Back to Normal

Robert's Baptism from Cori D on Vimeo.


Happy Memorial Day! We saw all the grandparents off this morning after breakfast, which was a little sad, but not too much, with vacation coming so soon. Poor Robert took three naps today, he was so absolutely exhausted from the long and busy weekend. It resulted in him being hard to put down this evening, but eventually he passed out on my lap with a bottle in his mouth and didn't even wake up when I laid him down. Most of the day he was smiley and happy when he wasn't eating or sleeping, and those are the best days. He's so funny when you make him laugh, and he laughs more all the time.

Since it was the last day of the month, Robert and I took the opportunity to do some shopping. I'd hoped to use the Nivea coupons I had to get some free body wash, but they were sold out at Target and Walmart both. They have been for most of the month. I rather suspect that couponers without the ethics that make the game fun have gotten lots of coupons and bought the stuff by the pallet, rather than taking some and leaving some for other people. I see them sometimes, and I think it's just disgusting the way they fill their entire cart with whatever couponable items they can get their greasy mitts on, and too bad for anyone else who would like some. It's people like that who make things harder for the rest of us. My magic number tends to hover around four of any given item, unless it's something like cereal or bottled water where there's a ton available, or if the deal hinges on getting a certain larger number of items. If there are not many of an item left on the shelf, I try to leave some for the next person. It's only polite.

But anyway, that was the only thing we struck out on, so it wasn't so bad. I ended up getting two more sprayer bottles of Scrubbing Bubbles along with two refills, two cans of shave gel, a bottle of body spray that I got before and really liked, some tire protector and auto glass cleaner for the car, and a bottle of Shout. I had to go to both Target and Walmart to get everything, but I only wound up paying six dollars out of pocket, and since I'll get an eight dollar rebate from the wheel protector, I made a two dollar profit on the trip. Go me! Robert slept through Target and was a little fussy in Walmart, but was still a big hit with the ladies there. Little flirt, he will fuss for me, but stop and get big wide eyes when another person comes along to talk with him. ;-)

One gift we got from Mimi and Papoo was some money to start Robert's first bank account. After doing some research, I've decided that the best thing to do is put it into a five-year Certificate of Deposit, then when it matures, take it out and use it to start Robert's bank account. He'll be a little older then, old enough to start talking with him about saving and spending money. After discussing it, Mike and I are going to put in the money from my folks, and some money we got from his folks, and a little money of our own as well, so that it is a gift to Robert from all of us, that he will get when he is five and a half or so. Sure things are tight for us right now, but we'll get by, and we need to be serious about saving for Robert's future. I found a CD that gives a 3% APY, which is a whole lot better than a savings account, even if it won't amount to much with the amount we're investing. It's the principle of the thing (har, har), and M and I are learning about investments right now too. We have to be smart with our money, and every little bit helps.

Tonight I started compiling the list of things I'll need for our vacation. In previous years I've never bothered to do this, but the presence of the ragenugget on this trip requires a lot more planning. I've already got a column nearly a page long, just of his things! At least most of his things are small! The next few days are going to be very busy, but the only complicated thing is going to be petsitting. We're going to be gone two weeks, and it is not easy to find petsitting for that long. Hopefully one of M's school friends can fill in for us, or we will ask the neighbors to help out. Either way, the pets must eat!