The Bed Drama

As much as we enjoyed our time alone while the Urban Kids were at Best Namma Ever! Camp, the main task of the week was getting the UK's room in order.

We bumped UK1 up into a great-big-girl twin bed, thus freeing up the toddler bed for UK2, who had outgrown the smaller-than-standard crib due to her picking up some Tall Genes from somewhere.

When I returned from dropping off the UK's, Urban Dad and I walked the crib and its bedding across the street to the family-run daycare, who was thrilled to have it. I walked away nearly in tears. U-Dad assured me that it was a thing, so there was no need for tears.

Me: But my babies slept in that crib!

Him: But we still have the babies!!! What difference does the crib make?

And so it went....

But the same thing happened when I took the first round of baby clothes to the Salvation Army. The nice man came to the car and took the bags. Except that for a moment, I didn't let go. There was a weird beat and a half when he and I just paused, each of us holding the bags of baby clothes. I finally smiled and let go, but it was a bit more forced that I expected it would have to be.

But I digress...............

Next, the new bed was delivered. We opted for a loft system that would allow UK1 to sleep up top while allowing us to tuck the toddler bed underneath it. I didn't see what U-Dad had selected, but it was a modular system, thus allowing for a bottom bunk in the future. He saw it assembled at a Bedding Experts store and was assured by Nick the Salesguy that 1.) the delivery team would assemble it and 2.) that it was easy to do because he had done it himself.

Friday, the bed was delivered. Minus one stabilizing bar. So the delivery team left.

Nick the Salesguy assured us that he had found a stabilizing bar in another store, and it would be delivered on Monday. So U-Dad and I spent the weekend twiddling our thumbs on this project.

Monday, the stabilizing bar was delivered. The delivery team and U-Dad proceeded to build the bed but ran into two problems:
1.) it was GIGANTIC and ate up the entire room. U-Dad was freaked with himself for making such a GIGANTIC mistake. Seriously, seriously freaked. He usually measures and re-measures and re-re-measures when doing anything around the house. Guess what he didn't do? Seems that he saw the contraption built and thought, "ok, cool." Seems that the room it was in was, well, larger than the kids' bedroom. Poor guy -- he was so ridiculously hard on himself. I felt terrible for him.
2.) the stabilizing bars did not stabilize anything. They rattled around and would not hold firm. So the whole contraption swayed.

After the delivery guys left, U-Dad was on the phone to Nick the Salesguy -- we're four blocks from the store, so could HE come over and tell us what the heck was so wrong? And we don't like it, so would he take it back????????

He was so not keen on taking it back. Neither was Dan the Regional Director. Our only out was if the merchandise was defective. We would see Nick the Salesguy at 8:30pm after he closed the store.

As these calls were going back and forth, we set off to the outer reaches of the solar system (aka: Schaumburg), where we made the trip to IKEA that we should have made before buying anything, anywhere, but were too damn lazy to do, assuming that it would be cheap and unappealing.

We found a bunk bed that was cheap and quite perfectly appealing -- shame on our snobbery! But we couldn't do anything about it until we were rid of the albatross that was already consuming the room. We drove home as U-Dad continued his verbal self-flagellation throughout all of this, thus seriously harshing the vacation mellow.

That night, Nick the Salesguy and his lovely girlfriend Rachel came by. Nick and U-Dad tried every which way to fix the stabilizing bars, while I chatted with Rachel and prayed that nothing could be done.

Finally, Nick the Saleguy said those beautiful words, "This bed is no good. I'll come by tomorrow to get the pieces and carry them back to the store. And I'm taking this company's catalog out of my store. You want a free frame and box spring for your trouble?"

Before taking him up on the offer, U-Dad and I spent the rest of the night arranging and re-arranging the room. Could we get away with two beds without bunking them? At least, not yet? We could alway ADD a bigger piece of furniture. Getting rid of it was not what we wanted to go through again. Perhaps the simplest solution was the best one.

Oh, and shouldn't someone go get the kids??????

So this is how I ended up driving back to St. Louis to collect UK's. But I shouldn't complain. U-Dad got stuck with putting all of the furniture back, making the beds, cleaning the kitchen where all of this stuff had been stacked for a week -- and when he cleans, he mops, vacuums, etc etc.

The room now looks......small. But it's working.

Now we just need UK2 to fall sleep in her bed. But that hurdle can be jumped when we get back. We leave Wednesday for the Annual Urban Family Road Trip.

Wait a minute..... how much is gas???