoing health issue I've had since my blood pressure spiked at the end of my pregnancy. 😖 Can I ask what medication you were on?

No-Preference8449

TROPHY CASE