"Well at least he got to wear this once or twice." I said that to First Time Dad (FTD) today while packing away some of Oliver's summer clothes. With Autumn around the corner I've started packing away summer clothes Oliver will not wear anymore. As I put a few of his super cute dressier outfits away, I couldn't help but sulk about the fact that he had barely wore them. This summer we spent most of our days hanging around the house in light weight onesies. There was no point wearing the cute Osh Kosh B' Gosh Overall outfit to just sit around and drool on.
What really mean by "putting away" is bye bye cute outfit forever. Of course I am going to keep a few of his best outfits, just in case I need them again, or have a friend who has a 4-6 month old boy next summer. But lets face it, most likely these clothes are probably not going to be used again by my own child. I'd have to be pregnant, by 3 months, right now for that to happen in the next year, and trust me I am not!
Today's experience taught me that when I go buy his seasonal clothes, I need to remember that we are not a very social, go-out-all-of-the-time family, we will benefit more from one piece long sleeve footy zip ups, not super cute complicated clothes. Besides, Oliver doesn't give a crap what he wears. I have no doubt he would rather spend his days free balling. Diapers and clothes just get in his way. In fact, in a perfect world he would spend his day wearing only a diaper... and a helmet to protect him from his face planting and poor attempts at thrusting forward while trying to crawl.
In order to not cry over barely worn clothes I need to...
1. Not buy that many-or really only get what I absolutely need at first. We all know we fall for that super cute outfit on the sale rack every time we go to Target or TJ Max.
2. ONLY buy on super sale, clearance or at thrift and consignment stores.
3. Call every friend I have with kids and see what cute outfit they have stashed away for that "just in case" scenario.
4. Save my damn pennies because I'm going to need them every season until my son is (at least) 18...
19 comments:
I decided that I would 1) Save the outfits that I LOVED (future babies or just to show my little one how little she used to be!) 2) Make a baby blanket out of outfits I really like/were worn a lot so that they will get some more use out of them and 3) donate the rest to new parents who are struggling.
Like you, we are only buying what we need + a few things that are really cute for the upcoming season. They grow so fast, though, it's hard to know what to buy!! And what about shoes?! My daughter will be walking soon (I've been saying that for two months now). But what size do I buy, how long until she needs the next size up, and what kind should we get?! Ack!
Shoes! Shit.
I'm loving the baby blanket idea. When you finish will you email me a picture?
With Rebecca in the hospital for three months before we came home you should see the amount of clothing she has! It gave everyone plenty of time to buy lots of clothing. She also has 30 pairs of shoes at last count. At least 12 of them are size one. Though at just about seven months corrected age, Rebecca is still only 12 pounds. So she's worn them a fair bit. Even if it's only while I'm taking pictures for the far away Grandparents.
I'm the worst. I put my babies in the formal outfits and say screw it. Nathan wore the world's dressiest outfits nearly every day. I'd shove that boy into seersuckers, cords, blazers, peter-pan collared onesies, etc. Noelle? I'm sure she'll write a hate you letter to me one day. She goes through about four clothes changes per day. She goes to sleep in her sleepers, gets changed into a summery sweet bloomers and cotton woven top for the day, gets a dress for any dinners out of the house, and a onesie/leggings for if she spits up, poops a ton, or just needs to get comfortable.
HA! I literally spent hours and hours yesterday going through all of Chase's clothes, sorting out give-away from EBay. Like Baby Rebecca, with Chase's early arrival, he didn't wear hardly anything until the end of his hospital stay, then only wore things once or twice, and has been all over the board with what he fits into during what season. I also had the idea to make a quilt from some of the onesies and cute outfits, but opted for the Ebay route instead :) Only keeping one tiny sleeper outfit that is just stunning to see how small it is!
ive just cleared out all my newborn stuff for a cousin of mine. Jesus why do we by so much when they grow out of it so quick? Shoes? what baby wears shoes.. i ended up finding lots of lovely unworn little bits that id forgotton about.. i told my OH that i "refuse to get rid of these ones".. to which he replied "you cant just keep them for the sake of it".. my response? throwing them in the keepsake box. Who cant!
Of course!! :-)
Sweet!
30 pairs of shoes! Little diva already! Ollie has two pairs. We don't ever bother with shoes. We are a onesie and go family.
Wow! I'm starting to feel lazy from all of these comments today! Oliver has a sleep sack and one outfit. Unless he ruins it we will put on one more. I suppose I could get more use of my clothes... Nah, I am lazy... ;)
I bet it's too cute. Since Chase's whole body fit in a baseball glove!
I'm loving the keepsake box! I'm going to the local craft store to get one!
We got a memory teddy (well actually a lion) out of sam's babygrows. have a handfull of amber for hers to send off. amber got many hand me downs and with some of sam's old babygrows i've hardly bought anything. must admit though she sleeps in vests or babygrows and has outfits for daytime unless she's poorly or we've rushed out.xx
I can't tell you how many outfits she never got to wear, luckily they were all hand-me-downs. But all that time I wasted sorting, washing, folding, and then sorting again. I would have gladly kept her in sleepers this whole time, but I around month 3 I noticed it was hindering her physical development by not having traction with her feet. But I love one piece, long or short sleeves and long pants outfits that snap at the bottom. None of that taking off pants to change diapers or bare midriff business. Worst of all, she is like the princess and the pea. If her shirt bunches under her at nap or bedtime, she will not sleep.
Ahhh... yes... the loads of newborn clothes that James got that he never wore... Makes me kind of sad. But one thing that he did get tons of which I never understood was newborn socks. He has 20 pairs! I humored whoever bought them for me and made James wear a couple of pairs which was a huge fail. His feet were too small and he ended up kicking them off within the first 5 minutes. They were lost, never to be seen again... I swear James lived in sleepers and onsies for the first 4 months of life. Just now are we starting to dress him in shorts and shirts. But I can tell that it's a pain for our daycare provider and lots of times he returns to us at the end of the day in just a onsie... shortless...
My Daughter turns 3 in two weeks. I was sorting through her play clothes to pass along and it made me so sad. Even the grubby ones. I never thought passing these clothes on would cause an emotional response. I guess it's accepting the fact that she is growing up. Bittersweet.
It really is so bittersweet.
If you have the storage space i would recommend keeping the clothes that are in good shape. It just so happened that our daughters bdays, though four years apart, are April 22 and April 29- so we are really glad we saved the first baby's clothes!
Christmas is around the corner, which means I'll be making the blanket soon! I was looking through all the fabric from her clothes this evening... it's amazing how much she's grown in just over a year. :-)
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