moving with kids – BabyCostsMoney

New Digs = New Haunts.

Published on March 5, 2018April 11, 2018 by Darlene Dee1 Comment

OMG YOU GUYS. I really miss Nook and Busy Bees and Scramble AND all of the awesome playgrounds in and around Arlington, Virginia. Hey NoVa parents, go out and play. Don’t take it for granted. Especially get yourselves and your kids to Watkins Regional Park and Clemyjontri and Potomac Yards.

Don’t get me wrong, I AM ABSOLUTELY SMITTEN with Colorado. But we are still figuring out the indoor play spaces. And on the few non-windy, above 60 degrees days, we go out looking for our favorite parks. We have found a few great playgrounds and a few, um, small interesting playgrounds. We are still looking for our most favorite park ever, but it’s more of a Spring Goal.

We HAVE found a few indoor play spaces that we like. WOW! Children’s Museum in Lafayette, Colorado is kind of the bomb diggity. We joined the first time we visited ($99). It has everything a toddler could want — a light piano, art room, tiny grocery store, pirate ship, dance studio, sand box, and so much more.

We also found a fun play space in Thornton, Colorado called Frolic. We’ve only been once ($9.86) because it’s kind of far away, but it was adorable and great for an afternoon of fun. It was NOT as good as Nook or Scramble or even Busy Bees but really, what is? (ARLINGTON YOU LUCKY BASTARDS!!) Frolic has a great CedarWorks play structure and smaller dollhouse, a train table, mini grocery store, orange ball pit, and a few other ride-on and bounce-on toys that kept Babystar’s attention for over two hours. I do wish it had better seats for the grown-ups. The picnic tables in the corner are great for Toddler Snack Time but not so great for mama’s lumbar support.

We are looking for more, more, always more, but so far everything I have found is open for like three hours from nine to noon only two days a week and I just can’t get out of the house that early. Maybe someday. I believe in us.

RAISING BABYSTAR: $26,397.74

More Stuff. Always More Stuff.

Published on January 16, 2018April 5, 2018 by Darlene DeeLeave a comment

Do you know the most fun thing about packing?

I know, I know. There are SO MANY fun things about packing. How can one possibly choose? Don’t worry. I’m here for you.

The MOST FUN thing about packing is finding stuff that you totally forgot about. Most of those things are craft supplies tbh. But I did find a few things we bought for Babystar that I never listed here.

Yay for that constantly growing number at the bottom.

We bought two books in Myrtle Beach: The Little Reindeer by Nicola Killen ($14.39) which is ADORABLE, and some ‘how to draw trolls’ book ($8.98) that came with a little magnet drawing thingy that the ToddlerMonster picked out all by herself.

They are probably in this box.

I also went to Target a few times while in Myrtle Beach and forgot to mention that I bought some Cat & Jack clothes because I literally can’t stop and where do I sign up for the support group? ($4.50, $4.50, $7.48, $7 and three of those were on clearance so I had no choice. Right? OMFGHELP.)

They are probably in one of these boxes.

And I found the program for Snow Day, an adorable children’s play that we went to last month. We paid $39.80 for all three kids and me. But we obviously wouldn’t have went to this show without Babystar. Who, btw, nursed in the back for half of the forty minute performance. Which is fine. I like supporting the arts.

RAISING BABYSTAR: $25,899.56

New Year, New Altitude.

Published on January 2, 2018December 31, 2017 by Darlene Dee9 Comments

T minus thirteen.

Oh wait, I meant to say HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope you are heading into this New Year with confidence and optimism and well-behaved children. (Or at least two out of three.)

I’ll just be over here packing all of our belongings into boxes because, as I may have mentioned before, we are moving to Colorado.

Fun fact: I have never been to Colorado.

But I will be living there so very soon.

The movers are coming in two weeks and I have to have the place mostly packed. The ToddlerMonster is helping. I’m averaging one box a week.

I think it’s time to step up my game.

When the movers leave, I will leave, but I will take a very circuitous route to Colorado, stopping to see friends and family on the way.

Funner fact: It takes up to fourteen freaking days for a moving company to get your stuff from Virginia to Colorado. I don’t want to arrive before my dishes. Or my bed. Or my InstantPot.

The Teen Girl is coming with us to Colorado (yay!). In fact, it will just be her and Babystar and me on this long, strange, trip in the minivan. My husband will already be in Colorado. Someone needs to make money so we can go party at Disney World (yep!).

The Teen Girl needs a better name for this blog because soon she will no longer be a Teen. I have called her Buttercup for years. How about Princess Buttercup? I am sure she will let me know how she feels about this name change if/when she reads this post.

pc: @serenakf: Amazing Photographer and Human

Princess Buttercup is coming with us. I have been trying to decide if we would have chosen a different place to rent if there was no Babystar. For monetary accuracy on this blog, of course. My husband has been out there working on and off for awhile now, and he did all the house-looking by himself. We decided to rent a farm. (It totally has a barn and silo and everything.) I have wanted chickens forEVER. And the farmhouse has a separate entrance and even a separate kitchen for Princess Buttercup.

We would have chosen this farmhouse, Babystar or no Babystar.

YOU GUYS I’M GOING TO RAISE CHICKENS!!

YOU GUYS DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO RAISE CHICKENS?!?

So, like, can anyone give me some tips? Regarding chickens OR Colorado? I know that chickens have feathers and Colorado is square and that is where my knowledge ends.

OMFG what am I doing??

(One thing I am FOR SURE doing is getting ready for a month of the shortest blog posts ever. From the WordPress app on my phone.)

Board but Not Boring.

Published on December 7, 2017December 4, 2017 by Darlene Dee7 Comments

When does the board book to paper book crossover usually take place?

Babystar is two and a half and we are still buying both.

We love our hardback paper-page picture books for reading together while sprawled on our bellies on the bed. But the board books are still best when Babystar wants to read to her stuffed friends. Or when Babystar wants to read in the car. Or when Babystar needs to read in the shopping cart. Or when Babystar wants to snack on a book. It’s rare these days but it still happens. Apparently they are SOUPY delicious!

(Babystar pronounces super as soupy and I will MURDER anyone who corrects her because it is the cutest thing ever. Ok, I won’t actually kill anyone. I’ll scold them, though. LOUDLY. Or? What’s something in between scolding and murder??)

Board books are durable. And usually pretty compact.

I have a running list of things purchased for the baby on a very unorganized Note on my phone/computer. It seems I have purchased quite a few board books in the past few months.

I already told you. I’m a sucker for books.

Barnes and Noble had a ‘buy 2 get 1 free’ table of board books a few months ago so OBVIOUSLY I let her choose three books ($15.98). She chose Max the Brave, Click Clack Moo, and This Little Trailblazer: A Girl Power Primer. I swear I DID NOT force her to choose that last one. But I was so totally proud.

And she LOVES that book. She likes to ask “what about this little trailblazer?”

Her favorite (this week) is Maria Tallchief.

Her dad brought her back Good Night Seattle ($9.95) from a business trip recently and we had to read it before bed for WEEKS. Only slightly annoying. Good night, joggers on the Burke-Gilman trail. It just rolls off the tongue.

We bought three board books by Chris Haughton: Oh No George!, Little Owl Lost, and Shh! We Have a Plan. Highly recommend all three ($19.59). Oh No George! is about a dog that wants to behave. Tries to behave. But doesn’t always behave. I before never realized the similarities between toddlers and dogs. I’m lying. I figured it out when Babystar started licking the floor.

We bought Sheila Rae’s Peppermint Stick for fifty cents at the library sale yesterday.

And do you see those two shiny new board books sort of on the left-middle there? Good Night Denver and Good Night Colorado ($18.08)?

OH YEAH I FORGOT TO TELL YOU. We are moving to Colorado.

I’ve never even been to Colorado. All I know is everything I learned from Becca. Plus pot is legal there, so I expect to have a lot of the same conversations over and over. Which is great, because I hate thinking of new things to say.

This is all rather sudden. BUT. I hear Boulder is the happiest city in the country. So that’s something.

RAISING BABYSTAR: $24,370.73