And then Gavin happened.

And I became an Amazon convert. I signed up for Amazon Mom and started using Subscribe and Save options. Next thing you know, I’m getting 30% off goods I use everyday and 2-day shipping and it was wheeee, so much fun! So easy, I didn’t have to leave the house. Because all this stuff was delivered to my front door!

Needless to say, I’m on a first-name basis with our UPS delivery man. His name is Bruce. You think I’m kidding? Ask my neighbor. Just the other day, I was taking SoMi for a walk and saw Bruce down the street. We exchanged cordial hellos. I ran into my neighbor a little while later and she said Bruce mentioned he had just seen me. He knows my first name, too.

I kinda love Bruce. Don’t worry, I’m not jumping the Sweets ship for the man in brown. But, I really do love UPS. Bruce is symbolic for my experiences with that company. Every driver I’ve met has been cordial and nice. They stop to say hello. They learn your name. They take time to ask about your family and summer plans. Not only that, but Bruce trudges up two flights of stairs with my deliveries even though I always try to meet him downstairs. He’s nice like that.

As a related aside, I also used to be buddies with the UPS guy who delivered to my work office. He’d stop by to say hello, even when he didn’t have any deliveries to make. Again, good people.

Every once in a while, something I order online will be delivered by FedEx. And, lawd help me when they come to the door. That’s if they come to the door at all. We have a secured gate/fence around our front yard, so visitors have to be buzzed in. On more than one occasion, FedEx buzzes and then throws the delivery over the fence. By the time I get downstairs, they’re back in their truck moving onto the next location. One time, I came home from work to see a delivery sitting squarely in our front yard. It had likely been there for hours.

When they do actually make it to the door, they often leave things at the bottom of the stairs, without making sure the correct person comes to get them. With that company, it feels so very corporate. It feels like employees have to meet quotas or they don’t get paid. It feels like they’re forced to be jerks just to get the job done. Either that or FedEx has some whacky hiring practices where only the worst will do.

That’s why I vigorously nodded my head YES YES YES (and not in a good way) when I saw this video yesterday morning on the local news. Here, take a look…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKUDTPbDhnA

Because, truth be told, it doesn’t surprise me that a FedEx delivery person would be caught throwing a computer monitor over a fence. Yeah, that’s right. A monitor. With glass. That breaks. Didn’t even bother to buzz the owners. Merry Christmas, eh? Guess the best gift back to FedEx was the homeowner posting the surveillance video on YouTube for all to see. I’ll be keeping track to see whether future FedEx deliveries land in my hands, rather than my front yard!

Now, before we go all postal personal on one another, let’s remember. These are my opinions. What works for me might or might not work for you and vice versa. Just because I hate something doesn’t mean I hate you for loving it. =)

Negatives

• Gavin’s high chair is pushed under/against our kitchen island, where a third stool would otherwise be housed. It means less seating for guests.
• No room for a rocking chair. I’m not a huge fan of gliders, but I would’ve gladly used the excuse of Baby to find an old antique rocking chair.
• Gavin’s playroom = our living room. There is no hiding his presence, even if we wanted to.
• Gavin’s bedroom = our guest room. Although we have a solution for housing guests now (Gavin sleeps in a Pack N Play in our room), we will need to come up with other creative solutions as Gavin grows out of this option.
• Gavin’s bathroom = our guest bathroom. It would be nice if he had his own space to hide the toys, children’s towels and such from our day-to-day guests, let alone overnight guests.
• Limited number of bedrooms means they have to serve multiple purposes. We really would like a couple extra rooms for a guest room and designated office space.
• Limited storage space makes it difficult to have too much of anything. Our closets are overflowing, which means visible space becomes storage space, too. We have far too many piles in our home – it’s embarrassing for friends to see.

Challenges

• We needed to choose between a bouncy seat and a swing – we didn’t have space for both.
• We needed to buy furniture that would incorporate a changing table – we didn’t have enough floorspace for a stand-alone changing table.
• Gavin’s closet = my closet. Right now, it’s not a big deal. If we stay in this space for a long time, it will become a problem.
• Our hall closet is so small that there’s barely room to hold our coats. Gavin’s coats have been reassigned to the back of his bedroom door.
• A lack of storage space means we have to keep some small appliances stored on a low, open shelf in our kitchen. We resolved the issue of Gavin playing with the appliances by moving them to the back of the shelf and storing a bunch of his toys in front of them. Gavin can play with his toys while we make dinner and is rarely reprimanded for reaching for the appliances.
• We also have to store our pots and pans on an open shelving system in our kitchen. To prevent Gavin from pulling these heavy items off the shelf (and bothering our downstairs neighbors), we placed a huge, plastic storage bin in front of the shelf. Gavin is allowed to pull placemats off the top of the bin and rarely even notices what’s behind it!

Positives

• Gavin’s stroller acts as double duty. When on the street, it’s a stroller. When being stored in our living room, it acts as a baby gate to prevent Gavin from entering my office (which is a small corner of our living room)!
• No exersaucer! (I know some parents love ‘em, but I think they’re such an eyesore and refused to display one in our living room!)
• Before being handed-down a full-size highchair, we hooked up a travel high chair to our kitchen table. It was such a huge space saver and allowed Gavin to participate in meals with us. Now, it serves as extra seating when friends bring over their babies.
• Even though we live on the second floor, we have no stairs in our condo. We can let Gavin freely roam without worrying that he’s climbing up or down stairs that he hasn’t yet learned to master.
• We can pretty much hear Gavin no matter where he is or where we are in the condo. The only time we use his monitor is when we go to sleep.
• Gavin’s backyard and jungle gym = the public park / playground a few blocks away. I think some people look at this as a negative – it’s true, I won’t be able to just send Gavin out back to play. But, our city parks are amazing and it’s a great way for Gavin to socialize with kids he wouldn’t otherwise meet.
• Having limited space gives us a valid excuse for saying NO to toys or hand-me-downs we don’t like. “Oh, that’s so nice of you, but we really don’t have the room.”

What are the negatives, challenges and positives about your own living space?

When the time came to buy my first condo, my dad gave me very wise advice. He told me to upgrade from what I had in a rental to what I was going to get in a purchase. Two thoughts he had: in-unit washer/dryer and assigned parking (preferably indoors). It was smart advice and I was thankful when I found both in my one-bedroom condo. The next time around, when Sweets and I bought a condo together, there wasn’t much more to upgrade from before other than space (one bedroom to a two bedroom) and the kitchen (basic Formica counters and black appliances to granite counters and stainless appliances).

Last week, I mentioned that one of Sweets’ favorite things to do is to sit in his comfy leather chair, kick up his feet on the ottoman and spend hours perusing homes on Redfin.com. Since we are not in a place to buy our own home right now, this pastime allows us to daydream a bit. What do we want out of a home? More space? Better location? What can we live without (because, let’s face it, we won’t get everything we could possibly want in our price range)? What falls on our must-have list versus our nice-to-have list?

While we have a lot now, there are definite reasons to consider a future move. Space, independence and schools would be the three key reasons to a move. We’d like more living and storage space (=space). We’d like to eventually live in a single family home with our own yard and without the politics of living in a multi-unit building (=independence). And we’d like Gavin to attend public schools with an above-average to excellent reputation (=schools).

Other factors important to our move? Staying within a certain geographic proximity to both our jobs. Moving to a community that has the right feel for us (which is very subjective and somewhat hard to describe). Wanting certain factors important to the home itself, such as 3-4 bedrooms, at least 2 bathrooms, a 2-car garage. We’d love for it to be move-in ready (ok with topical changes, like paint, but do not want a home-renovation project).

It’s easy to start to ramble when it comes to what we’d like. My point? As we look through homes we are not ready to buy, it gives us a chance to see what we can get in our price range and what we will have to learn to live without.

Do you live in your ideal home? What “upgrades” do you look forward to having with your next place?

• WordPress’ new commenting system. You either have to be a member (I hate exclusivity – yuck) to sign in or you fill out your email address and it automatically fills in the other fields based on that address and they’re always WRONG WRONG WRONG.
• Order of fields. In said new commenting system, the order of the fields is also messed up – most commenting systems have you fill out name, email, website (well, except for my other hated commenting system: Disquis). WordPress has switched to email, name, website and it’s driving me insane. It’s gotten so bad on the annoyance scale, I’ve skipped leaving comments a few times. Truth.
• The scale. I’ve been following a post-natal workout regimen for a few weeks now. Supposedly, I’ve been losing inches around my largest parts (or so the tape measure claims), but my weight has remained steadfast. Ick.
• Avocados. Seems like the window of ripeness gets smaller and smaller. I can’t tell you how many avocados I cut into, only to be disappointed by all the bruising. And for the record, the unbruised parts of over-ripe avocados don’t taste very good. Double ick.
• My opposite-of-smart phone. It’s a touchscreen. And it’s getting s o   s l  o   w. Shoot me now.
• An intersection. There is a dangerous intersection in my neighborhood, involving crosswalks without a stop sign or light where cars whiz by at speeds of up to 40-50 mph and almost never stop for pedestrians (not even when the cars are traveling 10 mph and have a red light a block away). Did I mention there are two schools within a half block of this intersection? Unless I jump off the curb and scare cars into stopping, it’s nearly impossible to cross this busy street (and I’m certainly not doing that when I have baby in tow!).
• My Alderman. Months ago, I asked our Alderman to put a stop sign at the intersection mentioned above. I explained my reasoning and even told him about another similar intersection less than a mile away where a stop sign exists (precedent, anyone?). I heard back from a number of people in my Alderman’s office explaining (without good reason) why a stop sign could not be installed. I asked if they would meet me at the intersection to further explain. No response. Instead, they promised and did put “international crosswalk” signs, saying cars would stop with those signs. The signs have been up for a month. Cars still whiz by that intersection.
• That damn intersection and my Alderman. Just last week, there was a bad accident at that busy intersection where cars don’t stop for pedestrians. An accident that took out street signs and a tree (yes, a tree!). It shutdown the entire street until clean-up was complete. I emailed my Alderman about said accident, reminding him why I think it’s dangerous and why it demands stop signs. I haven’t heard back from him. Go figure.
• Casey Anthony. (1) Her hairline bothers me. (2) She does not deserve the amount of attention she received during her trial. (3) The jury did their job – don’t blame them for the verdict. (4) If you’re sick of Nancy Grace or any other media talking head, TURN OFF THE TV.
• Mamas who breastfeed too long. Touchy subject, don’t shoot me. Exactly when mamas should stop breastfeeding is totally up to them. However, my personal comfort zone of seeing other mamas or hearing them talk about breastfeeding has been breached when baby can ask for the breast (as in, has real words). At that point, it’s gone on too long and I’m itchy and looking for the nearest emergency exit.
• Real estate. Our upstairs neighbor has his place on the market. Our downstairs neighbors have had their place on the market for a year. Neither place has gotten offers, let alone sold. Neighbors in the building next to ours put their unit on the market for $25K less than what they bought it for 3 years ago; they went under contract at a price $33K under their purchase price. Not that we’re looking to sell anytime soon, but man, it sure does sting.

Wow, that feels so much better to get it off my chest and out into the universe.

In the series of photos below, you’ll want to flip through it faster than the slideshow goes on it’s own … it’s more fun to see the changes that way. These photos were taken from noon on Tuesday through noon on Wednesday.

These next few photos were some extras I took while outside this morning shoveling at 5am. And the last one is Sweets geared up to head to work at 6am. The winds were so fierce that goggles were necessary. Trust me.