Garage Sales

Kids cost a lot. Diapers, clothes, food, and toys toys toys. Last year, I hit one garage sale in a neighborhood across the street from mine. I found a Richard Scarry book with lots of short stories, a Thomas the Tank Train set and a Hanna Andersson quilted jacket like this one but yellow, altogether I spent $5.00.  The jacket is my daughters absolute favorite, and it can totally work for a boy, so it'll last for years.
Well now, that Tesla is old enough to play outside more and more I really want to get things that will be good for out door play so I have been hitting garage sales on a more regular basis. T also has a lot of friends who are boys and a little brother so I'm trying to find things that will appeal to them too. (Not just girly stuff.) Last weekend I found a Mega Blocks Firetruck, Little People Dinosaur set and some army guys and planes and such.

All for $8.00!

Not bad right? Tesla loves the truck but mostly the dinosaurs. I haven't showed her the army stuff yet. That will be strictly outside, because there's a lot of them and they are just cheapy toys and will most likely get broken quickly. The firetruck was pretty gross when I got it. It was covered in spiders, dirt and I think animal hair. Not sure though. It was probably played with just outside and these things happen. I soaked it in some water, soap and vinegar, scrubbed the whole thing down and used some goo gone for the labels that were kind of coming off. It looks great! I think everyone will have fun with it.
The other night we also found a Little Tikes Playhouse for the back yard for $35 on Craigslist. I still need to clean it and then put it back together before we show T but it will be a great addition to play time. I'm still looking for more activity items, like a T-ball set, but I there's no rush. In the mean time I'll keep hitting garage sales and see what I find. I'm hoping the lady who had the one last year that I bought the Hanna Andersson jacket at will have another one this year! She has two little girls that are about a year and half older than Tesla, so the possibilities are endless for good things I can find there!

What are you looking for at garage sales?
Let me know you're reading along and leave a comment.... You know it would make my day!

Update: Who needs a stroller anyway?

Who needs a stroller anyway??? Tesla does! I cannot believe how quickly I caved. You would think that after writing a blog entry I would be emphatical about not needing a stroller right? I would love to say it's not my fault that I was forced into it. It was a life or death situation or that I was delusional, but none of that is true. I am weak. WEAK WEAK WEAK!

Here's what happened. I went to the mall. (Problem right there.) I love to shop. It's true I do. You want me to go shopping for you and spend your money I will. It's fun! Anyway, I went to the mall. We needed new towels and Macy's was having a friends and family sale and a linens sale so we got bath sheets for 13.69 each which was a great deal! We had towels in our master bath when we moved but their not the same ones that we came back too. Plus a girl like me needs a bath sheet. So that took all of 10 minutes, since I knew exactly what I wanted, but I decided to go to through the rest of the Macy's and try and find some Mother's day gifts... I'm not going to say that I did or did not get Mother's day gifts for our mom's because they read this blog, but let me just tell you, I don't think they'll be unhappy!

After shopping I wanted to get a bite to eat, and I tested myself by going to the McDonald's. A test because all the caloric content is listed on the menu so I could totally see what was a bad choice or not. So I ended up getting a chicken salad without dressing and I believe that it was about 310 calories. Not bad for a lunch. I also got Tesla a four peice of chicken nuggets which if you take the breading off, look absolutely disgusting. She ended up not being to hungry so we left.

I decided after McDonald's that I would let her walk beside me. Well she ran, and I mean RAN to the Build A Bear store where guess what they had sitting in front? A pink stroller. She pushed that thing around for about 10 minutes. So excited. Finally I asked the clerk, how much it was so I would know come Christmas time. It was $12.50. $12.50. So I thought and thought and thought and thought and thought and thought, and bought it. Then I called Jason and he wasn't happy about it. After a lengthy discussion, pouting and canceling the massage that I had scheduled, he agreed to let me, I mean Tesla have it. Phew. Then promptly said you better blog that your a hypocrite. So I am. Everyone! Listen up! I, Tesla's mom am a hypocrite.

It's not like you didn't know this was going to happen right?

Who needs a stroller, anyway?

You know, I think back on it, and my parents had it so easy. Why didn't I think of it? Have your kid in June and that way you don't wear out all the present giving opportunities so close together! Well as we all know, although we were trying to have a kid, we didn't think it would happen so quickly, so she's born in January. Thank goodness it's at least the end of January so she won't end up all bitter like her Christmas born Papa. But it's hard, you know, you want your kid to have everything, on the other hand you want to raise them to not be spoiled, and for them not to expect you to buy them everything all the time. But then it's only $20.00, so why not get it?

Well the reality is or at least this is what I imagine the reality to be, not based on anyone I know. If your kids get everything they want the minute they say they want it, they'll just want more. Unfortunately abiding by this is really hard on me, but I figure I need to work on it now, when Tesla doesn't actually verbally say she wants anything in particular and doesn't know any better. So I didn't go buy her a stroller for her baby. She'll get one at Christmas or her birthday, but I'm going to wait the 9 agonizing months to get it for her, because these are values I want to adopt.

Ugh.

I hate it.

In the meantime, I found this pull behind cart that a friend gave us last year for outside. I cleaned it up and brought it in and Tesla loves putting the baby in it. Of course she doesn't actually pull the cart behind, she picks the whole thing up and walks around with it, but she'll figure it out. I also taught Tesla how to put the baby through the handle of the push and go toy. What can I say, it may look bad but she keeps doing it and pushing the baby in it. So I am proud of myself, I didn't go buy anything else for her and was able to make use of what we had, so now I don't have anything extra to put away or clean, and Tesla didn't get anything new, and she's perfectly happy.

It's hard to grow up sometimes. But as I am learning you need to be the example for your kids, you can't just expect them to behave a certain way if you don't do it yourself, I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of epiphanies in my future. Looking forward to it!

Less is More

As I have mentioned in the past I have been reading about organization, homemaking and raising kids. They all go hand and hand. Well one of my favorite blogs to read is the Lazy Organizer, which I of course have mentioned a few dozen times, and she basically says less is more, but in a way that I actually hear her. It's interesting how you can hear that in so many different ways but when I am finally at the point that I want to learn how to raise a healthy and happy child, and make a warm and comfortable home for myself, husband and kids, I actually hear it.

Not a day goes by that I don't think, oh Tesla could use this, or I "need" that. But the reality is I need nothing, and my daughter yes she does need a few things here and there but right now, she's set. In fact it seems hard to believe that at the age of 14 months she could possibly have to much but I really think she does.

Part of less is more for me is to think about the quality of toys that Tesla is playing with. Do they stimulate, entertain and educate her in some way? Not always. So I have started limiting the toys downstairs in our great room to toys that do just that. It's amazing how if I have her toy box overflowed she gets frustrated and bored easily, but if there is less in there she can entertain herself for quite some time. It's not hours, but definitely 20 minutes at a time with no outside stimulation from me. She generally will play with her abacus, her blocks, her baby doll, books and table and chairs. Those are her go to toys.

Now I am not at the point where I would get rid of anything of hers. Everything is so new I would feel bad just getting rid of them. What I have done is move them upstairs to her room, and often times when Papa gets home from work, he takes her upstairs to play while I finish up dinner or after dinner when he gets her ready for bed, and she has a lot of fun taking everything out, showing Papa and running around her room. It's been great. I'll share a couple of other "Less is More" ideas in later posts.

Photos: Tesla playing with her blocks. In case you are wondering if she has a scrape on her face, not it's raspberry leftovers from lunch. What can I say I'm still working on being neat.

Wooden Blocks

A couple of days ago we picked up a set of 60 Standard Unit Blocks from Melissa and Doug. Thanks Grandma Myra!!! Tesla spent a a good hour playing with them as soon as I opened them. I knew this was immediately a good choice! As you know I have been reading up on early childhood education. Slowly but surely I'm reading up on it. To tell you the truth it's more slowly then surely. One of the suggestions in the book Creative Curriculum was to use blocks to represent other toys to stimulate creativity and brain development. So perhaps we'll play with some toy cars and make noises and push them around the room, then perhaps I'll do the same thing with a block, pushing it around the room and making noises as if it was a car. I found this very interesting, and as I have always been an imaginative person I feel that this kind of stimulation will be easy for me to do with Tesla.

Of course there is always building things with the toys too. Tesla has started stacking a set of cups that we got for her in December. The blocks required a bit more examining with her mouth though before she started stacking them. In the pictures of her playing with the blocks I've stacked them. She's not THAT smart.

The blocks are very nice and the come with a wooden box to store them in. The blocks are made with Rubberwood, and unfinished. Since Tesla likes to put everything in her mouth I did not want to get anything that she could scrape the paint off of. Not that they were toxic, all the painted items say they are non-toxic but because they would not last as long or look as good.

Tesla enjoyed playing inside the box too, she sat inside the box and filled the box up around her with blocks.   Every time I built anything she immediately took it down. But I'll keep building to show her and to stimulate that little brain of hers.

I think we are headed in the right direction for toys. I go through her toy box at least once a week and pull things out that she doesn't play with and introduce something "new" from her bedroom. She's not getting bored, so I must be doing something right. She's also getting bigger and bigger. The things she enjoyed doing, like climbing into the laundry basket are becoming very frustrating because she can't maneuver herself correctly. Her frustration level is getting low for such issues and I'm working on problem solving with her, so that she doesn't scream every time she can't reach her ball, or she climbs into the laundry basket for the umpteenth time and can't get comfortable.

The Future Gift

I admit it, I love to shop, now spending money not so much. But now with the internet and blogs it's great, because I can read someone's blog or search on Amazon and find all kinds of products that I don't need. I just like to look. What can I say, it may be weird but I never claimed to be any different.


Anyway, I was reading a blog today and the person had made an apron for their daughter. It was so cute! There was a link in there to get the pattern. The pattern was a crazy $15, so I'm not going to buy it especially when T, is just a little to young for an apron. But in the picture of the apron there was a little mixer, by IPlay Gourmet Mit It Up! So cute.

I envision this as a birthday gift in the years to come, since I cook and bake a lot, and I always show Tesla what's in the mixing bowl and I try to involve her, I am hoping she'll be interested in it too. If not then, fine, I'll get her a rock!

Play Time

Tesla and I went to the Kids Cove at Bellevue Square and played on their toys. It was so fun. Above are two pictures of her playing. The first picture is on a tug boat, she's walking around the deck. The second picture is her walking around the ferry. The Meydenbauer is a ferry that is commonly used in Puget Sound. I think we'll try going here often, it's a lot of fun, and plus I get to go window shopping which I love!

The last picture is of Tesla reading a book on her new chair from Grandma Myra and Pop Pop. How cute. She just loves sitting in it and we think she looks adorable!

The Big Red Chair

The gifts keep coming! For Tesla's birthday Grandma Myra and Pop pop got Tesla a cozy lounge chair. Because every 1 year old needs somewhere to relax! At first she totally ignored the chair, but then Papa sat in it and she thought that was pretty funny and she's been climbing into it ever since. We'll be moving the chair into the TV room eventually but right now she can't be on the floor in there so it'll stay in the great room for now. She loves to carry things around too. In this video she's carrying Papa's cell phone holder. Last night while a friend was over she walked around with a pad of post it notes and she loves to take her baby doll with her around the house. It's really cute. I'm sure when she starts walking more things will turn up in the weirdest locations, but right now she's still crawling with them around so the rearrangement of items is limited.

Cool Mom Picks

So one of my favorite websites to look at every day is called Cool Mom Picks. It's a blog in which they pick 2-3 items that are mom or baby related, and you can follow the links in their commentary about the item and buy the item. I love looking at everything. I check it out everyday. It's the ultimate in window shopping because I can do it anywhere because of my beautiful blackberry. Anyway they just came out with a holiday gift guide, and if you put their button on your website or blog they'll enter you to win a raffle. So here's their button. If you want to check out the site you can follow the link by clicking on the button.

Some Very Cute Things

So I check out the Cool Mom Picks website everyday. They show products for mom's, babies and dad's too. But it's generally pretty expensive. I get a lot of great ideas for crafting and for when we when the lottery. Here are some of the things I saw on today's posting. (I can't seem to grab the actual images but you can follow the links.)

http://www.naturalpod.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=53_48

http://hivemodern.com/pages/products.php?view=sub_product&sid=3509&cid=346