When it rains, it pours

Why does it seem that when one little thing goes wrong it becomes the start of a domino effect and then every other little thing come crashing down, too?

Its not the end of the world, but I'm still annoyed and a bit upset. The finished part of the basement has always been sound and we've never had any issues. Our computer is down here and we feel completely comfortable that its safe (from humidity and such).

Yesterday as I was doing some major packing and major loads of laundry (we hardly had any clean clothes left) I decided that I would close the playpen and have Ben take it upstairs into our storage room. The playpen has been down here since the summer, when my niece Heidi used it. As I went to move the playpen I noticed that there was something sort of fuzzy on the bottom. Lo and behold! It was mold!

It was disgusting. It seems that something must have spilled in there (like maybe from a sippy? Benny has used it a couple of times while I've been on the computer). Anyway, mold everywhere on that playpen. I examined everything else-the floor, some blankets on the floor, but everything else was fine. I continued with my tasks for the day and started emptying out my downstairs pantry-moving all my food upstairs, since its no longer going to be full (we're trying to use up all our food). I noticed that a fabric bean bag that was right by the playpen, that I hadn't previously examined also had a tad bit of mold on it. Ugh! So frustrating!

I then started getting paranoid and decided to look EVERYWHERE and once again didn't find anything. Except I hadn't looked at the infant car seat (that Ezra will be using). Inside the car seat was a play mat/play gym thingy that you put on the floor for the baby. I checked the car seat and the actual seat was fine, nothing on it. I checked the visor thingy that keeps the sun off the baby and sure enough the nylon lining did have a bit of mold, just a bit. I then looked at the inside of the play mat and yes, there was mold inside it. I examined the car seat once again and sure enough I looked at the straps that I hadn't looked at before and they were covered in mold. What the heck?!

Nothing else had mold on it, nothing. I even had all of our luggage and suitcases and gym bags under the car seat and nothing had a even a tiny bit of mold on it. We figure it started in the play pen and spread from there. I think I may have put some of the damaged items inside the playpen at one point to get at something else that was behind those items.

So, we threw the playpen out. We threw the bean bag out and the play mat, too. The car seat still has to go. I looked up info on how to clean this stuff off and theres no way I can get any of these specific items clean enough to be safe for the baby (or Benny).

So now, money for a new playpen, money for a new play mat and money for a new stinkin' car seat. It's truly pouring now! If we had known we would have had to buy this stuff for the new baby we would have budgeted it in-no problem. **sigh** Now its just an extra expense we don't need right nor were expecting.

And me being anal, what bothers me the most about the whole situation is that I already have a date set for the installation of the car seat into our car. Its coming up and I hope we can have it by then so I don't start getting all anxious about the situation, because once again, if you haven't noticed, I'm kind of a control freak. :-)