Savvy Toddler Mom

Every night as I tuck the toot in, I ask him what song he wants me to sing to him.  And every night, the answer is the same: “Jingle Bells.” 

Ever since last Christmas, this kid LOVES Jingle Bells.  If he randomly asks for something else, I know he’s not serious about going to sleep.

While I sing to him, I stroke his hair — he closes his eyes and snuggles in to go to sleep.  It’s adorable.

It got up to 80 degrees this week… and I’m still singing Jingle Bells daily.  I really don’t mind.  I’m wondering how long this trend will last.  It’s an adorable three-year-old-ism that I will miss when he grows out of it.

Does anyone know how to get permanent marker out of a freakin’ expensive Pottery Barn quilt?

Okay, I did buy it on sale, but it doesn’t make me any less upset about it.  The toot decided to color with some forgotten-about markers instead of nap the other day.  To his credit, he was coloring on his wipe-off alphabet cards, but happened to hit the bed SEVERAL times (about a 2-foot area) with the red one.  UGH!

I tried OxyClean, Spray & Wash Stain Stick, hairspray, Thoro, and… lots of muttering under my breath.  Nothing has worked.  I haven’t dried it in the dryer yet.  I took it to the dry cleaners yesterday to see what they could do.

He also got it on his favorite fire truck shirt.  So sad!

On a happy note, I took my car to Bischoff’s — a car wash and detail place in Bountiful, Utah — this morning.  They not only cleaned my car inside and out (not that it needed it!!!), but were also able to buff out the hideous scratches I obtained a while back when I had a close encounter with a concrete pole.  Yay!!  The scratches are still there, of course, but they aren’t white anymore, and if you aren’t looking for them, you would never notice. 

It cost $20 for a “spot buff & wax.”  That is a serious amount of happiness (not to mention release of guilt) for $20. 

I also ran into my old friend Michelle Schmidt there.  Not that she’s old — just that I’ve known her for a long time.  She is absolutely amazing.  It was SO good to see her.  Her husband is pianist Jon Schmidt.  They lived in my parents’ neighborhood during my teenage-through-early-twenties years.  Michelle and Jon both are tremendous examples to me.  I’m so glad I got the opportunity to tell Michelle today how much I appreciate her influence on my younger self.

On a totally other random note, I think I’m going to get the toot a subscription to “Ladybug,” the 3-6 year old magazine from Cricket.  He is SO on the verge of reading!  He loves to identify letters and he’s even started guessing what words are, based on their first (or last) letter.  It’s adorable.

The Children’s Place is having a Spring Sale on Amazon.com.  Check it out!

The first of my spring bulbs peeked through the soil today!  I am so excited!  Spring is finally here and it looks like we’ll even have warm weather this weekend (in the 70s!).

I took the toot to the dentist yesterday — he was great!  They gave him a Lightning McQueen toothbrush… oh my gosh.  I don’t think I’ve seen such a big smile in a while.  A big, clean smile.

[SavvyDad is guest-blogging today - Thanks, hon!] 

I think I almost got scammed by onestopmotors.com. I had to post a review of my experience. If you don’t want the details, skip to the last two paragraphs.

I was toying with the idea of selling my car recently and posted an ad in the local classified website, kslcars.com. The site allows you to post images and a description of your car - no charge. It goes in their database which is easily searchable by year, price, mileage, vicinity, etc. Very easy to browse for a car. No complaints about it.

Two days later, I got a call from a rep from One Stop Motors saying they saw my car ad on KSL’s website. They told me they can sell my car for more than I’m asking and that I can keep all the money they get for the sale. Naturally skeptical, I asked how they make money. He said, “By arranging the financing for buyers.” I was stuck in traffic and figured I could listen to the rest of the story. What followed was a very savvy sales pitch.

I gave them some specs on my car, and they gave me a quote about $1500 more than I was asking. For a $500 fee they would advertise my car on their network until it sold by doing keyword buys for search engines, posting on their affiliate sites, etc. Since ads cost money, they say, it’s in their interest to sell my car quickly. They told me they’d keep advertising until it sold, even if it cost more than the $500 I would be giving. It did make me wonder who would ever buy from them, though. You know they’re asking as much as they think they can get - more even than the actual owner thinks is fair. Whatever.

After their pitch, I expected some pressure to close the sale. To my surprise, it didn’t come. I said I’d think about it. He asked when he could call back. I said, effectively, “Don’t call me, I’ll call you.” “Okay,” he said. “Let me email you that quote and our website so you can check it out.” I gave him my email address, and that was the end of the call.

That email never came and a week later he called back. In the meantime, I went to their website and googled their name. The site looks legit enough. The other search results were …peculiar. The first results were mostly links to them. The #3 result was from a site called “Rip-Off Report,” with this blog entry, which reads like a sales pitch, clearly not an objective assessment of someone’s experience. Get this quote: “…they continue to fulfill their commitment to superior customer service…” and “*UPDATE Employee.. inside information ..OneStopMotors provides everything they say they will.” (How reassuring.) They clearly have a wide network of rather disingenuous bloggers. Many dozens of search results have URLs with some permutation of their name. I can’t prove they’re trying to drown out dissent, but if you were going to, this is exactly what it would look like.

So I go the the Better Business Bureau site and find this page which reports “this company is not a member” and “The company has an unsatisfactory record due to the failure to eliminate the underlying cause of consumer dissatisfaction.” This causes me to look deeper into google search results and find individual experiences. Then I ask myself, “If I give them $500, what keeps them from doing nothing?” According to one customer, “they keep calling untile[sic] they get your credit card # then you never here [sic] from them again.”

When I got the next call, I said I would not be doing business with them as I saw they weren’t members of the BBB. The sales rep told me, “The hell we’re not!” (They’re not.) He then insulted me and asked if I realized the volumes they deal with. Before I could respond, he hung up on me. It’s possible he had a point. According to the BBB, of “168 complaints in the last 36 months, 66 were closed in the last year,” which tells me they have made some efforts to resolve complaints. Whether it’s because they care about the customer, or the just bad publicity is anyone’s guess. FYI, Costco had a total of 257 complaints in the same time period.

I would not do business with One Stop Motors. If you pay $500 and they do a crappy job, you have no recourse. They have no incentive to be a strong advocate for you since they a) already have your money and b) have flooded search results with their sites, effectively burying objective evaluations/dissent/complaints. If you found this when researching these guys, then you’re a pretty savvy reader.

I know I think every age is cuter than the one before, but 3 1/2 is definitely it!  The toot has been SO affectionate the last month or so… more than his usual sweetness.  Demanding hugs and kisses - multiple times!  Giving hugs and kisses unprompted.  Saying, “I love you” ALL the time.  In fact, he has a song he sings: “I love you; You’re my best friend.”  It’s adorable.

He is such a sweetheart!  Now, if I could only get him to nap everyday… he missed his nap yesterday and was an absolute MONSTER by the time SavvyDad got home.  He even lost his Wii privileges for the rest of the day.  Poor kid.  That was a knife in the heart for him.  He did go to bed early, but then was up early.  *sigh*

Today he took a short (but late) nap, so I don’t even think I can get away with putting him to bed early.  He’s a cutie, though.

A couple of weeks ago we had our “jammie day” together — and now he wants every day to be jammie day. LOL  Today he was sporting his two-piece Lightning McQueen jammies and was just freakin’ adorable.  Yeah, he wore them until we left for Costco at 11am.

Where on EARTH does the time go?  It’s April 1st today!  When did that happen?  I think I’m stuck back at the beginning of January - still trying to recover from Christmas and deciding what to do this year.  Before I know it, tax returns are due in two weeks!

By the way, I got my first issue of Wondertime today and it did not disappoint!  I was reading it while the toot was eating lunch… only ten pages in, and I was laughing so hard I was crying.  If you haven’t already, I recommend checking it out.

I decided yesterday (as I was procrastinating getting my last few hours of the month in) that I REALLY need to find time for my hobbies.  It’s so funny… I don’t consider blogging a hobby!  Although, I do need more time to blog as well.  I especially want to find the time to go through all our photos, print the ones I want, and SCRAPBOOK!  I also have my little niece Vivian’s quilt to finish before she goes to grade school (haha) and I’d like to put together a scrapbook of my father’s ancestors.  Not to mention, scan the box of photos I found in my parents’ basement last summer.  It’s been sitting on the end of my desk since September taking up TONS of room!

Like most toddler moms, there aren’t enough hours in the day!  I have learned that I just can’t do it all… but I guess I refuse to be resigned to that. LOL

I’m going to try to set some time aside each week to spend on those projects.  I’m going to make a list of them… schedule the time on my calendar… and just DO it.  (There I go being a Nike ad again.)

The great thing about all these projects is that they are things the toot can do with me!  He loves to play in my craft room while I scrapbook or sew.  I have a table in there for him to color, glue, etc. and do what mom is doing.  He usually just brings his massive amounts of cars in there and plays.  I show him what I’m working on and we talk about it… he is at the stage where he has so many questions.  “But why?” is becoming more and more common.

Another new thing he’s started is, when we are driving down the road and he hears a horn honk, he says, “Who’s the idiot?”  Thanks, SavvyDad.

ChasingToddlerMom’s blog today takes the cake… poor girl, her little guy has given her a rough week!

It’s been a busy week!  As my friend and fellow blogger Heather put it, “It’s a lot of work being the mommy!”

How was your Easter weekend?  Ours was fun and freakin’ crazy.  I’ve just been running and running since.  We had a great time with my brother and his family in town — enjoyed an afternoon at Hogle Zoo on Saturday, as well as an Easter egg hunt and dinner at my parents’.  You can’t beat a trip to the zoo for some toddler fun!  They loved the animals, of course, but I think the train took the cake.  SavvyDad got this great shot of us coming down the track:

The toot’s favorite item from the Easter Bunny was a new set of toy golf clubs.  Man, that kid loves to golf!  Funnily enough, the in-laws brought him a toy sword home from England that makes a “ching” sound when you hit it against stuff.  WOW.  In one day, he more than doubled his number of long skinny things designed to hit other things.  Just what we needed! :)  Actually, he’s pretty good about not hitting or breaking anything.  (Famous last words…)

SavvyDad and I celebrated our ninth anniversary on Tuesday.  Nine years.  That’s just crazy.  Couldn’t imagine a better way to spend nine years, though!  I love you, sweetie.

I frantically planted my lily bulbs yesterday after a grueling week of weeding my miserable garden.  It’s done!  Alas, I ran out of time to get the weed preventer stuff (Preen) on, and then, OF COURSE, it snowed this morning.  SNOWED?!?!  So, that will have to wait until another day.  But the bulbs are in the ground!!  The toot was an awesome helper — nothing like dirt and everything that comes with it to bring a smile to a toddler.

I have been working a ton this week and so am going to enjoy today as a day of relaxation and recovery.  Since there is almost three inches of snow outside, I can’t work in the garden — no guilt there!  I don’t have any appointments, so I can stay in my pjs all day if I want.  Probably won’t, but I CAN.  The toot slept great last night and is just a little sweetheart this morning.  It’s looking to be a great day.

Hope you are having a good one too!

Speaking of hoodies… they are part of my mom uniform.  Jeans, Shade t-shirt, hoodie, white socks, and Skechers.  Almost every day.  Seriously.

A quick aside… Looking for a great gift for the nerdy blogger in your life?  Consider the WordPress Hoodie.  I’d love one in XL, thank you very much.

This week I’ve been busy in my garden!  I was worried about trying to weed and clean out debris from the winter with the toot in tow (front yard - no fence), but have managed to find the secret… BUGS!!!  If I can find a ladybug, worm, or other small, harmless creature for the toot to watch and move around the garden, he is so happy to stay right there and do it!  What a cutie.  Thank goodness for bugs.  (Did I actually just say that?) I might actually have a nice garden this year!

In other news… Easter is Sunday!  I am so not ready.  I need to run to the store without the toot for some bunny-related items (jellybeans, certain items by Cadbury, etc.) and a trip to Toys R Us for a new set of golf clubs for the toot.  He is SUCH a golfer!  He only has one club left from the last set we got — he has broken the other two through his sheer force of strength.  He can hit SO hard.  He is making his daddy so proud.

What are your Easter plans? Basket fillers? Decorating eggs? Egg hunt? Traditions?  I’d love to hear them.