The Mobile.

The mobile atop E's crib was taken down the other day. Considering she was using the miscellaneous animals to pull her self up from laying to sitting, I decided it was about time.

This mobile is circa 1987 and hung atop my younger sister's crib and also H's.

When I was pregnant with H, I was a little over the top decorating and perfecting his room, our baby room, to be exactly how I'd pictured.

I'd decided right away that the them would be gender neutral colors and that I'd use the alphabet.

I'd purchased what we have hanging on the wall long before I was even pregnant with H and had J paint 12x12 frames white to perfect the look.

I spent a lot of time at Pottery Barn kids picking out everything I wanted. Some from a specific line, others more basic.

The sheets, the valances, the bumper, the crib skirt.

All, at the time, necessities for a first time mom.

My mom came over and painted the walls yellow and slowly J and I put the room together.

Dresser and changing table. Complete with a wicker basket where each and every item has it's own place.

The crib with all it's important matching details.

The rocker, given to me by J, for my 24th birthday.

The musical trinkets and wall sayings on a shelf from the grandmothers-to-be.

Perfect.

A place for everything and everything in it's place.

Except.

I didn't have a mobile. And it wasn't long after H was born that we realized a mobile might be kind of nice.

I searched high and low for a mobile that I liked that also matched the color scheme and mood of the bedroom. And had no luck.

So my mom dug out the only mobile she had left stored amidst other remnants of memories in her basement. It happened to complement the yellows and the greens and the other primary colors we had displayed thoughout the room.

And that's how it ended up perched atop H's crib.

It didn't last too long for H.

He was indeed a mover and a shaker and the mobile was fun for him to grab ahold of and he was standing and scooting long before most.

But Miss E has been another story.

Each naptime since her birth and each bedtime since she moved into her crib from the bassinet, the music on the overplayed and antique mobile plays. And the circus animals go 'round and 'round. Sometimes just once, other times several times.

Some nights it will play for a short while, stop and then start again an hour later.

The other night when we decided the mobile had to go, I took it down, took it apart and placed it in it's old, rigid cardboard box.

Inside, an old credit card receipt from JCPenney. Old as in the type where they used to rub the numbers off of your card onto the paper.

The paper yellow and faded from years of sitting.

There is something about this piece of our baby room that is so special.

It didn't come to us bright and shiny and perfectly matching all the other pieces of my perfect baby room.

The plastic was yellowed and the post it hangs from bent just so.

Beyond playing the song and going around, there were no bells and whistles.

But it entertained. Again. And again.