Busy weekend

Well, El Burrito had fun this weekend, and is set for next winter's pajamas. I'm wiped out, though.

We took advantage of the nice weather (seriously - in the 70s yesterday! and low 30s today), and went down to see my parents for the weekend. "Weekend" being about 36 hours total, because we can't seem to get up early on Saturdays.

On the way there, we stopped at the outlet mall in Osage Beach and did a little shopping, mostly for El Burrito. We hit the winter clearance at Carters again, and bought El Burrito's pajamas for next winter - fleece PJs, mostly 2-piece sets this year, on the $3.99 racks. Score! He also got some shirts/bodysuits for next year, and a few things for this summer. Over half of what we bought came from the $3.99 section, and we had a 20% coupon on top of that. The puzzler was that Carters sent out punch-cards last fall (like October) - one punch per $10 spent sort of thing. We tried to get ours punched this weekend, and they've already discontinued the cards because they've got something else in the works. That was a lot of money spent on a program that lasted less than six months. I got at least one postcard mailer about it. Weird.

Then we went next door, and I spent a large pile of money on new bras, which I was in dire need of, and found out that the ones I love are apparently discontinued. And can I just say, I hate bra shopping? After taking out everything that's padded or wired, there's just not a lot left to look at, most of the time. I'm testing the ones from the half-price section; if they work out, I may have to order a few more, since they're also discontinued.

Anyway, we also went to the new Gymboree outlet. I'm not really impressed by the outlet, though. The prices weren't that great, compared to what I've found at the big sales in the regular store. I bought a zip-up sweater/cardigan for next year, almost identical to the one he's wearing now. The outlet sweater has a solid-colored back, where the original has the color pattern all the way around. I paid $7 for the original (full price was $32.50) and $10 for the outlet version (full price $24.00). I'm thinking that the non-outlet sweater was a better deal. We go in the Gymboree store when we're at the mall here, and I keep an eye out for really good deals, like the 99-cent summer hats and sunglasses at the semi-annual sale. The outlet prices don't seem to be a good enough deal to justify the drive.

So, you ask, what about the non-shopping part of the weekend?

Well, El Burrito got to have a lot of fun. His grandma found a bubble-blowing doohickey - it runs on an AA battery, four bubble circles in front of a tiny fan (with craft-foam fan blades so you can't hurt yourself). It's pretty neat, and it can shoot bubbles a lot faster than I can blow them! We blew bubbles on Sunday, in spite of the stiff breeze. It was in the 70s on Sunday, until about 5:00. He got to ride in Grandpa's truck across the field to feed some cows and see a few calves, which he liked. He ran around the yard, petted the two remaining dogs, blew bubbles, saw some tractors, and walked across the driveway to say hi to some more cows. And he got to watch Grandpa building fence, and ride in the other truck, and just have a good time in general.

He also got to talk to his favorite aunt in Detroit, where it was 34 degrees. She was jealous of our weather.

In other words, he had a great time. The only sticky part was when he went hunting for the "truck book" that he saw at Christmas. The one he's only seen twice, which is now in Detroit. He was pretty persistent in looking for it, too - the other truck books just weren't the same. :)

And, since his "nap" both days was less than two hours total, he's been a bit of a grump today. He didn't fall asleep until he'd been in his crib for 90 minutes - I was just giving up and going in to get him when he conked out, flat on his back with his binky dangling out one side of his mouth.