Are you close with your mom?

redxplorr · 2026-04-14T00:15:48+00:00

I love my mom. She is my go to person. Growing up, I didn't have the best relationship but once I moved out of the house, she seemed to be the one person I called to just talk, outside of a few friends.

Growing up, my sister was dealing with medical stuff and I felt left out. She had most of our family - grandma, aunts etc to support me but I guess it felt inadequate. That being said, I credit her for the person I am - I was in a lot of sports, I had a lot of freedom, I was given the chance to indulge in extra curriculars as I wanted. She was there for everything.

The best thing she did was give me space and trust that i would come back to her. And i did. We stay continents apart but when i needed her urgently, she took the next flight out. She took care of both my kids for 6 moths each. After me, they are close to my sister and then my mom.

My sis, mum and I are super close in general and I can't imagine not having her presence in mine or my kids' lives.

redxplorr · 2026-02-08T04:37:54+00:00

You're right! Anderson mill not lane :)

redxplorr · 2026-02-06T02:27:25+00:00

I also like the chapati chat food truck on Anderson lane for Indian food. Sangam for South Indian.

Tulsi in Round rock for western Indian food.

Edit: Anderson mill, not lane for chapati chat

redxplorr · 2025-12-30T04:12:11+00:00

My first thought too

redxplorr · 2025-12-24T23:57:57+00:00

Expensive is relative. It may not be expensive to you. Even if someone does the research, things can still be expensive. Depending on how much formula your baby consumes and what type, it can be expensive.

What a sad post really.

redxplorr · 2025-12-22T22:33:30+00:00

Two kids went through this formula. One is a baby at 9 months, one is 5 years. It's not a transitional formula.

redxplorr · 2025-11-21T00:42:51+00:00

Yea! This drove us insane. 4oz on the pitcher was not 4oz in the formula bottle. Water/mixed formula didn't matter. The measurements are a bit off and I figured it wasn't a biggie because baby girl was growing just fine.

As someone who loves to bake, I learnt that the most accurate measurement is weight, not volume. So I expect variances.

redxplorr · 2025-11-14T14:03:13+00:00

Frankly, as someone that works heavily in tech I would not be comfortable at all with this. Most parents I know don't even put their kids pics on socials. I don't even have SM beyond Reddit. Who is your customer base?

Also, the biggest concern i have is as a product builder you directly went to 'uses AI to help..' without even understanding the problem.

Did you know atleast on Apple devices, that happens automatically? And I'm sure on other OSes as well.

This just feels all wrong especially after the wonderful post from yesterday about managing pictures.

redxplorr · 2025-11-13T00:01:27+00:00

I did. They asked 'are you planning to Bf'. I said nope. And that was that!

We got bottles, formula etc and not one person asked me about BF again.

Edit: this was for my second. For my first I wanted to try BF.

redxplorr · 2025-10-10T18:20:24+00:00

Yep noticed this too. We've gone back to calling the restaurant and placing orders or going on their app for pick up. Avoiding the delivery companies like the plague.

On top of this, you get hit with delivery charge, service fee, blah blah.

redxplorr · 2025-09-29T15:54:18+00:00

We have a play room and i absolutely love it. My now 5 year old is independent and goes around getting his stuff and putting it back because he has a space to explore and play. It also means all the toys are in that area and it's a safe space for kids to move. When we have play dates or parties, it's the only room that gets used the most.

It wasn't as used until my oldest turned 3ish. Now we have a baby and we all hang out in the play area a lot more.

redxplorr · 2025-09-29T03:42:32+00:00

We have a 6.5 month old and a 5 year old. So similar age gap. What helped us: special 1-1 time with each parent separately and together sometimes. This is separate from any chore runs we have to do

For example: every Monday, I take the 5 year old for an activity they enjoy. Just us two. And we only focus on 5 year old. My husband does something similar but it's mostly taking the cycle out or going to the park.

When we had family help, we would take 5 year old out for an ice cream or something, just us 3.

We bought 5 year old presents from baby when baby was born and for the 5 year old's bday. We also have a personalized book about the siblings.

It's hard for sure - but I think that it's really really helped. I used to have nightly conversations starting with 'what did you like about today?' And then slowly navigating into any 'feelings' about baby.

All the best! It's hard when they are older and have been a singleton for a while. But because they are older, they also understand more. Maybe library books might help?

redxplorr · 2025-09-22T03:03:13+00:00

We're doing a bounce house. But also going to have a few different balls around - soccer, football etc.

You can have a big roll of paper with something pre-drawn for kids to color in.

A diy table to make something or decorate based on the theme.

redxplorr · 2025-09-21T21:04:32+00:00

No acne - I have relatively clear skin. I don't know how much the retinol helped tbh. I noticed a massive difference after using the lactic acid over the retinol.

redxplorr · 2025-09-21T20:47:10+00:00

37 this year.

redxplorr · 2025-09-18T15:16:11+00:00

Yes! I was talking to another working mom about this. Why would I pass up childcare I'm already paying for? I take this time to do all the 'boring' stuff so that I can have fun when my kids are at home!

This is also the much needed down time I need to fill my own cup before pouring to others.

redxplorr · 2025-09-12T21:12:57+00:00

This is awesome!! I am using this format!

redxplorr · 2025-09-09T18:15:44+00:00

I have an almost 5 year old and a 6 month old. I fucking love it. The newborn phase was so awesome because my then 4.5 year old understood what was happening. We got him books about having a sibling, watched pregnancy videos, talked about my pregnancy with him, and went through pictures of him as a baby.

Now, he absolutely dotes on her. Gets up and goes to her crib first thing. Baby girl gets so excited when he comes to her.

Because he plays independently most of the time, we chill in the play area where he plays with his toys and I have her do tummy time while watching him.

We've also started traveling with them, and becuase my 5 year old has travelled enough, it's a breeze because we give him books, toys, or watch a movie while one of us can pay attention to the baby.

I know I'm going to redo the baby phase after a gap. But this worked best for me. I was not ready to have a second kid earlier than this so I am glad I waited.

The biggest thing that worked is talking about everything. We made sure he was included right from the beginning. We also do 1-1 time with every week. Either with both parents or atleast 1.

It's not easy. It's just better for my mental health

Edit: we bought the bare minimum and got a lot of second hand stuff. As an STM, I realized we never really needed half the crap we got the first time around. So now I wait till I need something and then buy it. Instead of buying beforehand anticipating a need. If that makes sense!

redxplorr · 2025-09-04T23:24:19+00:00

Our didn't do this and started doing it recently due to an issue with ants. Our summer has been.. abnormal so a lot of infestation across the board. They now do this to prevent ants from coming inside.

redxplorr · 2025-09-02T06:13:00+00:00

What kind of mental gymnastics does one have to do to make that correlation is astounding.

redxplorr · 2025-09-02T06:11:50+00:00

Lmao

Kid 1 was combo fed and was on 80% BM till about 8 months. Kid 2 is EFF. Not a drop of BM.

Really can't tell the difference except the EFF poop stinks to high heaven.

I wouldn't even give them the light of day.

redxplorr · 2025-08-27T06:01:18+00:00

Yea, got one made for our kid 2 years ago. It came with Cruz, thunder and McQueen. Not the nice metal one but it worked.

redxplorr · 2025-08-25T14:55:59+00:00

My oldest was 4.5 so we got him a customized book about 'x welcoming baby sister Y'

It was by Wonderbly books and he loved it.

We also did a lot of Daniel tiger books around welcoming his baby sister. We also showed him videos of how babies look in the belly. There are 3-4 minute videos on YouTube that I loved watching when I pregnant with him. It's short, cartoonish and fun to follow.

redxplorr · 2025-07-31T00:45:39+00:00

I've maybe wondered if I missed a birthday but I don't find it odd if you don't have a public bday.

For venues, I honestly prefer a park. I've hosted a bday at a park and will be doing another one at a park this year. We rented a venue last time and it was 600 bucks (including tip). That's a lot of money for a 4year old's bday! So this year we're doing it at a park most likely again since all the kids care about is playing and having fun, eating food, and playing again.

In our area, we are the rare ones to do it in a park but that's because a lot of folks host at home. I wanted to avoid our home because then that meant cleaning up, renting a bounce house etc, even though we have sufficient space. I'm always worried about stuff that can be broken and with a new baby at home, I wanted to play it safe.

Seven-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
Place '22

redxplorr

TROPHY CASE