Friday, December 03, 2010

It's beginning...

...to look a lot like Christmas! This evening Nick and I took the girls to see a locally famous Christmas light display. Unfortunately Daisy slept through the whole thing, but we'll go again before the season is up. :) This family goes all out every year, over 70,000 lights between the father's house and the son's house. Both homes have light displays synchronized to the music on a local radio station (a different one for each house), and the show is free. We've been for several years in a row now, and it's always a treat.

The $60 I got to put in the bank yesterday was definitely needed - without it we would have gone about $11 overdrawn plus the fees! God is so very good to us! Another blessing I forgot to mention:

If you've ever bought baby formula, you know how ridiculously expensive it is. A 24 ounce can of Enfamil powder will run you about $23, and even the Wal-Mart brand is about $14 for the same size can. While I breastfeed (and obviously she's on solids too now), Daisy still takes formula on a regular basis just because I've found it's the most consistent and effective way to make sure she gets all her needed nutrients when she's not a big fan of the solid food I put in front of her. What we've been blessed enough to have access to buy for most of her life has been a large can of formula at Sam's. It's a 3 lb (48 oz) can for $19.97. Compared to other options, this is a great deal! However, this formula is really only meant for babies up to a year.

Enfamil and Wal-Mart both make formula intended for toddlers, but we're back to the $20+ dollar range for a 24 oz can. Wednesday I was in the discount grocery outlet they just put in near our house and I found that they have shelves upon shelves of Nestle Nido Kinder, which is basically a "next step" for formula fed babies. It's marketed to Hispanic communities, but the store I was at pulls overstock from all kinds of businesses. Rather than a formula, it's a milk product fortified with vitamins, minerals, and prebiotics, and is better for toddlers her age. What's so fantastic about this for us? It's $9.99 for a 3 1/2 pound can! I've been wanting to wean her off formula for a couple of months now, but I just don't produce enough breast milk any more to completely satisfy her urge to nurse, and I was afraid that she would miss the nutrients in formula since she can be a somewhat picky eater. This solves that problem while cutting our formula expense by over half!

Anyway, I'm headed to bed, Good night!

2 comments:

Jean said...

I really enjoy looking at Christmas lights. That's great you found the right formula at a good price.

Malcolm said...

About solid food - when our son was a baby my wife used to chew up her own food in her own mouth then feed it to our son. This seemed to me a very good idea and obviated the need to buy Gerbers or some other brand of baby food. The baby liked it, too, and there was never any refusal. It seems to be a common practice here. We never used formula, she breast-fed him up to the age of about two years.