cfo. and a very scary picture!

my sweet baby boy. enjoying the toy for the two minutes he had it before nora got it!!

nora had to feed her baby doll the other day.

she was told she had to have shoes on to be outside... i forgot to mention pants!

"who me?"

she loves to run so fast in her boots... (did i mention i got these on a buy one/get one deal? now we have them in many sizes!!)

my little boy. all boy... loves to go straight for the dirt!

a VERY SCARY picture... she started reading "sports illustrated" on her own.

mmm... butternut squash! (good to know it can double as styling gel!)

oh wait, you mean i shouldn't be feeding the dog?

a new feat. he can pull up to standing. he did it once or twice when my mom was here, but is consistently doing it today. (especially when he wants something, like to desperately get into the bathtub... )

okay, so it's kind of hit me recently that i am like the cfo of our house. i don't make the money and i am not necessarily in charge of all the decisions (at least, not the big decisions. i have input, but ultimately submit to my husband). i make the little day to day decisions, like what we eat for dinner, when the kids nap, what they wear, what we will do, etc.

however, i manage the budget. i am "given" a certain amount of money to spend each month. (for all you who are panicking at the words "submit" and "budget" and "given", it's a pre-determined amount that david and i have negotiated!!) i could go spend it on clothes and feed my children ramen all month long, or have huge parties and great food, but nothing else. or, somewhere in between. (i mean, let's face it. the kids and i need new clothes sometimes...)

i work on "investing" my money wisely. i buy good, healthy food, but search for the deals. i have a TON of chicken in my house, because it's been on sale the last two times i was at the grocery store. but, it freezes well and we eat a lot of it! i buy clothes on clearance or resale shops (especially for the kids). i make my own baby food.

i really struggled with that one. i spent two afternoons while the kids were sleeping in december to make a ton of baby food. i am just about out of that supply. i turned on some bad tv and "watched" it in the background while i made food. it was an exhausting two days of being in the kitchen non-stop during naptime. i really considered going to the store and buying food from now on.

then, i realized that baby food is an average of $1.00 per jar. james would eat about two jars per meal. that's $360 per month. that's a significant chunk of my budget. (i did use this as leverage to get a little more added to my budget. one more mouth to feed an all.) i also realized that this is my JOB. i am a stay-at-home-mom. that sounds so easy and relaxing.... unless you've ever been one. a sahm's job is never finished. there's always one more load of laundry. one dish out of place. a toy that needs put away. plannning and organizing. folding and sweeping. i love my job and chose to stay home for a reason. i am the one my kids turn to when something hurts. or they want to show the coolest thing they found outside. or want to dance or snuggle with. I LOVE IT!

so, as a sahm, part of my job is feeding them. for me, that means making the baby food. (let me clarify that if you don't, i don't think you are a lesser mother. this is me...) it has also meant for me, as cfo, to go to cloth diapers. we did one big payment for diapers. if you broke it up into what i was paying monthly, it was four months of diapering costs. and i haven't "paid" for diapers since. nor will i. it's awesome. the benefit of both of these is also that they are more "green". (i guess depending on who you ask... i still use water, but line dry my diapers...) but, there isn't landfill buildup from my diapers and baby food jars. it kind of happened by default!

anyway, it's gotten to be a fun "game", this managing money. clipping coupons, finding deals, going to the store on the "right" days. saving money doesn't happen by chance. and i still have a long way to go. but we are getting better about eating what we have in the house and eating leftovers!

for those of you who stayed with me... a few stories. there's a line from a movie... "mister, mister, get me out of here". i have been quoting it to nora as she is asking to "get me out of my seat". so, this morning, nora came and crawled into our bed and snuggled. jamey started crying. i told her that jamey was saying "mister, mister, get me out of here". she told me "no, he's saying "mister, mister, leave me in here"." clever...

she likes to be called by certain princess names. she will tell me as it changes who she "is". the other day, she wouldn't answer me unless i referred to her as "ariel". (lots of problems with this... addressed with her!) she also likes to name those around her. ariel is probably her biggest go-to. maybe right up there with cinderella. (you might remember that she told jasmine that she was snow white.) so, jamey is sebastian. she refers to him like that quite often. mom-mom was flounder. daddy is king triton. she addresses everyone by name. today, daddy asked who sadie was. nora told him "pochahantas". you'll never guess who i am. ursula. awesome. even the dog gets to be a princess. and i am the evil, ugly, wicked, fat ursula. awesome. today, we were walking into sunday school. i asked if she had to go potty. she said no, and i reminded her that she would get a sticker on her chart if she didn't have an accident. she said "i understand ursula". the truly awesome part of that is that we work on getting that kind of response... a "yes mom" or "i understand". awesome. when i told her goodbye, she said "bye ursula".

she also will correct you if you tell her she's beautiful. she will say she's pretty. so, also today at church, someone said "nora, you are so beautiful". she said "i'm cinderella and i'm pretty". we're working on it!!

oh yeah... and in california, when you recycle, you get money back (granted, it's money we paid at check out, but still...). so i recycle now. which means collecting it and driving to some place and figuring out which place gives you the best amount for what you bring in. totally got ripped off the other day... one more money "making" venture!!