Oh, I have been having so much fun buying clothes for Elizabeth! She has only older brothers, and so we have to start from scratch on her wardrobe. I do love handmedowns: the way a shirt can be used for one, two, three, FOUR boys, the original expense of it divided smaller and smaller as each boy grows into it. But I also love to shop for baby clothes, and I love new things.
This is why I need to whisper very quietly that I was a little disappointed when an extremely nice and generous woman I know gave us three enormous plastic bins of baby girl clothes when I was pregnant with the twins—clothes all the way up to size 18 months. Disappointed? Even a little? Oh, how ungrateful! Oh, how very ungrateful of me! And I WAS also happy, and I DID thank her earnestly and sincerely and I truly meant it. But my secret inner heart had wanted the excuse to shop for baby girl things. My secret inner heart had been pretending to be so very burdened by the necessity of going out and buying EVERYTHING PINK IN EVERY STORE WITHIN 100 MILES OF OUR HOUSE. So although my practical, frugal self was delighted with these piles and piles of free, gorgeous baby clothes, my secret inner heart was kicking pebbles sulkily and getting in trouble for having a bad attitude.
I have tried to be patient over the years. I have said that I don’t care if I have boys or girls, and I stand by that claim—but I have never said that I don’t care if I shop for boy clothes or girl clothes. I have managed to find cuteness in boy clothes: the jeans, the little t-shirts, the overalls, the sneakers—but I have not found anything like the joy of buying Elizabeth’s first over-the-top frilly dress, satiny pink with puffed sleeves and layers and layers of skirt, the top layer threaded through with pink satiny ribbons and little pink fabric roses, and a matching pink satin headband with a pink fabric rose on it. In size newborn.
Notice I said we had girl handmedowns up to size 18 months. Notice that Elizabeth is now about 22 months old. For this coming spring and summer, do you know what we have for her to wear? NOTHING. Well, we DID have nothing. Remember my online shopping trip the other day? When I was supposed to be shopping for poor Rob? Four crochet-trimmed bodysuits. A flowered skirt. A skirt with a wide band of lace. Two cardigans. A pair of tights.
And do you know where I went yesterday? To The Children’s Place store in our mall. They had a bunch of the stuff that the online store had been out of stock of. Which is my excuse for an embroidered zip-up hoodie. Three pairs of pedal pushers. Two shirts with cutie round collars and little puffed sleeves.
Everything coordinates. You can put this shirt with those pedal pushers and that hoodie, or you can put it with that skirt and this cardigan. It is a wonder to behold. Boys and girls are both wonderful. But girl CLOTHES are better.
Pictures, please!
Girl clothes are better without a doubt! I am truly pleased to be having a boy this time, but when I have gone to the stores and investigated the newborn boy attire with a mind to buy, I have not been overwhelmed with glee to say the least. Is there some sort of rule that EVERY boy T-shirt must have dinosaurs or dump trucks on it?
You’re making me salivate with your descriptions of girl clothes. I’m right with you… I don’t care if I have a boy or girl this time, but in the tiniest little voice I will just say that I would so want to shop for those frilly things for a girl. Because yes, all little boy clothes have either dinosaurs or dump trucks on them! =)
I always thought I would rather dress a girl. When my sonwas born I have to admit I had a hoot buying Long sleeve onsies to layer with rugby shirts and carpenter jeans.
I love boys clothes more now.
Children’s Place gets me every time. As does buying warm weather clothing after surviving the dreary winter. Good for you for indulging a little. It will be so gratifying when she looks so cute. You’ll have to be sure to post a couple pics of the new wardrobe!
That’s funny because I’m the EXACT opposite. I’m ALL in to the boy clothes since we had a girl before.
But then I look at the girl things and go, “I don’t remember anything THAT cute when LB was tiny!”
And no, I’m not having a third just to see what clothes I’d buy. ;-)
Oh yes, pictures!!!
I do love buying clothes for our little guy, but when I see some of those sweet girly clothes it does make me sad…because boys clothes can be fun, but there is something about flowers, pink stripes & lace.
I love girl clothes too… there are just so many more options for cute! For boys, though, they look awfully cute in a hockey sweater or a dorky sweater vest!
Omg no kidding. And have you ever noticed how in any given store, there is roughly 75% more girl clothes than boy clothes? Great when you have a girl, little bit harder to dress the boys though.
I was sad in the store last week, looking at how all the smaller sizes of the dresses I was buying came with cute little bloomers. I think they look cutest in little sun dresses at that age (okay sue me) and this year it’s all about the smocked shirts and capris.
I had to start my summer stuff almost from scratch for both kids after riding this long on hand me downs. I had fun with both. The girl stuff was a frenzy of throwing crap in the cart left and right and then forcing myself to be reasonable and pare it down a bit. The boy stuff was a challenge of finding nice collared shirts and clean solid color tees and little shorts he probably won’t wear because I’m lazy and he’ll probably wear a shirt and a diaper when we’re home.
Even thought only have boys, I totally get this.
At my kids daycare, there is a little girl named Kayla who is a walking fashion dream. She knows I love her outfits so now we have a routine where every morning she runs over and shows me what she has on and I make her twirl for me. The other day she brought all four pairs of her (tiny, sparkly, bright, ADORABLE) new summer sandals to show me. I love it. I am living the shopping-for-girls-clothes-dream vicariously through Kayla.
I always thought I would prefer having a girl, so I could shop for cutsie dresses and such. But when we found out we were having a boy, I found the joy in boys clothing. It’s fun to dress him up and make him look like such a little man.
I had the same experience with someone giving us some clothes. At first I didn’t use many of them, because we had so many cute new outfits. Then I got into the hand-me-downs. They were name brand, hardly used, nice nice clothes. So i used both. My son has always had TONS of clothes. I love buying things, and I just can’t help myself.
Before Easter my husband made this comment about girls’ clothes: “When I have a little girl, I’m going to buy her the pinkest cutest dress I can find.” This made me laugh. He could care less about clothes most of the time. I think HE wants a little girl to dress up more than me. And I know a little girl would be fun to buy for. If I have fun looking for boy stuff, it will take me 3 times as long to shop for girl things because there it so much to choose from.
I know just how you feel. I have a friend who has a daughter exactly 1 year older than my girl so all the way up to 18 months we had her hand me downs which I was SO grateful for (but a little disapointed I wasn’t getting to buy all the cute new stuff). Now my girl is the same size as our friends daughter (she is 3 but the size of your average 2 year old) so no more hand me downs, darn ;o)
Enjoy it while you can. My six year old daughter got several cute and fasionable outfits for Christmas this year. Does she like them…??? NO! She wants to wear the same pair of jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt every day. Sigh. I wish I could wear her clothes!
Oh, I feel the same way! We were in Spain for a couple of weeks and every now and then I would look accusingly at my (very cute btw) son and ask why oh why he isn’t a girl! Usually this happened in close proximity to a very pretty dress with plenty of frills.
My husband has promised that his sperm will only produce girls from now on :)
Boys are wonderful, but girls clothes are the best!
I’m smiling because my girl likes red and orange, and when we have to get dressed up, she requests “fancy pants” *not* a skirt or dress.
I love Children’s Place. They have the best stuff.
I went caaaarazy at a consignment sale recently on girl clothes. Most of this stuff looked as if it had never been worn. So much cuter than boy stuff.
One good thing about having a girl!
Between a friend with a daughter one year older and the fact that Harper is the only grandchild on both sides of our family, we’ve hardly had to buy her a stitch of clothing. When I do have to buy something, it’s socks! This has been great for the wallet, but not so fun. My mother-in-law, recognizing this, will now occasionally just give us money and let us shop for Harper ourselves. Because, yes, little girl clothes are so much fun!
I already have an entire laundry basket full of clothes just waiting to fill Zoe’s drawers. (Not that I’m done shopping… especially if I see a sale!) If this cold weather would just leave us already… Zoe is just going to be soooo adorable in all of her new girly sun-dresses and little summer rompers! I think it’s even more fun to dress girls in the summer than in the winter (if that’s possible).
Mrs. Flinger: Oh, come on, be a sport. Just ONE more, just to see FOR SURE about the clothes.
Everyone asking for pictures: All right, all right–soon!
Thanks for rubbing in the main reason I have for wanting a girl — I LOVE buying girl clothes. Even my friends and family have all been having boys since I had my boys. Booooorrrriiinnng!
The downsides to girls’ clothes? First of all, you end up buying most of them not because your daughter needs them, or even has occasion to wear them, but because they’re deliciously cute.
Then, there’s the fact that almost everything is pink. I’m so sick of pink I could poke my eyes out. Maddie owns all the purple outfits I could find and buy.
Finally, there’s the fact the everything has ruffles or bows or embroidery on it. I want a pair of plain jeans or denim shorts for her and all of them have CRAP on them. That forces me to match her shirt to the pants and limits what she can wear. I know it sounds ridiculous to complain about this stuff, but it gets seriously annoying after a while.
Erica: I do know what you mean. Even though I love pink, I wouldn’t dress boys in all-blue-all-the-time, either. Elizabeth has a couple of blue shirts and they provide such fresh relief to the eyes, it makes me buy her more and more in non-pink colors. But I still love pink. Target has some cute plain denim shorts, $3.99 and they were just on sale for $3 and probably will be again. They had the same ones in army green–again, no frillies or appliques. You’re right about the jeans problem: it’s hard to find ones without embroidery. Particularly hearts and butterflies. It’s like the trucks and dinosaurs thing with boys.
I have to second that!
Boys clothes suck! Girls clothes rule! :)