I may or may not have spent my entire day cleaning and doing laundry.
And by that I definitely mean it happened.
E woke up obnoxiously early at 0700 (that girl needs to get back on the PST timezone with the rest of us, already), but was kind and agreed to pretend to go back to sleep on S’s side of the bed while I tried to gain consciousness (which roughly translated into turning on the tv and watching Disney). Sometime around 10, I finally garnered the strength to get to the task at hand. I left her to Doc McStuffins or whatever nonsense was playing and gathered my supplies (the big stuff, such as the carpet cleaner and vacuum were already upstairs thanks to S last night).
E, of course, was very into “helping mommy” for about the first 30 minutes. We started out by filling up the bathtub with warm water, organic detergent, and dumping the pack’n'plays into the mixture. I got the idea from a friend who had seen this on pinterest and given it a try, herself (she didn’t follow the directions, either):
originally found on maryorganizes.com
Lovely, isn’t it? I’d run the part that the kid sleeps on through the wash a few times, but that doesn’t really clean the rest of the thing, now does it? My water doesn’t look that bad (we’re on our second soak, now), but it’s not pretty, either. Eww.
Okay. Maybe I was wrong and it does look that bad.
After that, I tackled both of the upstairs bathrooms with Magic Erasers. Got down on hands and knees an scrubbed the floors. I’m not sure that has actually ever happened. Ever (I mopped, but never did a very good job. I can admit that). The mirrors got cleaned, the counters got erasered… It was magical. And E lost interested about 3 seconds into it since I wouldn’t let her play with the chemical-laced foam.
Next came re-vacuuming (did it last night, too) and carpet steaming. I’m still not happy with the carpet, but I don’t know that I ever will be. I hate carpet. Especially white carpet. And the carpet wasn’t in great shape when we moved in, either.
Next came baby laundry. I had pulled out most of the newborn stuff we had for E awhile back and washed it, so it was safely tucked into the new storage system last night. But I was still missing things like baby gowns, blankets, bibs, socks, the cloth gDiaper pants, etc. I found most of everything (still missing some sleep sacks and the stupid diapers!), loaded it all up into baskets and dragged them down the stairs. By the time I had the first load in the wash, it was 1:30.
Oops. No wonder my feet hurt.
We made some lunch to compliment the dry Frosted Mini Wheats we ate out of the box for breakfast (winners, here), she drew some pictures for me, and then it was naptime. Which was a good thing since I had a billion things to sort through and organize from the wash.
I just ended up sitting on the area rug and spread all of the laundry around me and got to organizing while watching Call the Midwife (which is awesome, by the way. I highly recommend it!)
Kid got up, we made dinner, she had snack, we waited for S to come home. And waited. And waited. And folded laundry and waited. He finally got home a little after 8:30 (Army joys!), we ate dinner, we brought all of the laundry upstairs, and that’s when tragedy struck.
(And this is where the title comes in, so aren’t you glad you stuck around through my monotonous relay of cleaning?)
So, when I was at home, I picked up what is supposed to be baby#2′s coming home outfit. I wanted something that was fall-like but without being Halloween or Thanksgiving related. On a trip to Gymboree, I managed to find this newborn-sized sleeper (perfect!):
It was only about $3 because it was last year’s line, but it was perfect. I don’t buy into that whole idea that new babies should be brought home in the most ridiculous[ly uncomfortable] outfit their parents can find simply because it’s adorable. E came home in a very similar get-up, and it worked very well for us.
So, according to “the rules” of new babyhood, all clothes should be pre-washed before the kid actually wears them. And since I have gone a little off the deep end and must clean ALL OF THE THINGS, I decided it was also a good time to put together what I could of “the hospital bag.” So, I threw the come-home sleeper into the wash with the gowns and blankets that had been E’s,
When we got upstairs and started organizing and putting everything away, I noticed that it had giant pink splotches all over it from where the red bled into the white. And I know that’s what happened because everything else had been washed at least a gazillion times before and it was the only thing that had red on it.
I wanted want to cry.
So, it is currently back downstairs being treated with a combination of various household ingredients that usually work to rid clothes of stains, but I do not have high hopes. It had already made it through the dryer, and let’s face it: that kind of thing never comes out.
And that, my friends, is why following the rules blows.
Let’s hope Gymboree hurries up and comes out with a back-up I can go snag (not that it will be for less than $3).
But, at least half of the upstairs is clean.
