Shopping for Tiny

We really did our first shopping for Tiny, as we visited Buy Buy Baby in Manhattan. I resisted going there, as it seemed so huge, disgusting and horrible, but it was actually a pleasant experience. There's a Whole Foods next door where we got very nice, affordable coffee and pastries. At Buy Buy Baby, we had to re-register because our online registry wasn't showing up, and Ingrid starting filling out the form, that had a slot for Mother's Name and another for Father's Name.

"This form isn't very progressive," Ingrid objected. "Online, you can register Parent 1 and Parent 2. Considering we are in Chelsea, I assume we're not the first same-sex parents you've had as customers."

"Good point," the clerk said.

"Will you mention it to management? It's not progressive at all," Ing said.

The woman replied that she would. This was a slightly annoying start but after that, the experience was great. Danielle in strollers took nearly an hour to explain every one to us. It was overwhelming. We ruled out the Bugaboo, thank god, since it's more than $800, and we narrowed it down to two different ones that are each about $300. Apparently we also "need" an "umbrella stroller," which is one for whne the kid is a year or older, and those can be as low as $100. Then we did the car seats, equally overwhelming, and the jogging strollers, and the attachment wheelie things that you can put a car seat into and make into a portable stroller. We thought that attachment might be good for the Shore. We realized we want to get a couple of duplicate things for the Shore, and maybe a couple of things for my mom and Fred's apartment in Brooklyn too. Egad, the consumerism of it all is freaking me out. I'm still hoping we can buy some stuff used and/or buy some hand-me-downs from friends. My work friend Jen is going to loan me the breast pump that our co-worker Carol gave her.

We did register for some basics on another floor: bottles, onesies, bath stuff, a nursing pillow, breast pads, Purell--stuff that isn't sexy but seemed like a good idea. The clothes at Buy Buy Baby were all really gender-specific and not cute, so I'm holding out for just a few cute things from nicer stores, and maybe a few gifts (hopeful thinking?)...