Black Friday Giveaway! {Robeez}

Stop. The. World.

Do you know who contacted me to do a review and giveaway of one of my most favorite kiddo products? Ah! Robeez! Can you believe that?! I mean, we adoooooore us some Robeez at the Babbling household, so this was a pretty awesome gift. We now own SIX pairs, four of which are in current rotation - that's how much we love them. {See here}

They are the most fabulous, kid-friendly shoe, and are a way cool alternative to the standard Velcro easy-ons that most of us with children wrangle onto our squirrely toddler's tootsies. They have this great elastic design that cinches around the ankle, pretty much making them the easiest shoe to put on but also prevents their removal from prying little fingers. I can attest that Beckham has never ever been able to remove his Robeez. Furthermore, the anti-slip suede soles are perfect for scampering across hardwood floors when you're being threatened with a diaper change. They've aided in his successful escape on more than one occasion.

So, when a rep for this company asked if they could send me a pair from their Holiday 2009 catalogue, I all but jumped through the computer screen to kiss her nose. Do you even have to ask?!

She sent us the most darling pair of shoes you've ever seen - the Puppy Bootie. A combo of suede, creamy leather, and faux fur, I didn't even have to look hard into those puppy dog eyes to be sold on this pair of kicks. As previously mentioned, Becks' has had a pension for my Uggs as of late, so I knew he would be absolutely smitten with these bootiful booties.

And, he was. It was love at first sight. We put them on immediately after he gave them a thorough inspection, and he has only taken them off to sleep in the past 72 hours. This is not a joke. Ma boo, ma boo {interpretation: My boots, my boots!} he says repeatedly, holding his boot in the air to admire his fanciful feet. Here's the fun part: Robeez wants to give one of my readers a pair from the Holiday 2009 Collection! Super exciting, I know! There are so many cute shoes to choose from - even if you don't win, you can't go wrong gifting a little one in your life with a pair of these darling shoes. And, if you order by December 9th there is FREE shipping! Wahoo!

{Please note, Robeez offers shoe sizes up to 4 yrs, so this isn't a giveaway only for babies!}

To take part, you must do the following:

• Great Gift: One pair of Robeez from the Holiday 2009 Gift Guide. Only gender and size can be specified, specific pair cannot.
• To Enter: You must be a follower of babblingabby OR become a follower; then, comment on this post with the words "CUTIE WITH A BOOTIE."
• Giveaway Closes: Friday, December 4, 2009 at 12am EST
• Number of Winners: One
• Don't Forget: If you don't have a blog, make sure you leave an email address in your comment.
• Winner Selected by random.org and announced by Sunday, December 6, 2009.

That's it!

Happy Black Friday - don't shop too hard!

{Disclaimer: This review and giveaway is sponsored by Robeez. However, my opinions and thoughts on this product are not. I have reviewed this product honestly and have posted my satisfaction accordingly.}

Party in the USA

Just wanted to kick off Thanksgiving Break with a happy dance. Please ignore my AWFUL singing. Please. Just watch the cuteness.

PS. Having a fun Giveaway over the Thanksgiving Holiday, so come back and check it out!

Update

The Shred = FAIL.

Apparently, the library only lets you check out a DVD for a week, so I didn't continue. I stopped at Day 3. Plus, it was really annoying to do it in my living room, on top of my squeaky hardwood floors that drove me insane as I pretended to jump rope in place.

I've always liked to run. It's free, easy, and invigorating. Lately, I've been craving a good run. Not surprisingly, the holiday season is encroaching and I'd also like a little wiggle room, per se, so I can snack on extra pumpkin roll and a second spoonful of mashed potatoes.

So, this morning I laced up my sneakers puchased B.C. (before child), and hit the pavement. At a slow jog. My chest was heaving, my lungs burned, and my hammies need a good stretch, but I feel so much better. There's just nothing like running. Now if only I can keep it up. I'm not going to put any pressure on myself or feel bad if I miss a run, but at least I'm doing something. {I miss the nursing diet desperately, though.}

Besides my ancient shoes, I was also sporting a long-sleeve tee from [gulp] TEN YEARS AGO!

Here's what it says on the front:

There's a million things more important than CHEERLEADING.

Here's what the back says:

But I can't think of one.

Ha! I think I need to upgrade my exercise wardrobe. And my iPod playlist whose latest adds were from late 2007 and included Gimme More (Britney), Stronger (Kanye), and See You Again (Miley Cyrus). This is the complete truth. The last time I consistently worked out I was almost nine months pregnant and probably offended the treadmill with the amount of weight I had it bear.

{SHUT THE FRONT DOOR - they are predicting flurries on Thanksgiving! Yay!}

And, in case you wondered, New Moon was excellent. I know completely understand the Team Edward vs Team Jacob dynamic.

Happy Saturday!

11/20/09

Super long week. Conferences over. Three hour meeting over.

Going to bed. Reading this first...

That's all.

Almost Wednesday II

There is a slight possibility that I became a member of Redbox today. Are you familiar? It's a big red box full of movies that you can rent for $1.

Do you know why I went there?

One guess. I will give you one guess.

{And it's not because I needed to go to Walmart anyway to buy Becks some super cute Christmas jammies...}



It's because it was the quickest way I could get my hands onto Twilight. The library was completely out until 2012 or something crazy, my Netflix account is expired, and I just can't compete with the late fees I'll most likely accumulate if I rent a DVD from the local store. Are you ready for a corny simile: I NEEDED TO SEE THAT MOVIE LIKE VAMPIRES NEED BLOOD. Bwah ha ha ha.

This time last week I was just a regular girl, laughing and pointing at my coworkers who preordered 20+ tickets for the cult of teachers going to see New Moon on opening night. And now I am one of them. What is wrong with me?!?!

I will stop. Right now. No more vampire talk. (Except I do want to tell you that the movie exceeded my expectations and I felt it followed the book fairly well. And I can't hardly wait until Friday. That's all. Oh, and I made my husband watch it with me. Love him.)

Onto my personal day. A day where I spent a large portion of time obsessing over my lesson plans for the coming week and seriously contemplating taking another personal day between now and the holiday break that awaits me in less than a week.

I think it happens to all teachers throughout the year. It's called burnout. And I'm a little burned out. Like completely extinguished. I need Thanksgiving Break. Reference above simile for a comparison to how bad I need five days off, so I don't have to mention the V-word again.


I do love my job. And I love my kids. I just need a little time off to become reinspired and to catch up on my life so that I can be the best wife, mom, and teacher again. But with FIVE HOURS of conferences tomorrow, followed by a two-hour meeting on Thursday, I think there is going to be nothing personal about my life for the next 48 hours.


Totally random and unrelated, but Becks had his H1N1 vaccination today. It went well. We talked a lot about his boo boo, and when I asked him where it was (on his thigh) he pointed to his mow (mouth). So I kept asking him because it was cute.


Going to bed. Night, BFFs.

You're not EVEN going to believe it...

Do you know what the best part of my weekend was? (Besides making pumpkin muffins with sweet precious AND finding a new obsession AND seeing my *SISTER* and BFF...) That it's NOT OVER yet.

That's right. I am taking a personal day tomorrow, and I'm pretty sure the hallelujah chorus just played somewhere when I typed that. The upcoming week is completely worthy of tagging an extra day onto my weekend. Why? So glad you asked.

BECAUSE I HAVE FIVE HOURS OF PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES ON WEDNESDAY.

Five hours, y'all. That's five hours of telling parents how wonderful their children are while tactfully explaining that Junior sometimes picks his nose and eats his shoelaces during floor time. Despite my gift of gab, that's a lot of talking. So, my personal day is to prep my vocal chords for the big event. And to read New Moon.

Oh, you didn't hear me? No, no, clean out your ears. You definitely didn't hear me say that I was going to spend part of my day tomorrow in desperate search of a book that relates to vampire romance. I do not for a second think that that would be remotely appealing, and I most certainly didn't spend the greater part of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday obsessing over Bella and Edward.

Who are Bella and Edward? I do not even know them.

EXCEPT I DO. And I LOVE THEM.

It's sick you all, I know. I do not know how it happened. One second I'm anti-vampires and refusing to read a book that has anything to do with bloodsucking, and the next the teachers at school are force-feeding me this crazy book called Twilight that I neglected all my weekend chores for. And I am now clearly obsessed and there is no clean laundry at my house because when I wasn't baking pumpkin muffins with my son or eating Chinese food at my parents' house, I was on the couch READING ABOUT VAMPIRES.

The library shows that there are no copies of New Moon available in our county. So, I'm just going to have strap Becks in the stroller and hide in Borders for eight hours straight so I don't have to buy it. Because I'm desperate to read it, but I'm being ridiculously frugal and refuse to buy it when there are that many free copies available but I'm to impatient to wait.

Because I MUST know what happens next.

I told you, it's sick.

And don't go giving away any of the upcoming events. I can't tell you how thrilling it is that there are three more books and two movies left to see that entail my new guilty pleasure.

Also, Mama Faith, I totally take back any comment I left on your blog chiding you about reading it. My sincere apologies. Let's be Twilight Friends Forever.

Another also: my real life BFF moved into a new home and I got to see her and it today. This girl could be the next Nester and her cabinet painting adventure warrants exposure on Young House Love. Allison, pleeeeeease come and style my house. Pretty please?

Bare (Bear?) With Me. It's Random.

I'm feeling so uninspired blog-wise lately. I've started many a post, only to click save now thinking that I'll return and post it later. But I don't. Because the content seems boring and lackluster and not worthy of your time to read or my time to finish writing.

One post pertained to the lack of napping my boy child is doing, but I really think that's due to the nasty cold he's fighting. So I really didn't see the sense in posting a piece looking for sleeping advice when, well, I really didn't need it. Instead, I need to patiently wait for his cough to diminish and to appreciate that I have an otherwise healthy child, and that's what is really important, right?

I could also put a post up about the Sweet Acidopholus Milk that I purchased last week for 59 cents thinking that my husband would down it like he does all other dairy, but he didn't, er, couldn't. Because that stuff apparently does crazy things to your tummy, similar to the effects that Activia or Fiber One Yogurt can have on one's digestive track. It was not good. But, since you probably don't want to read about that, I'll just stop right there.

Or I could post about Girl's Night on the Town (that's what my sister and I call it when we go to Target for an hour childless). But all I bought was eyeliner and bronzer, so that's not too exciting. And I got a coupon for 50 cents off of something at the snack bar, which I'm totally going to use towards a popcorn and Diet Coke the next time we have Girl's Night on the Town in, oh, six months. 'Cause we all know how rare spare childless time really is.

Then there's the post I tried writing about my Christmas spirit and how it's yet to surface. And how I absolutely refuse to listen to 93.3 for fear of hearing Yuletide Cheer because it's only November 11th and Christmas is still a month and a half away and I don't even want to start thinking about putting up decorations until the week before Thanksgiving but only then it might just be a stocking or two or three since we're now a family of three.

And that right there was a heck of a run-on sentence and now I need a deep breath. And mini chocolate chip cookie and a glass of milk. (Totally just baked some. Delish.)

Now I'll leave you with two other random thoughts:

A) Dave Matthews and Kenny Chesney tonight on the CMAs. Interesting...

B) The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock. Who's seeing it? Because it looks like a great holiday movie, and I might have to break my cinema hiatus to check it out (I haven't been to the movies since I saw Sex and the City a whopping 9 months preggo back in 2008. So, while other girls were celebrating its release with martinis, cosmos, stilettos and little black dresses, I was waddling my way through those way small rows with an extra large popcorn and Icee in tow. And my loving husband was my escort and I actually think he had to cover his eyes during one part of the movie. We can all guess what part it was. Think Samantha's neighbor - if you need a clue. It got a little too chick-flicky for him...)

C) Oh, and Carrie Underwood is GORGEOUS.

Bya! Happy Wednesday!

Fall Photo Shoot

My brain is fried after being on all morning. So, I'm just going to post fluff for the time being. Fluff being super cute pics of my boy, of course.

Irreversible

Today is the day, so says my husband.

So, though reluctant and quite a bit sad, I agreed it was time.

Snip. Snip. Snip.
Curls a puddle in a the floor.

No more wild man hair.

All grown up. My big boy.

First haircut. Check.

Muffins with Mom

Beck took an early afternoon nap today, so he was up during my normal dinner prep time. Not that he was having a bad day, but he was having a not-really-into-occupying-himself kind of day. He took up permanent residence in the kitchen, completely ignoring Barney and his blocks, becoming my shadow as I moved about the kitchen. Thus, dinner prep suddenly turned into a how can I successfully incorporate my toddler into my baking tasks?

I tried avoidance at first, ignoring the fact that he was really underfoot. I might have also tried a piece or two of candy corn to distract him while I rummaged through the pantry for ingredients. After making a batch of vegetable barley soup with the wee one entangled in my legs and begging for more candy corn from the jar on the window ledge, I decided it was going to be all but impossible to whip up a batch of chocolate chip pumpkin muffins with that nagging sensation {literally} clinging to my lower limbs.

So, I decided that Beck was just going to have to bake with me. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, that he could successfully handle a wooden spoon, and decided to make lemonade out of lemons. Er, muffins out of madness. I pulled a chair up to the sink, stood him on it right next to the counter, and buddy, we were in business.

He watched patiently while I added in pumpkin puree and cracked eggs and added cups of sugar. He pointed inquisitively at the batter, babbling about whatever it was I was doing. Then I handed him the spoon and let him mix.

And, guess what?

He loved it. Even following directions successfully. Not adding ingredients to the appropriate measurement, of course, but not sticking his fingers into the bowl though he desperately wanted to. He kept repeating mii mii, explaining that he was mixing. My socks were charmed right off by his cuteness.

So, together, we made muffins. And it was fun. He eventually managed to stick those tiny fingers into the batter, but he was so well behaved, I didn't mind. Plus, who can bake without tasting the batter anyway?

It also reminded me that my baby is getting too big. Crazy big. Big enough to make muffins with his mamma. Sigh...

PS. Go visit my friend Brit to participate in her fun blogiversary giveaway!

If you like to talk to tomatoes...

...if a squash can make you smile....

Have we got a costume for you!

Can you guess what Becks and B were for Halloween?

That's right. We had our very own Veggie Tales ensemble trick-or-treating from house to house on the 31st. They were quite a cute pair. I just played the ole Abbaratzi, shooting photos like it was my job. I present to you, Bob the Tomato:

Surely, he's making a phone call to some fellow produce. His father, perhaps? Er, Larry the Cucumber, I mean.Bob was super-pumped about the picture, you can see. But, while posing for pics wasn't his thing, riding in the wagon up the street was totally fun.

Trick-or-treating with a sixteen month is the equivalent of chasing a ping pong ball. He. Was. Everywhere. Even stopping once to jump into a pile of leaves while en route to another house. We made it a dozen or so homes before we decided the night would be better spent in the confines of his grandparents' house noshing on sweets.

Oh, by the way, I totally made the costumes. Both of them for $12.77. I thought they turned out cute, and for something they were only going to wear once it wasn't a bad deal.

And, in case you wondered who we trick-or-treated with, that would be Princess Jasmine and her tiger, Raja.

Also, in other completely random news, the boy child has found love in a purple dinosaur whose name begins witha Bar and ends with a ney. The picture below emphasizes the joy that watching that show brings to him, so I guess I'll let him continue to snack while PBSing. Especially since it buys me 5 minutes to do something other than watch my little ping pong ball bounce all over the house.