You know how sometimes the Internet can help you earn money with ads on blogs, or eBay, or clubmom gigs or whatever? Well, I am not currently taking advantage of any of those things. Which has always made my addiction to Mighty Goods very dangerous. It becomes more an adventure of How Much Can I Fall In Love With But Not Afford?

Lucky for my wallet - I’ve always been able to withstand the temptation to buy. Even stuff as cool as this. But then Megan had to go and start this site. I mean - there’s a Compass necklace! Do you know how much that appeals to the Geography Geek in me? And what about my female Cartographer friends? It’s a perfect gift. CAN. NOT. RESIST.

BUT. I still stayed strong. Sort of. Maybe. How do you define “strong”?

And now? What has Linda gone and done? Started Sundry Buzz. Not only does she talk about cool products on the market (man, I almost wish I had hardwood floors so I could buy a Roomba) - but she tests them out and posts pictures of the results. Do you want to guess what leave-in conditioner I’ll be buying this weekend? LOOK AT THE PROOF!

You people are going to be the death of me. I’ll send you the legal bills when I declare bankruptcy.

You know, when I wrote this entry, I was hoping for some good suggestions for suitable highchair replacements. There were several awesome suggestions, but the one that occurred the most and was within our budget was the Fisher Price booster seat. I think at least five of you said you used that one and I’ll pretty much do anything you all say you do. I’m really just a lemming. It also met two of our requirements: Cheap and Not Crap. Portability was a bonus.

Unfortunately, like a dumbass, I opted for the cheaper version in the picture you see above. For five dollars less? I got the biggest piece of crap in the world. The “snapping” mechanism on the tray was awful because you had practically slam it down to get it to latch. It required brute force. Heaven forbid if there had actually been a baby in it.

Now, I will say this: There is a chance that our unit was faulty (heh - faulty unit), but it seemed more to be just lame. And also incredibly dangerous. And useless. When I returned it? They asked if there was anything wrong with it.

Well, it’s not broken, if that’s what you mean. But, it’s an incredibly crappy design.

This is what we bought when we took the first one back. It is such a simple design with a latching mechanism not intended to chop your baby’s fingers off! How novel! I should have listened to you all the first time. I promise not to make that mistake again. Your word is golden from here on out.

Sometimes I am amazed by the advancement of baby products since LilZ was born. I fell in love with the bumbo seat and carried it everywhere for months. Our current backpack carrier beats the one I had for LilZ by leaps and bounds. Namely - it keeps Nikki far enough away that my head that my scalp doesn’t become her newest chew toy. The clothes seem to be cuter, the furniture more modern…it all just seems better.

Then, there’s our high chair.

I would link to it, but the things I hate so much about it? Are on every model of every other high chair in the mainstream (affordable) market. I hate the reclining function that has so many settings that a few excited jumps at dinner and Nikki is back in the infant position. I hate the grooves on the legs that allow it to be adjustable because they are impossible to clean. The “dishwasher safe” piece that fits on the tray got tossed a long time ago because it also adds notches to hold smooshed carrots. They have so many “parts” and “settings” to allow for use at different heights/ages that they almost require an engineering license to operate. What happened to the plain, solid wood, one-setting high chairs from when we were kids? Do you know how tempted I am to buy this? REALLY DAMN TEMPTED.

I am thinking about getting her a different high chair for her birthday. One that is made of wood, has zero settings, and few grooves to hide food in. Pretty much the kind Pa Ingalls had for half-pint. Zero fancy. Zero plastic. Do you have any suggestions? Or should I order the “restaurant style” one? Because at this point? I’m just holding her in my lap when I feed her. It’s easier than trying to clean the high chair. I only need a good shower to get the sweet potatoes out of my crevices.

And yes, I’m well aware that a high chair is not that great of a birthday present. But she’s turning ONE. I know she doesn’t really care what we get her, so we might as well spend the money on something we’ll all enjoy. MrZ and LilZ would love to know they don’t have to hear me scream profanities at inanimate objects any more. Besides, we ordered her one of those personalized books for children. Those are better this time around, too. They offered me one to review and it came this week and it’s the coolest thing. They colored the main character’s hair and eyes to match Nikki’s and they included all of their classmates names in the story. Seriously. Way better than the ones from when LilZ was a kid. With his, you only picked the name to use, and the gender was neutral so it would work for all kids. I’ve been asked to check out gobs of kids’ books, but this is the only one I’ve actually liked enough to tell you guys about. We even brought it to daycare this week so Nikki’s teacher could read it to the class. It’s totally rockin’.

So, she’ll have at least one “real” birthday present. And we’ll get her a few other things I’m sure, but I really want to get her a new high chair as her “big” present. And if you send me links to ones that fit the bill (read: Does Not Make Me Yell) - then I may order it before her birthday so that the violence against household items can stop in my home. One more night of kicking the high chair (without the baby in it, calm down) and screaming, “QUIT WITH THE DAMN RECLINING ALREADY!” and my family may leave me at the curb with the high chair.

Yeah. That’s TOTAL sarcasm you find in that title there. In case you were wondering.

Well - we won our soccer game Saturday! I believe it may have been our first official win. The funny thing was? The other team’s coach was one of those “I’m Yelling At You Loudly And In a Degrading Manner Because THAT is the Best Way To Coach 9-yr-old Boys” type of coaches. They’re are always the funnest to beat because watching them unravel on the sidelines is always entertaining. Especially when they start cursing. Yeah - parents always love coaches that curse at their children.

LilZ and I spent almost all of my extra money at Wal-Mart yesterday. It’s been YEARS since I’ve done that anywhere but Target. I had to go to Wal-Mart to get my oil changed…so we walked around a bit and discovered that they have a CRAP LOAD of DVDs on the 8.88 rack. We replaced a bunch of our VHS tapes from that rack. It’s always nice to take the VHS off the shelf and replace it with a DVD. It clears up TONS more space.

We also walked to Target yesterday morning. Well, I walked while LilZoot road his bike. It was a great walk. We bought bagels for breakfast and browsed for awhile. It was nice. What was NOT nice was buying several items only to find out it was raining outside. Yeah. 1.5 miles seems much longer when its raining and your carrying bags of stuff you dont want to get wet. Brilliant.

I also finished Shellim’s (formerly of www.lifeandthensome.com) new site. Go check it out. It’s centered around her dog. And that ROCKS.

So how was your weekend?

Guess what I’m gonna do tonight? I’m going to go to the mall…and buy HAIR BARRETTES! I mean - I can wear cute little barettes in my hair now. I’m so excited! Maybe I’ll even buy some seasonal ones. Like pumpkins! Or ghosts! Or Turkeys! Wait…scratch that…

And by the way - does it bother anyone besides me that if I wanted to, I could go to Target today and buy an 8 ft. tall light-up Santa Clause for my front yard? And a beach towel? At the same time? Those two seasons should never colide unlesss you live in a mildly tropical region. Santa and Sunscreen should never have to share Top Billing.

Oh. One more thing. One of my superiors brought in a plate of Swiss Chocolates today and left it in the kitchen. Honesty to god Swiss Chocolates that his daughter brought back from some trip. Should that be considered a hostile work evironment for those of us trying to watch what we eat? Can I sue?

And Yes. They are yummy. And Yes. I’ve eaten almost all of them already. Because I’ve got will power of STEEL I tell you.