Bargain hunting

I think that by now you all know that I am a huge fan of bargain hunting. My husband and I furnished the majority of our apartment with our garage sale finds when we got married. When I got pregnant it was only natural that we would get a lot of our baby things the same way. We did but some things new but a lot of it was used. We still go out now and then but have not had the time lately to do many garage sales. I am also very fond of clearance and sales when I am looking for things. I have to say that this is my favorite all time bargain.

What is your favorite find?

We have one happy little boy

Evan has become very obsessed with train tables. Every time we went to a place that had one it was next to impossible to pry him away. We had decided to try and make him one since my father-in-law has an ample supply of wood (much to my mother-in-law's dismay) and a nice workshop. It was the cheapest way we could think of to get Evan a nice set up.

I was also keeping my eyes open on Craig's list to see if a used one popped up but was not having much success on that front. Every time one came up it was too much money or too far away. I was about to give up when I saw one offered in a town near us for $25. I was thrilled and happy when I found out it was still available. It was a bit tricky to get home in the car but the excitement on Evan's face made it all worth it. Harry likes it too and has fun putting the trains in his mouth.

I am a shopping dynamo

We hit the mall this afternoon because Harry is in teething hell and I needed a break. Getting out seems to sooth the kids so I guess I lucked out that way. The main purpose behind the trip was to get a few more pair of PJ's for Evan at Old Navy but I also needed to get Evan some more shoes as well.

I left the mall with five Bath and Body Works soaps (they were on sale 5 for $15! I love love love smelly hand soaps), four pairs of shoes for Evan (bogo at Payless), four onesies in a size up (on clearance) from Old Navy along with a polo (on clearance) and two pairs of PJ's, and finally a few toys for Evan for his surgery. Wheew! I guess it is a good thing that I don't go to the mall too often or we would be broke.

On a lark I accepted when the sales lady offered to measure Evan's feet. I thought I was all knowing and that Evan only needed a size up from his size six shoes. Boy was I wrong! Evan is now a size 7 1/2. I should have guessed that his feet were too big when he threw a fit when I was putting on his church shoes this Sunday. I feel bad now for getting frustrated with him. Next time I am going to watch better so things like that don't happen. After all I would not want to stunt his growth.

Hee!

I am so tickled by this:
I had high hopes for a curly haired child because my husband could grow an afro even though he is very white. Evan teased me by coming out with a head of curly dark brown hair. Sadly he lost that hair and it was replaced with mildly wavy dark blond hair. I was crushed.

I hope that Harry keeps it up with the cute little curls. There is no way that I will buzz him like his brother if that happens. I might even let him grow it nice and long so I can put bows in it (kidding!). I would never do that to my son which is why I am going to change Harry's name (kidding again).

The watch update

Well Evan's lovely dollar store watch is no more. It quickly became apparent that the watch was truly worth what I payed for it as it quickly broke. We decided to splurge a bit and get Evan a cute six dollar monkey watch. This one has much better construction and actually fits his tiny wrist better. The second hand is the head of a monkey, it is so cute.

We even let Evan pick out what design he wanted. The choice was between the monkey and a Hot wheels watch. I was surprised when after much thought Evan pointed to the "keekee" (his way of saying monkey). I think it may have to do with one of his favorite books which has a monkey as a main character. I think the monkey is better than a liscenced character any way.

Some fun

Gina shared a link so you can make your own motivational posters. Have fun!

Why, oh why?

I have a feeling that there are a million toddlers that wear size 2T pajamas out there. I have been having the hardest time finding decent ones in that size for Evan. It started this summer when he out grew his old ones and I needed to get him his lighter summer pajamas.

I am pretty picky and I prefer cotton pajamas so pretty much I am stuck with Carter's or the off brand Carter's that they sell at Walmart or Target. I prefer the cotton ones because the polyester are just to scratchy and loaded with flame retardant chemicals. I am not particularly worried about any of the kids spontaneously combusting so I stick with close fitting cotton.

It is just barely the beginning of spring when I start my quest for the spring pajamas and already things are picked pretty clean. At Target I manage to find two sets of two in Evan's size so I go home mildly happy.

Later on during our vacation to Utah we are shopping again for PJ's because I forgot to pack some for Evan. We look and look but the pickings are even slimmer. We settle for a pair of Carter's knock offs and a set that have the car from the movie Cars on it. That set turned out super fun because after one washing the too big shorts shrunk to just right and the shirt turned into a belly shirt. Plus they were much more expensive than a set of my favorite Carter's knock offs.

For the upcoming winter I thought I would be prepared and I shopped ahead of time even though I prefer to wait for sales. I snagged some nice long sleeved cotton PJ's at Target no problem. I also wanted to get him some blanket sleepers since he could finally wear them again. This time only Carter's would do. They have some really nice microfiber sleepers that hold up nice and are ultra cute.

We made the trip to the outlet store. I see the clerk there that knows me by sight and insists on holding awkward conversations with me so I try and hide while searching for what I want. I search and search, for the toddler sizes. All I see is the 12 month and 18 month sizes but the other pile only had size 4 and up. After a bit of digging I finally find the toddler sizes hidden behind the infant sizes. I dig and dig some more and manage to only scare up a grand total of two 2t sized sleepers.

Evan starts throwing a temper tantrum because he can't steal the toy of another little girl so I take him out of the store leaving my husband to pay for the pajamas. I was not to thrilled with the designs, but by then I didn't care. At least I avoided the clerk. I just want to know where all those toddlers are that are wearing the pajama styles that I wanted.

Evan is very impressed with his pajamas that have "shoes" on them.

Pediactric Grand Rounds

Another wonderful edition of Pediatric Grand rounds is up. Go check it out!...................... Now!!........................... I mean it!!! .......................Why are you still here?................. GO!

Caution genius at work

I have decided that I am going to groom Evan to be a computer genius. I have to get an early start on this because everyone knows that if you don't get them started before they are three you are just too late. A lady in my ward gave us two toddler themed computer games and I thought it would be fun to see how Evan liked them. He had a blast even though I am not sure he even really knew what he was doing. We have an optical mouse (no more dirty mouse balls tee hee!) and he had fun with that too. He would randomly flip the mouse over and look at the light. Next stop a computer virus.

Reason #536 Evan is one strange kid

Evan wears a watch. He is two and a half and can't tell time but he wears his Elmo watch with pride. I picked it up at the dollar store on a whim, thinking it would be mildly entertaining at best. Later on I placed it on his arm and he loved it! He throws a fit whenever I have to take it off. When he sees it on his dresser first thing in the morning he is right there pointing to it to make sure that I do not forget to put it on. What a nutty kid I have.

The week is almost over

I can't believe that it is going to be Friday tomorrow. Time sure does fly when you are having fun. I like Fridays because my husband usually gets half days so we are often able to get a jump on the weekend fun. At the very least I get a nap which is always a plus. We don't have anything special planned but that is actually a plus. For the last few weeks we have been busy so it will be nice to kick back. Next weekend we are going to the in-laws for some Labor day fun which will probably mean another trip to a beach with even colder water than the one near my house. Evan has too much fun digging to pass up any chance to go to the beach.

A trip to the beach

These are some pictures of our trip to the beach when my parents came for a visit a couple of weeks ago. I was a bad mommy and forgot my camera so I had to wait for my parents to burn a CD and send me copies. They have dial up so I had to wait for them to be sent snail mail. How last century is that?

This is Harry and Evan playing on a rocking chair that was mine when I was a wee one. I can't believe that my parents still had it.

Evan dipping his feet in the super cold water. As you can see he was super thrilled.

The Pink Shovel of Death. Evan would get super annoyed when anyone would try and actually use this shovel even if he had not been using it a second ago.

I tried burying him in the sand but sadly he would not let me finish the job. I think he had some sort of crazy notion that I was trying to bury him alive. I wonder where he got that idea.

Harry going for a snack. The first thing he did upon discovering the sand was cram a handful in his mouth behind the back of his unsuspecting mother.

Mmmmmm.... salty and crunchy.

Another attempt to bury a child in the sand. This plot failed due to wiggling toes.

A close up of dirt face. Harry also fell face first onto my sand castle after he tried to pull up on it. The lesson he learned that day was very important. Build on solid foundations, not sand and life will go much better for you.

All in all it was a fun trip. We had to just about drag Evan away from the beach. Everyone came home utterly filthy and baths were had by all. Even the seagulls had a good time since they got to eat all the crumbs we left.

Youth

The Young Women did a service project with the Young Men tonight and as one of the fearless leaders in the Young Women I was in the thick of things. We were at a local Elementary school helping the teachers get ready for the start of the school year.

I was busy making copies when a teacher came up to me with more copying to be done. She stuck around and chatted with me for a bit. I was pretty suprised when she asked me if I was a student at the local high school. It then dawned on me that she thought I was one of the youth. I laughed and told her that I was not a student and that I was in fact almost ten years out of high school. She was also quite suprised when I told her that I was also a mother of two children.

I got teased the rest of the night by the other leaders that were there to witness the event. It is good to know that I do not look as old as I feel and that I can still pass as a teenager despite the gray that is creeping into my hair.

Nine months

Today is my cutie pie Harry's nine month birthday. I have to say that all things considered Harry has been a wonderful addition to the family. People say how hard having two kids is but honestly I have not felt that way one bit. There have been a few adjustments but my lifestyle has not changed all that drastically. I guess once you have one kid adding more is not that huge of a deal. The big change comes from being you to being you and mommy after that things just snap into place.

Harry is a whopping 20 pounds. He is basically average when you look at the charts but when he is compared to Evan at the same age he is a moose. Evan didn't hit 20 pounds until he was over a year old. I kind of wish that Harry was not too chunky because he is getting to be a pain to carry around. I do love his chubby thighs so I guess I will have to put up with my chunky little man.

The pediatrician remarked on how alike my boys look and I have to honestly say that I really do not see it. They have the same hair color but that is about it. Harry is a chubbin with blue eyes and thinner hair. Evan was a wiry little guy with a thick head of hair and tons of teeth. Maybe I am blind or something but I just don't see it.

We have a date

I have known about this for about a week or so but have not been really ready to say this. We have a date for Evan's next surgery. September 20th is the Big Day. There is just not enough time between now and then and yet there is too much time. Not enough time to be with my beautiful son. Not enough time to ever get mentally ready. Too much time to anticipate. Too much time to worry.

A trip to the dentist is in my future

On Sunday when Evan was screaming his head off because he did not want to sit in my lap out in the foyer (because he was being naughty in the chapel) I noticed that there was something odd about one of his teeth. Today I got a closer look at it and came to the awful conclusion that it would need to be looked at by a dentist. It seemed to me that it looked like a cavity but my husband thinks that it is a chipped tooth.

Luckily I made a stink with my husband a few months ago and he added our kids very reluctantly to our dental plan. The rate for a family is the same so adding Harry despite his youth was not going to cost us more but adding Evan tipped the balance from spouse to family. He didn't want to pay the 26 bucks a month to do it but I made him.

I then proceeded to not take Evan to the dentist. Due to Evan's heart defect he has to take a dose of antibiotic before an exam to prevent bacterial endocarditis. This whole process is complicated by the fact that Evan's blood thinner Warfarin (aka Coumadin) interacts with a ton of different common antibiotics. I just did not feel like having to mess with the whole issue. Adding to the fun is that there is exactly one pediatric dentist in a 35 mile radius that takes our insurance. Luckily she is close to us but if we don't like her then we are screwed.

I kind of hope that my husband is right and that it is a chipped tooth. That way I don't have to feel like a bad mom that did not keep up with my firstborn's oral health sufficiently.

My new look

Thanks for the compliments on my new look. I switched over to Blogger Beta and actually did this one with their new tools that make it easier for the average user to create a custom template. If you have blogger you should try it, there are also other fun tools that make blogging a lot easier.

Part of a conversation I overheard while my husband was talking on the phone with his mother

H: What did you want to do for Thanksgiving this year? What did we do last year? I can't remember.

Me butting in: We had Harry!

H: Oh yeah, that's right we had Harry!

Things I find funny

Evan, when he was a baby, was a breath holder. He would turn an impressive shade of blue while holding his breath when he became very ticked off. He grew out of it pretty quickly due to way his blood had to circulate after his second heart surgery. I didn't expect this, but Harry has followed in his brother's footsteps but has added his own hilarious twist to it.

Harry will do the standard breath holding, turning blue (which is impressive for a heart healthy child) but he will actually almost pass out. I will be getting him a bottle ready and he will be in the other room freaking out because he does not have his food ready right this second and I will hear nothing for a bit and then a thump from Harry falling over. Shuddering breaths will follow as he realizes that he needs to breathe to live.

I just find it hilarious when he does this. Don't ask me why because I have no idea why. Harry is generally a pretty mellow guy but when he gets mad he goes from mellow to pissed in 60 seconds. He was like that from birth. He would be sleeping peacefully and then bam! He was hungry and screaming bloody murder. There was none of that rooting around sucking on the fist stuff that the baby books talk about.

It will be interesting to see how this shows up when he becomes a toddler, who are notorious for being extremely changeable any way. I am anticipating some great tempertantrums from him. I think that I am going to have to buy a video camera soon so that I will have some blackmail videos for his teen years.

Free from the tube

On Thursday morning I encountered a situation eerily similar to this. This time I saw the tube laying innocently on the floor. I made a half hearted attempt to replace it but had pretty much decided that it had been out all night. Evan's GI doctor thought that we should just not worry about it since we are not using it any way. If we need to have it replaced then it can be done fairly easily, all the tricky work had already been don with the initial placement of the tube.

It sure is nice not having to worry about it any more. It feels strange to hug him or play rough with him and not have to worry about it tugging. Evan's shirts do not poke out in a strange spot any more. We can get him one piece footie PJs this winter and not have to worry about adapting it so that we can take care of his tube. Our night time routine is changed and we can finally think about dropping that last bottle which was used as a bribe to keep him still while we cleaned the area around his tube. Of course now he is not a cool boy with his tummy pierced, but I think that he will not be loosing face with his nursery friends, he has plenty of scars to compensate.