Felix Doolittle

We received the cutest housewarming gift from our friends, the Rice's, that I had to blog about. Katie, Dana, and Jack gave us the most adorable return address labels and play date cards from Felix Doolittle, an online store that specializes in personalized stationary featuring tiny watercolor images painted by Felix Fu. Monogrammed or personalized items are some of my most favorite things so, I immediately fell in love the the Felix Doolittle website. His stationary is fun, classic, and whimsical, which I just love for both adults and children. So, if you are ever looking for a great hostess, birthday, or housewarming gift, scoot on over to Felix Doolittle for the perfect present.

Tory Burch

Last night, I attended a very fun shopping event at Tory Burch hosted by the Junior League of Chicago. I have always loved her Reva flats, but never really looked at any other pieces of her line and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to window shop, while sipping champagne and hanging out with my girlfriends.

There were a couple items I absolutely fell in love with including the Rose wedge, the Degrade Logo Clutch and this gorgeous blouse that I can't seem to find a picture of. Unfortunately, I kept hearing my husband's voice chatting in my ear telling me that I do not need to spend that much money on shoes, purses or blouses. We are in a recession, remember? Frankly, he is right, but it took a lot of will power not to pull the trigger. One more glass of champagne and I might have made the purchase. I did, however, opt to buy a very cute comfortable pair of flip flops. They are a great cure for the winter blues and a good reminder of our trip to San Diego in April and summer being right around the corner.

ElephanToes

Shortly after Ethan was born we received the most adorable burp cloths from ElephanToes, a small home business run by Marcy Barkema. Since then, I have been meaning to do a post to endorse her ideas, talent and creativity. Not only does she make the cutest burp cloths, she also can do onesies, bibs, crayon rolls, and many other fabulous personalized items. Marcy and I hit it off right away while e-mailing back and forth. She and her husband are expecting in January and I am certain that little one will be outfitted with the best monogrammed items. So, if you are looking for a great, well crafted gift for friends with little ones, check out ElephanToes, you won't be disappointed. You can check out a lot of her designs here or see some of my favorites below!

Tuckered Out

I captured this picture of Ethan after running several errands Sunday afternoon. Do you think he was a little tired? Either that or quite bored since I had dragged (or is it drug) him all over the city in the freezing cold. I am currently on a mission to complete Ethan's nursery....geez, it has only been 5 months....so, I spent most of the weekend at Target, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and Pottery Barn Kids gathering the last of what I need to complete his room/our guest room. Everything is almost hung and decorated so be on the lookout for pictures soon! Since Matt was at the Bears game on Sunday, Ethan had to be my companion, much to his dismay. I am sure he would have rather spent the afternoon curled up with his dad on the couch!

Issues R' Us

While we were at dinner in Lake Geneva over the weekend my sister, and I were talking about the blog and some improvements/changes that could possibly be made. I did not inherit the creative writing gene that my sister did and she is a great writer herself; so I really do appreciate any suggestions she might have. I will admit that I am not a very good writer and very long winded (hence the length of this post) so, I can’t promise huge improvements in that category, but I can change the content of the posts. One thing she suggested is that I should offer more opinions on various topics or how I am feeling about certain areas of my life. Well, I don’t know if this conversation jinxed the experience Matt and I had at Babies R Us on Sunday or what, but Kristi, this post is for you!

Just to get my feelings out in the open right off the bat, I am completely annoyed and frustrated with Babies R Us.

On Sunday, Matt and I headed to Babies R Us to exchange and return some items that we received for Baby Hunt; the main item being the Bumbleride Indie Stroller my mom’s Bunko group so graciously gave us. Why, you might ask, are we returning the stroller? There were two reasons why, really. The first reason was to support Grow, a local children’s shop in our neighborhood. They have been extremely friendly and helpful every time we have been in there to look at the Bumbleride. It would be nice to know that if we ever had any problems with the stroller, we could walk down the block and know a friendly caring face would be willing to help us out. The second reason we had talked about exchanging the Bumbleride was to possibly purchase the Bugaboo Frog. While I have had my eye on the Bumbleride for some time now, the Bugaboo is quite an amazing stroller; made well, stylish, easy to push, etc. The only problem is the hefty price tag, which is why we ultimately ended up registering for the Bumbleride.

Anyway, after schlepping the 25 pound box to Babies R Us and waiting in line for 25 minutes, we get up to the cashier only to find out that we can’t exchange the stroller because we don’t have a packing slip or “proof” the stroller was purchased from Babies R Us. I use the term proof as loosely as possible because one, it clearly states on the box that the stroller was shipped from Toys R Us and two, because it is on our registry. I should clarify that you can return items to the store, without a receipt, that were purchased online only if the store carries the item. You will get the lowest prices, but you can still return it….more on that one later. This particular item is not carried in the store, only online, which created all of this havoc. So, what am I annoyed about?

There are a couple of things, really:

• First and foremost, the stroller was on our registry. Shouldn’t you be able to return any item with or without a receipt if it was on your registry? I sure think so and I am pretty sure that is what the registry “expert” told us when began the registry process.
  We received the stroller as a gift off our registry. Why would we have the packing slip? It would be extremely tacky to include the packing slip with a gift as it clearly states the price paid for the item.
• Don’t tell me that I should try to return the stroller to Toys R Us because that is where it was shipped from. Huh? I thought you didn’t know where it was shipped from, thus requiring proof of purchase.
• If I would have known that you can’t return online items to the store without a receipt, I would never have added items online. What is the point of offering that service if the company does not make it easy to return. I pity anyone who did their registry completely online. Better hope they receive packing slips or gift receipts for all their items.
• The lowest price theory…..I will give Babies R Us the benefit of the doubt on this one because I do agree that if you don’t have a receipt for the item you should only get back what the current price is, even if it is one sale. With this said, I don’t believe you should screw people. Example: we were returning a pack of onesies that really I just wanted to exchange for a different size. I didn’t have a receipt for them so they gave me the current price, which was a sale price. Fine, totally understandable. When we went to purchase the same onesies, in a different size, they charged us $1.50 more. What? It is not that I care about the $1.50, but I do care about them making money off of me in a way that is completely unfair.

Needless to say, I will be happy after Baby Hunt arrives and things are settled with items we receive at showers. I do not plan on shopping at Babies R Us once all my gift cards are spent, unless I absolutely have to. I think their customer service is terrible and their registry policy is even worse. The bad thing for them, if we had decided to exchange the Bumbleride for the Bugaboo that day, they would have made a lot of money since the Bugaboo is almost double the Bumbleride. Hmmmmm, if only they would have known they were going to make some more money from us. Too bad, so sad!

Girls Just Want To Have Fun

This past Saturday and Sunday, my sister and my mom treated me to a surprise "Girls Weekend." It was just a chance for the 3 of us to get away before the baby is born and to spend some quality time together.

My sister picked me up on Saturday morning and we headed to Lake Geneva, with a quick stop in CL to pick up my mom. We started with spa treatments at The Well Spa at the Grand Geneva Resort. My sister and I both had massages (Pre-Natal for me and Swedish for her), while my mom had a facial. It was the perfect way to kick off a great weekend because the 3 of us were so relaxed by the end of our appointments; I think we could have sat in the spa all day. We then headed into town for a quick bite to eat at Popeye's, some ice cream and a little bit of shopping. Since the weather seemed to be holding up, we decided to head back to the hotel for a little R & R by the pool. By the time we got back to the hotel and changed, the dark sky and huge clouds did not look promising for pool time. Instead we headed to the hotel bar for a few drinks. After some drinks and lots of chatting, we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. Our dinner reservations were at Ristorante Brissago at Grand Geneva, which was so nice because we didn't have to leave. We had a fabulous dinner; every one's food was delicious and the view was gorgeous. After a quick stop in the lobby for some good people watching, we decided to turn in for the night. Sunday, we woke up at our leisure and headed out for a walk. The walk was cut short because of the ever darkening sky, but we were able to enjoy a very nice breakfast buffet at the resort. After an unhurried breakfast, it was time to shower and head back to reality.

I can't thank my mom and my sister enough for planning such an incredible weekend. While we all missed the boys, it was so relaxing and more special than they will ever know. It was so good to spend some quality time with 2 remarkable women, who are so close to my heart. Honestly, it was probably one of the best weekends I have ever had. Love you both so much and thank you again for everything you have done!

A Little Help From My Friends

Well, it is just about time that Matt and I start to get serious about preparing for Baby Hunt. Next week, I will hit the halfway mark of my pregnancy...the perfect time to start cracking on the registry process. To be 100% honest, I find myself very overwhelmed every time I start browsing the Babies R Us website; which is where all our faithful readers come in.

I am looking for advice/suggestions on all your favorite baby products. I know that all babies are different and everyone has different opinions, but any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

What was your favorite registry item? Is there anything you wish you would have used, but didn't? What did you get, but never used?

We will take any suggestions/ideas/thoughts/comments. Many thanks in advance!!!