“Hand” Me Downs

With my sister’s little boy about 8 months younger than my little guy I have a little nephew who is just growing into the size that my Nathan is growing out of and so for the first time I am sending some my children’s clothes on their way to keep somebody else warm this winter, all the way to Washington State in fact!  Since I’m sort of foolishly sentimental about such things I am not completely parting with these items AND I decided to take pictures.  I had too!  In fact, I had an older child come in the day after I had sealed the box and ask in a panic “The Elmo Jammies!  I saw you with the Elmo Jammies!  Where are they?”  There were  actually tears over not getting to “see” them one last time.  (All 5 children wore the Elmo jammies).  So I guess I’m not the only sentimental fool around.  But these clothes are so cute and will do my nephew much more good than they will sitting in my basement all boxed up and forgotten about.

Most of the things here on the table have a story to tell and are part of the history of my children.  Some were just given as gifts last Christmas, others bought with “previous experience” from second hand shops before keeping my own two little boys warm.  The jammies have been part of Christmas mornings and cuddles on the sofa during times of sickness and even a few campouts.  I love the little leather brown teddy bear shoes that I picked up for pennies on the dollar brand new.  Stride Rite sneakers, also pennies on the dollar brand new that Nathan loved for as long as they fit, which wasn’t long at all, it seems.  All of these have been well loved.  But face it, when the children grow as fast as they do at this age the clothes just really don’t have much chance to wear out.  The one thing here that is brand new are the froggy shoes.  They go with the outfit but Nathan’s feet were just too darn big when he got them.  So they are waiting to be loved.

I love these little sweaters on the left.  I had a hard time deciding to send these because Nathan can still fit into them but they are a bit of a squeeze or a tad too short and he has bigger clothes that fit him better and will fit him all winter.  The sweater vest has matching socks and was a gift from Aunt Stacey two years ago.  The puppy sweater was a Christmas gift to Tristan when he was just a year old and both boys wore it a lot… the puppy is just so cute and they loved him.  The red sweater with red elbow patches looks a little Scandinavian to me and I bought it for Nathan wishing that they’d had the matching long droopy hat in his size as well.  I was tempted to buy this sweater in a tiny size for baby Porter 1 1/2 years ago but knew he had lots and lots of tiny baby clothes already.  Now he’ll get to wear a big size.  The middle photo has slippers, the softest blue hush puppy shoes for church and 29 pairs of 12-24 month socks.  TWENTY NINE pairs!!!  WHY?  Well, I lucked into finding brand new Old Navy/Baby Gap socks that were selling for 10 cents a piece.  The definition of “a piece” was anything that was attached or packaged together.  So I just bought a bunch in all different colors and here I am sending the masculine ones that I just took out of Nathan’s rotation within the past couple months.  Some of these socks have been worn by my last three children… some just my boys… some just Nathan.  We love clean socks for bed, for the diaper bag or for changing whenever they get dirty.  With 29 pair I always had plenty of fresh socks for the children to wear but they all got worn, and often.  The picture on the right is a little church outfit was worn by Nathan only last winter.  I tried it on him Tuesday night JUST to be sure that he’s done with it… sadly they were high waters on him.  I guess I just have to face facts… my baby boy is growing up!  I know it will look cute on Porter this winter… the red is cute for Christmas and who doesn’t love a puppy dog bow tie?  There are a couple other things in there for church too; blue corduroys, beige khakis, button down shirt, sweater vest.

These are two of my favorite outfits; both with froggies and 3 pair of coordinating socks.  The pants are a size smaller so they would stay up on my sons little waist last winter so I hope they aren’t too short for Porter.  I also loved the soft little brown striped outfit with the hood.  And there are some cute bunny p.j.’s and bears riding fire engines p.j.s that Nathan and Tristan really liked.  Kaitlyn loved the bunny jammies too… it doesn’t seem like so long ago!  I guess part of what I’m missing in these clothes are the babies of mine that I’ve had in these clothes.  I love who my children are growing up and becoming but they grow up so fast… so many cute yet challenging stages that you can hardly even get used to one before the child has gone and changed again.  I am glad that these clothes will help keep my little nephew warm this winter and maybe his future brothers someday too… before Lindsay wants to borrow these back about a decade from now!!!  Wear these clothes, love these clothes, add stains and stories and maybe even a few of your own little holes to these clothes.  We hope you love them as we have!