Week of Money: Where my friend gets enabled on her visit

DAY ONE

??:?? — I wake up, semi-tired.

6:00 a.m. — We watch videos, he plays with blocks when he is bored after 5 minutes, and then decides he will “clean up” and goes through, deleting episodes, my old notes, videos, and is getting a real satisfaction from cleaning house, so to speak. He is really adorable.

7:59 a.m. — My partner is up, and I head off to drop packages at Canada Post and take a break. My lips have been covered in eczema for 2 months and I only just realized it lately when it started to ooze a clear liquid (sure sign of a weeping wound for eczema sufferers). I put on a few layers of the steroid cream until it healed and now I am trying to maintain it. The only thing that has given my lips any real relief has been Blistex – Medicated, and I bought EOS organic lip balms for Little Bun.

9:45 a.m. — I drop by a thrift store and see this book which I love – Raising Boys

This particular section is extremely important for parents:

12:25 p.m. — Home, I have lunch with Little Bun and he heads off for his nap.

2:56 p.m. — Up from his nap, we snuggle and play more “Stuffed Animal Caring Games”, and I stretch for yoga with his help, where he basically sits on my back and pushes me into a deeper stretch.

4:56 p.m. — We have dinner, do more math, he helps me organize my selling piles, and then we read books.

8:14 p.m. — Time for bed. I already popped a cold pill and I am ready to sleep.

Spent: $0

DAY TWO

??:?? — I wake up and play with Little Bun until I get ready to go out and get a pedicure.  I have tea, and we play games, and he cleans up “his” computer (my computer really).

8:00 a.m. — I head out to my pedicure. I drop by and get a chai before my pedicure. The winter looks incredible when it first snow falls.

9:59 a.m. — Pedicure, and I feel so much better with my feet cleaned, new colour, etc. I really missed this. My gift card only has about one pedicure and a half left, so I better use it wisely. I may do pedicures every 2 months instead of monthly to save a bit of money.

10:23 a.m. — I see these gold-karat eye masks and laugh. Gold is inert, it doesn’t do anything to your skin. It’s just a scam to take your money.

11:25 a.m. — Home, we have lunch, I feed him soup, we do some English activity pages with verbs, and then he goes down for his nap.

1:08 p.m. — I spend his nap watching Inside The World’s Multi-Million Dollar Homes.

2:58 p.m. — He wakes up from his nap

4:30 p.m. — This series – Witcher (the one by Netflix not the older one on Amazon), recommended by Adina is quite good. Episode 1 was slow, but the rest is <3, very Game of Thrones yet not as crazily fast-paced and very interesting to watch.

5:50 p.m. — Little Bun tells me that my pedicure “is so beautiful!”

6:10 p.m. — Dinner — salad, bread, chicken wings. My partner also cracks open the bottle of wine I gave him. I give him one every event – birthday, anniversary, etc. It costs about $90 – $110 per bottle, and I bought out the entire stock in Montreal in 2016 so I would always have a good bottle in a good year to give him.

8:26 p.m. — We play Animal Caring Game, Blocks, Build a Duck Maze, Snuggle, watch videos… a lot of Little Bun Care before bedtime.

9:38 p.m. — I finish the book I started – Catch me if you can – it is the most incredible book. I loved reading every page, I couldn’t stop. It is one of the most incredible stories I have ever read. He is an incredibly smart, wily man. What a brain. I am happy things worked out in the end in the sense that he is now an investigator and a consults with banks and the FBI.

Spent: $0

DAY THREE

??:?? — I wake up really tired. Little Bun is hellbent on waking up at 5 a.m. so he is kind of mentally forcing himself awake at 4:30, or just before.

4:37 a.m. — FML. I get up. Get his milk, make tea, and half fall asleep in my chair.

7:59 a.m. — My partner is up making lunch, and I am exhausted. I go through my numbers and my investments… I spend the whole morning and day going through the numbers (eyes are twitching) while Little Bun happily watches videos and plays with blocks once in a while.

12:15 p.m. — Lunch. Paella. It is really quite heavy. Maybe I am starting to be less of a meat-eater…

1:01 p.m. — He goes down for his nap. I am dragging.

3:35 p.m. — He wakes up and I am in the middle of doing graphics for the blog for the net worth and income updates (this stuff takes a day, I swear), as well as for Instagram.

5:14 p.m. — I fall asleep dozing off… I can’t help myself. I am so tired.

6:58 p.m. — Little Bun writes out a plan for his stuffed animals to follow on their journey.

7:50 p.m. — I head off to pick up my friend at the train station. I grab a Starbucks brownie (need those Starbucks for Life challenges for Little Bun). Used my credit. $0

8:08 p.m. — OMG HER TRAIN IS ON TIME. We squeal when we see each other, and then chatter like chipmunks all the way to the car and home.

8:26 p.m. — Little Bun greets her at the door hesitantly but then sees a huge package with his name on there, and she gives it to him. He grabs the bag and runs away, trying to take the bow off to see what he got. I’m horrified! What a little animal. I tell him to tell her: THANK YOU, and then to hug her, and THEN to open the gift. *eye roll*

8:40 p.m. — He gets a set of Peter Rabbit books from her (he loves boxsets and animals), and after reading a few stories we realize just how outdated these stories are. You could not say such things these days, especially with the way the girls seem to be treated. Quick flurry to setting up the bed and area, and then we all get ready for bed and go to sleep. I’m too excited.

8:40 p.m. — I give my friend a banana to eat and tell Little Bun that I had to give one away to his Aunty so he won’t have one (my partner buys just the exact number of bananas so that we don’t have food waste), and he nods: “She was really hungry! She had no food!” and he was happy to share his stash.

Spent: $0

DAY FOUR

??:?? — I am up EARLY.

4:45 a.m. — I try and keep Little Bun quiet. He keeps asking when she is going to wake up. I shh-shh him the whole morning while he patiently watches videos and waits.

7:02 a.m. — “Is she up yet? Why isn’t she up yet?” I whisper that maybe she needs another hour, and when DADDY gets up, we will wake her up.

7:59 a.m. — Finally, at 8 a.m. I allow him to go and knock on her door as my partner is up as well. He knocks gently, and asks (coached by me) if she is awake. She apparently has a tendency as of late to sleep in until 11 but we will get NOTHING DONE if she doesn’t wake up earlier, grab a tea/coffee and get our day going.

8:25 a.m. — We get ready to get going after a tea, but obviously she isn’t on Parent Time, which is when you get ready in 10 minutes and have an internal timer of how long it takes to get things done, so we don’t end up getting out the door until 10-ish. I don’t really mind because we don’t have anything pressing to do, and it is nice that she is chatting with my partner about all sorts of things. <3

9:51 a.m. — She picks out a few things to wear from my jewellery collection (she was channeling me she said)..

10:25 a.m. — We have breakfast/brunch of a little meat pie, a tomato focaccia slice, and a lemon meringue dessert at the end. $24.35

1:28 p.m. — I take her out to the home decor stores around the area for her to get ideas for her apartment (in the middle of renovations right now). We see a bunch of things, I posted it all on Instagram but here are some highlights:

TRUTH.

I really liked these silver nesting tables. They looked so elegant.

This was adorable – a dog calendar!

2:10 p.m. — Then we stop for lunch, and eat the SALTIEST onion soup I have ever tasted in my life. *shudder* It was disgusting. But the beef tartare was quite good. $31.15

5:56 p.m. — At Sephora we try out a bunch of things and I liked the feel of this Farmacy Green Clean Makeup balm (and smell) to remove makeup, and this Nars Starwoman is my favourite red lipstick and looks like this:

2:56 p.m. — We head over to one of the two thrift stores I like to frequent, and she finds a TON OF THINGS for her home – great older plates that are heavy in good condition, etc. She makes out like a bandit and spends over $100 getting a TON OF STUFF (two whole boxes). I only end up getting some Nine West twisted leather kitten heels. $7.75

5:56 p.m. — We head downtown and have dinner at one of the nicest restaurants at the Ritz-Carlton – Maison Boulud, and the meal was truly fabulous. Just like at Marcus, this is one of the best places to eat for gastronomic food. You can’t beat amazing chefs, you just can’t. I know it might seem cheaper to have a $75 meal elsewhere because it is not a known chef, but the ambience, service, food, it is incredible when you go to a truly well-known chef’s place and enjoy the food. That’s not to say other places aren’t amazing, but if you are going to spend that kind of money on gastronomic fare, GO FOR IT. $285.38

The whole restaurant is beautiful!

The bread was so fresh and wonderful:

A little “free” (we know we paid for it) amuse bouche of arancini with truffle…

These are actually thinly sliced potato chips. A cool idea, but I would have preferred a real potato chip to be honest but it was very cool. The tartare was one of the best I have ever eaten.

This was a fresh fish dish with yuzu. One of the freshest dishes I have ever had.

We never would have chosen this vegetarian ravioli but it was the best one of the night for me.

I came to the realization that vegetarian dishes are the best in these restaurants. Don’t take the meat and seafood ones, because vegetables are easy to make delicious if you are a skilled chef, and I am now going to only order mostly vegetarian if not 100% when I go out to these places.

The lamb dish was beautifully cooked, and seasoned. Another favourite.

We got the salmon dish with chickpeas and a Mediterranean flair but I hated this one. Worst of the night. I really don’t like Middle Eastern flavours, I think. Or at least, not like this. I like them in a shawarma.

Melted chocolate dessert. DELICIOUS.

Butternut squash and clementines. Worst dessert of the night. I don’t think butternut squash should be a dessert, although I appreciate getting vegetables in at the end.

Wonderful little mini desserts as an end to the meal and also “free”. My favourite was the meringue (the one with a white butterfly thing on top), as it was lemony and delicious. $283.58

9:03 p.m. — We finally make it home JUST IN TIME as when I told Little Bun I’d be back. He was watching the clock. And playing Code Karts, one of his favourite games and a good way for kids to learn logic, rationality and problem-solving. We play a little with Little Bun, and she tells him to wake her up tomorrow at 7. NOT EARLIER. LOL…

9:14 p.m. — Little Bun flies around us like a little butterfly, and my friend entertains him a bit before we all go to sleep.

Spent: $283.58

DAY FIVE

??:?? — He “slept in”!

6:30 a.m. — Oh! She’s up. Apparently she woke up earlier, then went back to sleep but now is awake and might as well stay awake. We have a quiet whispered conversation for the morning in the kitchen talking about a book she highly recommends called Fair Play, while Little Bun watches videos and occasionally leaves us “gifts” of boxes of blocks, stuffed animals, “smelly” socks, etc.

8:15 a.m. — My partner is up, he makes her coffee (I don’t know what to do), and she gets a recommendation for her husband as well as he loves coffee. I make myself tea, and then we each take a shower and start getting ready to head out.

9:58 a.m. — I bring her to the other area I know full of home decor shops and she takes a million pictures (Me too! I posted them all on Instagram in my Stories as part of my real-life updates) and we chat about EVERYTHING.. literally everything under the sun as we point out design ideas, she tells me what she is doing, what she wants to do, etc. Here are some pictures of things we saw – the highlights:

This picture of cards in various shades of grey is something I could definitely do if I wanted this art piece. It is all different playing cards!

This one spoke to me. I like nature and oceans.

I loved these antiqued mirror cocoon pendants. There is something organic yet glimmery about them.

Obviously this dresser also spoke to me. 🙂

And these book ends look like my jewellery, which is why I love them.

I thought this chair was AMAZING. It was so comfortable, cuddly, perfect chair. $2000 (ouch) but we also don’t have a spot for it, so… 🙁 I’d love to have it anyway.

1:45 p.m. — OK we’re really hungry now. We break for lunch after ONE last pit stop at a home decor store. In the lamp store this was a conversation:

Me: Oh! LOOK AT THIS LAMP! This would be PERFECT for your apartment.

Her: *gasp* I love it!

Me: Look at the lightbulb, the way it looks so modern but yet eclectic, and would warm up your space perfectly.

Her: OMG. IT IS TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS.

Me: But is so pretty!!!!

Her: WHY are you so expensive!?!? LOL… You have seriously expensive taste.

Me: I can’t help it. It’s my superpower.

Her: This is way out of my budget but.. I LOVE IT.

Me: Okay if not that one, I like that one too *points*

Sales guy: Okay, you seriously have the most expensive taste because that one happens to be one of the best Italian designers for lamps and it is $400

Me: *cough*

Her: WHAT!?!?!?!?

Me: Well it’s really nice. You can see how beautiful it is.

Her: I am not saying it isn’t nice. BUT FOUR HUNDRED!?

Me: .. Well. $100 lamps don’t look incredible. You can see the quality. *shrug*

Her: You are so spendy. And expensive. Why is your eye SO EXPENSIVE!!!

Me: I SEE QUALITY! I can’t help it.

(She ended up sending the pic to her husband and they agreed on the $400 lamp. LOL. Every lamp she saw after that didn’t match to what she wanted, and she knew it would make no sense to have a crappy lamp be the focal point of her apartment.)

1:59 p.m. — Lunch. Meat pies, and salads…

3:00 p.m. — We spend the ENTIRE afternoon thrifting. We went to two stores and basically bought them out. LOL the way I see it. We find so many cool things, I took about 50 pictures but here are some highlights:

This set was just so pretty but… what would I use it for? I don’t even have space for it. I just really liked it.

Someone got rid of their cow collection

Beautiful handmade vase

This other one was cute too.

WHOA. Those are some statement wedges.

My friend almost got these boots.

I loved these lace heels but they were torn.

I loved these heels too but they were uncomfortable, not well made, and just cute. I may keep an eye out.

I ended up getting these Nine West heels. I’ll fix the tips, but I like the draped leather, and these are old old old Nine West – vintage even, and very well made. $7.47

 

7:40 p.m. — We have a quick sushi dinner at a grocery store of all places. And we head home JUST IN TIME as we promised Little Bun. $37.85

8:13 p.m. — My partner made homemade natas!!!! How nice is this. I love custard tarts.

8:22 p.m. — We unload and re-wrap all the items she got from the thrift stores to set aside so I’ll bring them up when I come to Toronto.

8:40 p.m. — I do the dishes (they have been piling up), and she plays with Little Bun. After 20 minutes, she is exhausted. She tells me it felt like 2 hours.

Spent: $45.32

DAY SIX

??:?? — Up early but not bad. “Mommy? You said I would go out with you and Aunty today.” …. Me: “I didn’t say that. I said MONDAY I would take you out, maybe to Playgroup if they’re open.” … Little Bun: “*almost in tears* NO YOU SAID TODAY. TODAY!!“..   I calm him down and explain I cannot take him out today as we have to drop her at the train station and she has to leave today. He is getting her mixed up with another friend of mine who visited, and frankly there is nothing open nearby (like a cafe) where we can go, have a croissant (this is his real desire to go out with us, it is to get a treat), and have a nice morning before going back home. My friend has to get coffee beans AND a lamp and they are in opposite parts of the city, I cannot tote a little boy along with us.

6:20 a.m. — He stays quiet and watches videos while I make tea, and do a little emailing. Turns out I have to work next week and I don’t have it off due to an urgent project request. I wasn’t scheduled to work so now I have to ask a project manager for approval for “overtime”. Looks like I’ll be getting paid a bit more this month! YAY!

7:00 a.m. — Little Bun spies the clock. The minute it hits 7, he goes to her bedroom door “KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!“….. She mumbles. He turns to me, and I tell him to knock again and ask: May I please come in? .. He does it, he’s in there, and she says: 5 more minutes please, Little Bun … and he says: Okay!..… and comes back out, sits in front of the clock, and waits until exactly 5 minutes are past, then goes back and knocks on her door again. LOL.. He is VERY literal.

7:24 a.m. — She’s up, I tell her to hustle if she wants to go get those coffee beans ground for her husband, it’s all the way up north PLUS to pick up that pendant she wants. She gets ready, gets her stuff packed with Little Bun “helping” (LOL) while I get ready. I decide on a classic outfit.

8:50 a.m. — We shuffle out the door and say our goodbyes while Little Bun waves. We double-triple-check and then head off. I am very organized, so for me I usually have a checklist and an empty suitcase. She did not do any of that (LOL) and I told her to not bring clothes next time because we are the same size in everything including shoes and she can wear anything she wants from my closet, purses, jewellery, clothes, whatever she wants. I told her to pack light next time. No skincare products either – use anything you want, just bring makeup and a toothbrush and a huge empty suitcase.

9:24 a.m. — Coffee first. We linger in there, she grabs a cup and is impressed by how good it is. We also find a massive mug. Not for sale. But MASSIVE.

10:02 a.m. — We go to buy the lamp but there’s no stock. She looks at another one but decides the gold one was much classier and less trendy. She pays for it and I’ll pick it up, package it super well and ship it to her when it comes in.

11:30 a.m. — Lunch. We are SO HUNGRY. We eat a slice of meat pie again, a few salads, and she grabs a pastry for the train. $33.45

12:00 p.m. — We drop by a store just for a look but it is closing and liquidating at 40% off!!!! She is like a kid in the candy store. She goes around and picks out a cutting board, ladle, colander, Silpats for baking, spices, cookbooks and a Staub. Spends about $800. But this is all high quality, solid stuff she needed anyway, and CHEAP. She also forgot her wallet in my car, so I end up paying the entire bill (plus the whole time we were here too, and she’ll just give me back half for the food.)

1:02 p.m. — WE REALLY HAVE TO GO. Her train leaves in half an hour. My brain works overtime, we get to the car, we grab what she CAN carry on the train back, the rest I’ll bring up to her later, and we speed a little towards the train station.

1:24 p.m. — She arrives JUST IN TIME, and texts me back that she made it, and wasn’t even the last person LOL… I usually like being there half an hour early, so we can leisurely get out, hang out, chat a bit before leaving and I can help her carry stuff, but we spent so much time in the last store that it wasn’t enough time for any of that.

2:10 p.m. — Home, my partner heads out, probably relieved for a break because he hasn’t been out in 3 days while my friend was up, and was caring for Little Bun the whole time. He couldn’t get out of the apartment fast enough. LOL

2:50 p.m. — Little Bun isn’t sleeping but I take advantage of the time to write out my notes from the week for this post (yes this Week of Money post).

3:54 p.m. — I can’t even tell you what happened this night because Little Bun, not having napped, turned into a goddamn monster. He was crying on and off the whole night. I was trying to be calm, I tried talking to him, and it wasn’t until the second complete outburst out of nowhere that is not typical of him, that I realized he was transitioning out of napping and was grumpy AF. So…my entire night is a blur of tears (his and mine), screaming (his and mine), and crying in between eating dinner, doing dishes, and almost losing my mind. I know a vein started popping in my forehead.

8:21 p.m. — Bedtime. Of course, complete nonsense, we were watching videos while I was lying on the bed exhausted, numbly scrolling through Instagram to release my brain pain, and he loses it some more.

8:41 p.m. — We did end up having a nighttime chat though, this I remember, of me telling him that HE has to also recognize he has not napped, will be a bit grumpy, and has to learn how to control his emotions without screaming. I tell him about the Red Emotion Switch, and ask him how he feels when he gets angry (e.g. “Do you feel like the switch goes on and your entire body goes red?“).. and then how it makes him feel, how we can stop the switch from going on, etc. I can guarantee you my parents NEVER EVER gave me this kind of talk as a child.

Spent: $33.45

DAY SEVEN

??:?? — Tired.

??:?? — He’s screaming. He has kicked the blanket off again and now is cold.

??:?? — More squealing.

6:20 a.m. — My eyes are heavy. He tells me in the morning: Mommy, I move around a lot because of my magical dreams.

7:24 p.m. — I do all the dishes I left from last night.

8:08 a.m. — I get ready and head out to work at Starbucks. I take my laptop and start working on my Budget Roundup posts… which are super intensive, detailed and getting cuter with customized Photoshop graphics because I can also use them on Instagram (win-win). This is my cute outfit:

8:45 a.m. — I take a chai latte and work work work. It is kind of amazing how people have such trust in Canada because this guy just left his phone, laptop, everything and went to the bathroom. This kind of trust is incredible and I am proud to be in such a country where people feel free and safe to do such things.

11:34 p.m. — Home. I basically worked the whole morning. I am home, and I eat some eggs, avocado and bread with salad. But my entire body then breaks out in hives. I think I am having a mild allergy to eggs again – it comes and goes every 5-9 years and I have to now be sensitive to how much egg I eat (even in pastas) or I will break out. I pop an allergy pill.

1:03 p.m. — Little Bun goes down for his nap but my partner goes out to get stuff done.

2:56 p.m. — Little Bun is NOT napping. He is just playing and I leave him alone. I hope we won’t have a Monster Repeat of yesterday.

3:11 p.m. — I do all the dishes, 3 loads of laundry, dry everything, wipe down the counter and oven.

4:40 p.m. — I work more on my budget posts and graphs (this is getting intense, as I am doing my Year End roundup too)

4:57 p.m. — These statement rings by Rivka Friedman are right up my alley and GORGEOUS! Look at this stunning navy blue one.

6:12 p.m. — Little Bun and I play blocks, lots of hiding games, and made up games. He even makes me create a massive bowl (?) out of blocks so he can stack it with tiny blocks in neat little rows.

6:26 p.m. — Time for videos. He loves Baby Looney Tunes now, and they are less violent than Tom and Jerry so I approve.

8:24 p.m. — Time for bed. I pop another allergy pill for my hives, and a cold pill to knock me out.

Spent: $0

———-

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