the perfect saturday

(see this post for title reference)

Day 5 of 7.

7:15am. Oh, wait. No alarm clock on Saturdays!

7:30am-1:30pm. Genghis wakes up. Abe gets up with him today, per an agreement we made the night before. I enjoy sprawling out in a nice, warm bed for about 20 minutes, then join the family. Leftover muffins but fresh scrambled eggs for breakfast. Abe and I spend the morning discussing his latest business idea, until Genghis gets insistent on reading books with me. Abe takes some time in the bedroom to row (yes, we managed to squeeze and entire rowing machine into our bedroom, with surprisingly few stubbed toes). In an effort to expand Genghis's repertoire of obsessive compulsive games, I teach him to stack each of his plastic animals carefully on a separate wooden block. Then I take some time to clean out the laundry room, including popping the now-sagging party balloons and putting them in the trash. A few minutes later, Genghis joins me. I go in the other room while he plays at opening and closing the door. It gets suspiciously quiet and the door is closed, so I step inside the laundry room. Genghis has opened the trash can and is peering in at the balloon remains, asking "boon? boon?". Tragic moments follow.

We all head out the door at about 10:45 for a trip to Target for baby hangers, a belt, and a few more maternity clothes to get me through these last few weeks. I am most excited about a clearance pair of gray lounge pants.

After Target, we pick up lunch at Quiznos and go to the indoor botanic gardens. Once Genghis sees the water fountains in the gardens, he cannot be bothered with lunch. Abe and I switch out eating and watching him. Genghis runs around the gardens non-stop for approximately one hour. I am fascinated by a kaleidoscope exhibit, where there is a bed of flowers that you can spin while looking through the top through a kaleidoscope lens. It was like a beautiful and natural form of tie dye.

1:30-3:30pm. Genghis conks out for almost 2 hours after the gardens. I spend most of the time listening to "Anne of Avonlea" while transforming our bathroom closet into the baby's closet. She is going to sleep in the master bathroom for the first few months, so we're also storing all of her belongings there. I rig up an ingenious system for turning the shelves into hanging rods, and use up all 40 new baby hangers just on her 0-3 month wardrobe.

Maybe I should have given her my closet and I'd take the bathroom.

I finished off the look with my latest favorite home organization tool: labels. My labels are made with scratch paper and permanent market, laminated with packing tape. They work amazingly well. One day, I will go through my house, photograph all of my labels and post them here. The baby closet has the following labels:

- Onesies - long sleeved
- Onesies - short sleeved
- Outfits
- Dresses
- Pants
- Sleepers
- Swaddles
- Blankets and burp clothes
- Misc

3:30-8:45pm. Genghis wakes up just as I finish and I have to hurry to get him an early dinner so we can drop him off at the babysitter's around 4. We do a babysitting swap with 3 other couples every other Saturday. That means we spend 1 Saturday babysitting 4 one-year-olds, but in exchange get 3 Saturdays of date nights. The only downside is that it can be difficult to find things to do from 4-7pm, especially in the winter.

Abe and I start our adventure with a ride to the new hospital where I'll be giving birth, mostly to make sure Abe knows how to get there and I won't have to give directions. Then we go out to eat with a Restaurant.com coupon for a place that does Middle Eastern / Indian cuisine. We get enormous amounts of food to meet our coupon minimum of $35 and enjoy much more of it in one sitting than we should. We end the night with a trip to grocery store and the gas station.

We pick up Genghis, put him immediately to bed, and part ways for about an hour and a half of working time. I finally re-read my draft paper (work project of the week) and am surprisingly pleased by the result. I do touch ups and send to the team for feedback. Then I trade off time reading a book and writing this post.

Our friends just arrived for visiting and games.