Ain't Too Proud To Beg

Well, I didn't actually beg but I certainly didn't protest, either.

Wyatt had his one-year well-check today and guess what? He's holding steady under the lowest blue line on the growth percentile chart. He's a perfectly proportional below-the-third-percentile kid, so the pediatrician is no longer concerned but does want Wyatt to get as many calorie-dense foods as possible. At first he said he thought Wyatt was a candidate to stay on formula for a few more months and my heart just sank. Oh, not because I have any issues about formula versus milk or anything, but because formula's expensive! We've practically been counting down the days until we can switch from our $22 a week formula to our $2 a half gallon whole milk (it's in keeping with our new and improved budget!).

I asked how many calories Wyatt should be getting every day so that we can make sure we're at least getting close and that prompted the doctor to recommend PediaSure instead of formula. Great! But you know what's better? We - apparently - can get it for FREE from WIC. Now, we don't financially qualify for WIC (although it might be close despite how the military tries to sell its whole "complete compensation package" by assigning a dollar amount to our "benefits" like commissary use, housing allowances and insurance. No really, they do. And they just sent us our annual copy of this information so that we feel like we should have a lot more money than we do. But I digress...) but it turns out if there's a medical need (like your kid is tiny), you can get WIC services on this here military installation.

Honestly, I would normally not accept this referral because (1) I'm too proud, (2) I would hate for us take the resources from someone who really needs it, and (3) I'm pretty proud. However, the lure of no expense instead of $22 a week is too much for a budgeting girl like myself. Woo hoo!

Watch, now that I've "come to terms" with accepting WIC (uh, yeah, that took about .08 seconds), they'll laugh me out of the building when I go to pick up our first batch or whatever. And if you're one of those people that thinks I shouldn't take advantage of this because there are others who need it more, please keep that opinion to yourself. In the meantime, I'll be figuring out how to turn our saved $88/month into our first million. You know, for Wyatt and all.