Archive for July, 2009

Bodysilk

July 23, 2009 at 11:01 am · Filed under Breastfeeding, Store

I don’t often find myself gushing over a bra, much less a nursing bra.  But, I LOVE the Bravado Bodysilk nursing bra.  Bravado bras have been around forever.  Great quality, super comfy, but I never loved their support.  I wore one with my first son.  For about a day.  My poor lactating “na-nas” were pretty much on their own in that bra.  Granted, supporting my breasts was a full-time job at that time.  Not many bras were up to the task.  I could have gone for the extra support version of the bra, but I’m not a fan of the uni-boob look. 

We have always stocked Bravado bras in our store because they’re such a great company and the product is such high quality and well-known.  But, I was on the fence about them. 

Bras_AllUntil they came out with the Bodysilk Bra.  (Caution: Gushing ahead….)  I LOVE this bra.  I was still nursing Gage when the bra came out, so I gave it a real test.  It’s so comfortable.  The funny thing is, it actually gives support while being comfy.  It held my girls up.  I love that it comes in S, M, L, XL and each size fits a range of sizes.  It’s a great solution for moms who are still pregnant or just gave birth who know that their bra size is going to fluctuate wildly. Love it.  The bra also has a thin, removable panel in each cup to hide nipples and give a smooth profile.  Love it.

Come to think of it, we don’t sell so many Bodysillk bras as we sell empty Bodysilk bra boxes, because most moms wear it out of the store.

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Big Old Sale

July 21, 2009 at 2:09 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

It’s that time of year again for our Huge Summer Clearance Sale!  We haul out all the things languishing on our shelves, slash the prices, and make room for new fall stuff.  (I’m sorry I just mentioned Fall but, in the retail biz, we think ahead.  You’re lucky I didn’t mention Christmas).

So, on Friday July 24th and Saturday July 25th, the front of our store will be transformed into a giant clearance section.  We’ve got toys (Haba, Manhattan, and more), clothes, diapers, baby carriers, summer stuff, instruments, body care products, nursing pillows, BellaBands, and loads more.  We want it all gone!  We need the room!

We even have some gently-loved items from our cafe play area: a dollhouse, kitchen center, shopping cart, and play tables.  Now’s your chance to transform your playroom into a Mom and Pop Place!  Except you can’t use that name cuz it’s trademarked……

Anyway, doors open at 9AM on Friday.  No early sales or holds.  Select items only.  All sales are final.  All that jazz.  Come early, shop nice, have fun.

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Mighty Gift-Giver

July 20, 2009 at 11:01 am · Filed under Adria, Store, Toys

It’s been a summer of Birthday Parties!  My boys have been invited to party after party.  It’s great.  But, 30 minutes before the party, I remember the present.  “No problem!” you say, “You own a toy store!”  Well, yes and no.  My oldest son is 8.  Mom and Pop Place is birthday-gift-central for one and two year olds.  For 8 year olds, it’s a little trickier.  I stroll my aisles and see tons of things my sons would like.  But my sons are………unique. 

So, multiple times this summer, I have turned to an old favorite: the mighty tow truckMighty Builder Construction Set from Melissa and Doug.  Have you seen these?  I LOVE them.  You get all the tools and wooden parts you need to build your very own cool vehicle.  We have the fire truck and garbage truck and the tow truck.  My son got one last Christmas and he loves displaying the race car that he built himself.

It’s been the summer of Mighty Builder Birthdays.

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My Thistle Victory Garden

July 15, 2009 at 3:09 am · Filed under Adria

I’m proud to say that today I found a thistle plant in my yard that was 7 feet tall.  It was nestled up against a shrub where it escaped 3 months of ruthless months weed-pulling.  It’s a mighty specimen, as thick as my arm. Not my upper arm (which is pretty thick and not a little jiggly), but my forearm.  I left it there, partly out of respect for its growth and partly because I will need to find a saw to get it down.  All my corn died, but I sure can grow thistles.  “Knee-high by the Fourth of July”?  Ha!  Take that!

 

Adria

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Sasquatch is a boy.

July 14, 2009 at 3:41 pm · Filed under Adria

We have a bunch of hens in our backyard.  One of my favorites is a gangly Rhode Island Red named Sasquatch.  Actually, she was named Chocolate, but she was so big and her feet were so huge that we started calling her Sasquatch. 

Cock-a-doodle-oops

Cock-a-doodle-oops

Seriously, this bird looked like a velociraptor.  Huge feet, long neck, gangly walk.  It was charming.  The funniest thing was that she was a total push-over.  The other birds would steal her food and chase her away from the water.  She’s only a few months old, so she’s still immature and shy.  We figured she’d find her voice soon enough.

Well, she found her voice alright.  This morning at the crack of dawn, she started cock-a-doodle-doo-ing.  Like a rooster.  Like the rooster she is.  Sasquatch is a boy.  We suspected something was up.  But the farmer we got her from said she was a girl.  Was he trustworthy?  I don’t know.  He had a lot of chickens.  My husband even sexed her.  “Sexed her” as in examined her gender not “sexed her” as in, well, you know…..  Anyway, my husband is a doctor at the VA and he said she’s a girl.  Who’s gonna arugue with a government doctor?  (Lesson: Don’t go to the VA for chicken-sexing services.)

So, I loved ‘Squatch when I thought she was the world’s ugliest hen.  Now that she’s just another immature rooster, I don’t know what to think.  First of all, he/she has to go.  No roosters allowed in the city.  (Thanks, Jake.)  By the time you read this, we will have “found her a nice farm to live on for the rest of her life”.  Either literally or figuratively.  Maybe we’ll take her back to the farmer who sold her to us.  Maybe we’ll slow-roast her at 375 with a little butter, garlic, and rosemary up under her skin and dilled new potatoes fresh from the garden.  Not that I’ve really thought about it.

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Meet “Lucy”

July 13, 2009 at 3:09 am · Filed under Adria

The Ramos family has a new Famly Truckster!  We got a new car.  Actually, it’s 10 years old.  But, that’s new to us.  And its the closest we’ve ever been to owning a car made in this millineum.  We got a Subaru Outback Wagon.  It has awesome features we’ve never had before.  Trailer hitch!  Hatch-back trunk!  Air-conditioning!  Unfortunately, it also has some not so awesome features we have had before. Stick shift!  Crappy cup-holders!  Scratched driver’s door!  Oh well.  I really like it.  I already named her Lucy.  I don’t know why.  That’s just her name.  She joins the fleet of rusty Japanese cars in our driveway: Jane (Honda) and Shiloh’s-Unnamed-White-Car (Nissan).  We may actually park one of the cars in the garage now.  That’ll be a first too.  I’ll keep you posted. 

 

Adria

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Happy Holiday!

July 6, 2009 at 2:03 am · Filed under Adria

When you read this, I will be on vacation with my family.  Sipping icy drinks in such exotic locales as “My Parent’s Backyard” and leading our children on educational hikes to such destinations as “LegoLand In The Mall Of America” and  ”Maybe Ikea”.  Yes folks, it’s the fabulous Ramos Family Vacation.  No time to talk right now, gotta get our travel shots and passports in order.   I’ll send you a postcard.  Or not.

 

Adria

 

Adria

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My Girl Wanda

July 3, 2009 at 1:20 am · Filed under Adria, Breastfeeding, Parenting

I want to tell you about my friend Wanda.  As you may have guessed, her name is not really Wanda.  Even though I doubt you will ever run into Wanda, I thought I might change her name and a few identifying characteristics in my blog.  Plus, I just really like the name Wanda.

Wanda is a friend of mine and she gave birth to her first daughter a little while ago.  The pregnancy was a surprise but she embraced it.  She took care of herself and stayed active and dreamed about her baby.  She didn’t know much about birth and labor but she figured she would figure it out when the time came.  She planned to breastfeed but didn’t really know what to expect.  She didn’t do any research on parenting beyond “What to Expect When You’re Expecting…..”. (sigh)

I’ll admit, I was worried about Wanda.  Wanda is a go-with-the-flow kinda girl.  I’m a know-exactly-where-the-flow-is-going-and-make-lists-of-contingency-plans kinda girl.   Wanda just figured her baby would come and she would take it home and take care of it and be happy.  “Poor thing,” I thought.  “She has no idea what a physical and emotional roller coaster she is about to get on.”  I felt like she never prepared.  She and I took on the task of having a baby in totally opposite ways.  When I was pregnant, I read every single baby book in the bookstore.  (I didn’t buy them.  I just read them there.  Barnes and Noble both groaned when they saw me waddling in.)  I made lists of all the layette items I had and what I needed.  I agonized over bedding sets and middle names and my perineum.  I thought that there was so much I needed to prepare!  How would I get it done in only 9 months?

It turns out, Wanda was better prepared than I was.  By wanting to do it so literally “by the book”, I was over-prepared.  When my son was born, I learned the hard way that too much information can be a bad thing.  I was so focused on counting diapers and recording feedings and analyzing cries that I forgot to enjoy my baby.  I wanted to make sure I was doing things right, that he was developing right.   But, being a mother is nothing you can prepare for with a book.  You have to actually do it before you know how to do it.  You surrender yourself to your baby and they let you know how to do it.

So, lo-and-behold, Wanda had her baby.  We’ll call her Charmaine.  (Love that name, too.)  And Wanda took her home and took care of her and was happy.  She breastfed on-demand.  She slept when Charmaine slept.  She held her baby all the time.  She fell in love with Charmaine right away and she fell in love with being a mother.  She never had those attacks of self-doubt that I had every week.  She never argued with a newborn about how they “should” be sleeping or how they “should” be eating.  She let Charmaine call the shots and mostly stayed home gazing lovingly at her baby. 

I think I could have learned a lot from Wanda.  Going-with-the-flow is one of the most important parenting skills you can learn.  More inportant than learning how to change a diaper or swaddle a newborn or clean an umbilicus.  If you relax and listen to your baby, she will tell you everything you need to know.  Relaxing has never been easy for me. Eight years after my son arrived, I’m still working on it.  Maybe I’ll go over to Wanda’s………….

 

Adria

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Poll time!

July 2, 2009 at 1:06 am · Filed under Store, Toys

Our goal at Mom and Pop Place has always been to sell unique, quality items that help you be the best parent you can be.   No cheap throw-away items, no toys with batteries, no unnecessary baby products to make life more complicated.  We try to offer only things that promote healthy children and healthy parenting.  There is more than one way to parent a child and we hope you find the tools you need to help you on your journey.

 

We want Mom and Pop Place to be about YOU, the moms and the pops. There’s only one catch: you have to tell us what YOU think!  I’d like your input on the items we sell here at the store.  Are there certain products you would like us to sell?  Things you wish we had a bigger selection of?  We are constantly looking at new products.  Any feedback we can get from you really helps us make decisions about what to sell. (Go read the blog entry about Hiding Your Hooters.  Better yet, read the comments on our Facebook page.  Wow! )

 

So, tell us….. what would you like to see at Mom and Pop Place?

 

 

Adria

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