Budgeting

Now that I am working one day a week and staying home with Eli the other six, I have needed to find some innovative ways to budget our money. I thought I could share them and you can pick and choose any that fit into your life- Read on!

1) Discuss and create budget with husband. Potential opening conversation:
Dylan: You know you are going to be home six days a week.
Me: Yeah, I know.
*Silence for a few minutes while Dylan stares at me*
Me: Are you trying to tell me I can't go to the mall and spend money every day?
Dylan: Yeah.
Me (defensively): I know! (But I was totally planning to spend my days like that, darn!)

2) Discover free ways to entertain yourself. Some suggestions that I have found plausible:
-Open facebook page and spend hours 'stalking' people
-Bug your friends frequently with phone calls and/or text messages
-Minutely organize baby photos
-Update your blog frequently (check!)

3) Find alternatives for things you used to frivolously spend money on.
Example: Instead of getting a french manicure (which costs upwards of $35 at the cheap place) simply apply desitin under each nail- looks just the same and comes with the added benefit of being easily at hand during diaper changes!

4) Shop at Deals for a Dollar. (I used to shop there all the time, then Dylan had a break down when some of the tortillas I purchased wouldn't just pull apart without ripping- what a food snob :) So now I'm going to buy non-edibles like garbage bags that break when you pull them out of the can, etc.)

5) Live vicariously through others. I love shopping with Cammie, I feel almost the same shopping rush when she buys something as when I do- but we have been slowly morphing into the same person....

6) Discover innovative toys for Eli to play with, and by innovative I actually mean free. See my previous post about motrin bottles and magazines (thanks for the offer of sending more Laura- I'll let you know!).

7) Accelerate Eli's diet to the Gerber stage 3 foods. These come in 6oz jars and are way cheaper then those plastic containers. (You may have to disregard Gerber's advice on this one, but don't you think they want you to buy those expensive plastic containers for as long as possible? I think babies can chew chunks with their gums, don't you?)

8) Begin watching my diet again (for the umpteenth time since delivering Eli). Hopefully I will be eating less, losing weight so as not to have to buy bigger clothes and therefore saving money. Also, there is the added benefit of good health and looking better. But mostly I'm doing for the money....

9) Decide to grow your hair out. Not only will this save money on haircuts, but most husbands secretly (or openly) want long hair anyway and then I'll look more like my picture on my work badge- double bonus!

That's all I can think of now but I'm sure there will be more. While my hair, nails, baby's diet, baby's brain development (non-educational toys? *gasp*) and sanity (re: hours on facebook) may all suffer, there is a greater good to be had here. Staying home with Eli is worth all the sacrifice (except maybe his brain.... eh, I'm sure he'll be fine!)

Eli Update

I started this blog to write about my darling child, and in a round-about way I suppose I have although probably nothing he'll want to read about when he's a teenager (lengthy post about poo? Check!). So tonight I've decided to update you on what Eli is up to. If Eli had a personal profile on facebook this is what it would look like.....

Activities: Eating, sleeping, pooping, playing, hangin' with my peeps Eva and CJ, laughin' at my dad, sucking on my toes, and just a few days ago I discovered how to whine (mommy loves it)

Interests: I am interested in a multitude of things for .45 seconds at a time. Keep the new toys/items coming: rattles, stuffed animals, books, baggy full of gobstoppers, motrin bottle, junk mail (mommy gets desperate)

Favorite Music: I have to listen to mommy's music- some Augustana crap- thanks for nothin' Uncle Eric!

Favorite TV Shows: I used to love the TV, now I could take it or leave it. I believe the change in interest is that I can't shove the TV in my mouth which is all I really enjoy doing with anything anymore...

Favorite Movies: No movies yet, if any get watched at my house I have to be in bed.

Favorite Books: Hmmm, this is a toughie, I love my Pajama Time book, the cardboard is so satisfyingly firm but then any magazine is also acceptable. If you can suck off small pieces of paper and then cough and choke on them count me in.

Favorite Quote: When mommy said "Oh crap" and I actually had, all over myself and my carseat. Aunt Cammie likes that one too.

About Me: In summary, I am an adorable baby boy who just learned to sit up a few weeks ago, loves to eat anything and everything in the babyfood aisle, will smile at absolutely anyone (even the nurse who gave me shots) and is a champion at going to sleep now (mommy still loves Dr. Ferber)

On the subject of poo...

Yes, that's right, I'm going to blog about poo. And any mom out there will know that in the world of having a new baby, poo is very important. It's something you never dreamed you would be so interested in. What brought on this post about bodily functions? Well, as I was feeding Eli his first dose of prunes this morning (he thought they were fabulous) I started thinking about how poo-obsessed we moms can be. Examples:
-It starts early, in the hospital I am continually getting called into rooms to examine diapers and answer questions like, Is it supposed to be that black? and in one case, Can you look at my baby's scrotum (she didn't use that word), there is something weird on it (she thought it was a growth or something). Turns out it was just dried poo.
-The obsession continues when you bring your new baby home- my niece Eva didn't poop for a large number of days when Cammie brought her home, we thought, something must be wrong! But the nurse assured us that breastfed babies can go quite sometime. Still, we were all relieved when she finally started back up again!
-In the early months it wasn't uncommon for my sister or I to be changing a diaper (either or own kid's butts or the other's) and call the other over to check out the damage. Gross? Maybe, but for some reason we didn't even question that the other might want to see it.
-My sister has a video on her phone of Eva's 'poop face'. This is the look she contorts her face into when she is going poop, there are sounds as well and on vacation we got endless enjoyment out of watching Eva as she pooped. We are, needless to say, easily entertained!
-At six months, the babies have been diving into new foods and that brings new poo as well. Talk about exciting! It can be green, orange or in Eli's case, hard. Which brings me to why we had prunes this morning...

Perhaps the reason we are so obsessed is because we subconsciously know that poo is a great way to gauge health and well-being and if something were wrong in our little people's bodies poo would be a place to start looking for clues. Or maybe it's just a fascinating realization that something so rank can come out of something so cute. Who knows why we are so obsessed, but I for one don't think there is anything wrong about it, so don't hesitate to call me over to check out one of yours diapers, I'll be there in an instant to appreciate to mass, color, consistency! It's just a mom thing!

PS- My sister and I have two adoring mothers-in-law who both have a funny way of dealing with baby poop that I have to share. My sweet mother-in-law always refers to Eli's business as stool, such as "I think he has to stool" or "He had a small stool while you were gone" and Cammie's mother-in-law refers to it as "Doing good work" which I find hilarious and use on a daily basis now. In fact, Eli is doing good work in his exersaucer right now, one of his best places to have a stool. :)

Sleep Training

Eli has been in intensive sleep training since we returned from our MN vacation a few weeks ago and I have to say, it is going FAMOUSLY! We had him trained before, and by trained I mean laying him down awake and letting him put himself to sleep, but before we left for our two week vacation where we would be sharing a tiny cabin with my sister and her husband we kind of let the training slide....and boy was that a mistake!

Unfortunately, while we were gone things really went downhill, the boy was getting up every few hours, and while I would always try to feed him in hopes that he would quickly and quietly go back to sleep, sometimes he just wanted to cry and cry and then cry some more. Let me tell you, in a camp of just 12 cabins, everyone knew what our nights were like....and would then offer us advice.

So we tried everything. One day we decided not to let him nap more then 90 min. at a time. So that day I woke up a cranky baby and then had high hopes when I laid him down at night- he didn't get the memo that he was supposed to be more tired that night and was up just as often. Another day we tried letting him sleep for as long as he wanted with the thought that a baby that sleeps better during the day sleeps better at night. He also didn't receive that memo. We tried cereal right before bed, cereal at dinner time, cereal multiple times a day..... no luck. Finally, a few nights before we drove home my mom (IE my savior) slept with him few nights and I was able to sleep for 6 hours IN A ROW! At that point I would have paid any amount of money for sleep but she didn't charge me :) So needless to say I was anxious to get Eli home and in his own crib for some remedial training.

The first night we got back I had a talk with Eli, we hummed a few verses of the Rocky theme song to get in the training mood and then we laid him down in his crib and let him work it out until he fell asleep. PRAISE THE LORD the kid finally slept!!! We have made more and more progress since then until last night we laid him down at 9:00pm, heard a little peep from him at 10:00pm (but not enough to intervene) and then not a sound until I woke up at 6:00am when Dylan got up for work and ran into his room (all the while reviewing my infant CPR as I was sure he was dead) to check on him. He, of course, was fine and I resisted the urge to pick up the poor sleeping child and swing him around out of joy for the sleep I had!

Final thoughts on sleep training- while it is difficult for a few nights to hear the baby cry it is OH SO WORTH IT!!!! Dr Ferber is my hero and if he were here I would kiss him on the lips!

Hundreds of ways

Eli is the cutest when.....

....he grabs my face with both hands and tries to eat my cheeks....

....I lay him in the bathtub and he does a whole body shiver....

....he first wakes up in the morning and smiles with his whole body....

....he sees any other baby (mostly our Eva) and cracks up....

....he tries to walk across the kitchen (doesn't he know he has to crawl first?)....

....he sees his daddy and absolutely lights up (dylan doesn't even have to talk in a ridiculous high-pitched voice or do silly dances)....

....he is being himself!

Everyday bath times

I was giving Eli a bath tonight, Dylan was still at work, and we were just playing and playing, he was talking and sucking water (and a little pee) out of his washcloth as usual, and I remembered one of the first thoughts I had in our bathroom when we had just bought our house. I was taking a bath (one of my favorite things) and I thought to myself, this tub will be where we give our first baby a bath! Now, this may seem a little presumptive, I knew, perhaps more then most, that getting pregnant is no guarantee, but it had been one of my dreams for so long that I just couldn't believe that it wouldn't come true. I have these moments every once in awhile, when I look at Eli and remember that yearning to have a baby. I vaguely remember the days before him, when I could sleep when I wanted, run out for food when I wanted, even get my housework done when I wanted... But I can't look at him and wish for those times again, he has quickly become integrated into every inch of my life in the best way possible. I hope that as he grows up I can continue to remember how much I wished for this little boy and continue to enjoy everyday bath times and everything else.

Work blogging

So, as I lay awake in bed the night after my first post, my brain was whirling with all the awesome topics I could talk about, all the witty things I would say- just imagining everyone reading it and laughing "That Annie, she is so funny!"


And then reality hit, and I realized that I had to work that night, and did nothing blog related. I know many of you get that....

But now I'm at work with a bit of time to spare and I thought I would just write a bit and keep in the habit. But do you want to know what happened to all those awesome funny topics I was going to address? Hmmm....I would tell you if I knew. Hopefully I'll remember and be able to really entertain all of you in the next post. On the upside, after my oral surgery tomorrow I may be kind of loopy from the drugs so a funny entry may be pending! Wish me luck!