I am watching “Teen Mom” (it’s a show on MTV about Teen Moms, clever title, I know – and don’t judge, earlier I was watching a singing orange cyclops cucumber thing with Adam – I’m allowed to rot my brain with this stuff while he’s napping).

On the show this teen dad was lamenting about the fact that he has to pay child support and made the comment that if he has to keep paying child support until his son is 18 that will end up being like $80,000.  He was appalled (as were his childless friends), because $80,000 is a lot of money when you’re just out of high school and unemployed (heck, it’s a lot of money period – I’m not trying to downplay that at all). But let’s break that $80,000 down a little shall we?

That’s the equivalent of roughly:

$4,444 per year

or

$370 per month

or

$85 per week

And based on what I know about caring for my son (who appears to be about the same age as the child he is supporting), I’ve estimated some weekly costs.

Diapers: $20

Wipes: $3

Formula: $12

Baby Food: $15

Right there that’s $50, just for the basics. It doesn’t touch on doctor’s appointments, medicine, clothes, or toys. And let’s not forget about childcare (this particular teen mom is working 30 hours a week and going to college). Boy this kid and his $85 a week really has it rough.

There are websites out there that will calculate the estimated costs to raise a child. I filled it out with our info and Adam in mind and this is what I learned:

Depressing isn’t it? Here’s how they broke it down (you’ll notice I did not include college or anything over the age of 18 because the little dude is going to get a scholarship (academic or athletic – I’m not picky) and win the lottery):

I’m thinking that teen dad needs a J-O-B.

Today’s trip to the YMCA did not go nearly as well as yesterday’s. I had been on the elliptical machine for all of 10 minutes when the nice girl (Miss Amanda) that was working in the children’s room came to get me. She said Adam had been crying since I left and she wasn’t able to calm him down (and neither was her supervisor or the well meaning mom of three that ended up with a shoulder covered in baby snot for her efforts).

So I went down and the poor kid was a wreck. I hung out with him in the children’s room for about half an hour. We played with the toys and I even got him to interact with Miss Amanda a little, but any time I would stand up or the door would open (even if I was sitting right next to him) he would start crying again. So we’ll try again tomorrow. The lady working tomorrow is the same one that was there yesterday, so maybe that will help.

Yes, I know the picture has absolutely nothing to do with this post. I don’t have a picture of him screaming a the Y though, so this is what you get – Adam showing off how he can climb in to his shopping cart (he was dancing and I took the photo with my phone, which is why his arms are blurry).

I was just browsing the Old Navy website looking for an outfit for Adam to wear to Dave’s promotion. I found an adorable one and then, went to see if I could get him some new socks while I was in an online shopping mood.

Does anyone else see the problem with their pricing? Why exactly would anyone get an 8-pack for $10 when they could get 8 pairs at $1 a piece (for a total of $8 – I’m pretty good at math – don’t be jealous). I think Old Navy should hire me to help them with pricing. I can work from home and tell them things like their 3 Shirts for $18 deal isn’t that great when the same shirts are listed for $5 a piece. Although, maybe Old Navy likes it that way. I’m sure there are people out there that think, “WOW! An 8 pack of socks on sale, I need to buy them NOW!”.

Maybe I am just bitter because the socks I wanted for Adam (orange and brown striped) are out of stock *sigh*.

I had Adam stay in the childcare center at the YMCA today while I worked out. This is the first time he’s ever been alone without a relative looking after him. I think it bothered me more than it did him. I spent the whole time (25 minutes on the elliptical and 20 on the treadmill for those of you curious (Stacy)) waiting for someone to come get me and tell me he was having a meltdown, fell headfirst into a table, or needed a diaper change. And you know what? That didn’t happen. When I went down to pick him up almost an hour after abandoning him dropping him off he was happily playing with a 16 month old girl. The woman watching him said he cried once (when another mom came to pick up her two kids), but other than that handled it like a champ. I think it will be good for him to have the interaction with other children and also to get used to being around non-family adults.

During the times I wasn’t staring at the door waiting for someone to come tell me I needed to rescue my child I watched the “Today Show” and followed along by reading the closed captioning. At the end of the show the words, “Tomorrow is Booze Day” appeared on the screen. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that whoever was transcribing the commentary should have typed “Tomorrow is Tuesday”, but just in case it wasn’t an error I guess I should wish everyone a Happy Booze Day Eve.

Dave and I were able to link up our computers so that we can see the files on each other’s laptops. This allows me access to all of his music. Armed with this newfound arsenal of songs Adam and I had a dance party in the living room this afternoon. Hardwood floors are fun to dance on and he lets me lead. He laughs like crazy when I spin him around in circles. It is adorable and makes me really dizzy.

For the most part Dave and I have very different taste in music. My goal is  to brainwash the little dude early so that we can overpower Dave and gain control over the radio during long car rides.

Right now Adam is taking a nap in his crib. This is a big deal because Adam has a very firm anti-crib stance when it comes to sleeping. But he missed his morning nap and despite the fact that he was very, very tired would not go to sleep for me (I tried rocking, singing, book reading, and a bottle). So finally I put him in his crib, turned on some music, and shut the door. He was not at all pleased with me (and was very vocal about this perceived injustice). However, he is now sleeping and while it wasn’t pretty, I’ll take the win on this one.

I’m going to attempt and change my Knitting School Dropout status by taking (and hopefully completing this time) a Knitting for Beginners class. It starts tonight at 6. Wish me luck. The last class left me with half of a mitten, maybe this time around I’ll actually complete a project.

Since Adam is sleeping so peacefully I think I’m going to go take a nap myself. For some reason I couldn’t sleep last night and so I was wide awake at 4 AM. Maybe it was first day of school jitters? But don’t worry, I’m not going to end this without an Adam picture (or two). If you’ve read through all of this you deserve it.

In 1970 Marian McQuade began a campaign to set aside a special day each year just for grandparents. Nothing in my internet research has led me to believe she worked for Hallmark. In 1978 Congress passed legislation proclaiming the first Sunday after Labor Day to be National Grandparents Day (the lack of possessive punctuation in the name bothers me and I may have added an apostrophe to the cards Adam sent out). This proclamation was signed by President Jimmy Carter (pretty sure he didn’t work for Hallmark either).

All Hallmark joking aside, I really would like to wish a very happy Grandparents Day to all of Adam’s grandmas, grandpas, and great-grandparents. He’s pretty lucky to be surrounded by so many people that love him. And we’re thankful for that every day of the year, not just the first Sunday after Labor Day.

1. This week Adam has decided he prefers walking to crawling. He’s been walking all over the place and is actually pretty steady on his feet. I think he just needed to feel comfortable with his new skills – and now there’s no stopping him – except for when he falls.

2. My new laptop arrived yesterday. I think I am in love.

3. My new laptop has a webcam.

4. On Thursday Dave belched (is that more proper than saying burped?).

5. Last night we learned that Adam loves his Great Grandma Marie’s meatballs (smart boy) and this morning discovered he does not like cheese strudel (weirdo).

6. My new laptop has a webcam and you can take pictures with fun borders.

7. Did you think that is all I was going to say on #4? If that was newsworthy I’d be posting Dave belching updates several times per hour. The reason this event deserves mention on our website is that Adam heard it and immediately tried to copy Dave by mimicking the sound. It was cute and gross all at the same time.

He’s a pretty cute little guy isn’t he? I think so – today. Last night at about 1:16 AM I had a very different opinion.

Because last night at about 1:16 AM that adorable one-year-old was throwing up in my ear. And by that I do not mean that I was next to him and could hear him (which was also true), I mean it in the most literal and disgusting way possible.

For those of you counting (Stacy) this makes three times in his life that Adam has vomited on someone’s head – and yes, all three times it was mine. And while I am very glad that Adam seemed to feel immediately better and has been fine all day today, there is nothing about that aspect of parenting that I enjoy. I am pretty sure that Dave would have to agree with me – since he was the lucky one that got to clean up the baby, bedding, and carpet while I was in the shower. I figured that was a fair trade – after all I was the one that was in danger of losing my hearing.

And in case you aren’t sufficiently grossed out by this story, apparently goat boy had eaten some paper earlier in the evening. My theory is that Bond, Baby Bond, was part of some covert mission that required him to destroy all correspondences by ingesting the evidence.

I wonder if that could have been what caused the upset stomach.

While I was in Washington I received a bunch of pictures (via text messages since the laptop virus incident is still in the process of being resolved) of the little dude from my parents and sister. This one was by far my favorite and is the background on my cell phone now (speaking of my phone, it took some substantial damage at the hands – or should I say teeth – of a certain 13 month old today – but that’s another story and not really his fault since I am the one that lets him play with it – thankfully Friday is (hopefully) new cell phone day for Dave and me – how’s that for a tangent?).

When Adam was about 5 months old his favorite toys were the eggs that came with his Fisher Price Farm and a spatula. He still plays with the eggs on a daily basis. However, I (or it might have been Dave – yeah, let’s blame it on him) accidentally put the spatula back in the drawer with all of the other kitchen utensils after washing it a couple of months ago and that was the end of the spatula obsession. That is until last week when Aunt Stacy got Adam the mother of all spatulas.  I can’t speak to the spatulas functionality in the kitchen, but there on the end of the handle is an egg.  According to Dave the only way it could be more perfect is if it said “Adam” on the side of it. I think the little man likes it just fine the way it is (he can’t read anyway). He’s been crawling all over the place with it and even insisted on holding it earlier when I gave him a bottle before nap time.