How many of you save your kids' special keepsakes or hand-me-downs for their younger sibs, with your ex and his new wife?
I saved TONS of stuff from my oldest kids (twin boys, 15). I was so young when I had them that I felt sure I'd eventually get married and have another kid, so I gave myself license to save anything that was sentimental, or particularly cute. I was never into the matchy-matchy twin stuff, but they received a lot of gifts, which were nearly always identical (or the same item, in different colors). When my 2-year-old came along, I basically used one of the twins' items for him and saved the matching one for my ex and his wife.
I really treasured having special baby hand-me-downs from friends and relatives (and from the twins to the 2-year-old). I didn't know of anyone else to give family keepsakes to my ex and his wife, because his parents don't really hang onto things; he had his kids before his sister or any of his cousins; his wife has no siblings and her cousins are all younger. Plus, some of the things just should go to his new babies, like the special blankets his grandmother gave the twins when they came home from the hospital. By the time my ex married his wife, his grandmother had full-blown Alzheimer's and she died before their baby was born.
Anyway, my ex and his wife recently had their 1st baby (also a boy) and I enjoyed passing along all the things I'd saved for them. I tied ribbons around things, with a note that this had been a gift from (my ex)'s sister, or his Mom, or that this was the twins' favorite lullabye c.d., or their first hat... But I'm sure it would've been harder to share these things with her, if there were only one of them! Everything really special, that I used for my 2-year-old and want to hang onto for my little sister's babies, I had a duplicate!
So, how do the rest of you feel about passing along treasured keepsakes to a baby who IS your kids' sibling, but who's NOT your child... especially if that keepsake is the only one?
I saved TONS of stuff from my oldest kids (twin boys, 15). I was so young when I had them that I felt sure I'd eventually get married and have another kid, so I gave myself license to save anything that was sentimental, or particularly cute. I was never into the matchy-matchy twin stuff, but they received a lot of gifts, which were nearly always identical (or the same item, in different colors). When my 2-year-old came along, I basically used one of the twins' items for him and saved the matching one for my ex and his wife.
I really treasured having special baby hand-me-downs from friends and relatives (and from the twins to the 2-year-old). I didn't know of anyone else to give family keepsakes to my ex and his wife, because his parents don't really hang onto things; he had his kids before his sister or any of his cousins; his wife has no siblings and her cousins are all younger. Plus, some of the things just should go to his new babies, like the special blankets his grandmother gave the twins when they came home from the hospital. By the time my ex married his wife, his grandmother had full-blown Alzheimer's and she died before their baby was born.
Anyway, my ex and his wife recently had their 1st baby (also a boy) and I enjoyed passing along all the things I'd saved for them. I tied ribbons around things, with a note that this had been a gift from (my ex)'s sister, or his Mom, or that this was the twins' favorite lullabye c.d., or their first hat... But I'm sure it would've been harder to share these things with her, if there were only one of them! Everything really special, that I used for my 2-year-old and want to hang onto for my little sister's babies, I had a duplicate!
So, how do the rest of you feel about passing along treasured keepsakes to a baby who IS your kids' sibling, but who's NOT your child... especially if that keepsake is the only one?
) SO if they had a baby.
I really, really hope she's alive to personally enforce (or better yet, revise) her position is we should ever divorce.
These would be Russian Orthodox icons, not Jewish Orthodox icons. But still, you know, good vibes from the great-grandma. If there's an afterlife, she's looking out for us - peering out from the icon, for all I know. Maybe that's how the afterlife works if you're Russian Orthodox. 
