When dreaming about having a baby, the nursery in my mind was a neutral nirvana. A relaxing beige, neutral tones to complement, some kind of zoo theme. I wanted each baby to have the same room and choose their own interests when they moved up.
Then I found out I was having a boy. We painted the walls two shades of blue, we bought every rocket ship decoration we could find, and I loved it. Now I'm pregnant again and contemplating both the new nursery, and my son's move to the big boy room. He was to take his rocket ships with him, but then his Pepere bought a race card bed. It's fantastic and he loves it, so cars he gets. But the nursery is still blue with rocket ships, and I face an ultrasound in just under three weeks. My first thought was to keep it rocketships for a boy and pick another theme for a girl. My mother in law's first thought was to get pictures of Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut. I see something interesting about how we both think in our gut responses.
Funnily enough, this is something I have been pondering for a while that my mother in law has made me think more seriously about. I don't know if it actually bothers me, if I think it should bother me, or if it bothers me because it bothers me! I was fully prepared to keep the nursery blue and rocket ships for a second boy, but for a girl I would redecorate. Now for me, half the fun of my first pregnancy was the boy stuff, the blue onesies, the sweater vests and so on. If I'm having a girl this time, I want the fun girl experience too. I want the dresses, the polka dots and the flowers. But what sticks in my throat a little is my lack of interest in keeping the space ship theme for a girl. I could paint the walls pink or yellow or purple and keep the lofty aspirations if I so chose, but that doesn't sit well with me either. That it doesn't sit well with me, also doesn't sit well with me!
The highlight of our nursery acquisitions was this painting of a space ship bearing the words "I will go to space." My husband wanted to be an astronaut, or a mad scientist, and so this resonated with him. Am I fully indoctrinated into the world of fifties fashion that I love, that I don't want a space ship theme for my daughter? It's not that I want pink everywhere, I don't want unicorns or princesses or anything like that, I just don't want spaceships in her nursery either. I'd be happy as anything if she actually did become an astronaut, or if Toby decided to become a child care provider. It's just this nursery thing that bugs me, and I don't know if it really bugs me or not. When in doubt, blame the pregnancy hormones and pull out The Yellow Wallpaper.
At the very least, does anyone have any decent Sally Ride pictures?
