I love you more than a Birkin.

For those who have kids, this is probably not a shocker, but they are expensive. And the more you make, the more they cost. And the more you have, the more they cost (although the price per child does start to go down with more bebes). I was reading this article on MSN and while I wasn't surprised to see the numbers, but it hurts when you see it all in black and white.

So let's break it down in the DramaHouse.

Yearly expenditures:

• Day care: $11,700 (by far our biggest expenditure and I cringe to think how much full time, high quality day-care costs in high COL areas like DC and New York)
• Clothing: $1200 (probably a gross underestimation, given that she is a girl has more shoes than her daddy, but the cost is offset by generous grandparents, relatives, super-saver shopping mama and hand me downs)
• Food: I don't even want to calculate this one, since she is such a picky eater sometimes and we have wasted enough food to feed a football team and Michael Phelps the week before the Beijing Olympics.
• Health care: $1200 in health insurance premiums, but she never goes to the doctor for anything, since she gets checkups from me. ALL. THE. TIME.
• Misc (housing, transportation, etc): $5000-ish? Includes things like bicycle helmets and Wonder Pets coloring books and other things that I buy at Target when I was just running out to get some milk.

Total cost = more than the cost of my first car. Having a wonderful, bright two year old who tells me, "Mama, I had a good day" = PRICELESS.

The more frightening part of this was that close to 50% of your income can go towards child related costs if you have 3 kids. Aaaackk!

Papa can you hear me? DrDrama sliding into a dead faint...