I just now realized how grim the retail landscape is for baby boys. It's all blue plaid, brown plaid, and denim. You know what else I realized? Boys don't wear dresses. So much harder! You have to pick out multiple pieces that all go together? Way hard. [But I guess it's a little easier since the bottoms are all plaid and denim.]
But Jen asked very nicely for some virtual shopping, so here you go: [I promise this is the end of the shopping posts!].
Gingham button down- Gap Board Short- Mini Boden
Applique Tshirt- Mini Boden
Stripey Hoodie- Mini Boden
Striped Polo & Plaid Cargos- Crazy 8
Shark Applique T- Crazy 8
Gingham Button Down- Ralph Lauren
Khaki Cargos- Old Navy
Gator Applique T- Mini Boden
Gingham Shorts- Ralph Lauren
Also, I find that in life, in general, people fall into two camps. The Critter Pant camp and the Non-Critter Pant camp. Apparently babies are no different:
Old Navy
Good luck shopping! And if you need a warm place for Baby Bennie to wear these clothes sooner rather than later, I hear Florida is nice and warm.
I'm still totally unprepared, but trusting that my rusty old knees won't let me down tomorrow morning. There will be a lot of walking, but you who answered the poll said that no one would care. So maybe I'll even get some good pictures for posting.
I don't need luck, since I'm not trying to beat any specific time, so just wish me alive at the end, ok?
This morning a friend of mine sent me a link to these shoes
by Lilly Pulitzer. I'm not sure, but I think she meant to make my head explode. They are $268. Did we not just talk about the non-essential purchase budget?? Which is why her response from me was in ALL CAPS. Because that is ANGRY TALK for emails.
But just for fun [and like I have nothing else to do today] I decided to see what I could find under $100. In case anyone wants to pay a premium for a dog who smells like corn chips.
BCBG
Ann Marino
Enzo Angiolini
Rampage
Wanted
Matisse
Obviously none as cute as the LP [what is, really?] but also wouldn't cost a kidney.
Now what's for lunch? All of this shopping has made me hungry.
*Please excuse the title. You know about my sort of compulsive movie/tv referencing, don't you? This is what happens after close to a decade with Lee.
Which is why our black desk chair, which was pretty ugly to begin with, is covered in fur. I can get most of it off when I put my mind to it, but I've tried just about every trick in the book, and it's never fully fur-free.
Which is why I am going to make an impassioned pitch to Lee when he gets home that will involve putting this chair on the curb on a Sunday night and seeing how fast it disappears.
I've already got a back up in mind. See, I've been swooning over this chair from Ballard
for several months. But even on sale, it's about $635, which lands it solidly outside of our budget for non-essential purchases (which is, right now, $0).
[Not for me. I will not be purchasing a new swimsuit until there is justification for no longer covering 75% of my body.]
I mean swimsuits for Mary Bullock. Pool season will be here soon, you know. We do live in Florida.
You can feel free to disagree with me on this--obviously many people do. But I just can't put my baby in a bikini. I love her toddler belly so much I could eat it up, but I still just don't think it's right. Especially not some of the bikinis on market right now, which are more suitable for a 22 year old than not-even-2 year old.
But these? These might make the list.
That's the back, not the front. Duh.
From (in order) Target, Janie & Jack, Sacks, Janie & Jack, and Lands End Kids.
Speaking of Lands End kids, though, I just got the catalog in the mail today. I love their kids clothes. I've tried not to all-out hate on crewcuts here, because I try not to all-out hate on anything on a blog called Birthday Things, but I'll just say this: I can't get behind that division of J.Crew. I like the clothes, but I think the images in the catalog send the wrong message to kids and about kids.
[Stepping off soap box... now. Ahem.]
But aren't these cute?
These kind of make me wish I were still three feet tall.
Even in high school, when giving blood meant you got out of at least three classes, and if you acted like you might faint, maybe even the whole afternoon. Nope. I never did.
The thing is, I have a bad history with needles. I used to hyperventilate just getting a routine vaccination. Give blood? Not on my list.
Then, I couldn't get pregnant, and we started fertility treatments. And I had to put on my big girl panties, as they say. I used to tell myself, when the shots really hurt: If I can't handle this, what in the world am I going to do when I go into labor? And that was the end of my problem with needles. Don't even get me started on the acupuncture.
[And let me tell you, if you are the type of person who is more scared of the epidural needle than actual labor--if your contractions really hurt, you would eat that needle with a spoon if it would make the pain go away.]
But back to giving blood. My friend Julie, one of Six Feet, needed a blood transfusion last year when she gave birth to her first baby. At the time, I thought little of it. She's not really a whiner like me, and then there was the excitement of the actual baby to distract us. But this past Christmas, for Secret Santa, she suggested that whoever had her name give blood as her present. And I felt so ashamed for having wasted decades of my life so afraid of a dumb needle that I wouldn't go and give a simple gift like that.
Then, a few weeks ago a member of my Bible Study group got the news that her precious three year old niece had been diagnosed with aplastic anemia, and then that her siblings were not possible matches for a marrow transplant. I've never met this little girl or her parents, but this struck me. The possibility of life without MB is incomprehensible to me, as I'm sure a life without their baby is to her parents.
THEN, I read this this morning, and followed her link over to Be The Match, the website for the National Marrow Donor Program. It took me ten minutes and cost me nothing* to join the registry. Maybe I will never get called to donate, but if I ever do, I would welcome the opportunity to give thanks for my baby by helping to save someone else's.
I hope you might consider doing this, too.
*use the promo code childrens before the end of March.
