The last two days I spent quite a few hours shopping at yard sales. The town where our church is located was having a community yard sale, which means MANY yard sales taking place at the same time. I had looked at the listings online and picked about 25 homes to visit over the two days. I tried to be as prepared as possible by having a list of some things I was hoping to find as well as printing out maps and figuring out the order in which I'd visit the sales. Friday morning I took the kids with me. They watched DVDs while I drove from house to house and did my shopping. Nadia was especially cooperative because many times I came back into the car with something she loved (ex. a Cinderella puzzle I got for 25 cents). The most expensive thing I bought that first day was a boppy with a slipcover for $8. Then when I got home I focused on cleaning for a few hours. I hadn't done much cleaning at our house during April in light of spending 20 days at the Ronald McDonald House. I straightened up Nadia's room, Nadia's closet, the family room, living room, and kitchen (mostly putting away toys but also doing things like sweeping and mopping). Karen (OT) and Kathy (EI) came at 2:30, and after they left we headed for the playground. It was really hot on Friday. Thankfully we had mild (spring like) weather yesterday and today. I have a feeling my days of walking to the park are coming to an end to prevent preterm labor. I knew I wasn't going to be walking to the park in August, but I think I'm going to have to give it up MUCH sooner than that.
I was a bit frustrated during the OT session becaues Karen said she didn't think she had anything more to offer to help with his feeding issues. I agree that he's come along way in the past several weeks, but he is by NO means "normal" yet. It takes about 8 meals for him to eat one banana. I've seen 12 month olds hold a banana and eat the whole thing themselves. The only things he can feed himself are crunchy foods (Froot Loops, pieces of cookies, Teddy Grahams, etc.). There are also still meals where he fights and screams over every single bite (Paul had to help me hold him down this morning for breakfast - he wouldn't even calm down to eat a cookie). He also hasn't achieved normalcy with drinking yet. We hold the shot glass for him. I'd like to see him move to a more normal size cup for a toddler and for him to be able to hold it himself. We finally agreed to go down to every other week. Of course, if she's not going to give me helpful advice in how to get him from where he is now to where a typical toddler is, then I guess there's no point in continuing the bi-weekly visits. We'll see.
Saturday morning I continued to visit the yard sales. This time the kids stayed home with Paul. I spent about $100 over the two days on a wide range of things for the three kids. For the baby I bought 2 boppy pillows, 1 gym, and some 3 month size clothing. Girl's clothing is MUCH cuter and fun to purchase most of the time, but some baby boy clothing is cute also (like the Steeler outfits I got him!). Ian wanted to wear some of the outfits I bought for the baby (especially one with cement trucks on it). He approved! I didn't buy very much for Ian. The toy I got him that he likes the best is the Elefun game I got for $1. Nadia made out like a bandit. I got her some new shoes (three of the pairs still had the tags on them!), a Bob (VeggieTale) Bible cover (also still had the tags on it), books, puzzles, and a Princess chair. They both love the small suitcase I got them for $1.00. We'll use on our upcoming trip! It's small enough that the kids can pull it around (it has wheels). My biggest splurge for Nadia was $8.00 for a princess dress (Ariel). The seller paid $65 for it at Disney World. It's very well made. Nadia loves to wear princess dresses!
I didn't get a few items I was really hoping to find - like some sandals for Ian because the size 7 sandals I had gotten for him to wear this summer are still a bit big on him, but overall I was pleased that I was able to cross a few things off my list such as a belt positioning booster seat for Nadia (she can switch to that from the carseat in June). It never ceases to amaze me of the WIDE variety in how people price very similar items at yard sales. Some people price things very low (10 cents or 25 cents each for clothing, books, etc.), and others list prices that are barely lower than what you'd pay at the store. Probably my best bargain (in terms of % off) was a hardback Fancy Nancy book (in like new condition) that retails for $17.99 that I got for 10 cents.
Last night Paul and I went out for an early Mother's Day date because next weekend is already pretty booked. Our first stop was to meet someone who was selling a double jogging stroller on Craigslist. I had bought one at a yard sale for $5 in September 2010, and it was very used when I bought it. It has served us well, but the last few months the tires can't hold the air. They have to be pumped EVERY time I use the stroller. So I had been looking for another one, but they cost a fortune if you buy them brand new ($200-$500). I was happy to see this one listed for $40. It's MUCH nicer than our old one. It's so much easier to push since the tires aren't flat, and it can be folded (our old one can't be folded). I'm hoping to give the old one away at our neighbor's next yard sale. My plan (after the baby is born) is to carry the baby in a Snugli and push Ian and Nadia in the stroller. I'm hoping that by the time the baby is too big for me to carry that Nadia will be big enough to walk (she'll be about 5 years old at that point I figure). After buying the stroller we had dinner and then did a little shopping at Target. It was a very full day!
I mentioned the word "nesting" in the title because in addition to feeling the urge to clean and straighten up the whole house (not that I achieved that goal in light of all the yard sales I visited), I've really had the urge to start working on the baby's room. I spent a lot of time organizing the basement this weekend because I was picking out what to donate for the church's upcoming yard sale (the proceeds go to folks in the church who are going on missions trips this summer). I did discover a few more boxes/bags of baby clothing that I had to sort through to separate by gender. All the girl clothing is now in the basement (in boxes up on the shelves in case the basement floods again), and all the boy clothing (that Ian has outgrown that I didn't sell or give away) is now up in what will be the baby's bedroom. In order to get those boxes in that closet, we had to carry some boxes (of things like scrapbooks and such) down to the shelves in the basement. I am determined to have the room ready before he's born (which didn't happen with Ian), and since I am prone to preterm labor, I want it ready within the next 3 months. There's a lot of work that still needs to be done like selling the dining room table and chairs, painting the room, buying a mattress and box springs for Ian so the crib can be moved to the baby's room, etc. The item on the to do list that Nadia is most excited about is buying a minivan. All this shopping and cleaning meant I didn't get any grading done this weekend so I am really going to need to buckle down and grade lesson plans tomorrow.
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