When did shopping become not fun? (part 1)

Seriously. It used to be my favorite hobby...now it's another task that must be completed. Jonathan had some vacation to burn before the end of this month so he took the afternoon off yesterday on my half day. I was all excited to get to spend a weekday afternoon with my favorite people...then I realized the mountain of errands that needed to be completed. Can anyone else relate? I had visions of running into the mall, finding a bathing suit and having the afternoon ahead of us to go to the city pool as a family.  HA!

I promise I won't give you a minute by minute recap of our day but I do want to highlight a few of our errands.

We started off (after getting some Christian Chicken aka Chick-fil-a for lunch) at Buy Buy Baby.  I know this store is not in a lot of cities and actually our store here didn't open until right before Adalyn was born so we didn't have the opportunity to buy most of her baby stuff here.  But I have got to just say that this store is AWESOME!  First of all it is owned by Bed Bath and Beyond and although I'm not a fan of shopping there (because of the seemingly lack of organization it stresses me out), I appreciate their coupons and their large selections of items.  Buy Buy Baby has those same qualities and, at least to me, does not feel overwhelming even though the store is set up the same way.  It actually feels like it is laid out waaay better then Babies R Us. And they take Bed Bath and Beyond and also Babies R Us coupons! Score!!

We have been researching convertible car seats.  After talking with some girls at work I realized that we need to get a bigger seat before we try to drive to Florida later this summer so that Adalyn can be more comfortable.  She only weighs 15 lbs but lugging around the baby car seat was becoming cumbersome so we were mainly leaving the car eat in the car anyway. At BBB they have workers specifically trained to work in the HUGE car seat and stroller section. The employee that helped us was awesome. She took covers off car seats, showed us how each one reclined (and how BIG they get when they are rear-facing), let us strap Adalyn in to them to see how she fit in them, and gave us her recommendations.  That sealed the deal for us.  We ended up getting the Britax Marathon, which hurt the checkbook but thankfully we had coupons. There were so many great features.  Including but not limited to the size when it is rear facing, not rethreading the straps when she grows, the foam under the fabric lining, the ease of use, of course the amazing safety standards, and Jonathan's favorite - velcro on the sides to keep the straps open while trying to put the child in the seat.

All of that to say... Yay! We have a new car seat. How in the world is my daughter in the next stage car seat?? ::sniff sniff:: And also? The Buy Buy Baby employees are awesome and that store ROCKS. Well, except for the fact that they don't carry the diapers we like so we had to go to BRU for diapers. Seriously? You're a baby store. Shouldn't you have every kind of diaper made by Pampers??

Have I just written 613 words of a post all about a car seat??  We haven't even gotten to the "good" or should I say "bad" part of our shopping experience. Another story for another post...