Nursery Zen

'Tis Monday so I shall wax philosophical.

This weekend, Mrs. Undaground and I worked diligently to begin putting the Undaling's nursery together. We painted the room in two colors: green on top and yellow on the bottom. The colors are separated by a light blue wallpaper border. The furniture is assembled and placed in the most aesthetically pleasing way. The characters will soon adorn the walls, but that will be a process that takes several weeks.

As I sit here and type, my back is killing me. I'm extremely tired and could use a nap. While we're proud of our effort to this point, we know there is still a lot of work to do, and hope than the decisions we make in the room are good ones. Picking the wrong character could alter the tone of the whole room.

This weekend was a lesson in patience, and, now that I think about it, a good metaphor for our task that will begin in about 79 days.

After bending for what seemed like forever to paint the bottom half of the walls yellow, we realized that one coat wasn't going to cut it. Despite our fatigue and our shared back pain, we pressed on and added a second coat. Sure, furniture would cover most of the area we were concerned about, but we know the walls are better for it. I know there will be times when we will want to take the easy way out in our parenting, but we can remember the time we put a second coat of yellow on his walls and know that our extra effort will make a big difference.

Assembling the crib was something I thought would be quick and easy. Unfortunately, all of my nice Home Depot tools were useless because of the way the crib was built. In order to properly tighten the screws, I had to lay down on the floor with a tiny allen wrench and turn the screw 1/2 turn at a time. It was maddening. My wife did her best to hold the pieces of wood together for me as I muttered words I didn't know existed. Eventually, I slowed down, and enjoyed the music piping through our house as I started to methodically turn the screw 1/2 turn over and over and over again. Soon, the pieces of wood were flush against each other and we had assembled a sturdy shelter for our child to sleep in. Patience is something I'm going to need to get better at, in a hurry. My wife could be a member of the patience hall of fame, so I will learn from her.

Finally, as we worked together to slowly force every last air bubble out of the wallpaper border, I realized that soon we will be working together to coax air bubbles out of the Undaling. Who knew that hanging wallpaper would be such a lesson in child-rearing? Burp.

Right now, the nursery looks awesome. It's exciting to know that it will only get better once the Seuss characters are painted. I'll put up pictures once the entire room is ready for baby.

I'll post my Superman review tomorrow, based on the excitement over the film on the comments page.