Spendy Wendy needs to Stoppy Shoppy

This morning we dropped $86 at the post office on a new toy for Jenny, My First Passport. Then, after weeks of research and much debate, we sent out some email inquiries for $100-130 double strollers on Craigslist. We bought diapers on Amazon and counted formula coupons in preparation for the upcoming trips. I realized I had nothing presentable for said trips that was post-maternity-not-quite-old-clothes-weight and scraped out a handful of duds from Old Navy’s online clearance. I completed paperwork for the Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account which will cruelly remove $5000 from my next 10 paychecks but is the smart tax thing to do. And I’m ignoring the ugly $1300 anesthesia bill that is due this week because the $1572 registration fee and year of service for the Nanny Pay company will come out of my account promptly on the 25th. Not including the expanded grocery bill that now includes The Nanny or the $100 in second-hand clothes for Jenny’s carefully selected fall wardrobe, I am budget blown already and Jenny hasn’t hit three months. Kids, listen to your Aunt Jellybean Mama – babies are more expensive and in sneakier ways than you think. No more eating out this month, no Ulta, no movies, no nothing. Want to hear the saddest, most white-trash thing ever? I desperately need underwear so I am going to put them on my Wal-Mart credit card. And then next month I am going to remember that I have The Awesome Nanny now and need to be able to pay the nice lady, so I can’t just do whatever I want, whenever I feel like it. And government cheese can be tasty.

Since it’s Thursday I am utterly brain-dead exhausted from the cumulative lack of sleep. Mondays are fine, Tuesdays I am a little slow, Wednesday evenings I’m wiped out and by this time, apparently, I am praying for death. My throat hurts and I have a splitting headache and every time Jenny eats I recalculate when I might be able to go to bed. Last night was lousy – she went down 11p-4:30a, then 5a-6a, and then decided she was wide-awake and cheerfully ready for her exciting day. I hauled her into bed with me to try to salvage a few more precious hours but she decided that kicking me in the back was my punishment for not getting up and entertaining her. My guardian angel Tata offered to keep her tomorrow night, but I feel like since I hardly spend time with her now that I’m back to work I should try to enjoy the precious weekend hours. Plus, Saturday and Sunday mornings I can usually get her to sleep in an hour or two so I do ok. AND Tata is the one who will have her for a week. I am more and more looking forward to that week of work travel, I gotta admit. It’s going to feel so great to get 4 nights of cool, soothing, delicious sleep. I hope The Beaner gives Tata a break.

Luckily my boss hasn’t pushed me too hard, but that’s going to change soon. Reading blogs is not the same as completing my Service Evaluation edits or testing the product or following up with the Managed Release Cross-Functional team, so I guess I better crack the whip before she cracks it for me. Oh, and get this – out of six possible weeks I could have traveled to Boston I am missing seeing two of my favorite coworkers (there the week after I’m there) AND Loud (there next week, even staying at the same hotel I will be in the following week).