Winners. You should go.

I have a huge love/hate relationship with Winners. I could drop in there every day and always find something new. Sometimes I do really well, like a couple of weeks ago when I picked up a gorgeous Calvin Klein spring jacket - regular $200, on for $35. Unfortunately, most of the time I find things I love that are available only in a size 2 and a size 14, and nothing in a 6-8-10 which I normally wear. Or I find something in a 6-8-10 but it's sized more appropriately for elves or elephants. Which I guess is why it winds up at a place like Winners.

This past weekend, I stopped in to look for some running shorts. Which was a mistake. These days it is all about the workout pant/capri, and nobody wants shorts anymore so they have stopped selling them. Since I was there, I picked up and tried on 8 other items of which I bought 2. None of the others fit. And of course the things that didn't fit were the things I really really liked.

So to brighten my trip, after the dressing room grief, I checked out the back corner which is Toy Land. Ah yes, it's not just me I'm shopping for any more - there's the little guy to consider, too. And I hit the jackpot this time. I bought Liam a Sort n Soar Rocket. This thing is so cool. It's one of those contraptions where you fit the different shaped blocks into the appropriate hole (there's a round one, a square, a triangle...) I had something similar as a kid; I think every kid in the country does. But this is not just a shape sorter - it's also a rocket. So every time you get the right shaped block into the correct hole, there's fitting lights and music, and when all five or six blocks are fitted correctly into the rocket it actually takes off before the bottom opens up and all the blocks fall out. It is quite a step up from the shape sorter of my & my friends' youths, and I thought $16 was a pretty reasonable price (even if I will spend a fortune on batteries and Tylenol once Liam starts using it...)

I would love to post a picture, but it's still in the box. And it may stay there, since it's labelled as a 9 month toy which coincidentally puts us into the Christmas season. How cool that we get to play Santa this year, and maybe this will be the start of it! For now, here is Liam enjoying some more age appropriate lights & sounds - the ones on the piano attachment for his bouncy seat.