Wee Urban sleep sacks

Great customer service is just so hard to find these days.

All I want is for someone to pick up the phone. Someone to return an email. Someone who knows their product and stands behind it.

I find it so frustrating that a certain giant baby-toy store (that I won't be so unprofessional as to name) has such terrible service, product, and return policy. My friend actually had to argue about returning a baby mirror for the car after realizing that it makes you look like you're at the county fair where you pay $1 to look like you have a fat nose and one eye bigger than the other. They told her it had been opened and used. The fact that the product was terrible and that it was going to cost *unnamed giant baby store* pennies to make the customer happy was irrelevant. The teenage girl working the boring Wednesday afternoon shift didn't care and just wanted to get on with her day.

Enter Diaper Eez: a cute little baby shop in Bloor West Village where Dustin and I chose to get our cloth diapers for Lily. We tried to do our cloth diaper research online but it was actually mind blowing how confusing everything was. We stopped by Diaper Eez and got the low down from an incredibly knowledgeable sales lady. They always answer their phone. They answered my emails when I complicated our baby registry. Best of all, they stock their shop with products that they love and recommend.

Lily has always been a feisty baby, even in the womb. She quickly learned how to wriggle her way out of swaddles and kick off any blankets. I was in need of a sleep sack. With leftover gift cards at *unnamed ridiculous baby store* I figured I'd look there first. The selection was dismal: polyester polar fleece, made in China, no special features, overpriced. And I was scared to open it and try it out since they would likely never accept a return or exchange.

At Diaper Eez they had not one, but two Toronto-designed, Canadian-made sleep sacks to choose from. I was debating between a multi-layered cotton sleep sack with front zip and extra breathability, and the Wee Urban sleep sack made with extra soft sweatshirt material. I decided to opt for the Wee Urban because of the shoulder snaps and side zipper that made getting our super-wriggly Lily into and out of the sack much easier.

We loved it. The giraffes were an extra bonus.


Then disaster struck.

After using it for about 2 months, the snap on the left shoulder ripped. Is this common? If I buy another one will it just happen again? The other 2 snaps looked to be in great shape... Dare I try and ask for them to repair it?

I went to the Wee Urban website and wrote them a quick email. Hours later (not days -- hours) I received the kindest email from Wee Urban apologizing for the defect and offering to send me a new one as soon as possible. You see, they wanted to ensure that Lily's sleep was disrupted as little as possible.

I was beyond shocked. What kindness. What fantastic service. What confidence in their product. All they asked in return was for me to send the defective sleep sack back to them so they could see what went wrong.

I wish more businesses were like this. I can't tell you how many times Dustin and I have called companies looking to give them business: window repair, driveway snow removal, physiotherapy, and they just don't call us back, let alone offer customer satisfaction in guaranteeing their product.

Good customer service is so important to me. Since discovering Diaper Eez, three of our friends have gone there to purchase their cloth diapering systems. I'm pretty sure the next few baby gifts I give will be the Wee Urban sleep sack. The next time you think about going to buy a baby-something from the store that rhymes with Shmoys R Us, try visiting a local baby shop. You will be pleasantly surprised!

Here is Lily modelling her GroVia pink peacock diapers from Diaper Eez.

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Rollin' with the homies

Lily turned 6 months old on Thursday and she has hit some major milestones!

As with most things in life, her wonderful achievements have not come without hardships.

1. She has learned to roll over! Lily has never been much of a "lie down and play" baby, but now that she can roll, she seems to enjoy it more. She will roll and roll until she reaches the end of the quilt, then we pick her up and start her back at the beginning. You see, much like Derek Zoolander, she is not an ambiturner: she can only roll in one direction. So the one downside to all this rolling excitement is that she has been getting stuck in her crib, unable to unwedge herself from the edge. We are hoping this is a short phase and she will quickly learn to rectify this problem. The sobs are unbearable.

2. She has started solids! She is loving it (she has the Fong gene in her!) and could not get enough of it in the early days! She has since gotten over the initial excitement but is still a relatively good eater. The downside is that she has always been a finger sucker, eye rubber, and ear puller. Solid food is a messy art and by the end of our meal she will have baby cereal in all nooks and crannies of her face.

Along with these two major milestones, she is very close to sitting up on her own and we also think that she may be getting some teeth. She is chewing on anything and everything she can get her hands on -- including her own feet.

It is really incredible how much Lily is maturing. It wasn't long ago that I would spend all day sitting on the couch trying to stop her from crying. Now she's eating solids, pooping like a Dunwell, singing along to my silly songs, and rollin' with the homies!

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