Local Consignment Sale Info

Pardon the slight diversion from typical self-centered and Hannah-centered ramblings. I've got some info on a few upcoming local central Maryland area kid consignment sales that I wanted to share with my bargain hunting readers (and readers looking to unload some of their old stuff and make a few bucks while doing it).  Here goes:

What: Wee-Sale Children's Consignment Event - Annapolis
HUGE seasonal children's consignment sale! This is the largest seasonal consignment sale in the Annapolis area. Over 25,000 square feet of items: toys, clothes (sizes 0-16), baby gear, maternity clothes, books, and more. Go to Wee-Sale.com for information about consigning, shopping, or volunteering so you can shop early. 

When:

Thursday, March 24, 9:00-5:00, (no strollers or walking children before noon on opening day), 

Friday March 25th, 9:00-5:00

Saturday March 26th, 9:00-5:00 (25% off)

Sunday March 27th, 10:00-2:00 (50% off day)

Where:  at the "Pip" Moyer Recreation Center at Truxtun Park, 273 Hilltop Lane, Annapolis

What: Wee-Sale Children's Consignment Event – Easton

HUGE seasonal children's consignment sale! This is the largest seasonal consignment sale in the Easton area. We have toys, clothes (sizes 0-16), baby gear, maternity clothes, books, and more. Go to Wee-Sale.com for more information about consigning, shopping, or volunteering so you can shop early. 

When:

NEW: Opening Friday April 8th, 9:00-5:00 (no strollers or walking children before noon on opening day)

Saturday April 9th, 9:00-5:00

Sunday April 10th, 10:00-2:00 (1/2 price day)

Where: at the Easton Armory, 7111 Ocean Gateway, Easton, MD

What: She-Sale Quality Consignment Event for Ladies, Juniors, and Home Decor

When: 

Friday, April 29th, 7:00-9:30 PM

Saturday, April 30th, 9:00-5:00 

Sunday, May 1st, 10:00-2:00 (1/2 price day) 

Where: at the "Pip" Moyer Recreation Center at Truxtun Park, 273 Hilltop Lane, Annapolis

More on this one at shesaleconsignment.com 

Hannah's First Romp in the Snow

I forgot to put the polarizing filter on the camera before taking Hannah out into the total whiteness this morning and as a result, I have some insanely bleached out pics to share. I tried editing them, but I'm just not that talented with the photo editor.  I'm sharing them anyway because today was Hannah's first romp in the snow, and that's an occasion that should be documented with pics, right?  We'd have taken her out sooner, but this was really the first snow fall that accumulated enough to play in.

She has this incredibly spaced out look on her face in the first two pics, like she's trying to figure out why she's wearing so many clothes or something.

Right after I took this next pic she pushed her hand too far into the snow and got it stuck.  I had to help her out but the force pulled her mitten off and she was not happy when the snow touched her bare hand.  Although she hasn't been as grossed out by it as she was the first time we got a little snow fall this year, she definitely didn't want it touching her.

She didn't want to sit in the snow, even with her snow pants on, so Daddy sat her on the roof of my car to help her put her mittens back on.

The Hokey Pokey on Paper

Because I haven't taken any photos of Hannah lately and because I picked up a few cute new outfits from Target last night, I whipped out the camera before nap time today.

This is the spot on the couch where we sit to read stories before our nap.  We keep a stack of library books on the end table right there which Hannah dug into right after I took the above pic. Speaking of library books, I picked out a bunch of really good ones last time around which is impressive considering that when I pick books, I am hastily grabbing things off the shelf and quickly flipping through them to ensure that the pictures aren't too sophisticated (boring) and that there aren't too many words on each page (or if there are, that the pictures include plenty of stuff for us to point to and name) all while keeping one eye on Hannah as she flits around the library tearing books off shelves.  Our favorite of the current stash is We've All Got Bellybuttons! by David Martin, illustrated by Randy Cecil. I really don't think I could have picked a more age-appropriate book if I'd read every single book in the place.  It's like the Hokey Pokey on paper. Lately we've been going to a special library story time designed for 2-year-olds (instead of 0-3 which is the broad age group most of the story times are geared toward).  In addition to stories, there's a big emphasis on songs that include movement like the Hokey Pokey; Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes; If You're Happy and You Know It; etc.  So of course it was the first one she picked up today to read. Check it out:

It starts with some cute purple elephants saying, "We've got ears, and you do too. We can pull them.  Can you?"

Hannah pulling her ears with the elephants.

 Then there are the monkeys who have hands they can clap.

Hannah clapping her hands with the monkeys. 

Then there are some giraffes who stretch their necks but those pics of Hannah were terribly unflattering and not post worthy so we are skipping right to the cheetahs lazily closing their eyes.

Hannah closing her eyes with the cheetahs.

 And then there are hippos who can open their mouths.

Hannah being a hippo.

It ends with a tickle to the bellybutton, hence the name of the book.  She loves it and has the whole thing memorized so that I don't even have to prompt her anymore; if she opens to the hippo page, she immediately opens her mouth dramatically, if she opens to the giraffe page she tilts her head back and stretches her neck as far as she can stretch it.  If you've got a toddler, I highly recommend this book.

Speaking of recommending books, I'm thinking about creating a new Amazon widget that I keep up-to-date with our current library books....

Hannah-Style Humor

Hannah spent most of yesterday saying "Mom-eee" and then pointing at me.  No matter how many times she did it, I always got my super-excited cheesy grin on and said, "That's right! I'm mommy!"  After a bit of that she'd turn to Eric (who spent most of yesterday holding her), point at his chest, and say "Mom-eeee."  "That's not mommy!" I'd say, and Eric would say, "No, I'm daddy. Can you say DAD-EEE??"  She'd laugh and every now and again she'd throw him a bone and say, "Da-da" while pointing at him. Then she'd start the game over. I think she knew what she was doing and was messing with him on purpose because she had this ornery grin on her face the whole time.  I hope she inherits the Hewitt humor/sarcasm (Hewitt is my mom's side of the family) just because it's fun. I mean, it's okay if she doesn't, but I think she'd have more fun if she did.  I used to love hanging out near my mom and her two sisters when they all managed to be in the same zip code at the same time because they'd sit around and sing old songs and crack their Hewitt-style jokes and laugh until they were snorting and crying.  As a kid, that was the happiest I'd ever seen my mom, and although I know she's happy with her grandbabies, I don't think I've ever seen her laugh so loud and so long as when she's with her sisters. I think it'd be fun to have sisters to be silly with. I wonder if Hannah will have a sister or if she'll have a younger brother like me.  That's something we won't be finding out for a few more years.  We've agreed to open the topic for discussion the year she turns 3, so fall of 2012 we'll see if we're ready to remove the goalie....

Hmmmm....now that I've sidetracked, sidetracked again, and then sidetracked one more time, I don't know how to get back to my original story in a smooth-operator way....Skipping smooth and going right for the colon: so we took Hannah downtown to the MAC at Harbor East to go swimming yesterday morning.  We decided to join there in February and were visiting on a guest pass to check it out. I had to switch gyms because my old one got out of the Merritt gym system which meant that Hannah and I could no longer access the pool, and we want a pool, so now we're at this awesome gym in the city with three saltwater pools on the second story of this building with windows looking out at the city. It's the coolest gym I've ever belonged to, but I'm sidetracking again. Must end first story!!  Okay, so we we're swimming, right?  And Eric decides to take a break from family time and go swim some laps. He hops out of the kiddie pool when Hannah isn't looking and jumps in the lap pool.  A minute later Hannah notices he's gone and starts whipping her head around the pool looking for him and saying "Da-da! Da-da!! Da-da?"  I took her to the edge so we could see Eric where he was standing in the lap pool adjusting his goggles, and he hadn't started swimming yet so, charmed by our charming daughter, he returned to family time.  

See what I mean? She totally knows who we are and is having fun messing with us. I love it.

Also, I think that if there were awards given for sidetracking, I'd get first place.  

Baby Needs New Shoes

Hannah seems to have outgrown the super cute Keen's that her friend Esther handed down to her, and the Crocs that her Uncle Joel bought her are still a teeny bit big. She's been wearing them anyway, and really, they're fine, and they seem comfy, but I feel like she still needs a regular pair of shoes. Something with a back so that snow doesn't sneak in at the heel like it did this morning.  I was hoping for a cute pair of boots kind of like my Uggs but cheaper but am now thinking I should stick with something that will work this summer too (assuming she doesn't grow another size by then).  So I searched Target and didn't come up with much, just one pair of brown boots for $17.99...Am I crazy for not wanting to pay that much for a pair of kid shoes?? Especially shoes she can only wear for a few more months before it gets warm and she'll need something else.

The other day I drove by a Payless and remembered that when I was little, my mom bought all our shoes at there. Granted, we hated her for it because all the other kids with their Nike's and Adidas taunted us by singing, "bobo's, they make your feet feel fine; bobo's, they cost a dollar ninety-nine."  Anyway, I figure Hannah is too young to get made fun of so I can shop there for a few years until she comes home crying.  But nope. Payless sucks. I mean really sucks. There is nothing even remotely nice looking there.  Then I remembered Zappos, my old favorite stomping ground for shoe shopping back when I was a single lady with a full-time job and a little extra money to throw around. For some reason I never thought to look there for kid shoes.  So I start searching and then I start swooning over the supreme cuteness of some of these shoes...Exhibit A:

 Exhibit B:

 And finally, Exhibit C, and my personal favorite (and also the cheapest at $28):

Those Puma's are so dang cute that I'm tempted to just fork over the dough, and yes, I KNOW that I was just complaining about the cost of the $17 Target boots 5 minutes ago and the Puma's are even pricier. Sooooooo....where do I get cute, cheap shoes??? Any advice mom's?? Last time I was at the consignment shop they had a plethora of black patent-leather mary jane's, but that was about it. I guess I should check again...Sigh. After a year of breastfeeding, using cloth diapers, and living on hand-me-downs and clothes generously supplied by friends and family, I was starting to think that kids are way less expensive than everybody says.  My delusion days are ending...Total bummer.

Hannah Goes Duckpin Bowling

We took Hannah duckpin bowling on Friday night, and she loved it! And by "we," I mean the four adults who've inhabited this house and been caring for Hannah for the last month: Amy and Joel, and, of course, me and Eric.  Uncle Joel's been staying in our basement since mid-December and Aunt Amy holed up down there with him a few weeks ago and has been there ever since.  They're cute, and not even in a nauseating way but in an actually cute way, and since they're our two favorite house guests, we're pretty psyched that they coupled up.

This was the second Friday in a row that we've double-dated (the Friday before we all down to Greek town and had dinner at Samos)--look how often we're getting out!! Oh yeah!! The duckpins were a big hit--she liked the pita and tzatziki from the week before too--but she liked bowling waaaaaaay more.  The second we walked up to the lanes Hannah started squealing and laughing and clapping her hands; she was super happy and excited the whole time we were there and picked up on it pretty fast.  She'd walk over to the balls, pick one up, walk it to the line at the start of the lane, drop it, then turn around and grab another ball before the first one had traveled 3 feet. Some of her balls even started knocking down pins, though it took a full 5 minutes for the balls she dropped to make it all the way down the lane to the pins and by then she had already dropped four more balls which were slowly making their way down the lane.

I forgot my camera and am lucky that Amy had hers, but her point-and-shoot camera is not quite as fancy pants as our SLR so I have to warn you that these photos are sub-par.

Daddy and Hannah watching the ball roll slowly down the lane.

Yay!! Pins fell down!!

Look how cute she is in her bowling shoes!!

Helping Aunt Amy keep score.

Uncle Joel giving Hannah's dropped ball a little extra umph.

If you're in the Baltimore area, I highly recommend Stoneleigh Lanes. As a partier, I always went to Patterson, but as a family, I like Stoneleigh better. It's closer to where we live, parking is easier, the inside is more open and seems cleaner, and the other bowlers at Stoneleigh tend to be families rather than hipsters pounding Natty Bohs.  Not that I have a problem with hipsters or Natty Bohs......It's just that, well, what I'm trying to say is that I think we'll be frequent frequenters of Stoneleigh this winter. 

Mom-EEE!

My in-no-hurry-to-talk little chili-child has been saying "mom-EEE!" this weekend, and it's pretty much the cutest, awesomest thing I've ever heard anyone say even though I'm pretty sure she doesn't know what--errr, who--mommy is.  I say that because when I ask her, "where's mommy?" in an attempt to egg her on, she points to herself....Maybe I should stop talking about myself in the third person???  Anyway, regardless of how long it takes her to figure out that I am mom-EEE, it's still really fun to hear her say it.

Hannah's 3rd Christmas in 2010

My dad and Sondra came down last Sunday morning bearing Christmas presents for The Banana.  On this third and final round of Christmas, Hannah received....a ladybug Pillow Pet...

...a weirdly textured squishy ball...

 ...a really cool, wooden rocking chair...

...and some quality play time with Pappy and Grandma Kearns!

17 Months

Do you like how Eric and I both have pictures of ourselves when we were 17-months-old wearing fuzzy yellow blanket sleepers? Too bad Hannah doesn't have one too!

Happy New Year!

Hannah and I were asleep when the new year rang in, but we celebrated this morning by turning Hannah's car seat around to face front.  I was trying to hold out for as long as possible since it's safer for her to be facing backwards, but the kid has long legs and folding them into that small space has grown increasingly difficult since the summer months.  So I gave in and gave the go ahead to flip.  As expected, she loves facing forward. I'm thinking (hoping) this will make riding in the car a less traumatic experience for all parties.

With her car seat facing forward, we drove down to the aquarium for the second time this week and had a ton of  fun. Here's what happened:

1.  We learned that the 3-legged turtle's name is Calypso and that she was found in New York with frost bite on one leg, which they had to amputate.  Apparently there are lots of rehabilitation centers now so if they were to find her today, they would have rehabilitated her back into the wild, but those weren't around when she was found so she'll live out her life in the aquarium. (She is about 18 years old and should live to be about 80.)

2. We got to touch and take home a sting ray tooth.  It's short and wide and ridged like a comb, not sharp.

3. I got spit on by an archer fish who was aiming for a grasshopper perched on a stick that the staff/fish feeder person was hanging over the tank.  This particular archer fish had poor aim and hit me instead of the grasshopper.

4. While watching the archer fish spit at and then eat grasshoppers, I discovered a super-cute-in-a-funny-looking-kind-of-way animal: the pig-nosed turtle.  This turtle is now in competition with the cowfish for my favorite aquarium animal.

5. We got to be among the first people to see the octopus move for the first time since it got put on display (I think they said he's been in that tank for about a month).  Apparently he is shy and has spent his time on display hiding out and inking his tank, so the staff were concerned for his happiness (or lack thereof) and were about to move him to the back where he seemed happier, but today he moved and he did it right as we were walking by!  We stared, mesmerized, as he stretched his long, pink tentacles across the glass and blubbed around in a blubbier octopus kind of way.

I think that's it.  Suffice it to say that we are loving our aquarium membership and look forward to a fish-filled 2011, at least until the weather is warm, at which point we'll be trying to get some use out of our zoo membership.