Thank you!!

Dear Friend at Daycare,

I just wanted to personally thank you for finding my onesie!! It was such a joy to be able to wear it again today. I’ve included a picture of me happily wearing it.

I owe you a bottle of breast milk or formula…whichever you prefer. Enjoy the weekend, and I’ll see you at daycare next week!

Cheers,

Sawyer

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P.S. Did you enjoy wearing my onesie this past month? 😉 

Missing: Chicago Onesie

Side note: Sawyer returns to daycare on 9/6/16 after this holiday weekend, and I am truly hoping that the Daycare Director will allow us to post this in his room. Keep your fingers crossed that this works and he gets to wear this onesie again before he outgrows it!

Date Posted: 9/6/16

Missing: Chicago Flag Onesie

(Not our son—we know where he is).

Reward: Me not stalking you and your child. Just kidding...$10.00! 

Reward: Me not stalking you and your child. Just kidding...$10.00! 

Please contact me at larisa.nicole@gmail.com to schedule an anonymous drop-off location. 

THANK YOU!! 

How to Save $ for Daycare

We're on a tight budget, like most people in America (and if you aren't, you should know that you are in the minority...and we are always accepting donations). We work full-time jobs, pay our bills on time, try to not spend our money on unnecessary stupid shit, and eat at home a lot. It's a good thing I love cooking, or we'd be screwed. 

I came up with a few other great ideas for saving money: 

1. Drive your therapist crazy enough that she moves out of state so you don't have therapy for a few weeks. That saves you money immediately.  

2. Start brewing beer at home. Sure, you'll need to purchase the ingredients, a few items, and there will be experimentation with the first few batches, but in the long run we'll save money and enjoy some great home brews! I hope.

3. Start making hard cider at home. Sawyer is helping me with this. Something about how he wants to take a bottle of hard cider to each of his teachers at daycare. I told him usually it's an apple, and he is arguing that it should be multiple fermented apples for each of them. He might not have any of my genes, but he sure as hell as my ability to argue and make a good point. 

Sawyer is helping me make hard cider!  

Sawyer is helping me make hard cider!  

4. Make bread at home. 'Nuf said. 

5. Join a local CSA. This is good for a number of reasons: you get a chance to support a local farmer; you get fresh vegetables at a cheaper price then in the grocery store; you get to try some new vegetables and fruit (I had no idea there were that many different types of melons!); you are occasionally given caterpillars when you receive ears of corn that you can then add to your garden and they eat what few strawberries you had left; and you have the joy of weekly trying to figure out different dishes to include squash and eggplant in without your wife realizing it until after she has eaten the dish.  

6. Try to convince your wife to drop the NFL network, but then realize that if she drops it she'll be very sad on Sundays, and it'll be my fault. So, let her keep the NFL network, and instead drink more tea--it's cheaper then coffee. Sure, I might be the cranky one on Sunday's, but I'm sure everyone is use to me being cranky.  

7. Put Lincoln on a diet. FYI: he is NOT happy about this. 

8. Dessert...yep, melons from the CSA box will be our dessert from here on out. 

9.  Put Sawyer on a 1,000kcal/day intake...oh wait, that would be poor parenting since he is growing CONSTANTLY. Never mind. I'll go on a 1,000kcal/day diet. 

10. Try to reuse bags you already own for daycare, and then inform Blue Bag that he was fired and recycle two new bags from our drawers to use. If these two new bags (4-Pack and Polka) fail, then we have to actually spend money and purchase new bags. 😕 (Check out my Sent Home blog for clarification.)

11. Call the fertility doctor's office where you went for your wife's IVF and offer to sell them YOUR eggs (or sperm, if you're into that sorta thing). 

 

I'm sure there are more ways that I will find for us to save money. I'll list those when they come to me.  

 

Holy hell...I need a coffee.

First Bribe: $1/Daycare Poop

Our son has attended and excelled (it's always a competition, right?) at three days of daycare, and he has started his fourth day today. Everyday I pick him up they give you his bottles, any soiled laundry, and a written report of when he peed, pooped, ate, slept, anything we need to bring for the next day, the number of attempts he made to escape daycare, and how many people he has recruited for his gang. (Apparently he has charmed one of the pre-schoolers into being his "muscle.") Yesterday I noticed again that he had not pooped at daycare, and shortly after I pick him up and we go home he has no problem dropping a load into his diaper for us to take care of. I get it. Everyone poops. However, I would appreciate the amount of money we are spending on daycare even more if he would poop AT DAYCARE. So, yesterday, in front of his teachers, I gave him the daily goal of pooping at daycare. I told him that it was okay to do, that we pay them to care for him and wipe his butt, and that he shouldn't be afraid to poop at daycare just because his other mother is afraid to poop at work. Sawyer rejected that goal at first, but then I bribed him with $1 per daycare poop.  

 

Sawyer: "But I don't want to poop at daycare!"Me: "I will pay you $1 for every poop you make at daycare." Sawyer: "Deal." 

Sawyer: "But I don't want to poop at daycare!"

Me: "I will pay you $1 for every poop you make at daycare." 

Sawyer: "Deal." 

I must say, he is quite the expressive child. 

8/15/16: 1st Day At Daycare (AKA: OMG! Someone Else is Raising Our Son!)

Sawyer's bags are packed! And yes, that is a bag with his name stitched into it...and to be honest, both bags have his name stitched on them. 

Sawyer's bags are packed! And yes, that is a bag with his name stitched into it...and to be honest, both bags have his name stitched on them. 

Sawyer's first day of daycare was today. We packed up his bags last night since we knew the morning would be a shit storm. I noticed two spoons on top of one of his bags and just had to ask him why he needed such large spoons, especially since his only food intake at daycare will be formula from a bottle (for now...next week we'll order him a pizza from Azzurros). He insisted that they were necessary for digging a tunnel to escape from daycare. Apparently he wanted to pack the pickaxe, but since we broke it last year digging up roots that extended to China from the smallest bush in NorCal, obviously he could not take that. I'm sure some dumpster diver is using the head of our old pickaxe as a door stopper, a paperweight or a toothpick.   

At 6:32AM, Dana's sister, Laura, sent a text wishing Sawyer good luck on his first day--very thoughtful. And since I started work before the sun even knew it was the next day, Dana dropped him off at daycare around 7:30AM. At 7:56AM, my mother-in-law, Susan, asked how it went when Dana dropped him off. (You should know that if any Sabin is up before 9AM and they do not have to be at work, then something is truly troubling them enough to wake them up...and that is MAJOR.) Dana sent a pic as proof that she got him there, and that calmed everyone down for as long as it took me to drink a mug of coffee.

At 9:54AM we got a text from the Director with a picture of him lying happily in a crib DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS. That can't be. He must have been drugged, because our son hates his crib at home except for when he is sleeping at night. "Sun's up I'm up!" he always says. This daycare has some trickery I tell you. 

Holy hell...he lost part of his arm!

Holy hell...he lost part of his arm!

Anywho...I really wanted to attach a GoPro camera to his onesie so I could see everything that went on in his room, and to make sure he is doing okay, but Dana said no. She never seems to appreciate the geniusness behind my ideas...and something else about how we have to save money for daycare.

At 3:00PM I located our son amongst the other bald ones and I packed him up. (Thank goodness the teachers in his room have hair, or I might have picked one of them up!) The Director walked us out, and we were feeling well taken care of. She asked Sawyer if he had a good time, and he decided to inform her that he loved it, and had started a gang. She...sorta laughed, but little does she know that when we arrived home and I changed him, I found a shank under his onesie. 

Once I got him into the car I took a picture as proof that he was still alive. Whew! 

August 12, 2016

Dana returned to work today. It's her first day back since they yanked Sawyer from her on April 29th. He turned 15-weeks old today...this seems a bit early to pass him over to someone else for an 8-hour stretch, but luckily he is being watched closely by Grandma, Grandpa, Lincoln and Milo. I know they are all going to have a wonderful time together, especially when nap time occurs and David is able to chug two macchiatos down before Sawyer wakes up 22 minutes later...and when David and Susan nap, then Sawyer will chug two macchiatos...

"Here I come Grandma and Grandpa!"--Sawyer

"Here I come Grandma and Grandpa!"--Sawyer

Since Dana has to work again next week...the week after that...the week after that...and, well, for the rest of the school year, Sawyer will be starting daycare on Monday. Apparently Grandma and Grandpa don't want to babysit five days each week. Something about work, Pilates, yoga, and wanting a life. Hmmmm...do they realize they will only be on this earth for so long to enjoy his beautiful soul? Ah well. 

Anyways, the list of supplies we got from daycare that Sawyer needs to take is ridiculously long. You would think that your child would need to take diapers, bottles, a few change of clothes, etc., but nope...there is a shit ton more that is needed. It looks like he will be moving into daycare, and I need to schedule movers and a truck. We had a meeting with the director on Wednesday, and I just couldn't help myself...as usual. I commented on the length of the list of supplies, that I'm surprised we need to practically pack up his room daily, and I questioned her if we also need to supply the teacher, but that was a supply they forgot on the list? She...sorta laughed, and proceeded to tell us that some of the supplies will be dropped off once a week, and when they need to be changed out, they'll send them home. I feel that this relationship with the daycare will only be great for two reasons:  

(1) They take SUPERB care of our son, and that he's happy, and

(2) Everyone of those teachers and the director get my sense of humor and laugh at my jokes.  

Crazy Loud

He's here! He's queer! Get use to it! Actually, we have no idea if he is queer, but one thing we do know is that our son, Sawyer, is freakin' adorable, and a wonderful, easy going baby who is fairly quiet and very precocious. There is just one thing that I feel the need to throw out there into the universe to see if anyone else has gone through this with their newborn. I mentioned he is quiet...but that is when he's AWAKE. When he's sleeping, he not only sounds like a baby goat...but more like a possessed baby goat. It is amazing the various sounds he makes while he snoozes. I had no idea Z's could be so loud! I mean, the little bugger keeps us AWAKE at night not because he's crying, but because he is sleeping! Everyone tells new parents, "sleep when he sleeps." Great, except for us we feel the need to do the opposite. When he's awake, he lies there quietly, looking around at everything. He moves his arms and legs instead of his vocal chords to show his excitement over some shadow, a tree, etc., and as much as we are enjoying watching him enjoy life, we are starting to feel that we should sleep during his awake hours, and then stay awake during his sleeping hours. This plan would also put US back on our regular sleep schedule. We'd be awake while he sleeps during the day (he's a vampire in-training) , and then when he's lying awake at night, eerily watching us and the ceiling fan, we would be sleeping. 

 

So, my question for you parents who have been trained by your child(ren) already, is this normal? Did you choose to sleep when your child(ren) was awake and enjoying life quietly?  Is there a way to get him to sleep quietly instead of like a stifled fog horn? For you doctors, is he broken? Oh I hope not, but he's so young right now that if something needs fixin', there's a possibility he won't remember it. Okay, I am getting ahead of myself...perhaps it's my lack of Z's...

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Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo

Eeny, meeny, miny, mo
Catch a tiger by the toe
If he hollers, let him go
Eeny, meeny, miny, mo.

People keep asking us how we decided that Dana would be the one to get pregnant. I feel the need to point out to those inquirers that she already has the breasts and the hips, so it was an obvious choice. For some odd reason, no one accepts that explanation. Fine. I'll give you a few more: you can flip a coin; both try to get pregnant at the same time and see who fates strikes; perhaps one is interested and the other immediately gets the short end of the pregnancy test stick; or in our case (and this is the truth, because it always takes a few cracks from me before I am truly honest...or so my therapist tells me), your wife sits down, does the math, and determines that it will be cheaper if she is the one to get pregnant. Oye vey. That is the most calculated decision I have ever been involved in.

Once it was decided that she would be the one to stretch out her body, we scheduled an appointment with a fertility doctor and started the long, expensive, never-ending, and invasive process of trying to turn her into an incubator. She is now 31 weeks pregnant, we are still preparing for this little Wiggler to fall into our laps (that's how it happens, right?) and I cried, told her we should have a second child via my uterus, and got her to agree without using a calculator. It was a freakin' miracle folks.

I have been trying to start the IVF procedure since January, but my body is being...uncooperative. I should have expected this. I rarely cooperate with others, so why would my body cooperate with IVF? Now it looks like my IVF procedure might overlap with the birth of our son, and I'm hopeful that accomplishing these two feats at the same time will reinforce that we are going to be phenomenal Mommies that can juggle a lot and come out on top with our kids and Lincoln in-tow.

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