Assembly: nearing completion

This could refer to Chicklet, of course, but it refers instead to the house.  We are nearing the point where we can sit back and chill out for a bit.  The baseboards and quarter round molding are painted and ready to be installed (I opted out on the installation myself - after discovering that our floors were less level than we believed, I decided to forgo spending loads of time on it in order to spend time w/ Cindy, and instead will outsource it to the guys who quickly and cheaply finished installing our wood floors.).  The thresholds / t-molding that bridge the doorways between rooms or materials (wood/tile) are sanded and sealed.  The rooms are painted.  The shelves are installed.  We're pretty much just waiting on the baseboard/threshold installation (which will all happen in the matter of a few hours) and the carpet (we are still choosing samples, but are ok w/ the fact that the carpet will come post-Chicklet).

We are weeks or days away from Chicklet's arrival - there's no way to know.  We're getting more and more excited, and it's getting more difficult to wait.  We don't really have the choice, but we hope she'll get here a bit early.  She's due in 2 weeks and 5 days, but we're not counting.  The end of this week would be nice - Chicklet: if you're reading this in your intra-uterine pad, get the lead out.

Cindy mentioned in an earlier post that she didn't believe that the crib would be set up quickly.  She'd heard horror stories of how cribs are so difficult to assemble, and take forever to set up.  Whoever has those problems apparently has never lifted a screwdriver.  Granted, Cindy and I assembled the crib together, but I'd say 15-20 minutes was about right.  It was pretty much connecting A to B.  Maybe it's that whole modern mentality about ease-of-assembly in the modern furniture, who knows.  ;)

Speaking of modern furniture, today we discovered that we bought an incorrect piece of furniture.  We bought the Argington Picchu Dresser, thinking that we could use the top for a changing table instead of buying the more expensive Argington Delphi Changing Table.  The Picchu Dresser has a lip around the edge just like the Delphi Changing Table does - a feature designed to hold in the changing pad.  Both pieces of furniture are designed for a baby's room, so common sense dictates that the lip on the Picchu Dresser would serve the same purpose.  Unfortunately, we didn't compare dimensions, and discovered today when trying to fit the new changing pad that Cindy bought that the Picchu Dresser is too small and is, in fact, not designed to hold the changing pad.  I will cut the pad down to size and we'll use the Dresser as a changing table, but everyone should make sure that what you're buying functions as you think it is supposed to be before laying out the cash.  So what exactly is the point of the lip around the edge of the Dresser if not for holding in a changing pad?  My guess is mostly to maintain a similar aesthetic as the Changing Table - a datum that runs across the room through all the furniture.  They've made it work, though, as a method for stacking multiple dressers - one over the other (the base of the Dresser fits inside the lip of the one below it).  Whatever.

There's a mattress in Chicklet's crib now.  Cindy grabbed an organic cotton stuffed Serta Baby Mattress.  Rock on - we had a huge credit from a bunch of double gifts we'd gotten, and those organic mattresses are expensive.  

Oh - I didn't mention the final touches on Chicklet's room!  Last week I went to Ikea to pick up some more shelves for the office, but they were out of stock (I had called specifically to make sure they were in stock so that I wouldn't have to waste a 25 minute drive to Round Rock, but apparently spoke to a moron).  Instead, I walked out w/ several shelves in white, pink, and red that Cindy and I installed on one wall of Chicklet's room in a staggered pattern.  I also got two lamps that are somewhat amorphouse in shape and made of blown frosted glass -  the interior of one is red and the other is white.  You stick a low watt bulb in there and the whole thing gives a soft red or white glow to the room, so that right there is Chicklet's rockin nightlight.

So that is my dry matter of fact post on recent events.  I've been working a lot, but tomorrow's our final deadline for this project.  We'll all be moving on to other projects this week - anything else for the current project will be bits and pieces, but it will no longer be full time.  Thank god.

Your crib will arrive by your child's 3rd birthday

Cindy and I have been a little behind in getting all of our baby gear set up and in order b/c we've been completing our house renovations. I've been on a work deadline (which thankfully ends this week) and Cindy, too, has had a bunch of work. It's now time for me to lay the baseboards and get the carpet installed so that we can complete Chicklet's room in time for her arrival.

One of the major components to completing her room is getting the crib. I've been a bit of a pain in the department, as I've nixed nearly every crib I've seen in favor of a more modern designed crib. I figure that there's no reason for our (or my) tastes to be pushed aside just because nearly every crib has some sort of ornamental scrollwork or overly ornate wood trim involved. Unfortunately, though, most modern baby cribs are pretty expensive. I was in love with the Oeuf Sparrow crib when a coworker told me he might be able to get it for me wholesale (his wife is in the industry and is getting one for their soon-to-be baby), but that fell through. That one goes for about $650. Every other modern baby crib, save for the Netto Cub Collection ($550), is even more expensive. Keep in mind, this is just the crib - dressers and other furniture are additional, and are usually even more expensive than the cribs themselves. This tug-of-war between modern and typical ultimately hinged on price points - a lot of others could be found in $300 price range which allowed us more room to buy the dresser and changing table. Today we became more fully educated not only about the price of baby furniture, but also when you should purchase it.

We took a visit to USA Baby here in Austin, and even though it was nearly impossible to find (b/c S. Lamar turns into Westgate Blvd., but who knows that?), we found that they had a pretty good selection of cribs and toddler paraphernalia. Don't think about asking the help, though, if the paint is non-VOC or if the crib is made of hardwood vs. veneered particleboard. I think the extent of their knowledge is price and color. Anyway, we learned that pretty much any crib of any quality starts off at the ~$500 mark. This was a rude awakening. We were thinking that this was only baby furniture, after all. But I guess furniture is furniture, and if you want something quality, you're going to have to shell out a little bit more. Once we adjusted to that, we discovered that pretty much all quality dressers/changing tables start at pretty much the same price point. This put us right back into the price range of the modern baby cribs that we had been balking at. Our lessons for the day were not yet over - we also learned that if you want to have that crib in place by the time the baby is born, you had better order it about 2 years before you even try to conceive. Seriously though - lead time for the crib we were interested in was 8-12 weeks. 3 months! Man, were we off the mark - Chicklet arrives in 6 weeks! Ultimately it won't be too big a deal as Chicklet will be sleeping in our bedroom w/ us for at least the first few months, which gives us enough time to order and set up the crib. It did make me a little sad knowing that her nursery won't be fully set up when she comes home, but them's the breaks.

So - today's lessons:

1. order your crib when you're 6 months preggers, otherwise it may arrive after the baby's born.
2. don't be afraid to spend a little bit. you may not spend it on yourself, but you don't want your baby breathing in particleboard VOCs from a cheaper crib, nor do you want lower-end construction that might not last.
3. order your crib when you're 6 months preggers.

The moms are at it again

I'm glad we didn't make our moms wait too long before giving them something else to obsess over. After the wedding frenzy was over and life started to resume to a quasi-normal state (with the exception of the wedding photo proofs), Kenny and I sprang the baby news on them. On the day we told my parents, my mom wanted to immediately go out to Babies R Us, so we indulged her. That place is completely overwhelming, by the way. We had no idea what we were doing, what we were looking for, or where to begin. I think even my mom was overwhelmed. That trip wasn't the end of it, though. She called me today from USA Baby to ask me what baby monitors we had decided on because they were having a sale. I confessed to her that we hadn't even so much as glanced at baby products since we left Dallas (other than the onesies that Kenny came home with yesterday). She went on to tell me that she purchased a mattress, two baby blankets, a bath set, a new comforter for the guest bed (so the nice one that's in there now doesn't get destroyed), a set of linens for the crib, and various other things I can't remember. She also told me about the crib that they're about to buy for their house. It sounds much nicer than we one we'll probably be getting for ours.

Kenny's mom got just as excited, but her excitement has not yet turned into a shopping spree, although I'm sure that's just a matter of time. When we broke the news to her, she immediately took me down to their basement, where we pulled out the crib and sorted through some of the baby clothes and toys that she saved from when Kenny and Lauren were babies. She went down there a second time with Kenny. I have to admit, Lauren was a very well-dressed baby. And Kenny had some pretty kick ass big-kid toys, such as a complete Voltron robot, which I had to convince him to leave in New York as it's not Chicklet-appropriate for another couple of years.

This is all very fun. It's cool to see our parents get all crazy over grandkids.

UPDATE: this is Kenny writing now - i wanted to bring Voltron back for me, not Chicklet! that thing rocks!

good puppy

so when there's a baby on the way, you need to retrain your first baby (read: dog) to realize that he is no longer front and center. nathan has always been a spoiled puppy - he's a good dog, but he knows that we turn to butter if he gives us his puppy dog eyes. he sleeps on the bed w/ us most of the time, curls up w/ us on the couch, and gets undivided attention when he wants playtime. well, the earlier you train the dog that a lot of these things will change, the better.

we've been reading tips on how to prepare the dog for Chicklet, and as sad as it is, he can no longer sleep on the bed w/ us. honestly, i'm not too sure why that matters, b/c it's not like the baby is really going to be sleeping in the bed w/ us, but i suppose its a territorial thing. he supposedly shouldn't be allowed up on the sofa or other furniture either, but i don't know how far we can go w/ this aspect - otherwise the only way to curl up w/ him will be by lying on the ground (he's a really good cuddle puppy). the most important thing we need to get him started on is his interaction w/ other people - i.e. jumping on people. that's how he greets us when we come in the door, and that's how he greets new people (after sniffing them out, of course). jumping is obviously a big no-no when there's a baby.

another thing that i'd like to work on is somehow desensitizing him just a bit to squirrels and the other assorted wildlife (birds) in our backyard. he sits by the sliding glass door half the day, watching things go on outside, and if there is even the slightest hint that a squirrel is in the vicinity he goes nuts. "come on - let me at him! i'll bring home dinner for a week if you wouldn't impede me w/ your stupid 'sit' and 'stay' commands before letting me out the door!" this behavior is characterized by jumping up and down next to the door, barking, and whining. yes, dogs whine. it's kind of cute, but he can totally overdo it. this behavior modification would be for the benefit of some peace and quiet - i mean, who wants to wake a sleeping baby?

we saw an ad for a training course called preparing fido in the back of fit pregnancy magazine. it looks promising, but its mostly for getting the dog used to the arrival of the baby - it's essentially a cd that plays baby sounds so that when the real baby starts crying and cooing, the dog recognizes the sounds and doesn't flip his shit. it's also recommended to bring home a blanket that the baby was swaddled in as soon as you can after the birth so that by the time you bring the baby home, the dog recognizes the smell and doesn't get all up in Chicklet's grill. we're definitely going to have to take Nathan back to a doggie school for some basic training classes again.