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“Real mature.”
A few minutes later, we tackled the guest room next door. Molly helped me dismantle the bed, while Hailey folded up the linens that had been on it. Once we cleared the space, we stored the bed in the basement. Part of me worried that Amy would disapprove, but I think I knew my sister well enough. She didn’t put much stock in home stuff, believing fully that people, not things, made a house a home.
Next, we tackled the mountain of packaging, tearing open boxes and revealing the various pieces of the crib, changing table, and other accessories like a swing and a rocking chair.
Hailey, oblivious to my apprehension, held up the instructions and studied them intently before handing it to me. The diagrams and symbols might as well have been written in a foreign language for all the sense they made to me.
"Think we need to YouTube rocket science tutorials to make heads or tails of this?" Molly asked as she picked up an oddly curved length of pale wood.
"Perhaps," I grumbled as I tried to line up the strange mix of pieces in the order I would need. "Why do they mix letters and numbers? Why is there an A, B, C, 2C and D 1-17? The pieces aren't even similar." I said pointing to a fastener and a wing nut.
"Your confidence is wilting faster than lettuce in Arizona!" Molly said with a conspiratorial wink at Hailey.
I glared at Molly who only smirked back at me.
"This looks pretty complicated," Hailey observed, picking up a plastic bag filled with screws, bolts and a wrench. "Dad, I think this piece goes here," Hailey said, pointing to a diagram that looked more like abstract art the longer I looked at it than a coherent assembly guide. "Was it this hard when you set up my crib?"
"Uh, yeah. I actually put it together backward."
Hailey gaped at me."You did?"
I nodded sheepishly, "Yup. I had to take it apart and start over."
"Wow," Hailey shook her head. "How did you manage to put it together wrong?"
"It wasn't my finest moment."
"Maybe I should put it together, Dad," Hailey suggested, taking the instruction manual out of my hands.
"I guess I deserve that," I muttered, resignedly.
Molly patted me on the shoulder, "It's ok. We can do this. Right, Hailey?"
Hailey nodded, flipping through the instruction manual. "Yep. Girl power."
"What is this? A mutiny?" I laughed.
Molly and Hailey ignored me and dove into the task at hand, working together to organize the parts. I stepped back, content to watch the two most important women in my life work side by side, a warmth filling my chest.
Hailey looked over her shoulder at me, "You could help, you know."
"I am helping. I'm supervising. Wouldn’t want interfere with girl power."
Hailey rolled her eyes and resumed sorting the pieces.
Molly looked over at me, her expression amused. "I want to hear more about baby Hailey. Did she ever give you trouble?"
I laughed, happily remembering those first few precious years. "Nope. She was a perfect angel. Only woke to eat. Otherwise, she pretty much slept. I thought this wasn’t so bad. I didn't know why people complained so much about not sleeping. But then at her first checkup, there were a few other couples with newborns, and they screamed and wailed, nonstop. So, then I realized, I was just lucky."
"Aww, so sweet."
I shrugged as I set to tackling the changing table. "I guess so, but everyone warned me easy babies are terrible teenagers."
"You think that's true, Hailey?" Molly elbowed her.
"Yeah, I'm about to crack into my rebel phase. It's a whole secret society thing. You really wouldn't understand."
"Rebellion, I can handle. But not boys. Not until you're thirty," I added.
