Perfect- was looking for a cute gift.
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Just put it in my Amazon cart.
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Fabulous day with the family and egg hunt. They are so precious.
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D and family are staying with us this week at shore house cuz Grandkids are on spring break (5 and almost 3) so H (also on spring break) and I can watch them while parents WFH. It’s going to rain all week. Keep us in your prayers 
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for Garland’s week!
But such fun ages.
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GD is 20 months old now and talking a lot in both English and Spanish. According to the daycare teachers she knows all of her classmates names and knows which parents belong to which friend. She enjoys going and socializing there.
They were at our house for brunch yesterday and I had a small “egg hunt” set up (12 empty plastic eggs, she doesn’t really eat candy) and once we showed her with the first few eggs she caught on and enjoyed looking for more. I have a feeling we will be playing this game at my house frequently
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Oh for sure! 
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I wish our GDs’ parents would agree on rules they want to enforce and want us to enforce; instead we get conflicting messages. We also aren’t regularly updated when their rules change, and they persist in passing along information verbally to H when he picks up/drops off the girls rather than always texting us. H tunes out SiL who’s prone to spout conspiracy theories and other nonsense while H is trying to listen to the GDs, so he has missed both instructions and invitations.
D texted us about something we were apparently supposed to have been doing differently now with older GD and she’s clearly upset with us. I replied that SiL told H something else a few months ago and we’d not been told otherwise since then. When I followed up with D at that time she said to permit it only if GD specifically asked, which is what we’ve done. SiL chimed in, texting that now we need to do what D says. Okay. I’m sure there will be tears but hope we can help GD deal with the situation.
We walk on eggshells with D as it is and will never have a close relationship, but want to remain in the GDs’ lives and try to be a positive influence to counter the fear-mongering they’re likely to hear at home.
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Son-in-law’s parents are not in good health – his dad’s Parkinson’s disease is progressing, and mother is handling things as best she can. His parents are making a rare flight for a family event at his brother’s place (only the two sons) - so that will be a time when their nuclear family/spouses/grandkids will be all together since Christmas 2022 which was at the parents’ home. The brothers live within driving distance, and DD/SIL are helping his parents with accommodations after their flight in, to get a rental car, as his brother lives in a city where you need a car to get there. At the Christmas gathering, the DILs planned meals and took over the cooking/food shopping.
Meanwhile, DH and I have been the back up help for DD/SIL/gkids when they lived 100 miles from us, as well as now with them 1000 miles away and DH and me retired. I follow the directives/plan of DD (and SIL follows DD’s lead) - which generally is just doing many things the same way she does when it comes to kitchen work, laundry work, handling the kids’ schedules and interactions. She once told me she wants to raise her kids the way her sister and she were raised - so I generally do acceptable things. Between Christmas and New Year’s, two grandkids needed to be cared for at home and neither parent could take off work entirely to cover the times. With the dad away for 4 weeks training these last few weeks, it takes a second adult to care for the schedules of the 4 kids ages 9 months to 5 1/2 years as both parents work full time. I have picked up the dad’s responsibilities and have had the time to do more home responsibilities too. Nana handles the parents’ rules, but also is a bit firmer (I won’t ask and ask and ask for a child to behave, I will tell them a 2nd time and then say they need to correct and don’t make me come over there…) - and I will put them into time out. They test the limits, but I look them in the eye and remind them that “Nana doesn’t fool around”. DD sometimes just give in and then explodes with one or more of the older 3 kids due to building aggravation as well as being exhausted/overtired - and the 3 older kids know they need to behave or there will be consequences. The older two kids (especially the oldest) like to ‘take charge’ and request things that make life a bit of a circus. An example - changing the dinner seating. Finally I said, “This is where I am sitting every evening for dinner. Period”. I don’t need to be jacked around with this. DD has to be firm with bedtime because she has to get off with them early for drop off of 2 to daycare and 2 to school early enough to get to work by 7:30 am (if she doesn’t leave the house with them by 6:30 am, due to traffic, she will be late to work). Older two have had Thurs/Friday/Mon/Tues off for Easter, while the daycare 2 had Friday off. DD worked these days. I take the older two to T Ball practice tomorrow. Today the older two had a birthday party at a Trampoline place from 12noon to 2 pm, so I took them. SIL returns Friday evening, and I fly out on Saturday. SIL was home Sat/Sun for Easter, so I got to interact with him a bit. Nana does fun things with them, and I do make the time enjoyable.
Sometimes the bar gets set very high on caretaking details when there is one or two grandkids - but sometimes those things do ease out a bit. At the end of the day, the parents have the full responsibility of their kids. It is great if one can been a bit more relaxed and not feel like one has to walk on eggshells - but it sounds like one can just communicate the best one can, and have the overall family relations be as good as they can be.
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Best place to buy pregnancy clothes (for 5 ft tall size 00 before pregnancy)?
Looking for a gift for D2 when I go to visit- casual and maybe some fancy ones, too . I’m at a loss.
@rockymtnhigh2 : I just googled “maternity clothes petite” and got a bunch of companies.
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Do people actually wear maternity clothes anymore? Or just nice and stretchy things in their closet??? I think where we wore maternity clothes to sort of “hide the bump” now it’s more fashionable to embrace the bump! I may be wrong.
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I realized that one can buy clothes for ‘bigger gals’ in place of some of the overpriced maternity things I had purchased. But the stretch panel pants, now that more has the stretchy denim look too. It goes both ways with how people dress, especially in the last weeks of pregnancy - some of the stretchy stuff gets stretched to the max.
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I’d buy a pregnant person a pair of lululemon aligns, maybe 2 sizes bigger than they wear.
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DD2 may want to wear similar type of clothes that she already wears/same name brands. With a first pregnancy, I would venture to allow her to take the leadership. She might want to transition for a while and not have a dramatic change in clothing signal to others that she is pregnant until she is comfortable having an appearance of being pregnant.
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I bought stretch panel jeans for kid at Nordstrom. Yes, maternity wear is still a thing! Not to hide the bump but to accommodate it better. And to support, too.
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I think so far she is wearing just large shirts. I think the problem may be the pants and shorts. Her clothes are literally all zeros, double zeros.
BTW- expecting first grand kid with D2!
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Beyond Yoga has some nice maternity clothing. Bith mine and DIL wore a mix of regular and maternity. Lots of brands online. Target and Old Navy and Gap also have maternity.
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Congratulations!!
I gave little kid a gift certificate to Nordstrom. She bought herself a couple of nursing bras and said that was money wisely spent!
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