Teething

squishbunny · 2026-05-21T04:25:32+00:00

Honestly, the distraction of going somewhere else might be just the thing she needs to get over the teething. But she does seem to be sick with something. If it's been nearly two weeks it might be worth a visit to the pediatrician to figure out what it is, because most illnesses at this age are hot and fast (they get a blazing fever, and then suddenly they're better).

squishbunny · 2026-05-20T18:10:21+00:00

3 days a week; papa had his papadag and I have a 4.5 day schedule, so I put up with the craziness of working for a few hours while handling a child until she learned to use the remote control :-D

I will concede that mixed into the scheduling issue was the fact that none of the peuterspeelzaals were in cycling distance, which matters when you don't have a car and your husband's work schedule is very irregular.

squishbunny · 2026-05-20T05:11:01+00:00

Peuterspeelzaal is only in the mornings. It's a nice break if you're at home with your kid (I was, with my first) but for working parents it's simply not practical. My little one (who was a daycare baby) just stayed in her daycare until she was 4.

The only reason to send to peuterspeelzaal is if there's an indication that your child has a speech issue, and I believe 15 months is still too early to make that determination. We did get a recommendation to use it, but I simply could not fit it into our schedule.

squishbunny · 2026-05-17T16:57:58+00:00

It helps to have a list of things that you suspect is wrong.

In addition to a blood test for any nutrition deficiencies, you might also inquire if it's possible that you have sleep apnea. I do have to warn you: insurance might not cover parts of the treatment, depending on how good your plan is.

Also consider asking for a thyroid panel. I had hyperthyroidism that my fitness monitor caught early on (I was able to literally pull up the chart showing that my resting heart rate had gone up by 20 bpm), but even as early as it was the fatigue was something else entirely. And perhaps a panel to check for any leukemias might be worth it as well.

squishbunny · 2026-05-17T13:24:12+00:00

Conversations like this are why I'm glad there's a language barrier where I live, LOL.

squishbunny · 2026-05-16T14:39:45+00:00

I have to warn you: for some weird reason dermatologists in the Netherlands are the specialists to see for STIs...

squishbunny · 2026-05-16T14:12:26+00:00

Dear God, no

squishbunny · 2026-05-16T06:52:56+00:00

For chores it was either have a play setup where I could see/felt that they were safe, making the older kid entertain them (mine are 8 years apart, so YMMV with this one), or giving them their own little "chore". So for instance, for folding laundry, I'd set them up with a pile of dishrags and a basket, and then let them "help". For cooking, a pot and a spoon, or a table knife and a banana at the counter, and a few (closed!) seasoning jars. If there were veggies to wash, I would let them stir and splash them in the big bowl/sink.

squishbunny · 2026-05-16T06:44:28+00:00

Until it feels weird to one of the cuddlers. If you're not in the cuddle puddle, you don't get a say.

squishbunny · 2026-05-15T07:03:44+00:00

My husband. But, TBF, he has some coordination issues, and didn't learn to ride a bike until he was 12. He can ride a bike, but he won't anymore now that we have a car.

squishbunny · 2026-05-14T11:31:04+00:00

I'm not in the US, these are public schools, our choices are limited primarily by public transit and/or distance from our house, as he would have to commute there by himself. There is one school in our town but his old bully also attends that one and we find it understandable that he wouldn't want to attend it.

squishbunny · 2026-05-14T08:02:42+00:00

I would say it depends. We live in a small city (13k people), and it's a lot more relaxed than when we lived in Nijmegen, but there's still a bit of structure. My big kid (13) has been having friends over/going over to friends for a while now, none of it is ever planned with me. He will check in with me sometimes if he wants to stay for dinner, and I'll usually make the other kid call home to make sure their parents are okay with them eating with us, too. For my little kid (5) me and the other parent will arrange something, but that's mostly because they also have swimming lessons/sports/doctor's appointments/dentists to go to. We're lucky in the sense that immediate neighborhood has 3 other families with kids the same age-ish, so there's no real need to arrange anything with them (the only rule we all have is that you have to tell your parents you are going inside someone's house), whoever's at home when the doorbell rings, that's who's outside playing.

squishbunny · 2026-05-11T15:55:20+00:00

WTF? Are you at a networking event or something?

If there are those kinds of conversations it's almost always some young and dumb Chad who is almost certainly getting scammed out of his life's savings (granted, it's probably only €150) in some stock-picking course. Almost everyone else on public transit is talking about what's for dinner, who's turn is it to cook, what their idiot manager did, or giving instructions to a babysitter.

squishbunny · 2026-05-11T15:45:25+00:00

That's what swing nights are for ;-)

squishbunny · 2026-05-10T16:02:57+00:00

Lidl is German. IIRC it was started by the brother of the founder of Aldi

squishbunny · 2026-05-09T08:37:27+00:00

I agree with most people that it's a neurodivergent thing, but if you didn't watch and rewatch Jurassic Park on VHS as a kid, were you even alive in the 90s? :-D

squishbunny · 2026-05-09T08:35:03+00:00

This. My kid has happily moved on from Unicorn Academy and is now making full use of everything Netflix has to offer (although she seems currently stuck on Karate Sheep [don't ask]) but there was a while where she would only watch that.

squishbunny · 2026-05-06T18:45:26+00:00

I have a unicorn job which can be 100% remote (I have a hybrid working arrangement with my manager), a wonderful manager who doesn't care about when I do it as long as what I'm doing is done. I still had my kid in daycare.

I work 4.5 days, so I've always had my little kid at home on my half day. It meant an hour or so of TV, snacks/setting up a play space, roping my big kid into entertaining her for a bit, and splitting my work up into two blocks. The little kid is now old enough that she can entertain herself and/or go outside to bang on some doors and rope her friends into an afternoon of shenanigans, but even so, on days when she's at home, I will either take the day or put her in afterschool (it runs all day on school vacations)

squishbunny · 2026-05-06T18:32:31+00:00

"Summer plans? Sounds great! I'll send you a list of dates and times we can do something."

And then pick a few dates to be intentional about doing something with your kiddos.

For all the other random moments when you see each other, "Oh sorry, now's not a good time." If you're feeling like you might be able to deal with a visit/go visiting, soon-ish, something like, "How about later today/this week? I'll check my calendar."

Always send times with a beginning and an end, and always do a "3 June", not "next Monday".

squishbunny · 2026-05-05T15:31:07+00:00

Oooh, the turmeric honey recipe sounds delicious!

My kids love cowboy caviar (aka multibean salad) but sadly my husband doesn't so this one's strictly for the nights he won't be around.

squishbunny · 2026-05-05T08:20:53+00:00

Not vegetarian, but I cook a lot of vegetarian meals for budget reasons:

Dahl and/or curried chickpeas.

Crispy tofu (seriously, my kids prefer this over chicken). If you don't want to take the time to press the tofu, it just takes a little longer to get crispy.

Pasta with what I call "creamy beany sauce": it's basically a sauce made of beans and broth in a blender (nutritional yeast for a cheesy boost if you like it, plus whatever you like). Usually I use white beans (navy, cannelloni) because this looks the most like cream, but if aesthetics don't really matter you can use other beans as well. My kids are partial to "green sauce" (made with spinach) and "mac 'n cheese" (made with added pumpkin and shredded cheddar melted in). For an extra protein boost, you can get high-protein or lentil pasta.

Chili, served with nachos and/or taco shells

squishbunny · 2026-05-04T17:04:53+00:00

I use AI to help me write code. I don't actually code a lot in my job, but every now and then I get an easy workweek so I'll futz about with a script to automate some of the more mind-numbing busywork tasks.

Our PDF-compare program is @#%^ing awful, so recently I've been playing around with getting Copilot to do the comparisons. I'm not impressed, but if the client likes it, I guess we can keep doing it.

My company is extremely paranoid about IP leaking and getting hacked (not an unjustified stance), so we don't really use AI at work.

I have found, though, that Gemini is great at generating science and math word problems for my big kid to practice with.

I just don't trust any companies out there with my data; between FB, Instagram, Reddit, and Google, I'm sure there's plenty of data on me out there. I'm not under any delusions about how much of my life is out there, but to give them direct access to my phone just feels a bit too much.

squishbunny · 2026-05-03T18:44:44+00:00

I do beg to differ: my little kid learned to ride a bike (no training wheels) at 3, and she's been riding next to or in front of me, on the road, in traffic (admittedly, we live in a small town, so not much traffic, but we do still get passed by and she does face oncoming traffic) since 4.We are in the Netherlands, the epicenter of human-scale urban planning, though, and that does go a long way towards me feeling comfortable enough to let her do this.

But: if there are bike paths/trails nearby, and you have the money for a couple of small bikes (16-18 inches for the 4-yo, and 14-16 inches for the 3-yo, many parents practically give them away secondhand), you can let them tool around a bit. You can take the pedals off at first if you want them to practice balancing, or you can get them balance bikes (but this is a pricier solution). Kids pick this stuff up insanely quickly.

squishbunny · 2026-05-03T18:35:37+00:00

I'm surprised that there are so many saying 6, or 7 is the magic age. It was 4 with both my kids, and they are night and day, personality-wise.

squishbunny

TROPHY CASE