Callie's Tally: An Accounting of Baby's First Year

Read an Excerpt

What My Daughter Owes Me
I am not one of those women who has always known. In fact, they amaze me-those women. They fell in love with the idea of babies back when they were barely more than babies themselves.

What My Daughter Owes Me, Part 2
Even without a baby, he-assuming all God's blessings on both of us-will die first. And then I will be left alone. I don't want to be left. Not like that. Not without warning and so irreversibly.

When Betsy Howie became pregnant, she realized a frightening truth: She was about to lose control. So, she itemized her concerns: Can I physically handle it? Do I have the patience for the job? Can I have my career and take care of a baby? Will I be able to sidestep my own neuroses and negativity enough to raise an at least slightly healthy human being? And, of course: Do I have enough money?

Only the last question seemed answerable. "How much does a baby really cost?" she wondered-and began saving receipts. The result was Callie's Tally, the real-life, day-by-day diary of her daughter's first year of debt.

In this deliciously engaging and irreverent memoir, Callie's expenses-Pampers, formula, York peppermint patties for Mom's postpartum blues-mount as Howie searches for a tiny corner of order in a world otherwise lost to sleepless, timeless mayhem. Part Bridget Jones's Diary (after Bridget snags the boy) and part Operating Instructions (for the fiscally obsessed), this is a wickedly funny and fresh story of shifting relationships within a modern American family.

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