Older son is seventh male with same first name. Middle names had alternated between two other family names until husband came along. His middle name is his maternal grandfather’s first name, which is the configuration we went with. Son goes by a nickname of middle name.
Younger son’s first name is a fictional character our entire family loves and admires. He wears it well. His middle name is masculine version of my maternal grandmother’s name (think Roberta/Robert). When we told my parents, my laconic father comes back with “I had an Uncle Rob at Verdun.” Nice to have the added connection.
I have an uncle named Joe. It took me until my early 20s to realize that Joe was his middle name. His first name was something completely different. Think like Robert because he and my grandpa had the same name.
Then in Mr R’s family, they had like 8 straight generations of Johns/Jacks which made doing his genealogy a nightmare.
One of many reasons we’re not using family names lol.
My mother and 8 of her first cousins all have the same first and middle names! They were named after a beloved great grandmother but it was a bit ridiculous! Needless to say, they all had nicknames.
Today’s shower day. About half of our older family friends are convinced we know baby’s sex and will be looking for clues. So I’m trying to make sure we don’t even accidentally leave what could be considered clues
Unfortunately almost all my nail polish is blue, green, or purple. I found a gold and picked that. Afterwards Mr R said silver and gold were probably gendered but I wasn’t changing it at that point lol.
I’m wearing black and red but Mr R only really has blue dress shirts. Oh well.
Am I being ridiculous? Probably but I’m unreasonably annoyed by the insistence that we really do know. Maybe it’s a hormonal thing lol
If IF you knew the gender, and decided to not share, that is between you and Mr R only. I am sure others just want to share in your joy, but trying to figure out the gender and try to force is out of you is just plan silly.
Enjoy your day and like @HouseChatte said above, just tell them it is a panda, or Jedi! Leave them guessing.
It went well! Just got home and unpacked, right before the snow came in. Whew.
My SIL and mom did an incredible job. It was Star Wars to the max. Unfortunately, everyone kind of forgot pictures but I’ll throw together any we got into an album and send them along lol.
Everyone was good about the sex. I got a lot more clothes than I wanted but that’s fine. We just have SO many clothes from the older niblings.
We ended up getting less than I hoped but that’s ok! I’m happy and grateful for everything we did get and the people who were able to come. I was hoping for more books but hey, what can you do? We got the big stuff - crib, stroller, I’m getting an infant carseat, etc. So really more or less everything else is just details
Unfortunately, Mr R’s extended family got us a bunch of religious stuff so I have to figure out what to do with that. Of course, they didn’t give us receipts so I have to figure out what I can return and what I need to regift… which is a problem since I know very few religious people lol. Oh well!
What kind of religious stuff does one buy for a baby? I guess I could see a saint’s medal or cross from a religious godparent but what else could their possibly be? Do tell.
Lots and lots of Jesus stories and some prayer cards and something else I’m blanking on. And a whole photo album for baby’s baptism.
I can tolerate religion in most contexts but I have a fairly traumatic history with Catholicism that led to me almost being kicked out of Catholic school through no fault of my own. I’d just prefer the reminders not be all over my house. It makes me deeply uncomfortable.
Odd gifts. They seem more like baptism gifts than baby shower gifts. On top of that, I bet they know how you feel so it seems “in your face”. That said, don’t let it bum you out. Just shove them in a box.
To be fair, it was mostly from his aunts who don’t know me all that well. They’ve always been very, very good to me and while I can see his parents pulling that cheap purposely on us, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t do it purposely. Which is also why I’m hesitant to ask for receipts.
Pretty sure my H pitched the religious stuff from his family when I told him it wasn’t going in the baby’s room. Donating them to a church thrift shop is probably a better plan ; )
It’s through Usborne books (a company I can’t stand but that’s another story) and my first goal is to just swap them for other books (I really want to build up my collection!). If I can’t do that, I’ll offer them to my religious SIL and if not, donate them to some local church.
I also realized that I got a bunch of baby einstein CDs from the same aunts. Again, a wonderfully thoughtful gift except I don’t have a CD player! At all lol. Our computers don’t have CD slots anymore. ?
