My friend Lisa and her partner, Ginny, just gave birth to twins (it was an IVF kind of thing...I guess the PC thing is not to wonder how two women managed to concieve but there you go) and I've been wondering what to get them.

There is a bunch of ugly-ass baby gear out there, let me tell you. Pastel everything and wretched little appliques and it's all a disaster.

There is a chichi baby store in the neighborhood where my office is and they have little baby beanies in their display window that say BOOB MAN on them. Funny.

I checked out Nordstrom's Rack today and found two hoodie sweatshirts, impossbily small ("12 months" says the label) and I got them. One is navy, one is dark green, I would wear either one of them if they were sized for 421 months rather than for 12.

I remember reading a Ms. Manners book (back in my childhood when the idea of doing something like reading Ms. Manners, for pleasure, made sense) where the topic of Baby Talk came up. Ms. Manners recommendation was that you speak to the infant about adult topics rather than speak in a childish "izza widdle" voice. Because the contrast of you saying "if you don't involve the world community when you go after a dictator, then you can hardly expect the world to rally around..." to an infant who sits staring at you in a funny old-man-yet-newborn sort of way is funny enough, certainly funnier than talking baby talk and has the advantage that the kid might pick up something here or there.

So it should be with their clothing. I think it's questionable to dress twins identically but a navy hoodie and a dark green hoodie mean that these kids get the classics, early on. If they were older they might choose to modify them by safety-pinning a band's logo or by adding studs along the shoulder. But they are cute not because they have an embroidered Eyore on the pocket but because they look so ready to attend the next Indigo Girls concert.

The past few days have made me think a lot about whether or not I want to have kids. I'm in love with Alex who has actually said, out loud, "I don't want to be 35 and having my first kid". For me to be 35 and having my first kid would mean I would need to get on the ball, like NOW, I would have less than 90 days. So that's a no-go.

Oddly, before Alex had mentioned that, I had always thought of being a dad as being a 50ish thing to do. I would have some money then ( a mysterious process would be taking place between here and there you see) and I would feel confident enough in the world that I could take on a whole other human, one who really needed me in unbelievably tangible ways, and that would be good, not a disaster.

I remember reading Chris Rock, after 9/11, saying that the disaster had prompted him to want to have kids with his wife, saying "you need a product". And as much as I feel I should hate it, I like that idea. Making a baby, or a few, with a partner. You can argue, and no doubt I will, that we have evolved beyond that. But there is no doubt that we have at the very least evolved to that and I am not certain how I take my place within that vast, vast grid.

In the meantime, I've made a folder in my internet bookmarks called "Baby Clothes".