mommapalooza

the things you find when you're lost

This morning, I loaded Madeline up in the car and set out to run two errands - dropping a spare pair of contact lenses off at my husband's office and then onward to the yarn shop. The first errand was accomplished deftly enough (considering that we drive to this office multiple times a week), but it was our subsequent journey where things went quite wrong. The yarn shop is located in a part of town that I am embarrassingly unfamiliar with, so I was using my TomTom to get there. Only, I must have inadvertently turned the sound off, so I have no idea what kind of directions it was giving me, I kept driving straight for way too long, turned off somewhere, and I suddenly found myself on the highway to the Irish Loop. Ooops. I took the first exit of the highway, and ended up on Topsail Road. Was there anything good on Topsail Road? Why, yes! St. John's sole baby boutique, coo chi coo. Hadn't been there before.
 

Madeline's not really a baby anymore, but I did think that maybe this place would stock the Mustela shampoo that I'd been recommended for finally banishing her cradle's cap, so we stepped in.

Lo and behold, they did carry Mustela products. And tons of other nifty things like Zooper strollers, Hotslings, Babylegs, and Bjorn potties, which I had in the past ordered over the internet, and often from the US (hello, duty fees). They carry Snack Traps, an item that I quested after while in Edmonton this past summer. Manhattan Baby toys, which we liked spoiling Madeline with when we were still in Calgary. And other cool things, too. I offered to buy Madeline a Steady Cup, but she turned me down, saying those were for babies (hee hee!). She tried on a few pairs of SKRs, but the Size 9s were an inch too big, and the Size 8s were a squeeze. Boo.

I'm kind of impressed that the types of things are so much more available domestically than they were when Madeline was an infant, and even more impressed that it's possible to buy a pair of Babylegs without having to leave St. John's!

it's a bird, it's a plane ...

  ... no, it's Super Madeline, wearing her playsilk from Bumbershoot Baby like a cape on her back. I ordered one of those for her a few weeks ago after reading about their play potential on the Baby Bargains board. I was originally going to make one for her, but I found that the shipping charges to Canada from the Dharma Trading Co. for undyed habotai silk squares a bit exorbitant (something like $15 for my $6 square). So far, Madeline likes to wear the playsilk like a cape, use it as a blanket for her stuffed animals, and on occasion thinks it's fun to tie it on like a skirt.

Today's links:

• Shape of a Mother, in case someone somewhere on the internet hasn't heard of it. (It might not be cool to open this one at work, btw.)
• This post at Diary of a Playgroup Dropout. I started reading this blog because of the catchy name, having struggled with the whole playgroup genre myself (and check out my all-time fave photo of baby I don't know).
• I've been trying to keep up with Picture This. I love that is a blog out there dedicated to helping average parents take better photos of their little people. I am so glad that the recent posts have been on cropping, as it just occured to me that lack of cropping is why I'm not so smitten with the proofs from Madeline's latest photo session. I better take another look at them ...

maybe they're just out-of-fashion

I've been making weekly pilgrimages to Old Navy lately, trying to score a few pairs of capri pants for Madeline to navigate the too-warm-for-pants but too-chilly-for-shorts weather that I anticipate arriving any day now. To make the shopping trip avec toddler faster, I usually glance at the Old Navy website and pick out the items that I'd like to buy for Madeline. The only problem with this system is that the Old Navy here is tiny and has maybe one-third of the online inventory.  Of course, that third contains only spring dresses, swimwear, and Perfect Ts in girly shades of black, white, and grey. Blah. I've been there three times in the last three weeks and there was nary a pair of capris to be found.  The last time I made a purchase at the St. John's Old Navy, I was selected to fill out their online customer feedback survey, and I actually filled out the comment form at the end, pleading for capris pants. I'm sad, yes.

I was window-shopping on the Babylegs site again, and they have a some new styles in purple. The frivolous part of me thinks that Madeline totally needs another pair of legwarmers, but the sensible part of me says that we're almost past the cold weather and the two pair she already has will do.  If I hadn't sworn off white (aka "stain magnet") shirts for Madeline, I'd be all over the Ts at Ellabeebaby, though. My faves are Food Critic, Buttercup, and Beeloved.  Ah, who am I kidding? I'd also be ordering I Eat Bunnies, Sea Monster, and Are We There Yet?  from the seasonal page. That's $95.70 worth of t-shirts, if anyone is keeping track.

The First Law of Toddler-Stain Dynamics

The degree of difficulty in removing a stain from an article of clothing is directly proportional to the retail cost of said article.

I'm facing my third round with the mysterious orange coloured stains on Madeline's cute little green jogging pants from BabyGap.  I've Oxy-Cleaned and rubbed, Oxy-Cleaned and rubbed. From past experience, I know that if I'd bought these at Wal-Mart, the marks would have come out in the wash the first time ...

What's the point of buying Madeline a few nice outfits? They're the first to get introduced to mud puddles and tomato sauce, and the hardest to launder.

it's too bad she doesn't have much hair

Well, it's actually probably a good thing that Madeline doesn't have a lot of hair yet, because if she did I'd be sorely tempted to splurge on the adorable hair clips I found over at Giddy Giddy.  I wonder if it's telling that I can't find the price of the clips anywhere on the website :)  I totally love the watermelon one ...