Things 125-132

Yeah, yeah, yeah....

But in my defense, I've been traveling for work for the past week. Also, I've started a new room — the baby's room. You might think this room would be quick and easy. Surely we don't store our junk in our only daughter's room, right???

Also complicating this room's purge is that normally I do my Thing-gathering and picture-taking while the baby's sleeping — which is surprisingly difficult to do when the baby's sleeping in the very room you're trying to clean out. So, the Thing gathering instead has to happen while baby's awake, and it often goes something like this:

- I open a dresser drawer and begin setting aside no-longer-needed Things.
- Baby grabs some Things and crawls away.
- I begin moving Things to a higher spot, while simultaneously trying to remove other Things from baby's fingers.
- Baby cries.
- I give baby one Thing to play with while continuing to go through other Things.
- Baby tries to eat Thing.
- I take Thing away.
- Baby cries.

And so on, and so on. Still, I've managed to gather these 8 Things:

From 365 things

We have two sets of beads, yet another headband, yet another tap light, sample-sized deodorant, sample-sized lipstick, plastic conference name tag and a beaded belt.

And just to show how I'm growing, while traveling for work last week I received yet another plastic conference name tag and didn't even bring it home. Aren't you proud of me?

Things 121-124: This room's through

It turns out de-cluttering the bedroom took longer than I planned. Not because of an abundance of things, but rather because I once again fell behind.

But that's OK, because I will more than make up for it when I turn my attention to the office. There's a good chance I have 365 things to get rid of in that room alone. But that's for a future date.

For today, there are Things 121-124:

From 365 things

This first Thing is the goodie bag from the Chicago Triathlon. The more I do races, the more I realize how much clutter they create. Aside from the race t-shirt and occasional food sample, I rarely want the stuff they stuff in these bags.

From 365 things

These Things are remnants of our Summer of Weddings:

• An old bag of chips received in a hotel goodie bag
• Single-serve hotel coffee. This was all Chris. He wanted to take them for, I don't know why. I suppose they would be useful in case we have some sort of coffee emergency and need to break into the little plastic filters to get our fix. But I have a hard time believing we'll ever be in a situation when we're not within walking/driving distance of a Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts or McDonalds. Unless we're camping. But even then we bring along coffee and a peculator. 

Anyway, although this room took longer than it should have, at least I have some tangible results: 

From 365 things

Remember this shelf before? Now I've gotten rid of so many Things (and put away other stuff) that the bottom shelf is empty — which is how it'll stay until Maya's through her "taking everything off of shelves" phase.

Domestic goddess

I am not Martha Stewart. I try to keep the house clean, but I am in a losing battle with the dog hair. I forget to send Thank You cards and didn't get our Christmas cards out last year until spring. Dinner often takes the form of a "leftover scramble" — eggs + cheese + whatever I find in the fridge.

But people. I had a Martha Stewart moment last weekend. I made a monkey-shaped birthday cake and monkey-shaped "smash" cake.

From Maya's 1st Birthday

I freaking rule. I'm pretty sure Maya thought so, too:

In truth, this is her "why the hell is everyone singing to me right now?" face

From Maya's 1st Birthday

Or at least, she thought the chocolate frosting ruled.

I'm having a real hard time fighting the urge to make a Dirty Sanchez joke here.

From Maya's 1st Birthday

From Maya's 1st Birthday

From Maya's 1st Birthday

Thing 120

As usual, I'm behind. But you see, I had big stuff to do. Like, baking a monkey-shaped birthday cake,  making 30 pounds of spaetzle, and rolling out dozens of homemade pretzles for Maya's Curious George/Oktoberfest birthday party.

What's that? You've never heard of a monkey-German-themed 1st birthday party? Well, apparently you're not the kind of parent who throws a kid-friendly birthday party with a heavy emphasis on beer consumption. I, however, am that kind of parent.

Anyway, I will post pictures of Maya's cake devouring and such soon. But for now, let's look at some trash:

From 365 things

I found these in my bedside table drawer. They're the tags from some towels we received for our wedding. At least, I think that's what they're from. I can't remember buying new towels since we got married four years ago, so that's my best guess. As for why I saved these and tucked them into my bedside table for safe-keeping? Your guess is as good as mine.