Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Growing Girls

Both Joy and Rose are making transitions from one clothing size to another.

Of course, it would happen simultaneously. And it would happen right when the stores have finished selling off their winter clearance and have barrelled all the way into summer. Shorts! Swimsuits! Beach wear!

Does nobody realize that we're supposed to have a low temperature of FOUR DEGREES here on Thursday?! (And yes, that would be Fahrenheit.)

Fortunately, I have two girls. So I have a nice stash of hand-me-downs from Rose to Joy. Joy doesn't mind a whit. Rose doesn't mind secondhand goodies either, perhaps having absorbed my delight in thrift-store shopping. It's cheap, it's eco-friendly, it supports good causes, what's not to like? It also beats new-clothing shopping in another way. One of my favorite Rose-clothes stores, Kohl's, has the cutest girl-stuff in their little girls department, sizes 4-6x. Except that Rose is now a size 7, so she moves over into their big girl department, sizes 7-16.

I will NOT dress my 7-year-old like a teenager. Give me thrift-store selection any day.

Anyone got any favorite not-too-expensive stores for that in-between girl stage, beyond little-girl but not yet tween/teen?

Meanwhile, the most definitive up-sizing for Joy was with her footie-jammies. The 4T's were getting snug on her, which was just as cute as could be. I love putting her in footie-jammies because they've got that long zipper all the way up the leg, and she can close that zipper the whole length by herself.

Unfortunately, she'd been doing a lot of unzipping too during her middle-of-the-night wakeful hours. We'd been finding her in the mornings with her feet still in the footies, but the rest of the jammie all unzipped in a heap around those footies.

So we moved her up to Rose's old 5T footie-jammies, which fit surprisingly well.

Even more surprising? The night-time unzipping stopped.

Clever, growing girl. She was trying to tell us that she was too big for her jammies!

6 comments:

datri said...

Laurie's moving into a size 7. Actually, in shirts we end up getting her up to size 10 because otherwise they are SO short, like belly button revealing when you lift up your arms short. What's up with the clothes? Sheesh.

Anonymous said...

Ugh. My guy is growing like a weed too. Is gap any good for girls' stuff?

Anonymous said...

Clever INDEED!

I buy MATT's clothes at Goodwill, and parts of my Renaissance costume there. (Okay, so that's not much help, sorry.)

I buy most of my clothes at a discount chain called Ross.

Gently-used clothes stores for children are usually local....used to be - look in the yellow pages. I understand that is online now.

And then there's online shopping - ebay has clothes go unbid-on everyday. Happy shopping!

BRatK

Stat Mama said...

Darn shame your kids aren't in a 6/6x, because my daughter has outgrown all of it and is now in a 7/8 also. I could have sent you a bunch of stuff!

I love Once Upon a Child for kids clothing.

And about the teenage thing, I know exactly what you mean. Little girls should dress like little girls. Sadly, the selection of age-appropriate clothing for the 7 and up crew seems to dwindle to nearly nothing.

Kia mentioned Gap. I LOVE their children's clothing, and their sales are great. I got my daughter some adorable tops recently for 70% off! I also eBay Gap and Gymboree clothing, since both labels have more age-appropriate clothes.

Anonymous said...

i agree on gap (especially if you have an outlet nearby or have the patience to scout out clearance racks!).

old navy has some great deals too and although some of their stuff can run into that quasai teenage thing, most of it stays pretty age appropriate i think. it's also great quality.

target has some cute stuff too (selectively), and like the others, the sales are fantastic (especially now).

Anonymous said...

I like the thrift store idea for finding age appropriate clothes! My kids are not in size 7 clothes, but I was already prepared to learn how to sew b/c, like you, I will not be dressing my girls in teeny bopper outfits.