I had seen this shirt before. And while I appreciated the attempt at humor, I wondered under what circumstances the shirt would actually get purchased. On Saturday, I learned— though I didn’t buy it myself.
When I got up to go to the gym, I passed Arabella off to Jarmon. Before I left, he brought her back into the bedroom to proudly show off the outfit she was wearing.
Jarmon: Baby, look at this cute outfit I put together!
Me: It’s adorable, honey! Hold on, let me take a picture.
*Takes photo*
Me: And it would be even more adorable if the onesie wasn’t on backwards.
Jarmon: But it looks good this way!
My dear husband had put an adorable flowered onesie on our daughter— BACKWARD– which allowed for a popped collar effect since he didn’t snap the snaps. If it wasn’t on so obviously backwards, it actually did look pretty cute. He was apparently comfortable with his bold fashion move too because it was still on backwards when I got home.
Anyway. The plan for Saturday was to drive to a pumpkin patch in the suburbs where we would take the obligatory fall family photos and buy giant pumpkins to recreate a photo I had seen online of babies sitting in pumpkins. By the time we got from the city to South Barrington, the sun was a distant memory and the temperature had dropped about twenty degrees made even worse by the whipping wind. We stood outside the car for about 30 seconds before we realized an outdoor activity was a bad idea. Plus, it wasn’t just a matter of buying pumpkins and going home— this festival had an admission fee, so once we were in we would be staying for a while.
We had planned to hit Ikea after the pumpkin festival to pick up one of their cheap, yet highly rated, high chairs. I was adamant about an all plastic chair and IKEA fit the bill. But we never made it there. We went to Buy Buy Baby first to look at jumpers and we hit the jackpot.
We were a bit terrified of suburban Buy Buy Baby given our feelings on the city location, but our fears were unfounded. The store was huge and practically empty– SO different than the claustrophobic city experience. First stop was the jumpers. There were plenty of great options, but they all had weight limits around 25 pounds. Given that Arabella was 17.5 pounds at her four month appointment two months ago, we were hesitant. We decided to go for a walk to see if we could find a scale in the store. We never did find a scale, but we found something so much better on the way— the “as is” table. We ultimately got a $90 jumper for $35 (who cared if she outgrew it for that price??) and a $300 Baby Bjourn high chair (all plastic!) for $60. They didn’t come in boxes because they were floor models, but that meant we also didn’t have to worry about putting them together. Jackpot! We decided to put Arabella in the jumper before buying it just to make sure she liked the concept. It was like the rest of the world faded away. She was mesmerized. And when we went to take her out to put it in our shopping cart? She screamed! Like, really truly sad we were taking her toy away tears. It was a first— and we realized we are totally screwed when she realizes how helpless we are to her perfect frown.
So, as if our house wasn’t full enough already, we came home with as much as our car would hold– a high chair, a jumper and a walker. Perhaps these items can take the place of some of our other big ticket items that have already passed their prime— the stroller bassinet attachment, the regular bassinet, the swing, the bouncer and the mobile. Yes, don’t forget the overpriced mobile that we had to have for the crib she just started sleeping in less than two months ago— and pulled down on top of herself on Saturday morning. I’m choosing to just be glad she a) didn’t get hurt, and b) seemed to be finding great entertainment in the stuffed bunnies she had pulled down. And we probably got an extra half hour of sleep out of it— so I guess maybe the mobile wasn’t a total loss after all.
After Buy Buy Baby we went to the mall to kill time before our “early” dinner. We scored a $500 comforter for just $150 at Macy’s. We were really on a roll with the bargain shopping. Thank goodness our car was full and we didn’t have room to buy more. At about 5pm we headed to Olive Garden— a special place for Jarmon and I. So on Saturday at 530pm, the three of us spent 45 minutes waiting for a table (as it turns out, 5:30p is not an early dinner in the burbs). But dinner was delicious and Arabella got to experience her first time at Olive Garden— sadly, she’ll have to wait until next time for breadsticks.
Trina Orlando 