Swings and sparkle

There was a yard sale here at the Embassy yesterday. These sales tend to be well attended by Russian staff in search of high-quality American goods for a bargain. Baby gear tends to go over particularly well, since stroller and swings and the like are insanely expensive here. Insanely.

We don't know whether we are done having children, but the plan is to cool it with the babies for the next couple years at least. And honestly, we didn't make the best choices when we picked up a lot of our baby stuff, so I wouldn't be sad to replace it, if and when the stork comes calling again. So yesterday we sold our jumper (which wasn't jumpy enough), our high chair (a pain-in-the-rear-to-clean behemoth eyesore), our infant carrier carseat (way too heavy) and the stroller frame it snaps into (not very useful without the carseat).

I could not, however, bring myself to part with our travel swing. It was handed down to us by a friend from my knitting group in Virginia. At one point, it was one of three swings we owned. But it was the only one that could put Natasha to sleep for any length of time. From about three months to nine months, it was the magic sleeping swing. Z didn't need a magic swing to sleep, but she liked it, too. I have great memories of the kids swinging away, sound asleep, while I knit or interneted or folded laundry or cooked nearby.

(For anyone who is interested in getting their own magic sleeping swing, this is the Fisher Price Precious Planet Open Top Take-Along Swing. It looks like they have come out with a new model, and it is possible that, as usually happens when manufacturers try to improve a good thing, it now sucks. If you can find the version I linked to, pay as much as they are asking. Even if you don't have kids. Seriously. It's magic. It could probably do your taxes and get you a killer refund.)

So the bottom line is, after a wildly successful yard sale in which we also offloaded a Wii and a bunch of random junk I had lying around, I still have a baby swing, but no babies to put in it.

Also, I picked up these awesome sparkly shoes for $10.

I plan to wear them to work sometime next week. Because every day could use a little glitter.