msbelle:

Any chance that people have moon sand they no longer want? or stress balls? or koosh-like balls?

yes. Want me to send some stuff?

I'd also recommend time spent in the ball pit and bouncing. All of that is good for sensory integration.

Also, [link] is a great link for interesting stuff.

Happy birthday, Liese! Wishing you cake and continued happy!

I play with it with my kids and always get a kick out of making it.

We used to have Play-Doh nights when the boys were little, all four of us, and it was SO relaxing. All of Sara's is dried out or mixed into various rainbow shades right now, so maybe we'll try making some moon sand, too.

Happy birthday, Liese!

Calli-

That episode of Buffy with the invisible girl? It didn't really resonate because being invisible was the high point of middle-school for me.

Yeah. There were about four years where, in general, it was a good day if nobody spoke to me. And several kids had it worse than I did. I prefer not to think about it, but I don’t think “teasing” and “bullying” are adequate words.

I was never bullied. I had a rough 5th grade year where no one talked to me, but I consider that more psychological warfare. It goes a long way towards my being okay with people not liking me, I think.

I have never heard of this moon sand business. Interesting.

I think I just missed a meeting by mistake. I thought he cancelled today. Oops. And he totally knows I'm here too, because I walked past him on the way in. Double oops.

Happy birthday, Liese!

I was never bullied. I had a rough 5th grade year where no one talked to me, but I consider that more psychological warfare.

This. It was much more a factor in my childhood and my lingering issues thereof than any outright bullying.

In the process of making moon sand, you could play with cornstarch goo for a while [link]

Happy birthday, Liese!

Happy birthday, Liese! May it rock from here to Dogtown.

But the whole thing from elementary is part of why I won't be having kids. My spotty memories of what kids are like makes that thought appalling. All the truly delightful kids I've met as an adult haven't been able to change my knee-jerk horror at the thought of living with what my formative experiences of children convinced me they are—bullies or victims.

Have you read Ray Bradbury's short story "The Playground"? That's basically the premise. Very chilling story.

JZ's got Monday off, but as I've had Matilda all week (she's transitioning to a new class at preschool), she'll probably be taking Matilda off for some adventures to give me a break. This all-day, every day SAHD business is wearying.

Though yesterday, I took Mailda over to EM's house after I dropped Emmett off at school, and they played for a couple hours. After I got Emmett I brought him back and we all went to the pool, which was good.