Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

My most recent thoughts on the subject of baby-spacing have been that I want to wait for a while. Not nearly as long as Portia's family, but definitely longer than the two-ish years a lot of people around here seem to do.

My brother and I are three years apart (he's younger) and that always seemed to be a good age gap.

Mine are 2 years, 8 months apart. It seems like good spacing. Dragon Baby is old enough not to need my constant attention, too. Which is nice. And she's old enough to be helpful. She'll help throw away diapers and go get a binkie.

But in some ways, it feels really far apart. I want them to be really good friends and DB is already making friends and talking about school and full on in play mode. Niffler Baby, on the other hand, is just figuring out how to bat at a toy hanging in front of her face. And I fear by the time she reaches DB's point of life, DB will be way past playing with her, since she'll be 5.5 and in Kindergarten.

Now, I'm pretty confident they'll still be friends. Just watching them play now is comforting. It's just a fear I have and I wonder if it'll play into our timing decisions for Baby #3. (Though, we didn't really get the decision this time around, so I can't really count on it next time, either.)

I just went to a Burger King for the first time in ages, not a fancy one in a big city, either; just a small one in a podunk town. They had a very advanced drink dispenser with a circular video touch display, with further submenus (I touched the picture on an orange Fanta Zero cup, thinking that was the choice, and onto the screen slid a further selection of grape Fanta Zero, lime Fanta Zero, etc...). I wonder how many drinks one restaurant has to sell for the profit (after maintenance, electricity, and syrup costs) to pay for one of those.

In my family we are all about two years apart. The third and fourth child are closer to three years apart, and the sixth and seventh are almost four years apart. In a lot of ways those of us with more distant spacing are those that are the closest friends now. I'm not super good friends with my sister just after me (2 years younger), but the next one(4 years younger) I am.

Digit, I love those things! They are great.

In my family the first six were spaced about two years apart, then five-year gaps between the sixth and seventh and the seventh and eighth. The sibling I get along with the least is the one closest to me in age, and best is the one six years younger. However, in our family I think the boys are better friends with the boys and the girls with the girls. In general.

As I've probably shared before, there are almost 10 years between me and my brother and we're very close, so absolute age doesn't have to make a difference. (There were some temperamental and logistical things that helped out with that situation, though.)

I knew a family of 5 girls growing up where every other one got along. (I.e., 1,3, and 5 were friends and 2 and 4 were friends.) I think that was because things felt too competitive with the next closest sibling, so it was easier to jump over one and get along with the next one. That said, I think they've all become better friends now that they're all grown up and (almost?) all married.

Actually, one thing about the age gap in my family that you might want to avoid if possible - when I say three years, I mean almost exactly 3 years. I was born on Oct. 18/82 and he was born on Oct. 16/85. Don't have your kids with their birthdays two days apart if you can avoid it!

My sister was born on my mom's birthday. I'm pretty sure it was the last real birthday that my mom has had. I have two siblings, two and four years younger than me, respectively. My brother and sister are pretty good friends; I'm not quite as close to either of them, unfortunately. I don't think the age gap had a huge influence. Still, if I had young siblings now, I'd be thrilled and I do suspect I'd be a lot closer to them.

Happy birthday, bob!

Should this baby gap discussion be its own thread?

Had a smoochy dream about the ex before last. I think my subconscious wants some action and good conversation and a beard. Maybe my counsciousness, too.

UffishThought wrote: I think my subconscious wants some action and good conversation and a beard.

I don't know about the action, but I will lend you mine for everything else.

Dragon Lady wrote:Happy birthday, bob!

Thanks!

Genuine Article wrote:

UffishThought wrote: I think my subconscious wants some action and good conversation and a beard.

I don't know about the action, but I will lend you mine for everything else.

Send him on down, then! I'm sure I can find the action somewhere else. No, wait. chase made me promise I couldn't use 9FK. I'm fresh out of ideas.

I am currently using/taking: allergy eye drops, allergy nasal spray, an allergy pill, steroids, and ibuprofen. Whee!

UffishThought wrote: 9FK

HA.

I want only two kids, and I think the ages my mom had her two latter children (27 & 33) sound good. I feel like having a kid before thirty is pretty unusual in my "crowd," but that would be ideal for me. And since I DO want a large gap (at least 5 years), I guess I better get crackin'.

Speaking of, I had an excellent date which lasted eight hours yesterday. I love this guy's family. And this is the first guy whom I know has really carried a torch for me in several years. I really like him, Boardeaux: why does love have to be so complicated? (Oh come now, I probably wouldn't consider it love if it WEREN'T complicated.)

It was pretty funny to think it would just be us two meeting at the (for the record, completely public and not-weird-for-your-family-to-be) location and most his family were there. Ha!

Mmmf. Confused. I think I have a date with that same ex next weekend. I'm worried I'm going to rebound on him and hurt us both.

Niffler Baby woke up to eat at 5 this morning. By the time I had her back in bed it was past 5:30. I had my alarm set for 6 in order to have time to work in the garden before kids wake up for good so I decided to just stay awake. I've now eaten breakfast and reserved my clubhouse for a family reunion. My alarm just went off. Guess it's time to go work in the garden!

(This early morning made possible by the 3 hour nap I took yesterday.)