Free Anna Duggar and the M Kids - Part 2 - Merge

[Trynn]

 ginder reveal parties/photo shoots are so cheesy and overly indulgent. I always secretly hope that the box will be filled with bats instead of balloons. "Congrats,  you're having a- BBLAAARRGGHH!!

I actually laughed out loud.

[RosyDaisy]

In my family and social circles, we don't do gender reveal parties. The couple usually announce as soon as they find out the sex of their baby.

[ClaraOswin]

We are registering for almost all "boy" things, because they have dinosaurs on them and they are cooler than the hearts on the "girl" things.  I will say that generally the things that are pink seem to be less fun than the blue.

We have gotten one "so you must be hoping for a boy" when looking at the blue ocean themed nursery.  He did accept the point that the ocean is blue though.  (I had a friend insist that an ocean theme could not be gender neutral because it was blue, my response was "?")

I had people tell me our "bug" nursery wasn't gender neutral too. I completely disagree. 

http://www.babysupermall.com/main/products/kli/kli5704bed8.html

 

[nastyhobbitses]

I had people tell me our "bug" nursery wasn't gender neutral too. I completely disagree. 

http://www.babysupermall.com/main/products/kli/kli5704bed8.html

 

How is that not gender-neutral? And why the heck can't a nursery for a girl be blue/green/rocket/bug/dinosaur themed? Why can't a boy's have some pink, which, incidentally, was considered the "boy" color until recently? I don't get why people are so hung up on ridiculous gender stereotypes. For BABIES. For tiny humans who don't even realize that objects and people still exist if you can't see them, or that they are separate entities from their mothers.

Anna is a total babe now. fucking good luck getting her back Joshley *hair flip*

She can have another you by tomorrow, so don't you ever for a second get to thinkin' you're irreplaceable...

[Guest]

I had people tell me our "bug" nursery wasn't gender neutral too. I completely disagree. 

http://www.babysupermall.com/main/products/kli/kli5704bed8.html

 

We had a Star Wars theme for our first, before we knew the sex. Our first ended up being a boy, but it wouldn't have been an issue either way. Gender is a strange thing.

[ClaraOswin]

Yeah, I'm not too picky about stuff. I also never cared if people thought my son was a girl based on his looks or clothes or whatever. If someone said "what's her name?" I'd just "His name is Henry." I wasn't offended and really could not have cared less. In his Halloween costume this year (monkey) I think it may have been hard to tell his gender. Oh well.

Though I do feel bad if I get someone else's kid's gender wrong. At the Children's Museum a while back there was a little girl playing next to my son. She had denim overalls on and a plain shirt underneath. Short, curly hair. So yeah...I thought she was a boy and said "he" a couple times without realizing the mom had corrected me. Oops! My husband and mom told me later "you know that was a girl, right? The mom said "she" a couple times." Hopefully the lady didn't care too much.

Usually I'm pretty good about non using pronouns if I'm unsure of gender. But this time I really thought boy.

[RootBeerFloat]

Anna is a total babe now. fucking good luck getting her back Joshley *hair flip*

Hopefully she's doing it for herself, but with their messed up culture, Michelle's and that preacher's jabs about being sexually available, etc., etc., I'm not so sure. A colleague cheated on his wife and one excuse was that she really let herself go after having kids. Barf. The wife is obsessive about her size and appearance now. 

[Valerie3kids]

Hopefully she's doing it for herself, but with their messed up culture, Michelle's and that preacher's jabs about being sexually available, etc., etc., I'm not so sure. A colleague cheated on his wife and one excuse was that she really let herself go after having kids. Barf. The wife is obsessive about her size and appearance now. 

I am afraid due to her location of being near to Michelle and also seeming to "look up" to Michelle that she is doing it for Josh. She seems to have a shy side and has probably with the help of both her parents and wonderful in laws put a lot of the guilt onto her own shoulders. We all know that is wrong on so many levels but she does not. So he gets to act like a pig, humiliate his wife on many occasions and cause her untold personal stress and probably will get welcomed home with opened arms. Ick just double ick. I would have a tough time not puking the first time he tried to get intimate after the ordeal she has gone through and sharp objects would be in close reach if he did not believe I meant the word "NO"!!!!!!  But I am not Anna and it is a complete waste that she is such a pretty girl and he is such a pig.

[HermioneSparrow]

How is that not gender-neutral? And why the heck can't a nursery for a girl be blue/green/rocket/bug/dinosaur themed? Why can't a boy's have some pink, which, incidentally, was considered the "boy" color until recently? I don't get why people are so hung up on ridiculous gender stereotypes. For BABIES. For tiny humans who don't even realize that objects and people still exist if you can't see them, or that they are separate entities from their mothers.

She can have another you by tomorrow, so don't you ever for a second get to thinkin' you're irreplaceable...

I agree, it's ridiculous and i hate all the baby girls should wear pink and boys blue.... If i ever have a kid, he/she will wear black beatles onesies and chuck taylors no matter what haha, ZERO huge pink and purple headbands and ZERO blue sailors outfit. Not that's anything wrong with that but stereotypes since birth are annoying.

[Bugaboo]

I had people tell me our "bug" nursery wasn't gender neutral too. I completely disagree. 

http://www.babysupermall.com/main/products/kli/kli5704bed8.html

 

I love that! It's definitely gender-neutral.

[jqlgoblue]

I love that! It's definitely gender-neutral.

But bugs are for boys.

(I totally don't believe that btw).

 

My bet on Anna's weight loss is Josh gets to tell the powers that be what will make it easier for him not to stray and Anna gets to do it. Yay!! So. Sick.

[jinseng]

 

Meredith in jeans!!?! Could this be a small glimmer of hope that Anna has decided to ditch the skirts (at least for younger babies)? I don't recall ever seeing Mackynzie wearing pants even once! Except maybe for a PJ onsie.

 

 

[Cleopatra7]

I was big on gender-neutral and primary colors with my two, and was always being asked if I had expected a boy because my daughter wore blue.  Eventually I did dress her brother in a few pink or purple hand-me-downs because he was so large that he outgrew all the gender neutral/boy stuff I had dressed my infant daughter in and into the pinks and purples the same daughter (a very articulate toddler) preferred.  No one gave us a hard time about him being dressed in pink because he was chunky and didn't look girlish and because big sister was around to show it was hand me downs, I suppose. I used to joke about my "transvestite babies." 

It's odd how obsessed we are with gendering baby items, although many of us consider ourselves progressive with regard to gender expression, considering that the Victorians just dressed babies in white and gave them dresses, regardless of whether the infant was a boy or a girl. Dresses seem a lot more practical, especially for non-mobile infants, in terms of cleaning and changing than onesies or other modern baby clothing. I wonder if all this gendered stuff is just a marketing ploy, like so many other aspects of modern life.

[ClaraOswin]

My son wore gowns as a baby. Though...they were "boy" patterns so I guess that cancels the gown part out..?

[bucherwurm]

Personally I like the "pink for girls blue for boys" thing. I think it's cute. I decorated my girls room in pink and she wears a lot of pink. It's my favourite colour. If I had a boy he would probably wear a lot of blue and "boyish" things. Doesn't mean they can't play with both a kitchen and tool box toys or whatever, or when they have an opinion they can't choose their own clothes. But I get to dress them now and I choose the stereotypical stuff.

[quiversR4hunting]

Personally I like the "pink for girls blue for boys" thing. I think it's cute. I decorated my girls room in pink and she wears a lot of pink. It's my favourite colour. If I had a boy he would probably wear a lot of blue and "boyish" things. Doesn't mean they can't play with both a kitchen and tool box toys or whatever, or when they have an opinion they can't choose their own clothes. But I get to dress them now and I choose the stereotypical stuff.

my 3rd  daughter loves to wear purple and her favorite toy (right now) is a Chuggington train set where she builds the shape of the track. Her next favorite toys are the doll figures (barbies and loving family) and her baby dolls and Legos (regular Legos not the friends line). 

[ClaraOswin]

I've always shopped in the boy section for my son. I mean, let's get real here...how many people are seriously going to put a "girl" onesie on their son unless it's a hand-me-down...right? I'm kind of glad I had a son though since I'm not girly and not a huge fan of pink. I think there needs to be more options for baby girls. You can usually find some purples and reds. But greens/blues/etc. seemed harder to come by. (Then again, I haven't shopped for girls much so many I'm wrong.)

For my son, he had onesies in various colors....ones with cars and trucks but also ones with animals and monsters and stuff. I didn't really buy many sports related stuff though because it's not my thing (or my husbands.) I felt there were were a lot of options. I almost feel like at age two there are less options. So many things at the stores I shop are blue. I think 80% of his current Fall/Winter shirts are blue. I've been trying to add in other colors. But the cute designs I like are always in blue for some reason. He has had a few pink shirts too. We've never had a problem with putting "girly" colors on him. But again...that doesn't mean I want to shop in the girl section, necessarily.

As for toys...he has a lot of "boy" toys because that is what he gravitated towards as a baby. But he does enjoy things that people could maybe consider more "girly" like stuff animals (and he has a doll) and his play food and kitchen.

And I am babbling now with no real point so I will stop.

[EmCatlyn]

My bet on Anna's weight loss is Josh gets to tell the powers that be what will make it easier for him not to stray and Anna gets to do it. Yay!! So. Sick.

Did she have a weight problem before?  Based on the pictures I've seen, she seemed to lose weight between pregnancies.  What strikes me most about recent pictures is not that she is thinner but that she is rested.  In pictures with Josh she usually looked tense.

[anjulibai]

 

Meredith in jeans!!?! Could this be a small glimmer of hope that Anna has decided to ditch the skirts (at least for younger babies)? I don't recall ever seeing Mackynzie wearing pants even once! Except maybe for a PJ onsie.

 

 

I remember a few pictures of Mackynzie in Pants. Once was during a visit with some of her Keller cousins. All of the girls were in matching outfits, which were pants. She was pretty young, though. 

[Bad Wolf]

 

Meredith in jeans!!?! Could this be a small glimmer of hope that Anna has decided to ditch the skirts (at least for younger babies)? I don't recall ever seeing Mackynzie wearing pants even once! Except maybe for a PJ onsie.

 

 

NIce. But ThEre Is THe HeAdBAND.

[EmCatlyn]

It's odd how obsessed we are with gendering baby items, although many of us consider ourselves progressive with regard to gender expression, considering that the Victorians just dressed babies in white and gave them dresses, regardless of whether the infant was a boy or a girl. Dresses seem a lot more practical, especially for non-mobile infants, in terms of cleaning and changing than onesies or other modern baby clothing. I wonder if all this gendered stuff is just a marketing ploy, like so many other aspects of modern life.

When my daughter was an infant, the only color for disposable diapers was white. Shortly before she was getting ready to toilet train, they come out with color coded diapers that were advertised as having the absorbency in the right place for each sex.  It was ridiculous, but with her brother three years later we had no choice of white diapers except in the cheaper (in quality) brands. Talk about the marketing!

The reason infant clothes used to be white was so you could wash with bleach and/or boil clean.  It also made economic sense for hand me downs among different sex babies. 

Personally I like the "pink for girls blue for boys" thing. I think it's cute. I decorated my girls room in pink and she wears a lot of pink. It's my favourite colour. If I had a boy he would probably wear a lot of blue and "boyish" things. Doesn't mean they can't play with both a kitchen and tool box toys or whatever, or when they have an opinion they can't choose their own clothes. But I get to dress them now and I choose the stereotypical stuff.

As mentioned elsewhere, I dressed my daughter in blues and primary colors a lot.  But when she was around 18 months old, she happened to be wearing a pink outfit (a gift) and got so many compliments she always wanted "pink" after that. (She was an early talker.). So she forgot me to get the stereotypical stuff.

I have to add that the love of pink lasted until around 7th grade when she entered a "goth" period.  

[Cleopatra7]

 

Meredith in jeans!!?! Could this be a small glimmer of hope that Anna has decided to ditch the skirts (at least for younger babies)? I don't recall ever seeing Mackynzie wearing pants even once! Except maybe for a PJ onsie.

 

 

All I can think of when I see this picture is how that stupid headband is a choking hazard. I guess it's seen as a necessary counterbalance to the jeans, lest we forget that we're looking at a girl baby.

[16strong]

Meredith is adorable. And I'm not sure how an argument can be made for Anna letting herself go. At the time of Josh's cheating, she looked the best she ever had (clothes, makeup, hair, accessories). She certainly hadn't let herself go. Quite the opposite, actually.

[eandre31]

I didn't find out the sex of my son until I gave birth. I'm glad though because I hate that EVERYTHING has to be pink or blue when you find out the sex (according to others). He had many yellows, greens, and purples. 

He also was born with a full head of long (for a baby) dark brown hair that I refused to cut until he was over 1 year old. People would see the baby with the long hair wearing green and assume he was a girl. I didn't care. I don't think he did either

When he was a toddler he also picked out twin baby dolls and a purple and pink stroller. He took his babies everywhere with him and his stroller was his second favorite toy. I don't believe in strictly "boy" or "girl" toys. He also had an Easy Bake Oven, kitchen set, etc as he got older. 

Now he's 8 and he would be sooo embarrassed if I told any of his friends that. Oh well. I guess my pushing of gender neutral stuff got overthrown by elementary school. Lol

[nastyhobbitses]

I didn't find out the sex of my son until I gave birth. I'm glad though because I hate that EVERYTHING has to be pink or blue when you find out the sex (according to others). He had many yellows, greens, and purples. 

He also was born with a full head of long (for a baby) dark brown hair that I refused to cut until he was over 1 year old. People would see the baby with the long hair wearing green and assume he was a girl. I didn't care. I don't think he did either

When he was a toddler he also picked out twin baby dolls and a purple and pink stroller. He took his babies everywhere with him and his stroller was his second favorite toy. I don't believe in strictly "boy" or "girl" toys. He also had an Easy Bake Oven, kitchen set, etc as he got older. 

Now he's 8 and he would be sooo embarrassed if I told any of his friends that. Oh well. I guess my pushing of gender neutral stuff got overthrown by elementary school. Lol

A+ parenting. No sarcasm there. I think it's important to let young kids figure out their own interests, and not tell them that something is "for girls" or "for boys". The fact that you let your son figure out his interests on his own is awesome.