baby clothes

Looking Back in Time

I was getting out some new (to her), clothes for Chickadee today, in a larger size, and in preparation for fall. As I was going through the box, I felt like I was looking back in time, remembering when all of those clothes had been worn. It was like being reintroduced to old friends, finding clothes that I had loved in the past, and finding a few things I had forgotten about, and can’t wait to see in use again.

The weird thing, though, was that with most of the clothes, I still saw Bunny wearing them in my mind’s eye, even though Ladybug was the most recent of our daughters to wear them. I guess because most of the clothes had been bought specifically for Bunny, and she wore them first, that’s how the images were branded on my mind. I didn’t realize that until today, though, and it kind of took me by surprise!

The Last Remaining Firsts

By my accounting, Chickadee has two last “first holidays” to celebrate before she turns one. They’re not even real holidays, like Easter (she was just under two and a half weeks old for her first Easter, so she was especially tiny for that “first!”), or Christmas, but celebratory days, just the same.

In less than a week, Chickadee will experience her first Valentine’s Day. Normally, this day is barely even on my radar, but I decided that this would be a special Valentine’s Day for two reasons. First, I agreed to prepare a special Valentine’s Day tea party for my children, which they’re very excited about. To be honest, I’m pretty excited about it, too! Second, Valentine’s Day happens to be on a Thursday this year, which is Chickadee’s regularly scheduled picture day, as she was born on a Thursday. Since I knew I’d be taking her weekly picture anyway, I figured this would be an appropriate way to mark one of her last first holidays:

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The other special day she’ll get to celebrate for the first time is St. Patrick’s Day. This probably sounds even stranger than celebrating Valentine’s Day, but St. Patrick’s Day is one of my five favorite holidays every year (yes, I have a list). Yes, it’s right up there with Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Independence Day. To be honest, I’m not sure where it falls on my list of five, but it could rank as high as favorite holiday number three…and I’m not even Irish! I love it anyway, though, and always make a big deal out of it at our house. So, of course, when I saw this on sale, I knew Chickadee “needed” it:

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You might notice that both of these outfits reference Daddy instead of the long-suffering Mommy. I’ve made my peace with it…after all, she insisted on saying Dada, and only Dada, for several months before she ever uttered Mama. It seems fitting that her special day shirts would reflect her unique, rather mischievous, personality!

Another Baby Clothes Story

This sleeper has become something of a family heirloom. All of our children except Moose have worn it on their first Christmas (Moose was only about six weeks old for his first Christmas, so he had his own, very small, “My First Christmas” sleeper). They ranged in age from five months to over nine months when wearing it, so it fit different children differently. I was a little concerned that it wouldn’t fit Chickadee (it barely fit Turkey, but it was the largest size available), but it snapped up with minimal straining. It is a maddening piece of clothing, because it snaps down the back, which makes getting it on and changing diapers exercises in frustration, but it’s also extraordinarily cute and soft, and babies tend to look like a candy cane in it, so the aggravation is well worth it!

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This is one of those pieces of clothing that I’ll never give away, and should any of our children ever want to use it for their own children in the future, it will be here, just waiting to celebrate another first Christmas!

Four Months

It’s hard to believe Chickadee is four months old already! It was also exactly one year ago today that I found out I was pregnant with her…how time flies!

This is another outfit that tells a story. I bought this one at the end of the summer that Bunny was born. She really didn’t need it, and didn’t get to wear it very many times, but it was on clearance for $3, so I got it…it was too pretty and girly not to! Seeing as how all three of our girls have now worn it, I’d definitely say I got my money’s worth!

The Stories Clothes Tell

When I saw Chickadee in this sundress today, I was hit with a flood of memories…

When I was pregnant with Bunny, I only had one ultrasound, unlike every other pregnancy, where I had several to many scans. And at that one ultrasound, they couldn’t determine if she was a girl or a boy because of the way she was positioned. But I knew she was a girl, with 100% certainty. This was surprising to me at the time, because I had had no clue at all about Turkey before his ultrasound, (although with every subsequent pregnancy, I also knew…must be an experienced mom thing!), so to be so sure came as something of a shock. Other people guessed I was having a girl, too, based on how I was carrying, but I knew it…as much as you can know that sort of thing without any proof.

So, when I saw this adorable little sundress prior to Bunny’s birth, I went out on a limb and took a leap of faith and bought it. In the back of my mind, I knew I could be wasting ten dollars, because it was purchased far enough before her birth that it would have been outside the return window by the time she arrived. But my heart knew that we were having a little girl who would look adorable in it. And if only the back of my mind had known that we’d have not one, but three girls to wear this dress, it wouldn’t have worried about the ten dollars at all!

The Tie Breaker

With two boys and two girls in the family already, we knew that this baby was obviously going to be a tie breaker. Today was ultrasound day, where we hoped to find out who was going to “win.” I’m happy to announce that the balance of power in our household has tipped in favor of the girls!

Our little Chickadee, (nickname subject to change), was mostly cooperative during the ultrasound, although I’m having another one in four weeks, because she was doing her best to hide her heart. Everything looks good, though, and I was especially relieved that I no longer need to live in fear of the one pregnancy complication I knew was possible, and potentially dangerous.

While we were out, I stopped to buy her a “going home outfit” at the Carter’s store, (I like to plan ahead). I figure the weather in March will be similar to the weather now, so the timing was perfect. I was quite shocked to remember just how tiny newborn clothes are, though!

Today was a great day, and I’m happy that we can now give this little person a name, (and grateful that I can stop trying to come up with a boy name, because that wasn’t going very well!)!