Baby Bucket List

O.K, it's time to make this wait an exciting adventure and an opportunity rather than thinking of it as time ticking away and us being without... no more marking time by sad anniversaries.  We'll still mark time, of course, because each day that passes, we're one day closer to our baby and it's one more day we've successfully navigated our way through.  Someone I know who recently gave birth set up a "baby bucket list" of things she wanted to do before the baby was born that would be difficult or impossible to do once the baby was here.  We've spent a lot of time preparing... taking our classes and workshops through Open Arms, gaining support and friendship through Open Arms, finding a day care and a pediatrician, collecting the essential baby stuff, getting the van, etc.  We've filled our time with Ruby, training her and helping her become a "good citizen" as best we can before the baby comes.  Now, it's time to focus on us for whatever length of time we've got left as a couple without children.  So here goes.  Here's the beginning of my baby bucket list.  Some are practical things, some are fun things, some are things that we'll still do with the baby, but it might not be quite as easy or quite as simple.  For those of you who have kids, think back and tell me what you wish you had done before you had kids?  Help us create a fun list, and feel free to join in on any that you find interesting.  I'm making it my mission to do as many of these things as we end up having time for... since we don't know how long we've got to dive into the list, we can make it as long as we want.

• Sleep late as often as possible (VERY high priority!)
• Read... spend whole days or a whole weekends on the couch with a good books.
• Explore as many of the hiking trails in Valley Forge as we can (we started this one today.  Had a really nice hike there with Ruby and Brian)
• Clean and organize the basement... I also have a head start on this.  Worked on it during hurricane Irene.
• Go to NYC for the weekend, see The Lion King on Broadway.
• Re-do our bedroom... paint, bedding, curtains, accessories.
• Go to lots of movies.
• Try out new restaurants.
• Go to tons of concerts/shows in and around Philly.
• Scrapbook with the girls.
• Take a spontaneous trip someplace for a weekend.  This means that Brian can't research it too much ahead of time, that we need to really just pick up and go.  This will be challenging... he's a planner!
• Have some dinner parties... invite friends and/or family over more often.
• Go to Phillies and Reading Phillies games.
• Kayak on the canal.

What else?  I'm sure this list is by no means complete!  It's nice to be thinking of the positive rather than focusing on the negative for a change.  I've been ok... I think I have "moments" but am pretty good at standing up, shaking myself off, and moving on.  Last month was hard... a combination of passing the anniversary of the miscarriage, having a "near miss" with a baby, crossing over the 8 month wait mark, and having one of our adoption cohort friends adopt a baby.  That stuff together really stunk!   Brian's done better than me.  He seems pretty good most of the time, and he's wonderfully supportive of me when I'm in a mood or having a moment.  I think he's going to be happy to focus on this bucket list rather than what else we have to do to prepare for the baby, or how to get through a difficult patch.  Thanks to all of you out there who have been so sweet and supportive along the way, too.  Your caring means more to us that you'll ever, ever know.