May 9, 2012

After our first baby was born we discovered parts of our house that we'd never really used and/or noticed before.  The room we appointed nursery from the day we moved in but sat empty for almost 2 years suddenly had an occupant.  Kitchen cabinets that were so spacious were now overflowing with bottles, and all the parts that go with them, and the lovely Kitchen Aid Mixer took a back seat to make room for the bottle prep station.  Every room became a play room, and every creak in the floor boards now became a siren for the baby to awaken with.  The washing machine and dishwasher had not known what hard work meant before this time, and the spare bathroom was now savvy to all things baby poop related.  Now the living room has always been a source for entertainment, but after a baby the TV was the ONLY source of outside life and entertainment.  Gone were the days of hours of play building my dream Sim City and Frank's time shooting at the cops on Grand Theft Auto. 
Life now revolves around the couch.  It is where all meals take place for the whole family, the gathering spot when anyone comes home from anywhere, the resting spot when a baby is sleeping (but not soundly enough for parents to crawl back into bed) during the day, and the primary link to the outside world (because as I've mentioned before it's exhausting to tote around an infant).
With a second child this has been compounded into making the coffee table a dumping ground of the day's events.  My time is spread even thinner and things pile up.  So I have decided that taking a picture of this table as often as I have time to write about it is a good way to journal my days with small children.  I plan to update this blog often...we'll see how it goes.

This is today's picture

Starting from top of picture to bottom today's items include a pink basket that is holding little plastic nuts from a Little Pet Shop toy, the trusty bouncy seat (likely to occur in every picture for a while) as this is its home for now, hosting playtime for 6 week old Ella Kate who only plays for 15minutes at a time.  Under the seat is the Xoom tablet, no explanation needed here.  2 hair ribbons (red and white) and brush for combing Anna's hair in the morning before she leaves, these items are actually not related, she likes to play with the ribbons and will get them out at odd times. The purple cradle is from her dollhouse.  Travel sized hand sanitizer, hand cream, a pink burp cloth, a TV controller (though not the primary one), a children's book and another small item from the dollhouse, a size 2T skirt that she did not end up wearing to daycare partially covered by a fabric napkin that I'm pretty sure doubled as another burp cloth.  Opposite of those sit my empty caffeine fix for the morning which was just out of arms reach of the coaster because I didn't want to drop Ella to bend the extra few inches from the couch.  This is actually a pretty light day for the table, most days you can't see the wood top.