oh the gizmos, the gadgets... the PRICE TAG!!!

So this week I took an hour to explore the baby section of Target. (I'm planning to browse Babies R Us too, but let's take one thing at a time, alright?)

There's not much I remember about the toys I had as a newborn. But my sister came along when I was almost 6 years old, and I remember her stuff pretty clearly. All three toys she ever owned.

Really, back then we had nothing. She spent her first 2 years in an ancient robin's egg blue crib that we fished out of the heap at some abandoned house along the roadside. And my bed was a rickety plywood bunk that my dad built to fit over the top of the crib. It was the only way we could both fit into that closet they called a bedroom in the trailer house where we lived.

We spent hours playing with discarded cardboard boxes. Or dragging the pots and pans out of the bottom kitchen cabinets and banging on them.

When we needed feeding, we used big people spoons. When we needed bathing we used big people towels. When it was time to go potty, mama helped us balance on the big people seat.

Life was simple. Uncomplicated. Oh yes, and inexpensive.

Have you been to the baby department lately? It's this weird combination of exhilarating and depressing all at once. There's so many choices I feel like I'm from a third world village seeing the boxed cereal aisle in the grocery store for the first time. Can there possibly be MORE?

As if there wasn't enough stuff to battle against the simple life already. Who loses sleep thinking up all these gizmos, anyway? And how many of them are just high-priced filler for every mummy's junk drawer?
We never had a net/sponge sucky thingy for our frozen watermelon. We just either didn't get it until we were old enough not to choke, or mom mushed it into bite-size pieces.
Isn't Tupperware cheaper? Oh, right, it doesn't come in cool colors with snazzy product names. Same deal though: put snack in, give snack to baby, wait for baby to find a way to dump it everywhere. I doubt this one's foolproof.
Now this one, if it works as advertised - looks like a brilliant idea. You put the baby food puree into the big orange part, and then squeeze to dispense one bite at a time. I can see this being a lifesaver on long car trips, or while visiting someone else's house. Less fuss, less mess all the way around. Keep the gruel off both baby AND momma. Especially at church.

On second thought, I'm going back to make a registry. This lil gadget's at the top of my list.