I am seriously, seriously drooling over BabyHawk Mei Tais. Expensive… yes. But absolutely frickin gorgeous, and custom made. AND I realized… DUH…. I can pick a totally girly fabric on one side… leave the other side BLACK…. and Den would actually use it! (I showed him pics of mei tais and he actually… gasp… said if it was black he’d use it. He won’t touch a wrap or a sling or anything “foofy”, but something with straps and back-pack-ish he is okay with!) I keep going over the fabric choices. I’m in love with several of them, but I won’t be able to decide until we find out if baby is a boy or a girl. If it’s a girl I am SO going pink. (I admit it… my wardrobe is almost all brown/cream/pink. Same with my jewelry, all pink.)

I also really want a HotSling. No idea what color, though a nice black or brown one would be just fine. (Of course there’s a part of me that says “Why get plain black when you can get something totally CUTE??” Not like Den’s going to touch it anyways.)

Yes…. there are definite benefits to having some items that are just for me. :D Den hates patterns… hates stripes, especially. We were forever arguing over baby bedding because I adore stripes in the right colors… and Den absolutely despises stripes of any sort. And, well, since we kind of have to share the baby, I feel like I need to compromise on most joint baby gear.

We may end up getting separate diaper bags, though. We shall see. I’ve had other people tell me that’s what they did… hubby got a black backpack, wife picked out a girlie purse-like fabric, and all is well. But I kind of like black for my purses anyways.

Yes, this is going to be an expensive baby. Yes, I’m crossing things off my want-to-buy list as I decide that it’s unnecessary “baby gear.” There will be no wipes warmer, no “diaper stacker,” no changing table. I’m even waffling on the stroller, but I think Den will want one. However, on the items I do want… yup, that voice is right there. “This is our first baby. Who knows if we’ll have a second. We’ve waited so long for this…. SPLURGE. Get the good stuff. Buy the gorgeous crip, get the oriental batik fabric. It’s worth the little extra cost.”

Though to be honest, this is our general philosophy on everything. We live without a lot in our house… we have no area rugs, we have only a hand-me-down couch that is totally gross, we have a $10 dining room table I bought at a garage sale. Hell we don’t even have a headboard or bed frame for our bed. But when it counts? We spend money. We could have bought a cheap dishwasher… but I did the research and we bought a $400 Whirlpool. We spent good money on a king size, all-natural latex pillow-top mattress (which we LOVE). Our computers don’t even need mentioning do they? (We spend a LOT on our computers! Den’s a gamer, and I’m a web designer!) The dog food I buy is $40 a bag. (I’m DAMN picky about dog and cat food, much to Den’s disgruntlement.) You get the point. We make do with a lot of hand me down crap… but when we do spend the money, we invest it in good stuff.

But for the love of light, keep me away from Diaper Swappers, okay? :D

(And I am not even going to TALK about the $500 heating bill we just got. I think we’re pretty much %!%#ed this winter, with the oil prices being what they are. I refuse to think about it.)