5 Things Friday

It was one of THOSE weeks.

I won't lie, it started off a little rough.  Phil went fishing on Saturday, which left Henry and I to run all the errands and spend the day together.  It also happened to be about the time that Henry decided to be a naughty boy.

Wouldn't listen.  Bit my face.  Ran away from me in public.  Wouldn't hold my hand in the parking lot.  Slapped me.  Temper tantrums.  Kicked me in the face.  Laughed at me when I cried out of frustration.  Barely napped.

And Phil was late coming home.

Thankfully I had a girls afternoon the next day, but it wasn't exactly enough.  And of course, while Phil was watching Henry during my girls afternoon, Henry ate lunch and then took a three and a half hour nap.

Phil's mom agrees with me that I deserve another girls day.

Here are a few more highlights from this week:


1.  Daycare has requested that Henry no longer bring his dinosaur to school.  And all of the other dinosaurs have been removed from his room as well.  According to Henry, the dinosaurs were eating the other babies.  Unfortunately, they weren't being very gentle about it.  And when I say "they", I mean Henry.

I completely understand why he can't bring his dinosaur.  It makes perfect sense and I totally respect daycare's request.  But a part of me is sad for him.  The first day Henry had to leave his dinosaur, he screamed "MY HENRY'S DINOSAUR" for about 5 minutes.


2.  Last night during dinner, Henry thought it was funny to chew up his food, spit it out, and throw it at me.  It was gross.  But I won't lie... I was slightly impressed with his aim.  The first time he did it, I was facing the opposite direction and he got me square in the head.

Phil and I turned our heads to laugh and then with a straight face, I told him we don't throw our food and told him to say sorry.  I should probably warn daycare about this one.


3.  It's almost sad that we have almost gone through a Costco box of Oreo's.  Ok, so in my defense we have had it for a couple of months.  Even though I am trying to have us eat a little healthier, I refuse to give up a few Oreo's a few days a week.

4.  Henry had a carnival at daycare last week.  Each teacher came up with a game booth and his teacher had a dinosaur fossil dig game.  Part of the decorations was a giant red dinosaur.  When we picked Henry up after his carnival, his teacher told us she wouldn't mind if the dinosaur disappeared in the back of our car.  Actually, she insisted we take it.  So we did.

Henry was excited, but a little upset that the dinosaur had to sit in the very back of the car...

More than a little upset.  He screamed "MY DINOSAUR!" the whole way home.

We are now the proud owner of a very large dinosaur.  Most of the time, Henry insists the thing is balanced on the coffee table.


5.  Henry used to LOVE going to bed.  We would lay him down and he would hang out in his crib for about 30 minutes before he fell asleep.  And he would sleep like 11 hours almost every night.  All of a sudden, Henry is protesting bedtime and naps.  It takes him an hour to an hour and a half to fall asleep and he promptly wakes up at 6:30 in the morning.  I'm not sure why the sudden change.  Is there such a thing as the 2 year old sleep regression?

The week wasn't all bad.  I'm super excited Orange is the New Black came out a day early (and I'm doing my best to not whole myself up inside for the next 2 days, watching it straight.  We have a low-key weekend planned which should be pretty relaxing.  And I am hopeful that this weekend will be better with Henry than last week.  Can't get much worse, right?

Happy weekend!!

Diapers! Or shall we say... deals on diapers

One thing I discovered very quickly when I became pregnant is that I have some underlying hippy tendencies.  I didn't get to do the natural birth I wanted.  I did nurse for a year, but it wasn't without its challenges.  And that just leaves diapers.

I thought Phil would think I was crazy when I mentioned I wanted to use cloth diapers.  But he was actually totally on board.  My guess is that picking up after dogs has made him immune to the idea of cleaning dirty diapers.

After Henry was born, the cloth diapers were a little too big for his tiny body.  We waited a couple of months until he bulked up a little bit.  At that point, Phil's dad was starting to get really sick.  Between travelling to Virginia, Phil being back in Virginia, and just trying to figure out life with a baby, we used disposable for a little longer.

Then I realized that going out and about with all the cloth diaper stuff made the diaper bag HUGE.  So I decided we would use disposables when we were going places.  That pretty much left daycare.  And mostly because so many people thought I wouldn't last with the cloth diapers, I was DETERMINED to be successful with cloth (stubborn, party of ME).

So 4 days a week, Henry wears cloth.  Weekends and Thursday (when my mom watches him), he wears disposables.

We have made it 2 years, and I am guessing cloth diapers have saved us at least a few hundred dollars.  Henry moves up to the preschool-2 room at the end of the month, where they will start working on potty-training (YAY!  Another reason to love daycare- they potty-train for you).  But they mentioned that it would be easier with disposable diapers.

And I totally get it.  And whatever they need to help THEM potty-train him, I am ALL FOR.

So I have been on the hunt for the cheapest diapers possible.  I don't have time to be a crazy couponer.  I'm not driving around town to get the best deal.  I need quick and easy.  And here's a couple of deals I have found for Size 4 diapers (remember, the smaller size of diaper, the more diapers you get per box and the cheaper the per diaper cost):


1.  My extensive research has revealed that without coupons, Target has the cheapest diapers.  You can get a big box (using the REDcard) for about $0.18/diaper.  And let's face it, they don't need fancy diapers for during the day.

2.  Two words:  Amazon Mom.  Amazon Mom gives 20% off diapers.  If you get Huggies Snug & Dry (which I am convinced is Huggies most economical diaper), you can get diapers for $0.175/diaper which is basically the same price as Target diapers.  And they are delivered to your doorstep for FREE.  Pretty regularly, Amazon has coupons that you can use with the Amazon Mom discount, making the diapers $0.16/diaper.

3.  Random deals.  I was looking at Target's website a couple of weeks ago when I noticed that they now have a subscription service and they were offering 25% off Huggies diapers for your first subscription purchase.  That discount along with the REDcard discount made Huggies Snug & Dry about $0.15/diaper.  The only problem with that was they were running out of stock.  I bought 2 boxes of 192, one box of 156, and a box of size 5 Huggies Overnight (which is what Henry where to bed) for just over $100.  I think I saved almost $80 on 606 diapers.

Side note:  Of course, I didn't change the shipping address with Target, so they got sent to our old house.  And I started FREAKING OUT.  Thankfully, my brother knows the new tenant, so I was able to get all of my diapers.


The sad thing is that daycare changes their diapers so much that I think the 600 diapers I just bought will only last us 2.5-3 months.  But still, that is only $30/month and I won't have to wash anymore diapers.  :)

So there you go!  I feel like I did make cloth work for us long enough to feel good about that investment.  Plus I am going to bleach the heck out of them (throw the wet bags away) and save them for the next baby.  But this is how I am going to spend the least amount on diapers possible.  I feel like Henry is NOT going to be early to potty-train.  He has just had this mentality with milestones that he waits and waits and waits to do something until he masters it.  But I am hoping that we will only have to buy diapers for 6-9 months.  Wishful thinking?  Probably.  But I am happy with my delusions.

5 Years

It seems to strange to me to say that today is our 5 year anniversary.

For some reason that feels like a long time.  So much longer than 4 years.  Maybe it is because I probably can't call us newlyweds anymore.  Although I don't think we have felt like newlyweds in a VERY long time.

I just can't even believe all that the last 5 years has entailed:

-  Phil's dad's Liver Cancer
-  The PE Exam
-  Infertility
-  Thyroid Cancer (diagnosis, LID, RAI)
-  Cancer Free
-  A puppy
-  Getting pregnant
-  Having a baby
-  Losing Phil's Dad
-  Buying a house
-  Phil finishing his PhD


What's funny is that when we were picking out the song for our first dance, we kept going back to Steady as We Go by Dave Matthews Band.

And the basic message of the song is that no matter what happens, we'll get through it.  Steady as we go.  And that's exactly what the last 5 years have been.

I know everyone says it, but I really did get the best guy out there.  Through everything we have been through, Phil's been an absolute rock.  He works hard.  He's kept his focus.  He's kept us on track.  He's kept me going when I didn't know if I could.  He goes along with my crazy ideas.  He is kind (everyone likes him more than me).  Marrying that guy was, without a doubt, the best decision I ever made.

Phil, I'm so glad I followed you around at Ryan's birthday party.  :)  I love you!  Thank you for being amazing during 5 of the best and hardest years of my life.  Here's to 60 more!

Oh hey... A blog post! (aka Life Lately)

I'm not even sure when the last time I blogged was.  I could look, but I know it was A LONG time ago.  We took a family trip to Texas at the beginning of March and I don't think I have really blogged since.  I think the only person that noticed I haven't been blogging is my mother-in-law (Hi Faith!).

The truth is that I have missed it.  Blogging, that is.  I still read some blogs.  I still comment on some, but not too many.  I miss the outlet.  And I miss the community.  Towards the end, I was feeling discouraged because the community part for me wasn't as strong.  But it's just like anything, it always takes time.  One foot in front of the other.

So I am going to give blogging a go again.  But with a little less pressure on myself.  For the time being, here's what has been occupying my time for the last 3 months.


1.  Henry
No big surprise here.  He turned two and is now OBSESSED with dinosaurs.  And mildly obsessed with trains.

Of course being 2 means we are also dealing with some of this:

{This tantrum resulted because I got him the snack he asked for.  Obviously his life is horrible.}

And boy has it been FUN!


2.  Sickness
Despite the ear tubes, Henry has had 2 bouts with ear infections (1 in only one ear, the other in both ears).  I do think the tubes are helping him not be in as much pain, so I won't say they haven't been worth it.  Not to mention that the tubes mean we can just use ear drops for the treatment.  He's getting pretty good about the drops.

{The dinosaurs come EVERYWHERE with us}

We have also had the awesome opportunity of passing some stomach bugs and sinus infections around.  Gotta love daycare.  I have heard that the first 2 years of daycare at the worst.  By that calculation, we only have 4 months left of constant sickness.  Not that I am counting or anything.


3.  Work
Thankfully, work has been busy.  I recently made the discovery that my entire evening is much more enjoyable if I can get off work at 4:30 instead of 5.  That half an hour may not seem like much, but 30  minutes in the evening is the difference between eating at 6 and eating at 7.  Traffic makes that much of a difference in 30 minutes.  I actually get to see Henry and spend time with him now.  It is AWESOME!  However, between leaving earlier and being REALLY busy, I have been going to work as early as possible.

Like 5 or 6 in the morning early.  And that means early to bed.  It makes for not a lot of blogging material.


4.  Work
I've been so busy at work that we actually hired someone else.  In the long run, this is going to be wonderful.  I wasn't able to progress in my career because I was bogged down by work that I have been doing for years.  In the short term, training someone is HARD.  Mostly because I have to get my work done and check someone else's.  That means I am having to work even more.  Nights and weekends.  And it looks a lot like this.

{Memorial Day evening}

{Sunday afternoon}

Working in the sunshine was about twelve kinds of wonderful though.  I mean, if you have to work doing it outside with some iced tea isn't so bad.

In other work related news, I got a standing desk.

Actually, it is so much cooler than just a standing desk.  It is motor-controlled so I can either sit or stand.  Is it sad how excited I got about this?  Probably.


5.  Healthiness
A fitness trainer I know offered her workout program for free to her Facebook friends as long as we agreed to beta test it for her.  So far, it is so crazy hard.  I'm a month into it and already have noticed some serious changes.  I have 8 weeks left and I am already looking at purchasing a similar type of workout system when it is over to keep the changes coming.

And it is crazy how when you are working your butt off with exercise, it kind of makes you not want to ruin it all by eating total crap.  So I have been spending some time and energy figuring out some healthier recipes and cooking.  The bad news is that we spend more on groceries and I feel like I am constantly cutting up fruits and veggies.  The good news is that Phil has lost like 5 lbs.



So that's pretty much it.  I need to get my writing mojo going again.  I have a feeling this post was somewhat painful to read.  No fear, it's just like riding a bike.  Hopefully.