Its a jungle in there

A recent conversation reminded me of those dreamy days when the boys were first born. Well, ok, they were anything but dreamy. What I MEANT to say was "those dreamy days LEADING UP TO their birth". I spent 6 months getting the nursery JUST right. I put mid-height Cotton-Tail English Garden wallpaper around the room, and carefully hand-painted the walls above the chair rail to blend with the morning sky on the wallpaper, then faded them to azure blue right up and over the crown molding. I used cotton balls to hand-paint puffy white clouds. sigh...
Matching Cotton-Tail, outdoor-themed cribs, linens, padding, diaper stackers, changing pad covers, throw rugs, ceiling fan, burping towels, window valances, room-darkening shades... the list goes on and on. Late at night in the weeks leading up to delivery, when the house was fast asleep (a quaint condition that was just weeks away from becoming obsolete), I'd sneak into the room, sit in the glider with matching themed cushion and throw blanket, and just take it all in - the sights, the smells. Gawd, those were the days.

Of course, the boys NEVER slept in there. Nope. Nary a stinking, miserable night was spent in there. Oh, I fought the good fight... "WE'RE DONG FERBER! THOSE BOYS ARE GOING TO BE FERBERIZED!"

Riiiiight.

Yeah, I know everyone has their nightmare infant stories. I used to try to one-up those complaining parents - "Oh you think YOU had it bad!" But now its all just a big blur. When new parents complain about how bad they've got it, I just smile and nod my head: "Oh you poor guys!" I prefer to block it all out and think of those nights sitting in the glider, anticipating it all.

Once reality hit in the form of two 7-pound screaming, vomiting, needy, excrementing noise units, I began to formulate other plans for the nursery. Yes, what guy doesn't secretly want to turn the nursery into a drum studio?



Sigh.. those were the days. The drums didn't have a matching Cotton-Tail English Garden print finish, but I think they REALLY made the room.