..a man of simple pleasures

I made a really interesting discovery after the birth of my son. Babies really don't need as much stuff as everyone would have you believe.

I feel bamboozled! Tricked. Mislead. I spent so much time before he was born (oh, so much time) stressing, preparing and collecting all the items that I believed to be so vital & important. No stone was left unturned. I collected blankets (lots and lots of blankets of different varieties & thicknesses), a swing, a bouncy chair, a breast pump, bottles, nipples for the bottles, a baby bathtub, a baby bathrobe, a little string with a Winnie the pooh clip on the other end to attach his pacifier to his outfit, a sheepskin from IKEA (two, actually), an exersaucer, a moses basket, a jogging stroller and a regular stroller, a co-sleeper, a jolly jumper, a sling, a Baby Bjorn carrier and countless other baby accoutrements.

And the result? I have a boy who prefers keys and random bits of paper to colorful baby toys. He prefers my bed to the moses basket (the moses basket has never seen any action, not a single nap. He hated it from day one. It now serves as a home for my pregnancy books and his too-small baby clothes). He prefers my boob to a bottle or a pacifier. And he prefers joining mom or dad in the big bathtub to being confined in the baby tub.

And the Kick and Play bouncey chair?? It lived on the kitchen table for a few months so I could plop him down in it while I was cooking. But he never really liked it. The lights and sounds scared the poor fella and he'd squirm and cry and beg to be let out. He regarded it as a form of torture. He prefers to be carried - everywhere.

So, it would stand to reason that my boy would enjoy being toted around in his Baby Bjorn carrier or his New Native sling, right? Nope. He vetoed those too. He didn't care for either of them. He prefers the Baby Trekker. So, now I have three carriers, only one of which gets occasional use.

And the swing...that was popular for a month or two...but does that justify the $180 his grandma spent on it, the hours we spend assembling it, and the eyesore that it was in our small living room for so long? Something tells me we probably could have survived without it.

Similarly, the Jolly Jumper never caught on.

Thank goodness my bike was stolen shortly before he was born, otherwise I'm sure I would have ended up with one of those nifty bike trailers too.

So, as he grows, all of these "vital" baby items are being packed into plastic storage crates & retired to the basement, most barely used. Many never used. Perhaps baby # 2 will appreciate them more.

Thankfully much of this stuff was gifted to us and handed down by wonderful friends & family. And while I'll admit, some of it was useful, and all of it is cute to look at, barely any of it has proven to be vital or even important. In reality, the only things I really couldn't live without are the obvious necessities like a car seat, diapers, clothing, and a few blankets. I've never been a minimalist (more of a pack-rat, actually), so this has been a really valuable (albeit expensive) lesson for me.

My baby is a man of simple pleasures. He likes to breast-feed, sleep next to his parents and crawl around and play with things he finds on the floor (including our sleeping cat). He doesn't require an elaborate wardrobe and he doesn't mind if his socks don't match. In spite of all my efforts to dress him up like a prize pony, he really doesn't care if his clothes are brand new or brand name - just as long as they are comfortable.

He's a man of simple pleasures & I love and adore him for it.