Weekends and Parties

Where was I last week? Well, El Burrito had his one-year checkup on Friday, with shots. Fun. That took up fully half the day, what with getting ready and everything. And on Thursday, we went to Sears Portrait for photos of El Burrito. Also a time-consuming thing.

And now, as promised, our weekend doings:

Saturday - shopping day. As in, the errands and grocery shopping and such that, in the pre-Burrito days, I would do during the week. This week's stops were:

• Chevy's (lunch!)
• Moser's Grocery - cheap soda and chips
• Toys R Us - wipes for the Burrito, baby gifts for a friend (*)
  
• Westlake's Hardware - tools for the Astroturf project
• Michael's - yarn (with the 40% coupon) - they carry mega-skeins of Sugar n Cream
• Target - looking for a few baby things
• Walmart - looking for the baby things that Target and Toys R Us didn't have
  
• HyVee - grocery shopping

That took 6 hours, including a stop at home to feed Burrito and drop off the leftovers from lunch. Pre-Burrito, it would have taken me about half that. Part of that is the time-drag of hauling the boy in and out of the car, and in and out of the stroller. The other part, I think, is that DH is along, and he has a window-shopping problem that doesn't show up unless we're in a grocery store. (My window-shopping hits at Michael's and Target.)

(*) Toys R Us was an interesting stop. As we were in line checking out, a woman came in and told the cashier that there was a syringe (with needle) and spoon in the parking lot. This store is not in a "bad" neighborhood, but apparently someone was shooting up in the parking lot. Unless you can think of a plausible innocent reason for those two things to be on the ground - my theory is innocent, but pretty implausible. We passed an employee as we went to the car; he'd gloved up before taking care of the stuff, but I think I would have added a pair of tongs to the equation.

Sunday - Birthday party #2. Oy. This one was at DH's parents' place, with most of the siblings (except for one, who never did return our call). I usually get along okay with them, but this time I think I was just in a bitchy mood. Somehow we got onto the topic of El Burrito's eating habits. Mother-in-law and my oldest brother-in-law's girlfriend (who is a grandmother) were shocked and incredulous that El Burrito so far has not eaten any of the following:

• strawberries
• peanuts
• shellfish
• citrus
• chocolate
• those "dessert" baby foods like blueberry buckle

Now, items 1-4 are on the list per the pediatrician's orders, and this is the same pediatrician who takes care of at least two of her other grandkids (ages 2.5 and 4), so this should not have surprised my mother-in-law. Chocolate and high-sugar baby foods are my idea, and given the high incidence of type 2 diabetes and weight problems in both my family and DH's, she shouldn't have been so shocked at that idea either. I've got a killer sweet tooth, both of my siblings had to have their baby teeth capped for various reasons, and I've got more metal than molars myself, so I'm trying to keep the boy away from high-sugar food as long as possible. I don't think his ped. would disagree - she's the one who prefers mineral oil over Karo syrup for constipation, to keep the rug rats from getting a taste for the sweet stuff.

I was told that MIL and Girlfriend's kids had all had strawberries when they were pre-12 months, and chocolate, and peanut butter, and that one was getting cereal in the bottle at 2 weeks. And so on and so forth. Of course back then, babies slept on their stomachs and no one had a car seat or wore a seat belt, but hey. Since El Burrito is growing well, I don't think avoiding those foods has been in any way detrimental to his health. But they were pretty vocal, and it just got my hackles up. And they stayed up for about 24 hours.

Then we had dinner. El Burrito had most of what for him is a full bottle when we got there, since he was hungry. At dinner, he got to eat all sorts of things - baked beans, mac n cheese, some hash brown thing, jello (with the strawberries! sorted out). Which is fine with me, but I thought DH got a little carried away with quantities, since El Burrito had a mostly-full stomach and this was mostly stuff that he hadn't had before - he's just been eating dairy for two weeks. I had horror visions of him getting too full and things not sitting well.

It gets better, though. Mother-in-law does wedding cakes as a home-based job, and she makes nice cakes for all the grandkids' birthdays. They get an individual six-inch cake for their first birthday, and they can do whatever to it - eat it, stick their hands in it, throw it at the walls, whatever. Which is fine, if you don't make a habit of it. I wasn't crazy about it being a strawberry cake, given that list above, but he didn't eat much of it.

And one of his birthday presents? A half-pound package of those sugar wafer stick cookies. Which he won't be eating. And DH and I don't need them ourselves.

Anyway.

Monday - DH's day off (his company has no holidays from New Year's to Memorial Day). I ran a few errands in the morning while DH stayed with El Burrito. Returned the duplicate romper to Gymboree, got two hats and a flag shirt for the Burrito at Old Navy, a mega-skein of yarn and 3 kitchen tins (70% off) at Michael's, and some cheap soda at HyVee. We buy a lot of soda, all at $5 or less a case. 80% of it goes to work with DH, in his lunch cooler, because otherwise he'd be hitting the soda machines 4 or 5 times a day at $1.xx a pop. This way we save money and I know he's drinking diet instead of leaded soda. I need to work on encouraging more water, but it's a step in the right direction.

I also bought a few things at Gymboree, the store I need to avoid. It's all too cute to resist. Found some cute things on sale, plus an extra 20% off. Pictures coming soon. The hats at Old Navy weren't the success I hoped - the 2T-3T fits right now, and the 12-24 month is too small. So I'll have to go see what they have in larger sizes.

And on Monday afternoon, DH finished the Astroturf project - pictures coming soon - while I managed to feel busy but accomplish absolutely nothing inside. I don't know how I do it, really.