Costco vs. Amazon Subscribe and Save

Johnny was recently looking into using Amazon's Subscribe and Save, which I understand saves you 15% and gives you free shipping as long as you order five things per month.  We wanted to see if big things like diapers and formula that I usually shlep out of Costco would be cheaper and more convenient this way.  Lucky for you, I crunched all the numbers.

Costco Size 5 Diapers vs. Amazon's Huggies Size 5

$0.24 per diaper vs. $0.25 per diaper

Costco Size 3 Diapers vs. Amazon's Huggies Size 3

$0.18 per diaper vs. $0.19 per diaper

Costco Size 1/2 Diapers vs. Amazon's Huggies Size 1

$0.14 per diaper vs. $0.19 per diaper

Costco Wipes (900 count) vs. Amazon's Huggies (864 count)

$0.03 per wipe vs. $0.02 per wipe

*I like the Costco wipes, so I think I'm willing to pay the extra penny for each one...anyone a big proponent of Huggies?

Now when Johnny was looking around the Costco website, he found something that I was not aware of, Costco will ship diapers and wipes for free!  This is huge because by the time I buy all of my diapers, there is no room left in the cart.  My twins take up a lot of room too.

I'm gunning for Costco here because the prices, for the most part, are better, and you don't have to commit to buying a certain amount each month; there's also random coupons that give you a pretty good discount on the diapers and wipes.  However, we have a free membership at Costco through Johnny's work, so if you had to factor in the $50 a year vs. a free membership at Amazon, that might make things different for you.  Costco also does not have it's formula available online.  It's definitely the cheapest around, but you have to go to the store to get it.

**Special thanks to Sarah Rose who went to Costco and took pictures of diaper prices for me!

"Ride Crazy Cart Mama!"

I officially have no pride left.

What To Do Before Having A Baby

Here is a list of things you absolutely need to do in the weeks before having a baby.

1. Start painting your family room.  Don't finish it; just start enough that it's in total disarray.

 

2. Organize your linen closet.  This will be very helpful when you are not showering for days at a time.

3. Organize the right side only of your children's medicine cabinet.

4. Buy snacks for the hospital four weeks in advance.

Optional things might include packing a bag for the hospital with important things like documents and clothing, actually having a plan for if you go into labor before you are induced, cooking a few freezer meals, reminding your husband how to get to the hospital, but these things are just optional.  I've chosen to just do the first four important ones.

Something to Stretch Your Brain Because I Apparently Don't Have One

So I'm in this great cooking group that does bulk cooking once a month at Hy-Vee (if you're interested in joining, let me know!).  I've always got a freezer full of meals to go with the three half-full bags of tater tots and the Costco bag of peas.  I went to pull some soup out of the freezer today and realized that I had done something really stupid.  Before it was frozen soup, I put the bag of liquidy soup on the shelf.  The bag proceeded to ooze around the rack and then freeze that way.  There should obviously be a warning label on the shelf.

Thoughts on how I can get this soup out of the freezer?  I have so far considered a hair dryer and making Johnny do it.

Dark White is the New Black

Little Sister is having a difficult time with taking baths, so I thought it would be a good idea to get her a special bath time baby.  Until I had to shop for an African American baby doll I had no idea that dark skinned baby dolls don't seem to exist.



This baby doll is the only African American version of the Water Babies brand, and it's maybe two shades darker than Lila...whitest child ever.  Is it too much to ask for there to be baby dolls in the same shades as people?  (By the way, what in the world is this baby wearing? It's supposed to be the "angel" baby, but I don't see why the baby has to be wearing a shear white negligee to portray that.)

Cereal for Breakfast

This is why we use Baby Bjorn plastic bibs with pockets.

 

 

Delicious.

Dear Target Customer

Dear Target Customer,

Thank you so much for parking your blue minivan exactly one foot away from my car. As you know it was pouring down rain, so the closeness of your car really added a lot of fun and challenge to getting three children into their car seats.  But you couldn't have known that I would need to put lots of children into the car except for the three large car seats and the stroller, wagon, and diaper bag in the far back.  You also, I'm sure, had no idea that I am rather large due to something called pregnancy and that I rarely have the opportunity to squeeze myself into such small spaces.  How thoughtful of you to afford me that opportunity.  

Thanks again!

Rachel

The Last 20 Hours

The last 20 hours have been directly from hell.  The kids are suffering from Grammie withdrawal (Grammie and Grampie visited over the weekend), two out of three kids are sick, and somehow "No!" has become about 70% of the girls' vocabulary.

Assuming that I too will be sick in the near future, I was determined to get all of our clean laundry put away...something that never happens.  We seriously live out of the dryer.  Johnny got mad at Little Guy the other day for barfing all over him, and I said, "Why do you care?" Barf is pretty standard around here after all.  Johnny responded, "This is my last clean pair of pants!" Anyway, after an hour of trying to get Little Guy to take a nap this morning, he finally fell asleep.  At this point the girls were both screaming, so I gave in and put on a movie...on continuous play.



I actually got three full laundry baskets of clothes put away AND put Little Sister's sheets in the wash...something I can't remember doing in the recent past. I think we'll go to Chik-fil-A to celebrate.

Coat Weather

I got a really good deal on winter coats at Costco on Monday night.  The girls, Little Sister especially, have been very excited about these "toats."  Little Sister has been wearing hers around the house off and on for the majority of the day.



At least they aren't wearing pants.

Those People

Somehow we became "those people," and by "those people" I mean those people on your block who have a yard full of plastic toys, and you laugh to yourself about how you would never be tacky like that.



Not pictured is the baby pool that is upside down, my cereal bowl from breakfast, three watering cans, and a large pile of raisins that Lila preferred to eat off the ground yesterday than off her plate.

Block Town

Yes we do need three different kinds of blocks.  Yes we do need to play with them every day.  No we are not interested in them anymore when they need to be cleaned up.

 

Staking Her Claim Like a True Midwesterner

Sometimes Lila likes to let Little Guy know what toys are hers.

 

What We're Eating

Twenty-two month old decided to take a bite out of a good book today.



Unfortunately, I did not retrieve that corner before she swallowed it.

The rolly polly from two days ago, however, was much luckier.

Halvsies

I asked Johnny if we could split a beer and this is what I got.



In his defense, he did say I could pick whichever one I wanted.

6:00 AM Starbucks Run

Well it was more of a walk, really.  Yesterday, Lila woke up a little before 6:00 am in a horrible mood.  I couldn't get her to go back to sleep, couldn't put her down (on the floor I mean), and I couldn't get her to eat anything.  So I don't know what possessed me, but I decided to take her on a walk to Starbucks.



Even typing it seems unbelievable.  I went on a walk at 6:00 am on a Monday.  But hey, it got the job done because Lila was in a great mood by the time we got back...and I only spilled the top third of my drink.

Aquarium Aftermath

5 cousins + the aquarium + the food court =



+ lying on the couch, watching The Office finale, thanking God for nap time

Cinderelly Cinderelly

The girls kept trying to take the Swiffer away from me while I was cleaning yesterday, and I thought to myself, "I wish I had kid sized cleaning supplies."  Then I looked at the Swiffer and realized that I could take it apart and hook the handle much lower on the shaft.  Voila! Baby Swiffer!



Every time they see it lying on the floor, they pick it up and sweep for a few minutes.  I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier.  Now to figure out how to shorten the vacuum.

Things I Say Every Day

"That's your brother's pacifier!"

"Lila, where is your other shoe?"

"Stop kissing the baby."

"Let's go upstairs!  Come on...let's go.  Let's go.  Here we go.  Going faster.  Up the stairs.  Let's go."

"Stop touching the light switch."

"Brush with the toothbrush; don't suck on it."

"Yes I know that's your nose, but don't stick your finger in it."

"Yes I know those are your eyes."

"Yes I know those are your brother's eyes."

"Stop poking your brother in the eye."

"No it's not time to go bye bye."

"Lila, where are your socks?"

"This book?  How about this book?  Ok, this book?  Why don't you just show me which book you want."

"Don't eat that!"

"Acorns are not food."

"You are in timeout because you kicked Lila."

"Praise the Lord, Daddy's home."

"Go play with Daddy!"

I'm not kidding. Every single day.

This Weekend

This weekend was a tough one.  Johnny is gone one weekend a month for National Guard.  The weekends themselves are not so hard; it's the going a whole week being home with the kids, then a weekend, then a week without much of a break.  I woke up this morning and decided that I just couldn't stay awake, so Johnny lovingly stayed home so I could sleep until 11:30.  When I came down, there was a cereal box in the living room. We'll leave it at that.

The kids have still managed to have fun despite a grumpy mom.

The girls had a play date with Hayes on Saturday and attacked the poor kid while he was eating dinner.  I don't think he actually got any of his food.  Notice the desperate hand print on the wall.



Then we got some great hand-me-downs from the Rose girls.  Lila is wearing one rain boot, one Dora slipper, and is trying to put on another shoe.

Little Sister especially liked Dorothy's ruby slippers.

It's also nice to finally be able to go outside.  Little Sister entertains herself by chasing around a ball, and Lila will sit in a flower bed and move leaves or wood chips from one spot to another.  I always knew my child would be gifted.

I Need One of Those "Bless This Mess" Signs

Too bad I can't clean the living room because it's the Sabbath.