Customer Service That Will Have Me Coming Back For More

For my own record keeping, I've had great customer service with a couple firms lately that I just had to tell my 12 regular readers about.
1. Toys To Grow On (an online site). For Christmas Eddie asked for "Frog Frenzy" a game that reminded me of the Hungry Hippo of my youth. The frog spins around and you are to flip these hard plastic flies/frogs into it's mouth as it opens and closes. After less than 2 months of not that much use, it broke (I hated playing anyway). When I couldn't track down the manufacturer, I called toystogrowon.com and they credited my card immediately. Yahoo! Told me to dispose of the game--not a problem.
2. Germ Guardian--we bought two humidifiers (not cheap ones) and they both sprung leaks. Without any questions they mailed us 2 replacement units and a bonus smaller unit. The new ones have been great ever since (knock on wood).
3. Shutterfly. I still don't like that various parts of my pictures get chopped off due to the different aspect ratio of digital to printed 4x6 photos, but I love that they can and do print whatever you want on the back of your photo (including the file name and date taken). But when I called to complain that I had purchased several prepaid print plans and because of this could not take advantage of their 'spend $50, get free shipping' offer, they added free shipping. Ordering 730 photos, it saved me almost $30 in shipping.

I get so frustrated with bad customer service, so good service really gets my attention. Hope others have similar good experiences.

FRISATSUN...Baam!

G'parents Ohio came to visit for the weekend. We're glad they were sufficiently recovered from the walking pneumonia to make the trip, as at the beginning of the month they were in doubt.

G'ma and I went consignment sale shopping. We had a great time--okay, well I had a great time. G'ma was just happy to find some good deals. Somehow we never manage to get good photos of them with the kids until they are ready to leave. Could be that we run out the door as soon as they show up?

Bet you can't guess whose head this is, below. It's not who you think.

This 3rd picture down of Josie is actually from a couple weekends ago. Unlike Eddie she still usually hams it up for the camera.

She positively loves these pink sunglasses. I've got to find her some with some darker lenses as I worry these won't do much but look cute on her.

In other news...J has pink eye! It's our first bout with the illness and I was caught offguard because silly me, I actually expected her eye(S) to be pink. Now they are pink, but on Sat. they were just full of newborn-blocked-tear-duct gunk.

We have to give her eyedrops, which much to our delight has been really easy--we'd prepped ourselves when the doctor described holding her head between our thighs, and pinning down her upper body with our legs crossed over her. I had visions of a WWF. She mostly just lays there with her eyes closed and then we blow on her face to get her to blink. Course this is day one...lets see what story we tell on day 7. So far, Eddie is in the clear.

J's diction is getting really clear. She is repeating everything we say...so far she's not been paying attention to my cursing.

Eddie is still enjoying preschool and all the birthday parties that go with it. He's enjoying being 'the helper', clearing all the dishes off the table after dinner, getting his own breakfast, and helping Josie with everything from her hairdo to getting down the stairs.

Then there is my personal favorite, said as he goes into the bathroom, "I want priv-acy". This is more to Josie to KEEP OUT.

J is starting to go down the stairs fowards all by herself. Freaks me out. We installed a low hanging handrail that goes underneath our main one and it works as well for her as it did for Ed. He calls her Joes-o, but then I call her J, Jo, JJ, all sorts of things.

I'm starting to worry about Eddie's name and what will happen to him as he moves through school. He hates all the nicknames people attach to his name--even in preschool--steady-Eddie, fast-Eddie, etc. We've got to help him figure out a good way to deal with this.

Couple More from the State Park

I've already forgotten the name of the State Park, but it was just off the route to Lewes, DE and quite large with a lake.

Josie was a wild woman on the tire swing and the bottom giant multi-person tire swing (Den and I got on too).

The Park

I was dying to go somewhere this past weekend, so we drove across the Bay Bridge to the Eastern shore of MD. We didn't go all the way to the ocean, but checked out a couple region-known antique stores before hitting this great park made largely from recycled/reused tires.

The first photo Ed took of Josie, and I love it.
Surprisingly, Josie was a little too scared to walk along this wall of tires, but Eddie went on everything. There were even lots of older kids playing.

More FLA

Why am I posting at 4:19 in the afternoon on a Monday? Because Eddie decided he wanted to take a nap. In his own bed. So he went in, laid down and was out, telling me not to come back to check on him. Josie, who still naps regularly, decided she did NOT want to take a nap, so after 45 minutes of crying on and off, she fell asleep in about 3 seconds while I held her. Now instead of doing everything I swear I'd do if I just had 30 minutes during the day, I am blogging. Nice priorities. I do have a load of laundry in of course.
Here are a couple more photos of FLA. This is Cousin Sami (who is actually my first cousin's kid). She and the kids really got along well. Yes, Eddie knows his sunglasses are on upside down, I believe that was the point.
Josie is a 'ride' freak, just like apparently her g'pa Wisc. She LOVED the ferris wheel. Kept wanting to go back, so she rode it a couple times.
Remember Santa Barbara in Sept. 06? Eddie fed the giraffe. He wasn't so interested this time, but J sure was.

They had the cutest little train for the kids to ride. I honestly could not tell you how many times they rode it. More than any other thing. We'd go off and do other stuff only to come back to the train. I don't know who liked it more, Eddie and Josie, or their mom.

I've been thinking about...

Just spent an hour on the phone with Lands End trying to wade through their sizes and styles to find a couple swimsuits in petite. It was like they had pre-determined the 4 swimsuits that would work together for petites, nevermind the 100 other styles didn't come in petite, let alone my size. Yet, they have the best option out there that I've found thus far--last year, April was too late and they had almost nothing left. I swear, if I had the knowledge to start a petite clothing line, I would. Maybe I should just make my own clothes. Ha!

Had Ed's preschool parent-teacher conference today. Unlike in the fall, they didn't have much to report. They showed us how he writes his name, which he's been doing for about a year and said that he is interacting a lot more with his peers. One of his best buds is moving with her military family to Japan, we're really sad and I know he doesn't know yet to be sad. She's actually leaving before the end of the school year. They were supposed to be here a couple years and instead will be in Japan a couple years.

Had 3 other families over while Den was out of town on Friday night for lenten cheese pizza. There were 16 people total and a great time was had. I think Den was a little jealous when he called home in the middle and there was a lot of hootin' and hollerin' going on in the background. The kids were among the youngest and it was kind of fun to have a bunch of mini-mommies.

This first picture was when Den was mixing the blue icing for Ed's cake and the second is from the hat they made at preschool for President's Day. Picture by dad.

Den got back on Sat. after 6 days out west. He was not looking forward to the trip, but in the end rather enjoyed the class and we did fine back home. I can't decide which I want more: a trip somewhere or a swingset in the backyard for the kids. It's killing me.

Den is my hero--he fixed my outlook. I had been on the trail, but he completed the search to find the fix. Yay. I promptly deleted 20,000 emails (no I don't have extra zeros in there). I am on several parenting listserves and while I thought I had set the folders to delete automatically each month, apparently something was not set right as I had emails that were a year (or more old). Outlook seems to be much happier, but I still have a long way to go.

The kids are (for the most part), getting along really well. Course that just jinxed the whole thing, but seriously, they are really cute together, as evidenced by the picture below.

Random thoughts to go with random photos

Now that I've discovered the computer problems we are having are likely related to my outlook, I'm happy to try and post a couple photos (cause I can't do anything with my outlook email).
When g'parents Ohio came for Ed's birthday, they brought a couple gifts for Josie so she wouldn't feel left out. She got a doll's highchair just like the one she uses that g'ma had been dying to give her. I do love that she wanted to use the screwdriver herself to put it together. Not sure if she followed the 'righty, tighty, lefty, losey rule', but she had fun.

Tonight Ed wanted to fill up the humidifers. I loosed the lid and the kids took turns unscrewing the caps and turning the faucet on, then replacing the caps. Gotta love that independent streak. Then Eddie said he wanted Josie to help him with his pajamas. It ended up being Eddie explaining to Josie that the tag goes in the back and that 'this leg you put in first, then pull it up and then the other leg goes in, like this'.

This picture of the kids under the chair is actually from the trip Den was on prior to the current trip. When I've had enough sleep, it's not bad when he's away, it's on nights that I haven't gotten to sleep on time that it's not so good.

So this awesome book, the complete name of which escapes me (due to a lack of sleep), I think it's called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child or something, but the author talks about how sleep begets sleep. This was a difficult concept for me to get my head around until last night (and I've been reading and re-reading it since Eddie was born). I was extremely well rested by the time Den left, yet at 8pm last night I was ready for bed. Couldn't go to bed then, it was too early and egads! I could wake at 5am, ready for the day. Then 9pm came and I shamefully got sucked into a show I'd tivoed. Before I knew it, the clock said 11.
And then it said 5:30am and Josie had coughed herself awake. Now, last night because I was soooo tired, I put the leftovers last night in a drawer in the kitchen cabinets, but tonight, with even less sleep, I can't fall asleep, because I've not had enough sleep and I can't settle myself down to relax. My brain has kicked into overdrive and I need a second glass of wine--something that isn't exactly the first option you pursue with a kid. I finally get it. I can't explain it, but I do get it.

I'd better get myself to bed and in a hurry, J just coughed herself awake. Ugh. Hope she doesn't develop the walking pneumonia g'parents Ohio just got diagnosed with today.

So this is the first and last time Eddie has worn a turtle neck this winter. He's got a full drawer of them, but no desire to wear any...except this one with the airplanes, cars and such on it.

Enjoy the photos...

Day 2 of 6

So I always wonder if I should write on here when Den is out of town...he is attending training and he claims he is not getting the opportunity to experience the 70 degree weather they are having. I'd happily sit inside just to get 2 hours/day of 70 degree weather if it meant escaping the 12 degrees we had last night.

He left yesterday, right after the 'storm' plowed through. He gets back Sat. afternoon.

Here the kids are helping Den with clean up after icing Ed's birthday cake. I don't want to think about how much sugar they both ingested that day.


Just in case you doubted it, g'ma Ohio does arts and crafts (when pressed into service). She cut all the cat and dog ears and the bands for the party hats.
I don't know why but these photos of Josie cracked me up. I delegated getting Josie dressed for the party to the g'parents and this dress is what she selected. She definitely likes a dress (especially when it's pink). There is a great store by us that sells beautiful hand-smocked dresses and if I go in at the right time, I can buy for the next season on sale.