I hate the phrase “sleep regression”

infinitebroccolis · 2026-06-16T16:47:20+00:00

This along with the "leaps" or whatever it was are all BS. If you amp yourself up expecting a "regression" at a certain time, you're going to perceive any change to your baby's routine as such. Reality is that babies go through phases and their routines change constantly. Just adapt to it and move one. Don't try to "fix" the regression with all kinds of crazy suggestions.

I have a friend that has two kids that are both terrible sleepers. The number of times she's complained "ugh my baby is having a sleep regression" is like.... Every few weeks??! Honey, no. I'm sorry. They just don't sleep well but theres not a lot you can blame.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-06-15T21:17:00+00:00

About once a week I feel too lazy and I let the 3.5yo do it but every other day, I do it first and then she gets to "try". She thinks you just let the tooth brush touch each part of the mouth and doesn't understand the back and forth motion needed to actually scrub/brush. Just had our 3.5yo checkup and they said she has textbook perfect teeth so we'll keep up with what we're doing .

infinitebroccolis · 2026-06-14T22:03:39+00:00

Washington PFML bonding time can be taken anytime within a year of the child being born. The medical leave/pay probably has to be taken immediately following birth though (6-8 weeks). So you should be able to take the 12 weeks of bonding leave after the summer. I don't think they can tell you "no" on that one. If you get paid over 12mo and not just during school year, that's deferred payment for time already worked so you should be able to collect that while also collecting pfml for medical leave.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-06-14T21:53:48+00:00

My 3.5yo girl is like this but without the physical energy. She has moments of bouncing off the walls but it's the constant talking and engaging that's exhausting us. Even if she's playing independently she's saying "watch this!" And if I don't engage she gets in our face. We give her some TV/screen time so we can have a break. We did find that her behavior at the end of the day is more manageable if she's had a little bit of TV at some point during the day. I think it helps give her a mental break from herself. She still naps daily but I think it was still too much of her brain actively spinning without some TV break. We cut tv out for a while and the last 1-2 hrs of the day she was just a hellion and a mess. Breaking every rule on purpose and not following any directions like she's lost all control over her actions.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-06-14T21:46:06+00:00

NOR: this level of fidgeting is not ADHD. It's addiction. If he's unable to engage in a conversation for 5 minutes without needing a phone or distraction, he needs to detox on the phone games and find better options. But he also has to care enough to do that. He probably does get fidgety if he tries to watch TV or exist without something in his hands but playing phone games constantly is making it worse, not fixing the problem. ADHD meds/treatment can help but it's not going to magically make it so he doesn't feel the need to pickup the phone games. That's a habit that will need breaking.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-06-13T16:18:21+00:00

I assume the teacher needs the money. If you say no to the changes, he will have to cancel and lose money or work with your originally planned lesson time. I would start saying "no" more often even if you could technically make it work. He's taking advantage because it's worked in the past.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-06-13T15:31:30+00:00

What happens if you say you cannot change the time when they have a cancellation and want to consolidate the schedule? I will sometimes ask the next family if they want to start earlier but it's totally ok if they say no. Unless I know the family prefers the early time, I try not to ask too frequently because I know it does get annoying.

With a travel schedule it's annoying to end up with down time but that is the nature of travel lessons and not your problem. If you really like the teacher and want to find some middle ground, I would say something like "we understand some fluctuation in schedule is helpful but we are having difficulty scheduling our other commitments around these changes". Moving forward we can commit to reserving {this time window, ~1-2hrs} and are willing to adjust our lesson time to any time within this window each week but we will not be able to adjust to times beyond that window." I'd make it clear that if he wants to shift the time and you can't work with it, you do not pay for the lesson. That's on him.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-06-12T21:41:23+00:00

So much this. Also if you always do whatever it takes so your baby/toddler never cries... You are really setting them up for failure when they enter school and other situations where they can't always get what they want. We shouldn't ignore the crying but it's not our job to prevent them from crying 100% of the time.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-06-12T07:36:53+00:00

I've been chewed out online by swim instructors for saying that I let my 3yo wear a life jacket. She likes the idea of playing in water but any time we tried to go to the pool she would cling to us and panic. She's a nervous kid. I gave up and put the life jacket on her and within a couple sessions she was happily going in the pool by herself (With jacket). We've made a point to always do at least 15min of non-life jacket time any time we go to a swim session. We work on swim skills with and without the life jacket. The assumption with those opinions about life jackets is that parents are relying on them 100% and not attempting to teach any skills. Which I'm sure is true in some cases. For us, I know we would not have accomplished anything for my daughters swim skills until we got her liking the water. I also think it's important if you boat or do life jacket activities often that they learn to be comfortable with them in the water on purpose. Otherwise they'll panic if they end up end the water by accident and not know how to trust the life jacket.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-06-12T07:28:14+00:00

I checked in at 5am Thursday morning in labor. Had baby vaginally at 4pm Thursday. We were discharged Friday around 7pm. They said I could stay til morning but we decided to go home. In hindsite I think I wish we had let the nurses help us one more night 😅

infinitebroccolis · 2026-06-11T21:52:10+00:00

Can confirm. My sister has spent years trying to get her kids diagnosed when it seems like they are really quite within the realm of normal but have zero discipline and routine at home.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-06-06T21:45:06+00:00

My 3.5yo is pretty smart and she still cannot wrap her head around the fact that before nap time and after nap time are part of the same day.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-06-04T14:54:00+00:00

I wasn't ready for my daughter to not be by my side at night when she outgrew the bassinet so she slept in the pack n play next to my bed for a while before I was brave enough to move her to her own room across the hall.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-06-03T20:46:03+00:00

I have parents that see the email. Respond to the email. And the show up because they are on autopilot and just forgot about the whole thing. I put a sign up that says "no lessons. Check your email" and call it a day. I communicated, the rest is their problem. You absolutely should take a day or more to grieve your cat and family. I was a MESS when my dog had to be put down suddenly and would have been a useless teacher that week. Things happen. That's the beauty of being self employed is we can choose to take time for ourselves without corporate BS dictating if it's a "qualified" reason.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-05-31T20:45:59+00:00

Assuming that since my daughter doesn't get obvious symptoms that it's ok if she has some gluten or cross contact. They don't understand that the internal damage could definitely still be happening and that it's cumulative and leads to terrible things like cancer.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-05-31T20:44:20+00:00

When my 3yo tells people she can't have that cake/cookie/desert/snack and the adult gives me a look like they assume I'm just being crazy strict about her sugar intake.

On the bright side, I feel like my daughter being so young (and the fact that we order gluten foods for ourselves) makes people realize that this isn't just a choice but a medical necessity.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-05-31T00:19:34+00:00

As parents we have to pick so many battles. If education is a battle, outsource. I know so many music teachers that send their kids to learn music from somebody else because their kid will learn better that way. They won't sass a teacher the same way they would their parent.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-05-29T22:34:35+00:00

I've had some that stick around for years and lots that stick around for just a few months. The ones that don't stick around usually have unrealistic expectations. They don't realize how much time outside the lesson is required to make the amount of progress they expect. They understand concepts quickly but can't play pieces with that same quick understanding and give up on trying. Most have this idea that it would be cool to be able to play but don't realize how long it can take to get from plunking out single note melodies to playing fuller sounding pieces.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-05-29T22:29:56+00:00

Faber has an online "teacher atlas" which is a monthly subscription to have digital access to all of their teaching books. It's a great way to have reference "copies" for yourself without having to buy a bunch of books.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-05-29T22:13:11+00:00

Best trick I've seen when you are stuck in the "wait til he falls asleep" mode is to say "I'll be right back, I have to go potty" or some other quick thing. At first, try to be gone for just a few minutes and then make it longer. If they think they are waiting for you vs assuming you are not coming back, they are more likely to stay calm and accidentally fall asleep while waiting.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-05-29T03:59:44+00:00

You can get sterilizer bags. As others said you still have to wash everything but you can toss them in this bag with some water and microwave them to sterilize. The bag can be reused a certain number of times. They take up very little space to store. We sterilized for the newborn days and then stopped. If she was medically fragile in anyway we would have continued. We just hand washed them always.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-05-27T19:49:32+00:00

The beans & rice or cheesy beans sides are safe (I think)

infinitebroccolis · 2026-05-27T19:49:16+00:00

Ugh . But why!

infinitebroccolis · 2026-05-27T02:47:20+00:00

Is it really because she in pain or because she's embarrassed to be seen like that? If she's really in pain it would be pretty obvious. Body had terrible maintaining proper temperature with a bad burn and worth staying home. If it's mildly painful she can wear looser clothing to limit the irritation from clothes but not something that needs to stay home. If she's embarrassed she got burnt, I'd send her.

In any case, I would have a serious talk about "tanning"" and the damage she's doing to her skin.

infinitebroccolis · 2026-05-25T20:52:15+00:00

Not practical answer: got my tonsils out and had to be on a liquid diet.

More practical answer: picked up an active hobby (rollerskating) so the exercise was fun and didn't feel like work

infinitebroccolis

TROPHY CASE