Saturday, November 15, 2008

Thinking

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about how thankful I am that the baby turned out to be a boy (much to everyones surprise in the operating room*). I wouldn't even have the slightest idea how to raise a girl (not that I know what I'm doing with the boys, all I can say here is I am definitely not a girly-girl). And it's not like the relationship with the woman who raised me leaves me with the warm and fuzzies, so the thought of not having to deal with the mother-daughter dynamic is quite relieving - although I would have loved a girl as much as I love the boys that I have, I would have been terrified of the outcome (Mr. Lady says it better than I can).

However, I'm not the only one that only has the y chromosomes to deal with.

Linda has been lamenting the presence of so many
pensises, and Mrs. Glamore has more than opened my eyes to what life with the boys will be like when they get older (omg, Hubby and I have got to relax if we're going to come close to dealing with what's been thrown her way with anywhere near half the grace that she has).

In fact, it looks like
Julie, Linda, Mrs. Glamore, and myself should start a support group or something. I mean, we're tasked with raising men! Nice, considerate men who might some day grow up to be your daughters husbands (if that's what they're into, that is) - what have I gotten myself into?

Wait a minute! Who said my kids were going to be allowed to have sex?

On second thought, maybe I should have stuck witht he four legged variety of children - at least I was able to get them "fixed". I don't think I'm allowed to do the same to my boys - darn it!

*we didn't find out what the baby was before it was born. Hubby was convinced it was a girl because he saw the ultrasound tech write the letter f (for female?) on the screen before turning it away from him. I was convinced it was a girl because the pregnancy was so very different from my first. I should have know better though - the next door neighbor has five girls, the law of averages was against us from the word go.

Monday, November 10, 2008

PSA - Insuring the kids

We had our insurance agent over a few days ago to go over our life insurance policies. We've known for quite some time that we don't have enough, but didn't really have the energy or the money to anything about it.

We've had an insurance policy for the Monkey since he was about six months old. The reason for insuring the Monkey is not a morbid one, but a practical one. At the time that we started the policy I knew nothing about my biological health background, but we knew what Hubby's past could tell us.

Hubby has really bad asthma. One of his grandmothers died of cancer. One of his grandfathers died from heart problems. Forgetting about what my side of the family had to offer, the future of possible problems did not look good. Based on the information we had garnered, it would be extremely easy (and cheap) for the Monkey to increase the policy we purchased for him as an infant than for him to start one of his own should any of the above become a factor for him. So that's what we did.

Since the Monkey had a policy of his own, it was only right to get one for the Chipmunk. While were at it, we may as well see about increasing our own policies.

We went over what we would absolutely need and what we would like. We got quotes for all four of us. Then, the insurance agent (who is actually our neighbor, good friend, and father to our babysitter) informed us that for a mere $5 a month added to both mine and my husbands policy we could insure both of the kids for about the same amount as we would have insured them for individually - this worked out to be much less than had we decided to get them individual policies.

Why weren't we told about this when the Monkey was a baby?

Probably because insurance agents are greedy and don't want to divulge this information (we had not yet met our current agent/friend/neighbor).

So, consider this my gift to you.

If you have children (or will have children in the future) and your own insurance policies, you can add all of your children to your policies (they call it a rider (sp?)) for a fraction of the cost of getting them their own policies.

You're welcome.

Not So Doomed Afterall

So, it seems my vote did count for something. I was astounded to see that my very conservative state went to Barack Obama, even though my county did not (not a huge surprise to me).

Also, although changing the temperature of the Chipmunk's bottle was a little painful in the lack of sleep area, things seem to be getting back to normal now. He still hates it when I've left the bottle of water to mix his formula with out overnight, but that seems to have worked in my favor.

The temperature in the house drops overnight, therefore the temperature in the water left out for his bottle drops overnight. He woke up a few nights when he wasn't eating enough during the day due to the change in protocol, but then he realized that the formula was even colder. I think he decided that it just wasn't worth it to him to wake up for a really cold bottle. He would take a few sips and realize his error and then insist on going back to sleep. Now, he's slept through the night the last two nights (if you count only waking up this morning at 4:30 as sleeping through the night - it's early, but I'm counting it). I hope things continue this way, because for a week or so of torture with him refusing to eat every now and then things are getting better (and he seems to be getting heavier).

Now I just have to work on introducing him to real food. Wish me luck!