Week of Money: Where life goes on as usual

DAY ONE

??:?? — Screaming. More nightmares.

??:?? — Another nightmare.

6:00 a.m. — Little Bun jumps on top of me and says: Mommy, it’s 6!

6:13 a.m. — I get up, and check on my bank accounts – I signed up for a bank bonus for a chequing account and now that I have the $350, I am closing the account. They want me to go in person to do it but I won’t because.. why? I just call them.

6:20 a.m. — Meetings all day.

7:21 a.m. — I make a cup of matcha tea latte.

8:50 a.m. — TRUTH. I have been reading a lot of books about women in the past, and this is a perfect example of the inequality in thinking that all men in charge is OK yet all women in charge makes people think WTF?

9:08 a.m. — I am really dragging. Little Bun agrees to watch videos after we have a failed attempt to try and play together. He made up some game with a sock ball and then got visibly angrier and angrier as I couldn’t read his mind to figure out HOW to play this game with a ball and some blocks… he kept getting so angry at me, that I burst out in frustration and then he gasped and told me: I am taking away all the games from you! NOW YOU HAVE NO MORE GAMES! (as my punishment because we always confiscate his iPad or computer when he is truly disobedient so he is punishing me the only way he knows how).

He finally calmed down, I explained that I was certainly not being very nice but I wasn’t angry, I was frustrated that I didn’t understand how to play this game. He looks at me sadly tearing up: Now you have no more games to play. Fine. I am too tired. I snuggle him and tell him I am sorry I have no more games left, but I was getting frustrated not angry.

9:30 a.m. — I go back to work.

5:12 p.m. — I log off for the day.

6:25 p.m. — Little Bun sees this photo of a calf with earmuffs on my feed and says: MOMMY! It is a BUNNY COW!!!!

6:56 p.m. — We read books together, and vacuum the home, and then get ready for bed.

8:13 p.m. — Bedtime. Routine of Wordle, teeth brushing, reading a book together, then sleeping.

Spent: $0

DAY TWO

??:?? — He wakes up squealing – nosebleed. Of course now he doesn’t want to go back to sleep. We spend the next hour trying to sleep (me) and him trying to stay still and nap again but can’t (him)

6:00 a.m. — I get up and he plays Cake Pops and I make funny Cake Pop designs for him in the app to make him laugh:

7:59 a.m. — I make a cup of tea as my partner goes out to run errands. I am in meetings all day. I just eat in front of the computer.

3:00 p.m. — Up from his nap (he didn’t sleep but at least we all got quiet time), he is full of energy and I am exhausted. I go to the bedroom and play with him.

3:56 p.m. — I tell him: Mommy needs a 15-minute nap. Can you please wake me at 16:15? (he likes military time). He nods and watches his videos and pats my bum like I used to do to him when he slept. <3

5:15 p.m. — “DING DING DING!”.. He pretends to be an alarm clock and to wake me up. I wake up in a hazy, tired, fog. I am still tired and could go another hour or two frankly, but then I would wake up at 3 a.m. in the morning, not to mention that I haven’t brushed my teeth, etc. I wake up a bit hungry.. then doze back to sleep.

5:33 p.m. — OK I’m really up now. I force myself to sit up in bed as my sleep headache appears. I stare at the clock and he tells me: I know you told me 16:15, but you looked so tired I wanted to let you sleep in a little bit more. This child is … beyond sweet. I can’t even. I hug and kiss him, and get up groggily. I feel tired now and with a headache from oversleeping, but a bit better, and hungry. So I make some pasta.

6:40 p.m. — We eat dinner.

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed.

Spent: $0

DAY THREE

??:?? — We seem to have slept in enough to see the sun rise, so this is a good sign. He did squeal a few times during the night because I think he got a nosebleed but not a bad one.

6:01 a.m. — YAY!!! SIX A.M.!!! And I feel much better, even though I am still a bit tired and could use an hour. That nap messed me up yesterday. I log in and work.

7:04 a.m. — I go through all my emails and answer as much as I can.

8:28 a.m. — I take a shower after my partner gets up. I am seeing that if I shower, I feel better, so I should honestly.. (as sad as this sounds), shower more often. I haven’t been getting as dirty going out or to yoga so I have been lax, especially with my eczema issues – I don’t want to make them worse…

10:28 a.m. — We have lunch, and Little Bun sits on my lap to watch videos with me for a break.

10:40 a.m. — CARE BEARS! How can I get Little Bun into Care Bears? I loved them when I was a little girl.

1:08 p.m. — He goes down for his nap. Then runs out and says: Mommy, think of all the fun games we can play once I am up from my nap!! … Umm.. okay.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he bounces out of the bedroom.

3:40 p.m. — Love these Banksy working from home art pieces.

5:12 p.m. — I log off for the day. Little Bun and I play “Rainbow Robot” (he built a rainbow coloured robot out of some blocks) and it is a game where it hides and seeks with his stuffies.

6:12 p.m. — I do laundry and the dishes again after dinner. We read books, play, he colours, does some activities on paper and my partner and I chat about what could be done to help during this pandemic.

8:50 p.m. — I read my book, while he watches Care Bears (he loves them), and time for bed. Wordle.

Spent: $0

DAY FOUR

??:?? — I wake up tired. Little Bun was crying all last night. When I ask him softly what he was dreaming about, he pauses and says: I was dreaming a big dream. It was so big. I can’t remember, Mommy.

7:34 a.m. — We slept late last night so he didn’t sleep in, plus he woke me up all the time. I log in “late” to work.

7:59 a.m. — I make some tea.

9:45 a.m. — Here’s your laugh for the morning:

1:08 p.m. — We eat like ravenous little pigs. My partner made delicious homemade French fries (the fancy French way) for lunch, and Little Bun runs out and just shovels it into his face like the world is ending. He LOVES French Fries so much. He could live off them if we let him, but we don’t, and he gets them once a week.

4:11 p.m. — Little Bun gets up and has his yoghurt for a snack.

4:16 p.m. — I feel a little listless honestly. And dizzy. Little Bun says: “MOMMY! Let’s draw a beautiful summer picture for Daddy. First, we need a picture that has all the colours we are going to use in the picture. okay?”

4:20 p.m. — “Mommy. The Black crayon is sad because it cannot be part of a rainbow. But that’s okay. It’s best friend is Brown.” … Children. Out of the mouth of babes!

4:47 p.m. — “Mommy, what does ORABLE mean?”…. I look at him strangely, and he says: “I heard it on Mouse! ” (if you give a mouse a cookie), and then I realize he means “HORRIBLE” because Mouse pronounced it as “orable”.

5:25 p.m. — Little Bun “draws” for me on my iPad with the Apple Pencil:

6:31 p.m. — I do half the dishes and then take a break. I just feel so sad. I can’t even.. I don’t know what this is. I feel like I am mentally in a prison.

7:19 p.m. — We read books and then get ready to go to sleep.

9:03 p.m. — Time for bed.

Spent: $0

DAY FIVE

6:30 a.m. — I make a cup of tea, and savour it. It’s really the highlight of my morning.

8:08 a.m. — He does some of his workbook activity book alone.

8:25 a.m. — My partner is up, and is prepping to make crêpes today for lunch.

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time. YUM!

12:55 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he bounces out of the bedroom.

5:12 p.m. — I make him sit to ‘hatch’ a sock egg because I need 10 minutes of peace.

Then someone messages me:

5:31 p.m. — I am overcome suddenly, with the feeling of despair and sadness for life in general. It has been happening on and off all week. Just the uncertainty of it all, and trying to just take it one day at a time is very difficult. I can’t even reply back to my friend to book a time to chat. I don’t feel up to it.

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed.

Spent: $0

DAY SIX

7:50 a.m. —WEEKEND TIME! I finish my matcha latte, and make a list of what I have to get done today – namely, transfer my US$ into my brokerage account.

7:15 a.m. — Little Bun plays on the floor with blocks, singing to himself nursery rhymes and made up snippets from various shows he has watched. I know every single one of them! And his singing ability is getting better, a little less tone deaf.

9:45 a.m. — We play a lot of Adventures and games together and I am always sneaking in things about financial literacy to get him used to the idea. He already calls himself “a great saver” which is a great start, but I’d like to transition that into “and a great investor” as well.

Other times, when he has cried because I had to go to work and leave him, I tell him

“Mommy goes to work to make money, and with that money, Mommy pays for this apartment you live in, the food you eat, the clothes you wear and ruin (LOL), books, apps and toys.”

Then recently, as he wanted a (truly inane) $55/USD a year app, I told him:

“But! Mommy lost her job right? And if Mommy has no job, she has no money to buy expensive $55 USD/year apps that don’t educate you or help you in any way imaginable!”

Of course, this doesn’t always go over well, and he burst out (many a time) in a frustrated fit of:

YOU BETTER MAKE LOTS OF MONEY TO BUY APPS!

And I always correct him that I am not the one who wants these apps, he is.

“No no no baby, YOU better work hard to make lots of money to buy whatever apps you want. LOL…”

Of course, I am partly teasing him. I have paid for apps to be ad-free like Happy Colour because he enjoys colouring with them, but I have noticed the minute I pay for it, he loses interest and I feel the loss of that $3 USD quite acutely.

I try and incorporate money lessons into what we do – stories, adventures, etc. Just the other day, we were playing pirates with the Stuffies:

Little Bun: YAY!! TREASURE!!! Lots of treasure to save!!!

Me: So much treasure! Let’s go divide it up into piles for investing because we can’t just save our money right? We also have to save it AND invest it! We should make a budget of how much the Stuffies have, need to live on, and then divide the rest into piles for investing into various index funds!!!! YAY!!!!!

Little Bun: YAYY!! BUDGET!!!! Let’s go do a budget!!!

And I am hoping all of this, constant repeating and brainwashing will work because he’ll just naturally think: I’m a saver and an investor, why WOULDN’T I do this?

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time.

12:55 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he bounces out of the bedroom.

3:40 p.m. — I play with Little Bun amply, so he won’t have time to miss me while I am on my call with my friend. Little Bun begs for me to clean the spots on the oven, in the kitchen, on the cupboards, and starts wiping like crazy:

5:12 p.m. — After the call with my friend, I am so refreshed.

6:25 p.m. — Little Bun climbs on top of me, snuggling and patting me, squealing happy baby noises “squee squee squeeeee!” (they’re really cute, like a baby squirrel or something). I “wake up” officially and then we bring everything back into the bedroom and play cars together with some blocks.

7:45 p.m. — Little Bun and I share headphones and fall down the rabbit hole of watching Fixer Upper with Chip & Joanna Gaines (I LOVE THIS SHOW NOW!)… I have always liked home reno shows, and I am glad I found this one.

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed.

Spent: $0

DAY SEVEN

5:48 a.m. — I log in and start blogging. Tomorrow it’s back to work.

7:50 a.m. — I watch more Fixer Upper with Little Bun on my lap because he is really into design as well, and absorbs what I say to him. If I say I don’t like a certain home, he tells me he doesn’t like it either. I always make sure to amend what I am saying and to tell him: It’s just not Mommy’s style but it doesn’t mean that it isn’t a good style. Mommy is more Scandinavian and less Farmhouse.

9:15 a.m. — A small business pleads for people to pay for the lattes and not to make them to save a few bucks by stealing all the dispenser milk to do so (they buy a coffee then top it up with milk for “free”). I post it, and get messages like this:

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time.

1:05 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he bounces out of the bedroom.

3:40 p.m. — We grab out the jewellery box after eating a snack, and Little Bun ‘invents’ more necklaces out of my items for me:

This is just a swinging pendulum that he says makes babies sleepy and he swings it gently in front of my face to demonstrate, and to check to see if I sleep. He concluded that I am indeed, NOT A BABY, because I did not fall asleep from his hypnotism.

This is in his words:

“A pretty bracelet, but look at the clasp Mommy, it is so you can take it on and off with the clasp easily“…

He’s especially proud of this one and tells me how he hooked them together (they are rather difficult for tiny fingers):

6:40 p.m. — Little Bun tells me he is ready to clean up after he finishes his inventions (he loves this new game).

7:20 p.m. — I have dinner.

8:08 p.m. —  We get ready for bed. WORDLE TIME!

Spent: $0

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