Too much furniture and too little space

You have to order cribs early. They take 8 to 12 weeks to arrive. You don't want to get caught having a premature baby, arrive home, and realize that either you or the newborn has to crash on the couch.

With this in mind, we purchased a crib last weekend - It arrived after 5 days. Either it had been sitting in inventory already, or the factory workers in Indonesia had suddenly gotten a lot faster at making cribs (and shipping them around the world). Either way, we were happy.

The crib caught us off-guard though, and required some major re-arranging. Given that we were already tight for space in our one bedroom apartment, we needed another large piece of furniture like we needed...well, you get the picture.

Fairly certain we could find better ways to spend $100 than on a crib delivery fee, we elected to pick up the crib ourselves. Of course, the crib wouldn't fit in our car, so we had to drive across town, borrow a pick-up truck from a friend, and then pick it up. When we got back, I picked up an allenwrench and attempted to decipher the poorly written instructions. The process took me back 2.5 years to when Elizabeth and I moved to San Francisco and bought a truckload (literally) of Ikea furniture. Uggh.

About 60 minutes and only a handful of obscenities later (trying to get that down to zero before the little one arrives), our crib was assembled. We had even used all the parts, which seemed to increase our daughter's likelihood of safety. See the crib photo above. If she were to arrive today, our daughter would gaze up at a poster of the 2005 ceremony in which the Red Sox were awarded their World Series rings (in front of the Yankees) after completing the best sporting performance in the history of the world. While I want her to grow up aspiring to that kind of greatness, I've already been informed that the child's safety will require us removing the heavy frame from above her crib. Happily, she'll still be able to wear the Red Sox outfit my better half was kind enough to purchase for her.

While the Red Sox poster will have to move, our daughter has some neighbors who will be staying in the vicinity of her crib, and are already looking forward to her arrival. Elizabeth's bunny "Sweet Pea" and bear "Truffles" look forward to hugs from a new owner after years of loyal service. New additions "Patches" and a soon to be named pink bear (both grandparent gifts) are also eager to meet the little girl.

Stop...Thief!

Potential parents beware: it's a jungle out there!

Yesterday, we went shopping for baby stuff. Having done a bit of research on strollers, we hit up the stroller store. We quickly found one we really liked. It was one of the top-rated brands, and the only one they had left of last year's model, making it $80 cheaper than any of the newer ones.

Not wanting to make a rash decision, we perused the rest of the store for a while. Later, we returned to our choice stroller only to find it in the hands of another couple. No! There was nothing we could do but stand by, staring at the couple, hoping they'd pick another.

They didn't pick another. They opened it up. They looked inside. They closed it and marveled at how well in packed down. They admired its fine construction. They smiled at its crisp green canopy. They asked a salesperson to check their inventory for the matching car seat. It was all over.

Our indecision had resulted in tragedy! As we sank into deeper and deeper levels of despair, we were approached by one of the salespeople - an older gentlemen with kind eyes. "Is there anything I can help you with?" he asked.

"Thanks, but we were just hoping that the couple over there will change their mind because we want that stroller!" Elizabeth said.

"That one?" he asked. As we nodded, he walked over to the couple, took the stroller from them, and gave it to us.

In a state of shock, we quickly completed the purchase of our stroller, trying not to look over at the couple we had robbed. Parenting is not for the faint of heart.

What have we gotten ourselves into?

This is a blog about our unborn daughter. Someday soon, it will be filled with stories about what makes our little girl special. Maybe she'll have really cool eyes, which come from both her mom and her dad. Maybe she'll be tall, gangly, and awkward like her dad. Or maybe she'll have beautiful blonde hair, like her mom.

But since she's unborn, for now, it's about the two of us. It's about the experiences we have leading up to her birth.

At some point in the future, we'll become experts on all things baby. But as we stood in the enormous labyrinth that is Babies R Us yesterday, I realized that day was a long way off.

There were dozens of strollers and dozens of cribs. Okay, that was expected. I know what those things are for and expected them to be there. But then there were also dozens of other things--things I didn't know existed. Bouncy things for the baby to sit in. Swinging things for the baby to swing in. Pads for the baby to lie down on. Pads for the baby to do something called "tummy time". Pads for the baby to look up and learn all kinds of things.

How much of this stuff do we really need? No idea. Maybe our girl will tell us what she needs.

My guess is that our experience in Baby's R Us was only a sign of things to come. We have pretty much no idea what we're doing. What have we gotten ourselves into? This is going to be an adventure!