Buckets and sheets

These are the words I awoke to this morning, coming from Ethan’s room, around 6:30am:

“I want my bucket. Yes. Daddy hold the [flash]light. Yes. I want my bucket. I see a red dinosaur. I want my bucket!”

I briefly wondered if he’d notice, when I finally got out of bed and retrieved his Halloween bucket, that it was now significantly less candy-filled than it had been the previous night. Luckily, he has no clue, my secret is still safe.

We went out this morning to return a breast pump I’d bought a few weeks ago, after having found one- of a better brand and cheaper- on Amazon. The return took a staggering 20 minutes of waiting in line, but the rest of the trip was a success: I picked up four bags of Fun Size Halloween candy bars for 96 cents each, and all are in some way chocolatey. (They are also out in the kitchen, so that I don’t sit here and scarf down an entire bag. But for some reason I keep finding myself needing something out there, and end up walking right by the open bag of Kit Kats… weird…)

I also got a huge package of super jumbo Maxi pads, in preparation for those lovely first couple of postpartum weeks next month (andholycowdidIjustsay “next month”??? How has time managed to escape me so?). I was thinking ahead, and trying to spare my husband from another trip like the one he took right after Ethan’s birth, wherein he and his mother-in-law (whom he thinks is AWESOME, don’t get me (or him) wrong) had to go out for three things, while I stayed at home with the new baby and slept: super jumbo maxi pads, exchange the car seat/stroller combo we’d gotten, and nursing bras. I’m sure that perusing the aisles of nursing bras and sanitary napkins with your mother-in-law is not something men hope to get the chance to do one day. And since Jeff’s already had to do it once, I thought I’d take care of it this time. Because I’m thoughtful like that.

And I bought some really cute (white with an embroidered black flowery-leafy kind of print all over it) sheets. Not because we needed sheets, but because I somehow got it into my head that I could make my own baby carrier (of a Moby Wrap type, or sling type, not sure which yet). And because buying the fabric by the yard at a fabric store would likely have been more expensive than buying a sheet. Yeah, we’ll see how that goes. I don’t have very high hopes for this little project.

Speaking of sheets, I recently finish a project that came out pretty well. Remember my dilemma with finding bedding for a toddler bed, that still used a crib-size mattress, and that wasn’t either Disney-character-themed or pastel-ey-baby-themed? I gave up trying to find what I wanted and just made it myself.

For the comforter, I used the one I’d bought at Ikea (I accidentally bought a twin-size one). I cut the quilt and the quilt cover so they’d fit his bed, and just sewed the cut edge. There was enough left over to make a pillow case, and once we’ve moved and I either make or buy (but probably make) new curtains, I’ll use some of the leftover fabric to make a window valance.

For the flat sheet, I just purchased a full-size flat sheet in a color that pretty much matched. I cut it in half, hemmed the edges, and was able to get two flat sheets and a pillowcase out of it, all for 6 bucks.

And we already had fitted crib sheets, since this is the same mattress he’s been using since he started sleeping in his crib at 4 months. I just bought a couple new plain white ones to add to what we had, so that some of the old, but still in good condition, ones could be passed along to the new baby, once he moves into the crib.

And the result of all that:

It wasn’t that much work- cutting and sewing straight lines is something I can handle. And I’m glad I put forth the effort it took, rather than give in and buy him Cars or Diego bedding, which apparently, if you’re a 2-year-old boy who sleeps in a big boy bed that is still crib-mattress-size, is your only option.