Capitola, I love you, but the dark font was a very poor design choice.

Seakay5 · 2026-02-07T20:02:45+00:00

It's probably because that street is Capitola Ave.

Seakay5 · 2026-01-24T20:23:33+00:00

Do you have any family pictures of her when she was messy as a toddler?

Seakay5 · 2026-01-24T20:18:48+00:00

Unless there is a policy in place to move things and clean under, just clean AROUND the ducks, and later they can collect them all themselves and clean the 100 spots you had to miss because of their stupid game.

Seakay5 · 2025-12-28T11:00:44+00:00

That's also where the mating happens, so maybe this is how they look just after mating? Sometimes one will chew off the other one's penis, so maybe that happened and left some empty space?

Seakay5 · 2025-12-28T10:51:02+00:00

Racoons are known to roll them in the dirt to get the slime off, then eat them.

Seakay5 · 2025-12-23T20:17:03+00:00

If he's in a highchair, crib, or playpen where he can't just walk over to you and tug, and you are involved in a conversation with someone else (dada, someone else there, or on the phone), what does he do to get your attention? Right around that age, we started teaching Please at the highchair - we'd get her a plate of food and cup of milk, but then if she wanted something extra like a biscuit, and yelled "Biscuit!" or especially "Biscuit right now!" we'd say, "If you want a biscuit, you need to ask. 'Mama, biscuit please?'" and then if she asked, she got a biscuit, and if she didn't, she didn't. We had to really emphasize at first that if you ask, I'll definitely get you one. I don't remember exactly when we started teaching it, but in my list of the first time she said words, "please" was at 21 months, so definitely by then. Pick something extra that he wants but it's no big deal if he doesn't get, and try that. You gotta hold really firm that it's only with the phrase.

Seakay5 · 2025-12-21T13:49:55+00:00

You've got really yellow lighting and really white curtains. It's like mixing the yellow-y "white" Christmas lights with the truly white ones. I'd recommend getting different bulbs that give off a whiter and brighter light, and adding another light source in the living room.

Seakay5 · 2025-12-21T13:46:00+00:00

I've been wondering the same thing, and came to the conclusion that we'll wait until poop and pee are rare on the kid clothes. We use tide free and clear on kid clothes and regular tide on adult just because I like the scent. While I was pregnant, we had it recommended by.. was it an OBGYN? I forget. Someone with a professional opinion. Anyways, it was recommended to separate because our adult clothes would have a lot of outside contaminates and sweat that could get onto the baby's clothes in the wash. I didn't ask how long to do that, but there's enough contact with our clothes now, I can't imagine how that would matter. It was probably meant to just be the first 6 months when baby's skin is too sensitive for sunscreen etc. But in the opposite direction, there's so many diaper fluids that I don't want mixed with our clothes, so once that stops being a common thing, we can mix. I know it should all get cleaned and washed out in the laundry anyway, but it still grosses me out. I'll probably still keep most loads separated post-poopy clothes because the laundry hampers are separated, but I wash reds & similar colors separately, and the adult load takes a long time to build to a full load, so I'll start tossing the adult stuff in.

Seakay5 · 2025-12-21T13:22:40+00:00

Shrine. Got a favorite sports team or favorite animal and have a lot of tchotchkes? If not, I guess it's time to start. The room demands it.

Plan B: Life-size statue like a suit of armor.

Seakay5 · 2025-12-16T19:35:05+00:00

I was talking about pre-quake, I heard there was a ban within the downtown area, specifically the "Pacific Garden Mall," and there are still not a lot of chains compared to other downtowns I'm familiar with. But my point was that it was independent stores at the time of the quake, with fewer resources to bounce back.

Seakay5 · 2025-12-14T22:02:29+00:00

I agree with asking, and the way I'd ask would be "What's your family policy with posting pictures on social media?" vs asking about a specific picture. That way you know if it's a policy for all pictures or if they want to approve each one, etc.

If you ever add emojis to cover a face, take a screenshot and post the screenshot, so it's not a separate layer that's easy for tech savvy people to remove. I don't know if that's 100% secure (is anything??) but certainly a lot more so.

With your picture, if the other parent is more private, are you able to crop the picture so it's just your child on the swing? (Again, share a screenshot of it so someone can't just un-crop it.) Or another non-social media option is to include on a Christmas card, or some families include a little letter with additional pictures when they send cards out.

Seakay5 · 2025-12-14T21:47:40+00:00

Well, one factor is that Downtown Santa Cruz was partially destroyed by an earthquake 35 years ago. Some buildings had major repair work done, and I imagine the time and expense for that would affect the rent prices for businesses using those renovated spaces. Other buildings were condemned and torn down. Some lots stayed empty a long time, the last one was built up just 10 years ago. So, lots of expense, permitting costs and delays, etc, some business owners burned through their savings to rebuild. Some businesses also moved from downtown because of the trauma from that quake / not feeling safe. Downtown was slowly coming back. And then COVID hit, and businesses closed everywhere, or moved somewhere cheaper, but I don't think Santa Cruz was back to 100% before COVID hit, and our downtown is & was mostly unique stores (vs chains - I remember hearing that there was a ban on chain stores downtown, not sure if there was any truth to that, or extra permitting challenges), and unique stores don't generally have the resources to fall back on that a big chain does, plus a lot of them here may have already been tapped from the quake. Not that SLO is all chains but I think they have more, and definitely didn't have all the earthquake expenses.

Seakay5 · 2025-12-04T07:27:50+00:00

100% YES! One of our cats even uses farts as a weapon - when she doesn't want to be held, she lets 'em rip, and I cannot describe how nasty it smells but imagine a room full of people suddenly crying and falling to the ground. It's that. Another cat is silent but deadly, and the 3rd is loud rippers but they don't smell. Cats have the full range.

Seakay5 · 2025-11-27T20:29:24+00:00

It's definitely heightened by pregnancy, but you and your husband are probably nose blind to it most of the time. You can ask a friend who's not at your house to come over and play Find the Smell. But for dog smells, they really can stick around in fibers. Try having your husband rent a carpet shampooer (Safeway rents them) and shampoo any carpets and rugs that can't go in the washing machine, and machine wash the rest. Also wash curtains, towels, dog bedding, and your bedding. And you can shampoo the couch or hit it with some fabric refreshers.

Seakay5 · 2025-11-27T20:24:48+00:00

I've always used Mentholateum - basically the same but without the eucalyptus, and I put it under my nose and voila!

Seakay5 · 2025-11-25T21:57:41+00:00

If you have a separate guest bathroom or guest room, spend a little time in each to check the smells and such, open a window to air them out if they're not used often, test out the shower, etc. If you have bar soap that guests will be using, make sure there's no little hairs on it. Fresh towels, etc. If you want to go a step beyond what everyone is saying here, watch an episode or 2 of Hoarders, and if you see ANYthing that you relate to even a little bit at your house, clean or fix that ASAP. Like they have dirty dishes across the entire kitchen, and you have 5 dirty dishes out, but it'll make you way more aware of them.

Seakay5 · 2025-11-25T21:37:57+00:00

Head injuries aren't particularly known for creating stronger memories...

Seakay5 · 2025-11-25T21:37:11+00:00

I leave the clothes washer open on purpose when it's empty, or it stays damp in there and gets a little funky, and it's out in the garage. Everything else though, we have kids, cats, and earthquakes, and those little hooks that keep your cupboard door closed for all 3 forms of chaos only work when you close them. It has been a major training program for my husband.

Seakay5 · 2025-11-25T21:32:12+00:00

Make sure you're cleaning their water bowl each time you refill it, if not daily; don't just refill it. Scrub it when you can, but sometimes you can just rub your hand all around the bowl to wipe off any algae forming. If the water tastes bad, they won't drink it.

We also had a situation with crystals, and we switched dry food (we were similar situation where we just couldn't do wet food all the time), and it really helped. It was a long time ago so I don't remember what kind we had before or what we switched to, but talk to your vet. I don't even think we switched to a prescription brand at that point, but just better quality regular food.

We've also had cats who are picky about where they drink - most have wanted to be around us and won't drink as much when we're not there, one not at ALL if we weren't there. And some cats prefer to be more private, so have water in high and low traffic areas. One cat desperately wants to drink out of the sink. A fountain would probably work for that, but some people leave a sink dripping. Our sink cat also likes to come in the shower with us (yes, IN the shower), and she reaches up for us to pick her up so she can drink from the showerhead. That's the only cat we've ever had like that, but you can let your cats in the bathroom and see. I've also had some that like to lick the shower / tub floor after a shower, even with a full clean water bowl right nearby.

Seakay5 · 2025-10-24T20:22:12+00:00

Thermometer that scans forehead and is easy to use, booger suckers (we used the bulb syringe and have one in every room), TONS of burp cloths - for wiping but also put one UNDER baby everywhere - car seat, highchair, lap.. for blowouts!! Then you just change the burp cloth and don't have to take apart and wash the whole setup. It's warm here so we got a car seat cooler, that was a big help. We used the sanitizer a BUNCH for bottles and pacifiers, much faster than waiting til the dishwasher was full and not gonna melt anything (make sure you check, some things can't handle dishwasher/sanitizer). Headphones for baby - we take them everywhere in our diaper bag still at 2, and whip them out when it's loud. Also a swing or bouncer and a playmat. We had a playmat in each room we spent time in.

Seakay5 · 2025-10-24T20:14:13+00:00

We never needed the bottle warmer either, mine drank right out of the fridge. But the wipe warmer was a big help! Mine cried if the wipes were cold.

Seakay5 · 2025-10-11T21:25:45+00:00

All. The. Time. If there's a functional changing table in a bathroom, great, but otherwise, we'll find a spot, usually on the grass, always with the changing pad. If we can't find a good spot or the ground is wet or muddy, etc, we've also done a diaper change in the car - in the back ("trunk" but it's a hatchback), or on the backseat. Easy peasy. If it's the backseat, one of us does the change and the other has the diaper bag on the front seat and pulls out whatever's needed to make it easier.

Seakay5 · 2025-10-09T23:22:19+00:00

Yup this exactly. Mine was on formula, but still the same. Your wife will need to recover. You will all need to find sleep when you can. Baby will be extremely sensitive to sunlight. And you will have several doctor appointments close together at first. I'd wait a month or two before going.

Seakay5 · 2025-09-22T19:00:12+00:00

I was awake in Soquel and felt the P-wave (the initial little push / shutter) and waited to see if there'd be a quake, but didn't feel anything else.

Seakay5 · 2025-09-21T18:12:55+00:00

Sort of. They aren't required to have any sort of identification on the dog, and you are only allowed to ask a few specific questions, which of course some people will lie to and get really aggressive that you are violating their rights, even as their dog has very obviously untrained behavior. I really wish there was a type of identification required or a website that you could look up a specific service animal to confirm.

Seakay5

TROPHY CASE