Surrender

I’ve met my match.

Baby Gear triumphs.

I had some spare time last night, which is a luxury in my world, so I thought I would be productive and spend a few moments preparing for the imminent arrival of Squirt.

I’ve been told that this child will need space to sit, lie, swing, and be transported. Hence, we have a plethora of bouncy seats, infant swings, strollers, and car seats. Being the thrifty mama that I am, I have been collecting these items over the past couple years in the anticipation that we would one day have a tiny baby butt that would need all of this gear. I also get a thrill out of buying a $200 travel system for $15 at a garage sale.

Although the bargain is out of this world, I now realize that I need to clean all of this infant gear before it can touch our precious angel. After all, it has been sitting in storage collecting dust for ages. It must be sanitized!

So, my plan was to gather all the baby gear in the basement. I would remove the covers, launder them, wipe down all the plastic pieces, and reassemble the gear like new.

There were a few obstacles that I didn’t anticipate:

*The baby gear was in storage. I had to move all of our luggage, seasonal clothing, baby gates, toddler car seats, income tax files, and Halloween decorations to unbury the baby gear. Then, I had to move all of that stuff back.

*The baby gear was in storage on the second floor. Our basement is under the house. Down one flight of stairs, over one tortoise gate, around the tight corner by the kitchen stove and side door, past the landing where the entire family stores their shoes, and down one more flight of stairs.

*My belly is the size of a watermelon and the travel system weighs more than me.
Hauling myself up and down the stairs alone is an Olympic event. Adding baby equipment to that equation is a recipe for disaster.

That was only the beginning. Once I hauled all that crap down to the basement, I encountered even more obstacles:

*The cover on the car seat slips off easily…except for the harness straps that are threaded through it. How do you get the harness straps off? I didn’t realize that I would need a screwdriver…

*The cover on the bouncy seat should slip right off…but it doesn’t. The bouncy seat evidently folds, but I didn’t know it because the hinges were hidden by the seat cover.

*The baby swing was a piece of cake. This piece of equipment is by far my favorite. The seat cover was easily removed. This is a sign that Squirt will either have no interest in the swing or will never, ever puke or poop while using it. The clean-up would just be too easy.

*The travel system. I saved this item for last. The entire contraption is such a maze of snaps and screws and screws and screws that I have no clue how I got all of the pieces off or how they fit back together. It took me no less than an hour to remove all of the covers and pouches and baskets and canopies. Now I understand why my neighbor sold it for $15 at her garage sale rather than just taking a few moments to clean it.

The seat covers are now in the dryer, sparkling clean and fresh.

All I need to do now is put them back on…