Another Mouth Injury

Poor kid can't catch a break.  

Mormor came into town this morning.

Here are Cub and Mormor running.

 

Here's Cub about 30 seconds later.

Dear Cash - 2.5 Years

Dear little sugar man,

It's your half birthday - 2.5 years!  

You really are becoming such a little man.  You're not without flaws - a tantrum or seven (a day), but you're learning how to express yourself and show your love in such amazing ways. 

I know it's manipulative (you want me to stay in your room), but whenever I put you to bed you say "one more kiss and hug" or "I missed" (referring to the kiss) when I try to leave.  We also play quite a back and forth game of - "I love you, more!".   I don't mind this manipulation one little bit.

You are super goofy and silly and you absolutely love being a little ham - when people are watching.  Your personality is a source of non-stop entertainment for me and daddy, but you prefer to perform in front of others (mom and dad are too boring).  

You love trains -  watch them, play with them, pretend to be them..  You were a train conductor last year for Halloween - maybe this year we'll just dress you up as a train.  You also really love eating your dad's disgusting protein bars.  At school this week, they told me you weren't eating much for lunch.  I had to admit to your teacher that you've been eating a 300 calorie (disgusting, non-food) protein bar for breakfast - eating the entire thing on the way to school!!  We really need to try more real food for you, but you do love your protein bars.  Daddy has actually had to go without a couple of days because you've eaten them all.

You seem to be going through another mommy-phase and I can't say that I mind.  I fear that in a few months you'll be so used to having daddy take you to school and having daddy pick you up, that momma won't be very appealing anymore.   My biggest fear about Chicken's arrival is the decrease in my quality time with you.  I can't stand the idea of not putting you to bed almost every night, so we'll just have to work on some solutions.  

I know once Chicken gets here time will start moving even more quickly, so I'm just going to do my very best to slow down and enjoy our last 2.5 months as a family of three.

Please stop growing up so quickly and please continue to be sweet to me and your daddy.  We love you so very much.

Hugs and Kisses,

Mom

Here are a couple of pictures of you playing outside today in the glorious fall weather!

Filanthropy Friday

The first Presidential debate was this week.  I didn't watch it.

However, I heard Gov. Romney provided some specifics on budget cuts that he would propose to help balance the budget; one of these cuts - to PBS.  

I’m sorry, Jim, I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I’m going to stop other things. I like PBS, I love Big Bird. Actually like you, too. But I’m not going to — I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for. That’s number one.

I'm not sure (because I didn't watch the debate - so I don't have the context) if Mitt Romney's #1 priority is to cut funding from PBS or to stop borrowing money from China.  

I decided to do a little research to determine just HOW much money our government was bleeding due to (what I can only assume from attention Romney gave it) our massive PBS expenditure.

The first thing I learned is that PBS funding is actually funding for CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting)  and that's comprised of PBS and NPR (so it's not just Big Bird, Thomas the Train and Sherlock - it's also Morning Edition, This American Life and Radio Lab).

That being said, it's surprisingly difficult to find places that agree on numbers, but I found many sources that said $445 million is the federal allocation to CPB.  Sounds like a lot of money to me - but then I started looking at all the federal spending numbers I could find.

As it turns out, we spend a metric poop ton of  money - about $3.6 TRILLION in 2011.  This makes the CPB portion of our federal budget (and I had to use Excel for this because my calculator doesn't go to a trillion) about .012% of our budget.  That doesn't sound like much. 

Allow me to provide some context with other numbers (again, some might not be exact, I had to look in several places).  

• 663.7 BILLION - Defense  (not including Veterans Affairs) in 2011. 
• 2.4 BILLION - One (just 1, uno) B-2 Bomber (we have 20).
• 695 BILLION - Social Security in 2011.
• 164 BILLION - Interest on National Debt in 2011 (can we refinance and get some of the lower rates that I keep hearing about on Market Place?)
• 10.5 Billion - EPA in 2011.
• 517.5 MILLION - Amount of money the City of Austin spent to provide water to 212,000 people in 2011. 
• 318 MILLION - Congressional banana purchasing  in 2011. 

OK, so I might have made that last one up.  The point is - we spend A LOT of money.

Now, I understand that when trying to cut back - it's important to make cuts where cuts can be made and that every little bit helps.   I often evaluate our household budget, so I decided to look at what might equal .012% of our family's budget.  It's about equal to the amount of money I spend on dinners with Liz once a week or the amount of money Buttin spends on plastic bottles of Dr. Pepper.   It's not an insignificant amount of money - but it's not really going to help us save for Cash's college fund (unless he goes to Texas Tech - hee,hee) or pay off our house.  Even if we found 50 things where we spent .012% of our budget - that would still only amount to .62% of our budget (I think my math is correct). 

My point is  that at the rate Mitt Romney is cutting, he's going to have to find hundreds of little programs to cut to make any kind of dent in our deficit, and I'm sure there is a ton of waste that can and should be cut.  I'm just not sure if starting with PBS (actually CPB) should be #1 on the block. 

All this being said, I understand it is my personal duty as a citizen to pay and support the things I want.   In my research, I discovered that for every $1 CPB receives from the government, they actually raise $6 from viewers and listeners like me!  So this week, I donated $25 to my local PBS station (I've already donated money to NPR this year).   I grew up watching Big Bird and Mr. Rogers and The Electric Company  -  and even though Thomas the Train has got to be the most boring children's programming ever invented, my son loves it.  So, you're welcome Cash and Bird Bird and Elmo! 

Jog Waddle

The blog is Running with Lumpy & Chicken, but since Chicken has been growing in my stomach (and the tingly feet began) there hasn't been much running.  The tingly feet have gotten better, but my stomach has gotten much growier.  I got a good month of solid jogging done, but now my jog-waddle has become more of a waddle-waddle.  

I really, really hope after Chicken arrives I'm able to start jog-running again.  I miss it.

This afternoon Cub got a small lesson in economics.

There was a train table (not unlike the one we have at home) at the place we took Cash to get his haircut.  We let him play with the train table after he got his haircut.  The train table was significantly less impressive than the one he plays with at home, but it had a "little Thomas" and he was in love.  When we left he was very upset that he could not bring little Thomas home (I imagine that his aunt Liz will say that he wanted to "steal" little Thomas because I stole Cash's apples the other day at McDonalds).  

We told Cash that we could take him to Target to get his own little Thomas.  This is Cash (upset) and Buttin (giving me the - "really? we're going to go BUY him a little Thomas to get him to stop crying" - look). 

Here's Cash after we purchased little Thomas (very excited). 

Cash's train set at home is the generic one - not the Thomas one - the train pieces cost about $2 each. Thomas pieces are much more expensive.  Buttin and I were amazed by how pricey a little wooden Thomas cost.  Buttin taught Cash (and here comes the economics lesson) - that Thomas is a "money grab".

Wordless Wednesday

My Apples

This afternoon I took Cash to the pretty McDonalds by our house (not the dirtier one we went to a couple of weeks ago) for some french fries and playtime.

I ordered a chicken nugget happy meal knowing full well that the french fries were the only things he would probably eat (no nuggets, no apples). 

He devoured most of the french fries and then decided to play. I wanted a snack so I ate his apples.

He came back to the table a few minutes later and asked, "Where's my apples?"..

I told him I ate his apples and this was the look he gave me.

Misfit Monday

Trade show was a great success.  We got 2nd Place (again), but our nurses were the most popular attraction at the show.  

I'm really happy it's over.

It seems as though all the misfit misbehavior that was put on hold while we were preparing for the trade show is now back in full force.  Where to begin?  Car accident, showing up stinky for a job, bickering, and complaining - seem to be common things this week.  Oh well - all things considered, Buttin and I are actually in pretty good moods.

Here is Cubbie today telling me how to drive - he's saying "Go, Mama, Go!".