gift lists

Visiting the mother ship (Babies R Us) over the weekend, we found the baby registries for a few of our friends with babies on the way. WOW...sooo many things to buy for baby.

We never actually registered, so seeing all the things that people need to get for the baby on one exhaustive list is a bit of a shock. Sure there are the things you need -- some clothes, diapers, crib, car seat, cleaning supplies. The things you should have -- changing table / pad, more clothes, bottles, etc. And of course the things you want to have but probably don't need, but if someone else is buying -- bottle warmers, wipe warmers, etc.

Traditionally, Indians don't buy anything for the baby until after the baby is born. Yes this could cause a lot of problems when it comes to things like a crib or even diapers -- but for a culture with a traditionally high infant mortality rate, the superstitious defensive mechanism makes a lot of sense.

Anyways -- we did buy some things, but not lots of things (east / west blend of practicality). Good or bad, it probably means we'll be venturing to the store more often to stock up on emerging "things we really need" as Rohan gets older. And quite possibly, it might limit our inventory of things we don't need, but are nice to have.

Of course we seem to be acquiring a fair number of toys each time we go and Rohan is demonstrating a significantly diminished level of interest in his mobile already. So it goes.