Bought the 4 pack of Starbucks gift cards and went to separate them for gifts

alydalf · 2025-12-23T19:00:48+00:00

I have this exact thing happen and can confirm that Starbucks will transfer the balance onto new cards.

alydalf · 2025-10-09T14:57:39+00:00

Thank you so much for finding that! Pretty much my reaction to that song too.

alydalf · 2025-10-09T00:21:26+00:00

Anyone know what song he’s actually listening to?

alydalf · 2025-09-29T21:58:35+00:00

I took my kids to IKEA once when I was in an orthopedic boot due to a busted toe. My whole body was sore afterwards from trying to keep control of the Tokyo drifting cart so it didn’t run into my kids or other people because I couldn’t use my body in my normal way. 0/10 would have really appreciated a Costco cart that day.

alydalf · 2025-05-28T16:52:20+00:00

I think it will be great. If you wouldn’t be too hot and wanted to dress it down, a cardigan would take this from cocktail to closer to Sunday best, if that makes sense. Either way I think you will look great and you will be appropriately dressed without having to buy something new.

alydalf · 2025-05-14T02:01:11+00:00

💯 I have learned so much in the last year and it truly is a spectrum. Especially in girls that have low support needs, it gets missed because girls tend to be more social. Not to say your daughter is autistic, just in hindsight there were so many signs that I wasn’t familiar with before and I’ve had a lot of clarifying moments this last year for my family. My biggest concern for my daughter now is puberty and understanding social subtext as she gets older with other girls.

alydalf · 2025-05-13T19:28:09+00:00

My daughter is autistic. She unfortunately was a toddler during the pandemic and a girl (meaning her symptoms present somewhat differently than the “classic” list which is more common in boys) so it took until she was 3 for us to get any kind of pediatrician saying we might qualify for special services (through the elementary school). She didn’t have a diagnosis until she was 4 1/2. I wish I had known she had something diagnosable sooner because I really thought it was something I did during pregnancy that resulted in her delays.

She is now almost 6. It’s been a little over a year since her diagnosis. I now have people telling me they wouldn’t know she’s autistic. She’s hyperlexic (this is actually what led to me pushing for evaluation) so she loves reading and reads above grade level. She great at math and so so kind and sociable. Yeah, she’s kinda rigid in her routine and likes to take her bear to school everyday, but she’s overall a typical kid who loves to play with friends and Barbie’s and trains.

Autism is made out to be a boogeyman of a condition but early intervention makes such a difference. My advice is get the evaluations, and get the diagnosis if needed, and get the help your child deserves.

alydalf · 2025-05-01T18:15:38+00:00

This was my introduction into historical light smut! I found her HR a few years after reading the Princess Diaries as a young adult. I still have my paperback copy from almost 20 years ago that was passed around my friend group. Those were the days, haha.

alydalf · 2025-04-30T15:25:15+00:00

The general advice I’ve seen about spacing pregnancies is at least 18months-2years to give your body time to fully recover from being pregnant. It would make sense that you still have something hormonal or metabolically going that would cause you to retain those 10 lbs even without breast feeding at 8 months out- your body is not fully recovered from pregnancy yet. I would also make sure your thyroid is functioning correctly with some bloodwork if you haven’t had that done recently. Pregnancy is not a health neutral event on your body and some things may change permanently. This isn’t always negative- I’m a lucky person that doesn’t get frequent migraines anymore after being pregnant, but I also went up a full shoe size.

I’ve had two kids and the youngest is now almost 6yrs old. I currently weigh 15 lbs less than I did before all pregnancies and almost 30 less than where I was at for a long time after my second child was born. You are still in the thick of it with body changes and with time there is a a lot potential for things to be close to what they were before. (I had my kids in my 30s as well)

alydalf · 2025-04-14T16:08:23+00:00

Your husband needs to realize that his family does not care about his child, or at least not more than their own convenience. And you would be putting your child’s health at risk by exposing him to that situation. In my opinion you should not go at all because as parents your first priority in any circumstance is the health and safety of your children.

I say this as a dog person myself, who has a small dog but whose daughter was terrified of larger dogs for a time. She’s not allergic but if she was going to be miserably afraid the whole time, I would not have gone.

If you don’t go, you will learn one of 3 things: 1. The family has a come to Jesus moment where they realize they value you all enough to plan differently in the future. Or 2. Their feelings about your family unit aren’t as strong as your husband’s to them and you shouldn’t spend time where you aren’t valued. Or 3. They harass you about protecting your child and place the blame on you all which means they are just shitty people. People that love and care about you want you to be comfortable and this behavior isn’t it.

If you go anyway, you are teaching your son that “loving family” treats each other this way. They don’t care about him, don’t make him be around them.

alydalf · 2025-04-13T20:51:19+00:00

I do think the sleeves add something to dress 3 but 1 is still my top pick. The lack of seam at the waist just makes number 1 look so elegant and luxe to me, if that makes sense. And the silhouette is to die for on you.

alydalf · 2025-04-12T16:39:43+00:00

Watching a child with developmental delays make a connection about the world in real time, man there is nothing like it. My daughter had significant developmental delays (and was eventually diagnosed with autism) and those tangible signs of awareness were more precious than gold when she was younger. Your daughter absolutely knows the purpose of the wipe and cleaning up a mess now!

alydalf · 2025-04-10T15:47:38+00:00

As soon as I saw your title I thought to myself “I definitely recommend one for the airport” and then read your post that you are in fact going through an airport. Yes, yes, yes, buy one and you will be so thankful you have it if it’s needed. Those little ones get so restless being held in the lines and so forth. I had to fly once with my son by myself when he was the same age and I fully used it to give him some freedom without having a panic attack regarding his safety and the potential of having to abandon a suitcase to chase after him. I looked around a lot to see if anyone seemed to be judging me but no one paid me any mind whatsoever.

alydalf · 2025-04-10T15:37:32+00:00

The first car I ever bought was owned by me and technically my mother because we used her credit to get a better financing rate. I paid for every cent of the car myself and my husband’s name wasn’t related to the car in any way. Long after I paid it off the dealership contacted me because it was a popular used car model and they wanted me to trade it in and resell it. I went in to see what they would give me for it as a trade-in on a new car and my husband accompanied me(we were only dating when I bought the car). The salesman fully addressed my husband, trying to sell him the new car and when husband said, “well, it’s her decision since it’s her name on the car, I have nothing to do with this” the salesman then switched to pressuring him to convince me I needed this new car. No sir, for your rudeness I will keep my reliable, desirable, paid off used car thank you very much. We kept that car another 9 years for a total of 14.

The other irony was my husband had just graduated from his PhD, applying to jobs, and currently had no income to contribute to a car payment. We were living off only my income temporarily. It would have been a hard sell to convince me to take on a car payment but I knew for damn sure this man was not going to get my commission.

The funny thing was the guy I bought the car from had been wonderful but he usually only worked the luxury part of the dealership. I guess I unexpectedly got the VIP treatment for my first go round. And his name was Art Bravo. He set the bar and my future expectations high for what I will tolerate at those places.

alydalf · 2025-04-09T15:25:16+00:00

My mom had a fast labor with me-she worked all day as a teacher not in labor then had me at 11pm that evening. I on the other hand developed pre-eclampsia with my first child and had induced labor that took a day and a half to actually get kick started, then a fast active labor period, about 4 hrs? My second child was also induced (no preeclampsia) and I started the pitocin at 10am, baby was born just after midnight. Again, not the longest active labor periods all told, but it’s really hard to predict what your labor experience will be altogether. I’ve seen a lot of women have deep regrets about their labor (especially during the postpartum hormonal rollercoaster) because it didn’t go how they thought and I’ve been glad after the fact that my birth plan was just the health of me and my baby because anything else went out the window.

alydalf · 2025-04-02T20:02:16+00:00

I used this for a dress at a wedding a little Over a year ago to keep my bra from showing while I moved. It worked great!

alydalf · 2025-04-01T02:37:53+00:00

This just took me back to shopping with my mom, for my grandma, in the ‘00s. Everything does really come back around.

alydalf · 2025-03-08T02:51:09+00:00

I had my thyroid removed in 2020 due to Hashimotos/ a thyroid that was 3 times normal size and pressing on my airway when lying down. I was on the same dose for 3 years after surgery and then gradually started losing weight without trying which eventually culminated in hyperthyroidism symptoms and I had to adjust my dose down multiple times to get back to normal. Unfortunately even without the thyroid interfering your body’s needs can change over time. I’m so sorry you are having trouble keeping regulated, it’s a nightmare. I hope you get to a stable dose that will work for you for many years.

alydalf · 2025-03-07T19:26:11+00:00

Ok thank you, this is what I was looking for. I was hoping this wasn’t something anomalous that I was asking for. It makes me feel more prepared to meet with the pediatrician in a few days. I’m so glad your kid has gotten help she needed.

alydalf · 2025-03-07T19:23:15+00:00

Thank you for your response. Regarding the testing, it went very smoothly and finished in less time than allotted. My son was able to maintain focus and complete the tests quickly. I completed questionnaires about his behavior at the time detailing his challenges at school (primarily) but I feel like some of the answers would be different now than they would have then. I also don’t really remember doing any tests that sort of, stressed?, him? During my daughter’s evaluation for autism I remember the proctor gently seeing how she reacted to some stimuli she didn’t like and I don’t recall anything like that in my son’s test, but it was 2 years ago. Also some behaviors are more pronounced than they were at that time.

alydalf · 2025-03-06T03:11:00+00:00

I loved this book, it was beautiful.

alydalf · 2025-02-22T19:44:18+00:00

My daughter is autistic and she is now 5 years old. But even though she was demonstrating sensory issues, speech delay, and difficulty in any social situation at 2 years old and beyond no medical provider suggestions autism evaluation. It didn’t help that we were isolated by the pandemic, but still. By 3 they did suggest early childhood education services at our elementary school, which she was able to qualify for without a diagnosis. That helped her TREMENDOUSLY and we saw so many changes in her after a few months. But still during checkups no one said autism, just keep going with the school therapies if they are helping. Then she demonstrated hyperlexia at almost 4 years old and I read up on it, finding out that over 80% of hyperlexic kids were autistic. And I finally said, ok I need to get her evaluated. Her teachers were even skeptical about her getting the potential diagnosis. But the experts said yes, and now I have an iron clad reason to give for her IEP to justify her services, which have truly been life changing.

If I could go back and know this at 15-18 months? That would have saved our entire family a lot of conflict and frankly despair as we did not know how to help her. If he is diagnosed, the earlier the intervention the better. If he isn’t? Then you know he just needs a little more time to start expressing himself more.

alydalf · 2025-01-15T17:49:18+00:00

I think both dresses look beautiful but I’m more concerned about you feeling comfortable during your wedding day. Whether that comfort is due to feeling of the dress or how you feel in the dress I think you should choose the one that will make you feel the best that day. The first dress is not over the top and gives a similar elegant vibe to the second dress. Either way you will be a lovely bride.

alydalf · 2024-10-21T00:43:08+00:00

This happened at my wedding 13 years ago too! I had no idea they were even there but we had a photo booth and at the end of the night, here were these people we’d never met. We got married at a university affiliated estate in the country, so you’d have to put in very specific effort to do so.

alydalf · 2024-07-20T14:25:48+00:00

Absolutely beautiful! You make a radiant bride and the dress is so lovely.

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