Groundhog Day was rather repetitive this year. How, you might ask? It was repetitive in that things kept happening that were annoying and frustrating. Thankfully, it was not completely Bill Murray-esque or I think that Ben and I would still be thwapping our foreheads with the top of a plastic coke bottle. (Try it! It makes the coolest hollow sound! Ben only stopped after I confiscated the bottle and tossed it in the recycling bin. We're so mature.)
It all started when Anna went down for her afternoon nap. Prior to that, we were actually having a pretty good day. I'd managed to get the girls out the door on time to get Rachel to preschool for 9:30, and Rachel was surprisingly not bothered by having TWO subs last minute! I got all the paperwork done that I needed to for various school-related things, and Anna and I enjoyed a pleasant morning running various errands including spending a gift certificate in the book store.
After lunch, I went to put Anna down for nap. Unbeknownst to me, she had managed to sneak Olly downstairs so I had to go back down for him. She was screaming in her crib when I got back upstairs, so I ran back in and went to "body-slam" the side rail down as I always do in order to reach Anna more easily. Too bad the entire side rail decided to splinter and break off the crib.
**NOTE: A 3-sided crib is nowhere near as functional as a 4-sided crib.**
Anna eventually fell asleep on the floor in her room for an hour and then transferred to sleeping on me. I had fun making some phone calls only to confirm that yes, our crib was discontinued a few years ago (Seriously, everything we buy gets discontinued soon after. Kitchen furniture, master bedroom furniture, baby furniture, china... you name it, we've bought it and watched it get discontinued!). We could order a new side rail for $100 (yes, the crib is solid wood and wasn't cheap!) but couldn't get it until mid-March when we're in London unless we wanted to pay an additional $250 freight charge. Um, no thanks.
We briefly contemplated having Anna sleep in her pack'n'play for 5 weeks until we could get the new crib rail, but the pack'n'play is big and has rattle toys on the sides so it's not exactly conducive to long-term sleeping. And after Anna was up approximately 7 times between 12:45 a.m. and 5:15 a.m. last night, forget that idea! She sleeps little enough as it is. We certainly don't need to give her a reason to sleep less.
During the crib fiasco, I called my mother. Oops. We discovered that she had received mail pertaining to our 2007 Canadian tax return. Our moving expenses were disallowed for various legitimate reasons so now we owe an additional $1300. Since we were asked to submit receipts back in October to verify claims, this didn't surprise me much. **NOTE: Do not file taxes with a newborn in the house. Chances are good that you will not read the rules carefully and will end up in this predicament!**
Then I opened the mail. That was mistake number three. I received a "This is not a bill" statement from my insurance company informing me that being diagnosed with a sprained ankle in the ER would be costing me approximately $723. I suppose I am meant to be happy about this since the initial bill was $1560 and this is the discounted rate. And people wonder why I prefer the Canadian health care system?!?!?
All in all it wasn't a bad Groundhog Day. We'll call it an adventure in financial stress. Yes, that's it.
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