FINALLY

Only 3 weeks away from the due date, we've finally bought the essentials.

The bouncer

The stroller

The Pack N Play

We also bought diapers, wipes, crib sheets, nursing pads, baby shampoo and a few other small items... all for under $500!

This was not accomplished without some hair-pulling and teeth-grinding, though. The first mall we visited, I found my "dream" pack n play and stroller (both were Graco) but they were $300 more expensive here in Bangkok than in the States. yowza.

So we tried to find a Toys R Us. There are 5 here in Bangkok- the first one was really tiny and didn't even have strollers or pack n plays. So we went to ANOTHER Toys R Us, but it had been damaged in a recent fire (have you heard about the "peaceful demonstrations" that took place in Bangkok a couple months ago?) so it was closed down. So we took a 45 minute cab ride to ANOTHER mall and discovered: the Toys R Us was no longer there. (hey... way to update your website, guys)

Oooookay, some people were getting ready to suffer the wrath of a 37 week pregnant woman. Scott suggested that we still look around the mall... just because there was no Toys R Us didn't mean that there wasn't a baby section!

I'm so glad I have such a rational husband. We walked around for a while and then found a little nook of the mall that had dozens of strollers, cribs, pack n plays etc. The Graco strollers were all WAY to expensive, so we just gave up on all the top brand-names. By this time, I was having contraction after contraction (braxton-hicks) and my back was screaming protest from being on my feet all day... BUT, we had found some great choices and were just in time to catch the end of a 20% off sale!!!

This salesman was just too cute. He kept a smile on his face while showing us stroller after stroller, and also made sure we knew how everything broke down/ set up. This was the most simple pack n play- the little tigers and lions are just too cute. The fun thing about pack n plays is, you KNOW how easy they are to assemble, and yet when you pop the middle of it down you're still like "Wow, that's sooo easy!"


WE'LL TAKE IT!

Anytime we're making major purchases, Scott starts saying "Alright, we need to get out of here."

After some fries from McDonald's and one little fight with a cab driver, we finally made it home around 10:30 pm. You'd think I'd be so tired I would crash right away, but I was too excited to have FINALLY made these purchases that we set it all up and played with them all for a little while!