2011 Holiday Gift Ideas at Buggies and Babies!

Here are just a few Gift giving ideas that you can find at Buggies and Babies! You can always purchase gift certificates which help to make shopping quick and easy!

Personal gift ideas
•   Happy Blankie "One to love, one to give." Happy Blankie are cute, animal print blankies and are perfect for little ones! They make fun comfort blankets especially for nap times! The Happy Blankie company was built on their foundation of gifting a blanket to a child in need for every blanket purchased. Not only is this a great way to help another little one but their blankets make wonderful gifts as each are really soft, comfy, and cute! Buggies and Babies will host a Happy Blankie event on Friday November 25, 2011 from 1 pm - 3 pm click here for more details about Happy Blankie
•    Designs by Janessa Charm Prints – have your baby’s thumb or toe print engraved forever on a charm that you can gift to a family member or friend. The print kits are only $10 at Buggies and Babies then you forward the mold to Designs by Janessa, select your charm, and Janessa will mail your gift directly to you. Also the price of the kit will be taken off your final charm costs.
•    Doodlebug Designs Ceramic plates – these plates will feature your lil one’s hands and/or feet on a plate. You choose the plate size, shape, color as well as the inscription on the plate. You can also include other siblings or your own hands and/or feet. For our Christmas in store event Sunday December 4th 12 – 2 PM Doodlebug Designs will also have holiday ornaments, mugs, picture frames to choose from. These make great personal, timeless keepsakes.
•    Design Me Chalkboard Cross – these 8.5” x 11” wooden crosses are painted with Black chalkboard paint and include chalk which lets you or child write their own message on the cross. Great for Baby’s 1st Christmas or babies being born or baptized around the holiday time.
•    Holiday photo shoot – our family does this every year. It’s a great time of the year to get our family together for a photography session. This year we did it outside my parent’s house in the pouring rain, it was beautiful but COLD! Also the professional pictures make great additions to your holiday greeting cards. We really suggest local photographers Photos by Leyna or Stills by Hill. We've worked with both companies and love their work! Book them soon!

Holiday Gift ideas
•    Mud Pie Holiday Attire and accessories are always hit every Holiday season. Their adorable bloomers, tights, legwarmers are to DIE FOR! Also, for Boys the Santa Longalls, knit hats, knit booties, or holiday socks are cool and practical.
•    Baby Legs leg warmers are great stocking stuffers and will come in handy during our cold nights. Buggies and Babies carries newborn sizes and one size fits most, which really do fit most (even past 5 years old!)
•    Buggies and Babies features many custom made products of local vendors such as custom baby blankets, beanies, booties, hair accessories, and much more! Custom made gifts are always unique and thoughtful gifts
•    Ju Ju Be wallets and accessories – such as the Be Quick, Mighty Be, Be Major, Be Light are smart practical bags that are not pricey but will make any Mom very pleased. The Be Quick can be used for light diaper bag essentials (wipes and a couple diapers) or for Moms own personal things (like how I use my Be Quick’s).
•    Aden and Anais slumber packs or sleeping bags are a popular gift year round, so, of course you can’t go wrong with their products for Holiday gifts. The muslin weave of Aden and Anais products make their material breathable and provide just the right amount of warmth. If you opt for the Bamboo fabric you’ll get extra softness and comfort. The Aden and Anais cozy sleep sacks are great for bed time – with 4 layers of muslin babies will be sure to sleep soundly and warmly.


Buggies and Babies certainly hopes this guide helps you come up with great gift ideas. Our family, each year, creates a list of who we are giving gifts to, which is sorted by age. This helps me to know which stores I should check out and which gift ideas I can select from. Anything to minimize the time I spend in a busy mall is great for me!
The Otay Ranch Town Center in East Chula Vista will have great Black Friday specials. The mall is also not as crazy busy as other malls so come check us out!

Happy Halloween! My DIY Costume!

This year, now that both our girls our older, we decided to do a theme for our Halloween costumes. In the past our girls were always princesses and my husband and I would put on whatever old clothes we can put together OR not dress up at all. This year we decided on the Toy Story theme – fun! We bought our girls’ costumes last month at a Halloween store. Our 5 year old will be Jessie and our 3 year old is Little Bo Beep – cute! Our girls opted for the female characters, so I do hope others will understand our theme since we don’t have a Woody or Buzz. Maybe we can find Woody and Buzz Light Year costumes for our dogs (although our Lab is a female – oh well!)
For hubby and me, we will be Mr and Mrs Potato Head. Since, I’m 5 months preggo being Mr and Mrs Potato Head seems much more comfortable than doing Ken and Barbie. Anyhow, to save money I decided to make our own costumes. I figured it couldn’t be too hard for me to sew the brown “potato” dress, and the cut outs could also easily be traced and copied. Well, here are the results – our costumes didn’t turn out to bad, right?? I’m excited I finished them – in one day too! It helped big time that my brother is a great artist who helped me trace out the face parts.

Click here to see more images of my work and our costumes (will post more soon!!)

Here are the details of what I spent and used to make our costumes:

• 3 yards of brown cotton fabric (I know my dress is darker than the actual Potato Head characters but I liked this color of brown)



• ¼ to ½ yard each of the following felt colors: black, white, red, pink, and purple
  


• Total spent $24.04 at yardage town
  
  
  
  
  
  

Sign4Baby Classes hosted by Buggies and Babies

Buggies and Babies has had the honor of hosting Sign4Baby classes taught by certified Signing Time instructor, Ms Joann W. since January 2011. Since then, we've enjoyed one 6 week session after another! Sign4Baby is a all-around fun, educational, social, and energetic class. It's a great time to enjoy one-on-one time with your child plus you'll get to meet other families with their little ones. Sign4Baby is intended for babies 5 months to toddlers up to 20 months. This class is designed to build an early communication for your little one and will jump start their verbal skills as well. We offer this class every 6 weeks on Wednesdays at 9:30 AM in our store. For more info on our class visit our website events page under Categories or ask one of our associates whenever you come to visit us at the Otay Ranch Town Center.

Here's a great review from one of our families who has taken 2 session of the Sign4Baby class with us:

"My daughter and I started attending Joann's Sign4Baby classes at Buggies and Babies when she was 10 months old. I think registering for baby sign language class was one of the best decisions we have made. The weekly classes were so much fun, integrating play, song and learning to sign. My little one loved it, and would always get excited about going every week. During class it seemed as if her attention was focused on learning only part of the time, but when she hit 12 months old, the signs began to flow! She is quite a signing chatterbox! Everything from the usual 'more', 'all done', and 'milk' to fun signs including 'flower', 'monkey', 'butterfly', and 'apple'. One of her favorite activities is pointing to objects or pictures in books, signing the item and having me tell her the word and repeat the sign. She is such a fast learner, so it seems like she is learning a new sign everyday. It's amazing and very exciting watching her and being able to communicate. I am so grateful to Sign4Baby and Buggies and Babies for making this available to our community."

ERGObaby Carrier Giveaway

We are starting off the new year with an ERGObaby Carrier!! ERGObaby carriers are one of the best carriers available! Buggies and Babies loves the ERGObaby for it's ease of use, comfort, and safety. You will truly save your back and your arms. My mom has used our ERGO to carry our lil one and she was even surprised how simple and safe it was. We can't tell everyone enough how much an ERGO is worth it but hopefully this contest will help spread the word :)

Contest details:
Earn 5 entries for every $25 spent
Earn 1 entry for each of the following:
Join our Facebook page
Follow us on Twitter
Join our Mailing List
Refer a friend to our Facebook page, Twitter account, or Mailing List
When you or friend join any of our social media accounts make sure to comment "I'm entering to win the ERGO" - it'll serve as a reminder for us :)
WE will select one entry on January 17, 2011 Monday. The winner will be notified and will have their choice of a Cranberry, Camel, or Black ERGObaby carrier. If you're not local, we will ship the carrier to you.
Contest ends Sunday January 16 2011 at midnight.

Good luck everyone!!