On the Subject of Chairs

Yesterday I had to return a booster seat that we'd gotten for Madelyn.  It's been hard to find one that was made for the 30+ pounds club, and this one seemed perfect.  Except that Madelyn couldn't possibly hate it any more than she does.  After I returned it, I found my way over to the nursery furniture section, selected a glider and called Tom to discuss how we should spend the money from the return.  We're pretty good on diapers for the first couple months.  The temporal artery thermometer we've put on our shopping list I'm pretty sure we have in one of our creatively packed boxes in the garage.  So a little discussion was in order, and I was pretty happy to have it in a glider with matching ottoman.  In case you're wondering, I bought a couple rearview mirror extenders and a couple of mirrors so we can see Fynnie while she's rear facing.


We have two rocking chairs.  The first came from my grandparents maybe... egad!... 19 or 20 years ago.  And it was old then.  It's a few years older than I am.  We had someone out to talk about reupholstering a couch a few years back and the man was fascinated with Grandpa's old Lazy Boy.  "I've seen this kind of fabric before, but they don't make it anymore."  Well even if they did, it probably wouldn't come in this particular shade of yellow-gold.  For all it's aesthetic hideousness, I love this chair.  I did give it away once.  To Tom.  Then I married him to get it back.  It sits upstairs in our loft.  We aren't hanging out in there very often lately, but the other night I rocked a very tired and very cranky Mad-a-girl to sleep in it.  As her little body twitched into sleep, I thought about how I'd nursed and rocked both of my babies in this chair.  I look forward to those late nights when I'll be getting up with Fynn and taking her to that chair.


I was happy to learn tonight that Tom shares my fondness for the ugly chair.  Who knows how many photos we have of a new dad, tired but with pride in his eyes, rocking his sleeping daughter.  For a while, he was the only one who could rock her "just so."


The second chair is a traditional wood rocker.  When we moved here, Margaret offered it to us.  It's the chair she rocked her babies in.  As my dad says, it has a charming squeak.  Almost every night since we've lived here, I have either rocked or read to Madelyn in that chair.  Tom has rocked her in it, too.  It's a little tricky to read to her in the rocker these days because my legs don't really want to stay together and my lap is a lot shorter.  Mad ends up straddling one leg; she's wobbly at best, and I have a hard time seeing around her head to read the words on half the pages.  Tom, who usually sits on the floor when reading to her, has said that she generally prefers to sit next to him these days.  But with Mama, it's up on what's left of my lap in "the wock."


This afternoon Tom mentioned that we could bring one of the chairs downstairs so I'll have a place to be with Fynn and still be around everyone else.  It's a great idea, but which one to choose?  The one in Mad's room needs to stay there.  Now that I'm home, we read every morning and night, plus right before her nip-nappy-snip-snappy.  And the one in the loft is right outside our bedroom.  It would fit in our room, but it's fine where it is.


So I, a person who's always been against buying too many non-essential items, slyly suggested that the gliders at the baby store were pretty darned sweet.  Tom, Mr. Rational Thinker, asked how much they cost.  I had no clue.  I told him the last time I knew was years ago, and that you could get them for less than $200.  He suggested we check out yard sales or Freecycle.  I suggested Craigslist.


I looked at the baby store tonight, and you can still get a glider with an ottoman for less than $200.  Of course, you can get them for two to three times that much as well.


Then I checked out Craigslist.  I found one in an area Tom would be passing through on his way home tonight for $65, one up in the mountains for $40 and one in the next town over for $75.  The first was already sold, the second wouldn't be such a great bargain after driving about an hour of mountain roads to get to it and the third was available to check it out tonight.


Tom stopped on his way home, inspected the chair, loved it, talked them down to $65, left and called me on the way home.  Without buying the chair!  Argh!  *ohm*  He had a good reason.  We've already spent extra money this week on other stuff, like a "World's Best Big Bro" shirt for Corey.  But in this case, we'll be fine.  Dude should have just gone out to his car and called me, then either bought the chair or told them no thank you. 


We'll be there at 10:00 tomorrow morning to pick it up.