Remember Elian?

Upon finding out that Big E had purchased a major home appliance using Belly as her only criterion, Ton Ton became very concerned. He had expressed some mild discomfort in the past, like when she told us to register for an extra playpen just for her, and the time he heard her talking to Uli about adding "Belly's wing" to her house. But this time, he was for real afraid. He even confessed to having nightmares in which he came home from work to find out Belly was staying at grandma's and visitation hours were over.

I reassured him that his concerns were legitimate, and suggested we have a family meeting where he could voice his opinion. I would set the whole thing up, and I would try my hardest not to laugh. I have a problem with inappropriate laughter.

When I told Big E that Ton Ton (and I) wanted to meet with her and Uli, she immediately said, "Why does your husband have a personal vendetta against me? What have I ever done to him?" Then she called my father to tell him they were being ambushed. Uli, the voice of reason, told her to calm down and reminded her of Elian Gonzalez and what happened when his extended relatives overstepped their boundaries. They agreed to the family meeting.

We sat around our living room and Ton Ton started. He spoke about how important it was for us to have grandparents involved in Belly's life, and how much we appreciated how excited they were...and that we just wanted to make sure they understood that Belly would live with us, and that we would be making the decisions about baby. I nodded my head in agreement, and held back chuckles. Uli then spoke and said that he agreed with us completely, and that they just wanted to help and would never want to take our place in Belly's life. Big E remained stoic.

Ton Ton prodded some more, hoping to elicit a satisfactory response from Big E. He talked about how he did not want Belly to witness confrontations between him and her, and how he wanted to get his feelings out in the open before baby, to avoid any future problems. Still no response from her. Uli reassured us everything would be alright.

As they were leaving, Big E asked me to give her more baby clothes to launder in her new special washer and dryer...

A Laundry Story

Because I'm making a baby with the lieutenant of timeliness, productivity, and efficiency, there is really very little left for us to do except wait for Belly. Our nursery had freshly painted walls and new floors installed during the first trimester and all of baby's furniture and accessories have long been assembled (nursery post to come soon!).

One of the few things pending is the laundry. A little known fact to those who haven't reproduced is that, apparently, babies can't wear clothes off the rack. Their clothes and sheets need to first be washed with a special baby soft detergent. If it were up to Ton Ton, Belly's clothes would have been washed long ago, however, Big E strictly prohibited us from doing laundry until she inspected our washer and dryer. Needless to say, our four year old Maytags did not pass inspection. "These need to be completely disinfected before you can wash Belly's clothes!", proclaimed Big E. "I am going to disinfect mine, and start washing some of the clothes and other things I have bought for Belly at my house."

And so, after several days of cleaning her perfectly clean washer and dryer, Big E began to wash Belly's things. After washing, she refused to dry anything on a cycle that produced heat ("that static is so bad for baby!")...and so decided to use the "Air Dry" function. After having Belly's clothes tumble around for an hour or so, she opened the dryer to find.....completely wet clothes. So, she did what any reasonable person would do: continued to use "Air Dry" for several hours until her dryer broke.

It's alright. Big E had been wanting a new washer and dryer for some time. So off she went to the store with Uli in search for new ones. And what factor do you think influenced her decision to purchase? Price? Color? Brand? Size? Nope.

Big E managed to find a washer and dryer with a "Baby Wear" function. Her mind was made up.





























Not only that, but now that she has a front loading washer and dryer that she can stack on top of each other, she has extra room in her laundry. She immediately commissioned Uli to make her a counter with a nice big sink. The perfect bathtub for Belly!

The end result? Baby clothes that have been washed, dried, folded, and individually wrapped in plastic (to keep the dust away, of course!).

And a traumatized and terrified Ton Ton, more about that in a future post....