A vinyl-coated foam crib bumper decorated with baby animals in pastel colors – a pink bunny, yellow chick, powder-blue kitten – girdled the first six inches above the mattress and was knotted to each of the four posts. A vinyl cover that waterproofed the mattress was, in turn, wrapped in a quilted mattress pad so stained with overlapping yellow and coffee-colored rings that it could have been a tie-dyed wall hanging from his parents’ hippie days. Two sealed boxes, labeled “Baby Clothes” and “Baby Stuff” in heavy black marking pen, sat tilted on the mattress. A blue-and-white high chair lay folded under the crib, with its food tray and a hot-pink plastic potty chair stuffed on top of it.

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