Yep. One of the fun parts about Annabel getting older is having an easier time finding bright and dark colors for her, but it's still a choice of GIRL GIRL GIRL or baby drag 90% of the time.

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Best of luck to Robin's fam.

Well, it's not like there's much in the way of androgynous baby clothes to be found.

I remember someone saying they just bought all white and dyed as they saw fit. It sounds like a reasonable thing to do, but I may be a little over-invested in my "no pastels" edict.

Um, not that I am pregnant or planning to be within the next year-plus. IJS.

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Aimee, good on you for giving blood. I too hope you do not throw up.

Susan, the laundry-pen marker seems sound. And I hate the idea that when/if I have a kid, my choice is likely to be GIRL GIRL GIRL or BOY BOY BOY -- it just seems kind of overkillish.

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I may be a little over-invested in my "no pastels" edict.

Back in the '90s, you could buy nice brilliant primary colors... on the boy's side. Our daughter wore lots of "boy's" OshKosh overalls in red and yellow and blue.

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yay for Utah and Amyparker!

glad to here your niece is checked in. may her road to recovery be hard enough so that she never goes back , but not so hard that it hurts the rest of the family.

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I can't believe I forgot - YAY AMYPARKER!!! (I miss her.)

Our daughter wore lots of "boy's" OshKosh overalls in red and yellow and blue.

This is a positively brilliant plan.

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I remember someone saying they just bought all white and dyed as they saw fit. It sounds like a reasonable thing to do, but I may be a little over-invested in my "no pastels" edict.

It's reasonable if you're not me, the world's least domestic woman. To me, dying baby clothes is right up there with making my own baby food as "nice ideal, but if I expected myself to do it, I wouldn't, and it's not worth the guilt."

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Robin, what beth said.

I just thought this was the normal way to do it, since my neighbor has always marked the stuff she's loaned us, and every time Annabel outgrows a size, I go through the old stuff before I box it away so I can give it back.

I think your way is the normal way. I think I am the oddball. I didn't want to feel obligated to get stuff back to people, and assumed everyone else felt the same way. For the most part, except when Ben was a newborn, our babies came during good financial times. And even though it was a little harder when Ben was new, because we'd just given up my salary, he was our first child, and my parents' first grandchild, so it seemed we didn't have to buy much for him on our own.

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Oh, yes, yay amyparker.

So ... why *are* all baby clothes pink or blue? It seems to me there should be a market for brights and neutrals, between people who don't like pink and people who don't find out what they're having until the birth and want to shop in advance. Are those people just not numerous enough to bother serving them?

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There are neutrals, but it's in the more utilitarian separates. Jeans are neutral. Solid color shirts are neutral (Julia looked great in red, and so did Ben--all three kids look great in blue). It is when you get into outfit-land that the clothing is more sex specific. My children are all fairly fair, so I did like pastels on them. Julia had so much pink (from people) that if I still had all her infant clothing, I'd be tempted to have a face off with Aimee and Emeline. Pink looked great on Julia though, so it was fine by me.

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