Shopping For Sophie

Your dad and I had been planning a shopping spree to get whatever we thought we still needed after receiving all those baby shower gifts--silly things like formula and newborn diapers (the boring but necessary stuff). Your due date was coming up soon, and we were starting to feel like there was still a lot to do, clean, and buy before you arrived, so we were going to get busy shopping.

On Wednesday, April 14, the day after the last baby shower, I took half a day off work and met your dad at the Westerville Fire Department to have your car seat inspected. I'm glad we did, because we did not have the base installed correctly. It needed to be tilted back more to ensure your little head (with not so little cheeks, we would come to find out) would not flop forward every time we took off from a stop light/sign. I was also concentrating so hard on all the things that needed to be tightened and snapped into place that I forgot to make sure that the straps were over the doll's shoulders and that its arms were through the straps. Lesson learned, the embarrassing way.

After the inspection, we left your dad's car in a nearby parking lot and met your Grama Peggy at Target and began to spend not quite an obscene amount of money. We actually spent less than what we expected. After Target, we went to Olive Garden for dinner. And we finally ended up at Babies 'R Us.

We got formula, more bottles and nipples, more diapers and onesies and sleepers specifically for newborns, towels and washcloths, a swing (which was our not-necessary splurge), a pack 'n play (which Grama actually bought for you) and a quilted pad for it, a mobile, 2 more bases for your car seat, sun blockers for both cars, infant medications, a little contraption that holds bottle parts and pieces in the dishwasher (which we got two more of later--greatest invention ever), a set of storage drawers, and more. I had to talk your dad into the storage drawers, insisting it was necessary for our convenience and that you would have no problem filling it with girl stuff after we were done using it. Oh, and as long as we were busy spending, we also got some Pyrex dishes so we could get rid of most of our plastic, cancer-causing storage bowls, since your dad couldn't remember not to microwave them.

Sometime during this long afternoon/evening, my feet started to swell. I noticed it and knew it was from all the walking we were doing. But by the end of the night, my feet were bigger than I'd ever seen them, which I did not notice until it was too late. I had Fred Flintstone feet (giant toes and no ankles) and it was a shocking reminder that my body was not my own and that it could not do all that it used to be able to do before you started taking up space. I had been feeling fine, except for the swollen feet, but it was time to call it a night. On the way home, I hit a brick wall of exhaustion. When we pulled into the neighborhood, I was never so happy to be there, and then we realized... we forgot your dad's car in the parking lot by the fire department. Such an awful ending to such a fun day.