Spotted1

I'm pregnant with #3 (a 'blessing baby' as someone else put it, my older girls are 8 and 5.) and due December 23rd. I'm going shopping on BF, but I don't go super early or anything like that anyway. I usually don't leave the house until about 8 or so and its not crazy around here (hoorah for small towns!).

I'm going to aim for about the same, but I know realistically there's going to be a little bit of a cut back because I have to prepare for a new baby that will be here early December, too.

I was afraid this phase was creeping up on me soon, but -surprise!- .. Not only do I get to buy toys for Christmas still, but I get to buy diapers for the first time in several years, too.

I go overboard. We don't buy much in the way of toys or gadgets for the kids throughout the year, so Christmas is our one good excuse for spoiling our girls.

DH and I are contemplating getting a tablet for our older girls as a 'big' Santa gift this year, but I'm not stuck on name brands.. my only preference is that it has an Android operating system. I've seen a few for under $100 on WM, so we'll probably go with one of them.

I'm thrilled about this. I'm planning to get my girls a new TV for their room but have absolutely no where to hide that bad boy. Now I can stick it and several other 'big' gifts that I was worried about hiding in layaway. :)

Last year my local walmart had the games piled up in carts and you just sorted through for the ones you wanted. I didn't get there til almost 10:30 and there were still a ton of games and not too many people.

Last year I called two separate walmarts about the DS hoping to get a pink one for my oldest. Both of them told me I had to be in line around midnight if I wanted to even stand a chance at getting a DS. I like Black Friday, but I can't be standing in line for 5+ hours, so I wrote it off that I would just have to pay full price or keep an eye out for another deal at a later date. I walked into walmart at 9:45am last year. As I was shopping they came over the loud speaker announcing they still had a few tickets left at the paint counter for DSs. I made my way back there, asked for a ticket for a pink DS, and made my way to the eye care center to pick it up/pay for it. When the lady went back to get a DS for me I could see they were stacked up on the desk in the office clear up to the ceiling. My guess is it will probably be that way again this year - at least here.

I don't. The firmware update back in the spring allowed for the use of Flash drives and external hard drives via the USB ports that are available on the console. Flash drives up to 16gb work fine, and I've heard of people using externals in excess of 1TB of space and having no problems. Its much less expensive to purchase an external hard drive than to throw cash at the internal memory unit.

No, on Walmart.com the iTunes cards say "In stores only. Limit 2 Per Customer."

I know they have the items she wants online (the Skelanimals digital camera and mp3 player) but I don't know if the sale from the ad (free skelanimals hat/gloves with $25 purchase) qualifies with an online purchase. I'll probably call them to find out for certain if they have the Skelanimals stuff, but its not a big deal if they don't. I'll end up in that town before it's all said and done anyway since that's the only town with a mall this side of the state line. :)

My youngest goes, and will continue to go until she reaches the age where she'll remember what's in the cart. Which might be this year. lol I don't stand in lines in the cold for an absurd number of hours, so its no big deal. I go into walmart about 7:30AM and I usually only hit Walmart and Kmart. Its just like any other shopping trip.

Hm. Thanks. The only thing I'm really looking for from the toybook was the Skelanimals, which I would think they should have. It's still 2 hours away to the Express store, but that's better than 3 hours and crossing state lines to get to the other one.

What's the difference between a Toys R Us Express store and a regular Toys R Us? I noticed on the Toys R Us websites store locator that there's an "Express" store that's opened up recently closer to home, but I have no idea if a Toys R Us Express would have everything or if it's just a watered down version of the store. Anyone able to tell me the difference?

There'd been a lot more cuss words if I'd freaked out on you. lol The only game you mentioned with a violence control is Call of Duty, and even that's not 'violence control' in the sense that you're talking about so much as it's a "skip a level where you shoot hundreds of civilians and police officers" option. Here's a video of the "No Russian" mission from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Personally, I love the game. But I wouldn't let either of my kids play it unless they were at least 15+. So many parents just hear their kids scream "I want that game" and buy it without considering what the game play may actually entail. The target audience for many "hardcore" games is 18-35 year old males, which means guns, gore, and girls. Something to consider when you're looking at M rated titles, you know? You asked about racing games, too... And those are generally safe for most age groups. There may be a scantily clad female here or there, but its not too big of a deal. Blur allows online multiplayer with up to 20 other racers at one time. Need for Speed titles are generally pretty safe bets, as well, plus you might even get lucky and find them on sale for Black Friday. Last year we found Need for Speed Shift (a $59.99 game at the time) for just $25. Forza 3 is also popular.

I'm heavily anticipating Kinect. And as far as that goes, there's a lot of family friendly games lined up for that. Sports, Adventures, Joy ride, Dance Central, Kinectimals, etc. There's no reason to throw a kid into M rated games simply because you're buying them an Xbox 360, especially given the sheer number of family friendly alternative titles. Some more titles would be Viva Pinata (plus Trouble in Paradise and Party Animals, which are also Viva Pinata titles), Banjo and Kazooie, Legend of Spyro, Eternal Sonata (although not violent this does deal with death and surrealism, so that's something to consider). It is certainly not my place to tell another parent what games their kid can and can't play, but I do wish more parents would be smart about the rating system. It is there for a reason.

Cell phone and cash in my front pockets, and whatever ads I need for price matching. I don't carry a purse or anything like that, anyway. If it doesn't fit in a pocket then I don't need it all that bad.

I wouldn't recommend Call of Duty for an 11 year old. I'm an avid gamer, and a mother, and nothing grates on my nerves more than hearing little kids on a game rated Mature. Halo is also rated M, so again.. not 11 year old friendly, in my opinion. Even if your kid isn't the one on there shouting profanities every other breath, rest assured he'll be exposed to it at some point in time or another. There's plenty of games rated E10+ and T for kids in that age group. Also consider arcade games that you download from the Xbox Live marketplace. These are often inexpensive ($5-$15 each) and have multiplayer as well as single player campaigns. Plants vs Zombies, Zombie Apocalypse, Peggle, Tower Bloxx Deluxe, Splosion Man, all great games that're more kid friendly than Halo and Call of Duty. Plus you can get lucky every now and then and catch them 50% off.

I was pregnant on BF with my second. My only problem was a random bout of morning sickness that left me scrambling for a bathroom. Everything else was fine.

Both of my kids were c-sections, but I was back to normal in as little as 48 hours. Going black friday shopping at 3 weeks post partum would not be any big deal for me.

The DS's seem to go on sale every year in some capacity or another. Last year the DS lites were $98 and there were several places with gift card/game bundle deals for the DSi. I'd expect at the least the same if not a little better (say, a straight up price cut on the DSi) this year. Expect them to be a ticket item, though.

I used to think everything had to be wrapped and it was crazy for it not to be until my daughter got a kitchen when she was 2. She was so sweet about waiting for Daddy to put the kitchen together but truth be told, she was dying to play with it. After that we decided anything large would be assembled and unwrapped with just a bow because we'd rather see the excitement of them wanting to play with the toy rather than see them ripping open the paper and just staring blankly at a box because they weren't sure what to do with it. It worked much better last year when we did it that way for the table and chair set and rocking horse.

I wrap right away. As soon as the kids are in bed, my husband unloads whatever I've got stashed in the back of the van, and then I wrap it and tuck it into super safe hiding spots. The oldest is at the age where I suspect she may start snooping either this year or next, so I like to be sure that if she sneaks a peak at presents.. she still doesn't get to see what they are. :)

Half and half, really. If its something big, like last year's table and chair set, then it's unwrapped. If it's something small then it is wrapped. Santa has his very own paper, name tags, and signature (The calligraphy lessons in high school came in handy after all.). I will purposely go out of my way to go to a different store that my children have not set in foot in in an effort to find wrapping paper they've not seen to use as Santa paper. Santa paper is usually sparkly or metallic and simple.. either a solid color or really pretty snowflakes with gorgeous matching ribbon. Santa gifts are also perfectly wrapped, where as Mom's wrapping job is a bit clumsier I really make an effort to differentiate and make Santa gifts seem more magical.

I have a pink version of the green/white one you posted. I bought it for my then 2 (now 5) year old and it's held up really well. I did have it located in a corner for a while, but the backside of it is flat, so it can also sit against a wall and not have any problems which is how I have theirs sitting now. Its heavily played with and has held up fine. In fact, I haven't had to change the batteries in it in the 3 years we've had it, even though its used daily.