The above is the Circo (Target) One Step Stool which we bought recently for our growing toddler. The regular price on this step stool is $14.99 and it was on sale the week we bought it and we paid $11 plus sales tax. This stool is slightly heavier than regular plastic stool. It is made of laminated wood. Just remind your toddler to be careful when moving this between the toilet and the sink or moving it elsewhere. It is definitely steadier than what we’ve been using – the Ikea Mammut Stool. This is easy to clean, just need to wipe it down with a damp cloth. The measurement of this stool is 12″ x 10″ x 8″.

Finally I thought I found a pair of sunglasses which I like but after one day of wearing it, I found it was not suitable for me. When shopping at Camarillo Outlet Mall two weekends ago, I saw this pair of very nice Oakley Fives sunglasses. I have several other sunglasses but they are old and I needed a new pair for my coming up travel/cruise to Alaska.

I paid $70 plus sales tax for this Warm Grey Oakley Fives Sunglasses at Sunglasses Hut. This particular style was not on sale. While I was testing it out at the store, it was fine. But when I wore it during the return trip from the outlet mall back to our home (less than an hour), I found it uncomfortable. The frame was basically resting on my cheek instead of the bridge of my nose. I knew that when I was trying it at the store, but it wasn’t uncomfortable to me until I wore it for 45 minutes long. Unfortunately, my nose is quite flat. Fortunately for me, the sunglasses came with a 30 days return policy. All I need to do is to find another Sunglasses Hut store around my area to return it.

I thought I would have one item less on my things-to-get-for-the-trip list but I guess not.  Even with this pair of sunglasses out of the list, there are still many items I am looking to get at the right style and price.  I still need to hunt for a new pair of outdoor clothing (may be a wind breaker as I heard the weather in Alaska can be cold in the month of May), one or two new blouses, a new swimsuit (must try to utilize the swimming pools on the cruise), a jacket for my son, a new pair of walking shoes for my son, two new light suitcases with spinners and now, another pair of sunglasses.

From today till 2/28, you will be able to get this DVD for cheap from Target. It is on sale for $10 plus sales tax. This DVD is selling at a discounted price at Amazon for $14.99. So at $10 a piece, is a good steal. I have given permission for my hubby to get one for our collection. My son loves Dr. Seuss books and we have several already. Hmm … probably we will get the book too and read it to my son before we show him this DVD.

We love to have these mandarins available at home. My son loves them. My hubby loves them. It is seedless, sweet and easy to peel. They look shiny because they are coated with foodgrade vegetable, beewax and/or lac-resin based wax or resin to maintain freshness. We don’t eat the skin anyway. This box weighs 5lbs and if they are not on sale, they are between $6.99-$9.99 per box, depending where you buy.

But this week, I was lucky to get them on sale at Vons for $3.98/box and I used my $1 coupon cut out from the Sunday newspaper and I paid $2.98 for the 5lbs of mandarins. I have another $1 coupon, which I will probably get another box before the sales end coming Tuesday.

Yesterday we went to Camarillo Outlet Mall. I wasn’t there to buy cloths for my son but it was just coincident that The Children Place Outlet was having clearance. I bought a fleece robe and two sweat pants for him, all size 4. Each was on sale for only $4.99 plus sales tax. I think the regular price on the fleece robe was $29.99, so at $5 a piece it’s really a bargain.

Bought a pot of chrysanthemum from a Chinese groceries store for Chinese New Year. My MIL bought a similar pot at the Asian Expo at Pomona for $12.99. I only paid $8.99 plus tax for this at the 99 Ranch Market. Cheap cheap … now we are ready for Chinese New Year.

Happy Chinese New Year! Gong Hey Fatt Choy! Gong Xi Fatt Chai!

Last month I entered the several sweepstakes at ParentReviewers and I was so lucky that I won this Kids TRAYblecloth™ sponsored by LoveToTravel. They ship fast. I provided my information last week and I receive the item Wednesday this week. Thank you very much Cindy! 

I will definitely take this during my next trip with my son on the plane. I just can’t wait to try it out.

Description:

Transform your child’s tray table into a clean space to eat, work and play.

The Kids TRAYblecloth™* is an attractive tray cover made of high quality nylon, which is durable and easy to wash. It slips over the airplane tray table, providing your child with a clean eating and working area while traveling. There are convenient and attractive front pockets where your child can store markers, a headset, iPod or other small items. The writing surface has an 8 ½” wide clear vinyl pocket where activity sheets can be inserted. The clear vinyl allows the child to write, draw and erase easily, similar to a dry erase board. The Kids TRAYblecloth™ stays on during the entire flight and all pockets are easily accessible, whether the tray table is up or down. It packs down to a small size and stores easily in its original reclosable plastic bag.

The Kids TRAYblecloth™* offers you and your child:
PEACE OF MIND: Minimize your child’s contact with the tray table by providing a clean surface for snacks, drinks and activities.

A FUN ACTIVITY CENTER
The Kid’s TRAYblecloth™* is also an activity center that will help keep kids busy while in flight.
Included:
An easy-to-clean, erasable surface with a clear vinyl pocket to insert reusable activity sheets. Can also be used to store and protect homework papers while food and drinks are being served.

4 mini dry erase markers and a ready-made, reusable activity sheet found on the back of the packaging insert.
*More reusable activity sheets are available for download at our Love to Travel Products website! Check them out!

ORGANIZATION
The convenient front pockets keep track of markers, headset, iPod, and other small items. The larger mesh pocket underneath provides room for books, special toys or snacks. These handy pockets make it much less likely that personal items get left behind!

*Patent Pending

Picture credit: Copyright © lovetotravelproducts.com

It is time to check out your favorite stores for clearance sales. I visited Target in Carson last week before New Year and ended up with the two above toddler’s size clothing. The sweater is size 4T and the cargo jeans is 3T. The sweater was marked down to $1.98 and the jeans from $9.99 to $4.98. I wished they would have size 4T for the jeans too but no size smaller than 3T. The jeans fit very well and even has an adjustable elastic at the waist. I like the dirty dark blue color of the jeans very much. Not all Target stores will have the same deals, you have to check different Targets and if you are lucky you will find one with the right sales for you.

BTW, Target has updated their Christmas Clearance and marked down the leftover items at 90%. Some stores may not even have anything by now.

When you are buying a new toy for a kid, you may think about the way the toy can help your child to develop mentally and physically. In our home, we have many toys for my almost three years old kid. We have educational toys which introduce alphabets and phonics, pretend and building toys to develop his creativity and imagination. He plays frequently with his Mega Blocks and wooden blocks. He likes to create and pretend that he is building a mega mall or Disneyland. But he gets ‘very’ upset when the tall building he builds accidentally collapsed in front of him. And then one day when we were at the Parenting Class for toddler, I learned about the magnetic blocks that will stick together and will not collapse so easily compared to the regular blocks.

And when I did an online research about magnetic toys, I found a link to Magnext. It has a wonderful collection of magnetic toys by Magnext including cars, animals and building sets. These toys provide a child with reasoning and problem solving skills, creativity, focus and attention, organizing, colors and shapes, math and science, and fine motor skills. Magnext can keep a child busy for a long time as they can build and rebuild with the same set. If this is the first time you’ve heard about magnetic building toys, you can learn more about it at their website. Magnext are more suitable for children age six and above. I may have to come back to check on it when my boy turns five.

Target is now having 75% discount on their Christmas clearance.  There are still a lot of wrapping papers, garlands, Christmas cards, boxes, paper bags, ornaments, candies and such left at the Manhattan Beach Target we visited this morning. It is a good time to stock up your Christmas items for next year since you only pay 25% of the original price for each item. 

Here is one of the Christmas house we bought for Brandon. The price on the sticker was $27.99. We paid $7 plus sales tax for this. It is very cute as each little door can be opened. You can place a small item inside each door representing another day closer to Christmas.

The other items we bought were several individual ornaments and some chocolates candies. We still have a lot of the holiday wrapping papers so we didn’t get those.

One of my friends received a Sony ICDP620 USB Digital Voice Recorder as her Christmas gift. One of the best features on this Sony Digital Recorder is the ability to work with Dragon Naturally Speaking Software to transcribe the voice message into a written post on a computer. She knew nothing about the software until I told her that I’ve heard all good reviews on it through the blogging community. I also informed her regarding the current promotion with discount coupon codes for this software which will end tonight.

With Dragon Naturally Speaking software, you can produce a document/email faster than typing with their two hands, just because we talk faster than we type. And the software has up to 99% accuracy. It is compatible with many Windows applications such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook Express. The price is just $99 (before the discount) for the standard package that will work on the some basic applications. And if you need to get it working with certain types of applications, you may want to look into their other versions: Preferred, Legal, Professional and Medical.

Here are the discount coupon codes for the different versions of the Dragon Naturally Speaking software. Remember, today (12/31) is the last day to use them.

• $50 Coupon Code- DNSMSBG -Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred
• $25 Coupon Code- DNSMSBG -Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Standard
• $25 Coupon Code- DNSMSBG -MacSpeech Dictate

This was my second Coach purchase. I finally found a wallet that I like from Coach. Most of their other women wallets are either too small or too large for me. I like the size of this Coach Ergo Leather Mini Wallet in brown. Found it at Coach Factory Outlet at Tanger Outlet Center in Barstow. The price I paid was $49.99 plus sales tax. Original retail price was for $168.00 and it was on clearance at the factory outlet for $99.99 plus an additional 50% off.

The measurement on this mini wallet is 4″ W x 3.5″ H x 1″ D. The mini wallet has button closures on the front and back. It has 8 credit card pockets and a tight full length compartment for bills. The other side of the wallet has two pockets for changes or IDs or more credit cards. I like the size of this because it fits nicely on my palm.

Beginning of December I had a date with my ex-landlady and her husband. I drove to their home to meet them and then we left in their car to Third Street Promenade for lunch at a Greek Restaurant. When the waitress approached our table to take our order, she immediately noticed the beautiful Holiday frames my ex-landlady was wearing. She received high compliments from the waitress on her new glasses. Our lunch was magnificent and we had a nice time chatting.

Upon leaving the restaurant and entering the 3rd street, my ex-landlady turned to me and told me she was surprised to receive a compliment on her glasses and invited me to guess how much it was for. I gave it a wild guess for $50 because I knew that they are both living frugally for the time as both are unemployed. She whispered to my ears and said, “It was less than $10!” I didn’t believe her until I visited the website she ordered her glasses from. It is at Zenni Optical, where anyone can purchase a pair of prescription glasses from $8.00 and up.

The one she has is quite similar to this picture on the left. It is one of their holiday frames collection. I was told by my ex-landlady that she didn’t think it was that easy to order a prescription glasses online. The instructions on how to take the correct measurements were provided very clearly on their website. She is pretty satisfied with the glasses so far. Check it out at Zenni Optical the next time you are planning to order a pair of prescription glasses.  It will help you save some money.

I am a fan of Leapfrog Toddler Educational products. I also bought many of the Leapfrog’s Learning DVDs where my son had learned all his ABC letters. Recently I bought several boxes of Leapfrog Fridge Words Magnetic Word Builder from Amazon during their special sales. My sister has asked me to buy two for her as the price was simply irresistible.

This product comes with the lower case letters. The one I have which is an older version and design of the same product came in upper case letters. I found the old and new design are not interchangable because the new style’s letters are much smaller in size. But the concept works the same. You put in three different letters to make a word. You can build 325 three letters words with the full set of letters they provided plus a few additional letters too.

My son will be turning three in two more months but he has yet to learn to play with this toy. I am letting him watch the Leapfrog Talking Words Factory for him to understand how to build words. I am looking forward to the time comes when he put together his first words with this Magnetic Word Builder.

Product Features:

Build over 325 words with magnetic letters that teach and sing!

Includes letters A through Z, plus three additional letters so kids can spell words like MOM.

Features three ways to play: Load a Letter, Word Builder and Word Hunt learning modes.

Lights follow letters to reinforce the learning.

Helps develop rhyming skills and teaches word building for three-letter words. Help reading skills rise and shine with this magnetic letter set!

Wishing all my readers …

And Happy Holiday!