Without getting into too many details-the baby is going to be a little longer than we thought. We were afraid that she was going to be early, and now that she isn't, I sort of feel like I'm living life in limbo.
I don't know if it's just me, or women in general, who find the strangest tasks to pass time until a baby arrives.
Suddenly, the weirdest things pop on to our 'to do' lists, and become oddly important. And the tasks seem to grow weirder and weirder with each baby.
Right before I had Reuben, for some reason, I decided that my living room futon needed a new cover. Not great timing, but not so strange.
Before I had Zeke, I needed to get all my Christmas cards done early-not just written, that wasn't good enough. They had to be handmade as well. Oh, and I had to make a bunch of "snowflake" ornaments that I had seen in a Martha Stewart Kids magazine, out of pipe cleaners and borax. Yes, that's right, pipe cleaners.
My mom also contributes to this fun little routine-I think that she nests right along with us. When I was pregnant with Zeke, she decided that for some reason, I had too many kinds of salad dressing in my refrigerator and dumped them all together into one bottle-and then afterwards laughed about how that probably wasn't really helpful but it just seemed so important at the time.
That, and that's what her Mom always did to "help". Grandma even had a sick little motto about her own tendency to condense one's refrigerator contents..."Best kinds mixed!!"
I couldn't help but laugh last week, when the two of us sat in my living room, and we found ourselves performing the strangest tasks yet-all in the name of "getting ready for baby."
Well, maybe not stranger than the salad dressing.
Mom had suddenly decided that it was time to pair my family's odd socks. I had quite a stash, several bags actually, and she got them all out and started playing go-fish. She actually found quite a few matches. Apparently I do not need to add socks to my Christmas list this year.
I, on the other hand, found myself cutting up toilet paper rolls, and actually using them for crafts, like I was a first grader all over again.
After getting some raised eyebrows from Mark and my sister when they found my hidden stash of empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls-and I refused to tell them what they were for, I got down to business.
Cross legged on the couch, huffing and puffing through "false" labour (lemme tell ya, there ain't NOTHIN' false about contractions-whether they're doing anything productive or not) and gluing bits of cardboard into a floral pattern.
As absurd as it sounds, it didn't turn out half bad. I plan to take this carnival act one step further and bring spray paint into the game-something bright and shiny, and hang it on the wall over the little Miss's crib.
For the record, after he saw the finished product, even Mark admitted that my strange little creation was actually kinda cool.
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Flatten the rolls, cut into bands (a toilet paper roll should give you about four circles).
Pop them out a bit so that you have a flower petal shape, and glue together on a flat surface, in any pattern you desire!
