And somehow, we're supposed to be raising tiny
humans through it all. We're here to laugh at
the chaos, cry when necessary, and remind you
that none of us actually know what we're doing.
This is No Manual, a momcast. Your mom friend
group chat, but with microphones. Well, welcome
back to No Manual. This week we're going to do
something a little different. So just to give
a full picture of motherhood, Laura and I had
planned to record last night, and then she texted
me on Tuesday and was like, hey, bedtime is...
a bear this week so we kind of pivoted our plans
we're like oh okay we're just gonna record virtually
you stay at your house we'll record like however
late we need to and then yesterday she texted
me about 5 p .m and let me know that Cruz was
throwing up all over everyone so tonight or I
guess this week Stuart, my husband, is joining
me and jumping in so that we can have an episode
since Laura is incapacitated with the kids because
that is what motherhood is. It's another dad
cast. Another dad cast. And this week, I will
be quizzing Stuart on what he knows about our
kids. So some of it is just like day -to -day
stuff, and then some of it is like maybe some
memory. This should be fun. But do you want to
start with your mom moment of the week? Absolutely.
My mom moment is that Lloyd at dinner the other
day was just yelling, just pointless yelling,
just, ah. He said, Lloyd, I think you said, Lloyd,
we don't yell at the table. He said, okay, yell
at mom. I'm like, nope, don't yell at mom. He
said, yell at dad. I said, nope, don't yell at
dad. He said, yell at Zeta. Nope, don't yell
at Zeta. He said, yell at couch. You and I are
both like, I guess, yeah, that's fine. You can
yell at the couch. Then he just turns to look
at the couch and goes, ah! We're like, yep, sure.
We said you can yell at the couch, and you yelled
at the couch. You sure did. And now that's a
pretty regular occurrence. Yeah, he has started
going through the whole family on who he's allowed
to yell at, not just our immediate family. aunts
and uncles and grandparents and cousins. Yeah,
I heard that today. No, you're not allowed to
yell at any of them. You can still yell at the
couch, though. Still just turns and, ah! Which,
I mean, I guess it makes sense. It didn't even
occur to me that he, to him, at yelling at something.
Yep. Well, my mom moment, I haven't told, I would
normally have told you this earlier, but I was
like, if we're going to record today, then I
want you to have a genuine reaction. So, of course,
sleep has been a nightmare for everyone. And
Zeta is just, like, refusing all the things,
including napping. And so today I was trying
to get her down for her afternoon nap, which
is arguably the more important one, because that's
when Lloyd's napping, and then I have, like,
three minutes to myself kind of thing. So I'm
trying to get her down to her nap and I'm nursing
her and she just like keeps looking at me and
like smiling. And so finally I'm like, Zeta,
you're supposed to be sleeping right now. And
for the first time ever, she giggled at something
I said. Like she giggles all the time, but usually
at like raspberries or like Lloyd jumping off
the couch or something like that. I've never
had her giggle at like something someone said.
As a reaction. As a reaction. That's so great.
And the first time she did, she was laughing
in my face about the fact that she was in fact
supposed to be sleeping. So that is what your
daughter did today. Yeah, she doesn't seem to
get the memo, but sleep is good. No, not at all.
Okay, well, are you ready for your quiz? Yeah,
I think I studied. I'm prepared. Okay, we'll
see. Uh, okay. First question. How long does
it take us to go through a sleeve of diapers
specifically for Zeta? Cause Lloyd is a little
bit, yeah. For Zeta. I think they come in like
a 94 pack or is it a, don't tell me. I think
it's more than that. So did you say a sleeve?
A sleeve, not a box. Okay. So we get the Kirkland
brand for those listening. So can you, can you
tell me how many are in a sleeve or is that gonna?
I mean, I don't know how many are in a sleeve.
I just know how long it takes us to go through
a sleeve. Okay, so a sleeve, I'm just going to
guess, is about 40 diapers. And I'm going to
say six a day. So we'll just say a week. A week
to go through a sleeve. It takes us about a week
to go through a sleeve. Okay, that's so great.
Is it about 40? I mean, I think you're right.
I think it's a 92 in a box or something like
that. Yeah. It's around 90, so it's going to
be about half. Yep. So 46 in each. All right.
Yeah. And I only know that because if we're down
to a sleeve, then I'm like, we got to go to Costco
this week. So that way we do not run out of diapers.
All right. Next question. How many times a day
does Zeta nurse slash? How much is she supposed
to eat a day? Or how much milk is she supposed
to drink a day? So I heard you say the other
day she's supposed to have this many ounces,
and I feel like it was 20 ounces. That also sounds
like a lot, having fed her a couple times when
I can't even get her to have four ounces in,
like, an evening. I'm going to just arbitrarily
say 18 ounces. And if you feed her, you're supposed
to feed her every five hours, so at least. So
that would be at least five feedings, but it's
between five and two. We say every three hours
on average, then six times in a day. So she's
supposed to have 24 ounces a day. 24 ounces a
day. And she does eat about every three, well,
when she's awake, she eats about every three
hours. Sometimes we go closer to four and then
at night we go longer. Right. And then it's around
six to seven times a day. Okay. Man. All right.
How much did each of our kids weigh at birth?
And this is personal information. You just want
this out there. So Lloyd weighed 710. I know
that for a fact. And I want to say Zeta was 5
'13". 5 '12". 5 '12". I was off by one ounce.
By one ounce. My gosh. But she didn't lose any
birth weight. Lloyd did lose birth weight in
the hospital. All right. What size diapers are
both of our kids in? Lloyd's a four. Zeta's a
two. That's easy. I see that. All day, every
day. Not all day. Okay. What is Lloyd's preferred
type of ice? Lloyd prefers pebble ice. That's
just a funny thing. He specifically asks for
pebble ice. And then what is Lloyd's current
favorite snack? Lloyd's current favorite snack
is PBJs and specifically strawberry PBJs. This
week it's great. Is it? Well, today I got home
and he asked for a strawberry PBJ. Oh, did he?
Yeah. Even though he had a grape PBJ in his hand.
Well, maybe he just wanted both today then. That's,
yeah. But, yeah, like all of last week, we were
out of the strawberry ones because he ate the
strawberry ones. So he'd be like, strawberry.
And I'd say, nobody, like we are out of strawberries,
so you have to have grape. And then now we are
not out of the strawberry ones. We got a new
box. And I offer him, which one do you want?
Grape. Okay. Okay. All right. We'll have to bleep
this out because this is personal information,
but I want to know, do you know the name of our
pediatrician slash the doctor's office? Nope.
Okay, so we don't have to bleep anything out.
I know where it is. I would recognize him. Great.
So if they get sick, you don't know who to call.
No, I could Yelp it, or I could pull it up on
Maps, figure out the practice, and... I think
it's the only male doctor. There's only like
three doctors anyways, and I think it's the only
guy. I think, I don't know, because they also
do more than just pediatrics there, so there
might be more, but. Okay. Well, I would find
the pediatrician, the male pediatrician at that
practice and say that guy. And if you told them
our kids' names, they would probably be like,
oh, you usually see so -and -so. And it would
ring a bell. Yeah, probably. Okay. What size
clothes are both of the kids in? Lloyd is in
2T, and Zeta is in 9 to 12 months. Mostly. She's
switching right now. Yeah, because she's a tall,
skinny girl with big feet. She is a tall, skinny
girl with big feet. And Lloyd is not wearing
diapers, so some 2T pants do not fit him. And
we can still pull off, like, the 18 -month pants.
Yeah, we have, like, three pairs of pants that
fit him actively right now. It's great. Okay.
What is Zeta's most recent milestone? Well, today
she climbed up stairs. That's true. I didn't
count that. Okay. Then I don't really know exactly
what the milestones are, so I'll say clapping
is a milestone. I was going to say it was something
you noticed. So, yes, she started clapping like
two days ago. Yeah. And now that's all she does.
Everybody clap at Zeta. Yeah. Okay. Each of the
kids have a name after one of my grandparents.
Which grandparent is each of the names from?
Does that make sense? Yes. So Lloyd's middle
name is your dad's dad. Yep. Who also is named
after his uncle, I just found out. So we're sticking
with family names. All the ones on my side with
that name. One of them got shot by the cops and
died, and one of them lost his arm on a roller
coaster. So we're just going to say that that
name comes from your side of the family. It does
specifically come from my side of the family.
Yes. And then Zeta is named after your grandmother
slash great -grandmother. Great -great. On which
side? On your mom's side. Okay. How many Lightning
McQueen t -shirts does Lloyd have? So not counting
pajamas, just counting daytime t -shirts. What
about sweatshirts? You can count that. Okay.
I think he only has three t -shirts and one sweatshirt.
That's what I counted too. Is it? Yeah. Okay.
How many pajamas? Well, you got a full set for
the whole week. So I think you got six, but then
one of them is not cars. It is just vehicles.
And I got a pair before that that set this whole
thing off. So I think six. I think that's right.
Okay. Okay. Now I'm going to count. Got the original
ones. The red. Yep, the red. Okay. Then we have
the Cars Christmas pajamas that are a recent
addition. Oh, yeah. I didn't even count those.
Then we have the gray ones that say race to win.
And we have the shorts. Mm -hmm. And we have
the vehicular pajamas. Mm -hmm. I feel like I'm
missing one. Oh, and then we have the not cars
branded, just automobiles. I think that's all
of it. So six. Mm -hmm. And then we have the
road builders. Right. Yeah, which we use to appease.
Yes. Or Buzz Lightyear. Yeah. And beyond. Yes.
Okay. How many eggs do we go through in a week?
So I believe you take two every day for yourself,
and I think you make two for the kids combined.
But now I'm just going to say three. On a five
-day week, you would go through 25, and then
on the weekend, I use six. So we go through about
30 eggs a week. We just need to buy chickens
at this point. Yeah. Not quite that many. I do
only do two for the kids every day. Okay. And
they don't eat breakfast at home on Wednesdays.
That's true. Okay. I actually almost calculated
that wrong, too, because I was like, oh, five
days a week. I was like, wait, they eat breakfast
with grandparents on Wednesdays. So, yeah, we
go through at least two dozen a week. Okay. And
then if I cook something else with eggs, more
than that. Yeah. Okay. How often do I change
the sheets and towels for the kids? Every week,
once a week. That is correct. Okay, when and
how long should each of the kids be napping every
day? Lloyd naps once a day from, should be noon
to three, three hours, right? And Zeta should
be napping twice, which she does not do. And
it should be two hours apiece, so four hours,
right? And it's kind of like 9 to 11 and then
1 to 3. If she ever listened to us or valued
sleep at all. But she doesn't. No. All right.
What is Lloyd's favorite book right now? Right
now, Lloyd's favorite book is Caps for Sale.
If we're doing bedtime books. Yes. Bedtime book
is Caps for Sale. That's probably what I was
going to count. Yeah. Don't even remember who
it's by. Her name is really hard to pronounce.
I think we figure out she's a Russian author.
Yeah, something Zephyr. Something like that.
And it's all about the monkeys who go... Do you
want to recite it right now for us? Well, I could,
but... Once there was a peddler who sold caps,
but he was not like an ordinary peddler carrying
his wares on his back. He carried them on top
of his head. First he had on his own check cap,
then a bunch of gray caps, then a bunch of brown
caps, then a bunch of blue caps, then a bunch
of red caps on the very top. We can stop, yeah.
You don't want to recite the whole thing. It's
actually a fairly long book. To keep his attention
that long. I think it's the interaction of the
animals and the animal sounds. And now Zeta's
in on it too. Yeah, she started getting into
it earlier than Lloyd did. I think Lloyd was
almost a year when he actually started showing
interest and getting excited. Yeah, because you
texted me when I was in Maine and said, I guess
I'm better at reading your favorite bedtime book
than you are. Okay. What time should the kids
get up on a good day? On the world's best day,
it would be 8 o 'clock. On just like a normal
day? A normal day, I think 7 .30, 7 .45 is the
goal. Usually. This week, that's not, the last
two weeks, that's not been the case. Zeta says
5 .30 is ideal for her, which we're trying to
work away from. That's when Dad wakes up and...
She wants to be like that. Mm -hmm. She wants
to start making beams. Mm -hmm. All right. What
color is the soap we use in the shower? That
we use? I guess both. What do we use? What do
the kids use? Well, the kids use an off -white
because it's goat milk. But that's not really
fair because I give them all the baths. That
is true. Do you know the brand, though? No, because
we ran out of baby. But we got the same brand.
We just couldn't get the little goat -shaped
ones anymore. No. No, I do not know the brand.
What's the brand? I think it's called Beekman
1816 or something like that. It's a year. Okay.
It's a very bougie brand, and the only reason
we have it is because of my very bougie aunt.
And other people buy them for us. Yeah, that's
fine. What is the name of the laundry detergent
we buy? It's those melting sheets. I notice it
every now and then. I'm just going to say green
people. Close. It's clean people. Clean people.
Okay. Now I don't feel so bad. Yeah, that was
really good. And you've never bought it. And
it's also like, it comes in a box that once it's
opened, you don't really see the name. Yep. So
this one will be a hard one for you. What day
is trash day? Trash day is now. Mondays. Yes.
Yes. Because I take out the trash every week.
Yep. It's a very important day in our house.
Oh, especially every other week. In that one
week when for some reason I was off. You were
sick. I was sick and I came home to help. And
the recycling guy tried to dump the bin when
it was way too full and it spilled all over the
front of his truck. Poor guy probably had the
worst work day of his life. Yes, but it made
Lloyd's life so much better. He got to watch.
It was right in front of our house. Yeah, literally
on our driveway. Yeah, so the trash truck was
probably there for a good like 10 minutes. Yeah,
well, the guy just walked around by hand picking
up all the recycling. Yeah. And Lloyd just loved
it. So trash day and recycling day is Monday.
Very good. All right, how many pillows are on
our bed when it's made? Six. No, I have to count.
The back body pillow because we don't have a
headboard. Each of our pillows, so that's three.
And for looks pillows, we each have one of those.
That's five. And then your little round fluffy
pillow that we got at Costco. Yes, okay. You
got there faster than I did. Where do we keep
extra toilet paper? Well, it should be in the
linen closet, but when it's not, it... is in
the garage on top of the pantry shelf pantry
bookshelf the bookshelf that we keep extra food
that's where we keep our toilet paper in the
garage yes i mean anyone who buys costco sized
toilet paper knows you can't keep it all in the
same place or even in the house right yeah like
unless you have a basement which we don't yeah
so we keep in the garage and then yes linen closet
what setting do we wash the kids clothes on I'm
just going to say regular normal. Nope. No? No.
I don't think I ever wash anything on regular
in our washer, but also our washer sucks. I wash
everything on regular normal. If I put anything
in there, it's always regular normal, unless
it's a fast wash, a quick wash. What is it? Colors.
Colors. That's not the default? That's not what
regular is? Honestly, I have no idea what regular
is. Maybe I should look at the setting, like
the owner's manual for a washer at some point
in time and find out what all the settings actually
mean. Because I've kind of just been winging
it for this past year and a half. Do they have
any white shirts? You probably don't even separate
their whites. I don't separate their whites.
You are slipping after two kids. Yep. And I try
not, I guess Zeta was in a white onesie today,
but I try not to do white clothes for the kids
because... It's inevitably going to get stained.
Yeah, even if we got white clothes, they're not
white anymore. Yeah. And even if we're like,
we're going to put this on you for 36 seconds
to take a picture, somehow, they would be like,
oh, I just found this bottle of pasta sauce.
What if I poured that on me? Hitchcock. Exactly.
All right. What's one chore I absolutely hate
doing? Well, there are a couple that you... Straight
up, will never do, and that's empty the cat litter,
change the cat litter, anything to do with cat
poop. I think you don't take out the trash, but
I don't think that's one that you absolutely
would not do. I feel like, well, I've had to
because you were out of town that one time. The
one time you were out of town, I had to. And
I do take it down from the kitchen to the trash
garbage sometimes. Probably like once a week
I do that. Yeah, I notice, and I appreciate it.
I mean, I'm not searching for it. I think the
one that you will not do is clean the shower
or clean bathrooms. I mean, I will. Well, you
did it for a living for a little bit, and now
I think that's just something that... Actually,
the thing I hate most... is we just have so much
stuff on our, like there's so much stuff to move
on the counter, in the shower, the toilets, less
of a big deal. Like if we didn't have all the
stuff on our counter and in the shower, I could
probably, I'd probably clean it way more often.
Yeah. But it's moving everything. That's super
annoying. Yeah. I can feel that. Yeah. I don't
like cleaning the shower for sure. I don't think
if there's anything else that like, oh, I hate
that chore. Cleaning cast iron pans, but you
do that every day. Yeah, that's not the worst.
I've gotten used to it. Once you get the hang
of it. Yeah, I'll probably clean the bathrooms
up there. Our bathroom or the cat's bathroom
or the kid's bathroom. But that's because there's
no time to clean a kid's bathroom because when
they're napping... They can't go in their bathroom.
Exactly. So we had to get them an en suite. Yep.
Okay. What time... So my parents take the kids
on Wednesdays. What time do they normally pick
them up and drop them off? They normally pick
them up. Well, I think their goal is to leave
here at 8. About that, yeah. Yeah, because the
days that they pick them up, you're usually like,
oh, the one day I wake them up that they're sleeping
until 7 .30 is when they have to be up by 7 .45
to get out of the house. And I think they drop
them off at 4 .15, if not just 4 right when you're
off, but I think they would give you some time.
So 4 .15. They usually drop them off about 3
.45. Really? Mm -hmm. Do they hang out for the
last 15 minutes? Sometimes. If I'm, like, clearly
in the middle of something for work, then they
will. Okay. But, I mean, usually by that time
of the day, it's pretty slow, and it's just,
like, kind of waiting out the clock situation.
Okay. Actually, I don't even know this one, so
we'll see. What temperature should their bathwater
be? I'm going to guess 98 degrees. Nick Lachey.
Let's ask Siri. What temperature should bath
water for babies be? The ideal temperature for
a baby's bath water is 98 .6 degrees Fahrenheit
between 37 degrees Celsius and 38 degrees Celsius.
Okay, I don't know if that actually picked up
on Mike, but she said 98 .6 degrees. So human
body temperature. Yep. And I don't do that. I
just go by feel. It should feel a little warm,
and sometimes Lloyd says, hot. Sometimes he says,
cold. So I kind of just adjust it if he's complaining.
I mean, that makes sense. Yeah. Humans have survived
this long without having thermometers in their
bathwater. Have you seen the little rubber duckies
that are a thermometer? No, that makes sense,
but it's kind of stupid. Yeah. No, it makes total
sense. It's smart, but I will not use one. But
also, again, like, I can feel the temperature
of the water. It should pretty much feel room
temperature. Yeah. That was a stupid thing to
say. I'm cutting that out. This is the room.
This isn't the room. Okay. How do I take my coffee?
Well, lately you've been getting chai if you
want caffeine. Sometimes you've been getting
tea. But are we talking actual coffee? Sure.
Okay, if we go to a diner, you get like one cream
and some sugar. But what would my go -to drink
be? Like if you were to just pick up Starbucks
on the way home for me, what would you get for
me? I think if you wanted caffeine, I would get
you a strawberry refresher or whatever kind of
refresher. I've never ordered one, so I don't
know what fruits they come in. Strawberry acai.
Okay, the strawberry acai refresher. With lemonade
is my preference. I didn't know you could do
that. Okay. What would be my go -to takeout place?
I think it would, your usual would be like Chick
-fil -A. But I think if you could build a restaurant
right next to our house and you had a choice,
I think it would be Five Guys. Five Guys is expensive,
but I would like one closer. Well, I mean, but
then if you don't feel like spending $10 on a
burger, you can spend like $6 on a hot dog. That
is true. And get a small fry, and they'll fill
the bag up with fries. I mean, really? If I could
just pick anywhere? I'll even say a legitimate
chain or franchise, not half -assed. Don't say
cookout. I was going to say cookout. I mean,
it's possible. It could happen. It could happen,
yes. If we can get a cookout here in Colorado
and get it exactly where we live, where they've
already built an In -N -Out. and canes and chewies
and all the things that people already want from
other states. We could get a cookout. Cookout
surpasses them all. I think it does because what
do you want for a side? How about another burger?
Oh, so they have like 150 milkshakes. What's
not to like? Yeah, but I always just get the
huge tea. Oh, yeah. Or they have cheer wine,
right? Cheer wine. So many good options. I think
we just need to go to Tennessee right now. Okay,
we'll wake up the kids. Okay. What's one show
I watch that you've never paid attention to?
Well, so I think you would say Gilmore Girls,
but I have paid attention to Gilmore Girls a
little bit. So I know that there's Rory and Lorelai.
Well, Lorelai and Rory. Right? Lorelai's the
mom, and Rory's name is Lorelai, but they call
her Rory. So you've paid a lot of attention.
Well, no, because there's a song by Styx called
Lorelai that I always have stuck in my head.
I feel like you have a lot of Styx songs stuck
in your head frequently. Lately, yes. But when
you have put on The Crown while I was in the
room, lately you were watching Victoria. no idea
what what any of that is except for the emo prince
albert and i only remember prince albert because
because i told you about how he looked like an
emo sad boy well that he looks like an emo sad
boy but i remembered his name was prince albert
yeah yeah i know i feel like you do the ultimate
dad thing when i put on shows where like i'm
not interested and then all of a sudden you're
like wait he's going home on the great british
baking show and you're devastated to me Is talking
about fruity pebbles? If you know, you know.
You know. Okay. What would be my preferred scent
of candle? Probably sea salt. Just something
really non -invasive. Something not aromatic.
I think we have a sea salt one right over there.
Oh yeah, we do. It would be something super neutral
like that. Or... a wood oil and i think you would
want a cedar wood or sandalwood i was probably
gonna say cedar yeah if i don't like candles
though no but we can just burn real wood like
aromatic cedar yeah yeah um i don't know where
we would burn it in our house since we do not
have a fireplace but we can figure that out yep
we'll get one installed a wood burning fireplace
installed in our Condo with two shared walls.
And the chimney. That doesn't exist. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. We'll figure it out. We can figure it out.
It's fine. What color are the curtains in the
kids' room? Black. Yeah. But I bought those when
we lived in our apartment with Lloyd. Yeah. And
his room was freezing all of the time. Yeah.
Because I'm the one who sealed it up with plastic
wrap and towels. Mm -hmm. And those curtains.
When was the kids' last doctor's appointment?
Zeta had one like last week. No, two weeks ago.
It was the week after she turned like nine months.
And Lloyd's, I think, was right before or right
around when he turned two. Was his concussion
before or after his second birthday? It was before.
It was before. So his last doctor's appointment
was when he turned two. And he's got one coming
up. On Festivus. He does. I was like, what? You
remember that and I didn't. Then Zeta's next
one should be when she hits a year. Yeah, unless
there's something wrong with her, which there's
not. All right. What is the name of our Wi -Fi
and do you know our Wi -Fi password? Well, I
named our Wi -Fi. No, you didn't. Live Free Wi
-Fi Hard. I named it. That was me. That was me.
You weren't even there. Yes, I know the password.
It's... our nickname and our wedding anniversary.
How many streaming services do we pay for? We
have Hulu, Apple. If we're counting the dual
household Netflix, I guess we have Amazon that's
included with just a prime membership. We currently
paid for a month of Apple TV, which we canceled
immediately so we only have the month and then
our disney's about to run out this is depressing
we don't i shouldn't say which ones we have and
we don't pay for so i will not include those
i think or if we i guess we can say peacock because
we get it i was gonna say peacock yes uh that
one's just included so that's free i canceled
shutter I canceled Paramount. I think it's seven.
Can you think of any more that I didn't just
name that we pay for? Yeah. In one way, shape,
or form? I don't think so. Okay. We've gone through
our streaming, like what we pay for a couple
of times to be like, are we actually watching
things on this? Is it worth paying for? So I
think we're actually pretty good about it. Okay.
And like Netflix, we only have because... Your
parents pay for it, and then we pay for the,
like, extra household. Correct. Yep. Otherwise,
we would just not have Netflix. And we're counting
Apple Music as a streaming service. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. I'll use Spotify, loyalists, I don't care.
Yeah. Please listen to this podcast on Spotify,
Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, wherever you listen
to your podcasts. What's the last thing you said
you'd fix and still haven't? Well, if we're counting
things that I would build, it would be a frame
around the powder room, the mirror in the powder
room. I have not done that. Last thing I said
I would fix, I think I fixed the heater. Are
we counting that, that I fixed it? Yeah, I mean,
I don't think it was ever really broken, but...
No, I just figured out how, yeah, what was not
working so great or why, yeah. Or at least one
of the reasons it wasn't heating up the kids'
room. I mean, it's hard because our house is
a new build, so we don't have a ton of things
that are broken in it. Yeah, but I think if we're
counting things that I said I would build and
have it. I was going to say anything that's on
the honey -do list. Yeah, so the last thing is
the mirror frame because I said, oh, that would
be so easy, and then I still haven't done that.
Yep. I would say that or the coat rack down here.
Oh, yeah. I'll have time. Someday. Name one thing
that's been in the fridge for way too long. There's
mac and cheese in there. There is... I got a
little fancy with some pancakes and made some
fruit, like some berry syrup that's been in there
for a while, but I don't think that really goes
bad, so I haven't felt like throwing it away.
Yeah. We still don't really need it because I
don't think we'll ever use it. Okay. It was delicious.
You could throw it on some frozen pancakes. That's
true. I would say mac and cheese. Or that sandwich
that you probably actually just threw away. I
did throw it away. Okay, my bad. Yeah, that's
probably it. Mac and cheese. Craft mac and cheese.
Well, I mean, it's, yeah, boxed mac and cheese.
The good stuff or something like that. Goodles.
Something like that. Yeah, the box of mac and
cheese that we saved a single, like, half serving
of. Yeah, I don't actually know why I did that.
I'd get out of here. Because it would be so great
to just shove in front of Lloyd. Yeah, probably.
Actually, I think that I was like, oh, it's going
to be the weekend and we always need quick lunches
on the weekend. Well, that is all the questions
I have for you. Do you have anything that you
think you could quiz me on? I did. What snack
do I give to Lloyd to appease him before Datterday
breakfast is ready? Cheese balls. Cheese balls.
Cheese balls. Which... To be clear for our listeners,
this is not like a cheese ball from a container,
like what you would picture. It is shredded cheese
mashed into a ball. Yeah, you squeeze real hard
together between your hands, which is my preferred
way to eat cheese in general, and I'm passing
it on to my son. And he gets very excited for
them, and he is devastated. during the week on
days when I'm like, no, you're not getting a
cheese ball right now. And Zeta has had her first
cheese ball. Yeah, which is, you know, we didn't
mention that milestone. No, but that's a big
one. Yeah. That wasn't her latest. That wasn't
her latest one. It was recent though. Yep. Well,
thanks for stepping in when Laura couldn't make
it. Do you want to wrap up with your mom win
of the week? Yes. My mom win of the week is today
was my last day as a carpenter. And I am taking
a month off during the holidays to be with the
family and use some more of my parental leave.
And then going back to not a carpenter job. But
the real win is that I finished both the kids'
Christmas presents before I left the woodshop
today. So last year I made Lloyd a Montessori
arch for Christmas. And this year I made a slide.
to add on to his Montessori arch. And it doesn't
really matter how big the slide is. It'll fit
in our house, and it'll fit on the arch. And
he thinks any little gentle slope is a slide.
And then I made Zeta a walnut and cypress Z.
It's not cut into a Z yet, but I've glued it
all up, and I'm taking it to someone's house
so they can cut it into a Z because she likes
chewing on her wooden toys. Just figured something
cool, personal for her. And Zs are hard to come
by. Yeah. Just when it comes to like initial
stuff. Very true. We kind of ruined our kids'
lives that way with names and initials that just
like, well, tough luck. Sorry for naming our
kids cool, cool names. I mean, we just have to
pass along the experience because I don't think
either of us ever found a keychain with our name
on it. Nope. So that was my real motivation to
stay. In the wood shop was just to push through
and finish the kids' presents and use all the
tools that they had. That's great. Yeah. Now
I don't know what's going to happen when I have
things I need you to make. Well, I can still
go into the shop. Oh, okay. They'll allow it.
Because I'll just be in the office. I'll be like
a doorway. Oh, okay. And they trust me, I think.
They like you. I was a supervisor. No big deal.
I mean, they promoted you, so. Supervisor. What's
your mom win of the week? Mine is just something
super cute that Lloyd's doing right now, which
is nice because he's also doing a lot of annoying
things. So to have the cute things really helps.
So for our listeners, he isn't really allowed
to use our phones. Like we don't let him play
games or look at YouTube or anything like that.
But he does like to look at pictures on our phones,
which we do let him do. And both of our home
screens. are set up so that if you, like, tap
it, it changes pictures. So he knows how to do
that now. And every time a new picture comes
up, he'll, like, say who's in it. So he'll be
like, Mom and Dad in Estes Park. Lloyd running.
Lloyd at the playground. Dad and Lloyd at the
playground. But anytime he gets to a picture
of Zeta, he says one of two things. It's a picture
from when she's, like, under three months and
she's really little he goes baby sister and like
it's like he's getting nostalgic for her being
little it's really cute he just like this like
super squeaky squealy voice baby sister and yeah
it just it sounds exactly like he's just nostalgic
for her being so little and like oh my gosh i
can't believe she used to be so little and she's
gotten so big And then the other thing he'll
say is if it's a picture of her smiling, he goes,
baby sister, happy girl. And he does this every
time he comes across a happy picture of her.
And it's just the cutest, sweetest thing. So
excited. So excited. And I don't know where he
learned. I don't know where he learned either
of those. Because I guess I say she's a happy
girl sometimes, but not usually. You probably
said it once and he latched on. Yeah. I definitely
don't say it all the time. So maybe just one
time when I was picking her up or something.
I think that's how he latched on to what he calls
red. It is a bad word. He said it one time. That
one? I was like, red guy? Our cat's name is Red,
and we call him Red Guy all the time. So he does
say that. Red Guy, you bad word. Yeah. The joys
of parenthood. Mm -hmm. Well, thank you for listening
to No Manual. We will be back next week. Laura
will be here. And next week will be our Christmas
episode. And then we will have two weeks off.
So we'll have the week of Christmas and the week
of New Year's off for everyone to enjoy and celebrate
with their families. Thank you for listening
and see you next week. See you next week. Well,
that's enough oversharing for today. If you enjoyed
hanging out with us, hit subscribe so you don't
miss the next round of chaos. And if you're listening
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no judgment, we see you. Thanks for joining us
on No Manual MomCast, where motherhood is messy.
At least we can laugh about it together.