Shop, shop, shop

Today's the Big Shopping Day. I've been boycotting this day for as long as I can remember - preferring to stay home with my family in lieu of fighting over bargains with a bunch of strangers. But this year, Amazon.com was advertising HUGE HOLIDAY DEALS, so I thought I'd leave all the stuff I have in my cart for the kids in there, and then purchase everything today, hoping something would go on sale.

The only product that changed price was the Fisher Price Alphabet Zoo that I've been wanting to get for them - and it went up $5! I think Amazon.com is punishing me.

Anyway, I thought I'd offer a small, modest holiday gift guide here at Pretty Babies. I can remember my life B.C. (before children), and how impossible it was to buy gifts for kids. I still have a hard time with the kids in my life who are older than mine (although I like to believe I'm getting better). So, below, please find a helpful list of gifts for the significant babies, and moms, and maybe even dads, in your life. Hope you find something useful!

Do you have a friend who has a baby, but who is not the type to carry a diaper bag emblazoned with fuzzy ducks and bunnies and bears? How much would he or she love one of these?

Sure, it's for "tech," but if it can hold a magazine, it can hold a couple diapers, some wipes, your lipstick, your cell phone, and hide a couple of essential baby toys. Then you've got your hands free for shopping (or holding the baby, or whatever). I think it's super. I don't have one (hint, hint) but I got one of the mens' styles for B.J. a couple of years ago, and he wears it a lot. He uses it for tech, although I have been known to stick diapers in the back wall, where you're supposed to carry a laptop (!!).

If you really want to give the parent in your life hands free ability, give them a sling. The good people at Kangaroo Korner really need to start paying me a commission. Seriously. Anyway, you put the sling on under your tech jacket, then put the baby in your sling, and you are ready for any parenting adventure. I have the adjustable pouch, in both fleece and mesh. I love it, love it, love it.

But what about the babies? Pretty Babies don't read the internet, so it's safe for me to tell you that I'm getting them the newly-more-expensive Fisher Price Little People Zoo. Mary Grace loves her Little People, and she loves animals. I figure most of the zoo animals will end up in the farm that she already has. Maybe the lions will eat the cows. It will be very exciting.

I found this Jumpolene Castle at Amazon.com, and I am so excited to get it for my kids. MG has a really bad bed jumping habit going on, which I'm hoping to curtail by giving her a place where she can safely jump. Of course, it will also work as a play house, or a castle, or a fort for pretend play. I love something that's multi-use. I may regret it, because it looks huge and it will take up a large corner of the playroom, but I think they'll have a lot of fun in it.

Pretty Daddy reads the internet, so I can't talk about what I'm getting for him, but that's okay because I have no idea. He is extremely hard to shop for. Suggestions welcome in the comments. In fact, if Pretty Daddy would like to leave anonymous comments with a detailed list of exactly what he wants, that would be super. One year I got him a case of mint flavored Snapple iced tea, which they no longer sell in this market. Another year I got him that tech jacket. Last year I got him an astrolabe. After 10 years, though, I'm totally running out of ideas. Thank God the good people in silicone valley keep coming out with new toys, or I'd be sunk. What is the hot tech gift for 2007?

I admit that I usually do a search for "holiday gift guide geek" to find his present. I'm not finding anything that moves me this year, though.

Another gift that would be super for moms with young kids is an mp3 player with a gift subscription to Audible.com. I've gotten into the habit of listening to audiobooks when I'm putting the kids to bed, and it has been really nice. Those first few bleary months when it feels like all you do is breastfeed and complain about how tired you are would go by a lot faster with the addition of audiobooks. Because lets face it, babies are wonderful, but they're really crappy conversationalists.

The other tech gift (can you tell we're complete nerds?) that has saved our sanity as parents has been the ability to digitally record TV shows and play them back when it's convenient for us. We don't have a TiVo (BJ actually built our digital video recorder - that's a whole 'nother post), but I've seen some super deals on TiVos in the past around the holidays.

That's all I can think of right now, and I'm also ruminating a post about the book I'm reading and how it's going to change the way the PrettyBaby family eats in the not-distant future, so I'm going to go write the outline for that right now (yes, I put that much time, effort, and thought into the posts here at the blog for all of y'all. That is how committed I am to quality!). So stay tuned...

And if you have great gift suggestions, leave them in the comments. I'm particularly interested in ideas for grandparents!!