Winter Is Coming

Brr ... it's cold out there.
Fall is officially - and weather-wise - here. Can winter be that far behind?

Re-learning the Alphabet

In the Pooh Adore.Ables Pooh Blocks book, complete with three wooden blocks, Winnie the Pooh asks readers, in this case my son, if he can count his blocks A, B, C just like Pooh does.

Well, no he can’t.

Because some genius in the manufacturing of the book put the blocks in the wrong order.

So when Pooh asks my son if he can stack his blocks in A, B, C, we can only stack the blocks in A, C, B. And when Piglet asks us to stack our blocks One, Two, Three, we can only stack them One, Three, Two. That is the same with shapes and the picture blocks.

Reading this book is frustrating now. Imagine what it will be like when my son is trying to figure out his A, B, Cs or One, Two, Threes.

Way to go Random House.

Trouble With Disposables

So much for 12 hours of leakage protection.

For my son, Pampers 12-hour disposable diapers keep him and his outfits dry only some of the time and then only a few hours.

This is my second foray into the world of disposable diapers buying and I haven’t had that much luck.

My first attempt was with Wal-Mart’s brand. I returned them after having to change my son twice in the night and leaving him wet the rest of the time.

I told the customer service person at Wal-Mart that you obviously get what you pay for when you buy disposables.

Unfortunately, Pampers hasn’t been that great either. While my sister-in-law swears by them and said she has only changed my niece’s sheets about 15 times, I haven’t been so lucky.

Sometimes my son can go all night in one diaper, other times he is soaked - diaper, clothing, sheets and me - in a couple of hours.

Thinking perhaps I was not putting the diapers on correctly, I had my cousin-in-law give me the disposable diaper rules: 1) Point my son’s (and these were the words of a nurse in Ottawa) “junk” down and 2) pull out the outer layer for further wetness protection.

Both are done.

I know my friend, JA, is having the same diaper issues with her son and she, too, hasn’t found a diaper that will protect her little guy during the night.

Perhaps diapers are geared toward girls or were not designed for the heavy wetter.

Suggestions anyone?

Deals, Deals, Everywhere Deals

Where has Once Upon A Child been all my child’s life?

I discovered this store for the first time when my mom, son and I went shopping for clothing for me last week. We went to Once Upon A Child first because my now-mobile son requires baby gates.

I didn’t find baby gates but I found a basement full of beautiful clothes with fabulous prices.

I purchased a couple of onsies, a beautiful pair of lined overalls, a pair of Robbeez and my best deal - an OshKosh snowsuit for $20. I will now be doing most of my shopping here.

PS- The Newmarket location had some beautiful Halloween costumes.

Fabulous News

Excellent news - our son is healthy.

Effective immediately, our little guy comes off his heart drugs. His recent holter (a device that monitors his heart rate for a 24-hour period) showed thousands of beats and only one irregular one.

A special thanks to Dr. Joel Kirsh and the entire Sick Kids team for saving our son’s life and making him the healthy almost one-year-old that he is.

They’re Back ...

With the warm weather returning, the lowly mosquito has made a comeback.

This new batch of creatures are small, but mighty.

These blood-sucking beasts have bit me more times this fall than they have all summer.

PS-The above cartoon is by one of my favourite artists, Gary Larson (http://www.thefarside.com/)

Fashion Misfit No More?

I may not have to shop at Thyme Maternity after all.

Last week, my son, my mom and I spent a day shopping. I purchased my first real bra, and found some great deals for my son at my new favourite children’s store - Once Upon a Child.

I then spent the remainder of the day looking for jeans and tops for my work wardrobe that currently has neither in it.

By about 3 p.m. I was frustrated.

I finally went into Reitmans’s to try something, anything on.

The problem is I do actually like clothing but what seems to work on the mannequin and the store’s posters, doesn’t seem to work on me. I look at it and think, ‘I can’t pull off this look; I don’t know how.’

I guess I think people will look at me and think ‘She’s trying too hard.’

So with that in mind, I took my mom, my son and I left the mall and drove to the Real Canadian Superstore where I had hoped to be as successful as I was at No Frill where I found pants - that fit - for $5 each. Unfortunately, I found nothing.

Since we were within walking distance to some of the big box stores, we decided to stop in at Mexx. I had been in the mall version of the same store and wasn’t expecting much.

But then, the mall version didn’t have Sara.

Big box Mexx may be my new favourite store.

Sara was friendly, helpful, knowledgeable and she took my fashion issues in stride. She found me items on sale, matched them and told me what would work - and what wouldn’t - with each piece.

I found jeans and three tops at Mexx and left feeling that I not only got a good deal, but that I may not be a fashion misfit any longer.