The mother of sweets brought us a package of baby goodness yesterday. Being that she is a woman who's entire adult identity is of being mother to three children, she has saved every item any of her children have ever breathed upon. Now that we are to becomg parents, she feels it is time to pass on the carefully saved historical items of the life of sweets. I think I have already mentioned the Darwin cradle, the same cradle that defies all modern safety regulations but has held in its loving bedding at least three generations of New Englanders. (we're still undecided about what to do with the cradle, and now that it is in our home we may gradually get used to the idea of actually allowing a child to sleep in it, thereby risking yet another life for the sake of family peace.) Along with the Darwin Cradle she also brought a small selection of baby clothes that sweets wore. So we spent an hour or so on Saturday admiring and appreciating baby clothes from 1973, complete with spit up stains and grubby seams. Apparently, she has saved and preserved ALL the baby clothes her three children wore.

Now I think there is something special about being able to tell a child that he wore the same certain outfit that his father wore at a certain time in life. It's kind of sweet, really. But telling your child that he will be clothed from birth until age 18 in all his father's hand-me-downs seems a little extreme. You may think I am exagerrating here. No, I'm not. Included in yesterday's booty was a pile of white t-shirts, size newborn on up. Sure, they are cute, but c'mon! Yes, I'm an ingrate. sue me. I'm sure we will make use of all these clothes, because they are still good and worth using and all that. But there comes a point where one has to allow memories to live in the mind and not in the archived vomit of one's childhood clothing. ("Oh, I remember this stain! This is the stain you left after that gigantic poop explosion just after you visited with Aunt Myrtle!")

The influx of baby stuff is requiring us to make room in our apartment, no easy feat. Today I measured out the place and made a SIMS apartment to scale. We've been juggling SIMS furniture all afternoon, playing with the options. We have a one bedroom apartment that needs to fit three people. We will make it work somehow. A key to this scheme is to downsize our own possessions in order to make room for the baby's stuff. So, today we also purged old CD's from the collection. baby steps for the baby. Is anyone interested in some very obscure CD's from the mid-90's? I thought not.

Oh, and the grant is coming along very slowly, thanks for asking!