I will say that it is more effort to get both kids out of the house. I am kind of thankful Taylor is a boy, because at least I don’t have to worry about fixing his hair or finding accessories to match his outfit. Or putting his earrings in. So he’s pretty quick to get ready, but I have to make sure he has eaten well before leaving. I also travel a LOT lighter than I did when Bailey was this age. I just bring the small black diaper bag from the hospital, for BOTH of them. He is breastfeeding so we don’t need any food related items. Basically I bring diapers for him, an extra outfit, and a burp cloth and then for her I just bring a diaper. I usually throw a binkie in his carseat just in case, and a blanket- which can double as a nursing coverup.

It takes longer to get the kids in and out of the car now, because I use the stroller for his carseat if we are walking any distance at all. We have a rule that Bailey has a choice, she can either hold my hand or hold on to the stroller. She usually “helps” push the stroller. She has done really well with this rule. One thing I have to take note of though. Our mall is really nice. The stores are average to upscale. The area is middle class to upper middle class. But the parking garage? Is disgusting. There are huge puddles all over the floor, the ceiling leaks and water drips on your head. There are cracks everywhere. I don’t know if all metal buildings are like this but it is really gross.

So we got our shopping done yesterday at Gymboree, and then I got brave and went to Motherhood to get a new nursing br@. While we were there, I let her play with the toys in the kid area and I sat in a fitting room with the curtain open (so I could see her) and fed the baby. Then we headed home. I was pretty pleased at how it went with both of them.

Here is a sneak peek of one of her new outfits!

Bailey liked her ice cream but said that she didn’t want any sprinkles next time. How was I supposed to know? She loves sprinkles on cookies!

Then afterward, we (I) convinced Jonathon to go shopping at Target all together. Bailey wanted to just sit and read in the cart. It never ceases to amaze me how much she enjoys reading.

Happy birthday to my Jonathon! I love you and I’m so glad to have you as my husband.

Gymboree has free shipping on all orders today plus lots of markdowns! Normally you have to spend $100 to get the free shipping. I keep telling myself that my children do.not.need.clothing…

Get 50 free 4×8 photo cards from seehere.com and just pay shipping. Today only, promo code: freebies4mom-1109

20% off free shipping at Old Navy, Gap, and Banana Republic! (Repeating: my kids do not need any clothes… oh but I might get some maternity stuff!)

If you cloth diaper or use natural products, Cotton Babies (local here) has 20% off and free shipping on select Flip, BumGenius, and Econombum products. I am buying a pack of XS and Small all in ones for this new baby!

There are specials on breeches and other riding items at The Equestrian Corner. I used to dream about marrying a cowboy, for real. And living on a farm. Yikes…. that’s a long way from where I am now!!

Amazon has lots of Cyber Monday Deals. And I know people are shopping there because my Amazon stuff has sold like crazy yesterday and today!

Any great deals you want to share with me?

And if you think I am lame for getting a minivan, you can bite me. I’m excited about it. Yep, I’m officially a mom. Pushing thirty. And looking forward to driving a nice big minivan instead of a Camry.

Say cheese!

Here she is at work with daddy. We were hard pressed to get this shot. She spent most of lunch laying on the floor under her chair, and trying to run like a wild woman through the cafeteria. It might be a while before we visit again…

After we left his work, we went to one of her favorite places… the post office! She was so sad when we left the post office. (We go there a lot to ship eBay and Avon and B/S/T stuff). So I decided to cheer her (and me!) up with a trip to Target. She loves their popcorn. She kept telling me “No no Mommy! Beelay’s turn!” when I tried to take a bite.

Bailey took a good nap that day. Daddy went and got pizza for dinner, and we gave Bailey a new Little People set. It’s a Fun Sounds Train and she loves it! There is a whole track with a station and lots of other things to play with. We had a fun and relaxing evening. I think she enjoyed her birthday.

Once we got to the mall, we registered for the egg hunt. We also had a chance to join some sort of kids club but it sounded like it wasn’t even worth the $5. So we got a free stuffed bunny and got to find a few Easter eggs. But we had to wait a few minutes so we (by we I probably mean me) stood outside the Gymbore outlet and tried to decide what I was going to buy!

I was wondering if Bailey would understand the concept of hunting for eggs. Although she is pretty good if I ask her to find her shoes, or her sippy cup, or something else that she misplaced. Well, she would pick up one or two eggs but then put them down because she found different ones, or she would re-hide the ones she already had… but she definitely had fun anyway! Here she is with her friends Kaylee and Addison. Kaitlynn was there too but they got there a little later and did the egg hunt after us.

While we were at the mall, we got to do a little bit of outlet shopping. We got some seriously cute stuff at the Gymboree store. They are doing Gymbucks (earning) right now so we had to spend enough to earn Gymbucks. That is how I justify it. Then we went to Carter’s and just got a shirt, although Casey got a lot of super cute stuff for Addison. Children’s Place, we didn’t have quite as much luck but I managed to get her some jammies for $1.99 and a pair of shoes and something else but I forget what. I was bummed to find out that they closed the Nautica Kids outlet. In the past I had gotten some really good deals there for Bailey. I kind of wish we live closer. BUT I am kind of excited that Casey needs to return a few things to Carter’s because I want to go back with her. (You like how I invited myself?)

And then on the way home… Addison fell asleep and Bailey was STILL going crazy. She kept putting her foot on Addison to try to get her attention. She really gets a little over excited and over-stimulated sometimes and it is hard to get her settled down again.

And as far as what I have been doing… I have had a productive weekend/beginning of the week. I got to spend some good quality time with my friend Faith on Friday night. On Saturday I worked on my eBay listings (I am selling a bunch of stuff for my friend Jen and also trying to clear out some space in my office). We worked on straightening up the house. And the really cool, rock your socks off thing that I did: I FILED OUR TAXES. Yup, they are done. And have also been approved already. Thank you for giving us all our money back, IR$. I wish you hadn’t borrowed it to begin with.

Saturday night, Jonathon and I went out to dinner and to see a play. So unlike us, right? But it was fun for something different. It was really just good to do anything alone with him. Since my mom has had pneumonia the free babysitting thing has become nonexistent. She was finally feeling well enough to watch her for an evening. We picked Bailey up at about 11 and brought her back home to our house, where she fell right back asleep. She’s good like that.

On Sunday night, I did grocery shopping. I printed a list from allrecipes.com (if you know me IRL you have heard me obsessing over that site). I chose five recipes I am going to make and you can just check them, and it forms a grocery list. Then I added other things we need. I got two weeks worth of grocery shopping done and I was three dollars UNDER budget! Now the only thing I can buy for two weeks is produce, so let’s hope nothing comes up. I am working hard at budgeting, though. I am ridiculous with groceries because I am a horrible, wandering shopper. I create meals as I shop, I forget things, etc etc. That is something I really want to improve now that I am cooking more.

We had a playdate at our house today. Kaitlynn and Ella came over. Bailey was so excited, she was talking about it all morning before they got here! I made brownies for the occasion and we all ate lunch together. It was nice getting to talk to the moms and just hang out. Bailey and Kaitlynn had about 8,000 scuffles over toys. I can tell they are getting closer to 2. But it was a good morning. I got a few cute pictures of Bailey but unfortunately none with her friends. I was playing with the settings on my new camera too much.

This is the BIGGEST Shopping day of the year! Avon customers should be given a special shopping experience too…

I am really excited! I am in a contest and in order to qualify, I must have $1,000 in retail sales on the day after Thanksgiving. Sounds like a lot, right? Well, that’s where you come in – FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28th is my SPECIAL DAY FOR YOU.

To save up to 40% all you have to do is call me and leave a message with your name and the product numbers you would like to order from the Campaign 25 brochure during the specified times below. You must include the product numbers to qualify for the discount. (Please note that products with a symbol (*) prior to the name are excluded from this discount):

1:00 – 2:00 P.M. 40% discount
2:00 – 3:00 P.M. 30% discount
3:00 – 4:00 P.M. 25% discount
4:00 – 6:00 P.M. 20% discount
6:00 – 8:00 P.M. 15% discount

**Since you are shopping online, please view my brochure HERE — you can also see which products are eligible. Post a link to this contest and receive an extra 5% off your purchase.

You can email me your order: tara (at) twolinesonastick (dot) com (please include the time on your email so I can give you the correct discount) or call me if you know my number! I will ship for free once I receive your cleared payment. I accept checks, cash, credit card, or Paypal.

HAPPY SHOPPING!

Tara

If you have ever looked at Freecycle, it reminds me of that, only instead of random things like auto parts, EVERYTHING on the site is baby/kid stuff. Everything is free. You post your offer, then change your post to show when it is taken. I registered and I have seen some decent offers on there, like a set of Avent bottles, a boppy, shoes, etc. It’s really not junk. I will have to look through my stuff and see what I can clear out of here. There is also a section for trading formula coupons and such.

I won’t get into all the details but basically while we were there the woman did not look at Bailey or speak to her and was very rushed and kind of rough with her. At a kids specialty shoe store. Great, huh? Then about a minute after I told her that I wanted a shoe she could wear all summer, she said something like, “And some people are really weird and want their kid to wear the same shoes all summer!” Thanks for making me feel like an idiot. Bad first impression, and they didn’t sign me up for their customer club thing so that was also part of my reason for calling, to get added to that.

The exciting thing? My grandma came with us and surprised me by paying for the shoes! All $42 of them… for a pair of toddler sandals… but aren’t they cute?

The biggest change in our lives is probably the way we are eating. I have been more concerned with chemicals, pesticides, and hormones in our food. I used to think this was just silly, but the more I read, the more I care. A lot of things are too expensive to do organic, but we are really trying to do hormone free milk, beef, and chicken. Also something i just discovered- Sam’s has hormone free milk and it’s only $2.85 a gallon for whole milk! The hormone free whole milk at Trader Joe’s is $3.69 a gallon. I know it’s not as “good” as true organic but it’s what our budget can allow and it’s better than all the growth hormones. Schnucks has a brand called Full Circle and if the prices are comparable with “regular” food we have been choosing the Full Circle products instead.

I read an article about how to choose what items to do organic if you couldn’t afford to go all organic. Basically the gist of the article was that anything with growth hormones (meats and dairy) were the most important. Fruits with thick peels such as bananas and pineapples were the least likely to be contaminated. Here is a chart you can refer to if you care.

Natural cleaning products- Full Circle line from Schnucks or Method at Target. I have been cleaning more with baking soda and vinegar, thanks to my friend who told me how to do it! I really had no idea that you could use things like that to get your house clean! I would rather have Bailey sit in a tub that had been scoured with baking soda that a tub that had been filled with bleach and other chemicals. We use Full Circle Glass Cleaner with Vinegar (under $3), Full Circle dish soap ($1.99), and Full Circle laundry detergent ($3.99 for 30 loads I think). The only reason I am listing all the prices is that I thought “natural” automatically meant more expensive, but it doesn’t. You just have to be smart and shop around.
Another thing we are working on at our house is conservation. Well, this is really more me than Jonathon. I have always been on his case about leaving lights on and stuff like that. Another thing he will do is turn the shower on and then go do something else for a while and then come back and get in the shower. I have started turning the water off when he does this. This might sound cheesy, but I guess now that I have a kid I want the earth to still be liveable during her whole lifetime. I have also been trying to reuse more and not waste as many things or throw them away. I try to get almost all my books either used or at the library. (Well, I’ve always done that, but its less books that are printed!)

Our grocery store also started selling reusable shopping bags a while back, and we now have three of them. They are usually only $1.25 but they were on sale for $1 each a few weeks ago. They are so much nicer than plastic bags and they hold about three times as much. They have a square/flat bottom so they don’t tip over, and there is a handle that you can carry over your shoulder. Even if I wasn’t trying to be environmentally friendly, I would use these bags! Plus, did you know that one plastic bag takes like 500 years to decompose? Wow.

Anyway, I just wanted to share what we have been doing around here. What have you done or thought about doing? Any tips you want to share with me?

We met my friend Sarah there and ate lunch. If you have ever eaten at the mall food court with me, you know what I ate. Subway- I alternate between a veggie on wheat and a Subway club on white. Either one gets toasted. Bailey and her friend Andrew (who is about 14 months old) shared raisins and picked at a few other things. I am pretty sure Bailey could exist on raisins alone if we allowed her too. Although, I am wondering- if she doesn’t chew them and they come out whole, does she get any nutrition at all from them?

Anyway, after lunch we took them to play at the play area. This one weird little girl who was two or three kept following Bailey around and touching her/pushing her/grabbing her face. The girl was with either her grandma or nanny or something, and this woman watched her but never said anything. So I was trying to be polite and say stuff like, “Be nice to the baby…” but finally we were around the corner from the caregiver-lady and the little girl started being grabby. I looked at her and made a stern face and said, “You leave her alone!” I just hate when people don’t watch or stay involved with their kids when there are other little ones around. It shouldn’t be my place to deal with someone else’s kid when they are right there, and it’s awkward to try to figure out what to do.

I returned something at Gymboree and looked quickly at the Children’s Place sale racks, but nothing interesting. I am having a hard time finding stuff for myself lately so I didn’t really even look. A lot of the styles now look like maternity clothing, and like my friend Nicole just wrote about, I am afraid people will think I’m knocked up again

Once we got home, Bailey did her new trick of pooping in bed. I am pretty sure she has it figured out that I will come get her and change her diaper. Then just about the time she was falling asleep, stupid Laclede Gas started drilling down the street from us For like an hour. Once they were done Bailey was still so ticked off that she cried for like an hour and nothing would console her until we just drove around aimlessly in the car.

It was just a frustrating day, and then once I got home from working childcare at church tonight, Jonathon got on my case about a million different things. I was practically begging him to help with Bailey because I was so tired of dealing with her (13 hours straight with not even a break for nap) and I thought it would have killed him to help with her bath. I know he was at work all day, but then he had almost three hours to himself after work before we got home. And sometimes momma needs a break too.

Why is this coming up now, you ask? Because today when I was at Target, an especially chatty saleswoman told me their policy was about to change. I said something like, “So it’s going to get less crazy?” She said, “No, I think they are going to stop allowing ANY returns without receipts. There’s just too much fraud.” Die, Target. You greedy fools.

LOL this followed on the tail of an argument we had at about 4 a.m. and me saying that I JUST NEED A BREAK! He said he would be willing to give me a break but I never let him know when. Sure I get breaks here and there to meet a friend for dinner or to do things that need to be done like grocery shopping or Avon or (total necessity here) blogging. But I just want a day for me. Maybe that’s selfish and maybe not. I think it makes me a better mother, when I have time for myself and can relax. I come back so anxious to cuddle with Bailey and do everything with her.

So far my plans tomorrow include going to the gym, returning some stuff at Kohl’s, and getting a new book at the library and sitting and Bread Company and reading. At some point my friend Faith is meeting up with me there for coffee.

And of course I can’t sign off without sharing some new pics of my Bug in her Pooh dress.




Jonathon should be excited about watching her. I love it, I feel like anyone should be honored to watch MY kid He’d probably do almost anything to put off doing his performance management stuff for work.

My mom and I went to the mall this morning. Picked up B’s Christmas pictures, and also a few gifty things. It was crowded, and I promised myself I am not going to the mall again between now and Christmas, no matter what.

So far we got Jonathon’s parents some car-related things that they have wanted (on eBay) and I got my mom something for her china set. We have finished shopping for my grandparents entirely. I would never have really thought to buy people gold lockets for gifts, but I found a website with some really cool ones so I ordered one for my grandma.

It came in the mail and it looks really nice. It’s white gold and you send in a digital picture to be printed in the locket. They sized it for me (remember when we were little and you had to cut down a picture and try to tape it inside your locket necklace?) and then I had something nice about great grandma engraved on the back. It’s going to be Bailey’s gift to her

Also we decided in my family that instead of spending like $100 on each person we are going to just get like one nicer gift for each person, from each person/family. It is really getting out of control, now that Jonathon and my grandparents celebrate Christmas with us, and I’m sure now that Bailey is here it will be even crazier. Plus, we have to buy for his parents, brother, our friends, etc.

My goal for this year is to be done with Christmas shopping by the end of November, and to have everything wrapped by Jonathon’s birthday, which is in early December.

If I had my camera, I would show you how cool the bag is. In fact, I have been stalking it at Motherhood. I went in one day and decided I wanted it, but I didn’t have my gift card with me so I decided to go back and get it the next day. It had JUST been sold, so they put me in the computer and said they would call me when it came in. Five days later, I hadn’t been called, but I was at the mall so I went in Motherhood. No diaper bag. I asked when they thought they would get it in, and this ditsy blond girl was like, “Oh, I totally just sold that bag this morning!”

Um, clearly they need to order more than ONE of this bag since people obviously want to buy it. And they need to USE their freaking computer system and call people who are waiting (im)patiently for something to come in.

By the way, it was $5 cheaper at BRU. I didn’t even think to look there, because I just thought it was a Motherhood thing. Screw Motherhood- for a variety of reasons.