Shopping!

I just got done with a slew of on-line orders. We had to buy Michael a new car seat since he's too tall for our current convertible and not old/mature enough to use a belt-positioning booster. We settled on a Fisher Price Safe Voyage, which is a Britax Marathon in different clothing. Last month I could find them everywhere, now only one place carries it and it's on clearance. Figures - they make a seat that has a high height and weight limit and doesn't cost a small fortune and it gets discontinued. Since it's more than likely that the Bean will follow in his brother's footsteps in terms of size, we'll be getting a Radian 65 come tax-return time. I'm probably going to put Michael in the Radian and the put the Bean in the FP when he outgrows the bucket that S is lending us. I was joking with John the other day that we could have a few more kids and have our self a rugby team - who knew that my Eastern European/Irish stock mixed with his Western European stock would create a race of super men? Now that I've said this, I'm probably guaranteeing that the Bean is going to be very petite (*shush* I can dream).

The next thing on the shopping list splurge is a new pair of shoes for me. Last spring I finally came to the realization that I need to spend money on good shoes for myself, especially since I was averaging a good 10 miles of walking a week back then. I closed my eyes and bought a pair of Keen sandals and man, what a difference they have made. I did have some arch pain the first few weeks I wore them as my feet adjusted to actually having adequate support, it has been heavenly. Even now, my pelvis may feel like it's going to split but my feet could go on all day. The shoes have held up remarkably well and I'm sure I can get at least another half-season's wear out of them.

Of course, now it's starting to get cold and I'm going to need closed shoes pretty soon. I've been vacillating all week about what shoes I want to get. I have large, wide feet and a very high instep. This means finding women's shoes that fit is nearly impossible. In fact when I bought the Keens, I didn't even bother trying on any of the women's styles and went right for men's. I've been searching all week and even though I know spending the money on good shoes is completely worth it, I was still balking at the cost. Most of all, I really want a pair of cute Mary Janes to show off my new hand-knit socks. I talked about my shoe dilemma with K this afternoon and finally decided to just go with the Keen pull-ons. They are not the most feminine of shoes, but I know they work on my feet and switching to something else in the middle of my pregnancy would probably not be a good thing. Once spring comes, I'm thinking of getting a pair of Earth Shoe Mary Janes - K told me that they fit her wide/high-instep feet very nicely although the heels take a bit of getting used to.

The last thing in the shopping extravaganza was a cell phone for John. We've only had one for a year now and while it's not that much of an issue generally, with me being pregnant and a second on the way, we both feel a bit more secure with him having one too. The only thing left is for me to replace my own - something that has to happen soon seeing as the "4" button no longer works. I just have to do some comparison shopping and pick one out that doesn't cost a small fortune - the downfall of hybrid plans, none of those sweet deals on phones apply when you aren't signing a two-year contract.

'evening all - have a great weekend!