Saturday, December 31, 2011

Birth and Taxes

Well, here it is.  New Year's eve.  No signs of Audrey coming along today, which means no child tax credit this year.  Always being held down by the man, man.  Oh well, at least the man saw fit to give me more money every month.  Kinda funny when you pay taxes to your boss so your boss can pay you...

On that note however, it's interesting how everyone you know at this point in the game has a day they are shooting for your child being born on.  My cousin wanted to know if I had a betting pool going... maybe on the next go round.  My dad had a few days picked out in December, mostly revolving around other people's birthdays.  Hell, even my barber says to me yesterday, "Maybe your baby come today, she be born the same day as me!" Gotta love that old Italian.

So the countdown is now t-minus 4 days (today still counts cause it's not noon yet)... then it's into the abyss.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas

So this year isn't Audrey's first Christmas. No big deal. Still,she's already high on everyone's list.

The countdown is at 9 days now. Might be time for either epic or daunting music. Not sure which yet. All I know is that I was getting a kick out of my neighbors newest daughter, and I'm not quite as nervous anymore.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Preparing for War... on poop.

Spent a lot of today cleaning up the house and garage for when Rachel's parents get here on Tuesday.  Part of that process was giving the cloth diapering supplies their initial wash.  Another part will be attaching the diaper sprayer to the toilette... that can wait until tomorrow.

Anyways, apparently there is a process to washing clothes that includes a few decisions: hot, cold, warm, hot then cold... Are colors friends with each other? Am I being racist if I separate out the whites from the colors...  How much detergent? Well, the cap is this big so I should put in...  Long gone are the days of two or three piles: clean, not so clean, and dirty. Also gone is the option to just use whatever setting the washer is on and hope for the best.

Anyways, looks like all this stuff can handle a cold wash with 1/4 the usual detergent (and, by god, it must be free of dyes and fragrence), then the diapers themselves get another round in the hot/cold cycle.  Tumble dry on low for the stuff that came out the first time, high heat to dry the diapers themselves (supposedly will kill the bacteria later on).

Who woulda thought that laundry could be so complicated?

Friday, December 16, 2011

T - Minus Eighteen

18 days. That's it.

In just about 2 more weeks, life turns upside down and little baby Audrey comes along.  Suffice to say, I'm a bit nervous.  People keep telling me I'll be a great dad.  I sure hope they're right.

Anyways, I'm planning on putting this out there for my friends / family to follow along in the adventure that lies ahead.  Who knows how often I'll share the goings-on in the Smith household, but I promise to at least cover the major event type things... with any luck, I'll be able to come back and read through my mistakes on the next go around.