Sizing it up

I was recently shopping for some fall clothing for my kids (at Target). The Girl needed some new pants and a few long-sleeved shirts that don't scream "this is a hand-me-down from my brother can't you tell!" The Boy needed a new fall jacket, and a few pairs of pants. I had good luck finding the items for The Girl, she is a tall 2 year old with a long torso, so she is generally wearing size 2T (only if it sports an adjustable waistband) for pants and a 3T for shirts.

The Boy is a little trickier to shop for though. He has the same micro waist his sister has so adjustable waistbands are a necessity. He is almost too tall for 4T pants now, but I guess we will just make him wear high-waters this fall. I am at a loss for what size to buy him. I do occasionally see 5T sized clothes, but not always. I've ventured over to the "boys" section and see size 4 and size 5 clothing, but when comparing to the T series clothes they seem much bigger and baggier (which translates to very sloppy looking 4 year old). Does it make sense that a 5T sized shirt would look like it fits The Boy well, but a size 4/5 shirt looks like he is borrowing one of my old shirts for the day? Is this a result of style, do I just have to get used to my cute little boy swimming in his clothing before he can even demand such a thing?

I found this website, which gives a great summary of the size ranges for kids clothing. I think I will take The Boy's measurements to see where he falls.

Shuffling

I have been the proud owner of an MP3 player for many years, but I have been endlessly mocked by my DH for never changing the music on it. I use it only for running, and in a way it is sort of comforting to know that I'll hear the same mix each and every time. I'm not sure what that says about me. Anyway, part of it is laziness, because the MP3 player is so old we only have the software loaded on our old ancient computer. It takes like a year for that computer to boot up, and frankly I just don't have the patience for that. I really had no intention of actually updating the music on it anyway.


When I saw my brother on our most recent vacation he presented me with an Ipod Shuffle as a belated birthday present. This is the part where I feel badly, because I don't think I've acknowledged one of his birthdays in at least 5 years. Anyway, I finally got around to playing with the cute little Magenta Shuffle, and I'm in love. It is so cute, it is so quick to upload music too, and I even purchased my first song from Itunes. I guess I wasn't as happy with the same old mix as I thought I was. I fear this Itunes thing might become an expensive habit. It is so easy to just spend $.99 to get a fresh song. Dangerous.

Stroller intervention

The treadmilling around family consists of two parents, two kids, two plants, and four strollers. How do I explain the four strollers you ask? Well, we have the Graco Metrolite stroller that was handy for snapping infant carrier carseats into when the kidlets were tiny, then there is the Kool Stride by Kool Stop jogging stroller for when I need to run but have a kidlet in my care (we don't have a double jogger because well I'd mostly rather run on the treadmill than push two kids in a jogging stroller, but that is just me). We also have a Combi Twin Savvy double side-by-side stroller, which was handy in the days when The Boy would still sit in a stroller. Our forth stroller is a Koolcraft cheapie $20 green umbrella stroller. So which stroller do you think we use the most often? Truth be told our most loved stroller is the Graco stroller. However, we haven't spent much time cleaning it, and since it has gotten so much love it is pretty disgusting now. Yes, we could clean it out, give it a little stroller tune up so it performs optimally, but instead I've decided we need a new umbrella type stroller. We need one with a storage basket underneath you see. Now I just need to sell this idea to my DH. Do you think he will be excited about adding a 5th stroller to our family? I'm leaning towards no, but when it just shows up at our house for use on our upcoming vacation I figure he will just adjust.

It is a good thing I don't have a shoe habit, because with soon to be 5 strollers, and the at least 7 diaper bags that have passed through my possession I have another problem. I have a baby gear addiction. Do you think there is hope for me? I suppose the habit will just naturally end since my youngest child is nearly two years old now. I don't think I need an intervention.

Not a shoe girl

I have a horrible confession to make. It turns out that I am not “into shoes.” I don’t know how many episodes of Sex and the City I’ve watched and been completely dumbfounded by Carrie’s ability to spend all of her money on Manolo Blahniks (in case you are wondering I had to google that in order to spell it correctly!). When I see expensive shoes I typically think that they look uncomfortable, and can’t imagine spending so much money on them. I have three pairs of shoes that I alternate between for every day wear (not including my running shoes). I have a pair of brown loafers made by Timberland, which were less than $40. I’ve had them for at least the past 3 years. I wear them to work with everything except black pants. I also have a pair of black loafers made by Dockers, also in the neighborhood of $40, and they are older than the tan shoes. They have a bit of a heel so I like that they make me feel somewhat taller than normal, but otherwise they are very plain. I wear them with black pants, and occasionally with tan pants (especially on business trips when I don’t want to pack more than one pair of shoes in my carry-on…because you know I always have to pack my running shoes). The third pair is sort of a running shoe/mule hybrid. They are New Balance shoes, and fit the bill for weekend wear, or when running errands after work. They go well with shorts, yoga pants, and wind pants (my “play clothes”). I think I spent closer to $50 on them.

I do have more than just those shoes, I have a collection of dressy shoes that I purchased to wear with specific dresses, but they just collect dust in my closet. Most of them are horribly out of style, and extremely uncomfortable. I also have a small spattering of sandals that I’ll drag out in the summer if I don’t feel like wearing my running shoe/mule hybrids. The kids like to pull my “dressy” shoes out to play with, and I never object because someone might as well get some use out of them. Running shoes are an entirely different subject, but I am also pretty no-nonsense about them. I wait until my knees start to ache a bit and then replace the shoes with the exact same model or perhaps the upgraded version if the old one is no longer available. Repeat. I buy 3-4 pairs of running shoes a year depending on my mileage, and at nearly $100 a pop, I suppose I’m fulfilling my shoe quota that way.

I’m not sure what the point of this post is, mostly I’m wondering if I am the only non-shoe girl out there. Am I? If you do have a love affair with shoes, can you tell me why? I am clearly missing something. Oh, I almost forgot about purses, I cannot even be bothered to carry one. My wallet fits fine in my jacket pocket, as does my cell phone and the lip gloss I carry. I do love my current diaper bag though (the Kecci Shanghai Mommy bag), and often get comments about how pretty it is in Azalea (which doesn’t seem to be available anymore). Perhaps that is the hook; a few comments about a diaper bag might just lead me to a purse habit down the road. I guess only time will tell.

Yoga Pants

I have become a fashion “don’t.” I’m not sure when it happened, and I don’t think I can pinpoint an exact date of my fashion demise even if I wanted to. I do suspect that the slide started happening shortly before my first child was born. I vaguely remember wearing the same pair of sweatpants through my entire pregnancy with The Boy. Coupled with a fancy red hooded sweatshirt that at one point in time belonged to my DH, I was a vision indeed. I remember DH trying to take pictures of me when I was pregnant, and I would always tell him not to because I was wearing my “grubby clothes.” He came back at one point with “you are always wearing your grubby clothes.” He was right of course, but I don’t think I had quite realized it yet. Of course I wore work appropriate maternity clothes during the day, but when I got home I immediately changed into those lovely gray sweats, a t-shirt of some sort, and that fancy red sweatshirt. Comfort was what was required after wearing horrible maternity pants all day long, pants that were either too tight or too big, but never just right. Maternity jeans that slowly rode down throughout the day, forcing me to pull them up any time I got up from standing, lest I have the crotch of my pants around my knees. Maternity pants that started out as “these pants are so big they will certainly fit me through all 9 months,” and ended up being too tight to wear much past 8 months of pregnancy. Ah, the memories.

After The Boy was born, I was so very eager to fit back into my pre-pregnancy clothes, but of course they didn’t fit me immediately. Maternity clothes could not continue being worn, because I had spent maybe 6 months wearing the same things over and over and over again, and since I was no longer pregnant just couldn’t stomach the fact that I still needed them. The old trusty sweatpants were so worn by that point, that I am fairly sure they had several holes in them in places pants cannot have holes and continue to be worn in public. I also had not yet reached the point where I found it acceptable to wear sweatpants in public. I think this is when I discovered yoga pants. Yoga pants are wonderful things, they are comfy like sweat pants, but have a nice boot leg that tries to deceive you into thinking they are “real” pants. They are fairly form fitting, which works to their advantage, by the 3rd day in a row you are wearing them they are feeling pretty good. They are somewhat stretched out, but not so much that you feel they need to be washed. The yoga pant also tricks you into thinking they are appropriate to wear in the outside world. Paired with a v-neck top you almost fool yourself into thinking you are dressed up.

Now that I have lost most of the baby weight from both children, I find myself still longing to wear the yoga pants. I love fall weather because it means I no longer have to suffer with shorts, I can hide my legs sufficiently with yoga pants again. I come home from work, go for my run, take a shower, and change into my beloved black yoga pants. The Old Navy yoga pant is very nice, but I just picked up a new pair of Danskin yoga pants, that are giving the ONs a run for their money. On the weekends, I consider myself dressed up if I am wearing jeans. Yes, I have become a fashion don’t. If I ever end up on What Not to Wear, they will have to pry the yoga pants from my hands, or maybe I would just have to hide them in our mini-van. Surely, nobody would suspect that a Mom of two kids under the age of 4 would be so addicted to yoga pants would they? I think I afforded myself too much comfort while I was pregnant, and now there is no turning back. I look at skirts and suits with disgust as I think about having to tuck in shirts all day long. Give me my yoga pants, and I am one happy camper.