Suzy Q

Did they before Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Or did Josh Whedon invent the name?

Pretty soon we'll be driving from the mid-Netherlands to the Provence for our holiday. 10.5 hours excluding stops. I'm trying to put together a playlist (or several playlists) to get in the mood while on the road.

Of course I include some classic chansons like Nathalie and Ballade de gens heureux, but I want a good mix of the old and the new(er). For instance Formidable by Stromae or Les Etoiles by Melodie Gardot.

Who has tips?

BQ Extra kudos if you include which songs aren't likely to wake up our two Kindergarteners, since we'll be starting out around 2AM. They generally don't wake up when we have music in the car, but this isn't the time for the techno version of anything.

The company is a successful IT startup, about 20 people total. Everybody is invited plus partners.

The team building is indoor skiing (gear provided, I'll have to change there) and then there will be an alpine themed dinner. My husband is the sales director. With a different crowd I would probably throw on anything that's comfortable to change in and out of, but I don't want to look too shabby. Or overdressed.

My husband suggested I wear my Halloween dirndl, which is funny but hardly helpful.

I'll try to keep this short. My son turns 4 in 4 months. That's when he ages out of his special treatment group for toddlers with a serious speech delay. Then he will go to a special school. They don't change diapers, and it's too far away for me to just do it myself.

So he needs to potty train. Now. And he doesn't want to.

He has shown bladder and bowel control, both holding and releasing. He is not autistic and shows average intelligence, understanding of language and emotional development. He just can't form words properly. And goes in full tantrum mode at the suggestion of wearing underwear.

I can't wait until he feels good and well ready, and I won't hold a screaming toddler down on the toilet. So how do I do this?

Only to be brought back to reality by your second child?

I did. My oldest has always been the least picky eater in the world. Yesterday he snacked on carrots and cucumber at school, and when he came home he picked a ripe tomato from our plant and ate it. At dinner he had a third helping of green beans. He's always been like this.

Enter the secretly smug feeling of my parenting resulting in a healthy eater.

Except of course there is his little brother, who would barely touch a veggie if it were the last food on the planet.

When I say milking, I don't just mean pushing with her front paws. She actually latches on and suckles a fold in my clothing.

We got her around 17 weeks and she grew up well socialized in a home with people and other cats, but her mother rejected her at 7 weeks. I think she sees me as a kind of surrogate mother, she does this only with me.

Is she likely to stop on her own? If not, how do I gently wean her? I like the affection, but the wet spots in my shirt not so much. With two young kids I've really gotten enough drool on me to last a life time.

There are two of them in our new home's garden, I suspect they have been here for decades. And from the looks of it they have been neglected for years.

Last fall I pruned away all those long 'feelers' several times, and in early spring I cut away the remaining new wood as close as about 3 flower budds from the old wood. With good effect, I have been rewarded with a huge cascade of pink flowers.

It's still a bit of a mess though, with multiple stems and branches going every which way, encroaching on the road next to our garden and threatening to damage the roofs of our garage and wood stack.

How far can I cut into this thing without it dying? Can I just take a saw once it's done blossoming and cut away the whole tangled mess? I'm okay with less flowers next year, as long as the plants survive and stay healthy so that I can start over pruning them properly and leading them in the right direction.

In April my husband is celebrating his 40th birthday with friends. He'd like a BBQ (got that part covered) and summer cocktails. Piña coladas, margharitas, strawberry daquiries, that sort of thing.

What do we need for this? I figure some standing tables in the garden, a blender for the piña coladas, obviously the ingredients themselves. Anything else? I'd like to help him run things smoothly.

I want to start a freezer stash for those busy days. One thing I consider is prepping some casseroles to bake at a later date.

But how would I store them? Especially with layered casseroles like cottage pie you can't very well store them in tupperware and then transfer to an oven dish for baking. I'd like to store them in the same dish I would (after thawing) use to bake them. Does pyrex survive the freezer? And what do you use as lid? I want to be able to stack my casseroles.

I've often noticed that in my country we seem to use different age ranges than in English speaking countries. Sometimes that makes me unsure about the age of children mentioned in questions.

This is the stages we identify in the Netherlands:

0-12 months: baby

1-2.5 years: dreumes (something like 'young toddler'?)

2.5-4 years: peuter (toddler/preschooler)

4-6 years: kleuter (Kindergartener)

How are the different ages/stages classified where you live? Is there a difference between US, UK and other English speaking countries?

He got a stuffed animal (a swan) from his grandmother when he was born, and initially wasn't interested at all. Fast-forward a year, and he and his swan had become inseparable. Which got me thinking: what if we ever lose Swan?

I know it's common advice to buy an identical lovey, if only to be able to pry Swan from his fingers long enough to wash it, but by then this particular toy wasn't available in stores any more. It took over half a year to find a backup online. It's completely identical, except of course it hasn't gone ratty and grey from being clutched and dragged over the floor all day long.

Obviously my toddler isn't fooled. That swan is not Swan. My mother in law put a lot of effort in finding a backup lovey for our son, and I would really like to truthfully tell her it's well received.

So what do I do? I've already washed the two loveys together in hopes of them smelling more alike. Any other tips to make Backup Swan more like Swan?

We tried with our oldest (almost 3 at the time) this summer, but after a week of no success (he's very interested and loved his new underwear, but didn't seem able to voluntarily release) we backed off and put him back in a diapers. He obviously just wasn't ready.

I would like to try again soon. I wouldn't be in a rush normally, but his pediatrician recommended a toddler tumbling class to help with some coordination issues, and the only class around here takes only potty trained toddlers.

If he's not ready, he's not ready, but if he is you can see there is a reason to toilet train him sooner rather than later.

If he IS ready by the time we start again, how long can we expect it to take for him to get it?

Both my kids came down with this, and to my surprise so did I. Most symptoms match Roseola: sudden onset fever, with the rash appearing as the fever drops.

Some of the spots are slightly raised, they barely itch (but do feel... weird) and they are a pale red. They don't develop into blisters except on my youngest's thumb (no doubt from the excessive thumb sucking for comfort right now) and my oldest's bum (no big wonder in even the most regularly changed diaper I guess).

The weird thing is that on all of us the spots start on hands and feet. Doesn't the rash of Roseola usually start on head and torso? Does any other childhood illness follow this pattern? I'd like to cross whatever they have off my list of illnesses to expect.

PS Before anybody says to take them to a doctor: doctors around here won't see spotty kids unless they are very ill , are in respiratory distress, and/or develop symptoms of meningitis, none of which is the case.

My husband is currently on a strict high protein low carb diet. He's having a hard time at the moment with the lack of sweet snacks, and I want to surprise him with some home baked low carb cookies.

I have almond meal, and the sweetener sucralose. The pure stuff without fillers, not Splenda. Supposedly it is 600 times as sweet as sugar.

How do I use this stuff? The recipe calls for 100 grams of sugar, and I definitely don't have a scale sensitive enough to weigh 0.1666667 grams. (Who does?)

Can I measure by volume? Teaspoons, half a teaspoon, a quarter teaspoon?

I'm craving quiche lorraine, and I'm wondering how I could adapt the recipe other than just using fake bacon bits. Maybe mushrooms, or smoked tofu? What do you use for your best cream, eggs, onions and something quiche?

He's a bit of a slow starter with talking, but is going through a great spurt in that area. New words are appearing every day. So I'm not worried, I just think this is odd.

He'd been calling his dad 'papa' (the word for 'dad' in Dutch) for almost a year now, but 'mama' wasn't happening yet. I assumed that was in part because I'm always there, he doesn't feel the need to ask about me. But now I'm suddenly papa too? Even mums in books are now all 'papa'.

Is this common at his age? He turned 2 years old last September.

No, don't worry, I haven't taken away his formula!

My 8 month old just got his first tooth, and while it was breaking through he completely refused his bottles. So I offered him his formula in a straw cup instead, and with a bit of encouragement (and lots of small feeds a day) he managed to still drink enough formula for his needs.

Now his mouth isn't bothering him any more, but it seems like he decided he prefers the straw cups over bottles. I think because he can sit up straight in his high chair and look around better while drinking. Personally I am very much in favour of always holding baby and bottle while feeding, but it looks like he's done with getting his formula that way.

I think I'll just let him have his straw cups instead of bottles if that's what he prefers, but is there any reason I haven't thought of why I shouldn't? He seems awfully young to be off bottles. I do already make sure I hold and cuddle him extra to make up for the lack of physical contact while feeding, and I don't just hand him the cup; I sit with him, holding the cup for him.

My toddler is starting to show early signs that he may be getting ready for toilet training. Some bowel and bladder control (he seems to wait for privacy), improving communication skills, wanting and learning (with very little prompting from me) to not just undress but also dress himself. So I thought it might be time to start thinking about how to handle potty/toilet training when it all clicks for him.

So I went online, and it's bewildering! Reward charts, singing potties, instructions for parents to do a goofy dance and sing a song every time they (themselves!) use the toilet, books and books filled with one size fits all (but vastly different) detailed instructions for apparently the most difficult project in parenting.

Is it really necessary for toilet training to be this huge circus? Surely our mothers and grandmothers didn't do a victory dance in front of their toddlers every time they went to the loo?

Can't I just show him a few times how it's done, put him in underwear or cotton training pants, and help him to the potty at times he usually goes or when he tells me he needs to? I can always put him back in diapers for a while if he doesn't get it yet, right?

All those over the top methods seem to me like they put a lot of pressure on toddler AND parent.

I'm re-reading Pride and Prejudice, and several times a card game called 'lottery tickets' is mentioned. People who play it can apparently win or lose 'fishes'.

Who knows how this card game was played?

My baby (8 months old today) gets easily constipated, so I have to be extra careful about introducing solids.

When I google yoghurt, some sources list it as constipating, while others list it as constipation cure. Great, so either it's a really good idea to introduce yoghurt, or a really bad idea.

How did your baby (especially easily constipated babies) react to yoghurt? I'd probably choose specifically full fat plain Greek yoghurt, as my oldest (who never had these issues) really liked that at this age.