Kids Ain't Cheap

But They Sure Are Worth It

Archives for March 2013

She Only Needs Me For a Short Time

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At almost ten months old, my daughter is still not sleeping through the night. She wakes a minimum of twice between 8pm and 7am. Realistically it’s probably closer to four times. When all else fails, it sometimes comes down to me nursing her back to sleep even though I know she isn’t waking due to hunger since she nurses well throughout the day and is now on solid foods. She wakes because she needs something. Reassurance, mom, or just comfort.

After ten months it’s exhausting still waking as much as we do. I expected it in the early days and first few months, but I wasn’t prepared to still not be sleeping through the night at ten months. This is one of those ”not in the brochure” items. I’m not complaining though.

As I sit in her room, holding her in our rocking chair desperately trying to get her back to sleep at 2am, I remind myself she won’t need me for long. That I need to cherish even the difficult moments because in just a few very short years I’ll be begging her for a hug and cuddle.

She will learn to sleep eventually. Though it seems very natural to us as adults, sleep is a learned skill. I can’t look my daughter and ask her to just close her eyes, relax and fall asleep. We all know it isn’t that easy. We’ve tried many different sleep training techniques but they don’t work for us. We always end up back to the family bed where we all sleep better. Not perfect, but better.

 

Don’t Leave Mommy!

Separation anxiety is another thing we’re now dealing with. My understanding is that if a child goes through this phase it peaks around nine to ten months. Yippie. If she’s tired and mommy isn’t around, all hell will break loose. It can be frustrating to be cooking dinner and have a baby become super clingy, only wanting to be held. To be trying to clean the house and have her decide that she needs to be held instead.  Again, in these moments I need to remind myself that she’s a baby and she needs me. Sometimes Dad, Auntie or Nanny won’t do. She needs reassurance and cuddles from mom. I know that in a short time I’ll be missing these very moments, wishing for her to need me again.

It’s easy to let life dictate how you spend your time. The messy kitchen can always wait. My child will only need me for a short time in her life. I need to remember to concentrate my time on addressing her needs, no matter what time of day or what else I may have planned. I need to accept and embrace these short-lived interruptions.

 

There’s a saying, Good moms have dirty floors, messy kitchens, laundry piles, dirty ovens and happy kids. This will be my new mantra.

The Family Easter Tree

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Make Your Own Easter TreeI finally dug out my Easter decorations this week in preparation for the holiday. This will be our first Easter with the kiddo so everything will be new and exciting for us again. Other than the obvious decoration-clad holiday of Christmas, I don’t normally decorate the house. One of the decorations that my husband’s family introduced me to many years ago though was the Easter tree.

 

Easter Tree History

I had never seen or even heard of an Easter tree prior to my husband’s family introducing it to me. They started decorating their Easter tree when my mother-in-law was a young girl and her father had established some temporary German roots from the Canadian Air Force.  According to Wikipedia, the Easter tree is a centuries old German tradition but the original origins have been lost.

Our family will traditionally cut the branch of a tree in our back yard, bring it inside and hang small handmade wooden Easter decorations on it. If Easter is late enough in the year we may be lucky to bring in a flowering branch such as forsythia but it is usually bare branches from our birch or maple tree.

 

Easter Tree Variation

Since my first introduction to the Easter tree, I have come across many variations. I’m thinking my eyes just weren’t open before, acknowledging what I have come to know as an Easter tree.

There is a local neighborhood garden that decorates a very large maple tree on their property every year for people to observe. I wish I had a picture to show you since it’s pretty spectacular to see a 30+ foot tree with hundreds of plastic eggs hanging from it.It is similar to this family in Germany who elaborately decorate an apple tree on their property with upwards of 10,000 decorated eggs every year. You can see a short video of the beautiful tree here:

I’ve seen many decoration and craft magazines such as Martha Stewart offering their play on Easter tree decorations as well. Maybe I was just living in a hole my entire childhood missing this beautiful decoration.

 

Make Your Own Easter Tree

Making your own Easter tree is too easy. You can now buy pre-made trees at craft stores or, like us, you can simply cut a branch (or a few small branches) from a tree in your yard and secure it in a flower pot or vase.

Decorating the tree is up to your imagination! You can also buy pre-made decorations at craft or dollar stores or you may choose to make your own. Decorations can be made out of anything you want. Cutting Easter shapes out of scrapbook paper, decorate real or plastic eggs, or for a yummy tree, decorate with Easter candy. There is no wrong way to decorate your Easter tree!

The Easter tree is a fun and easy craft your family can do together today a establish a tradition for the tomorrows. Change it up every year. Make themes; bunnies one year, eggs the next. Just have fun with it and enjoy!

How do you celebrate Easter? Do you make an Easter tree?  

Making Spring Cleaning Kid Safe by Making Your Own Cleaning Supplies

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heinz vinegar egg dyeI have to be honest, I’ve never been overly concerned about what was in disinfecting agents or cleaners. As long as they did the job and made my house smell clean I didn’t care much about what they may possibly contain in terms of anything hazardous. Things have changed though since having our daughter last year, especially now that she’s crawling and getting into everything. I’m more aware than ever about  the chemicals I use in my home.

Why Choosing a Cleaning Chemical Matters

Our nine month old’s favorite thing to do is pull herself up and practice standing. While watching her pull herself up this weekend, using the newly cleaned glass-top coffee table as leverage, I noticed she was also putting her mouth around the edge of the table. Forget that it wasn’t the safest thing for her to be doing,  just minutes before, I had cleaned the table using a regular brand named glass cleaner. Though the table was dry, there’s no doubt in my mind she consumed some yucky and potentially dangerous chemicals by licking the table. Next time I’m just going to buy distilled water.

Even the most attentive parents will tell your their kids get into stuff they shouldn’t. It got me thinking about having to lock our cleaning supplies up.  While it is important to start child-proofing my home, I have decided to start making my own cleaning supplies, packaged clean-scent be damned.

Making Your Own Spring Cleaning Supplies

To ‘make’ my own cleaning supplies, I will be using a combination of these ingredients. All recipes compliment of a phone call to my aunt, the green-cleaning queen!

  • Vinegar 
  • Water
  • Baking Soda
  • Regular Dishwashing Soap

A combination of these simple ingredients, will clean almost every surface of your home and contain no harsh chemicals. Though it may not taste very good,  if your child or pet gets into these supplies they won’t be harmed.

  • A diluted mixture of water and vinegar (equal parts of each) makes a safe surface cleaner and disinfects! Once the surface dries the vinegar smell goes away.
  • If you have extra tough grim to get off, a mixture of baking soda and water or baking soda and dish soap will cut through it easily since baking soda is an abrasive. Approximately six tablespoons of baking soda to every one to two tablespoons of water or soap, whichever you use.
  • Vinegar and hot water can be used to clean hard-surfaced floors as well. Approximately one cup of vinegar for every gallon of water.
  • Baking soda and dish soap mixture is great for cleaning both ovens and microwaves as well.
  • To clean and disinfect your toilets, pour full strength vinegar in the bowl, scrub with brush, leave sit for a few minutes (15-20) and flush!
  • Scrub the bathtub soap scum away with baking soda and water (or dish soap) paste mixture.
  • To freshen carpets pour baking soda into the carpet, let sit at least one hour, though ideally overnight, and vacuum up.

I don’t know why I waited so long to come to this decision. Not only is it safer for my whole family (pets included!) I’m sure to save a few hundred a year not buying fancy nice-smelling, commercial cleaners.

Do you make your own household cleaners for spring cleaning?  Any tips for a beginner? 

The Expenses of a Family Pet

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family petWe talk about how expensive our kids can be, but what about our fur babies?

I’m an animal lover of all, even the not-so-pretty ones, but my family pet of choice is a cat. I grew up with a house full of them (we had four at one point) and my husband and I currently have one spoiled three-year-old kitty we both adore. We were discussing eventually getting a dog, but it won’t be for a long time given how expensive our cat has proven to be.

 

Our Family Pet Expenses

Our cat was diagnosed with irritable bowel disease (IBD) a few months after we got her. This was an annoyingly expensive diagnosis to make. Outside of exploratory surgery, we had almost every diagnostic test done for a feline just to have the vet eventually tell us that the episodes of vomiting, diarrhea and not eating were being brought on my an irritation. Something we would basically have the deal with for the rest of her life. She was right. Every six to eight months we end up at the vets office having our cat’s episodic symptoms treated. It is not cheap.

This post isn’t about how expensive my cat is. It is to alert you that, though cats are generally a lower maintenance animal, it isn’t always the truth. We got our cat with a clean bill of health and no obvious issues only to find out a few months later she had a health condition that would ultimately end up costing us thousands. This may be true for any pet.

 

Why You Need to Budget for a Family Pet

It breaks my heart when I hear stories of animal neglect and abuse. It makes me even sadder when I find out the neglect is brought on because the owners simply didn’t have the finances in order to properly care for the animal.

Until this cat, I’ve never considered pet insurance, but with her diagnosis, my husband and I seriously considered it for the first time. In our situation it didn’t make sense, given that they wouldn’t cover her pre-existing conditions, but you better believe it is something I will obtain for all future pets. I’ve had a look online at what’s out there, and found that there are so many options out there. Lemonade isn’t your traditional insurance company, for example, but could be a great option for you if you are looking for an affordable way to protect your pet. With our little fur baby, we’ve become pretty good at recognizing triggers and knowing what to do before it escalates into a full-blown (read: budget busting) episode so deal with them as they arise.

Ways to Lower Your Family Pet Expenses

In order for us to keep emergency vet bills lower, we have opted to maintain her on a more expensive diet. Our experience is that paying more for higher quality food causes less flare-ups, (one to two per year versus upwards of five). Yes, our monthly costs are higher in the ‘pet food’ category, but paying more for a good quality food leads to less emergency vet visits which have the potential to be extremely expensive. The same goes for all pets. It’s much better to invest in a pricier, nutritious food – whether that’s Badlands Ranch Dog Food for your dog or a similarly nutritious cat, rabbit, or fish food – to ensure their health, which in turn will save you money in other areas, like vet bills.

When you chose to add a pet to your family, it is only fair to the animal to care for it in every way required. You are choosing to bring them into your life, your family. If you can’t afford the proper food or vet care, maybe now isn’t the time to be thinking about a pet. I’ve had friends look at us like we were nuts when we tell them how much we spend on our cat, and ask us why we wouldn’t just have her put down and be done with it all. Why? Because we love her and have accepted responsibility of her. If it got to a point we couldn’t care for her we would do our best to find someone who could. We didn’t give up on her just because she costs more than a $15.00 bag of cat food every month.

Even without an emergency every arising, your pet will still need normal care. Everything from food, to common pest treatments, annual vet exams and treatments, affordable pet vaccinations, age or breed related illnesses, the list goes on. There is so much more to consider outside of feeding and playing with your pet.

If you’re thinking about getting a pet, or have one now, consider adding a ‘pet expense’ category to your budget so if an emergency arises, and you don’t have pet insurance, you have the funds without risking the rest of your family’s needs.

Do you have a dedicated category for your family pet in your budget?