I LOVE Christmas shopping with an infant -- yesterday, after work, John and I went Christmas shopping for the boys. Manny spent the night with Lola so that we could go.

Shopping for Manny was so much easier this year. We know exactly what he likes. We got him a couple of Transformers toys, a Buzz Lightyear doll, this cool bowling game, and a couple of other things that I can't think of right now.

On the other hand, shopping for an infant can be a bit difficult. You never know what they're going to really like. All of their toys seem to be extremely expensive. For example, there was a toy that we bought that spit out balls for Christian to chase, and it also had a piano type key pad, this toy was $25! We only put aside about a $100 for Christian, so he got about 4 toys...haha.

But I digress....the reason shopping with an infant is so fabulous is because you can give them the toy to "try out" to see if they like it. If they show interest in the toy, you buy it, if they don't, you move on. The fantastic thing? They WON'T remember!

I was a little disappointed with the toy selection for Manny's age. Manny is absolutely in love with Kung Fu Panda, so John and I wanted to get him a couple of Kung Fu Panda toys. However, all of the KFP toys were extremely small, or had parts that a small child could easily choke on. Plus, the toys weren't that great...very disappointing.

I do feel a bit sorry for Christian. Manny's first Christmas was CRAZY. We bought him SO many things (things he really didn't need to be honest), but it was his first Christmas, and he was our first child. I wanted it to memorable....for us...haha.

Knowing what we know now, we didn't get as berserk with Christian. We bought him a couple of toys that he'll be able to open himself. We got him a couple of stocking stuffers that I know he will aboslutely love, but we didn't go over the top like we did before; partly b/c times are a little tough, but also because I know he doesn't need 10 new toys, and because really....he won't remember it.

I'm looking forward to next Christmas with Christian. Hopefully next year we'll be able to spoil him a bit :)