Tina Clark's Posts
Shopping! Shopping! Shopping!
It's shopping time! Black Friday. Cyber Monday. Deals, discounts, free shipping, FOR ONE DAY ONLY!!! Agghh! You would think that as a seasoned shopper, who enjoys the hunt of finding good deals, all this would entice me. Alas, no, it has the opposite effect. Information overload. Early bird specials that discriminate against night owls like me. Too many people. Too little time. **Boop** my internal drive (to shop) shuts down.
But I don't have a choice, I have to shop. I have to get presents for Lauren and Charlie and Mya and Tyler and Sherri and Gram and.... ugh, the list is endless! Last year at this time I was a D.I.N.K. (double income, no kids) and this year I am officially a Busy Mom. No more trips to the mall on the way home from work... now I gotta work around the needs of a full time job and a semi-mobile 10 month old!
Online shopping after baby's bedtime will be my savior. Many of my gift choices will be easy - I will make picture gifts with my photos of Lauren! I know my in-laws would love a mug or a tote showing off their little Granddaughter. The collage feature in the gallery is great too - you can put up to 100 different pictures into one collage! I made one from 9 pictures - I love that the different pictures capture the range of Lauren's personality. I will definitely frame a few 8x10 collages for the family.
But I'm sure that because of my inner Bargonista Shopaholic, I will still find myself online, at 1am, clicking and searching and buying. If anyone has any other gift ideas, sites (I love styleforfree.com for coupon codes and deals), suggestions, please comment! If you help me early enough, maybe I'll actually have a good night's sleep in December!
For future reference
I've taken some pictures of the little one sans clothing... mainly for documentation purposes, to prove to her, when she's older, that she was once a freaky child. "Freaky child?" you ask. Yes, she looks normal enough in her onesies and footy pajamas, but underneath reveals a different story...
On her chest she has "The Big Dipper" - hemangiomas - red, raised birth marks - many the size of a pencil eraser - forming a constellation across her midsection... she also has a very visible one on her eyebrow, which usually prompts other small children to say, "baby has a boo boo"...
...and then there's her "belly balloon" - a herniated belly button that used to expand out like a little balloon. At times it got so big (when she was gassy), I'd worry that it was going to pop! It's already getting better, now it's mostly just a rather prominent "outie".
Both the hemangiomas and the herniated belly button are supposed to go away by the time she is old enough to worry about having funny body "embellishments" that weren't purposefully pierced or tattooed there (God help me when she does want to do that!). So when she is older... and the birth marks have gone away... the belly button is almost an innie... I can show her, through pictures, her "big dipper" and "belly balloon". And even though she might not admit it, I'd bet a bag of donuts that she'll miss how unique she was in her naked baby pictures.