Some wise advice, Ernessa. I did not start out with any financial planning and instead started the process with just a few tests, just a few more, just try this little intervention, just add this, on and on. The financial death of a thousand cuts. Or rather, 10,000 cuts, the first round. Another 70,000 cuts a few years later. Especially early on in the process, no one thing costs that much, but they add up to hundreds or even thousands per month.

My advice is to be prepared for anything. I fully expected that when I started testing, they'd find something fixable and we'd have an easy solution. When they didn't find anything, I expected that the initial interventions would work. Then I expected that bumping up the interventions would work. Oh, adding acupuncture will totally do the trick. First IVF has to work. And so on. I never, ever expected that once I got pregnant I would miscarry, nor that I would defy medical logic by failing so many interventions, nor that it would take me 7 years.

Most people have a quick and relatively simple road through infertility treatment. If they reach the status of "infertile," most people have to deal with more than they'd like, but it's frankly not really all that much. And then there are those of us who require huge levels of intervention over many years to achieve success. Those who get pregnant on a break between IVF cycles 4 and 5, or similar urban legends. And then there are those who try everything possible and never end up with a baby. The problem is that when you start, you have no idea which group you'll fall into. You have no idea how long it will take, how much it will cost, what it will do to your body and mind, whether it will even work in the end. My advice is to be prepared for that level of uncertainty.

I've only read one book unrelated to baby-rearing in the past 10 months. 32 Candles.

All seriousness, your book absolutely sent me into a thrall. I would duck around the corner from the babies to read just another page or two, only to be interrupted 10 pages later from the screaming of one baby pinning the other to the ground.

I'm very happy with you, but my babies not so much.

My pleasure. It reminded me so much of you that I couldn't help but pass it along. Enjoy!

As a kid I moved a dozen times, all within the same region.

As an adult, I've lived in four places, in four very far-apart cities.

I love looking at real estate but I hate moving.

There are so many things I love about the house we live in right now, but we don't plan to live in this area forever.

This is the second consecutive house where I've been able to walk to work. That is amazing, and a stark contrast to my life in SoCal.

The biggest thing I'd change about this house would be a heating and cooling system that worked better -- it is very inconsistent in different parts of the house. Two years ago we spent $30K to replace the entire system, yet when he's in his home office in the winter my husband wears 3 sweatshirts, and on the hottest summer days he strips down to his underpants. $30K.

In the record you can distinguish between fake first word and intentional first word. When she uses a word on purpose