From Babies to College

I have come up with a solution to my baby addiction. Reborn dolls. Have you seen these things? You need to go to ebay and search reborn ooak (one of a kind). Artists take dolls and repaint them, add hair, add eyelashes, open up the nose to look more real, give them manicures, give them pedicures, add magnets behind the mouth to add a pacifier for when they get "fussy," and even weight them down with sand or pellets to get them up to 4 - 6 pounds. Unbelievable!

They freak Ryan out, but I would LOVE to have one sitting on the couch and throw a party. I know I could fool at least a few of my friends. Maybe when my baby hits school I will start a collection. Instead of making the real thing I can display a few of their doll counterparts. Of course if I start bringing them to bed or trying to nurse them, Ryan may commit me. :)

The more I think about having more kids, the more confused I get about whether or not I want more. I love kids. I love being with them 24 hours a day. With the exception of more laundry and more food on my kitchen floor, I love everything about them. I even love watching them grown up.

Yesterday I was sitting at the computer working on a spreadsheet for my brother's business as my oldest daughter played with my hair. She was giving my ponytails and complaining that short hair wasn't as fun to design. At the same time I was having a conversation through IM with Ryan who was sitting ten feet away in the family room.

Discussing how funny she was about my hair turned into a conversation about college vs. hair school. That conversation led to a discussion about our second source of income, our rental houses. I was trying to figure out how many houses we need to pay for college and retirement, and how long it would take to pay them off using the profits they generate. Then it hit me:

College is only ten and a half years away.

Wow, not a long time when you are trying to build equity. Then I have one more in college the year after she goes. Once we get the first two out, we have two more going back to back. I guess retirement will have to wait until we are 50.

As much as I would love to have another baby to hold 24 hours a day, I am looking forward to the next stage of life. The one where the whole family gets to be on the mountain skiing instead of me at the condo playing with toddlers. The one where I get to run the oldest to gymnastics, then next one to wrestling, the next one to dance class, and the baby to swim lessons. As it stands we have already left the breastfeeding stage. I have forgotten how much it zaps your energy. My hyper nature is coming back and I love it.

Enough rambling, I need to get back to those blankets. I am behind on my schedule, tsk, tsk.

- Sara