Sometimes cheap things are not bArgains

The portocot I bought from Target turned out to be a lemon.  It was really cheap ($59) and it was supposed to be so easy to set up and pack up - just snap up and snap down.  Except things wouldn't snap and it was SUCH a pain, that when visiting relatives for Xmas we just left it there, lol.  So now we need to find another portocot, so annoying!  I have no idea where to start looking for one and really cannot be bothered.  I guess we will venture out to baby stores and make sure we can set one up and pack it up before purchasing :-).

I also really really want the City Baby Jogger Versa pram.  The pram we bought for shopping is totally fine, a little annoying but G loves it, but the outside pram is crap - its hood does not protect G at all from the sun!  So I will continue to save my pretty pennies for this pram, everywhere is out of stock until Feb 13 anyway. I cant even find a cheap USA deal, like I did with the City Mini - they are $750 everywhere (noting that our last pram cost $300 and the City Mini  cost about $260 though we made $200 on that when we sold it).  At least I know the resale value will be good based on how much we got for our City Mini when we sold it on Gumtree. But like the post title implies, sometimes you just need to cough up the big bucks to get the right thing.

Sweet dreams

Right now we are in the Wonder Week 'Programs', it's just as hard as the last two WW! Argh. The worse thing is the sleep regression, driving me nuts. In the hope we can get G back to good sleeping, I have purchased two sleeping bags online from the Sleeping Store. One for daycare and one for home. I am hoping that putting her in the same sleeping bag every sleep will build a strong sleep association. Wish me luck...... Sleeping bags were on special for $38 each plus free shipping.

Parenting decisions

I have always hated kids watching DVDs in the car just to go to the shops. Now I am a parent I understand the value of peace and the price you are sometimes willing to pay for it. We do long car trips, we are travelers and we love it. G's tolerance for driving is 3 hours before all the tricks don't work anymore and she starts getting really irritated. So I we already had a DVD player for the car given to us, I went to the ABC shop and got two Playschool DVDs and an Elmo one. All on sale for $10 each. Definitely helps for those super long trips! I won't be using it for small trips to the shops.......yet!

Boring!

I had to stock up on boring cheap clothes for G for daycare. All from Kmart and Best and Less. The good news is, her new daycare should be fun since they get so messy! I also had to order more iron on labels which I got from Etsy for so cheap!

Minnie Mouse

Totally obsessing about cute disney stuff for G!  I am sure in a few years she will rebel and never let me dress her again or buy her kitschy things. Until then, I will continue to do what I want :-).  At Babies R Us, I bought her a hooded Minnie Mouse towel for Summer and a Minnie Mouse sippy cup.  We are having success with the Minnie Mouse sippy cup so I am hopeful that we will be able to wean her off bottles soon.  Considering she is drinking out of sippy cups well for water, yet I still dont try to swap her bottles for sippy cups I am not sure how quickly this is going to happen.  I just can't help it, I am clinging to my baby staying a baby.

Bits and pieces

I am still stocking up G's size one wardrobe. Her daddy insisted on more onsies so luckily I found some at Target on sale. So cute: Winnie the Pooh, Bambi and Minnie Mouse. Don't know what he is going to do when she goes up to size two and no more onsies lol. Cotton on kids had a sale so I picked up a cute top and shorts as well.

These shoes were made for walking.

G can finally wear shoes! Her feet have been chubba so could never fit into any shoes. Finally at 11mths I can squeeze her footsies into shoes. To celebrate I went out and bought her two pairs. So cute! We also met Santa and G did not like Santa! We got an okay pic, but barely due to G's massive distress about sitting on Santa's lap! If she was a couple of months younger we would of been fine, but stranger danger has kicked in.

Who's bag is this?

When G was born, I bought a personalised messenger baby bag  for her Daddy.  Now she is going to go to daycare properly I need to get her a daycare bag.  Of course it has to be personalised because I LOVE personalised baby stuff :-).  I found a very cute one on Etsy, unfortunately its from America so I will be waiting a while for it to turn up.  Her name will be at the bottom of the bag.

Xmas kitsch

I am so excited for G's first Xmas! We (okay just me) are hanging out for Santa photos :-). I picked up these cute shoes for her Santa outfit - Target $6.

Quirky Clips

I am totally addicted to Etsy!  I picked up some clips for G's hair, she still is totally not bothered by clips in her hair - yay!  They were $38 including shipping so not exactly cheap!  But I love that they are so quirky.  I hope G grows up to share my taste lol.

Evolution

G is now pulling herself up on furniture and standing up! And as you can see in this photo she is walking around with her walker! 10mths and 3 weeks old :-). I also picked up a couple more shirts on sale at Cotton On Kids, one says 'I love my dad'. She has finally moved up into her size one clothes. This time last year I had a month to go before my G arrived!

Travelling in style

First plane trip with G on the move! It went really really well, she has separation anxiety at the moment (google 46 weeks Wonder Week) so she was happy to cling to me on the plane lol. I went to buy the Phil and Teds portocot and realised it wasn't what we wanted, it was to small. So then I went to Target and got a traveller portocot for $59, I will be honest - it's a bit clunky to get up and down. But it does the job so far. While I was in Target they had 30%off babywear and I couldn't help myself and picked up heaps of size One clothes.

Summer!

I realized after finally sorting out G's clothes she actually didn't have that much in size one and also not much for Summer! So I promptly bought some more clothes online at Cotton On Kids using a 30% off code. I couldn't resist adding a baby denim jacket - so cute!

Because I am on a personal shopping ban

I am buying G clothes because I am on shopping ban for my own clothes, I am splurging a little bit on G.  She still hasn't transitioned into many of her size one clothing.  It was so true what people told me, once they start crawling the weight falls off and they end up staying in size zero longer than expected!  Now she is crawling I have reevaluated all the dresses I have bought in size one!  I thought it would be easier as she doesn't love getting changed, so I didn't want to complicate things with multiple layers.  But now she is crawling everywhere I can see that dresses are going to be annoying for her as they sometimes get caught on her knees.  So I wanted to buy some more leggings/pants - but not jeans or hard pants as she has big legs so that would be uncomfortable for her.  I ended up getting a Minnie Mouse onsie/overalls from Target - 20% off $16, footless tights all were on sale for $1.80 - that was a $4 saving each pack! A coat for next winter for $5.  And from Big W I got a Minnie Mouse pajamas for summer for $15.  I am starting to get impatient for her to move into the size ones already, she has so much stuff to wear!

XMAS! The very first one

Excuse my excitement of my babies very first Xmas, but it is her very first one!  Last Xmas I was PRAYING that she would come early and be a Xmas baby, no such luck.  This years it gives me a week and half more breathing room after Xmas to buy her presents (which means every year I can get her presents on sale!).  This year in my excitement I have bought her so far 3 Xmas outfits.  One from Target, one from Big W and one from Ebay.  Ta Dah!  I have no idea how I am going to have three occasions to wear the xmas outfits but wish me luck (well one for Santa photo, one for Xmas and one for...boxing day?).

I also wanted to buy some cute Etsy xmas bows for G's hair, but postage from America is a killer so I ended up looking at Big W and Target who had some  - priced more expensive than Etsy but no postage costs so were a lot cheaper!

Crawling....eeeek

While G has been able to move for awhile, now she can move but is also curious!  So all bets are off :-).  She is getting into everything! We had to put up safety gates as she is exploring the whole house, so safety gates up on the steps and in the kitchen.   We bought these gates for $49 each which I thought was quite reasonable!  I think we might need a playpen as well, putting her in the backyard is not as easy any more as she makes a break for the garden beds every time.  I am unsure about the time limit on playpens though, how long until they can knock them over etc - I will have to do some more research!

Best little traveller!

G and I did had a huge road trip, 3 hours to visit family then 4 hours back home. I timed it she she was ready for a sleep for the bit of the trip, then lots of snacks and toys. Three hours is about her patience level for being in the car seat, so the last hour of the trip was high maintenance! Lots of singing and throwing every toy available at her lol. We know have a DVD player to try when her patience runs out next road trip :-). It's good that she is a great road trip companion as Hubby and I love road trips. She also loves the Ergo we bought, she goes to sleep on the back pack while we take walks etc. Well spent money!

Because G is such a little mover know, we need to finally buy a portacot. Especially as do a lot of traveling. I want this one, but we will see...

So much fun!

After G had so much fun in the ball pit at Gymbaroo I decided to buy some balls and clam shells for home. Balls were on special at Babies R Us for $9.95 and clam shells from Kmart for $25. Clam shells can also be used for a wading pool and/or sand pit!

so many modes of transport!

As previously posted we have now got two prams!  And now we also have a baby carrier - the Ergobaby Performance Carrier. Little G has never slept in the pram, and I tried and tried!  So the other day my Hubby ended up carrying a sleeping baby for 40mins while we were out.  We promptly went to Babies R Us and bought this Ergobaby performance carrier!  It was $200 so way not budgeted for, but my Hubby felt like it was now an essential purchase lol.  It carries up to 36mth old children, though my Hubby said there was no way he was carrying a four year old in a carrier.  Hehe.  We have yet to use so I will have to update the blog with a review in the near future.

Although we are on a careful budget I also bought two things from Tinyme.  In preparation of G going back to childcare I bought personalised iron on labels for her daycare clothes.  I also bought a personalised wooden puzzle.  She loves wooden puzzles and I thought that would be a cute way for her to start to learn her name and how to spell it!  Altogether with postage it was nearly $60, I find that Tinyme pretty much never has sales or discounts on their main items so I wasn't going to bother waiting for one!

Personalised

I love love personalised stuff!  For only my baby though, I recognise its not that cute on adults - even if Carrie on Sex in the City gave it a good whirl with her Carrie necklace.  G needs a clock in her room, mainly so I can monitor the time it takes to put her down for her sleeps!  I ended up getting this one from Deals Direct with her name written on it.  It goes with the disney pink theme that has slowly evolved as her room! I also bought a personalised shirt from Ebay with her in the Miss Kitty theme.

Because we have recently moved away from family, even though we will still see them every 6-8 weeks I realise that its important that G continues to recognise and be familiar with everybody.  I have been meaning to do up a photo album up for ages that she can look at all the time but hadn't got around to it.  Then I saw that Big W had a huge photo sale on and was selling soft cover photo books for $5, score I did one up online and will pick up in store shortly.

Gymbaroo

I finally got around to putting my bub in a Gymbaroo class.  When she was little little, we decided to go to a music class instead of Gymbaroo - probably for the best really as I think her age now is the perfect time to start Gymbaroo.  I am so glad I started to take her to playgroup classes very early (7 weeks), because to follow her progress and interaction with the world has been amazing!  She just loved the Gymbaroo class which involved exploring different play stations and also other sensory group activities.  We are also expanding our food adventures to proper baby led weaning, trying different biscuits and fruits - she is embracing it all!  Still not proper crawling at 9 months but she can get anywhere she wants by bum shuffling lol.

I bought her this love heart dress from Kmart for $8 and a whole stack of character dresses like this Dora one from Ebay.  Dresses are so easy for us so I am embracing them for the next year, shorts and skirts are out!

cheese sticks :-)

I could not resist buying this Winnie the Pooh overalls, they were from Target and with 20% off were $16. There are heaps of cute clothes coming in store but I am resisting because I know how cheap they are when they have sales!

Turns out my LO loves cheese sticks!  She demolishes them.  She is taking very well to solids (finally), but still does not love savoury stuff.  I am trying to get away from a lot of fruit food and just mixing one fruit with muesli, and sneaking in a couple of teaspoons of savoury ;-).  I am not a super mum at cooking thats for sure, but in a couple of weeks when we are settled in our new home I am going to try harder.

Toys Toys Toys

So it turns out that the toy library where we are living now is not that great.  Thats really disappointing, as G really needed some new toys - especially with the new developmental phase she is in.  My Hubby disagrees because he thinks she has a lot of toys already, but she has only a few actual toys (I posted about them when I bought them from the big toy sale that happened a few months ago), but most of her 'toys' are building blocks and stacking cups - thats why it looks like she has so many toys as they are scattered all over her play mat and need to be picked up every night.  So after extensive research and price checking I went to Kmart and purchased the following.  I think that until Xmas this should get us through :-).

$9.  This is such a classic toy

$9.  This is a shape sorter, plus a drum and a pull toy

G cannot stand at the moment, but this is a classic toy for when kids are learning to walk so they can push it around and stack their blocks in and out. $15

$25.  I like this one because it has heaps of push and spin and pull open stuff.  This one was a bit $$ but I think it will be money well spent.

Bargains beware!

At the moment there are a lot of sales out there!  G is in between sizes at the moment so some size zeros fit her and some size ones fit her.  I am trying not to 'stock up' on size ones to much as she is probably going to be in size one for a year and if I keep stocking up she will end up with a ridiculous amount of clothes!  So I have been good and only picked a few things up at the Cotton On sale in size one, a Jumper, a sparkly pink cardigan, a cute dress and two cute long sleeve tops.  I really really wanted to buy the cutest Smurfette dress from Big W - but it was $25, thats totally ridiculous.  And unlike Target, Big W never seem to have sales.  I tried to find a pic of the dress online but couldn't darn it!

$7.50

$7.50

$15

$10

$10