by Heather
Hey, did you hear? The price of US postage went up. Again! So while I’m busy double-reindeer stamping our late Mother’s Day cards, you can put your favorite photo on real US postage stamps on PhotoStamps.com. For (slightly) more than double the cost of regular stamps, you can make custom photo stamps with your adorable kid’s picture.
There are discounts when you buy 2 or more sheets. It’s an adorable concept for sure and I love to make practice stamps (like this one) with the interface, but the cheapskate in me can’t stomach the prices. I’d rather get real stamps and put kid stickers as a sealer (or inside for re-use).
Has anyone done this and loved it? Or can you help me think of an occasion when paying double for stamps could save me on putting something expensive in the envelope…?
Bye bye cheaper stamps.
by Whitney
Yes, I’m talking about your baby’s other grandparents.
It seems like there are only two ways to go: the high road and the low road.
High road: Become bff’s with your mother-in-law and never ever put your husband in the middle. Learn how to defuse even the most irritating situations with your good humor and self esteem in tact.
Check out the new book The Daughter-in-Law Rules: 101 Surefire Ways to Manage (and Make Friends with) Your Mother-In-Law! for ideas on that path. Heather read the whole book in one sitting and is eagerly awaiting Carol’s next visit to kill her with kindness.
Low road: Bitch to your girlfriends and turn to the Internets for anonymous support. I might be inviting criticism here, but may I suggest that one way to deal with someone who annoys you is to complain about them to others who do not know them.
Either way, venting to your partner is a really bad idea when it’s his parents you’re bitching about. That’s, as Dionne Warwick would say, what friends are for. And today, that’s what the Internet is for.
A friend asked me to start this thread because [click to continue...]
by Heather
As I stare down the gun barrel of being alone with one toddler and one newborn while my beloved husband returns to work, I simply don’t know how we’re going to eat dinner anymore. But I think I have it covered for at least one night a week.
I’m going to declare next Monday (and all Mondays forever into the future) Crock Pot Night.
On Sunday, when we’re having our regularly scheduled family time and Holden is napping, we will choose a meal from Not Your Mothers Slow Cooker Cookbook and chop our vegetables. On Monday morning, I will throw everything into the crock pot at some moment of leisure (or during several stolen fragments of moments) and let the food just stew until dinner time. Voila!
If all goes well, Monday’s dinner will be hot and edible and the rest of the week we will have delicious leftovers for lunches. Also in this fantasy, Holden will happily eat what we eat and stop spilling his big-boy cup on purpose.
by Heather
Take longer stroller walks to change the scenery and get a little exercise. Explore shady paths, cute shopping districts, hilly neighborhoods, wherever!
Even light industrial areas have noises and sights that might appeal to babies (but beware toxic smells and enormous trucks!)
Try to get a photo op in front of somewhere decidedly “mature”. There are some prostitutes that usually work near my house, but I haven’t gotten them to pose for a picture. Luckily, I also live within a mile of 2 junkyards, 2 tattoo parlors, and the railroad.
