The Exchange Has Been Made!

Last week, my in-laws came over for dinner. And when they did, MIL presented us with a urine-colored coat for Raelynn. Despite its' hideousness, I had to applaud MIL for leaving the tags on so we could exchange it for something else.

Which is EXACTLY what we did yesterday.

We went on a shopping trip of epic proportions. It made me wish I didn't have an ever-expanding pregnant belly or I would have wanted in on that action too. Instead, I lived vicariously through my precious Raelynn as we went back-to-school shopping. I'll show you the replacement coat shortly. But first my friends, please check out these amazing clothes we found in the women's and babies store out in Taidong...

We found all of these items at one shop inside this big store. The shopkeeper was totally awesome. We were initially drawn in because in the front of the store, there was a bin with shirts and bottoms and she'd marked it as everything in the bin was 15 yuan. That's INSANELY cheap. The blue shirt here was not in the bin though but that's okay...she gave us an amazing discount on that too. Look how freaking cute this all is!

 When Raelynn saw this Dora shirt, she went bonkers and wouldn't let go. It was 15 yuan plus it came with these adorable shorts. Yes way!

 Seeing how fond our daughter was of Dora, the sales woman handed us this other adorable set.

I picked this shirt for Raelynn because I wished I could fit into it. And I thought it was darling. She agreed it was pretty cool too. Good girl!

This skirt came from the 15 yuan bin. But the shirt? It was originally 169 yuan at Annil, which is where the ugly coat came from. We found a better coat to exchange that barfy one with and because the coat we picked out was cheaper, we could pick out a couple other things. So we said hello to this precious little shirt. Keep scrolling down to see the new coat though...

Next, another 15 yuan skirt. I should also mention that Jeremy picked out all the skirts you've seen in the post for his daughter. That might make you go "awwwww" as he did quite well picking these out. But you should have seen some of the crap he held up at the stores before we found these things. "How about this?" he'd ask in all seriousness about a very vomitous-looking obviously male-fashioned shirt. Oh well. At least he's learning.

This is another Annil shirt we got when we exchanged the coat. Wait until you see the coat we got too! Keep scrolling!

We also bought this Minnie Mouse t-shirt which Raelynn demanded to wear today. She refused to pose for a good photo though. Already a diva. Oh, and check out the bow in her hair. We bought her a bunch of new hair accessories including this one.

Check out Raelynn's new kicks! She picked these out herself. She loved them so much she wanted to wear them out of the store. The little bunny on the side will definitely match the one on her new exchanged coat too! Drum roll please!

Ta da! Here is the coat we exchanged the other one for. Why couldn't MIL have picked this one in the first place? They had some other ugly coats but there were quite a few that were cute like this. Annil is a Chinese brand but I was actually surprised by the quality and style of it. You usually find the kinds of things I've blogged about before that MIL will come trotting over with as if she's some style queen. How she came to find this little place inside the upscale mall in Taidong, I will never know. What was she doing there in the first place? When you walk into the bottom level of this mall, it is filled with make-up and beauty kiosks from all the high-end brands. L'Occitane. Lancome. Misha. If you can think of a brand, it's in there. Everything is. The ascending layers of the mall are filled with expensive clothes. It blows my mind that she would even enter a place like this, let alone BUY something from there.

Here is a close-up of the Annil jacket, with just one lone rabbit from the company's trademark. This is SO much better than the coat MIL picked out. I want it in my size, dammit! Maybe sans rabbit though.

The woman at the Annil counter was so kind and helpful too. I was absolutely shocked. Normally, you get shitty service everywhere you go in China. It was so nice to have someone who actually cared about helping us exchange the item for something more suitable. I almost felt like I was back in Seoul shopping with all the lovely sales girls there, ready to help with anything. Almost.

Now that all this shopping is done, Raelynn is ready for school, and pretty much anything with a wardrobe like that. Can this new baby PLEASE be a girl so we can use these awesome clothes again? I sure hope so. We hope we can find that out soon so stay tuned because as soon as I know, I'll be announcing it to the world.

Double Vision

Last week, I came home from work and discovered MIL had bought Raelynn a new pair of pants. No, not these vomit-inducing pants. I suppose when you give someone a pair of pants like that, anything else you bring them looks like haute couture. Here is a photo of the pants she bought:

Yes, they're screaming green with stars on them. But I actually kind of, sort of, slightly dig them. With a white, or even a black shirt, they'd rock. Of course, Raelynn's only plain black or white shirts are long-sleeved and we are well into June now so that's not going to happen. She also has a pink shirt with some bright green in it which actually worked together. But for the most part, these seem an odd thing to match. Not that people here actually match shit. At least not our part of the city. I think I once mentioned before that my friend Andrea called our part of the town "the part of Qingdao that time forgot." It's so true. Go downtown and the women are dressed nice. Go here and you want to run for cover.

Anyway, it's hard enough to match a pair of pants like this. So why, why, WHY would anyone ever buy 2 of them? That's right. MIL bought not one but TWO pairs of these:

During winter, she bought Raelynn 2 pairs of plain black pants. I didn't bitch. Why would I? Black pants for toddlers are a wonderful gift. They go with everything. Having 2 of them is fantastic because while one pair is drying with the laundry, you can wear the other pair. But 2 pairs of THESE?!? Dear Lord! And wouldn't you know...that old bag duh through our laundry basket to wash one pair of these the other day. AGAIN!!!! But wait...she put a pair of Raelynn's socks that she'd worn and dirtied BACK INTO THE CLOSET AGAIN! It is a complete mystery to me what the fuck is wrong with this woman. Why can't she leave these in the laundry basket? It's not like it was overflowing with clothes. And even if it was, WASH THE WHOLE FUCKING BASKET OF LAUNDRY YOU CLOWN! And the socks! At least she's not washing just one pair of socks anymore but MY GOD, put them in the fucking laundry basket! YEESH!

Good Work, MIL!

Yes, I just typed that, a compliment to the head troll. Why? Well, I might be a bitch and all but I'm not above acknowledging the old gal when she does something right. Right-ish at least.

One day last week when I came home from work, Raelynn ran up to the door to greet me. She is usually (and understandably) super excited to see me. But on this day, she began jumping up and down with glee, shouting merrily, "Shoes! Shoes! Shoes!" And suddenly, I see she's wearing a new pair of shoes. My initial reaction is to scowl at MIL, which I do out of habit but very briefly. My thought process went like this: "Ewwww...oh, uh, hey...wait a second here. That's not half bad actually."

MIL had bought Raelynn a pair of imitation Crocs that look like little bugs. They're orange and it's certainly not what I'd pick but it could be worse. MUCH worse, if you've read any of my other posts about MIL and her highly unfashionable choices (like this, as just one of MANY examples). Check them out:

Again, they're not something I would have selected but they're not completely unfortunate-looking. Raelynn also adores them and can put them on and take them off all by herself so that's something too, I guess. They light up on the heel when she walks in them which Raelynn also seems to like. I guess I should be relieved that they don't make that insufferable squeaking sound like some shoes for toddlers. I would kill kill KILL over that. I mean, who wants their toddlers wearing shoes that make noise with every step? I know that my toddler is quite noisy enough on her own! My brother once joked he was going to get me a pair of squeakers for Raelynn. At least I think it was a joke. Oh GOD. Please be a joke! PLEASE BE A JOKE!!!! Anyway, here's a side angle on these faux Crocs...

Not content with one small victory, a few days after that, MIL bought another pair of shoes for Raelynn. Take a look and we'll discuss...

 I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about these. She bought those horrid boots in red. MIL seems to like red shoes. But Raelynn has very little that works with red. Why does she have to get such a useless color? Sigh. They look okay, I guess, but they are really cheaply made. That bling on the front is just craptastic, and I hope Raelynn rips it off of there just like she did to the nice white sandals she had last summer so MIL will know how I felt. Why couldn't she buy these in black or white? Red. The red makes me a little annoyed but at least this is a major improvement for the troll-in-law, isn't it?

Now if only she could stop washing one pair of Raelynn's socks (instead of just leaving them in the laundry basket) and hanging them, sopping wet, to dry in the most random fucking places. Augh! I know, I know. Baby steps...baby steps.