With the arrival of a couple's first child, their world can be turned upside-down.

While the bundle of joy may be small, all her "accessories" can fill a small bus. There's the diaper bag with all the creams and lotions, the strollers, the cribs, the bouncy chairs. That's not even taking into account the car seats which will occupy more than their allotted amount of space in the vehicle for the next eight years.

By the time a sixth child comes along, people would assume the couple, such as my husband and I, would have the arrival of another child down to a science. Simply assimilate the child into the routine and learn to go with the flow.

And for the most part we do.

We know for a car trip what we really need (very little for a newborn) and don't need (nearly everything else packed into the vehicle). We know what gifts are useful (one word: diapers) and which gifts are nice (clothes, which are outgrown before the next season arrives). We know that walking and talking are notable milestones (what parent doesn't brag about how early their child talked or walked) but those steps can be overrated (my favorite baby stage: when you set them on the floor and know they will be in that exact spot when you return).

Even with that vast knowledge in hand, the arrival of the sixth child managed to turn my house upside-down

In truth, I shouldn't attribute the mild upheaval in my house to her ranking as No. 6, but more specifically to her gender. With four boys preceding her, I was fully prepared for boy No. five and had planned the bedrooms accordingly.

The arrival of a girl meant a rearrangement of children, a repair to a hole in the wall for the new girl room and a quick touch-up of the paint to hide the drywall paste.

While that doesn't sound like much work, a week later I was still painting.

For starters, the area which was repaired and painted looked wonderful but now the rest of the room looked dirty and grimy. The entire room needed to be painted.

With the drywall bucket and knife still in hand, I walked through the house and noticed the wall leading into the basement was cracked and chipped and the old girl's room had numerous nail holes. A quick slap of drywall paste fixed those problems, but now meant I had more touch-up paint jobs.

No problem, except that the color by the stairs had been used up during the original paint job. My attempt to use paint samples proved useless as I arrived home with paint two shades lighter than the original. Instead of just a quick touch-up, the entire 18-foot wall was going to have to be painted. As midnight neared, I was cursing the drywall paste, the extension ladder, paint in general.

Even with an "original" color in hand, the touch-ups did not go smoothly. I finished covering the nail holes in the girl's room, congratulating myself that I had found the can of green paint on the first search. Only hours later when I noticed the varying shades of green in the room, did I remember that there was more than one shade of green in our house and I had grabbed the wrong can.

I told the boys that their new room was sporting a camouflaged look for the time being, at least until I can stand to look at a can of paint and a paint brush again.

*

At the conclusion of the Heritage Day's parade, many of the floats vie for honors and awards, from best antique car to favorite reunion class.

Yet, I think there is one award missing: The Kid's Favorite Entry. While this is purely subjective, my kids easily came up with a winner: Schmick's Market. For those who missed the parade, Schmick's loaded up at least a half-dozen grocery carts with boxes and bags of candy. They rounded out their entry with helium-filled balloons, which they handed out along the parade route.

Sure, the kids fancied all the pretty stickers distributed by the political candidates, which will likely end up permanently on some shirts after being thrown into the wash without being removed first.

The kids liked all the toys and trinkets handed out along the way, many of which actually made it back to the vehicle before being broken.

But, like it or not, the candy is what gets the kids scrambling and is what earns high marks in the eyes of the small parade-goers. Now, I just need to convince my kids that they have enough candy from the parade and that we can skip Halloween.

-- Ronda Graff hopes to have all the decorating done in the new girl's room soon or at least by the time her youngest girl leaves for college.