children – BabyCostsMoney

The Doctor is In.

Published on September 20, 2017September 19, 2017 by Darlene Dee8 Comments

You guys I have had SO MANY check ups this week. And this doctor doesn’t even take my insurance. But she does take popsicles. And so far, I have been declared ‘ok’. I am also EXTREMELY up to date on my shots. And your shots. And all of the neighbors shots.

(Lucky me. My husband had the audacity to cough during a check up and he was declared SICK. Babystar is a really good doctor. Even if she pronunces check up as chep-uck.)

Babystar is TERRIFIED of the doctor. All was well until our last visit, when she screamed and fought everything. She didn’t even like the scale. Which is weird because she LOVES the scale at home. (They wouldn’t take my word for her weight, though. I guess that is good but it was annoying.)

She also cannot handle band-aids if she actually has a need for one. She will put a band-aid on anything or anyone, including herself, any other time. I find them everywhere. In fact, I think I should add $7.99 for the multipack I bought recently because Babystar had used all the band-aids. And by ‘used’ I mean ‘wasted’. She can reach the band-aid drawer and almost always comes into the bathroom and pulls at least one out when I pee. Maybe more if I am too slow.

In an attempt to get her more comfortable with this whole doctor thing, I bought her a doctor kit. I really wanted an original Fisher-Price doctor set like the one I had when I was a kid. I totally should have stalked eBay or something. But I was impatient and I just bought the first one I found at Target. ($24.99)

Babystar LOVES it and I have had several thousand check-ups this week. According to the doctor, I am ok.

Adorably, when she bumps her head or stubs her toe, she comes to me for a check-up. As long as I use enough of the doctor tools, I can declare her ‘ok’ and she seems to buy it. I hope she doesn’t ever require proof of my nonexistent PhD.

Have you bought a doctor kit for your toddler? Did it help him or her feel more comfortable at the actual doctor’s office?
RAISING BABYSTAR: $21,173.44

Pasta Snakes.

Published on August 30, 2017August 27, 2017 by Darlene Dee12 Comments

When my older children were toddlers (back in the Twentieth Century), I fed them Gorilla Bars. They LOVED Gorilla Bars. Gorilla Bars are granola bars with an adorable toddler pronunciation. And they have stayed ‘Gorilla Bars’ in our family ever since.

Babystar loves penne pasta. And snakes. And once when she was particularly cranky at dinner, the Teenager distracted her by having her penne pasta hiss like a snake. And now they are Pasta Snakes. Probably forever.

Do you have any unusual names for foods in your family? Mispronunciations that stuck around long past Toddlerhood?

Below is the food we purchased in August SPECIFICALLY for Babystar. So far, I’ve been listing the foods that I bought with Babystar in mind. Although she does share with the rest of the family. And we share with her. She still isn’t eating more than a few bites of my portions. I will have to adjust this food calculating method eventually, but it seems to be working for now.

Turkey pepperoni $2.19, $2.19
Penguin crackers $1.59, $1.59, $1.59
Bananas $0.89, $1.23, $0.95
Strawberries $1.29, $1.29, $2.99, $3.39
Blueberries $1.99, $2.99
Apples $3.99, $3.99
Pears $3.99
Fruit roll-ups $1.49
Honest grape juice for popsicles $3.99
Aldi organic cheese puffs $1.99, $1.99
Frozen pizza $2.69, $2.69, $2.69, $2.69, $2.69, $2.69
Ice cream minis $1.39 x16 (She had HFM disease this month.)
Baskin-Robbins $2.59
Friday’s kids meal $4.99
Pizza slice $3.00, $3.00
Peter Chang’s spring rolls and fried rice $3.50, $3.50
French fries at the airport $3.50
McDonald’s Happy Meal $2.99, $2.99
Chick-fil-A kid’s meal $3.29, $3.29, $3.29
Insomnia m&m cookie $1.70
Dairy Godmother snickerdoodle cookie $0.95

Also every month.

Laundry detergent $8.47
Storage unit $127
Diapers $4.99, $4.99, $4.99, $4.99, $20.89, $14.24 (I have basically abandoned the cloth again. Bad mama.)
Wipes $7.99, $4.99

RAISING BABYSTAR: $20,963.61

WHAT IS YOUR WEIRDEST ‘FAMILY WORD’, THAT EVERYONE IN YOUR HOUSE UNDERSTANDS, BUT WOULD CONFUSE THE HECK OUT OF OUTSIDERS?

Another Food Post.

Published on June 30, 2017June 30, 2017 by Darlene Dee8 Comments

I dread these necessary-for-accuracy-but-totally-boring food posts.

The following is a list of food purchased specifically for the ToddlerMonster in June. She does eat OTHER food. In fact, the following is mostly a list of foods offered to and refused by the ToddlerMonster. (Except the fish. We don’t buy extra steak or chicken for her but we buy extra fish because she eats so much fish.)

penguin crackers $1.49, $1.49, $1.49
frozen pizza $2.29, $3.79
frozen french fries $1.89
blueberries $1.79, $1.79, $4.99, $3.99, $3.79
string cheese $1.79, $1.79
strawberries $1.29, $1.29 (Aldi price!!)
freeze dried strawberries $1.29
freeze dried bananas $1.29
oatmeal cereal bar cookies $1.49, $1.49
organic rainbow baby carrots $1.69
animal cookies $1.29
pineapple bits $0.89
m&m’s $1
peaches $2.98
melon slices $2.99
bananas $1.74, $1.48, $0.87
apples $3.99, $4.99
Trader Joe’s mac & cheese $2.99, $2.99, $2.99
Trader Joe’s apple bars $1.99, $1.99
Trader Joe’s blueberry bars $1.99
Trader Joe’s strawberry bars $1.99
SO MANY POPSICLES $4.69, $469, $4.69, $4.69
eggs $4.99
salmon $8
sea bass $6
Caesar salad $4.99
Kid’s pasta at Busboys and Poets $6
side of fries at Busboys and Poets $5
Angelico Pizzeria cheese slice $3, $3, $3
Chik-fil-A kids meal $3.39, $3.75, $3.39
Kid’s chicken and fries at Boardwalk Fries $4.99
french fries at Five Guys $4.19
kids meal at McDonalds $2.99, $2.99
spring rolls at T.H.A.I. $5.99
spring rolls and fried rice at Peter Changs $2.50
Robek’s smoothie $4.99, $4.99, $4.99
kleenex in a Moana box $1.99*

Not on the list because it is free: mama’s milk.

I have no idea what is up with this new nursing all day, erry day thing that she has going on now. Maybe she’s trying to kick it retro?

Babystar was basically day-weaned, and then the two year molars showed up and everything changed. She wants milk ALL OF THE TIME. I was using the ‘don’t ask, don’t offer’ method of gentle weaning, but apparently just my existence in the world is a reminder that I have milk. And that she wants the milk nownownow.

MAYDAY MAYDAY: To those of you out there that successfully weaned a toddler with little to no tears, HOW did you do it? I have exactly zero ideas. I have googled. I have asked friends. I have googled some more. I have asked the doctor. I got nothing. Please help.

RAISING BABYSTAR: $18,852.64

*Yes, I know that this isn’t food but it was purchased at the grocery store and once she saw it, she HAD TO HAVE IT, and we didn’t feel like fighting that particular battle. Kleenex is at least useful. It could have been, like, Moana paper plates or something else that we really don’t use at home.

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

Two the Moon.

Published on June 26, 2017June 25, 2017 by Darlene Dee4 Comments

Babystar turned two last week. She had been steadily transforming into the ToddlerMonster for the last few months.

She grew several inches and goes down the big slides at the park all by herself.

She has learned cool new tricks like jumping with both feet and manipulating her world into providing her with chocolate.

She can string words together to make sentences. She says things like ‘Where my pink shoes go?’ and ‘I want more blue chocolates.’

She can count to ten. Sort of. She starts at four. And she ends at BLASTOFF. 4-5-6-7-8-9-BLASTOFF.

She picks out her own clothes, and rarely chooses pants. Or she chooses only pants. And her sock game is extremely creative.

She has SO. MANY. OPINIONS. It is really cool to watch her brain develop and it is also extremely annoying.

We celebrated with a birthday party at one of her favorite places — Nook. She did not seem to care at all about the party room with decorated tables and pizza and cake. She was very excited that so many of her friends and family were playing with her at Nook. She kept telling me ‘Everybody play!’

Party cost breakdown:

Weekday party fee at Nook (with member discount) $200
Pizza (from next door at Angelico Pizzeria with tip) $120
Cake (Harris Teeter) $48.55
Star cookies (Trader Joe’s) $5.98
Kool-aid Bursts (to make rockets) $4
Cardstock (to make rockets) $1.96
Plastic cups for snack display table $2.50
Astronaut helmets (3) $14.94
Space themed rubber duckies (24) $12.98
Space themed dinner and dessert plates $27.48
Space themed dinner and dessert napkins $17.92
Solar system snack display stand $8.99
Star table covers (3) $10.50
Hanging planets $6.49
Gold plastic forks $4.99

We also had a fruit bowl and veggie tray and a variety of drinks, but these were purchased by my generous in-laws, along with all of the graduation party food for the following day. Yep, I had two parties in a row. Thankfully, only one of them was at the house.

RAISING BABYSTAR: $18,586.41