Lately I’ve had a few experiences that made me wonder why I would ever buy anything new.

A while back, when I realized that JJ’s only pair of shoes were on their way to destruction thanks to his obsession with the outdoors, I decided to check out the thrift store to the north to see if I could find any good garden-worthy shoes for him. I left with a pair of hiking boots, a pair of sandals, five shirts, two pair of shorts and a toy phone for $12.75. And they all look pretty good. See here:

I couldn’t believe it. Even on their best day, all of that would have been at least $50 at Wal-Mart.

Not long after that, we saw some friends at a BBQ and they had their toddler in a portable high chair. They said they take it with them everywhere. After a messy wrestling match with our little guy that resulted in more food on us than in his stomach, having a portable chair for him sounded pretty good. They said they got theirs at Kid-to-Kid. I wasn’t familiar with it, but basically they pay you for your like-new kid stuff and then they sell it in their store. I decided it was worth a peek, so I stopped in one day and found this little gem (the chair, not the kid):

It was under a sign that said bathing, so at first I thought it was a potty. A second glance though, and it was exactly what I wanted. Even more than I knew. I mostly wanted a chair that was portable, but it turned out that this thing was infinitely easier to clean and took up so much less space than the monstrosity of a high chair we were using. It has been worth every penny of that $12, probably four times that. You can buy one of these new for about $25 online. I’m pretty sure it would work fine to start your kid in one of these, as long as they can sit somewhat well. Just say no to the high chair, and yes to one of these!

These were invigorating finds. The kind that you are just so excited about, because not only did they solve a lot of problems, but they were also a fantastic deal. They were some of those happy little finds that seem to be just a wonderful little gift from above.

You’re right, mom.  I’ve really been slacking off lately.  Here you go, complete with links to a larger version.

And we even managed to take a real video of the little man sorting the spices. Most of our videos begin the way this one ends. You have to click on the link to download it–sorry! Next time I’ll try to remember my youtube login and do it that way.
Spice Sorter

And the Rex Lee Run – I’m not so entertaining, but when my brother gets on, it’s pretty good.
Rex Lee Run

I really just had an amazing experience.  It’s almost ten o’clock, and I’m hurrying trying to clean up the toys that like to live on the living room floor (as much as I’d like to get them put away earlier, Mr. Bud thinks it’s incredibly entertaining to get out toys that have just been put away).

I’m working by a dim light, enough to see all of the big stuff, but there is some dark object I don’t recognize.  It’s slightly larger than a quarter and I unconsciously save it for last.  When I pick it up, it’s moist, like a piece of food.  At first I thought it might be a piece of the brownie I’d given the little man earlier, but he’d only had a few small pieces while in his high chair.

And then the reality hits.  We had a blowout earlier today.  Like 9 hours ago.  A quick whiff confirms my suspicion and I am totally disgusted that I have had that little treasure on my living room floor all afternoon.  It had been a busy afternoon and we weren’t in the living room a whole lot, but we definitely walked past that thing at least a half dozen times.  And I am ever so grateful that no one stepped on it and tracked it through the house, especially since I am in bare feet.

I never would have dreamed what a joy it would be to open the oven drawer and find these treasures, carefully placed.

About a month ago we discovered we have a monkey in the house.   Little JJ went after a toy that had landed in the bottom part of his sippy cup, and wouldn’t let go.  We tried to show him how to let go inside of other things, with no success.

Finally, after about 15 minutes,  he got interested in something else and let go.   We thought it was hilarious.

Earlier this week I announced to Dustin that after over 2 years of marriage I was done sharing a cup with him. As soon-to-be cousin-in-law Casey taught me, one of the great benefits of a committed relationship is that it’s no big deal to share a glass when it’s convenient. And as we like to try and minimize our dirty dishes, we often shared one big cup for dinner.

Well, the other night, not really thinking about it, I gave each of us a glass. And after that meal was over, I realized that it was worth washing another glass, probably especially since sweet Dustin is usually the one doing the dishes. And here’s why:

Dustin is a chugger.

I am a sipper.

I realized that I would always go to get a drink, and the glass would be empty. Sometimes I filled it up, but a lot of the time it was simply too much effort to keep it filled (where was that waiter to earn his tip?!?) and I ended up not drinking much. But the other night, with my own precious glass, I could sip even after the meal was done and know that I had gotten my liquids for the night.

Contented Sigh.

But almost simultaneously, as if the boys are conspiring against me, JJ has decided that now HE wants to share my cup. He makes a half whine, half yell indicating that he wants a drink out of my glass. Of course we can’t get him to be nearly that enthusiastic about his sippy cup . . . any recommendations on your favorite sippy cup would be appreciated.

Anyway, now my glass definitely has water left in it after dinner is over . . . and a whole lot more.

The ultimate backwash.

Lovely.

So someday, someday I will again enjoy my own clean water at my own pace, but until then, let me know if I look dehydrated.

Is my child really one year old?  I have the pictures to prove it, so I guess I better accept it.  We had a fun little birthday party for him the other night -

An insta-hat, compliments of Carrie:

Being somewhat of sugar-phobes, especially when it comes to my precious babe, we opted for whole wheat banana strawberry muffins instead of a cake and a taste of ice cream.

He wasn’t so crazy about the ice cream, but he liked the muffins so much he wanted to share them with me.

He doesn’t quite have present opening figured out–he’ll start, but either lose interest and move on to something else, or else try to put the wrapping paper back on.

Thanks to everyone who supports my sleep nazi tendencies. Even in all my efforts not to worry about what people think, it’s always nice to know that at least a few people think you’re right!

We may be in a world of hurt soon. Bud has been trying to escape (and he’s gotten higher than what we’ve captured on camera):

Well, we’ve reached another milestone. Just a few weeks shy of that first birthday, Bud had his first visit to the E.R.

He’d been a little sick Saturday, but not bad. Just a slight cough and a little sluggish at times. It was apparent he wasn’t feeling well. But that was after two days of Thanksgiving celebrations and sleep schedule sabotage, so we figured that once we got him rested up he’d be fine.

We had some friends over Saturday night after he went to bed, and he did wake up once while they were here, but seemed fine other than a little dazed to wake up to a room full of unfamiliar faces!

But then I woke up to really sad crying around 3:30 or so. Bud was wheezing with every breath and clearly had a fever and was quite upset, especially after I took a rectal temperature. That doesn’t go quite as well as it used to.

After it didn’t seem to be improving after 15 minutes or so, I called the pediatricians office and got in touch with the on-call nurse. She was extremely brief, could hear him wheezing over the phone, and said, “He’s got croup. He needs to be seen.” I got off the phone with her, and didn’t really think it was bad enough that we needed to make a Sunday morning 4:00 am run to the E.R. Sure he was wheezing, but he didn’t have any of the signs of not getting enough oxygen (blue lips, chest sucking in with each breath). Having just had a discussion before going to bed Saturday night about how we’d spent about $11,000 on health care in 2008, we weren’t too anxious to spend another couple hundred at the E.R., especially if it wasn’t totally necessary. The nurse did suggest that taking him outside into the cold air might help. We did that as well as a steamy bathroom. Both helped, but when we tried to lay down and go back to sleep, the wheezing got worse and we had a very sad, whimpering little boy.

Afraid that the labored breathing would just continue to get worse, we finally decided to take him in. He was diagnosed with croup, given a dosage of epenephrin to help contract his airway muscles that are swollen and causing the labored breathing. We also got a dose of a steroid and a prescription for more that should also help.

We came home, and ended up spending most of the rest of the morning together on the couch, in and out of sleep. But when 9:00 rolled around, Bud knew it was time to get up and get to work. He put a smile on his face and headed straight for his post with the pots and pans.

As many will recall, it seems that we went through a period of bad experience after bad experience with a variety of companies (read the post here). I’m happy to report that a few of these situations have been remedied.

One situation actually didn’t even make it into the post, but essentially we were being charged for more than double of what our actual sewer usage is here in our house. Going through the normal channels to see if it could be resolved, we were told that new move-ins were automatically charged the average sewer usage, even though it was clear from our bill that we were only using about 5,000 gallons of water, but being charged for 13,000 gallons of sewer. How they thought we were hauling 8,000 gallons of water in and flushing it down the toilet, I don’t know.

Anyway, we did some research and found out who the director of public works was. We wrote a polite letter expressing our frustration and requesting that our bill be adjusted to reflect our actual usage. It wasn’t long before he called us directly and put things in motion to adjust our bill and credit us for the overage we had already paid. Victory!

Even more of a victory was with our insurance company – SelectHealth. As we are both self-employed, we are responsible for our own insurance, which is quite costly. We learned that because little James had an Echo cardiogram the day he was born that showed some openings in his heart, we were being rated up 25%. This was extremely frustrating, because the openings he had are normal and necessary for a newborn and they typically close after the first few days of life.

After requesting a letter from our pediatrician, being denied and then making a special visit with a pediatric cardiologist, our rate up was reduced to 15%, but remained. Have I said we were so frustrated to be charged extra (it worked out to $42/month) for normal heart openings? Anyway, after we exhausted all of our options through the normal channels, we wrote a well-written, polite, but firm letter expressing our frustration with the situation to the President and CEO of SelectHealth. Last week we got a phone call from the president of SelectHealth, saying that as a customer service gesture they would remove the rate up, even though the heart openings fit their model for higher premiums. It was a huge victory–we couldn’t stop talking about how happy we were about it.