Cost/Benefit Analysis

To repeat a constant theme, life sure has changed since we became parents. Getting out of the house happens more often now than it used to, but it still feels like a monumental task at times.

For comparison, before kids...

As dinner time approached, maybe I'd look around the kitchen and decide I didn't really want to eat any of the food we had on hand. So DF and I would hop in the car and go out to eat somewhere. We might not even choose before leaving the house. That new taco place looks good - screeech - let's pull in there. So crazy and spontaneous!

Last night...

It was 5:30pm. I looked around the kitchen and didn't feel much like eating anything we had available. But the babies were in a weird mood after having an irregular nap schedule, so we scrounged up a meal of leftover Chinese food and frozen burritos. Then I took the kids for our nightly stroll around the neighborhood.

Dinner Decisions
Here's the cost/benefit analysis we went through, briefly, of "One of the parents goes to pick up takeout."

Pros:

• One parent gets to escape the squawking
• We eat something more exciting than what's in the fridge/freezer 

Cons:

• The other parent is stuck home with two squirrely babies
• The leftovers will still be waiting for us to eat them later
• If I don't eat now (Salmonista), it's going to mess up our walk schedule, and Baby A is already on the verge of a meltdown

And that's just the daily dinner dance! Sometimes I am better about planning ahead for meals. Not so much lately. Working on that...we have a dinner menu on the whiteboard for this week!

Choir Considerations
How about something more complicated? Like, say, should I start singing in the church choir regularly again?

The facts:

• Choir practice is each Wednesday evening, 6:15-8:00pm
• Early arrival to church required on Sunday morning for choir rehearsal & warm ups

Childcare options for Weds.

• At church (not even sure this is an option in the summer?). The boys would then go to bed at least an hour later than usual, and who knows, they might be too hyper to sleep till super late. Could result in unpleasant Thursdays...
• At home, which means DF is doing the bedtime routine solo. I know he's already tired after a long day at work, and the evening hours are usually the most intense with the babies. 

Sunday AM thoughts

• Can we really manage to get ourselves out the door even earlier than usual on Sunday morning? 

After all that, we look at our situation and wonder, is it even worth it? What is to be gained by me participating in choir regularly? Singing is supposed to be good for your brain; maybe it will prevent me from getting dementia in my later years. DF and the boys would appreciate that, I'm sure! Also, it's fun and I like chatting with my fellow choir members. But is the social outlet for me worth all the extra hassle and potential stress with the kiddos? Then I ask myself, does anyone else in the choir have young children? I can't think of anyone...perhaps that is a sign.

Visiting Brazil, Briefly
Sometimes, we weigh the pros and cons and decide that, indeed, we will leave the house and try to do something. Everything is just so different when you do it with two babies. I think I'm still adjusting to that reality.

Example: a couple weekends ago, there was a Brazilian festival happening at Overton Park. You know DF and I are all over the festival scene! (Or at least, we used to be.) We have been itching to get out and flap our festival wings again. So we decided to attempt it with the babies. They stay awake for a good chunk of time in the middle of the day now between naps. After they woke up from their morning nap, we gave them a bottle then hopped in the van. We managed to find a parking place without too much effort. Ooh, must be a good sign! Things were going our way! We got the boys all settled in their stroller and set out to enjoy the festivities.

Within minutes, we realized it was a lot different than going to a festival by ourselves. It's hard to navigate with a long double stroller through crowds over bumpy grass. There was lots of noisy music going on, which the babies did not like. They also did not approve of the weather - it was sunny and hot without much of a breeze. We found a shady area and let them crawl around on a blanket while we ate some Brazilian food. Then we walked around and looked at the booths. Since none of the activities involved rolling around on the ground or eating Cheerios, the babies weren't really interested in the options provided. After maybe an hour, they were looking really grouchy and growing increasingly discontent. We headed home. I sang "The Girl From Ipanema" to entertain them in the car, or at least as much of it as I could remember. They were not impressed. I sang "BINGO" instead. They liked that one better.

So, was it worth it for us to go to this festival? On the one hand, we did get to try some new foods and hear interesting music. The babies didn't necessarily enjoy it, but they didn't have a total screaming meltdown, either. If we want them to be adventurous kids who like trying new things and learning about other cultures, we have to start somewhere, right? But I couldn't help but think, they probably would've preferred staying home, crawling up and down the hallway and chewing on their old, familiar rattles. Hmmm...

Babies In Motion

It's been two weeks since I've had the babies at home by myself all day. Grandma was in town visiting for a bit, then DF took a few days off work this week when A was sick and needing lots of extra attention. Now everyone is fairly healthy again, so Mom is flying solo.

Oh. My. Goodness. When did they get so mobile??

Baby B especially is getting into everything today! He's figured out how to navigate around obstacles that used to stop him. Already today I had to extract him from behind a chair where he was gleefully yanking on the curtains. I also did not know he could crawl up on a box that I have blocking some cords in the playroom, so I had to go rescue him when he tipped over and got stuck between the box and our chest freezer. Whoops! Time for more babyproofing, I see.

It's nice to see that A has more energy. For the better part of a week, he's just been laying around, snoozing on Mom or Dad, or crying whenever we put him down. Um yeah, that's pretty exhausting. Now he's nearly back to his old self, scooting all over floor, sneaking into the bathroom. I just ordered another baby gate to keep them out of there - it's their favorite room! The door latch is broken so it won't stay shut. A likes to lay on the floor in the hallway and kick the door open, then crawl in and chew on the bath mat. Gross...

I'm also finding it challenging to feed them their bottles simultaneously. Two weeks ago, they were just starting to try and slide/twist out of their chairs. (I put their carseats on the floor to feed them both at the same time.) Now, they are becoming expert escape artists. My fall-back plan used to be the swing and bouncy chair, but they have started folding themselves in half in an attempt to tip over and evade the confines of seat belts... I might have to move them to their high chairs for bottle time. It's going to be annoying if I have to unhook them every time they need to burp, though!

They seem to be really entertained by each other lately, more so than before. When they are eating regular food, I turn their high chairs slightly so they can see each other and they just crack up. It's quite cute :) They also like to chase each other around when crawling on the floor like little puppies.

As of yesterday, they are 11 months old. Getting bigger every day!

Things That Make You Go Eeeek!

This is the latest in my occasional series, Bugs of the South. Do not read this post if you don't like stories of creepy crawly critters. You have been warned!

We've lived in Memphis for almost 3 years now. In that brief period of time, I've had enough encounters with cockroaches to last me a lifetime. Seriously, eww! They need to leave me alone. Since they seem intent on cohabitating with me, I'll cope by recording the more disgusting of my encounters with them.

But first, a photo of a flower garden at the Alabama State Capitol. There are probably some bugs living here. I'm ok with that. I'm just posting this picture at the top so when I link to my blog on Facebook, people don't have to see a roach picture!


Roach on the Garbage Can
When I used to work from home (when we lived in an apartment), I had a desk set up in our spare bedroom where I camped out with my laptop. Under the desk, I had a little garbage can. One day as I went to get up from my chair, I glanced down and saw a GIGANTIC cockroach perched on the side of the garbage can. I was too paralyzed by fear to move, so of course I had to grab my phone to take a picture of the humongous invader.


After gathering my wits, I used a piece of paper to knock the roach into the garbage can. Then, I flipped the can over, trapping the bug inside. I slid a piece of cardboard over the opening, then carried the whole collection outside where I dumped the contents on the sidewalk and thwacked the roach with a shoe. Victory, Salmonista!

Things That Go Scratch In the Night
When we moved into a rental house last year, we had a lot of roaches at first. I don't think the previous tenants hired a pest control company to spray, and I also think they were kind of hoarder-types. Yeah, it was...gross. And since I was getting up at all hours of the night to pump (breastmilk), the roaches and I had lots of quality time to bond. Here's a particularly memorable incident.

It was, let's say, about 2AM. I was sitting on the couch, hooked up to my pump as usual, trying to stay awake. I heard the tell-tale "scritch scratch" of cockroach feet scurrying somewhere nearby. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a medium-sized bug crawling up the bookcase about 4 feet to my left. As I was a bit, uh, indisposed, I had to just let the bug be. I kept an eye on him as he summited the piece of furniture. He proceeded to patrol the scene by doing laps around a small box that was on top of the shelf. We stared each other down for awhile. When I was done pumping, I grabbed a shoe (my weapon of choice) and went to finish him off, but he was no where to be found. Argh! That's the worst feeling, when you know there's a cockroach in your vicinity but you can't find it. I searched for awhile with no success. I decided to go back to bed.

Lest you think that is the end of the story...

A Cockroach Ate My Baby! (Well, tried to)
The next day, I was sitting on the couch, feeding one of the babies. I had a pillow under my left arm up against the edge of the couch. Suddenly, I saw some movement on the edge of the pillow. It was (I assume) the same vile cockroach, this time getting too close for comfort! How dare he crawl next to my baby's head?! I jumped up off the couch, yanking the bottle out of the baby's mouth in the process shrieking, "cockroach! cockroach!" DF sprang into action but not before the roach managed to scurry down behind the couch cushions. Oh dear. We stripped the couch of all cushions/pillows and got out the vacuum with special cockroach-sucking attachment (or is that the upholstery tube?), but we could not find it. Ewwwwww! We decided to assume that, in all the excitement, the roach got scared and ran away. But we also did not sit on that couch for a few days.

Seriously, The Grossest Part
Well, eventually we needed to have our couch back, so we did a final thorough roach check before reassembling the cushions and tentatively sitting there again. At this point, DF had returned to work, so at night, the babies were sleeping in the living room in their pack and play and I slept on the couch while DF attempted to catch some more solid Zs in the bedroom.

You know where this story is going, right?

I was taking my chances, sleeping on the couch where the roach had previously been sighted. The weather was still pretty warm in Memphis, so I was wearing light pajama pants and a tank top. In the middle of the night, I was dozing on the couch when I felt something tickling my chest. I looked down and THERE WAS THE COCKROACH, RUNNING ACROSS MY BARE SKIN! ACK!!!!! I could not scream, because the babies would wake up, but I certainly could jump around and make scared/grossed out faces, which I did for a good long while.

Of course, in the commotion, the roach once again escaped. I slept on the other couch after that, even though it's not very comfortable.

Husband Saves the Day
The next day, DF was out in the living room when he saw the cockroach (the same one, for sure!) crawl up from the couch cushions and start running around on a ruffly throw pillow. He knew that he had to defend his family from this creepy invader! So he grabbed a shoe, threw the pillow on the floor, and started whacking at it. The roach was stunned enough that he was able to carry the pillow outside, shake out the bug, and kill it some more on the sidewalk. Hooray!

After that, we kept the pillow sealed up in a box for awhile to make sure no one else had taken up residence in the ruffles.

Since being woken up by a cockroach prancing across my chest, I've actually calmed down somewhat about bugs in the house. I mean, yes, they are still gross, but if I just see them on the floor instead of on my person, hey, that's not so bad.

And we also have a pest control company that comes to spray regularly now!