Of course, that means no more poopy diapers either. Ha!

The warm weather has brought on one of my favorite times of year - yard sale season. I just love picking through all the junk and finding something good. That's how I started my collection of vintage Pyrex bowls. Of course, I have to distract my sister and my mom from them first. Usually an "Ooh, look over there! Jewelry!" will send them off in the wrong direction. Hey, you snooze, you loose, right?

This Saturday was beautiful and sunny. A perfect day to do some spring cleaning. Yeah, everyone was thrilled here, too. I was able to get rid of so much stuff. The kids were at my mom's house so I threw all kinds of crappy toys in the trash. I was able to give a ton of stuff away, too. My husband dragged all of Violet's baby stuff out of the basement and I cleaned it up so we could stick it by the side of the road with a free sign on it. As I was standing there cleaning that highchair, I got to thinking about how many times I'd done that before. I got the chair as a baby shower gift when I was pregnant with Lila. The girls from the office chipped in and bought it for me. It was really nice, one of the expensive ones. I always tried to take good care of it. I washed it up at least three times a day for meals, and all the little in between times for ice creams, painting, and whatever other messes that babies made while contained.

I remember thinking what a pain in the ass it was when the thing got dirty. The pad and cover would have to be removed and washed. The tray scrubbed, the seat scrubbed out. It got to the point that I loathed cleaning that highchair. I was so glad to move it to the basement and get Lila in a booster chair at the table.

I don't think I even gave the highchair another thought until I found out we were having Violet. Then I did a mental inventory of our baby stuff and remembered it was in the basement. I was glad we had saved the highchair. It held up so well through Lila's babyhood that we could certainly use it again for Violet. And soon enough, we were. I wish I could say that my feelings about cleaning it had changed, but they didn't. The first day that I had to scrub peaches and baby cereal out of all the grooves I thought "Right, I remember. This sucks."

I washed it up at least three times a day for meals, and all the little in between times for ice creams, painting, and whatever other messes that babies made while contained.

Saturday, I washed it up for the last time. It went home with somebody else. Some other baby will spill spaghetti sauce and pudding all over it and some other mom will clean it up.

I won't miss the scrubbing, but it's an end of an era. No more babies in this house. I knew that after Violet was born, of course. We made the choice and had the surgery to ensure that fact. Some how putting all that stuff outside for other moms to use with their babies just drove it home. Made it real. Final. Fact.

No more babies for us.