i need advice

I need some parenting tips. What to do, what not to do.

And don't say "just be you" or "live in the moment"... I need real parenting advice.

Do you remember learning something the hard way? Do you remember getting some good advice that was almost night and day to what you had been doing?

My bud Catie in Dallas said to make sure the babe can have gluten because she played with play-doh once and her kid's friend was allergic and broke out in hives. I am allergic to gluten and this is something I wouldn't know. Noted, Catie!

I do have a dear friend back home, my Monica, that told me she writes a letter every year around her kid's birthday, writing to him about his last year.... what she loved, the moments that were forever in her heart, the silly/stupid stuff he did that "pissed me off" she said, and then some. She told me this a few years ago, so he had to have been about 16. She told me too that she's yet to give him any these letters, and I think he doesn't even know that she's done this. She said she's saving them for, I can't remember... this moment now, which was his recent high school graduation? His wedding? I can't remember, I just know I LOVE this idea. For me it's a way to really capture life.. his life. Her life with him. And it's beautiful.

So I want to know... what kind of advice, the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful, do you have?

In case you don't know where we are in life with our mini... our darling Willow is two. She's slowly but surely talking. She started pre-K in February. We have both been sick so I have some medicine/vitamin advice from a friend (ChildLife Vitamin C & D... Thanks, Haylee!) but will take any other you have for me. Willow only uses a pacifier to go to bed at night and we want to break her of it. But honestly, right now, with her teething, it's the only thing that really does help her. Aside from sucking her fingers... so I keep the pacifier for now. We have a tiny potty next to ours to start that process, the process we can't wait to have instilled but are dreading to actually do. I did ask someone once for advice on the potty training process but all I got was "get a book". It was a big help.. eyeroll.

So... tell me, tell me, tell me.