Week of Money: Where I get suckered into some stuffed cookies

DAY ONE

??:?? — I wake up a little tired, but Little Bun is cuddling me. I kiss his forehead as he hugs me in bed.

7:34 a.m. — I log in and start working, and make a tea.

9:15 a.m. — Little Bun works on his pages, and hands them to his father to check because I am in meetings all day.

12:10 p.m. — Wow, I could barely get out of the house for a break, it was nonstop from when I started until now.

12:30 p.m. — I head out for a break, and end up feeling too hot, but I am trying a new experiment where I wear at least once, everything I own in my closet, and decide to keep or sell/donate. If I don’t wear it now, when!? I also have to know why I am skipping some pieces – is it because they are not as comfy? Did I get bigger? I have to let them all go if that’s the case.

2:28 p.m. — I get home, log in and have more meetings. Little Bun is NOT sleeping, he slept in late this morning, I can tell.

5:11 p.m. — Dinner – and afterwards, he watches a new series I heard about called Yo Gabba Gabba that apparently kids enjoy. It isn’t in English so that he works on his bilingualism, but I find he doesn’t stick to these videos as long if they’re not English. His brain works too hard.

6:25 p.m. — Little Bun and I work together and finish off 5 boards in our game Two Dots, and win a special avatar for him (he really wanted it), and we cleared about 50 games to get it. I feel great! So accomplished 😛

8:25 p.m. — Time for bed. I am already in bed, as he is reading out from his second favourite book about the Elements. He tells me the root of the word for lead, comes from Latin “plumbum”, and a bunch of other facts like how bismuth creates that crackling noise in fireworks that scares animals, baby animals, animal parents, and causes animals to kill themselves (impaling themselves on fences).

He tells me he HATES it when people add bismuth to fireworks and he wishes they did not do that because it hurts the animals. Sometimes I wonder if I go too hard on him in terms of teaching him so many complex things about the sexism, racism, fireworks, animals, environmental issues, but this is the world we live in. And he might as well start young and be well-educated/rounded in issues.

Spent: $0

DAY TWO

??:?? — I wake up tired. He is definitely up early.

6:00 a.m. — I log in, I have lots of things to clear off my plate before my meetings start, and I have a presentation.

7:25 a.m. — I am in status meetings all day for various things. I hate meetings but everyone seems to want a DAILY status meeting, which I think is useless. You should know what has to get done, and as a self-starter who takes on things on her own and doesn’t need to be micromanaged, I find this amazing that you need a call to get on track. This must be why I am not a manager. Nor do I want to be one.

9:30 a.m. — Little Bun works on his pages, and I show him another book of word problems (Grade 4) that he could start doing puzzles with, as he struggled hard with the Grade 3 version last year, but has grown quite a bit, mathematically speaking. He gets so excited, he starts doing the puzzles and working out the logic before I gently remind him he still has to do his Grade 3 pages.

12:40 p.m. — Wow. I finally finish my meetings, emails, and messages for the day. I told them on a call I was so hungry I was about to eat someone, so they laughed and let me go.

12:45 p.m. — I take a break for tea and lunch.

1:00 p.m. — Okay I crammed my mouth full and then had to get back to work.

1:53 p.m. — Now I am really taking a break. I am down a rabbit hole of watching Closet Cleanout Videos, and I found a new blogger I like – Chloe Wen.

2:25 p.m. —  Back to work. I took my short break. I fill in my timesheets.

5:47 p.m. — I log off for the day. I do the dishes, cutlery, everything. Laundry, and I get energy to decide that I should start sorting through items to resell.

8:53 p.m. — Time for bed.

Spent: $0

DAY THREE

??:?? — I wake up refreshed! FINALY! I woke up before him, and watched him snore for 15 minutes. He always ends up snuggling beside me, curled into me, pushing me to the edge of my side of the bed while the rest of the bed is WIDE OPEN with his father on the other side. WTF. I guess this is the plight of being the snugglier parent.

7:25 a.m. — I log in and start working, make a tea, and Little Bun works on his pages.

7:59 a.m. — Little Bun takes a break to play on the piano. He likes to go throughout the day, playing and practicing.

11:47 a.m. — He continues on his workbook pages and finishes them all before 11 a.m. So we make a mug cake together, again, and he eagerly finishes his half. It’s spongey and soft. When it is done baking, and cooling he tells me: Let’s eat it TOGETHER.

I end up on a work call, and he bounces off his chair, runs, washes his hands, and comes back to sit and wait patiently for my call to end. I finish it, turn back to him, and he tells me he was waiting for me so we could eat together. *hearts in eyes* He meant it!!!! He really meant it when he said “let’s eat together”.

It reminds me of the time we had crêpes one Sunday and I was on a Zoom call doing an investing course presentation, and he wanted to eat together. He sat outside of the door and after 45 minutes of waiting, he started wailing like he was in pain, waiting for me to finish. I came out, and had no idea he wanted really, for us to eat.. TOGETHER. I guess he still has this need to do everything together. I felt terrible, I had no idea it meant so much to him, so now when I see him doing the same thing, I know it means a lot and I quickly go and sit down with him to enjoy it together.

12:40 p.m. — Time for lunch.

4:28 p.m. — We play in the bedroom and he is trying to push me onto my side, he grunts, huffs, and pushes with his might then exclaims: WHO KNEW YOU WERE SO HEAVY, MOMMY!?!?!? I burst out laughing. Another Little Bun gem.

5:17 p.m. — May I take a video, he asks? .. I hand him my phone and he proceeds to record all of the things he accomplished in Two Dots (a game we play together).

6:46 p.m. — Time for laundry, and dishes.

9:10 p.m. — Bedtime. We read together, my book on my own and his own book on the side until it is time for real bed.

Spent: $0

DAY FOUR

??:?? — I wake up tired, he woke up again quite early. Not sure what it was – the later reading time?

6:30 a.m. — I log in and start working, then chat with my friend who is also up early and working before our days start.

7:59 a.m. — We stop talking and I log into my first call, as she preps for hers, while I drink a cup of tea.

10:45 a.m. — I am done for the day, so I wrap up on documents and emails.

11:16 a.m. — I call my friend back, and Little Bun, uncharacteristically starts to lose it when I am talking on the phone. It is like he doesn’t want me to talk to anyone. I get so frustrated, I slam the door as I leave and just go into the other bedroom to calm down and talk to my friend while he calms down in the other one.

12:20 p.m. — I go back, calm to Little Bun and he sees me, and bursts into tears immediately. I ask him what is going on. He tells me that he hates it when I talk and he can’t hear my stories or what we are talking about. I tell him I WILL ALWAYS tell him what has happened on the phone after (I mean, a cleaner version of course), and he sobs as he brings up the ONE TIME I did not do this in my life in recent months. I ask him to name that ONE TIME. He can’t. I side eye him.

I also then tell him his anger is contagious and when he gets upset, I get upset because he is upset, and the whole thing spirals out of control. He calls me out on slamming the door (fair point), and I tell him it has been 30 years that Mommy has been slamming doors angrily, and I have to unlearn it. He tells me angrily: You slamming the doors, is just teaching ME to get angry and slam doors!… He is completely right, I own up to it, acknowledge it, and tell him that I need to do better and stop it (though in my head, I didn’t slam the door as I NORMALLY WOULD in the past, I closed it forcefully, but I should close it without a peep next time).

12:50 p.m. — He shows me on the iPad how angry he was (he draws pictures or images of what he feels like to record how he feels), or he writes diary / journal entries to talk about his feelings, all of which I agree with and encourage him to do, to get his frustration out.

This is what he created:

And even an angry chart to see HOW angry he was:

2:29 p.m. — In all of this hubbub, I forgot to even eat lunch. I went from my meeting, to my call with my friend, to handling Little Bun emotions and by the time I unraveled and de-stressed, I had a pounding headache that reminded me I did not eat this morning since I had my tea.

5:01 p.m. — We harvest basil for dinner (Little Bun loves this), and he happily scarfs it down while watching Yo Gabba Gabba.

6:38 p.m. — Dishes, laundry, he folds it, wipes all the cutlery after dinner…

8:51 p.m. — Time for bed. We talk out what happened this morning again, and we remind each other of what we have issues with – him thinking I won’t tell him all of the stories I am laughing about on the phone with my friends or colleagues (I ALWAYS TELL HIM! but sometimes it is stupid adult things like laughing about documents being lost), and I promised to close the door properly next time and not slam it. I am definitely going to have to work on that.

Spent: $0

DAY FIVE

??:?? — I beg him for 10 more minutes, and we end up sleeping again.

7:30 a.m. — I feel so good now. I slept well, we talked it out.

8:00 a.m. — We head out for “Field Trip Day” and we try to switch it up and do different things.

11:15 a.m. — Oh! I get my Omnilux neck red light thing in the mail, and I immediately charge it up and try it out. As I said, I do not have many wrinkles, so this is more proactive. Can’t hurt. I will do it at the same time I do my face mask in the morning so it won’t be a loss.

12:15 p.m. — Lunch. We harvest basil again to eat. He loves even eating the stems.

4:00 p.m. — After his nap, we hang out and go through upcycling stuff my friend also sent me in the mail (THANKS!).

5:11 p.m. — Oops. YVR Cookies caught me. They are getting rid of these two flavours so I put in an order before they go. I order these and all the rest are SKOR cookies (my favourite!!!) $45.98

8:50 p.m. — Time for bed. It’s more prepping for bed. Face washing, brushing, and reading a bit before bedtime. Then when lights are out, we have our nighttime chats about how our days went, what we could have done, what we need to talk about, or whatever else.

Spent: $45.98

DAY SIX

6:40 a.m. — I wake up feeling like I had a need for another half an hour.

7:08 a.m. — We play together in the morning (Two Dots), and then we hang out in the bedroom and play in the closet. I try on outfits, he tells me what he thinks, or sometimes we repair things. I take a belt from a dress and turn it into straps onto my dress because the straps were too thin. It looks WAY better now. Took me about 3 hours.

9:25 a.m. — While on a call and browsing, I ALMOST get suckered into buying this gorgeous off shoulder top ( a great dupe for the Reiss one if I ever saw one ) but I resist. I do not need any more sweaters. I do not need any more sweaters! (Chloe Wen and I are very similar in this love of sweaters which is why I connected to her so well.

12:00 p.m. — Time for lunch. After lunch, I watch more of Ted Lasso (excellent show).

1:05 p.m. — He goes down for his nap, and I take a break just reading.

4:00 p.m. — We do dishes, laundry, and Little Bun helps.

5:23 p.m. — We run a vacuum all over the place – it fills up twice, and he gets all the corners with “roo roo”, which is a tube attachment. We call it “roo roo” because I thought it looked like an elephant trunk, and he loves using it to eat up all the dust.

8:55 p.m. — Time for bedtime routine, and whatever we need to wind down.

Spent: $0

DAY SEVEN

??:?? — Back to work. I know it.

7:12 a.m. — I have a cup of tea. Little Bun plays with Stuffies on the carpet and takes them on a ride. He also enjoys playing in the bedroom, coming up with his own games with blocks, pretending they’re things like cars, or trains, that sort of thing. He’s quite creative and imaginative. I think it’s also important to be able to stay on your own by yourself, and entertain yourself.

7:59 a.m. — Time for my first meeting.

9:34 a.m. — I love that bigger brands are finally starting to come on board with this solid shampoo/conditioner bar thing. L’Occitane has a metal tin you can use to carry the bars. I hope this becomes way more mainstream and plastic disappears. This is the future.

11:58 a.m. — I finally get a break to have lunch. I scarf it down then hang out with Little Bun.

1:08 p.m. — Down for his nap, I am back on calls again. It is nicer when he is “occupied” and reading in the bedroom while I am working and on calls.

3:15 p.m. — I take a break and read my book until Little Bun is up.

3:00 p.m. — Up from his Quiet Time, I get up, and go back to work – I have a call in 2 minutes.

5:12 p.m. — Log off for the day, do dinner, laundry, dishes. It’s really a never ending cycle of tasks.

6:37 p.m. — Oh this ribbed knit ioff shoulder slouchy dress is also cute. In white? I don’t have it in white yet!

8:56 p.m. — Bedtime routine! Little Bun has really been getting into these Heart and Brain books, he loves them.

Spent: $0

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Want more? Read all of my previous Week of Money Diaries.