Excuses

I'm going to chalk your silence up to the long weekend. Once you've read my previous post, I'm sure you will feel just the right amount of outrage and I will be appeased. Thank you in advance.

So, turns out that hard labor is out when it comes to pregnancy. And when I say hard, I'm only referring to scrubbing the tub. Won't be doing that again for a while (though I can't remember the last time it was done anyway). Last night I finally got fed up (with dirt and apathy) and cleaned our bathroom, top to bottom. I even laundered the vinyl shower curtain. And then I had a little emotional breakdown. I'm going to blame the hormones and other things that I was crying over a shower curtain miscommunication. Oh, and now I'm a little sore from leaning over the tub.

A long time ago I stole..er, borrowed...a book from my mom called Mary Ellen's Clean House (Yes, Mom, that's where it went). It's an excellent cleaning reference, and when we lived in Tuscaloosa and purchased our first washing machine I looked up how to clean shower curtains. Essentially, you machine wash the curtain with half detergent and half baking soda, throwing in a couple of bath towels for agitation. Then you let it spin just long enough to drain the water from the basin and skip forward to the rinse cycle and toss in a half cup of vinegar into the rinse water. And then you take the curtain out before the final spin cycle and hang it back up without rinsing off the vinegar--clean! (Followed immediately by a load of towels to wash the vinegar out of the two tossed in.) I didn't realize that in all the times I have washed our shower curtains in this manner that Eli wasn't around.

Last night, Eli took the curtain out of the washer and took it into the bedroom in a bucket (so it wouldn't drip everywhere). He was gone for a while, and when he came back, I asked if he had hung it back up. Yup. Okay. So I finished what I was doing. A little while later I go back into the bedroom and hear that the bathroom fan is on. I go in there and am speechless. We had a little mis(non)communication. He had taken down the outer curtain (which I found later on the bed) and hung the vinyl curtain over the rod to dry. So, yes, half of it was dripping in the tub and half on the floor of the bathroom. I laughed because he had hung it up, just not as I had imagined. When asked about it, he said that he didn't want it to mildew against the cloth curtain. I explained to him about the tent effect--the vinyl curtain hangs inside the tub and the cloth curtain hangs outside so they won't touch much at all (which he knows, but I was just being overly didactic). And when they do, that's why you don't rinse the vinegar off when you take it out of the washer. His response: "Oh." He had rinsed the vinegar from the curtain in the tub. So, I went back into the bathroom and hung the curtains back up on the hooks. I was laughing to myself, and then I was sorta crying, and then I don't know. It started a series of mood swings that poor Eli had to endure for the evening. (I love you, honey!)

On to today, though. We woke up this morning and somehow got on the topic of the baby shower that some of the women at church want to throw for us. Eli observed that we need to register, and we should do it today while we have time. Bingo. I was waiting for it to be his suggestion so that he wouldn't drag his feet. So we went to Target and started a registry (and got a free $20 gift card for doing so with a coupon I got in the mail!). We walked the baby section, and after a while Eli said, "I don't know what half this stuff is." I laughed. To be expected. I had to explain the multi-purpose use of a Boppy pillow. But, once his eyes glazed over, I excused him to the Books/DVD/Music section of the store that was right across the aisle and did some scanning here and there. But, the truth is...I have no idea what we need. Our transitory nature also keeps us from knowing what is necessary.

Now, we do know that we need a car seat (Eli's job to do research), a stroller (possibly in a travel system), and a crib of some sort. Those are all big ticket items that we'll have to save for over the next three months. I went ahead and registered for a very basic Pack N Play, because I foresee some extensive travel in the next year or so, but I also registered online when I got home for a cradle, which I know can be purchases elsewhere for cheaper.

Eli said, "Watch. We'll get all this cute, frilly, pink stuff from people, and she will turn out to be a he." Roll with the punches.

So, not that this is a plug or anything, but we are currently registered at Target and Amazon.com. Some of the items appear in both places, but all can pretty much be purchased through Amazon. That's why I like that site. :) Okay, back to cleaning.