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COPYRIGHT 2004 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.
When Jean-Marie Maier, of Sunrise, Florida, suspected that she was pregnant with her first child, she and her husband, Ken, did what many modern parents do: they bought a home pregnancy test, and, after celebrating the positive result, started a blog. Because they were seized by the myopia of impending parenthood, and because they had time on their hands (both had recently been laid off from corporate jobs), they built an astonishingly comprehensive site, where the casual browser can now hear baby Kate cry and watch a video of her cooing on the changing table. The baby is chubby and adorable, and the changing table is a Babi Italia Natural Carlisle, which retails for $179.99 and features two shelves, a storage drawer, and swivel casters with brakes. I know the second fact not only because I have seen photographs of Ken assembling the thing but also because one of the links on baby Kate's blog is to her Babies R Us registry, a list of some forty-two items with a combined cost of close to two thousand dollars.
The Maiers' site is an Aladdin's cave of baby merchandise, filled with Ocean Wonders Aquarium Bouncers and ExerSaucer Ultras and Lil' Dippers, and every item--right down to the Behr Premium Plus paint in a shade of soft pink called Hopeful--is linked to the relevant product and purchasing information. Baby products, it would seem, are integral to Jean-Marie's experience of motherhood. The long day spent indoors waiting out Hurricane Frances was made easier by a Playskool Step Start Walk 'n Ride. A playdate with a little boy named Tyler was a fun time to bring out the LeapStart Learning Table, and Kate's first Denny's meal was a treat partly because her new Floppy Seat restaurant-high-chair cover worked so well. The special section called "Our First Three Months" is divided into several parts, including "The Good," "The Bad," and "The Amazing." The Simmons Contoured Changing Pad was good, but the Sassy Deluxe Curved Back and Side Sleeper was amazing. ("Does it really work or is it just our lucky charm? Whatever the answer, ever since we purchased it Kate has been sleeping anywhere from five to eight hours in her bassinet at night.") The less said about the Tiny Love Symphony Animal Mobile the better.
"She was our first baby, so we wanted everything new," Jean-Marie told me. "Besides, there are always new products coming out--something safer or more interesting." One of her few maternal regrets is that Kate was born before the introduction of the Fisher-Price Baby Papasan infant seat, which features calming vibrations and eight soothing songs.
Americans spend six billion dollars a year on gear for their babies. Of the four million babies born here each year, a million of them will be registered at Babies R Us. Wal-Mart and Target, two other large purveyors of infant furniture and products, do not make such statistics available,...
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