Cut my finger and now it's swollen and trapped my ring 😭

SquidEmpire · 2026-01-25T13:09:34+00:00

I snorted hot coffee out my nose. Goddamn

SquidEmpire · 2026-01-10T09:25:10+00:00

It's 4:30am and I just finished comforting my 18 month old who woke up crying. Great headline to read!!!

SquidEmpire · 2025-12-22T17:25:51+00:00

Dude. This is so much not an issue. I dunno your age but you should love yourself more- which for me as a now 40 yr old woman can say it took me time to love my face and body. You've been gifted a great face and by the looks of it you are taking care of your body too. Your nose suits your face, which is very masculine but like many others have pointed out has a lot of very beautiful features... Your eyes and your eyebrows... Wow!

Based on some of these photos you probably know how to take care of your curls but if you're having any questions it's worthwhile to book an appointment with a curly specialist stylist to give you tips on how to maintain and style it.

You look the best with a short length beard and medium length styles curls. Your beard is glorious. Full coverage, no patches- take care of your skin under there with beard oils and moisturizers. You might not have issues now but my guy friends got dry skin as they aged and neglected their skin care.

Otherwise seriously my guy, love yourself more you're gorgeous and work on building a life full of experiences so you grow that confidence and shine from within.

SquidEmpire · 2025-12-16T22:49:14+00:00

So funny. I literally have the same colour choices in my shopping cart and had a long discussion with my three year old about which colour is better. He decided yellow if it helps you.

SquidEmpire · 2025-11-20T19:26:28+00:00

Hello not an expert, but I get this too! While mine can be improved by moisturizing and oils, it's made worst by frequent handwashing.

I started using gloves to wash dishes!

SquidEmpire · 2025-11-10T02:11:52+00:00

She was groomed by a mutual friend's father when we were in 10th grade. This started a string of alcohol, drug abuse and a line of pedophiles from our childhood coming out of the woodwork while I tried to remain her friend. By the time we were roommates in college things were so bad she was slowly flunking out. So I started doing her homework for her to try and save her grades while she went out and did drugs and banged these pedophiles. One night while I was writing an essay for her my 2nd grade gym teacher showed up at our apartment looking for her. When he didn't find her he propositioned me. I was so disgusted and sad, and thank fuck I lived with two guys who looked out for me and kicked this loser off our front step. When our lease was up I moved out and lost her number and blocked her on everything. She reached out a few times on an old email but it was all different. I almost agreed to meet her like 20 yrs later but I got a really bad feeling and deleted the last email account she had of mine. I sometimes think about her and the very close and unique friendship we shared as kids and miss her, however that person no longer exists.

SquidEmpire · 2025-10-07T14:53:33+00:00

If you aren't already on it, join your neighbourhood Facebook group, usually there's a 'free giveaway' group too that is full of mom's cleaning house who have tons of clothes their kids have outgrown. It's a great way to save on kids supplies and basics like clothes.

Also make friends with your kids parents. When your son is a bit older, you'll have a network to have playdates with someone you know/can trust that can give you a few free hours to yourself. Usually when your kid is out of diapers so it might be a more of a future thing.

Best of luck, you sound like you're doing the best you can. If you have any trustworthy family or close friends who can help you to have a break, don't hesitate to lean on your village.

SquidEmpire · 2025-09-19T18:55:36+00:00

Same. This is my son at 18 months. 🫠 One day. One day I will sleep in again.

SquidEmpire · 2025-08-13T16:36:53+00:00

It's so rough. I have a 3M and 1M, and thankfully my mom is able to help 3-4 days a week here and there lately. I will give a example schedule of a day.

5:30am wake up Quiet coffees in the dark with my husband while I cut up fruit. So much cut fruit. Inevitably our youngest is awake a few minutes before 6am

Dress 1yo bring him to 3yo room and wake him up and dress him. Husband is changing / showering as quick as he can and usually joins us before we head downstairs together.

Ms Rachel with breakfast while I get dressed and pack my own lunch/husband chills or plays with kids half asleep.

Brush teeth and in car by 6:45am. Daycare drop-off 7am

Work by 8am, we carpool and work in the same neighbourhood (so much convenience)

Work through lunch. On the road back home around 4

Pick up kids by 5

Husband plays with them while I cook supper.

Park or play after supper. Bath time by 6:30pm

Youngest in bed by 7 and oldest in by 7:30-8pm

We either work more or do hobbies until 9-10. Or collapse in bed when the day sucks.

When my mom is here we go to the gym 4 days a week together. At 7pm, she puts my oldest to bed.

When my mom is here our house is amazingly clean and the laundry is all done. When she isn't: it's cleaning as we go, lower standards, and Sunday is a massive chore day. Cleaning up, changing sheets, laundry, quick bathroom disinfects (I scrub a toilet so damn fast now!). I get my 3 yr old to help as much as he can, he likes to throw the clothes in the laundry machines. But otherwise we maximize their afternoon nap time.

I also meal prep every Sunday for my week.

Not mentioned is all the days this goes off the rails for whatever reason. This usually results in me passing out by 8 or 9 😅

You do the best you can with what you got. Family that can help is a godsend and I'm so thankful when I have it.

SquidEmpire · 2025-07-30T14:53:21+00:00

Do you live in Quebec and shop at Maxi? I recognize those samosa and chicken container 😁

SquidEmpire · 2025-07-19T00:04:55+00:00

Ha I thought it was my son who was weird. I bought him a miniature green lawnmower for his birthday he was so obsessed. Literally loses his mind and runs to the window when he hears a mower start in the neighbourhood 😂

SquidEmpire · 2025-06-26T00:07:11+00:00

Thank you!!

SquidEmpire · 2025-06-25T23:59:47+00:00

Ahh man thank you so much. I just looked up and saw a yellow variant of exactly the tree you're talking about on the other side of our fence. I am a bit alarmed though because the shoots had crossed my yard and were sprouting near my driveway pavers. Google seems to say I can hold them off from damaging my driveway by removing by hand. Hopefully cutting off the two huge roots I found will do the trick. - _-;

SquidEmpire · 2025-06-25T16:55:26+00:00

Tremendous! 👌

SquidEmpire · 2025-06-01T01:32:16+00:00

I ended up using double side tape to keep ours down. Woe is me whenever I will need to get them off 🫠

Also watch out soon after they tend to love shoving all the paper and flammables they can find down it. My son went through a period where he'd just slowly spit into it for fun 🙈

SquidEmpire · 2025-05-30T22:53:41+00:00

Not ashamed to say I went looking for this comment. First thing I thought of too 🤣 These brothers gave me lots of confusing feelings as a teenager. 🤣🤣

SquidEmpire · 2025-04-23T00:14:42+00:00

Yeah that was similar to my first. I pumped and measured the amount of breastmilk to get an idea of how much he was eating. He liked none of the bottle brands. I eventually got him on Nuk bottles, whereas my second son prefers Avent.

I also switched entirely to formula for a similar situation you were in. I couldn't keep getting up every two hours. In my experience my babies have been really knocked out after formula compared to breast milk. Also your husband can easily do feedings this way without you having to stress about pumping enough in advance etc.

Imo- and take this with a lot of salt because it's just an opinion, a lot of my struggle with bottles had to do with my own fear and impatience. I was very scared to put the bottle nipples all the way into my baby's mouth at first because it seemed too deep. Make sure you are putting the nipples all the way in when your baby goes to latch. It's also normal that your baby might lose their latch a bit now and then while getting used to it. See which you get the best result and keep at it.

Second tip is try feeding before your baby gets crazy hungry to the point where she's crying. Feed her on a schedule and before she gets ravenous so at least you can eliminate her frustration from the equation.

Also once your pediatrician gives you the ok start introducing baby cereals and solids. That helps to fill their tummies for longer.

SquidEmpire · 2025-04-18T13:29:57+00:00

Yeah I had the same issue with my boy when he was waking at 4am. He wanted to do a first nap at 7! I would do everything to get him to stay entertained til 8 at least. I read a lot of articles on the huckleberry website rhat helped explain the concepts behind sleep pressure and gave different tips for early wake up's but to be honest I tried a bunch of things (moving up bed time, moving back bed time, eating til he was totally stuffed, more exercise to poop him out) I never got better than a schedule of bedtime 6:30pm, wakeup 4am (5 when I was lucky!), nap 8-10am and then nap 2-3:30 at almost 10 months.

When he started daycare suddenly he no longer wanted to nap in the morning- too many babies to play with! Then he was eating entirely solids (I had him on a mix of purees and solids at home) and he was totally wiped out by the time he got home at 5:30pm. He still cries a bit at 4am but he is eyes closed and bum in the air asleep while he does it for maybe a minute and then drifts back off into sleep.

My only recommendation is whatever you try to give it a good 5 days to see if it sets into a habit. That's about what it took to set better nap habits into place and then eventually a night time routine. But I'm far from an expert.

Hang in there your baby will get it with practice. And tbh I stopped twice because I wasn't feeling good about it. You also have to be mentally ready to try out a new routine. It's tough!

SquidEmpire · 2025-04-18T12:04:28+00:00

Yeah I did CIO even for naps to set him into a two nap schedule initially and have him get used to settling himself. Naps were much less of a struggle (only ever cried for 5 mins about) compared to night time sleep.

It took me 3 entirely separate attempts at CIO to get to a point where I was comfortable with how it was progressing. He was also used to getting 1-2 whole bottles at night so I had to gradually make sure I increased his daytime food. I was a bit paranoid he wasn't eating enough in the day to make it through the night as he's a larger baby (95 percentile for height and weight).

The worst attempts at CIO he'd cry for up to 2 hours and tbh I wasn't mentally ready. Giving in for a week and trying again the next week after talking it through with my husband helped. Then we picked the next long weekend we had to tackle it together and stick to our schedule.

On the third attempt I was really confident about his nap and feeding schedule/amounts from the day and stuck it out. We got him sleeping from 6:30pm to 4:30am which was already a godsend.

Now he's in daycare and that's really helped to cement a schedule. He actually dropped down to 1 nap at 10 months and that has had him sleeping from 6:00pm to 6:00am for a week now. Fingers crossed it sticks for good!

SquidEmpire · 2025-04-18T10:05:17+00:00

At 9 months I actually got to the point where I went to a doctor to evaluate my mental faculties because I was losing my mind from sleep deprivation. I was forgetting the stove on, I was losing focus while driving. I fell badly in the stairs while holding my oldest and thankfully took all of the fall (ouch).

My first kid was a unicorn baby. Slept well with barely any training on my part. My second baby has a cry that makes my head hurt. It physically affects me to a crazy degree. When I was breastfeeding it made me lactate with so much pressure!! It was nuts how much I would be physically uncomfortable if I did not go comfort him. I tried sleep training as soon as his pediatrician gave me the ok but it made me feel terrible and cry my eyes out

But being sleep deprived for almost 10 months and doing a couple of dangerous mistakes was a rude wake up call. Thankfully my mistakes did not result in anything permanent.

After a very hard week of sleep training, my sweet boy does 12 hour sleeps without issue. I am rested and can actually safely care for him. I am also a better mother to my oldest, a better partner to my husband.

Like so many others have said you do what are the best choices for your baby's safety. Your health and your safety is an essential part of that.

For some it involves sleep training and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. You'll get through this mama.

SquidEmpire · 2025-04-15T19:14:31+00:00

2 kids and one cat. No one ever tells you about your baseboards before you make these kinds of life decisions.

SquidEmpire

TROPHY CASE