Learn from my mistake - just go to Target

If you are one of the people who will recieve a Christmas gift from us this year, you will partially have my mother-in-law to thank for it. This weekend she came into town to visit, and what did we do? We left her with Katy for hours on end so we could get some Christmas shopping done. It was very much needed and appreciated. But she and Katy had some good bonding time, and Katy is now calling her something that sounds like "Grammy." She has been learning peoples' names left and right these days. She knows most of our family members, the neighbor up the street, and 2 of the kids in her playgroup. (Weed, she pointed to your Christmas card today and said your daughter's name). It blows my mind. And today we ran into one of the kids from playgroup at the library, so completely out of context, but as soon as she saw him she cried, "White!!" (His name is Wyatt, but I'm pretty sure that's what she means).

So anyway, while we were shopping I learned an important lesson. We went to Toys R' Us to buy for Katy and the other kids in our family, and we found what we needed, fought the crowds, and left. Then we headed to Target to look for stocking stuffers, among other things. While we were there, we decided to look and see if they had the same toys we had just purchased at Toys R' Us (this is always a bad idea, right?). Well they did. For about 30 - 40% less. I don't know if it was just the particular toys we had purchased, but I was shocked. I know I've compared prices before and did not find this same statistic. So this was a drastic enough difference that we proceeded to buy everything we had just purchased from Toys R' Us again at Target, and then go back and return the items to TRU. While I was slightly annoyed that we hadn't just gone to Target in the first place, I was also really glad that we checked and ended up saving money in the long run.

Grammy also got to experience Katy's swimming lessons. If you don't have a child under 5, you might be surprised to hear that they offer swim lessons for kids Katy's age, but OH yes. Once your kid is 6 months old, you can sign up for not only swim lessons, but storytime, Gymboree, Wee Joy Sing, and Baby Sign class. These kids have busier schedules than some adults! But we decided to attempt the swim lessons because I didn't want Katy to go all winter without being in the pool, since she enjoyed it so much this summer. Now that we're about to complete our first session, I think we'll wait awhile before signing up again. They don't really do anything in this class that Brian and I couldn't do on our own - it's pretty much just getting used to the water. But it's been fun.

We also got a visit from cousins Stan, Abby, and Gabe. Katy and Gabe had a blast playing together, and I was impressed with how well they shared with one another. Katy loves having other kids around: too bad her little brother won't come out in a toddler size (too bad for her, I mean, not that I would want that - yikes.)

This video is a pretty good sample of their time together. Katy is quite the kissing bandit these days, but of course she wouldn't do it in front of the camera. I also think it's funny that even though Gabe and Katy can both walk, crawling is the mode of transport of the day.