Baby gifts

I was looking at these teddy bears the other day and thought I'd snap a picture to see if anyone else thinks they're really weird. I call them the demonic teddy bears. No eyes, nose, clothing, except for a ribbon around the neck. The metalic plasticky one is particularly disturbing. I received them in the mail a few days after Grace was born from a former colleague of Sejin's. I was thinking I may try to embroider some eyes and nose and maybe even knit some clothes for them. They look so scary now.

The demonic bears got me thinking about all the baby gifts I received (and am still receiving) since Grace was born. I was surprised to get so many. The doorbell rang steady for a week. Mostly clothes. Some really nice ones too. The problem is, quite a bit of the clothing will fit her in the wrong season! She'll probably never wear some stuff. Some of the really small stuff she got she only wore a few times. Among the best gifts we received was a huge box of Pampers from my friends Ed and Joo. Also, my friend A got Grace a really nice bottle of luxury baby oil. We also got a nice warm baby blanket we used a lot. Oh yes, and the Aprica baby sling was good for the first couple of months. My sister sent some nice books. My mom made a bunch of stuff -- some really nice blankets that can't be grown out of!

But I don't blame people at all for buying ill-fitting and impractical baby clothes. It really is the thought that counts and I, myself, was a poor baby gift buyer. Thinking back, I was guilty of buying less than useful gifts. I would typically buy clothing, the cuter then better (not always the best choice), and I would buy it for the baby's current size. For example, for a baby's 1st birthday, I would go to Dongdaemun and ask for clothing that would fit a one-year-old. Now I know that is the worst thing to do! Always buy at least a size up and keep the season in mind. I've even bought silly things myself, things you buy because "it's just so cute!!" I'm cutting back on those purchases though. A baby can only wear so many headbands and ruffly socks. I don't know why I'm writing about this. I was just thinking about all the baby stuff I have.

In other news, Sejin and I posted Grace's pics on a couple of baby modeling websites and one of the sites contacted him requesting more pictures. But they want studio pictures. Too bad I don't have the 400 bucks to shell out for those! Perhaps we'll go to Igloo and do the 'self' photos. We've been meaning to for a while...