Kids Holiday clothes

I do most of my shopping online. Convenient, easy, and I can 'hold on' to something and 'put it back' on the shelves lots of times with not much effort. Plus, the ease of comparing stocks of different stores.

Gymboree.com Gap.com JanieandJack.com , and Thechildrensplace.com are not in my favorite links only because I enjoy typing the words out to complete the pleasure of my shopping experience.

I didn't really like Gap's selection this season...

Some of my choices from Gymboree (though after 3 years of devoted attention I cheated on Gymboree and didn't buy anything for my kids from there for Pesach. Possible explanation- while I was comparing/contrasting, I missed the sale):

My actual purchases from Janie and Jack (I didn't miss the sale):

The Children's Place (I somehow caved and actually bought these in the store):

[I'm still not sure about the pants but I think they are 'growing' on me].

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I also bought a few items in stores that begged me to walk into them this past week while I was out buying lunch and/or groceries.

All and all, the only thing that's more fun than buying kids' clothes is seeing these clothes on your models, still clean at the end of a day:)

Shabbat guests aka the tales from CNN

Last week we had to guests on shabbat lunch - a wholesale distributor (wh) and a financial analyst (fa).

B'H, no one was allergic to the first course, the salads also went with moderate success, and even cholent didn't disappoint.

Naturally, the conversation drifted to the economy. And all the money flushed down the toilet (the process euphemistically called 'the bailout'). I think I mentioned that some of these companies should file for bankruptcy. FA agreed, WH started to protest saying that it would be unfair to millions of people who'd become unemployed if a company like GM would go bankrupt.
FA politely tried to explain the process of how a corporation files for bankruptcy. WH again expressed his concern for the working class. FA politely pointed out that a big corporation like GM should not be confused with a local bakery. Local bakery goes out of business - people lose jobs; GM files for bankruptcy - restructuring happens, most people keep their jobs.

WH: But CNN says that if GM would go bankrupt millions of people would lose their jobs.

Here even I couldn't take it and politely pointed out to WH that just because CNN reports something, that something does not become absolute or even vague truth.

The conversation became a bit heated ( and unshabosdik) after that. Neither FA, a subject matter expert, nor I, an observer who pointed out that just because a story is reported doesn't make the story true, can stand in a way of a CNN chasid's economics.

In the end we agreed to disagree. And five days later I still wonder why anyone still perceives CNN as a source of useful information.

Do you want to take my picture?

I wanted to take professional pictures of my kids pretty much as soon as I became a mom:) But between my organization skills and my decision making (compounded with hubby's 'why do you have to take them to a studio when we can take great pictures ourselves-just find a nice background, etc), it hasn't happened.



In the last couple of months I became determined-the local baby's r us now has a studio; there is a local target now; one of my friends does professional photography; AND I found someone very very local with a very impressive ad in a local circular. Plus, I bought my kids matching outfits in November in anticipation of a sibling photograph. And at the end of March I realized that Eh is about to grow out of hers. So I somehow remembered to check out this local photographer's website and FINALLY made an appointment for sunday.



And, yet again, this is how I fell victim to advertisement.



I enjoyed the gallery of my photographer neighbor (pn) but I liked the 'about me' page even more. The page spoke to me, I almost identified with pn. It said that she has patience for her little clients, she gives them toys and plays with them to make them comfortable. Basically, 'about' page said that pn likes kids as much as she likes making beautiful photos. What else did I need?



I finally unpacked the matching outfits. I drycleaned a pretty made-for-pictures dress that I bought for Eh and was eagerly unticipating our appointment.



The 'studio' was in the basement- not a problem, I still wanted to support local business. And then things went downhill from there:

1. Eh had to put on the matching sweater so the pn 'helped' me by putting the sweater on her head without unbuttoning the neck buttons. No rushing a session there.

2. My mom, who came with us to assist me was told to move to a side because apparently she was actually able to keep kids entertained (and they were looking at her and not the pn). No please, no sorry, no thanks.

3. The pn didn't seem to have much patience for Eh and at one point just dragged her from one point on the prop to the other. A far cry from portrait sessions that are 'never rushed'.

4. The baby kept trying to jump off from one of the props and instead of trying to sit him on something else or on the floor I was told to stand by and try to catch him quickly if he was falling.

5. First the kids were put on the prob and then the lenz was adjusted, etc. An obvious inpatience was heard in the pn's voice when the kids weren't doing what they were 'supposed ' to do.

6. The kids were talked to like adults and very few tricks were used to make them feel comfortalbe with pn. So much for loving to make kids feel comfortable as much as loving to make beautiful photos.

7. Eh was given a noise making toy for entertainment while SiM's pictures were taken. Then pn asked Eh to stop making that noise because it distracted SiM. Bad judgment call or just a bad day?

8. I dressed SiM only in onsie to capture his chunkiness ( even though the climate in the 'studio' was pretty cool). When I asked if pn got any pictures of his legs there was a surprised "oh, you wanted to photograph his legs?'. No, I just wanted him to be cold.

9. At the end of the session, she was pretty dismissive of Eh's last outfit. If you want to end the session, tell me so. Politely. It's just better for business. Plus, more shots=more potential business.

10. The lights in the studio were turned off before we left. Blah. Did she consider a-leaving after us and then turning off the lights; b- returning to the studio after we left for the energy saving routine.

These weren't the only offences but 10 is more than enough. Yet again, I fell victim to advertisement. I just hope that one line of it is true and I will get my "tug of the heart' portrait that I'm looking for'.

The mystery of a disappearing wig

I wanted to buy a good wig for the past 28 months. If you wonder at my unusual attention to detail the answer is simple. It was 2 weeks prior to me becoming a mom that I almost bought a wig for an obscene amount of money but the credit card machine didn't work at the store and that was the last time I visited them.


Today, thanks to my friends, I found out that there is some sort of warehouse clearance sale ( or whatever the polite term is for around 500 wigs or so of all shapes and colors laying down on tables in the basement of some school, and women coming in hoards to get a 60% off bargain which necessitates trying on all these wigs in public, with a few not so strategically located mirrors, few combs too few and an invisible pull to buy at least two discounted-yet-still-not-so-affordable beauties that would make many a woman's hair look like a pitiful old blushing brush in comparison). Whew. That was one heck of a run-on sentence!

Anyhow, there I was, part of the throng of bargain hunters. I didn't even find my friend at first but right away I found two potential purchases. They quickly turned into three. I was lucky and found a spot by the mirror right away but as I took for contender #1 and was trying to put on contender #2 some girl, who wasn't even buying for herself (and was just trying on something that her mom wanted to buy) occupied the space by the mirror. I politely excused myself but naturally she reappeared as I removed #2 and attempted to put on #3.

Sadly, due to daylight savings time it seems like it's past my bedtime already so there is only so much detail I can provide...Let's just say that in the end (1.5 hours later) my choices were boiled down from 6 ( yes, there were lots of possibilities) to 2. And one of them was SO overpriced (and that's with the 60% discount) and SO comfortable that I was seriously considering making it mine. It was so comfortable I even feared that it was too big for me. But the owner reassured me that " it fits perfectly and it's a beautiful handmade piece."

Advertisement always works on me, by the way. So I showed my final choices to my friend ( who by then made her selection) and she approved both. The last deciding vote was that of hubbies. At the time I had the less expensive option on my head and the 'beautiful piece" in my hand. I put it down on the table to search for my phone, while still conversing with my friend and looking in the mirror. And then I happened to look at the table and realized that the masterpiece was gone!

I spent another 15 minutes looking for it. I recruited my friend, the owner and her daughter to help me. They made an announcement requesting for the masterpiece to be returned to its rightful potential owner. I gave a couple of dirty looks to a few women who looked like potential masterpiece snatchers. I even questioned a couple re: items that they had in their hands. A couple of wannabes were found but they were the wrong color. And as revved up as I was about buying a bargain masterpiece, almost didn't do it for me this time around.

The masterpiece was gone. Vanished. Disappeared into the air.

I finally realized that I should just buy the one that was still in my possession and go home. Though at that point, if the masterpiece was found I'd buy it just because it's value went up in my eyes as something that took a while to find ( again, I never denied being a victim of advertisement[s]). I even left my phone number with them just in case they found it. I was willing to buy both the masterpiece and my now 2nd but only choice.

Now it's 11:30PM, I'm more than 45 minutes late with my nightly routine and yet I took the time to write about the wig not taken. And I can't help but wonder if the disappearance act didn't happen and I bought the more expensive wig, how likely is it that I would I be sitting in front of the computer and blogging about paying an obscene amount of money for a nicely arranged bunch of someone else's hair!?