Kids' Clothes

Convinced after having Madeleine that she would not be our only child, I dutifully packed away all her clothes that she had outgrown, lovingly washing them and labeling them in various boxes, dreamily envisioning another baby wearing some of my favorite ensembles.

And then Hank was born. The sea of pink clothes I'd so carefully saved for our next baby were pushed aside. Oh, sure, a few odds and ends were salvaged but, on the whole, Hank wore hand-me-downs from boy cousins and friends and, mostly, newly purchased boy clothes. Still a glutton for punishment, I also packed those carefully away once Hank outgrew them. Surely, I told myself if we have another child he or she will be able to wear someone's clothes.

And then we had Elisabeth. I lugged down boxes of baby clothes from our attic, sorted them into gender specific and gender neutral clothes, and patiently waited until my new little girl would fit into her big sister's outgrown clothes.

But it never worked out. Ever. Madeleine was born in August, Elisabeth in October. Madeleine was average to big for her age while Elisabeth has consistently been far behind on the growth charts. Clothes-wise, Elisabeth has always been a good four to six months behind her big sister and all my time, effort and, namely, storage space, has been utterly wasted over the past seven years.

And yet, instead of carting it all off to Goodwill, which is what I should have done, I washed, packed and lugged it all back up to my attic. Including, as you might guess, all the new clothes Elisabeth accumulated.

The moral of this tale, of course, is one I haven't adhered to yet and, that is: don't save all your baby clothes. My attic desperately hopes that one day I'll take this advice.