Save. Spend. Splurge.

Sherry’s Ramblings for the Week

My toddler is a little scammer

Non-parents, ignore this entire paragraph, and skip to the next headline. It’s boring.

I’m laughing as I am writing this because we have just started potty training with a modicum of success (*tears of joy*), and he is actually ASKING to go sit on the potty, and gets there IN TIME.

It is exactly as a kind reader had told me in an earlier rambling: YES! IT WORKS!

It is age 2 years and about 9 months that your toddler boy will have potty training “click”.

Dear Reader: THANK YOU SO MUCH.

*more tears of joy*

You have no idea, until you are a parent, how happy potty training can make you when it works.

Sick, right?

I mean if you had told me before child, that I’d be so interested in the toilet of another human being and that it would bring me so much frustration and joy, I would have called you crazy.

We just haven’t done this full time yet because I need to take him to the doctor to check out his bum and then we are home-bound and going at this full blast soon.

Bla bla bla.

ANYWAY, the real point of me telling you all of this is that my toddler is a full-blown scam artist in the making.

Once he figured out that Potty + Pee = Sticker, he started going on the potty, and HOLDING IT IN, only allowing a little to trickle out to get a sticker each time.

It kind of went like this:

Baby Bun: More potty?

Me: YES! Let’s go! YAY!! *SMILES*

Baby Bun: Potttyyyy!! *singing*… Sticker???!! … *singing*

Me: Yes, Baby Bun gets a sticker if he goes on the potty.

Baby Bun: *goes a little and stops*.. PEE!! BABY BUN PEE!! STICKER! STICKER! MOMMY! STICKER!!!!

Me: OK. *goes through the routine* Now Baby Bun gets a sticker!

Baby Bun: STICKER!!!! *pastes it on a paper*.. Fuzzy! Fuzzy!.. MORE POTTY?!?!? *runs towards the bathroom*.. Mooooore stickers??? MORE MORE! POTTY! MORE STICKER?????

Me:.. I’ve created a monster.

What a little scammer!!!!

The first few times I was taken in, and I was cheering, smiling, flushing, washing hands, and handing him a sticker.. but by sticker #7 I started to smell something fishy.

Now, I told him the NEW rules are that to get a sticker, you need to do a REAL pee in the potty. I actually push a little on his belly and ask him: More? Is there more in there?

It worked for a few days but now he’s resisting my efforts, even with stickers dangling in his face.

Two steps forward, 4 steps back.

Looking hot at 62 going au naturel is impossible

So Christie Brinkley is still smokin’ hot after 62 years.

She is about my mother’s age, and she looks younger than I do.

christie-brinkley-age-62

Source

At first, I bought into all of that hype of eating well (she’s mostly vegan), great genes, working out, bla bla bla.. I was so excited because she has said (and hairdressers have confirmed) that she didn’t have any facelifts, because there are no telltale (even minute) scars on her face and neck where they cut into your skin.

..but she has admitted to using Botox and fillers.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate on her for that, I am just sad that there seems to be no amazing role model and option who can’t age gracefully without resorting to Botox in the neck, and fillers to smooth out wrinkles and lines.

Why do we hate on wrinkles so much, and aging on women?

Do men get these procedures? Do they dye their hair? Bother about wrinkles? NO.

And they still land super hot, super smart wives because they’re still attractive.

I myself am debating aging gracefully (letting white hairs that seem to multiply day after day with a toddler) grow in and be free to be who they are, or consider things that are non-invasive like dying my hair, or even a filler here and there.

Am I vain enough?

Not sure, but I am wondering what is wrong with me to want to look younger and buy into this hype even though I intellectually know it is stupid and a load of crap.

Who am I trying to attract?

What am I trying to prove? That I am still going to be attractive to society of all ages, shapes & sizes even at the age of a grandmother?

I’m also starting to think that genes play a huge role because my partner’s side of the family (siblings) look crazy young for their age, like 10-15 years younger, minimum!

Food for thought.

Never imagined I’d ever be an author

Have you ever imagined you’d ever write a book?

I used to pretend that I was a writer when I was a little girl, and it was blatantly ripped off The Little Princess:

I’d imagine my favourite toys, foods and things I wanted but did not have like matching bedsheets (with a matching bed ruffle as well, mind..), a television set and my very own pink telephone.

I used to pretend to “write” at my book, and when my mother came in to call me to dinner, I’d say: Not now Mommy, I’m WRITING…. with an air of being very rushed for an important deadline.

Maybe that’s where I started with all of this blogging bidness, to fulfill a secret childhood dream.

Anyway, the good news is I wrote the book.

The bad news is that life is throwing me a lot of curveballs (I cannot say on this blog quite yet), and I do not have time to continue on the book, as in:

  1. Review
  2. Format into .epub format (what a #*%#&@$(* job it is)

I have decided not to go the ISBN route and go through conventional bookstores.

It’s going to sell directly on the blog so I can lower the price for everyone, otherwise retailers take up to 50% of your revenues just to sell the book.

8 Comments

  • Gabriela Tremblini

    I love Christie Brinkley and think she’s just as stunning as ever. I will say however, her smile looks a bit “joker-ish” and I don’t see that in her earlier pics. Whatever she’s had done, she looks awesome. I think there’s a misconception that having work done, invasive or non-invasive, will make one look younger. I rarely think that’s the outcome. As gorgeous as she is (almost immortally so), she doesn’t look 35. She has wrinkles, and I’m sure in person, they would be more noticeable. Beautiful is beautiful, and young is young. Young does not equal pretty. As the saying goes, “there are no ugly women, just lazy ones”. Beauty takes effort, and the older you get, the more effort it takes! Many women who start procedures too young will get that over 40, “real housewife” look, even if they’re 28. I have been blessed with the characteristic of being very expressive when I speak. That contributed to forehead lines I first noticed at 18 yrs. old. They were quite deep in my 40’s, although I had very few other wrinkles. I now get Botox in my forehead to make myself look less tired and to keep the makeup from falling in the cracks! I get a moderate dose every 5 months and the wrinkles are still somewhat noticeable, but much softer. I don’t think it makes me look any younger, but I think it makes me look better! Now to save for my neck lift…..

  • Michaela

    hey, what is the difference between putting foundation on and having face fillers? Just semantics, they both do the same trick: making one look younger, better. Just like hair dye. I’ve had restylan fillers once and I have to say it looked 100 percent natural, not to mention they lasted for over a year, I’d do it again in a heartbeat, but at the moment I’m saving some cash until I get to the right weigth to make the whole spending worthy. Botox- no, I’m not an advocate, I’d never do it, but fillers, why not? It’s the same substance our own body produces, only with age we’re not proficient enough in making it. It’s like getting extra vitamins from a pill. And while I can totally respect women who chose not to die hair or use makeup or having their faces done, I’m not strong enough to live au naturelle at 45, 200 years ago I’d be socially considered an old hag- fortunately things have changed and a woman of my age can still consider herself as not old. But I’m not spring chick either, let’s face it. I may feel just like at 25 or 35 on the inside, but the mirror tells a different tale. Am I ready to accept myself with my graying hair, my fine wrinkles, the sagging face muscles? No, precisely because I don’t feel like this on the inside.. Chapeau to those who can, I’m not. After thinking a lot of time on this subject, I have to say we don’t do it to attract men, we do it mainly to feel good about ourselves when we compare with other women. Vain? Yes, totally. But, at least for me, I’ve realised that no matter how accomplished I’d be in terms of personal achievements, career, money or spiritual progress, you name it, for each of us it can be a different MIT, but to me it is still very important to feel good when I look in the mirror. If what I see there doesn’t make me happy, the rest suddenly seems less interesting. I’m fully aware it is not that important after all, I understand and I know my true value does not stand in the wrinkle free face, I know this, but… it is so good to feel happy about the way I look! 😉
    No, I don’t feel like competing with younger women and I don’t do it to get a man, I do it for me. I don’t want to hear that little voice in my head: “yes, you accomplished a lot, but look, as a woman, you’re over”. I’d be damned if I’m over! I’ll be over when I lay in my coffin, untill then, I’m in!

    • save. spend. splurge.

      Great food for thought. I’m waffling between the decisions of what the difference is between artifice and how far I will go.

      You’ve given me a lot of points to consider…

  • Denise

    Fortunately for me, age 60, there are more and more examples of real, authentic, older women who embrace their age … wrinkles, spots, and all. When women do this, the combination of their mature beauty, wisdom, & confidence is something to behold. I gave up beauty magazines long ago (20 years?) & found that doing so helped me accept myself and my imperfect appearance. They do a disservice to women with all their products and brushed, produced perfection. Real beauty of any age is out there … but you have to look for it.

  • Ramona @ Personal Finance Today

    I never dyed my hair and I had grey hairs since I was 10. I also don’t use makeup, don’t have long nails. My only vanity are perfumes (I like wearing a good perfume). and really can’t care less about how I’ll look when getting older 😀

    Book you say? Really exciting. I’d go the ‘self-publishing’ route as well, retailers are indeed too ‘hungry’ for your money

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