My blog posting has really slowed down for the last little bit, but I’m pleased to announce the reason why is because our family has grown!
In August we got to welcome a baby girl to our crew, and trust me when I say my three little boys have been over the moon for her, and this caboose baby is going to be well loved, and I fear, terribly spoiled all of her days, being both the youngest and the only girl of our kids.
During my whole pregnancy the only name my husband would suggest was Tara, but spelled, Ptera, and short for Pterodactyl, lol. Since my three year old is obsessed with dinosaurs he was pretty down with that idea, and since she’s been born it’s a nickname that has kind of stuck around with the older crew.
The three year old, who we thought would have held fast and tight to the nickname has instead opted to call little miss Baby Pineapple Tree, and will correct anyone who calls her a different nickname,… nevermind that pineapples grow on bushes.
In any case our little Pineapple Tree is doing fantastic, She is a sweet, snuggly, little thing that none of us can resist. I’m also happy to report the labor was fairly easy and trouble free and my recovery has been smooth (thank goodness, because I’ve got a full crew at home eager for me in all my many roles).
For now, we’re taking it slow, or at least as slow as we can, and I’m making the most of my camera and my years of learning how to use it, and trying to remind myself that while I finally have a baby that I can dress up in dresses and bows, she’s not a dress up doll… even if she doesn’t seem to mind the endless photoshoots.
Also for the record, I totally paparazzi my baby boys as well, but boy clothing is just so much less fun, both to dress them up in and to photograph, and I can’t deny that all the hair bows and dresses melt me. (I grew up with four sisters and no brothers, so I know girl world well, and have been eager to share it with a daughter for some time.)
Anyway, I’m sure little miss will be making occasional appearances going forward, and my heart is so full having her here safe and sound.
My husband and I have lived away from family for the last decade, and one of the things we’ve realized is how big our family, both our immediate and extended have grown and changed in that time. It’s been really hard, in a lot of ways, not to live close to our loved ones. Birthdays and holidays are always a great chance to reach out and connected, especially with our younger nieces of nephews, but as we’ve lived away, it can be a little tricky to guess what kind of gifts are a good fit for our loved ones, especially those of different ages and genders from our own children.
Step in WickedUncle.com
Wicked Uncle is an amazing toy company that specializes in unique, fun, children’s gifts while making the process of finding the perfect gift painless.
Their website is super easy to navigate and they’ve got curated gift lists, like Gift Ideas for a Boy Age 3, Children’s Engineering Toys, and even Toys from Ukraine to help you find the perfect gift for any age or stage.
I was eager to poke around their website and see more of this so-called brilliance, so I started by narrowing the searches to the ages of each of my own kids (I’ve got three boys, currently ages 9, 6 & 3) and seeing what kinds of toy suggestions the search/gift lists had for each of them.
For us, it was spot on, and I had to chuckle a little bit because the search popped up a number of options suggesting toys we currently have that get played with regularly! Such as the “Bath Block Floating Ball Run and Waterfall Set”, which my three-year-old lives for at bathtime, and was on their 3-Year-Old Boys Gift Idea list (as well as tons of amazing car and dinosaur toys that we don’t have, but that match my son’s current obsession, and he would be over the moon to be gifted).
After vetting the site to see if the gifts were a good match, I then took my search to the internet to compare prices. I loved finding this awesome idea site, but it would lose a lot of its glamor to me if I felt like they had insane markups, but checking the prices of the items I listed above on their site vs. Amazon, the prices were the same or less on WickedUncle.com, which is another fantastic green light in my book.
So from my point of view, they’re competitive with other sellers, their site was easy to navigate, and they were spot on with toy suggestions for my kids, which makes me feel really good about their suggestions in general. Now when one of our out-of-state nieces (we’ve got them ages 2-14) has a birthday coming up and I’m left scratching my head about what kind of gift to send her, or what girls her age might be into, I will absolutely be coming to this site to find the perfect gift.
Bottom line, if you’re looking for fantastic gift ideas for kids for any occasion WickedUncle.com has amazing gift ideas, easily filtered by age and stage, and makes it simple to find fun and unique gifts. It’s an amazing tool and site for loving aunts, uncles, grandparents, and friends looking to send a gift.
Check out WickedUncle.com for yourself here, and let me know your thoughts. Do the gifts match things you think your own kids would be interested in and/or did you find something awesome for a loved one?
