Monster Size Savings!

I don't know why this struck me as SO amazing, but it did...

I was in Christiana Mall today and even though I told myself I wouldn't buy anything - I did.

Children's Place is having a pretty big $2.99 sale.

I walked away with 3 pair of Cargo pants, 1 pair of cords, 2 thermals, 2 sweatshirts, 1 long sleeve shirt and a fleece for under 30 bucks. Obviously none of these items are super trendy or amazing, but they're some of the basics to start any season off with for layering, etc. Their boy's selection was starting to slim out a bit, but there was a considerable amount of stuff left to chose from.

I remember this past summer I had gone to the Gap towards the end of the season and picked up a few items for Jude as he was outgrowing one size or another and gotten some good deals, but didn't want to buy for the following summer because I was afraid we'd not have the right size for the right season. However, if he continues to be pretty consistent, I just might be "that mom" who shops a year in advance (and of course goes back to pick up some 'current fashions' when the time comes).

More than enough...

Around Christmas time I made it clear to family and friends that Jude really didn't need anything. Of course, we got some stuff for him and it was all lovely, but thank goodness we didn't get a lot of clothes.

Jude's closet is pretty large. It's deceiving from the outside, but when you open the door, you see that it goes into the wall a bit making it a really good size. In addition there are two bars in his closet. One up high towards the ceiling and one down about eye level. After our baby shower, both of these bars were packed FULL of clothes. The clothes on the bottom bar alone were all in the newborn/0-3/3-6 month rage. As with most kids, he zipped through those pretty quickly. It was only a matter of time before we started to slowly pull things down from the top - and of course buy things on our own (and we can't forget that mommom loves taking her little Jude bug shopping for new clothes). Quite regularly that bottom bar is stocked full of clothing options.

The other day I seriously ran out of room to hang his clothes up. I had to take all of his pants off of hangers and put them in his dresser (which to that point only held onesies and sheets) just to make enough room.

As I was taking them down, I decided to count them. Eighteen. That is the number of pants this kid owns! To make it worse, those are ONLY the pants that don't go to outfits. If they were sweatsuits, I left them together. Even more, I STILL HAD LAUNDRY TO DO! It is quite possible that he has somewhere near 30 pair of pants that fit him currently... I could without a dress him for the entire month of February without repeating a pair of pants.

Then I decided to count his hoodies and jackets. I know there were a few scattered around the house, but in his closet alone... FIFTEEN. That's about where my counting stopped... but I will say again... this kid does not need any clothes.

Fashionably Flat

At one point while I was pregnant/trying to get pregnant/ not even considering getting pregnant I was at work and one of the wives of the guys who work out in the field came in to discuss benefits or something with HR. I had met this woman a handful of times before and always enjoyed her. She was very presentable and just pretty put together (and of course nice). But not this time. She had a child a couple of months before and I guess like some moms, she just stopped caring about herself as much and started focusing more and more on her child. Totally understandable... to some degree.

As any non-mother would, I totally judged her. I remember wondering "how can you go out in public in a wind suit? I didn't realize they still MADE them! a friend of mine wore one of those to our Halloween party as a JOKE! Did you even BOTHER to brush your hair??". I of course felt bad, but still... she was in need of a Stacy and Clinton smack to the face.

I made a 'vow' at that moment that I would never be "that mom". I did not want to lose my sense of identity. I did not want to embarrass my husband (well - with the way I look)... and eventually my kids. I did not want to stop caring.

To help with this, I decided after Jude was born (or maybe while I was pregnant) to do a good clean sweep of my closet. I goodwill-ed anything that I was even mildly unhappy with. We all have those items that we wear because all the good stuff is clean - well, I got rid of most of it. I had so little I felt nice in while I was pregnant, that I was ready to start feeling 'pretty' again. When I got down to my pre-baby weight I then treated myself to a nice little shopping spree. I picked up new jeans, some sweaters, shirts, and shoes. It was nice to be able to invest a little time (and money) into things for ME (and a few things for Ryan) after nearly 9 months of buying for baby.

Which brings me to: Shoes. They were always my weak point when getting dressed. That's not to say I'm some super trendy woman - but in relation to the rest of my sense of fashion... they were sub-par. So, I made it a point to leave room in my budget for some cute every day shoes. I walked away with a collection of ballet flats that I adore and have since worn them almost non-stop. I love them. They're so cute and nice little touch to any outfit.

Unfortunately though, they are killer on your feet/legs/back. There's obviously very little to no support. I complained once to Ryan that my feet hurt and he looked at me like I was crazy, b/c it was obviously my fault. But I still can't help it. I still wear them regularly and probably will continue to.

Again, this is not to say I'm a fashion goo-roo who is so much more trendy than any of her friends... but I'm just patting myself on the back for not falling victim to the mom fashion trap of waking up, throwing on sweats and bumming around the house all day (which would be totally possible since I'm not working!). I'm only wearing jeans and a nice shirt, but it makes me feel good to that on more than one occasion I've been asked what I was so 'dressed up' for while just sitting around the house (dressed up included nice pants, a sweater and shoes - not 'dressy' at all really)

This is what I had to recover from...

Question: What fashion trends have you/do you fall victim to? If you're a mom, do you often feel you're in that mom-fashion-trap? Lots of parents say their kids dress better than they do, is that your case?

Footsey Pajamas

Ryan and I are very anti-weather control in our house. AC = money. Heating = money. We try to go as long as possible without using either of these (I'll admit when we first moved in together it was a touchy subject, but I came over to the dark side). In New Castle, it wasn't as bad, but in our current home, there is at least twice as much space to heat and windows that are at least 1/2 as efficient.

In addition to this, who DOESN'T like to snuggle up under their blankets on a crisp fall night??

However, since 'soft bedding' is the devil when it comes to babies and the weather is taking a turn for the chilly side, we have become huge fans of the footsey pajamas for Jude!

Basically anyone you talk to will tell you no bumpers, pillows, blankets or stuffed animals in the crib. You should dress your baby for the weather and put them to bed. But what I'm wearing around the house on a cool day won't necessarily keep you warm on a cool night (you're sleeping, your body is relaxing, your breathing slows, bloods not pumping as quickly) and you get chilly. As a result we have been layering little man with PJ's to try and keep him as warm as possible. He has a collection of 'sleep sack' style pajamas, fleece footsey pajamas and regular footsey PJ's. Hopefully those will treat us good for awhile to avoid turning the heat on.

If not, back in to the big bed he'll go to snuggle with mommy and daddy.

I think I took for granted the warm summer nights that we could just put him to sleep in a onesie.

Last one for the night...

As Uncle Bryan calls him: BG "baby gangsta" - lookin' 'fly' in his sweater vest, chuck t's, and gap denim.

Fall Fashion

I was pretty fortunate at my shower to get a good bit of clothing for Jude in a variety of sizes - but as we got into bigger sizes there were only a few of each. Also, a lot of the larger outfits were pajamas.

Recently he started to outgrow some of his 3-6 month clothes, so I started to pull down his 6-9/6-12 month clothes to see what we had to work with for the upcoming fall season. He should be able to get through summer in his 3-6, but for Fall, there's no doubt he'll need a larger size. Unfortunately there wasn't too much, so I knew I would have to do a little shopping (oh darn...).

Knowing my mom wanted to pick up some outfits, we headed up to the mall and started the shopping. We got so many adorable outfits! Little baby denim, button up shirts, onesies, a hoodies, etc.

There are still a handful of things I'll need to pick up for my little munchkin, but he's on his way to a complete Fall closet.

There were so many people at the mall today too! Children's Place was packed! Not to mention some pretty great sales at Gymboree and baby Gap!

Big Boy Clothes

When Jude came home from the hospital he was just too small for his 0-3 month clothes. We have been getting by with what newborn gear we had and it's been working fine. Well, once he got into his 'big boy' cloth diapers, they added just the right amount of extra bulk to make his 0-3 month clothes not look too terribly large.

Since we discovered that the cloth diapers fit him, we've been using them on and off. We still had a few days worth of disposables and I figured it'd be better to throw them away dirty than throwing them away unused (if they're going in the trash either way, why not??). I've been using the cloth diapers a little though and so far it's been a breeze!

When he's wearing the cloth diapers his newborn gear just does NOT fit him. He's already getting a little too long for some of them and the added bulk just makes it worse. So, I figured now was a good time to transition to 0-3 month clothes for good. I started going through his cloths last night and boxing up anything that doesn't fit along with my maternity clothes.

It's so sad that already he's out growing so much and that part of our/his life is over. I'm so anxious for him to get bigger so we can actually DO things with him, but at the same time I know time will fly by and he'll be all grown up before we know it. I'm just trying to treasure every moment I can while he's still tiny and simple.

(but he looks ADORABLE in his batman shirt and khakis)