Cole the Destructor

Our 'Unexpected Expenses' slush fund has taken quite a hit this month.  And Cole is mostly to blame.

First, we had to buy Lance plane tickets to and from Utah.  Okay, this one was not at all Cole's fault.  But it was quite the unexpected expense.

Second, my watch died.  It was a good Fossil watch.  I had had it for ten years.  But all of a sudden it stopped working, and the cost the repair shop quoted me was more than the watch was worth.  So now I'm in the market for a new watch.  (Any suggestions for where to look?)  Apparently I am pretty picky when it comes to watches, because I haven't found anything that I like in my price range.  So, as of now I'm watchless and constantly wondering what time it is.  I guess this doesn't really count against our slush fund since I haven't spent any money yet, but it's gonna happen sooner rather than later. 

How does this relate to Cole?  I'm pretty sure he had a hand in breaking it.  He really liked to play with it and chew on it and drop it.  I know, it sounds crazy that I let him do this, but I had let Spencer and Josh do the same thing.  And if that watch survived Josh I figured it could survive the apocalypse, let alone Cole.  Guess I was wrong.

Third, our printer gave up the ghost.  Well, it's not completely dead.  But it's in its death throes.  Maybe it knew we were planning on doing our taxes soon.  I kid you not, we've had three different printers die on us the very night we did taxes.  THREE.  Despite my husband's computer genius, we have had very bad luck with printers.  But not with this last one - I think we've had it for almost four years.  That's a new record in the Madsen household.

Cole's role?  He discovered the printer lately and has taken to pressing all it's buttons and turning it on and off and doing all sorts of whatnot to it.  I can't prove that this is a direct link to its early demise.  But I can't disprove it either.

RIP, good buddy.

Fourth (and most tragically), Cole broke my phone today.  I am most sad.  I really liked my phone.  It was a Motorolla Backflip and my first Smartphone.  (Well, the first that I used to its full capabilities.)  We were at Sam's Club and Cole was being super fussy.  I think he's teething again.  Anyway, I have a toddler app on the phone that makes noise and shapes and you can draw on the screen and such without messing up the rest of the phone.  Cole lurves this app.  So I let him play with it.  It's totally my fault for not paying closer attention, because of course he dropped it.  On the concrete floor.  In my defense, this phone has been dropped more times than I care to mention, but this time did the trick.  My poor phone keeps restarting itself every five minutes, inbetween black screens of death.  And I'm starting to go through phone withdrawals.  (We don't have a land line phone.)

I know I shouldn't complain too much; I feel very blessed that we can handle these expenses.  But I'm glad this month is almost over.  In the meantime, Cole is banned from touching the TV, either of the cars, the computers, my laptop, any major appliances, and pretty much everything else in the house except his toys.

p.s.  Our new printer came today.  With it came a free label maker.  Hurrah!  Of course we had to play with it a little and make name tags for everyone.  Here's the first label I printed:

And here's the second: