On the Edge of a Cliff and Ready to Fly

Well, we got Joshua’s birth certificates! They aren’t anything fancy, but they’re printed on pretty paper and stamped. They list where and when he was born, and Donald and I as his parents. I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for these Birth Certificates; even though we have the Power of Attorney and the Adoption Decree, it is just neat to have this BIRTH CERTIFICATE with OUR NAMES as his parents!!

What our lawyer had to do is send the adoption decree to the Kansas Dept. of Vital Statistics, then once they had that on file we could send in our money and get official copies. We still have to take these certificates and get him a Social Security number & card at a social security office. We want to do that so we can start a savings account for him.

I re-worked our budget as we’ve been over spending, and I gave Joshua $25 a month for toys and $75 a month for clothes. Donald thinks that’s way too much, but I disagree. It’s taking a lot to keep him in clothes because he outgrows them!! We buy a few cute things new, but Drew and Andrea led us to Children’s Orchard, which has been a life saver. They have a lot of cute things that are so much cheaper than new. His outfit he wore for his professional 6 month photos was from Children’s Orchard, and it still had the tags on it, never been worn. We had gotten it for $7.00.
Formula and diapers run $200 a month, and Child Care is $500 a month (which is WAY cheaper than a lot of people pay, cause we have a family hook-up and it’s part time).

To help the budget, I’ve been making my own baby food. Donald’s folks got us some cool freezing trays, so I put the mashed food in the trays, let it freeze, then pop out the little triangles into a freezer bag for storage. I highly recommend the book “So Easy Baby Food” by Joan Ahlers & Cheryl Tallman for guidance.

Making my own baby food is SO CHEAP. I made 5 sweet potatoes and mashed them up and that will probably last months, and it was $4-$5 bucks. I made squash that will probably last months that was only $3-$4 dollars. If we count cereal (which I think is $12 a box) a 3 month supply of this baby food adds up to $21! Baby food pre-made in the store I think is at least .50 to .80 a jar. He would probably eat a jar in 1-2 meals. He’s eating some solids for lunch and supper now. So, I could spend $12 a month on canned baby food (or more if he’s eating more) or $7 a month making it myself. Donald’s folks also got us a food mill, (like a crank for grinding up food) and it looks pretty neat. I think it will come in handy as he gets older and can eat meat and if we go out to eat we can pop something in it and grind it up.

I’m continuing to cook on the weekends and freeze individual meals. It’s worked out well; we aren’t eating out, and I’m not trying to run home and cook supper after a long day at work. It will be nice when Donald gets his new schedule- it will be wonderful for none of us to work on Sundays so we can rest and hopefully have friends over for meals. Right now, the only day we get to hang out with people as a family is Friday night, so we have to pick who we’re going to see.

Oh, we watched the “John Adams” series that was on HBO a while back – rented it through Netflix. Donald and I bawled like babies at the end!! It was a great series, highly recommend it.