First of all, welcome! I adore this thread. My husband and I have been discussing recently how much easier all this is the second and third time around. Our eldest (6.5) is PG and while he wasn't talking at 16 months, he was EXTREMELY demanding in every aspect of his little life. We, too, would bring a laundry basket to the library and fill it with 100 books (our library's limit) and - at 6.5, 5, and 3 my kids are now taking out about 200 books each week (that's all I can carry!). It does get easier but it has yet to be "easy" for us
About the friends- just stay true to yourself and you will soon see who the true friends are. When we had our son tested and pulled him to homeschool after K last year, I expected a backlash. Instead, I was surprised by how many of my friends were not surprised by any of it. So many people said, "Well I could have told you that when he was one!" Best of luck on this wild ride!
