Mommin' It Up!

February 20, 2008

WFMW: Bebe Belay

One of the many, many, many challenges my darling daughter has given me is the challenge to keep her clothes clean at mealtimes. Girlfriend is an anti-bib baby. She is 15 months now and about 5 months ago she started bib-ripping. First it was just the disposable bibs she could jettison from ’round her neck with ease, then she got good at getting the cloth bibs off. For awhile, she’d keep them on if I put them on backwards, but eventually she outsmarted me there, too. So I resigned myself to using a LOT of detergent and Clorox 2 until…

(angels singing, bright lights shining from heaven)

…the Bebe Belay came into my life!

The Bebe Belay was invented by a mom and is one of those simple but genius things I wish I would’ve been smart enough to think of! It’s basically a cute, adjustable ribbon with two very sturdy clips on each end. It can be used as a pacifier holder, a baby bootie connector, or what I’ve been using it for – to create an instant bib out of a napkin, paper towel, dish towel, or burp cloth. Here’s Sophie with her Bebe Belay holding up one of my (very attractive) dish towels as a bib.

I’ve been using this thing three meals a day for a week and she hasn’t bothered with it ONCE! She acts like she doesn’t even know it’s there! And she’s no longer getting food all over her clothes! It’s a miracle!

What I like best about the Bebe Belay is it’s cute, it’s small enough to easily slip in your purse or diaper bag, and it stays put. The clips are very sturdy and they don’t slip. I also like that it’s affordably priced at less than $10! Well worth it for the time & energy I’ve saved stain-treating Sophie’s clothes. And it’s much nicer to make a bib out of a Bebe Belay and a napkin when you go out to eat than it is to pull that crusty bib out of the diaper bag from LAST time you went out to eat! Click here for a list of places you can buy your own!

The Bebe Belay works for me! For more Works for Me Wednesday ideas, check out Rocks in My Dryer.

February 18, 2008February 18, 2008

I Feel Pretty! Oh So Pretty! Or Something.

The Other Jenny (as I like to call her…ooh maybe I should start calling her OJ! No? Allright then.) at Absolutely Bananas is hosting a brand-spankin’ new blog carnival called Make Me Laugh Monday. So I decided to get in on the fun since my children never cease to provide me with humourous material.

Saturday after I showered and dressed, I came downstairs and sat at the dining room table to do my makeup. Joshua sidled up to me and said, “Mommy, why do you always do your makeup after you take a shower?”

“Because I want to look pretty.” I replied.

My husband piped up, right on cue, and said, “Joshua tell mommy it doesn’t matter, she looks pretty anyways.”

Joshua looked at Bobby quizically, like he didn’t understand what he had said. “What?”

Bobby repeated, “Tell mommy it doesn’t matter, she looks pretty anyways.”

Joshua turned back to me and said with what I am ~~hoping~~ sure he thought was the proper emphasis, “Mommy, you look pretty angry.”

Ahem. Uh…so does that mean I should or shouldn’t wear makeup? Now I’m confused!

Head over to Absolutely Bananas for more Make Me Laugh Monday giggles!

February 16, 2008

Cleanin’ Up at Kroger and Whoopin’ Up at Walgreens!

Hola Super Savings Saturday readers! If you, like me, love bargain shopping, please read the post below this one where my co-blogger Emily analyzed my baragin-hunting “addiction”. Even though she is ridiculing me mercilessly, it’s still pretty entertaining!

The CVS deals weren’t too hot this week, and there weren’t any dollar-off coupons to bed had, so I just went for necessities like milk and Mountain Dew. 🙂 But I also went there to get my hubby a Valentine’s Day gift! One of the beauties of CVS is that when they have great deals you can “make money” on, you sometimes end up with more ECBs than you really need. This week I found myself in that situation so I was able to “buy” my hubby something he really wanted for Valentine’s Day from CVS. It’s this heart rate monitor/watch that he’s been wanting to keep track of his heart rate while he’s exercising. It’s $59.99 at CVS and more than I would normally spend for a Valentine’s Day present for him! But after a couple of CRT’s and a lot of ECBs, I paid just 9 cents for the monitor, a Valentine’s card, a Reese’s cup, and some lotion (CVS brand hand lotion that I had a Free CRT for. It’s good stuff too!) Yay! This is just one of the many reasons I heart CVS!

I was really excited about my trip to Kroger this week. Joshua’s birthday is coming up and I wanted to get all the ice cream and cake mixes I would need for his party. Kroger also had the same Totino’s pizza roll deal they had last week, and I had enough coupons to get 9 boxes for close to free. The pizza rolls, ice cream, and Chef Boyardee items (all of which I had coupons for) were all part of a promotion where if you buy 10 items you get an extra $2 off your order. I bought 20 of these items total, so I got $4 off my order. My order came up to about $55 with tax, but after coupons I paid $32.43 for all of this! I was so excited to get the supplies for Joshua’s party plus our regular groceries for so little!

I also went to Walgreens a few times this week to get some FREE plus overage Chapstick Naturals! Through Feb. 23rd, Chapstick Naturals are $2 and you get a $2 Register Reward good on your next purchase. But this week, Walgreens had a coupon in their ad making the Chapstick just 99 cents…and you still got the $2 Register Reward! Woot Woot! I did this, I don’t know, approximately 4 million times (slight exaggeration, more like 4) and bought other rebate or Register Reward items with my $2 RR . It was FUN! I got all the 2 Liters for Joshua’s party also, because 7UP products were also a Register Reward deal this week. So after redeeming and receiving new Register Rewards, I got eight 2 liters for about 50 cents total. 🙂 And I put it all on my Walgreens gift card from last month’s rebates! Goooood Times!!

Allright, that’s it for me this week! For more super savings, check out Money Saving Mom!