Parenting – Page 8 – Frugal Living

Enjoying Spring Like Weather in December

December 13, 2015 by Andrew Leave a Comment

PSA: I recently changed the comment captcha so if you weren’t able to comment before you may be able to do so now.

********************

The weather outside has been delightful! Yesterday we basked in 67° and soaked up as much outside time as we could with a trip to Sugar Grove Nature Center.

There is an abundance of trails that ramble through the prairie and woods around the nature center and we picked a shorter 1/3 mile loop that we thought Frugal Boy could complete on his own.

I was a little worried when he fell down for the first time and got his hands dirty. I wasn’t worried that he fell or his hands where dirty, but that he was insistent that we clean them off. Of course we said no, and told him to buck up. A little while later and he had remembered how to little boy. Whew!

The trail meandered through the woods and even had a bridge at one point. Near the end it opened back out to prairie and Frugal Boy was starting to whine, then cry. He forgot about his tired little legs when we made it to the playground. It was unlike any playground he had been to before!

This was a nature playground where kids can be kids.

and big kids can be big kids.

Frugal Boy had completely forgotten about staying clean. So it was a big success.

Later on a bunch of other kids came and Frugal Boy made some new friends. He is a very loving and caring little boy, but it still grossed me out when he kissed a stranger toddler girl on the lips. Twice.

2 Weeks Till Christmas

December 11, 2015 by Andrew 2 Comments

Yowza! Where did the time go?! Last weekend we visited Santa and that involved getting dressed up in actual clothes (something of an obscurity in these parts).

Frugal Boy wasn’t entirely thrilled with the idea, but I thought he looked mighty handsome.

While we waited in line for Santa I tried to get him excited. I explained what the other boys and girls were doing. “He’s sitting in Santa’s lap”, “She’s telling Santa what a good girl she’s been.” Ever since the yard decorations have started going up around town Frugal Boy has been on a Santa babble. I thought there might be hope for a great photo this year.

Hmmm… He’s not too sure about this. Maybe if we had let him wear his snow boots like he wanted he would have felt better about the whole situation.

Shae got a couple of photos before it turned into a “SAVE ME DADA”.

Oh well. The whole process is rather creepy. Hey, go sit on that strangers lap while everyone looks at you and takes pictures. There was another pair of parents with a similar aged girl and she noped right out of there.

We took a few more photos with the props, but we could tell his heart wasn’t in it, so we called it a morning.

A week later, this afternoon, his Christmas present arrived in the mail. He has been glued to the Duplo block table that we built him a month ago.

Duplo is the Lego brand building block for ages 1.5-5. They are compatible with the smaller Lego pieces and unsurprising are expensive. I used to think that Lego was expensive, but Duplo is even worse! At retail, it costs about $1 per block! ¡Aye caramba!

With a little shopping though, it is possible to find good deals on building sets. I purchased a 123 piece lot from eBay for $20 with shipping. That comes to about 16¢/block.

If you have the patience you could also find good deals at yard sales or on your local Craigslist. Finally, if you are concerned about the cleanliness of used bricks, you can put them in a mesh bag in the top rack of the dishwasher. Just make sure not to use high heat otherwise you might melt them!

The Power of 3.14159

December 3, 2015 by Andrew Leave a Comment

Want some free entertainment? Of course you do! Read on Frugalites.

A week ago, we were all in a delicious food coma after consuming mass quantities of turkey, stuffing, and pi.

Today the only evidence of that grand feast are the π/2’s scattered around the house, a fact that has not gone unnoticed by Frugal Boy. Frugal Boy has learned that if he is quiet, he can do things that his parents wouldn’t necessarily approve of.

Like most things pertaining to children, the photographic evidence clearly shows that Grandma was the root of the problem. ;-P

18 Month Checkup

August 25, 2015 by Andrew Leave a Comment

Frugal Boy had his 18 month checkup yesterday.

He is progressing just as a normal kid should with a height of 33.5″ (84%), weight 27lbs 6oz (87%), and an ever large melon of 9.75″ (98%, no wonder why he didn’t fit down the birth canal).

The last vaccination was given, a hepatitis shot. The doctor said he is good to go on vaccines until he starts kindergarten. Yay!

Shae gave him a quick buzz to rid the world of a mullet. A bribe of graham crackers seemed to do the trick in getting him to sit still.

In a few years when Star Wars 9 comes out in theaters, we’ll probably have to go see it. A certain little toddler has been watching the neighbor boys light saber fight for the past year and he thinks that he has what it takes to be a jedi or sith lord.

Summer is Winding Down

August 18, 2015 by Andrew Leave a Comment

Where has the time gone? We have been very busy this summer with only one or two full weekends at home. Otherwise we have been traveling and wrangling an ever more energetic Frugal Boy.

On Thursday of last week one of the two Aldi stores in town had a grand reopening.

The renovated store has a larger footprint and a wider selection of goods. It will take some time to figure out where things are in the rearranged layout.

We’ve had some very hot and muggy August days. Our garden did well for the first half of summer, but insects have decimated all of our second plantings of lettuce, spinach, and carrots.

On Saturday I made lamb ravioli for Shae’s birthday dinner. My mother-in-law helped to speed things up. A two pound lamb loin made about 35 large ravioli. It only took about three ravioli to make a filling meal. We fed six adults and had plenty of leftovers. The total cost of ingredients was about $50, making it very economical, even for the specialty meat.

Frugal Boy got his first taste of corn on the cob courtesy of his grandparents. I think he liked it, as we had to hide the box of un-shucked corn to keep him out of it.

And here is a picture of the birthday girl.

On Sunday, Grandma put up the remainder of the corn they brought down while Grandpa played with Frugal Boy. Here Grandma is imparting some wisdom to the youth.

I worked some more on our front porch. I have been keeping track of receipts and will do a post with the total cost of that major renovation when I am done (sometime this year).

Frugal Boy and Grandpa enjoyed watching from the window. Those two are thick as thieves.

A big thank you to all of Shae’s family for coming and helping out. We had a fun weekend despite the heat.