Once Upon a Child...

No, I'm not getting ready to tell you a fairytale. Well, I guess I could come up with some whimsical, cutesy way of telling you about this fantastic store, but I'm not that much of a dork. Ok, I am. I just don't give you all the full extent because I'm not sure if you're ready for my true dorkiness.

Anyway, so back to the point. Once Upon a Child (OUAC) is just the most fantastic store ever! I do mean EVER! For anyone who has had to buy baby needs like strollers, pack n' plays, toys, clothes, books, etc., you know how expensive this stuff can get. Well, that's where OUAC comes to play (pun intended). You can buy "gently used" clothing, toys, equipment, etc for newborn all the way up to kids size 12. You gotta love it!

 Now this stuff is not garage sell junk. Its the good stuff. You can get Graco, Fisher Price, Leap Frog, VTech, Baby Gap, Gymboree brands all in one store at a significantly reduced price. You don't have to worry about rummaging through stained, torn, or faded clothes. Nope, its all good quality but has just been worn for a bit. Because all moms know that your baby is just going to grow out of the cutests little Baby Gap sweater you bought them for $25 just last week and only wear it one time. Ugh!

Not only can you buy great stuff there, but you can sell it too! Here's a story. On my last trip to the US, I bought a walker at Walmart for $50. Then I thought, "hmmm...I wonder if Once Upon a Child has any walkers?" Went in, found the exact same walker I just bought for $15. Needless to say, I returned the Walmart one. Taelyn used it for that last trip. Well, now she's crawling and doesn't want to be in her walker. So I took it up to OUAC and sold it back to them for $7.50. So in essence, the walker she only used for 2 weeks only cost me $7.50 instead of $50. How cool is that?

 

We have gotten all of Taelyn's Vtech and Leap Frog toys for about $4.50 each when in the store they cost brand new over $20! Because we are coming back to the states for Christmas, I had to make sure she had some winter clothes. No way was I going to spend a lot of money on something she would only wear for 4 weeks. No way, Jose! Plus, while I was there, I went armed with a list of summer clothes I needed for 6-9 months and 12-18 months. Winter clothes cost me about $35 and the summer clothes came to about $65, but remember that was for almost a year's worth of clothes.  I walked out feeling like a rock star!

The best part is how the store is so organized. Each one is a little different based off of size restrictions, but they are all clean, neat, and organized. The clothing is seperated out so that you can go to exactly what you are looking for and not spend forever trying to find that pink short sleeve shirt to go with the adorable plaid shorts you bought the other day. You just go to the size you are looking for. Then go to the gender. Then to the shirts. Within the shirts its all organized by tank tops, short sleeve, 3/4 sleeve, long sleeve, sweaters, sweatshirts, and then jackets. Within each category, its organized by color. How easy is that?