Stuff Stuff Stuff

By kate on January 30th, 2006

Zippy’s birth is seeming more imminent now, so today Steve and I buckled down and went on a shopping trip to acquire some things we don’t yet have. At the end of it, I feel like we’re in pretty good shape for the first few months of her life. We have the small stuff and most big stuff (as much as possible of which is borrowed).
 
We still need to decide on a diaper strategy, and buy some. Current front-runners are Fuzzi Bunz and gDiapers (anyone with recommendations on this are encouraged to talk to us). Also outstanding is a jogging stroller. Steve’s parents have offered to buy us one; we just need to select the one we want. We haven’t bought a crib, but will be borrowing a co-sleeper bassinet for the first few months, so it’s not as urgent.
 
It was fun shopping for baby clothes with Steve. We’ve received a bunch as gifts or hand-me-downs, but this is the first time we bought our own. We bought boy colors as well as girl colors. We got better at estimating the size of clothes. We learned that you really have to look at the price tag, because prices can vary widely, from clearance-next-to-nothing to $15-30 for one piece. We were unable to find a newborn hat we really liked, but got a small set of good items.
 
Aside from our shopping trip today, we got another bunch of baby things yesterday when I went to a baby shower given by the Aerialistas. I didn’t want a shower, but they insisted (and there was no saying no). The gifts from them were almost all baby clothes, most pink with stars added by hand. Everyone knows (including them) that I’m not a big fan of pink, but it’s an Aerialista color. I even got a handmade ruffle-butt costume (to go with one of our costumes), which was very cute. The best gift of all, though, was an Aerialista diaper bag. It’s a black R.E.Load messenger bag, with an embroidered Aerialistas logo (like this) that’s the same as the one on our jackets. They got the bag custom-made with a strap designed to be both a shoulder strap and to hook over a stroller. It comes with a matching changing pad. Overall, I was very overwhelmed with the quality and amount of gifts, and how much personal time and effort went into them. (I haven’t even mentioned the hand-made album or hand-made baby blanket yet.)
 
Until today, we’d been tossing all baby stuff into the stroller in a corner. The time to do something with it all always seemed far away, and I’d never been one to coo over baby things. However, when we came home from shopping today, there was finally so much stuff that something had to be done. We sorted through all the clothes we have, setting aside items that are too big for Zippy’s first few months and carefully folding everything (and removing the packaging). We pulled out a small dresser we had in the basement and put everything into the drawers. Then, we sorted through the non-clothing stuff (like bath things, diaper-changing things, etc.) as well.
 
I caught myself uncharacteristically exclaiming about how cute a pair of pants is, or how tiny and adorable the socks are. I blame the extra surge of pregnancy hormones. I’m starting to enjoy in these last weeks. I feel good about having Zippy’s things in order, and having a good sense of what we do and don’t have.


Filed under: consumerism, pregnancy
« General update A sad day »


Leave a Comment