a four-year-old's take on MLK Day
 

L'il Ty explained to me last night that this weekend will be three days long instead of two days long because, before, there were bad rules, and then a man named Walter King came along and he fixed the bad rules.

Glad that's clear.

MLK day
 

Last week the lone Black child in my Mom's class of 4yos exuberantly told my mom that this was her most favorite holiday because, "it's when we celebrate all the brown people!" This guilted my mom into preparing a lesson on MLK day (instead of just sending home a MLK hand-out to color on their day off) which she has never done before. Hooray for progress - now they will all learn about Walter King!

MLK day
 

I can tell you that I went to High School with Walter King. I saw him at my reunion a couple of years back. He hasn't changed a bit from when I knew him. He walked into the hall, resplendent in his white suit and orange shoes. Walter King is one of the few guys I know who can pull this outfit off.

MLK day
 

I love orange shoes. Not that this fact has anything to do with the discussion at hand. Carry on.

Good Lord!
 

Romanian Woman, 66, Said to Be World's Oldest Mom

Jan 16, 1:22 PM (ET)

BUCHAREST, Romania (Reuters) - A 66-year-old Romanian woman gave birth to a baby girl Sunday after years of fertility treatment and was claimed by Romanian media to be the world's oldest mother ever.

Adriana Iliescu, a university professor and author of children's books, had been pregnant with twin girls. One died in the womb and doctors decided to perform a cesarean section in the 33rd week of pregnancy to save the other. "We wanted to wait until the 34th week of pregnancy, when the children's lungs would have reached full maturity, but we noticed Saturday that the heart of one of the little girls had stopped beating," Dr. Bogdan Marinescu, chief of the Giulesti maternity hospital in Bucharest, told a news conference.

"We decided to proceed with the operation to save the second girl," Marinescu added. Marinescu said both the mother and the child, who weighs 3.1 pounds and whose name is Eliza-Maria, were in stable condition but the little girl would have to spend up to six weeks in hospital to reach two kg in weight.

Iliescu, who will be 67 in May, became pregnant via in vitro fertilization and doctors said this was her third attempt at carrying a pregnancy to term.

He said the eggs and sperm used had come from "healthy young people."

"From a biological point of view, Ms Iliescu proved that she can carry a pregnancy to the end," Marinescu said. "We managed to solve a case which made us all very nervous."

Two years ago, a 65 year-old retired schoolteacher in India gave birth to a baby boy.

Inundated with Babies!
 

It's just really hit me that in ~5months I will have not one but two babies to handle while I attempt to work at home. I'm thinking this is not do-able, though I only do legal work a couple hours a day, max, now. I had a HS kid 2 days a week last summer and that worked fine, but she did need some supervision, though it was budget-friendly. I wouldn't be working at all if we didn't need the income, trust me. Anyone have any ideas that won't break the bank?

Has anyone used a Mother's Day Out program and been happy with it? Being in Texas, I am surrounded by churches, so there are probably some programs around. I suppose it depends on the location, but how preachy can they get with an 18mo old? This is a big concern for me since we are not religious people. I came home from my Baptist (my parents are not Baptist) kindergarten and at 4 years old told my parents they were both going to hell from listening to Rock-n-Roll (That would be ABBA and Barry Manilow, but what did I know - maybe you do go to hell from listening to them?).

Inundated with Babies!
 

I have to say based on my extensive babysitting experience that I got a lot less flak from Catholic and Jewish kids than from Protestant kids ("YOU DON"T GO TO CHURCH?????"). My nephews went to "Akiba" (an Akiba? an akiba? whatever) for preschool and, while I think they had activities around the fun Jewish holidays, it wasn't very indoctrinary, and I think that it was treated as a learning thing with acknowledgment that not all the kids were Jewish.

I don't know what all runs Mother's Day Out programs in your area, but I do sympathize with a desire to avoid having your kids become convinced Mommy and Daddy are going to burn in hell. I think that would be disturbing for them.

ETA I think that ABBA's pretty damn rock n roll, but it's more about feeling her TITS and dancing with her at weddings than any music she might produce.

Inundated with Babies!
 

Listening to me is generally conducive to retirement in a warm community so I don't think you were so far off.

I see fringy beat me to it.

Inundated with Babies!
 

I believe that the word that you are looking for is Akiva.

aV

Inundated with Babies!
 

Well slap my ass and call me Elsie, I bet you're right. I only ever hear the word, never see it.

So is it "an" or "the"? What does it mean?

Inundated with Babies!
 

Akiva is the name of a very famous Rabbi. According to history/tradition/legend he was a man from a very poor background who did not begin studying the Torah until much later in his life. He became a great teacher who wrote many legal (halachic?) opinions.

He was martyred when he was executed in a Roman hippodrome on Yom Kippur.

Many Jewish schools use his name as the name of the school because of his connection with learning. The school that your nephews went to was probably known as "The Akiva School" of X city that is (I would think) simply called Akiva.

aV

My son took a dive out of a Target shopping cart this evening and has a bump on his head the size and color of a Sacramento Kings commemorative golf ball. Which is bad enough, and the screaming and all has been fun, too, but I'm worried that he may have more seriously injured himself. Anyone know anything about subdural hemotomas, or infant concussions, etc.? Anyone want to tell me stories about their children's imperviousness to serious head injuries?

If you aren't going to go to the emergency room, at least talk to the damn pediatrician who is on call for your doctor's practice this weekend.

He wasn't asking you. He was asking Bilmore.

Ty, if it's any consolation, I gave my son a quarter-sized purple spot on his forehead when I accidentally bonked him while working on a piece of furniture this afternoon. Going to the hospital never occurred to me; those assholes are mandatory reporters.

My rule of thumb is probably the same as Bilmore's: loss of consciousness, or any difference in pupil sizes. Either of those symptoms present = hospital. Anything else = watch closely.

Crying= don't worry. *

* I think. A few un necessary ER visits are par for the course for new parents. why deny yourself the experience?