A few very random thinks for the weekend.

2004 was declared The Year Of Fiscal Responsibility.

It's been going fairly well, I mean as well as it can go for a woman who's gotten quite used to living well above her means. An unfortunate result of all this budget living is my obsession with the grocery store circulars.

Since grocery money is the only money I can spend while being fiscally responsible, it's the only shopping related joy left in my life.

Last week I found Campbell's Chunky soup for .99 and I had a coupon, and the store had double coupons...let's just say, I got a bargain. It was a bargain that left me giddy and kept me up later that night thinking about how much I saved on the soup. I told anyone who would listen about the great deal I got on the soup. When Pants ate the soup, I reminded him of that awesome deal I got on the soup.

And I am serious.

Another reason I like saving all the grocery money: all that money I've saved can be repurposed. I get a set amount each week and if I make it stretch I can get really expensive and frivolous shampoo.

So that's a good thing, but I'm still a little scared of my affinity for the grocery store flyers.

Grapes are 84 cents a pound this week, and don't even get me started on the pork tenderloin....

...

I've been thinking a lot about babies lately. My baby boy is going to be three next month and I'm always taken aback when I feel sad to see my kids growing. Because, basically, I suck at raising babies. I'm a lot better with kids who can talk and who don't require a whole lot of paraphenalia to travel.

I also adore sleeping, and babies don't seem to have the same voracious appetite for sleep I do. At least, they don't have the same time frame for sleeping I do. This makes us kind of incompatible.

But still...I'm feeling a little wistful about the passing of babies in my life.

I've decided if I could give birth, spend those first 2 weeks in a blissful 'Baby Honeymoon'. That time period where you are so high from giving birth and seeing that perfect little person you grew and you're just flying high right over your hormones and the not sleeping so well and the adjustment to this new life you have with a new person to accomodate. I love that part of having a baby.

If I could give birth and have the 'Baby Honeymoon' and then sleep for the next 5 months only to wake up when my baby is six months old. At six months when they start to look really chubby and well formed and they smile and laugh with that giggly belly laugh and develop little personalities and they start thinking about crawling, but they'll still sit in your arms and watch the world.

Right around 6 months you can start training them to perform all those silly tricks that make you say to your spouse: 'This Is The Smartest Baby Ever!'

If I could have a baby honeymoon and then sleep until they're six months old, I would have had at least 2 more kids. But as it happens, it really wouldn't work that way.

It's good to have dreams.

...

I'm also knitting a sweater for a friend's new baby. Usually when I knit a sweater for a baby, I am frantically finishing it when the baby arrives, even though I started the sweater when I found out about the pregnancy about six or seven months before delivery. I usually finish the baby sweater at the very last possible moment the baby will be able to wear it before growing right out of the thing. Because, although babies are small they grow very fast. I'm not saying that in a rhetorical sense, I mean they grow so fast that if we kept up that rate of growth throughout our lives we'd all be 6 foot tall five year olds.

I thought I'd outsmart myself this time and decided to knit a sweater for the new baby, I started it about 7 months before the baby was due, but this time I planned ahead and made the 12 month sized sweater rather than the newborn sized sweater.

I'm still struggling to finish the sweater and I'm getting worried my little trick isn't going to work. So next time I'm going to start knitting at the same time but I'll plan on making the sweater large enough for an 11 year old. Well maybe I should just make it adult sized because really my rate of knitting isn't getting any faster and these babies aren't really getting a whole lot smaller.

Or maybe I should just stick to knitting scarves...do babies wear scarves?

Comments

[patti]

Boy, that shampoo really knows how to market their product: "Phytovolume is a volumizer shampoo for fine, limp, lifeless hair." So basically, in buying it one is really having to admit some pretty ugly stuff about her hair, no?

Here's my question regarding the knitting... if you keep making them larger but still starting at the same time, isn't it all relative? I mean, doesn't it just take longer to knit a larger sweater? So won't you always never be done in time?

And boy did you nail the baby honeymoon thing. I remember right at two weeks post partum feeling like I might just absolutely die from exhaustion. I think I even remember asking my MIL, who was visiting at the time, if it was possible to simply drop dead from lack of sleep. And I meant it.

[Melissa]

I don't know if you've ever sensed this, but I'm kind of a realist about things...even my hair. I'd be hard pressed to deny the limp and lifeless quality of my hair.

As for the knitting, I think you're right. As the sweaters get bigger so does the knitting time so I should definitely make the adult sized sweaters as baby gifts...because people spend quite a bit of time as adults so it will fit eventually...it can't possibly take me twenty years to finish a sweater...can it?

[drewped]

So how wonderful IS this hair product. My flat, limp, fine hair wants to know!

And I concur....a bigger sweater=MORE knitting!

[Amber]

Before my second was born I kept thinking I just want to skip all this awful labor and delivery/newborn crap and fast-forward to three months. Now she's three months and I find myself fantasizing about when she's a year old and weaned and my son will be three and (hopefully)potty trained. Still I try to enjoy most moments, and maybe, no, I know I will probably miss this baby time when its finally over.

Good luck on the sweater, love to see it if you ever finish!

[lakshmi mama]

I started a sweater for Anja back in November....I still need to finish the sleaves. Luckily I made it 3 sizes bigger than what she is in now so it will *hopefully* fit next year because it is going to be sunny and warm before I am done at this rate.

I've been wistful about babies lately too. Luckily my professional endeavors have me around lots of pregnant women and babies so I get my fix without having to endure the insane fatigue. Perfect.

[Michelle]

Hey, Melissa, one way to save money and make that shampoo last longer is to cut your hair really short. I swear a normal sized bottle of shampoo or conditioner lasts me at least 3 months!

Michelle

[Amy]

I miss the pregnant time -- when they're in your tummy and they can't poop or cry or learn to crawl-walk-run. You can just hold them there and they can't go anywhere and they're just yours.

But with our three kids, when the crying and fighting and whining never seems to end, I'm mostly glad we're not having any more. Mostly.

[pinky]

I have to put in a plug for my new favorite volumizer, Bumble and Bumble surf spray. My hair actually *resists* when I put a comb or brush through it! It is miraculous.

(and head vases are like crack - once you have one, you can't stop - I should take a photo of my entire collection, it will scare anyone who finds them spooky)

ps - what are the odds that we would have the same wooden-toy-insect-thingy? What do you call those things, anyway? Push 'ems?

[Melissa]

I call them 'dancing thingies'...perhaps I'll share a picture of my....I mean Maddie's...collection someday.

[beerzie boy]

> I'm feeling a little wistful about the passing of babies in my life

I know what you mean...Beerzie Girl and I go back and forth on this one. (Having another.) Unfortunately, we can't really afford a fourth (yes, fourth) child.

And there is probably a reason my friends with four kids call having a fourth "joining the stupid club."

[Melissa]

Okay, is the club actually stupid....or do you just have to be stupid to join it?

[beerzie boy]

Yes.