Nesting Times Two

It turns out that I am not the only one around this house who is nesting.

Aside from telling some people we weren't ready to tell, my mom has been pretty good about not pressuring us about this pregnancy. She didn't push to know the gender, if she bought stuff before the gender reveal a couple weeks ago she didn't mention it, she's only touched my stomach once, etc. But now that we've announced the gender, I think she's starting to let herself relax into this pregnancy a little bit, too.

I came home a few days ago to find the garbage can that's usually in the pantry sitting instead out in the kitchen, piled high with stuff. And the shelves in the pantry were half bare.

She very proudly announced that that was the third garbage can full of stuff she had thrown away. Her goal was to clear a shelf for stuff we might need to keep in the pantry for Kiddo, and she did it.

I was very impressed. Being willing to throw things away - regardless of how expired they are - is not an easy thing for her to do.

She's not a hoarder in the sense of that show on TV where you can't even see the countertops or floors of the house and have to fight your way through piles of stuff just to clear a small pathway. She's always been very neat and organized, and her house (or now, her space in our house) is always clutter-free.

It's just that she was born while the country was going through the Great Depression, and I think that's had a life-long influence on her.

She has more mini shampoo and conditioner bottles (neatly stored in bins in her linen closet) than I would use in my lifetime, much less that she could use in her lifetime. One time several months ago I found a bottle of spices with a label from The Price Club, which was a store that went out of business when I was probably around the 8th grade, seriously. I tried to throw it out, but it upset her too much - never mind that she doesn't use spices when she cooks. (I waited a few days and then buried it in the bottom of the garbage can when she wasn't around. I don't think she ever noticed.) She had boxes of pudding mix that expired in the late 1990s, a dozen jars of white asparagus that were too good of a deal to pass up. (R and I don't eat white asparagus.)

Apparently all that stuff went out with the trash, because now there is some seriously empty space in the pantry.

If we're lucky, next she'll tackle our home office... :-) (That is our space, and it is not clutter free!)

A couple of other notes:

We start our twice-a-week non-stress test/biophysical profile appointments tomorrow. I'm thrilled to be getting a peek at Kiddo that often because it helps reassure me.

Today is Jan. 30 and technically our due date is March 30, so as of tomorrow we will be officially less than 2 months away. Since I'll be delivered early, we're actually less than 8 weeks away now, but it's a nice milestone. January has flown by. I'm very thankful for that.

R and I have ventured into baby stores twice in the past two weeks! We've only made it as far as the car seat/stroller section, but it's a start.