Shopping With a New Mommy

I'm not really big on shopping. I hate having to buy things for myself. . . but when it comes to buying for other people, I'm all over it. To look at me, you would never know it, but I think I sort of inherited a shopping gene. I just have this thing about picking out the perfect gift. And when I fail at that, I take it very personally. (Seriously. One year for Secret Santa, I got this guy I barely knew. And I learned a few things about him, like that he was rabid for Cornell hockey--because he'd gone to college there. And I knew he drank beer, so I bought him this very cool looking bottle opener from The Container Store, along with microbrewed Ithaca Beer. And he had, like, no reaction at all. Ultimately, I saw that it was his problem.)

So today, my co-worker CD came by with her adorable baby, whose head smelled awesome. She needed help selecting a few gifts, so we headed to the store to do some shoppin'. We wound up with a really great book that I've loved for a while: Goodnight Gorilla. In the book, a zookeeper says goodnight to all the animals, not realizing that a gorilla is behind him with a set of keys, releasing all the animals from their cages. . . and all of the animals wind up in bed with the zookeeper and his wife. And since I'm all about the theme gifts, we added a little stuffed gorilla. For a little boy, we got this great playground ball covered in dinosaurs--and each dinosaur is labeled with its correct name. . . a really nice item that came in different variations, including horses, barnyard animals, and dogs. We added a book of four dinosaur stories. Seriously. . . is there a little boy alive that doesn't like dinosaurs?

I also picked up a copy of Treehouse Bugs for my 4-year-old niece, Panda Bear. Panda is really into crafts, and I like to encourage that. The book, part of Klutz Press's fabulous Chicken Socks series, comes with the materials to make five "bugs"--wooden body parts, pipe-cleaner legs and arms, paper wings, stickers, etc. The center of the book opens up into a treehouse for the bugs, complete with paper furniture.

CD was very pleased with all of our selections and thanked me profusely, which made me feel useful. I almost think that, despite the fact that I'm a slob with no fashion sense or social skills, I would make an awesome personal shopper.