the pre-baby bucket list.

motherhoodmarriage

Aug 22

Written By Ashlee

Like most couples, Brett and I had the "baby talk" somewhat early in our relationship. And like most couples, we came to an agreement on when we would prefer to have kids ("prefer" being the operative word here seeing as how sometimes God has other plans in mind). Brett wanted to wait three years and I wanted to wait five, so naturally, we decided we were going to wait five years. No, I don't always get my way....only in the case of deciding when to put my own personal body through hell carrying a child for nine months, not to mention the excruciating pain of labor. Because in those cases, I get two votes to every one vote Brett casts. It will most likely be the same with baby names, you just wait. But I digress. Five years always sounded like the perfect amount of time for me. You see, I adore my husband (a LOT), and as selfish as it sounds, I want to spend as much time with him as humanly possible before bringing another little person into our family. Now don't get me wrong, you all know I'm baby crazy and love kids as much as the next person. But it's just so....quiet now. And I love the quiet.

I love my sleep.

I love date nights.

I want to soak it up as much as possible. Is there anything wrong with that?

Somehow, and I'm still not sure how this happened—I've been married for two years. I've heard people say that the first couple years of marriage tend to fly by, but you don't really grasp the meaning of that until it's happening to you. When I glance at our wedding photos around the house I honestly cannot even believe it's been two whole years. Even more so, I cannot believe that (if all goes relatively according to plan), we only have three years left before baby-city!

Enter: The Pre-Baby Bucket List.

Now some people might have an issue with this concept because the typical and well-known definition of a bucket list is a written compilation of things you would like to accomplish before you die. And I would like to take this time now to clarify that I do NOT associate the act of having a baby with the end of my life. Just wanted to make that clear. I absolutely positively cannot wait to have children with my amazing husband some day. Just not today, or tomorrow, or the next day (please God).

I pitched the pre-baby bucket list idea to Brett a few months before our anniversary. He thought it was an "ok" idea, which is typically what he says when I suggest something before he really understands how awesome it is. We decided that on our two year anniversary, we would spend our romantic dinner discussing all of the fabulous and wonderful things we wanted to do before we have kids.

So here's what we came up with, taking our timeline and relative budget into consideration of course. Sure, I'd love to travel the world eight times over and experience all kinds of crazy feats but let's remember: 1) the mortgage payment and 2) the three year time frame.

This list isn't complete, per se. We agreed that if we discovered a new task that MUST be added to the list, it can be added at any time. We also agreed we would keep the list printed, in a public place (side of the refrigerator), and cross the items off as we complete them. My hope and prayer is that we will cross everything off the list before trying to have kids, with our battered and scribbled list on the first page of our first baby book.

We welcome your suggestions always (except those coming from anxious wannabe grandparents—NO, we are not going to remove anything off the list and NO we are not going to accept monetary donations to help us get through our list any faster). This list will be accomplished as Brett and I can do these things, in our own time.

Without further adu, I would like to present, with pleasure, our Pre-Baby Bucket List:

1. Go to Greece (if nothing else gets crossed off this list, this WILL happen before I get pregnant).(Completed 5/12/2011: see all Greece posts.)

2. Spend New Years Eve in Times Square (Completed 12/31/11: see number 2.)

3. Attend the Probowl and/or Superbowl live.

4. Take a cooking class together (Completed 8/21/2010: see number 4.)

5. Go to Disneyland (Completed 3/19/2011: see number 5.)

6. Do something nice for our parents, like....really nice. (Completed 12/25/2011: see number 6.)

7. Go gambling in Vegas and act like we know what we're doing (Completed 7/24/2011): see number 7.)

8. See Cirque Du Soleil (Completed 3/20/10: see number 8.)

9. Play hooky from work and spend a whole day in pjs watching our favorite childhood movies.

10. Be an audience member at the Tonight Show (Completed 11/24/09: see number 10.)

11. Go to New York in December to see the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center (Completed 12/10/11: see number 11.)

12. Take a road trip, a real road trip, somewhere. (Completed 9/12/11; see number 12.)

13. Spend some time in Australia with our favorite Aussie tour guides.

14. Buy dinner anonymously for a couple in love at a restaurant when we feel called to do so.

15. Spend one whole day with each of our three sets of grandparents, learning whatever they need to teach us. (Completed 2/26/2011; see part one, two, and three.)

So that's it, 15 things we'd like to do over the next three years or so. Like I said, we welcome your suggestions always so let me know if we've missed anything. Until then, I suppose I'll start working on my real bucket list, which I anticipate will be at least 27 pages long.