READ ME – BabyCostsMoney

Llama llama, MORE BOOKS MAMA!

Published on July 24, 2017July 23, 2017 by Darlene Dee3 Comments

Dude. I can tell myself over and over that Babystar has ENOUGH STUFF, and I am totally right. But I keep buying her books.

She loves books. She ‘reads’ her books to herself and her friends. (Her friends are stuffed animals.) She reads her books to Tillie the Kitten, who seems oddly into it. She brings her books everywhere and will ask anyone to read to her. Her books ward away toddler meltdowns. Her books are fucking magic.

(Yes, I know about libraries. I love the library. I also know that if my kid likes to lick her books, other kids probably do also. I mean, duh, licking books is SO LIT. So we don’t check out board books or ‘beginning reader’ books from the library. We do check out story books from the library, but those are read TO her by an adult under highly supervised situations.)

Last week, I bought a six-pack of ‘Learn-to-Read’ Little Critter books at Costco for $9.99. We already love Little Critter, and the kid needs practice on NOT RIPPING PAGES of non-board books. At less than two dollars per book, this seems like a nice price point for practice. And — bonus! — maybe she will in fact learn to read.

Then on Saturday, we bought two new board books from the last of the big box brick and mortar bookstores, Barnes & Noble, for $16.98. We also joined their Kid’s Club, which is totally free! (Their adult version is $25 so free is awesome.) You get $5 off for each cool hundred that you drop in their store (books totally add up quickly tho) and the kids get a free cupcake on their birthday from the cafe. And they probably email you some coupons and stuff, I’m assuming. Since they asked for my email address. Or maybe they just want to sell it to make some money to pay the rent since everyone buys books on Amazon these days. (Which I totally get because I could have saved $3.08 buying them on Amazon. But I like to touch books and I miss bookstores.) Either way, I’m kind of cool with it.

MAMAS AND PAPAS AND ANYONE WHO HANGS OUT WITH THE LITTLES: How old was your kids when you started checking out library books? And do you prefer Amazon’s prices and convenience or the magical experience of actual bookstores? (I like a good combo platter myself.)

RAISING BABYSTAR: $19,577.70

A Kitten and a Goose.

Published on June 28, 2017June 28, 2017 by Darlene Dee10 Comments

We have a new member of the family. Meet Tillie.

Yes, we have a kitten. I already love her but what the hell was I thinking!?

Tillie moved in just four days before all of the parties and the people and the everything and I think I was sleep-deprived and my omg-cute-kitty brain overruled my logical brain and now we have a kitten. I’m not sure how much I can blame Babystar. The oldest two kids have been begging for a kitten for YEARS. The husband has wanted more cats since our previous super awesome sibling cats passed away within a week of each other very early in my pregnancy. Well, ever since he got over their passing. They were really cool cats, and he already had them when we met. (RIP Lando and Possum.)

We live very close to the Animal Welfare League of Arlington, and we often stop in during our walks to say hello to the animals. And apparently it is Kitten Season. Babystar always liked the animals, but on the visit in question, she fell in HEAD OVER HEELS LOVE with a particular kitten. He was gray and white and his name was Frankenstein and he had a sister that was also available for adoption. She sat in front of his cage and talked to him and played with him for so long that I decided to adopt them both. When I asked about them, I found out that a couple was literally filling out the paperwork at that very moment to adopt them both. I saw them; they looked nice. Case closed, right?

Nope.

I made the mistake of texting pictures of Babystar and kitten to the fam. Whoops. The Teenager was up, showered, and at the park to meet us and plead her Kitten Case within the hour. So we stopped in again on the way home from the park for no reason other than to see if Babystar went to the same kitten.

Of course she did.

But Frankenstein already had a family, as I explained once to the ToddlerMonster and about fifty times to the TeenageMonster.

And then we met Tillie. She was in the cage next to Frankenstein, and her name was actually Lily. There were two identical cats listed on the picture, named Lily and Millie. But only one kitten was inside.

Someone had just adopted Millie and left Lily behind.

So of course we decided that the ToddlerMonster would make a fine kitty-sister for her, and we immediately adopted Lily and changed her name to Tillie. (Well, actually they were about to close so it was the next day right when the AWLA opened but immediately sounds so much better.)

Babystar was choosing a collar and toys for her and then running to show her (!!!) while I filled out the paperwork. It was adorable. And they really are like siblings. They fight over toys and attention and already love to play with each other.

But the kitten isn’t on Babystar’s tab. It was time for more cats. Or cat, singular, in this case. If anything, Babystar is the reason we didn’t get two.

Oh, and the Goose. We checked out a few story books at the library recently, and Babystar became enamored with one of them. Goose, by Laura Wall. She asked to read this book over and over and over and she can now ‘read’ it herself. I highly recommend this book, and we bought her a copy from Amazon for $7.20 (it’s still on sale!).

(No, that is not an affiliate link. I need to learn how to do that next-level blogging stuff. It’s just there because it is a cool book. If you buy it and you like it, feel free to mail me a quarter or whatever. Just kidding but for real could someone teach me how to make money blogging?)

RAISING BABYSTAR: $18,657.41

Eating Her Words.

Published on September 13, 2016September 12, 2016 by Darlene DeeLeave a comment

Spine of Board Book must be a delicacy in certain Toddler Circles. Babystar loves to eat her books.

Though to be fair, she may have just been following instructions. It CLEARLY says ‘eat’. Emphatically, even. Notice the exclamation point. (Stop yelling, Book.)

Silly baby. The sweet Husband noticed and he also noticed that she liked books with real babies in them and he probably also needed to up his total for Amazon Prime now that they have that new ‘only available as an add-on b.s. now what even is that’ so he bought her some new board books. I’m told the total was about $16. I have seen these books with my own eyes but cannot find them all now. I would bet money that at least one is in the van. Here’s an action shot of one of them though.

At least she is turning the pages too fast to chew on them these days.

RAISING BABYSTAR: $12,037.13

Summer is Coming.

Published on May 31, 2016May 30, 2016 by Darlene DeeLeave a comment

The warm weather has FINALLY arrived.

Commence the yard sales.

We found a WHOLE BLOCK of yard sales on Saturday. I love when neighbors organize for my convenience. We bought some super cool books from one house for $5.

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And we bought a SWIMMING POOL from another house for $5.

The baby loved it. The Teenager is the best sister ever btw.

On Sunday, we found a super cute festival hiding in the woods behind our house. It was not quite as Wes Anderson as it sounds. Or maybe it was. There was a bit of a language barrier, but we learned that Children’s Day is celebrated on June 1st, somewhere. Someone told us it was Korea, but Google disagrees, so maybe we misunderstood. The festival was a fundraiser to be ‘children helping children’ and last year they raised enough to purchase six wheelchairs for a hospital overseas. (I know, I know, I sound like such a White Lady. The signs were not in english so I’m just not sure about the details.)

We had a blast. We bought $10 in tickets and Babystar played in the ball pit a few times, bounced in the castle with her sister, and chose three used board books from the ‘bookstore’. Mostly she loved cruising around in her pink cadillac and watching the other kids. We even got a turn on the baby swings. During one round of ball pit fun, there was another baby girl playing beside her. They kept mimicking each other. The baby girl ate a ball, so Babystar would eat a ball. Babystar threw a ball out onto the ground, so the baby girl threw a ball onto the ground. The baby girl stood up on the edge, so Babystar stood up on the edge. It was sososo cute. The baby girl’s parents and I laughed together and could communicate just enough to know that both babies were eleven months old. The babies were able to communicate just fine, though, via their Baby Telepathy. Little geniuses.