DIY, Please Don't Die

It was a beautiful day here in suburban Washington, D.C. The high, humid temperatures broke yesterday and today was mostly sunny and in the mid-80's.

Combined, my wife and I spent thirty minutes outside of our house.

Rather than take advantage of one of our final few weekends as a couple, we undertook a few things that we've been neglecting for a while: a wholesale clean of our home and setting up the nursery.

We did quite a number on the nursery, opening nearly all the gifts, de-tagging the tiny clothes, readying them for the wash, laughing at the books we'll have memorized in a few months and me...I built some things.

I am not a handyman. I'm not even a handy man. But it seems that all the baby furniture and accessories we bought (and are available) are DIY assembly. Talk about pressure to perform.

Beyond the fact that my future daughter's life is hanging in the balance of my craftsmanship on various swings and chairs, but the manufacturers do not make it any easier. Each book of instructions comes in about seven languages, with each step repeated in each language. Fortunately, each step comes illustrated. On a related note, it's great to see that M.C. Escher is getting work these days.

After only a few missteps and wrong turns, I was able to get the most intricate piece of furniture built. It's a swing, and a mobile, and a musicmaker, and a floor wax, and a dessert topping. After all the time I put into figuring out what goes where, reversing course and deciding what was supposed to go elsewhere, I'm hoping that my daughter will enjoy it for more than five minutes. Although, given that I built it, I'm just hoping that it lasts five minutes.

Registration

Know what I didn't enjoy but didn't really matter that much?
Wedding registry.
Know what I don't really enjoy but is very, very important?
Baby registry.

This time last year, my wife and I thought it a fantastic idea to have 12 red wine glasses,12 white wine glasses, and 12 champagne flutes. Unless we throw dinner parties like royalty in the next few years, I'm thinking that we got a bit overzealous with our wedding registry.

At the time, I didn't like registering for wedding gifts because it combines the dull bore of shopping with the soulless void of not actually purchasing anything. I didn't like registering for wedding gifts because sometimes, I don't have an opinion on what water glasses should look like. I know this is difficult for some people to understand. If it is difficult for you to understand, you are a woman.

Building a baby registry is completely different.

Instead of debating what threadcount sheets I should put on my bed until a late-night wine accident renders that gift moot, I now have to consider the crib my baby will sleep in, the car seat she will travel in, and most importantly, the stroller that she will cruise in.

Know why this isn't the right stroller?
Because it's for dogs.

As a semi-urban family, we do not have a car and rely on the DC Metro or our own two feet to get around. This time next year, the safe money is on us having a car, but maybe not in the next six months. So, for us, the stroller will be where our baby is secured most often and is the most important thing we can buy.

And guess what, I'm supposed to be researching strollers right now. And I'm not. If only I could see the look on My Lovely Wife's face tomorrow, as her happiness that I posted for the first time in many days gives way to reading that previous sentence.

Now, there's a chance that I will look at strollers following this post. And I'll likely take some time tomorrow to do it as well, but right now, I'd rather be discussing it than doing it. Researching a stroller - and researching most baby products - is like nothing I've ever done before.

I don't know much about cars, but I can tell you which models are the best buy. I haven't been following the NBA playoffs, but I know enough to keep up a conversation. But what am I looking for in a stroller? Well, I'm not sure. What should I be looking for?

We've both read books and leaned on some friends for support and information, but I remain fairly clueless on what to do. I don't think I've seen the light at the end of the ignorance tunnel so far away since I was in college -- and my daughter will be here in less than a semester.

Guess I better hit the books.