Love the name REN! That was someone’s early guess, as I recall. It does seem gender neutral to me and easy to spell and pronounce.
@HImom thank you!
We never did a wedding registry so this was my first time building one. It was a lot more complicated than I thought it would be because everyone gives different advice on what you absolutely need vs absolutely do not need. The two most contentious ones - baby wipe warmers and diaper genies. People either love or hate them and there seems to be no in-between lol.
We didn’t have either of those things. We were told just water on a paper towel was better than any wipes. We just used disposable diapers and disposed of the trash often.
We did get 100% cotton whenever possible because it’s hot in HI and we wanted to avoid heat rash. Both kids had very delicate skin.
Very cool - I never knew that!
One of my guesses way back on page 42(?) was Ren. My S and DIL are expecting a baby girl in July and that is the name they have picked.
My husband’s name is David. Oh, my gosh, so common! It’s also my dad’s name. In grad school, there were two David P’s as well as David F, David W, and David N, all working on research together! David N was in our wedding. My mom still gets flustered at having to differentiate between her husband and her SIL.
Back when I was in school, my grade always had 3 girls with my first name, every year from 2nd through 12th grades. Fortunately, we weren’t in the same class at the same time so didn’t have to have first name, last initial.
The year I graduated from HS, at least 2 other girls graduated the same year as me — same first AND last name! One went to same U as me—she called me because she had gotten my reg materials. We both went on an exchange program to same OOS U for sophomore year and lived in same dorm! (Fortunately, we had different middle initials.)
I love Kate! I also like Ren and associate it with Star Wars not Ren and Stimpy. I like my first name, but it’s fairly strongly associated with a religion that was not my parents. I was named after a great Aunt who was named after a friend of her mother’s. There are two very common spellings, but no one ever seems to choose my spelling!
@MaineLonghorn man of honor and groom had the same name at our wedding lol.
I then lived with both of them for the next 4 years too ?
Now that I’ve revealed my real name, I’ll reveal something else. I’ve never actually met anyone with the same legal name as me. It’s always Katelyn, Katherine, etc. But there were always 2-3 other "Kate"s in my classes.
It’s also annoying to have a name that rhymes with everything. Like every time someone yells “wait!” my head pops up because it sounds like my name.
It actually comforts me to know that Ren is becoming a somewhat more popular name. I still don’t think we’re really at risk of having too many others with that name around here (I know 100 young Finns, Olivers, Olivias, Avas) but I’ve never heard any child named Ren and neither have my SILs or sister. But at least people might be less likely to spell it Wren.
We should have a CC baby shower for books. I am sure that there would be a huge assortment of books for the new little onw
Nope, Ann/Anne is the saint, so all names flow from that: Nan, Nancy, Janet, Hanna
Nancy Reagan’s name was Ann. I’ve known a ton of Nancy’s named Nancy Ann. To me that is just like naming a child Ann Ann. My D’s coach was John, and his sons Ian and Sean - basically all named John.
@nrdsb4 sent!
@silverlady we’re asking people to bring cards instead of books to the baby shower - which seems to be a common thing now. I’ve always thought cards were completely useless so I like this substitution.
Books are so, so important to both me and Mr R even though he’s not much of a reader anymore. We both believe that being surrounded by books is one of the best things we can do for our kid.
We’re doing the 1000 books before kindergarten challenge.
That’s all to say, we’d LOVE books. Any and all 
ETA: I just added our shipping address to the registry link because I can’t figure out how to just add an option for “any books!”
It might be fun if folks send a book by a local author or talking about something local so baby will be immersed in our various cultures.
“Anne/Ann is the saint , so all names flow from that:Nan, Nancy, Janet, Hanna.”. That might be so for Catholic families but doesn’t seem universal. Hanna/Hannah, for instance, seems to have Hebrew origins, and Ann/Anne may also flow from that.
Our kids loved to sit on our lap and (eat) have us read books to them from 9 months on.
I agree that a literate-rich environment is one of the best things you can do for children. I’m getting so excited!
Me too
I have a shelf of Star War books, as well as Star Trek. Some day? .
For books, I put our shipping address on the top of the registry page. I don’t have many books on our list because I want people to give us their favorites OR books local to them or specific to their culture.
So baby has started dragging their fist? Foot? I don’t know what across my stomach and it’s WEIRD. The bumps were one thing - feeling it go against my skin makes me feel like an alien vessel ?
Mr R got to feel it for the first time yesterday and just about jumped out of his skin. Even though I warned him!
One of the best baby gifts I ever heard of was this:
A friend’s husband worked for Bill Clinton for many years. When the baby was born, the couple received a large package filled with about 50 classic pieces of literature—hard cover—to start the child’s personal, life-long library. Children’s classics, young-adult classics, and adult classics.