Black Friday

It has become a hobby of mine over the last decade to partake in the shopping phenomenon of Black Friday. I have convinced Shad over the years to be my sidekick in this process. This year was unlike the others because we had to solicit childcare for 4am (thanks Wiggs) to make it an efficient and cost effective trip.
We scoured the newspaper ads and the web to find out exactly what was going on in the retail stores and online. We had top tier stores which included Target, Best Buy, Kohl's and Walmart. We had ommitted Walmart from this expedition in 2004, and learned afterward that they too have some great deals among the mayhem. Second tier stores included Radio Shack and LL Bean. They had "nice-to's" but not "have-to's" for us. After reviewing all the flyers, Best Buy was cut from the list.
Thinking I was clever, I thought we should arrive at Walmart (open 24 hours but sale beginning at 5am) during the 4am hour. Ignorantly, I had thought I would be able to put the sale items in the cart and be ready to cash out at 5am. To my suprise, others were HOURS ahead of me - perhaps even a half day ahead. People had begun standing in line at 10pm Thanksgiving night to purchase one of the FEW $378 HP laptops and at 1am for the desktops. HOLY COW! I guess good for them because I was unwilling to do so. We did, however, manage to pick up many electronic items and a PINK Care Bear for Kate. I had no idea those were in this year, but shoppers were filling, yes FILLING, their carts with these $5 gems. I thought I should jump on the bandwagon and do the same - afterall, I do have a little princess now that I can give it to! While text messaging Shad as to my whereabouts, I was able to observe other shoppers. I think on Black Friday there are two types: People that are happy to be there and excited about the potential bargains and people who think they deserve the bargains because they got out of bed. I classify myself as the former because I think the whole thing is exciting and energetic. However, there are so many of the latter - it often makes you wish you stayed in bed. While waiting for Shad I did see one man start screaming with excitement "YES YES YES YES YES! I got one! he said. "I got a computer - I mean my wife got it! She's been in line all night!!!" You can't help but feel happy for the guy. Good for him.
Next we stood in line outside of Target. The Thanksgiving snow had made it colder than I wanted, but we only stood for 15 minutes or so before the doors opened. Target was smart, they had people outside walking the line offering an additional percentage off if you applied for a Target card on the spot. I didn't see any takers, but I don't think people were willing to put down their Dunkin' Donuts coffee to fill out the application.
They opened the doors to Target before all the lights were on. It was like herding cows as we all grabbed carts and headed for the electronics section. Shad and I grabbed the last "item" off the bottom shelf. It's what we had gone in there for. Phew. After a few other purchases we made our way to the registers and headed to Kohl's - they had 50% off all toys. It was not yet 7am.
Walmart and Target were great when it came to cashing out. They had about 20 registers open and waiting for shoppers to buy. It made the line nonexistent. And the people were very nice and helped at every step of the way.
Given the positive shopping experience at the last 2 stores I was totally disappointed walking into Kohl's. The lines resembled the ones we stood in at Best Buy last year. It zigzagged around the front and wrapped around 3/4 of the store. It was NOT worth my time. I left in hopes of hitting the tier two stores. Bean and Radio Shack. Both of these were ended up being worthwhile stops as the first two were.
All in all it was a good time. I was back home, lying on the couch at 8:45 and we had completed most of our holiday shopping. I can't write about all the deals b/c I'm certain a reader or two is on my list. Can't wait till next year!

Bring it On!

Kate thinks she's all that and a pot of coffee and it makes me laugh. We give her her bottle and lay her on the boppy - she swings it around like she's been holding her bottle for years. We give her the pacifiers and she swings those around, puts them in her mouth, pulls them out, puts them in, rotates them - again, like she's been doing it for years. It's this cocky infant thing - it really makes me smile to see her so confident.

Just a little bit...

I think we are experiencing the evolution of potty training. It is no longer

just a little bit

in the pants, it's

just a little bit on my shirt.

So... now we are teaching Reilly to pick up his shirt, pull down his pants (on time) and hit the cheerios that are targets in the potty. Good times.

The Rocker - not as in John

Kate and I were signed up for the Mommies and Me class at the gym. It's for children 6 mos - 2 yrs. The only prerequisite is that your crawling. The class started November 7. Note the past tense of start - we did not attend and will not be attending this session at all. Kate has taken to rocking, not crawling. I understand rocking to be one of the first phases prior to crawling and going in reverse is another. Well, she has them both down pat. It's just a matter of time before she is able to get into everything. For now though, I'm perfectly content with having a "rocker".

Big like Dad....

This morning we were getting Reilly ready for a doctors appointment. It's part of his morning ritual to choose his own "outfits". Today was like every other - he chose his outfit. He had on pants that rest just above the ankle bone. I said Reilly, I think this will be the last time you wear those pants, they are too small. You are getting big, just like Daddy. He replied "Yah, and then we can switch heads."

Ummmm, okay, I do recall having the logic that my brother Jeff would one day become a girl. So, this works in the circle of life I suppose.

Like Dad...

Reilly said to me this morning:

My job is going to be next to my house when I get bigger. It will be blue. I will have gloves, masks, white dr coats, and sepascopes.

I said

"Are you going to be a doctor?"

He replied

No, I'm going to help people feel better - like Dad. That's what he does.

The Tribe Has Spoken....

A friend of mine has 2 boys who are 4 and 2. She told me that her kids favorite game is Survivor and they love to play it in the backyard. Well, I got to thinking about Survivor and in the grand scheme of tv these days, it's not that bad. No real violence, no smut scenes, and generally, it's a pretty clean show. I decided that Reilly could watch a little with me prior to going to bed at the 8:30 commercial. He has liked watching Survivor with me, so this week I decided to let him watch the whole thing.

Well, if you don't know, supposedly they were going to vote out Gary, but he found the Individual Immunity Idol which eliminated the tribes ability to vote for him. Instead they had to vote out someone else.

Jeff read the votes, I yelled at the tv, Shad (who refuses to get involved) asked for an update as he walked in the room, and Reilly asked "what happened, where is he going, why did they put that boys fire out?" I said, "oh, it's time for him to go home, his not-so-friends asked him to leave."

About 15 seconds later the sobbing began and it lasted for about 30 minutes. When Shad and I asked Reilly what was wrong he simply said "I don't want Bobby John to go home".

I don't think Reilly will be watching the entire episode anytime soon. I think the first 30 minutes is plenty.

Guns and Monsters

Reilly came home from preschool yesterday and for the first time ever he started talking about guns. Oh great. They are talking about things they are afraid of in school - monsters are a recurring theme. Apparently one of Reilly's classmates wants to kill the monsters with guns. So, he taught Reilly to do the same.

Not that you can prevent exposure to those kinds of things, but you do the best you can. He hasn't seen any movies to my knowledge with guns - the Incredibles is awful for the first 15 minutes - so he hasn't seen that yet. Anyway, I guess this is the first of many unwanted introductions that we don't really have a say in. We just handle the after effects.

Toot Toot Chugga Chugga

What could be better than a family night at the Wiggles concert? I'll tell you a family night at the Wiggles concert followed by dinner at Chuck E Cheese! Oh there were about 17 of us enjoying this experience together.

Reilly, Brenna and Connor went into Wiggle overload singing and dancing and jumping up and down from the balcony seats. Seats that were a reasonable cost until the ridiculous $9 service fee gets added to each ticket! I tried to be clever and bring Reilly's Wiggles souvenir (a Wiggles flashlight) from last years performance in hopes that it would be sold again - it was, he thought the thing was brand new. (it's been in the toybox for a year and never had the value that it had last night)

It was good to see Shad up dancing with Greg, Anthony, Murray and Jeff, I knew he had it in him!

Ma Ma

I distinctly heard Kate say "Ma Ma" today. Da Da Da Da Da has been going on for quite a while. We have opted to hear this as a form of Daddy. But, with the Ma Ma - I KNOW it was for Mommy. :-)

More than just a little bit...

Last night, Reilly, Shad and Kate came to the office to bring me some dinner. The three of them had just been to a high school soccer game and getting "shortcuts" (Reilly's term for haircut or SuperCuts). I met them in the parking lot and Reilly said "I pee'd in my underpants just a little bit". I said "you did?, how come?". His response was "I don't know." Well, I picked up his shirt to see if it had come thru his pants. Reilly's definition of "a little bit" and mine, are TOTALLY different things. His pants were soaked down to his mid thighs and his backside was also soaked.

We headed into the women's bathroom and I thought it was that scene from Austin Powers, he was going and going and going and going - I thought he was done - and he started going and going and going again. When he finished up he said "why is it green?". That question will be answered another day in the MOTY blog.

Dumb and Dumber

Okay, so this isn't really a MOTY-specific entry, but I thought it was worth writing about. My sister(Kate) and her husband (Mike) had their car broken into not too long ago. Among some the things stolen was Mike's new cell phone which has a built-in camera. Well... if you were a dumb thief wouldn't you take photos of yourself with the camera phone? Then, if you were dumber, would you ditch the stuff you stole in a field? Well... they were dumb and dumber and they did! So, now that the phone has been found, we all know who took it because there are photos with time stamps to prove it. Ahhhhhh......................... hello!

Treats.... definitely

At 3, imagine knowing what "good candy" is. That's sad. I don't recall trick or treating and getting to select out of someones candy bowl. I recall going to a door, saying "trick or treat" and having a treat dropped into my bag. None of this "take a piece or two". Perhaps this is what is driving a 3 year olds desire to self-select thereby customizing his bucket of treats to his own liking. Our little frog said on more than one occasion (in between saying "I want to go to that house") "do they have good candy?" I hope it's not going to evolve into greed, and I hope it's not something I have really taught him. I hope it's something that can just be "what a 3 year old does".