Tag: moms

I HEART ZAPPOS!

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Yesterday I had one of the greatest customer service experiences of my entire life.  Seriously, it’s the stuff legends are made of.

I ordered a pair of Christmas shoes for Bay about a week ago. I love Zappos free shipping both ways policy (I hate paying to ship back a return) and I am now in love with their “video view”. You know when you’re looking at something on-line and you can’t quite tell if it’s the right color or if it would look right on? Enter video view. It’s a quick 20 second video of an employee holding, squishing, twisting and pointing out the assets of a shoe. I was set on a pair until I watched the video and saw the color wasn’t quiet true to the picture. LOVE.

Naturally I was super excited to open the Zappos box when it came yesterday – but when I did, I realized it was the wrong shoes. I checked the receipt to confirm that I didn’t have an aneurism while shopping and saw that they had clearly shipped me the wrong shoe. Right size, wrong color and style. No biggie, I’ve returned with them before so I knew it wouldn’t be a huge deal. I called up customer service and with in 45 seconds was connected to a person (LOVE). I explained the problem and read off all the number for my order and on the box. The man said he would get it fixed in no time and would I mind holding.

When he came back, he apologized profusely and told me that the shoes I wanted were no longer available in B’s size. Before I could relay my disappointment, he had already launched into a compensation shpeel – Zappos was going to refund my money for the wrong shoes but they insisted that I keep the wrong shoes since they were the right size AND they were going to give me a $25 coupon to purchase a new, different pair. Huh? I asked him to run through it again so I was sure I got the point – I got my money back. And a free pair of shoes. And a nearly free pair of the shoes I actually wanted?? LOVE.

When B woke from her nap, I tried on the new free shoes and realized that she really could get away with a half-size bigger. So I used my coupon and ordered her up the pair I wanted in a half-size bigger for a total of $8.99! Amazing!

She’ll be looking so fancy in her new, nearly free shoes! Shop Zappos. Shop them often and tell your friends!

BFFs

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Baylor’s new things are favorites and bests. As in her favorite song, animal and meal and bests friends.

She is constantly asking me if the song we’re listening is my favorite, or if my shoes are my favorite pair, or if my car is my favorite car. And in turn, she tells me when she’s wearing her favorite outfit, hair bows and Bear the dog.

After a weekend spent with her step cousins, soon to be cousin and second cousins (yes, we are the actual Big Fat Greek wedding family – just English decent), Baylor is into picking her best friends. On Thursday, it was her cousin Madi. Then her cousin Zoe. On Saturday, it was her cousin Abby. And on Sunday, it was me.

While getting ready for bed, B looked at me and sincerely said “Mommy, you mine best friend”. My heart melted. I reciprocated and told her she was my best friend and she responded with “No mommy, you mine best friend”. There was no need to argue. It was better to just snuggle up with my BFF.

Black Friday Freaks

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I will never, ever, ever understand people who love to shop on Black Friday.

As an employee of the retail world on several levels and for many years, I have worked more BF’s than I care to mention. I have seen the hordes of crazy shoppers and tried to meet their requests all while having sales numbers pounded over my head by corporate. It is, in fact, horrible.

I know, I know. Good deals, blah blah blah, great bargains, blah blah blah, amazing prices, blah blah blah. None of those reasons are good enough for me. I was thinking about it…and the only way I would go shop at midnight – on Black Friday (or any day at midnight for that matter) -would be if ALL of my Christmas gifts were at one store and they were all 50% + off retail price. That’s it. I’m not getting out of my warm, cozy bed to go browse items that I may or may not want on the 20% off rack.

It’s going to take some pretty tough convincing. But if you have any amazing reasons why shopping on BF is worth it, then let me hear it. Otherwise, I stay cynical, bitter and with online shopping…

Giving Thanks

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Holy moly. It’s been a crazy week! Thanksgiving was one of the best yet  – after 5 years of hosting, I think we have feeding 20+ down to a science. We’ve gotten to see and spend time with old friends and lots of extended family. Baylor is officially BFFs with her second cousin, Abby. And is solidly convinced that her (step) cousins are the best.

Mother Nature threatened, once again, to rain on our parade. I literally stepped out onto our patio with my hands on my hips just daring her to keep sprinkling all over my beautifully set table. Thankfully, I have a very convincing “mom stare” and she backed off before my linens were soaked. In fact, the sun came out by the time all of our family and friends arrived with side dishes in hand. PW’s turkeys were the best he’s ever made and the entire evening was…relaxed. The everyone ate and then sat and enjoyed the beautiful Arizona weather, candle light and kid’s laughter.

{Mother Nature threatening to ruin my table!}

{Chef Wand}

{Chef Wand’s Turkeys}

{Titi and cousin Zoe}

{The hungry crowd}

{How many kids can you fit on a toddlers climber?}

{this many!}

{How do you make tree climbing more interesting? Do it in a tree not really meant for climbing and add fire!}

{A sweet note from cousin Madi about being thankful}

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving too! I am very thankful for you reading, commenting and liking my humble blog 🙂

I Like You

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This morning while changing Baylor’s Pull Up, she put her hands on my face and said:

“Mommy, I like your shirt. And you ponytail and your headband. And I like your eyes and your mouth. And I like your boogers.”

With “boogers” she cracked up. As did I. I asked her if she meant the rest of it but she was too busy giggling at her own joke to respond. I like to think that she meant all of it!

I NICE NOW!!!

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Baylor has been working on pushing her boundaries lately. She’s exercising her right to ignore me and flexing her 2 year old muscles when it comes to doing the exact opposite of what I am asking/telling/screaming at her to do. In all? It’s been a fun two weeks.

I decided it was time to get tough so on Sunday, I instituted “two times and then time out” – meaning I will ask her two times to do something (just in case she didn’t hear or understand me) and if she still doesn’t listen, it’s to the crib for some quiet time.

Her school describes the use of time outs as a chance for the child regain control of themselves. Which I think is a nice way of saying “we make them sit by themselves until they get their sh*t together and can rejoin their pals”. Which I am totally down with.

I lost my temper on Sunday when she just. would. not. sit. and. eat. her. food. It was making me insane and she was doing everything except eat including dancing, crawling across the counter, singing, screaming and feeding her carrots to Bear. I had had it so I scooped her up and deposited her in her crib and said “Call me when you’re ready to be nice”. Maybe 5 minutes later, I can hear her saying Mommy and then something else, but I couldn’t make it out. Then PW started cracking up – she was saying “MOMMY!! I NICE NOW!!”. And she was nice. She came out, finished her dinner with only a little fussing and we had a great rest of the evening.

Then yesterday morning, 6:45, she was right back in the crib for not listening when I asked her to sit down in her seat rather than stand on it. Again I hear ” MOMMY!! I LISTEN YOU NOW!!!” and she did listen and the rest of the day went smooth.

I’m not sure if the time oust are more for her or for me, but I can say that her humor cracks me up.

Baylorisms – part 2

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Because our sweet girl has a language all her own:

“Frog” – Bay has a humidifier that looks like a frog. Therefore all humidifiers are called Frogs.

“Hopsitle” – or hospital to you and me

“Gubs” – gloves

“Cookie” – her cousin Quincy

“Nahma and Nampa” – grandma and grandpa

“Poppynoni” – the fast way to say Pop and Noni

“NumNums” – her favorite stuffed rabbit – Peter taught her that rabbits say “num num num” when their little noses twitch

“Loga” – yoga

“Busssssss” – when she was just starting to speak, she would only say Buh for bus. I would accentuate the S sound and now bus has a super long s!

“Baylor lock” – the lock on the door that she can’t reach and therefore keeps her inside. When Peter comes home, I hear “Mommy!! I can’t open door because the BAYLOR lock!!”

 

 

 

The Littlest Blockwatch

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Ever since we’ve become friends with our neighbor, Melissa, Bay has had an eye on her house. B was hooked with the first high-five “Missa” gave her and now she is constantly on the look out. I know when Missa has left her patio light on. I’m told when her kitchen blinds are open and if her car is there all because the Littlest Block Watch is filling me in. I know when Missa is cutting her grass and when she’s missed a spot. I know if Missa has gotten her mail or if it’s still in the mail box.

The funniest part is what Missa is allegedly doing when she is or isn’t home – if the blinds are closed, I’m told that Missa is very tired and still sleeping. If her car is gone, then she’s probably at “Loga” – or yoga to you and me. And when Bay’s door is open with the baby gate and Missa’s windows are open, there is a constant stream of “HIII MISSAAAAA!!!” being shouted out the door until I explain that she probably can’t hear her – or that Missa probably thinks there is some kind of wild animal making crazy sounds.

I finally broke down and told Melissa a few months ago that there is little that she does that goes unnoticed at our house. I was expecting her to freak out and decide to put up a privacy fence or something (and rightly so). Instead she responded “Oh good, I’m glad someone’s got an eye on the place!”. And now I get a text once in awhile asking the LBW to keep a close eye while she’s away.

This will be a great story when Bay is a detective or a FBI agent some day….or as evidence against her in a stalker trial. Either way, it’s cute.

Today is Scottsdale Moms Blog day! Be sure to see my post on cute Thanksgiving themed crafts. 

Say Cheese

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I have been on the hunt for a photographer that fit into our budget to take family pictures for us. I love pictures and I like when I get to be in them, which doesn’t often happen when I’m the one taking all the pictures! Plus, I love the candid shots and retouching of professional work.

Awhile ago I “liked” a friend from high school’s photography page – 2 Comforts Photography. I thought she did mostly wedding work but recently saw some family pics pop up. So I reached out to Meredith for a quote and it turned out that not only were her rates increadibly reasonable, they were having a special AND had openings! Jackpot!

So we met a few weekends ago at Civic Center Park and spent an hour snapping pics. I have to say that Bay was quite cooperative. She did start to loose it towards the end of the hour, but Meredith and her husband Travis were able to catch some great shots during that phase. Needless to say, I am thrilled with pictures and I can’t wait to get them up on the wall!

Here are a few of my favorites:

 

This is the epitome of our relationship – we just follow her lead!

Act surprised when you get our Christmas card, ok?

I love this one

This was when we started entering the uncooperative phase. Thankfully she looks cute when she’s being defiant.

Thank you again Meredith and Travis for the gorgeous family treasures!