Baby Shower

It was bitterly cold as I left the house on Saturday morning to get the oil changed at the dealer. My wife and I had planned on meeting up in Wayne later in the day just before her baby shower. However, as soon as I pulled into one of the service parking spots, and saw the crowd in the waiting room through the window, I knew we were going to have to adjust things. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize just how much our plans would change.

My wife picked me up on her way to the late lunch and while in transit I called my dad to have him pick me up at the venue. This was my wife’s day and I didn’t want to stick around too long and get in the way. After chatting with a few people and greeting some early arrivals, it was time for me to head out and wait for both the call from the dealer and the text from my wife.

While we chatted about work, planning for the year, and other things the dealer finally called about 2-3 hours after I first walked through their doors. It turns out that my car needed more than just an oil change as the front brakes needed to be replaced and the slow leak that I had them check on the front tire was actually a bent rim… I guess I won’t be seeing my car for a few more days. Well, things happen and thankfully my wife was having a much better day than I.

The shower was a small gathering of family and friends all of which brought overly generous bags and boxes. We had put a lot of things on the registry but simply to offer a variety of both items and prices thereof, we didn’t expect so many items to be purchased. When I got the text from my wife, I was glad to read that things had gone well and that she was happy. Everything else didn’t really matter at that moment… my wife had a good time and everything had gone as smooth as possible.

We met up at the tail end as the last guests were walking out the door. The bags and boxes seemed never ending as we walked back and forth between the restaurant and a few cars. Thankfully we had some help from my family as well as a bigger place to live in which to fit all of this new stuff. The help continued later in the evening as my sister and brother-in-law (along with the kids) helped us get everything in the house and move around the furniture that I was unable to get up the stairs previously.

It was a long and tiring day for both of us but a great day and one that will serve as a happy memory for us and many of our family members. And now we will wait for our son to arrive so that we can start using all the new items that will soon be organized in his room… which is another project all together. I guess that is going to have to be the new project.  

Box Bombardment

What happened UPS? 

Last week the packages began arriving at our townhouse. It started with a few small items that I pulled from out mailbox as there were a few items that we ordered for the holidays. Of course, this is in addition to the numerous things that we purchased for the house, crammed in our car, and carried up and down stairs. The latest deluge is a result from the large items from our baby registry being left outside our door.

Each time one of these large boxes arrived my wife would get that look like the father receiving his ‘major award’ in A Christmas Story. Of course, she would have that look as I was carrying or pushing the box up the stairs and into the baby’s room. Let’s just say that it really isn’t fun when the 110 pound box barely fits up the stairs and you spend the majority of the time just trying to navigate the corners while keeping it from tipping back.

Now we have all of the furniture in the townhouse without any help from UPS due to their not being allowed to bring things inside of homes. And everything has been finagled up to the second floor with the only exception being that of the dresser which it simply too big for one person to maneuver. We are going to have to unbox it first and have at least two people carry it up the stairs on its end… it is the only way that we are going to be able to make the turn.

Thankfully there should only be one more big item that will be delivered in the coming weeks as we have another couch due to arrive this week. This too will have to be taken up stairs but this time to my wife’s office to serve as the guest bed for when we have overnight out of town visitors. Hopefully it is like the other couch and I can simply take it up in pieces and assemble in the right place.

There will also be a continued package bombardment as the due date approaches and the baby continues to accumulate more and more items. But at least we are nearly done with the items that we wanted to get to complete our new home. Everything is finished in the basement (at least everything that I had planned on putting down there), my wife’s office is nearly done, and the first floor is full of all our existing furniture. The baby’s room is the only one that will continue to accumulate a heck of a lot more stuff… stuff in all different sizes of boxes.