u/RapunzelatWalden

We’re looking to move to Eagan and the house we’re interested in is literally a couple streets away from the ISD 196 line. We’ll be doing daycare and have cousins in the 196 district, plus we understand the reputation is better. Does anyone have an insight into how competitive it is to open enroll into 196? The other posts I’ve seen are on the older side.

Our child is still a baby, so it wouldn’t be for this upcoming school year or the next few. Just thinking ahead. Transportation is not an issue.

We have a strained relationship with my sister-in-law and her husband. I’m only here to rant a little bit but essentially we reach out, rarely hear back. We had our first baby this past fall and after promises of support and interest, the baby was posted to their Instagram and then we’ve heard very little since. We’ve mostly stopped reaching out since it remains a dead end.

Last week, we randomly received a video from SIL of her walking through their new house we didn’t know they were buying and in the corner of one room, you could see some ultrasounds on the ground and vaguely see a “baby last name” sign in the back. Had I not been paying attention, I could’ve totally missed both. We congratulated her but didn’t press with any questions. We’re not sure when she’s due.

I hyperfixate on giving gifts, so I’ll be giving something and am trying to enjoy the process of picking something nice out without going overboard. They did give us gifts for our baby (and we them for their first). They have a five-year-old and kept everything so they’ve got lots of stuff, know what they like, etc. They prefer to not find out the sex, but they also prefer very gendered items once the baby is here, making it tough to buy them anything gender neutral. I don’t want to do gift cards, and she prefers more sentimental stuff anyways.

Here’s two ideas I currently have:

1. A bath/water themed assortment, including a really nice Copper Pearl towel. I’ve babysat their first kid a few times and this is something I think they could use/would use. I was thinking some new baby bath toys, a bath toy caddy, etc. so the baby can have its own bath stuff that can stay separate from their first’s for now. I’d wait until baby is here to pick out the towel design so it matches the gender.
2. My SIL had really great success breastfeeding her first. I have an unopened Ceres Chill that I never ended up using (I purchased it, it wasn’t a gift). I was thinking I could gift that with along with some vitamin d drops. With her first, she worked so close to home she would go home to feed and then go back to work. Her new house is further from her job, so I could see it being helpful.

For either of these, is there anything specific you’d include?

Edited to clarify that the video WAS her announcement to us. I think it was meant to be coy/aesthetic, which is her vibe.