Wow! i'coo stroller

We actually took a lot more pictures of this cool i'coo stroller, cause it does so much, but decided to spare you! It's so cool. Where to begin ... BIG wheels and comes with an air pump for the back wheels, the seat reclines and can be reversed, or the seat can be removed and set up to accomodate an infant car seat, big hood, adjustable handlebars ... just so dang cool!

The stroller is identical to the Rock Star Baby, except that it doesn't include a seperate bassinet attachment (but the seat reclines fully for a newborn, as you can see in the photos) and doesn't have the cool "rock star baby" embroidery on it, and, I think, the green is a much better color for Florida than black.

Our price on this one $149.00 (MSRP $399-450), and I can guarantee this won't be around for long (this Bumbleride sold in 3 days).




Also in this week, an Arm's Reach Mini Co-Sleeper



and a Fisher-Price Papason Cradle Swing

Buying Information

At this time Ditto Kiddo is accepting baby furniture and gear, and a limited quantity of toys.

We'll be happy to look at your like-new clothing beginning September 11th.

Please call or e-mail if you have any questions! Thanks.

Grandparent's Day

REMEMBER

Every Wednesday is Grandparent's Day

Save 10% on your Total Purchase at Ditto Kiddo

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New Bibs by Because I'm Me arrived today.

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Ditto Kiddo will not be buying any clothing through 8th.

Website Update

The kids and I spent the afternoon at Ditto Kiddo today taking pictures of all the bigger furniture, gear, toys, etc. for the website. The goal is to keep the site updated so when someone calls looking to see what we've got for cribs or strollers we can both tell them on the phone and direct them to the site for visuals.


Of course, this means I have to update those pages of the site constantly! Wish me luck.


Here's our white background for the pictures. It's a bed skirt hung at the ceiling by a large number of clips and wires. M looks awfully hesitant, doesn't she?


On one side the contraption is held together by green kite string clothespin-clipped to the bed skirt and then wrapped MacGyver style around a hook on the Sassy toys rack.


On the other side, more kite string, strung from the bedskirt to the girls rack, wrapped around that a few times, then down the side, finally tied below to a pants hanger (it wouldn't all fit in the picture).

It worked perfectly, and didn't fall down ... which we were a wee bit concerned about.

The kids had a great assembly line going - they'd bring an item over, set it up where they wanted it, I'd photograph it, they'd take it away and the next child would bring another item. Perfect.

"For Sale"

Just throwing this out there ...

We get a lot of inquiries about selling Ditto Kiddo and have decided it's time to give that idea some thought. There's nothing wrong with the store, in fact it's wonderful and I love the store, ... I simply feel it's time to be home with the kids so I can focus more on their educations and development.

If you're interested, or know anyone who is, contact me at the store.
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Back to our regularly scheduled program... it was too busy to take any pictures today but we just got in a beautiful dresser/changing table/hutch piece with a matching nightstand. Both pieces are light wood.

Yesterday we purchased this Chicco play yard. It's pretty darn cool! Our price: $79.90.

More Recalls

Sponge Bob Address Books and Journals

Thomas and Friends, Curious George and Other Spinning Tops and Tin Pails Recalled By Schylling Associates Due To Violation of Lead Paint Standard

Monday and Tuesday

Ditto Kiddo will be closed Monday and Tuesday, the 20th and 21st of August, and will reopen Wendesday, the 22nd.

Also, we will now be closing at 2:00 on Thursdays, until further notice.

Thanks for your understanding!

It's About Time ...

... that I got the rest of the Because I'm Me line available for sale online. I swear to do a much better job keeping everything updated from now on and will post a note when I do update the shop, and when I add new items at Ditto Kiddo too (more bibs coming very soon!). To all of you who've been waiting to order online ... I'm sorry! If you don't see what you're looking for, either at Ditto Kiddo or at our online shop, just ask. Special orders are always welcome.

In addition to the bibs and totes/handbags I also have two quilts listed, one girlish and one boyish. Both are great for baby floor quilts, wall hangings, toddler bed quilts, and lap quilts.

Interesting Day!

What a day we had at Ditto Kiddo.

I brought a quilt I needed to bind, thinking if we didn't buy much today I'd get that done (a benefit of owning the store!). Yea right, I barely had time to put it under the counter ... and never even looked at it.

The first phone call of the day was a reporter with ABC7 doing an article on the recent recalls, which we've mentioned here and here. Here's the link to the article (the video news segment is on the right). Being interviewed was so much fun! The last time I had to do a tv interview was about 12 years ago when I organized a fundraiser for the American Red Cross to support the flood victims in Bonita Springs. During that interview I had a huge camera and giant mike in my face ... very intimidating! This time they clipped a little mike to me and had the camera across the room ... it really felt like I was just talking to the reporter, Katie LaGrone, who is just a really neat person. Toward the end of the interview they needed "footage" and filmed me doing everyday work ... of course it was the only time today when the store was empty ... I felt like such a boring dork ... fortunately that didn't make it onto the report.

As soon as the news people left the store was flooded with people, both buying and bringing things in. And all great stuff - Ralph Lauren and Baby Lulu dresses, a dark wood toddler bed, Florence Eiseman boys outfits, and so much more. The biggest comments we've heard the last few weeks is that store is so full, and that it's all great stuff.

And then the last call of the day was USA Today, also doing an article on the recalls. I'm not sure that I'll end up in that article. The interviewer was looking for information about dealing with returning and receiving refunds for recalled items, but we've been blessed to not actually have any of the most recently recalled items in the store. I was able to inform her about how we've dealt with recalls in the past (call the company on the recall notice at cpsc.gov, they send out a mailing label and usually an envelope to return the item, return the item, they send refund/retrofit/credit within a few weeks ... easy peasy) and relay the wording in the recall notice to her. While I wasn't able to be too helpful to her it was pretty cool to be well-thought of enough to be called!

Mattel Recalls

"Sarge" Die Cast Toys
Magnetic Action Figure Sets
Barbie and Tanner Magnetic Toys
Doggie Daycare Magnetic Toys
Polly Pocket Play Sets

As mentioned in the Fisher-Price toy recall post we can't take any of the recalled toys ... regardless of date of manufacture or style variation. If we have any doubt about whether an item has been recalled we cannot take it. We want to be certain our customers and their children are as safe as possible!

New Header

See my high-tech new header? I loved the old one, with the chalk writing, but this one is fun too. Believe it or not, I made this myself (why yes, it DOES look like it was made by an experienced artist, I've just got a natural gift).



The stamps are the Wooden Alphabet Stamp Set by Melissa and Doug, available at Ditto Kiddo for $19.99, the set includes all uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as 4 punctuation marks and ink.



This weekend I had to get some thank you cards. The preprinted ones were $3.49 each and up ... yikes! I bought a set of 10 blank cards and envelopes for $3.99 and will stamp "thank you" on them with these beautiful letter stamps. Hey, I can stamp anything I want to on the rest of the cards! This is going to be fun! These stamps are definately not just for kids!



There are a few picture stamps in some of the pictures, those aren't included in the alphabet set, but are also available, along with a Classroom Stamp Set, and a Horse Stable Stamp Set.

Scams and Frauds

Please, please, please be careful out there!

This article appeared in yesterdays News-Press.

In June I received a telephone call at the store from someone veryifying my store name, address, etc. Suddenly the phone is given to another person telling me about the website they are going to build for me. No matter how many times I said NO they kept going about how this would be charged to my phone bill, etc. I finally hung up on them. But I knew something wasn't right.

I called the phone company immediately, they said they wouldn't bill me for something like that and that I should call my yellow pages account telephone number. They said they didn't know anything about it either.

I was really shaken by this incident, but eventually put it out of my mind. I've been much more abrupt with other similar telephone calls, refusing to answer any questions at all or give any information.

And then my phone bill came. $130 charge on it for this web crap that I had flatly refused. I was so upset!

I googled ILD, the company the charges originated from. They are just a third party billing company and were billing me on someone else's behalf. Unfortunately, what I found was that a lot of other people had had trouble with ILD charges showing up on their phone bill. I was now even more upset!

My wonderful husband offered to deal with this for me. Thank goodness! He, hopefully, has solved the problem and the charges will be removed and won't continue. It took him hours of telephone calls to deal with this mess.

Obviously, my frustration stems from the fact that I didn't authorize the service and I definately didn't authorize them to bill through my telephone bill. What a scam! They don't even have to get credit card information from me to charge me for things.

According to Embarq, they have to allow third party billing on their accounts. They do not give you a choice on this, BUT if you request that third party billing not be accepted on your account then it won't be. So you MUST call them.

I'm hoping that my problem has been solved, but I know they'll try this, or some other scam, on other people, so please be careful!

What Would You Do: Child Not Ready for School?

If your child had a late birthday (August) would you go ahead and send them to school or would you hold them back a year?

If you weren't sure if your child was ready to start Kindergarten would you send them?

Because The Little Tikes Playground Doesn't Take Up Enough Space ...

We now have a Disney Princess Toddler Bed, just like this one, except in lavender. Our price: $37.90

Just moments later we received a Little Tikes Race Car Bed, like this. Our price: $86.90

Look what's in the middle of the store!



Yes, that's right, it's a Little Tikes 8-in-1 Playground.



It's big, and definately accomodates a whole bunch of kids. The five of mine have been on it, nonstop, for at least an hour. Right now they're on a space mission, the 8-in-1 playground is a rocket ship.



We don't have the slides on the playground right now, there just isn't enough room in the store, but they do come with it. The smaller slide can be attached in 3 places, the larger one in one place. The tunnel connecting the two sides can also be moved around and attached in different places. Never the same toy twice!



MSRP: $399.00 Our price: $169.90 and worth every penny. These playgrounds last forever, and are so much fun.



I always wanted one of these for my kids. If we had the room I'd be taking this home today.



I'm sure I don't need to tell you this won't be around for long. This is the only the second of these we've had in 8 years. Hurry!

We're Sales Tax Free

From now until August 13th no sales tax will be charged on clothing or shoes at Ditto Kiddo.

AND take 10% off everything at Ditto Kiddo until August 13th!

• We've got an unbelievable amount of great stuff for babies and kids


• We carry newborn-10 in girls and newborn-7 in boys


• Open Monday-Saturday 10:00-4:00


• Hurry in for best selection!

Fisher Price Toy Recall

As you may already know, Fisher-Price issued a major recall today - close to 1,000,000 items because of lead poisoning hazard. Read more here.

Many of the affected products have the date code on the packaging and not the product itself, and as we cannot ensure the safety of your child without record of the date the toy was manufactured, Ditto Kiddo will not accept any of the recalled product, effective immediately, regardless of the date code or date of manufacture.

We are always very careful to not accept or sell recalled products and we appreciate your cooperation and understanding.

Oh, and in other news ... it's that time of year! We're accepting fall clothing.

Don't forget ... Saturday begins the Florida tax free period. All clothing and shoes at Ditto Kiddo will be sales tax-free until August 13th. In addition everything in the entire store will be 10% off during the tax free period!

Tables, Tables, Tables!

This octagonal train table with pull-out drawer came in today. The table measures 4' across. Our price $79.90



We also have this standard sized train table for $39.90


For the family who may have outgrown the train table (does that ever really happen though?) we have a Lego/Duplo table with four storage bins at the corners. MSRP $199.00 Our price: $59.90