Everybody loves Plinko

On my bedside table sits a change jar.  The jar contains all of the change collected during my married life, perhaps $30.  

Every morning when I shower, Kathleen gets shut up in my room, free to roam and explore with some restrictions that change as she discovers new places to pillage that she hadn't discovered previously.  Don't touch the CD's.  Anything that comes out of the bedside table drawers goes back in.  Leave my clothes in the drawer.  Don't pull the painting supplies off the shelf.  She is very obedient and leaves things alone after they have been specifically outlawed.  

And of course, that's the problem - specifically - because a two year-old has no common sense.  Common sense is gained when fingers are burned, dishes are broken, and time-out is served for improvised murals.  

Yesterday morning Brandon discovered the change jar disgorged of most of its contents.  And the change?  Underneath our bed, having been tossed behind the headboard, most likely for the wonderful noise that it makes.  She has yet to see The Price is Right, but I think I know which game will be her favorite.

Six months

Today, Sophia turned six months old.  To celebrate, she is crying in her crib, trying to go to sleep.  

When Kathleen was born, we marveled about how calm she was, such a good-natured, contented child.  Then she turned six months and woke up.  She wasn't good natured, we realized, she simply wasn't awake long enough to be any kind of nature.  And then the next three months until she had learned to crawl were particularly stressful for both of us.

When Sophia was born, we adored her and loved how happy she was, contented to be held and smiled at.  Now she is six months old and has woken up.  This time, I know what I'm headed for and I'm not looking forward to it.  Sophia has given a wonderful preview in the last week by waking up at 4:30 and intermittently crying until 6:30, not taking naps, waking up to early from naps, crying herself to sleep at night, and crying while left alone for 5 minutes.  Productivity around here has gone through the floor.

I know she'll survive the next three months, but I'll get back to you about me.

But who knows what it says?

Yesterday Kathleen came to me with a crayon, her coloring book, and a request: write.  Not wanting to write at the moment, I suggested instead that she write for me.  She then proceeded to write Kathleen, Sophia, Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, and all of the assorted names of cousins, aunts and uncles that I could think of.  Then we wrote all of the words that came to mind.  When Uncle Sam came over, she requested of him all of his words to write.  Every time one of us said a word, Kathleen would make a very careful squiggle corresponding to the word.

When I went to find her for dinner, she was holed up in the bathroom with a notebook and a pen and had covered several pages with writing.  Her nursery pictures all had writing.  She is writing right now as I type, exclaiming 'write, write' every 30 seconds or so.  Now if only I could teach her how to write actual letters....

$48

In these perilous economic times, money  has begun to take on increasingly important value; one never knows when the next bottom might drop out and the cash flow will dry up all together.  So I find it important to think seriously about the power of my dollar.  

If I had $48 to spend, I could spend it on a good many things.

21 gallons of gas, 2 tanks, or a trip to Vegas

17 gallons of milk, and a whole lot of pudding

16 dates to the $1.50 theatre (not counting babysitting, of course)

a tasty dinner at our local Indian restaurant

48 songs off of iTunes

70 lbs of apples, and a lot of applesauce

a new dress for me, the first since I have been married

171 pounds of flour

4 DVDs 

9 3/4 pizzas from Little Ceasar's

But instead, I spent that $48 on diapers for my children.  Diapers which will only be soiled and thrown away.