dmmetler

I got to the end of season 3 today. When I was in an infant loss group, there was a teen couple who had lost a baby very late in pregnancy, and the facilitator said that it's actually more common for young mothers to have complications than for women a few years older. So, it's good to see it addressed. I hope they handle it well in season 4. One thing that I thought was actually good foreshadowing (a few episodes ago) was when Adrian was telling the guidance counselor that she expected to be back in school in about a week. For a teen mom who loses a baby, that's about what is expected-all the promised help and support evaporates, and the mom (and dad) face having to go back to a world that sees their loss of the baby as a momentary hiccup and in many ways a good thing-when their world has just been shaken, they're going through serious grief, and physical and hormonal after effects. If this is handled well, it could really be a good twist for the 4th season as Adrian and Ben have to recover in a world that doesn't allow them the freedom to grieve due to being teenagers. I didn't like the whole pushed marriage thing-but this last episode really made up for it.

How the heck did they let Lena leave the hospital after having lost a baby due to severe preeclampsia without monitoring her for depression, and probably getting her on antidepressants? Mid-late pregnancy losses take months for the hormones to stabilize, so post-partum depression is super-common, and add the reactive depression and grief process, and it's almost a given that you will go through what insurance terms a "major depressive episode" that requires help to resolve and get through. I really thought the show handled it fairly well as far as showing the loss and in showing the stress on the marriage, but when Lena and Stef were in therapy, at least, the therapist should have picked up on this. As should have her OB/GYN at the follow-ups (of which there would have been many, because of the after effects of PE). I'm glad they're addressing it now. It needs to be said and showed, but it needed to be showed a long time ago in show time.

http://canadaam.ctvnews.ca/recipes/masterchef-junior-winner-reveals-5-fun-ways-to-get-kids-excited-about-cooking-1.2481236 https://www.facebook.com/unclebenscanada/videos/924898520890017/?fref=nf Logan's been in Canada recently with Uncle Ben's Rice.

The one thing I'm noticing is that there seem to be more "pros" than in the original series. I'm hoping that this was just the first episode. One thing I loved in the original was that we did have bots built by teenagers, in garages, out of parts from junkyards, etc.

The captions said that Shia texted Maddie, and Sia texted Melissa. Why was Maddie practicing on what looked like maybe a 6x6 piece of wood flooring? Wouldn't the studio have a tap studio with an appropriate floor? Mackenzie's solo looked like a gymnastics floor exercise, down to the leotard and pigtails. Get the girl into a gymnastics gym or cheer gym, drop any pretense of a music "career", and let her succeed out of Maddie's shadow. When even her own mom can't be happy for her because it took away from the golden child, that's a sign of trouble. Maddie's tap solo didn't seem super-advanced to me, unless they cut parts that were more technical (my DD is at a studio which focuses on tap/Jazz (with lots of ballet technique), and pretty much any of the tappers who are 10 or older could have done that pretty easily, and they're not dancing near the hours Maddie is.) I'm guessing that Maddie's tap technique simply isn't developing as much as it should because she's spending too much time on other stuff, and that's kind of sad because she does seem to really love tapping. It's an unforgiving dance style. JoJo was on fire. She's just plain good at putting on a show. And that dates to pre-Abby because she had it on AUDC, too. I'm also really liking Jessalyn more and more-I think she's replaced Holly as the only sane mom.

Idyllwild has a boarding program...or he could go to something like Interlochen (which is safely on the other side of the USA) or even enter Julliard early. It's really not uncommon for really, really good musicians to enter conservatory programs early.

Kat is like so many kids I knew at music camps and in college. I feel for Brandon, but at the same time, he might as well get used to it. That's what the classical world is like-but at the same time, he doesn't need to impress Kat-he needs to impress his professors. Kat can't afford not to do her best with what he gives her, whether she thinks it's jejeune or not. I actually think a therapeutic boarding school would be good for Sophia at this point. She is very brittle and fragile, and a separation and possible divorce means that she needs a lot of support and monitoring to insure compliance with medication that her parents are going to be less able to give. I assume AJ is the next love interest for Callie-and putting him at Mike's avoids the problems with Brandon.

I wish the primate keeper from the Tulsa zoo had made it through-just because there IS so much similarity between the ANW course obstacles and the stuff provided for captive primates for mental and physical stimulation . I tend to prefer the guys who have jobs that provide some of the training, as opposed to those for whom training is their business, or who just train and do nothing else. Although it is kind of nice to see a sport where the amateurs can beat the pros.

What bugs me is that Callie being behind on credits should have been caught when she transferred in-and it would have been expected that a kid with that much prior instability would have been behind. Similarly, since Jude was behind to start with, it would have made more sense to put him in 6th grade classes, vs 7th, particularly since we've been shown Anchor Beach is a K-12 school (since that was how Stef met Lena when Brandon was going into Kindergarten). I could kind of understand pushing ahead to graduate on time if Callie were going to age out of the system and be on her own without a hope of finishing high school, but she's in a stable, long-term situation with the Adams-Fosters and has a backup that would also see her through high school (since Robert is willing to pay for college for Callie, I can't imagine he wouldn't be willing to pay for a grade 13 to pick up two remaining credits, plus maybe some dual-enrollment classes or higher level electives. She could even go away to a private school with an official program for that last year and effectively have the same experience as her Anchor Beach classmates, because Robert has the money to make it happen). I do wish ABC family would just let their lead teen female characters be happy for once. Having binge-watched and caught up on Switched at Birth before The Fosters, I'm starting to feel like Bay and Callie need to get together and form a support group!

I'm glad that Lena talked to someone about her feelings on the loss of Frankie and the possible adoption of Ana's baby-and that she was told it was OK to NOTwant to adopt. This story is one which needs to be shown on TV, where often a miscarriage or stillbirth is seen as a way to have a pregnancy storyline without the nuisance of a baby, and everyone forgets it the very next episode.

On the "Ana's baby/Frankie" thing, I'm really loving the direction this is taking because, having lost a baby in similar circumstances, one thing you hear frequently is "just have another baby" or "you can adopt a baby". The assumption that a new baby will replace the one you lost is very, very hurtful and hard to manage. You don't want another baby. You want your baby-the one you failed so badly. Even getting pregnant again doesn't resolve that loss and that need and those feelings (my 2nd child just finished elementary school-and I cried that night because she should have a big brother at the middle school next year, but she doesn't-12 It makes perfect sense that Marianna would see her half-sister as a way of solving the problems and, for her, it probably would. I could see Stef also seeing this as a possible solution. But for Lena, even the suggestion is going to cause flashbacks and grief reactions. And as Ana's pregnancy progresses, it's only going to get worse. If the baby ends up coming to them, less than a year after Lena lost her baby, it will hit her like a ton of bricks. It is also possible that, due to the loss, Lena would not be considered an acceptable foster parent for an infant at this point. That can happen, too, and being turned down as a foster or adoptive parent BECAUSE of a loss and psychological response can be just as painful as a loss. If Ana offers them the baby, and social services will not allow the placement, or if Ana changes her mind, it would be another major loss for Lena. I feel for both Daphne and Tasha's foster mom. After I lost my son, I decided not to pursue adoption because I couldn't imagine making another woman lose her child. No matter who "wins" in a case like that, someone loses. Badly.

It's possible that Lena and Stef don't have the legal right to get Callie therapy, since she's still a ward of the court. It can be very, very hard to get foster kids the supports/services they need, even though it's painfully obvious that they need it. And Callie comes off as being quite capable and well adjusted (frankly, too capable and well adjusted, given her history), so she may not be a priority. The fact that Jude got therapy when he stopped talking and they talk about getting Brandon therapy makes me think that it's not that Stef and Lena wouldn't recognize that Callie's been through hell and needs help.

That actually was quite realistic. PE really does come on that quickly, with little warning. I went from a "perfect" pregnancy at 20 weeks to feeling kind of strange on Christmas Day, less than 2 weeks later, to being admitted to the hospital on the 27th after it suddenly got much, much worse (like unable to walk or see bad) to induction beginning he next morning, and a C-section after 72 hours of induced labor had failed (and after they'd been able to get my platelet count high enough to make a C-section possible). It really was that quick, like something out of a soap opera.

This was a hard episode for me (which is why I'm posting now that I'm watching it on Netflix). I lost a baby at 22 weeks gestation due to severe pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome. The primary difference was that I was already in crisis before I ended up in the ER and my perinatologist told me after the fact (when I was asking him if there was any chance that I could have held on another week or two) that the hospital was prepared to get a court order if I had tried to refuse delivery because I was so medically fragile. A year later I testified before a committee to keep the "life of the mother" excemption in abortion laws-because legally, that's what delivery in the 2nd trimester is. Most people don't believe it happens anymore. Until it does. I am crying in watching this episode, because it's so real (except that Lena looks FAR better than a woman with severe PE would-at that stage, the kidneys shut down, and you retain tons of fluid. I gained over 100 lbs in 2 days and looked like the stay-puff marshmallow man). And I am so, so happy that a TV show handled this so well. Down to the planting a tree, because often there is no funeral and the world expects you to go on like nothing has changed and there was no loss. I hope they address Lena's emotional response (grief, yes, but also usually major guilt-and there are often physical aftereffects as well which contribute) in future episodes. Bravo, and thank you.

I'm finally caught up. Emmett...ugh...way to torpedo a character that used to be so likable. I wonder if Travis's pitching arm will recover? He's only just finding something that he's good at and has confidence in. It would be awful for him to lose it, Why isn't Melody encouraging Daphne to go into allied health or nursing? Something where the academic requirements are a little more spread out and there's more support for struggling students? I know Daphne has always been a golden girl who was an academic success story, but there are a lot of health care professions other than being a doctor. She can be a shining star for the Deaf community and do a lot of good as a nurse or as a med tech or in any of the other jobs in a hospital. Heck, a signing nurse's aid or an orderly could have been called in and helped Natalie communicate. Poor Bay. Having said that, it was coming as soon as Emmett moved on and she didn't. It would have happened, probably, even if she'd moved to LA and gotten a job while he was in college, or even if she'd been in college too. Most high school relationships don't last into college. Add Bay choosing Daphne over Emmett and her being with Tank at all while drunk (whether she had sex intentionally or not, she was still partying with her ex-boyfriend after her current boyfriend had headed back to school), and it was doomed.

I had originally assumed the chem professor was giving the girls invites to an all-female honor society or something like that, like Sigma Alpha Iota for music, and that the tension would be because Daphne was so much less qualified than the other first year females in her class. They touched on her getting different treatment due to being deaf, but I think they could have gone much farther if she was getting into something as a diversity admit or so the new deaf college on campus was represented. As far as the actual activities, my DD did both a report on an element and made ice cream using liquid nitrogen-in an elementary school science enrichment program.

What the heck is Melody there for if she can't help Daphne find a qualified interpreter? She wanted Daphne on campus, knowing she was a pre-med major and would need Classes outside of the interpreted program. Maybe Bay's family is acting like community service is actually a volunteer position because by focusing on what Bay's actually doing, it highlights that Bay doesn't deserve it and that her position stinks. How can Regina promise funding when Angelo's settlement went to the new program? You don't get naming rights for a small amount-even a million is pushing the limits of veracity.

Bay is applying to enter in December and graduate early, Daphne isn't graduating until May.

My assumption on the SAT was that Daphne would have taken the ACT last year, but when she started looking at top-tier schools, she was looking at schools like Johns Hopkins, where they definitely prefer not only the SAT, but require SAT-II scores as well. Similarly, Sharee is hoping for athletic scholarship money for field hockey-which, to get a team that's not intramural, is going to likely be an East Coast school as well. I'm also thinking that since Daphne has always been expecting to go to Gallaudet, she may not even think about applying to KU or Mizzou.

Yeah...like it would have been so hard to call her reporter "Jezebel St. Claire" or some other obviously fake name. I'm guessing it would have still been obvious who the female sportswriter was based on, simply because there probably weren't many female Sportswriters covering the Royals when John was on the team, but it wouldn't have given Sarah nearly as much cause for an injunction.

Homeschoolers aren't mandatory reporters in most states because they're not considered teachers (there are a few exceptions where homeschoolers are considered unaccredited private schools). And in many of those cases, BOTH parents are considered faculty (we are registered as a private school, and both my husband and I are on the affidavit). So either neither parent fell under mandatory reporting laws, or both did. I'm also not sure whether there is privilege when it comes to mandated reporting and your own children (as their is for spouses and criminal charges). That's one reason why I'd actually be in favor of requiring homeschooled kids to have some regular meeting with an outside person who IS a mandatory reporter. For 99+% of homeschoolers, there would be no issue, but maybe, just maybe, it would help that <1%. Kids who go to a traditional school have at least the opportunity for abuse to be noticed and an outside adult separate from the family that they could talk to without their parents present. So do most homeschoolers-but I'd be willing to have an appointment a couple of times a year if it protects other kids.

I'm binge watching on Netflix, and I'm wondering-is it reasonable for hearing students to attend a deaf school where classes are taught in ASL without significant ASL experience (like being a CODA where ASL was the home language)? It seems like a lot of the season 2 early conflict could have been prevented by an admissions exam, just like international students have to pass the TOEFL to attend college in the U.S.

First of all, props to Nia and JoJo for going along with this and seeming pretty sensible about the whole thing. I wish they'd just shut up and let the kids dance! I don't like Vivi being used as a prop, but I really liked Candy Apples dance this time. If they could enter two dancers at the last minute for solos, couldn't Gianna have reworked the group and done the group as a Duo? It would have been less dramatic (and still tough on the girls), but would have saved a potential DQ. Or for that matter, just PLAN on having Nia and JoJo do all the dances while the others go to JUMP! (Which is what I expect happened behind the scenes on the solos). You still would have the drama of David vs Goliath, since Nia and JoJo are weaker than Maddie and Kalani, and neither would be expected to beat Ava and Candy Apples.

I really hope both Sunjai and Kayla get some money from the show to go to college (since I assume that's who the scholarship is really being paid by)- as well as the other girls when they're ready. I tend to agree with the judges. The YADC girls just plain have better dance skills/technique overall, and it shows. Although I dislike their coach immensely.

The later ones are on the Lifetime App, if you have a provider log-in. My general feeling is that Jennifer is a much better instructor than Abby, mostly due to being a better dancer, and is better at using girls in their strengths and getting kids who are weaker into roles that don't harm the routine. But she's got basically no skills at managing adults, and with parents who were either selected for the purpose of being overdramatic and insane or have been told to act that way, she comes off looking and being completely ineffectual. I'd still rather put my daughter in her studio than Abby's, though.