Amelia's Baptism

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Pampers Gifts to Grow HACK

If you read this, and you buy Pampers (diapers OR wipes), here's a hint.

You know the Gifts to Grow codes inside the packages? They've improved the reward program lately so that you don't have to pay shipping costs on the toys and gifts. But back in the day, I was set on ordering the online rewards to avoid those costs, and I learned that you can't request the same gifts twice from the same Pampers account. Well, not the Shutterfly 8x8" Photo Book, anyway. So 200 points later, I realized how to get around it. Every time you reach your target goal to cash in points, start a new account. All it takes is a new email address, and we know those are easy to come by. If you run out of existing email addresses, did you know you can add "+anything" to your gmail address (janedoe+pampers@gmail.com) and it gets sent to the same inbox? Neat trick for flagging junkmail, from Pampers or anyone else.

There's a bigger perk to starting a new account every time you cash in points -- you also get to reuse all those freebie codes that are one per account. Below is a list of promo codes that have worked for me lately. Eleven points (give or take, some promos expire), just for starting over. At least 8 or 9 of these I used on my previous account as well, and probably the account before that. Plus, I think I'm getting more coupons in my actual mailbox now that I have 3 rewards accounts linked to my home address!

Promotional Code	STARTEARNINGNOW	1.00
Promotional Code	OHAMANDAAWGTG08	1.00
Promotional Code	WELCOMEBONUS089	1.00
Promotional Code	WELCOME2GTG0809	1.00
Promotional Code	THRIFTYMOMMYGTG	1.00
Promotional Code	JUSTBECAUSE2009	1.00
Promotional Code	GRATUIT89102009	1.00
Promotional Code	XKCMYXFVD96VXVK	3.00
Promotional Code	JOINTHEFUNGTG09	1.00

Let me know in the comments if you know of any other Promo Codes that are still valid. And if you have regular codes from diapers or wipes that you're not using (unlike the promos, those can only be entered one time), I'd be happy to dedicate a page to you in my next Shutterfly 8x8" Photo Book. Send me an email!

Perfect

It's beautiful to see them so in love with each other. Noah kisses Mia on the back of her head (he always has), where he can be tickled by her crazy hair but she can't slobber on him. Mia squeals with delight when Noah hugs her, and grabs for him when he tries to quickly slip past her.



He patiently turns away when she reaches for his eyes, and protests when Daddy "rescues" him by taking her from his cozy bed.



And they're both learning how to share, right alongside each other.
Tell me things stay this perfect!

She's crawling!

While Noah was reading bedtime stories tonight, Mia was working on a surprise performance of her own, scooting across the living room in her own version of a 3-legged race. Or 2 arms and a leg, if you want to get picky about it. By the time Mommy and Daddy caught on, she was really moving fast. Now instead of puddles of drool, we have trails of slime!

She has also really started grabbing and hugging and petting Noah in the past week or so. I'll bet she's chasing him around the house before too long now.

Happy Halloween!

Curious George


Monkeys love Bananas!


Professor Wiseman, Curious George, The Man in the Yellow Hat, and a little Chiquita


The Man in the Yellow Hat


Ding Dong was Noah's favorite part.


Overall, Trick or Treating was a huge hit!

Uh-Fly

Noah blew mommy and daddy away last night. PoPo brought him some alphabet flash cards, and yesterday he wanted to look at them. We weren't too shocked that he could name every letter, but we had no idea that he knew all the phonetic sounds to go along with them. "C: kuh-kuh-kuh." All 26. Who teaches him this stuff? PBS? Daycare?

It made me pause when I realized he was reading better than he could speak. Case in point: Noah doesn't say "butterfly" yet. Until recently, he just called them "flies," but this week he's added a syllable so that it's more like "uh-fly." One of the flashcards last night had a butterfly on it, to which he said "B: buh-buh-buh...uh-fly." I could see the little wheels spinning like mad in his head when he realized what was going on in his mouth. I think we might see another verbal explosion in the coming days!

Wednesday Words

No Wordless Wednesday post this week. It's Wednesday, but I don't have a photo. It was too precious a moment to grab a camera. Yesterday evening, Noah caught a butterfly in the yard. He was tickled pink to get to hold it in his hands, up close and personal, and I was in awe that he could hold it gently enough to not kill it or pull a wing off.

He must have let that butterfly go and recaptured it some 3 or 4 times before I realized that this was going to end badly, without some intervention on my part. After all, this was a butterfly that let itself be caught by a barehanded 2 year-old. It was not flying well before Noah caught it, and while it miraculously seemed no worse for the wear so far, I knew our luck wouldn't last forever. So Daddy was enlisted to create an irresistable diversion ("Look, Noah, a KEY! Can you come unlock the shed for Daddy?") while Mommy helped the butterfly fly over the fence. Crisis averted. But it sure was fun while it lasted!

Says Who?!?

(Submitted to Wordless Wednesday)

This Little Light of Mine

This week Noah has started to really sing along (and talk a lot more), and he thought this song was big fun... especially the bushel part. There's a funny surprise at 0:58.

Big Kid Beds

Mia says "It's about time I got my own bed around here!"


Noah would've shared a photo of his new big boy bed as well, but he was too eager to get in and go night-night tonight!!