Eva Marie Walker: Spring Cleaning Fairy Arrives Early

Jeff aka Dad aka Responsive Husband here:

This entry has nothing to do with Eva. Then again, can that really be true? Seriously, now that she is here, can anything in my life ever really have nothing to do with her? If even tangentially. I have come to realize that, in some manner, everything we do will have some connection to Eva.

Eva is generally an early riser, usually waking between 5:30 and 6:30 each morning, though more often it’s prior to the midpoint. I, however, USED TO BE a late sleeper. Jen and I trade off the first morning shifts on the weekends. Today was my day to sleep in, which meant 8:09 a.m.

I came downstairs, eager for my coffee and maybe a peek at the Sunday news (online). Instead, I was greeted by a list. Fellow husbands, you know the list I’m referring to. Wonderful wives, so do you. Suffice it to say we men have different opinions of those lists than do those of the gentler gender.

1. Grocery shopping - JMW (at least the first item is not assigned to me)
2. Vacuum/Dust the house (not assigned, which we all know means me)
3. Finish bathrooms – Jeff (fair, since I didn’t finish them yesterday)
4. Finish laundry – JMW (whew!)
5. Jen run (gave me a chance to sluff off)
6. Empty dishwasher (Jen took care of it before making the list)
7. Clean/organize main floor/kitchen (holy crap did that ever take a long time!!!)
8. Blah blah blah…..

The last time Jen greeted me with such a list was shortly before Eva was born. There is a word for that: Nesting. And I quickly learned there are two words for a proper response: Yes dear.

And thus I snapped to. Coffee in hand, I finished the bathrooms, dusted the furniture on all three floors, helped organize the kitchen and main floors, put a first coat of paint atop the earlier laid primer on the mounting trim I had made for the gate at the top of the stairs (not on list, but that doesn’t matter), and designed a way to mount the protective screen in front of the fireplace to keep Eva and her curious crawling at bay (also not on the list, also didn’t matter that it wasn’t), blah blah blah…. And all of this was quietly done so as not to wake Eva while she napped.