Done
This weekend was all about getting things done. You see, later today, my brother, his boyfriend and their dog embark on Chicago. They will be staying with us for a week. And if you saw our condo last week, you’d understand why we needed to get things done this weekend.
Things like hanging all those maternity clothes on loan from friends, instead of leaving them strewn across the bed in the second bedroom. Things like asking Sweets to put his 3-4 toolboxes he had in our second bedroom back in our storage container with his other tool boxes (yes, the boy has many!). Things like finally discarding our old lighting fixtures and that awful electric fireplace. You know, things like making the second bedroom a place where you can actually see the wood floors and, I don’t know, maybe even live for a week or so.
Oh yeah and a couple other things, too. Things like going crib shopping. OMG, friends, do you understand how many crib manufacturers are out there? And how the prices vary from $150 to $1,250 (and up)? And how not every store carries every manufacturer, so you might actually have to go to many stores before seeing all the cribs you think you need to see? Do you realize how overwhelming this process might actually be?
Yes, I’m sure some of you do. Thankfully, Sweets and I are being pretty common sense about the whole thing. Kind of like wedding dress shopping (for me), we don’t need to see every crib out there. Once we find one we like that is in our price range, we’re stopping our search. No need to exhaust ourselves. So, over the weekend, we went to Buy Buy Baby, which was recommended over stores like Babies R Us and Target (want to know why? It’s all about customer service). And we’re not sorry we went. Each employee is an expert in their department (and if you’ve ever been to the other two stores, you’re lucky if you can even find an employee, let alone one who can answer questions about recalls and most popular and most complained about cribs!). We talked to one guy for about 30 minutes about cribs, picking his brain on the best and the worst of their lot. And, we actually found a crib (with accompanying furniture) that will likely work for us.
Another lesson learned? Do a little at a time. Stores like Buy Buy Baby (owned by Bed, Bath & Beyond and set up very much in the same way with departments and merchandise from floor to ceiling) can be incredibly overwhelming if you think you’re going to get everything done in one day. Sweets and I went with the intention of looking at cribs and only cribs. We bypassed all other departments, spent about an hour or so looking at cribs. And then, only after our mission was accomplished did we allow ourselves to look at play yards (which will double as a bassinet for us) and strollers (we only did a fly-by of that department, because it was entirely too overwhelming and we hadn’t yet researched what will work for us). After we left the store, we decided we need to allot a few days over the coming months to return there with very specific goals – that way, we can put together a registry on our own time without becoming overwhelmed by the process.
Oh and one other thing we did this weekend? Watch the World Cup Final soccer match, pitting the Netherlands against Spain. Neither team has ever won the World Cup championship, so this game was a big deal. My summary of the game? The Netherlands played a defensive game, throwing all their man power into blocking Spain from scoring. It was frustrating to watch the goalie and defensive players kick the ball to clear it from their side, but not kick it to anyone and often kick it out of bounds. I played that kind of soccer in high school when I was on the junior varsity team. I expect more from professional teams. Spain played a big fat pathetically dramatic game, where they’d fall to the ground and roll around in misery if the wind blew the wrong way (they must have watched lots of Duke basketball in preparation for this game, because their strategies are frustratingly similar). And finally, the reffing? Ugh. There were too many calls, preventing the teams from just playing the game. The momentum was constantly stopped short, because the referee blew his whistle far too often. Frustrating all around. That said, I was glued to my seat until the very end of the extra time. And wasn’t necessarily cheering for the winner, but wasn’t necessarily upset that they won. (No spoilers here.)
I’m pretty exhausted now that Monday is here, but there’s no rest for the weary. I have a job to do and guests to entertain. How was your weekend and the start to your week?
July 12th, 2010 at 8:04 am
Sounds like a great weekend getting of getting things done. I would imagine shopping for cribs would be incredibly daunting and overwhelming if you didn’t compartmentalize. Your approach sounds like a very smart idea.
My weekend was a whirlwind and I loved every second of it. I just need a few days to regroup.
July 12th, 2010 at 8:31 am
You sure had a lot tht you got to cross of your weekend, to do list.
We bought and installed a light fixture, organized part of our bookshelves, Hubs printed and mounted some photos he wants to hand. We also looked at some tile for our back splash. Talk about over whelming but we found what we needed and will purchase it next weekend.
Whew
July 12th, 2010 at 8:33 am
Getting organized for guests is a big deal in my house. I’d need weeks to whip the guest room into shape. ;-) My weekend was busy and fun. I am so happy the soccer is over! World Cup is just not my thing. Have fun with your family this week.
July 12th, 2010 at 9:07 am
I am the classic “try to get it all done in one trip” kind of girl. I like to think that I am getting marginally better with this. Of course, it really, really, really helps that we have a car now. When you’ve rented a car for the day to do that big Ikea trip, there is no choice but to GET IT ALL DONE! ;)
July 12th, 2010 at 9:20 am
The referee was terrible, and I have to say that I would have preferred for ANYONE to score other than the person who did, because that person was SUCH a flopper throughout the whole game (and kept getting rewarded for his flops). Agh.
I think we’ve picked a crib, too. It’s gone down in price on Amazon by $30, so I kind of want to just get it, but it still feels so EARLY to be buying a crib! I don’t know. There is no Buy Buy Baby in Colorado, unfortunately.
July 12th, 2010 at 9:24 am
Having people come visit can be a lot of work sometimes -- especially if they are staying with you!! I’m sure you’ll have a blast with your brother and his boyfriend, though and I’m sure Somi will have a blast having a dog-friend around :)
July 12th, 2010 at 9:55 am
I’m pretty exhausted and I’m not even pregnant! But I did clean out and organize my closets and my storage unit. And now my car is filled to the brim with donations. Feels good to purge.
July 12th, 2010 at 10:14 am
I get overwhelmed with picking out a cutting board at BB&B, so I can’t imagine trying to pick out baby stuff. At least you’re developing a solid plan to get through it!
July 12th, 2010 at 10:16 am
It does indeed sound like you got a lot done. Good for you. Also, it’s good to hear that you and Sweets are so laid back about the shopping for the baby… you can definitely get yourselves riled up far more than necessary!! ;)
Hey, how come you didn’t mention the great win of 3rd place for the German team?? ;) Heh. That was a far better game than the actual final between Spain and the Netherlands, don’t you think?
I do agree that the final was not a pleasure to watch, what with all the whistle blowing and fouls and dramatization?
Have a fun week with your brother! :)
July 12th, 2010 at 10:59 am
I hope you enjoy your visit with your brother! That sounds fun :)
July 12th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
So begins the buying of baby stuff! Yes, absolutely do all of it bit by bit--there’s SO much stuff, it’s really easy to get overwhelmed. (if you haven’t read Baby Bargains btw, I highly recommend it as a good starting point for what you need/don’t, good brands, recalls, etc. They have a website with forums too, which can be good for really up to the minute stuff).
My weekend was mostly lazy. We went to an art show on Friday night, and then spent the entire rest of the weekend doing…nothing. It was wonderful, even though I’ll pay for it this week :-)
July 12th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
I’m so far behind on everything and I haven’t been able to catch up on my reader (500 posts and counting…) so I’m here to say congrats on the pregnancy and I can’t wait to see all the little baby stuff you pick out :)
You’re going to be a fantastic mother.
July 12th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
summer is finally here in Vancouver so I spent most of the weekend outside, soaking up the sun :)
July 12th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Yeah, the baby shopping is completely overwhelming. I almost had a meltdown in the bottle aisle once. I adore Buy Buy Baby, but we didn’t end up registering there. They didn’t have our double stroller, or the pack & play we needed, or the bottle line we wanted to use. So, we’re at Babies R Us and Amazon.
Our baby shower is next week, and it’s at our house. Convenient for us in that we won’t have to haul a ton of baby stuff home, but it means a lot of prep work…especially considering we’re in the middle of redoing about 500 square feet of flooring. Yikes!
July 12th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
I really wish we had Buy Buy Baby here in Minneapolis! My friend in AZ has also raved about it & I like that you can use the 20% off BB&B coupons there (or they have their own version or something like that?).
Enjoy the week with your brother!!
July 12th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
Wow sounds like a full and fun week with family! There is so much prep that goes into visitors coming :) And cribs for $1,250? Seriously?
July 12th, 2010 at 8:46 pm
I thought you wrote “Best Buy Baby.” It’s a good thing and went back to reread the sentence.
Monday is almost over.
I have to say the game between Germany and Uruguay was a heck of a lot more entertaining than the finals. But now I’ll still miss the World Cup! Must wait until 2014…
July 13th, 2010 at 10:07 am
and you say MY weekends are exhausting :)
July 13th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Jealous of such a cool store! We don’t haave those around here. So, we did the research ourselves -- asking friends, consumer reports, baby bargains -- and ultimately went with furniture from Babies R Us. But we didn’t go there seeking expertise from them sice we knew what we wanted. Worked for us. . . But I am sure I would LOVE a BB&B store for babies! Have fun with your brother in town!!
July 13th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
oh man, thaa stressed me out about baby-supply shopping and i’m not even pregnant!! good luck and i hope you can get through without it being too overwhelming! :-)
July 13th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Awwww crib shopping! Fun! I hope you have a wonderful time with your brother and his bf!
July 13th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
Ugh! Yes! All the flopping. That Robben guy was pretty amazing, though.
July 13th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Shopping for the impending bundle o’ joy can be SO exhausting. Why do I wanna do it again??? Ah ha ha. Oh yeah, because being a mama rocks!
July 13th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
Just reading this exhausted me for you! I’ve never heard of Buy Buy Baby but it sounds kind of fun, minus the whole overwhelming feeling =) Thinking of you!
July 21st, 2010 at 10:00 am
I’ve always liked Buy Buy Baby. I’m glad you guys found it helpful and have a crib and furutre picked out, that’s great!
The futbol final… what can I say? I hear the semi-final was a much better game, but I missed that one because I was seeing apartments. I was rooting for Spain since the beginning of the world cup, so I was very happy they won, besides I think a team winning for the first time was overdue.