I have mentioned before that I am not mechanically inclined at all. When it comes to car seats, toys, play-pens and all of the other things that comes with babies and toddlers I am at a loss on how to put them together or install them. It probably sounds bad but for the most part I leave those things up to husband. He is way better at those things than I am. That is the one thing people don’t warn you about when you are pregnant. I always heard about lack of sleep, privacy and the dirty factor. Never once did someone say “By the way you are going to have to put together and install endless amounts of heavy equipment and toys for the rest of your child’s life.” It took me about four months to realize Avery should have come with batteries. When they sent her home from the hospital they should have said “Here is your baby, sleep sack and complimentary pack of AA batteries.”
My biggest fear is when my car seat is not installed. I have had to install it all by myself once and it was awful. Step-son called one day saying he was sick and needed to be picked up from school. Sounds simple enough; start the car, put toddler in the car and go to the school. I went outside to start the car and the car seat was missing. Crap. What the what was I supposed to do. I had never installed it by myself before. I really had no choice at this point; I had to put the car seat in. After a few choice words under my breath regarding the person who had un-installed it I went to work. After losing about every fingernail I own and having a slight panic attack; the car seat was in. Of course this was all happening while my car was running so I received a heavy dose of exhaust in my face. It’s a good thing I had my sunglasses on otherwise I would have taken a couple fingernails to the eye. Will I ever install the car seat again? I really hope not. Did I mention that the brand of my car seat is Safety First? Obviously not meant for the parent.
One day I decided it was time for the pack and play had to go. It had been a long time since Avery was in there and it was taking up space in the closet. So I jumped on a stuff for sale Facebook page in my area and put some pictures up. In a matter of minutes I had the thing sold. Awesome! Since I am so horrible at putting things together I decided to have husband put it together and leave it that way until the gal came to pick it up. There was one thing I didn’t consider in my master plan. How in the world was I going to take it down to get it in her car. As I struggled and struggled with it the gal actually ended up taking it apart with ease. I am sure she was tired of watching me sweat trying to take the thing apart. I may or may not have thrown a fingernail her way on accident.
On to the toys. Again I usually have husband put toys together. That is until Rapunzel’s Tower entered out world. If you have been reading for a while you know a little about this coveted tower. I looked and looked for this magical tower and then I finally broke down and ordered it. I may lose some followers after this but Avery actually likes Tangled more than Frozen (gasp!) So this tower was on the top of our toy must have list. We waited very patiently for the tower to arrive and one day it came! Luckily Avery was napping so I thought good husband can put it together. I opened the box to find Ariel’s Castle. Dang! After many calls and a confusing UPS drop off experience we finally received Rapunzel’s Tower. This time Avery was awake and she wanted that thing immediately. She pretty much yanked it out of my hands and tried prying it open herself. Then I knew I would have to put the thing together since husband was at work. So I pried it out of her hands and got to work. Luckily it was very easy to put together and I thought I was pretty cool. I was ready to brag to husband about how I put this thing together all by myself when it happened. Avery started pushing buttons and no sound came out. No batteries! I thought it should be easy enough to install batteries. Oh how I was wrong. I proceeded with my screwdriver in hand to the spot where I thought the batteries would go. Try as I might I couldn’t get that battery area open. I even went as far as to send a picture of the tower to a friend to see if she could figure out where the batteries went. She did agree with me that I was trying to put them in the most logical place. I really wanted to show husband I could do this so I went in the toolbox to find more screwdrivers. When I realized I was stripping the area where I thought the batteries should go I stopped. Hanging my head in defeat I waited until husband got home. After explaining my situation to him he looked over the tower. He said he could tell I put it together because the stickers on the tower were not put on perfectly straight. Then I got to reply with it actually did come that way and they must have felt bad for sending the wrong item so they put the stickers on for me. Then husband turned the castle around and installed the batteries lickety-split. Ugh I was trying to put them in the wrong place the whole time!
The moral to this story is I am still not good at installing or putting things together. If you want me to type up a fancy letter or make an awesome casserole I am your gal. If you need someone to build you something I will introduce you to husband. To answer the question of “How many fingernails does it to take to install a car seat?” The answer is every. single. one.
Welcome to my World 