The More the Merrier?

Here's the weird place where I am in my life right now.  I see Basia with all those stuffed animals, and I think two different thoughts.  Number One:  How cute.  Number Two:  In a matter of months we will   be bringing a preschooler into our family.  This preschooler will arrive without 4 million toys to call his/her own.  Basia will happily share everything she owns in the world.  Brishen will learn to loosen his grip on his Legos and share, too.  Those won't be problems.  The thing is that this will likely be the first time in the child's life that he/she will be able to have his* very own things.  Unfortunately, he won't have had years of birthdays and Christmases and Easters and trips to Target with Aunt Saralyn or Grandmother or Grandma before he gets here.  How many toys should we have that are just his before we even know him or can figure out what he likes?  

These are the silly things I find myself pondering these days.  There is no right answer, and I realize that.  I know that we will make sure there is a special bed and a special dresser full of clothes and a special stockpile of books and toys that the child can call his own.  I also know that I am not about to buy the child's very first thing until I get that very first picture.  If I start shopping now, there will be no stopping me! 

*I'm just going to start calling him a "he" because we've been told that it will likely be a 3 or 4 year-old boy.  I've been picturing a boy all along, anyway.  The only problem is that I was sure that Brishen was a girl and Basia was a boy.  There are no guarantees, but I'm tired of typing "he/she" all the time when I'm thinking "he" in my  head.  I just don't want you all to think I'm using sexist language.  I just really think it will be a little boy.