Post-Christmas Presents
Once upon a time, say about two weeks ago, I thought we had too many baby clothes in the 0-3 month size. We had a dresser stuffed with more tiny clothes than I am with Christmas fudge. I started telling people not to buy us anymore 0-3 month clothes. I think I even returned a few outfits.
That ranks with some of my all-time dumbest underestimations, right up there with “how much work could one child be?” and “how much work could one blog be?” I forgot that newborns are adept at ruining their outfits with spit milk at mealtime and a different kind of spitting at diaper-changing time. About the time that I did laundry for the third time in a week, I decided we needed more outfits.
With this in mind, I sent Ellie out this morning on a post-Christmas shopping spree, looking for clearanced clothes. Technically this was my Christmas gift to her, letting her shop for a morning while I juggle three children, sometimes literally, out of her earshot at home.
The first rule of shopping on a busy day is to arrive early, preferably when the stores open at 7am. Ian helped her achieve this one by waking us up at 5am, giving her plenty of time to feed, change, feed herself, and change herself before attacking the sales.
I kept the peace by myself for about four hours at home. It was nothing too challenging, though my finest moment was feeding Abbie, feeding myself, and preparing the twins’ food while Ian, who was still in no mood to sleep, lay in my lap.
When Ellie returned home, I examined her haul with glee normally reserved for Abbie’s Halloween candy. I wanted to see several sleepers they could wear through spring with statements like “Baby’s first Christmas” or “Happy Hanukah” or maybe even “Festivus” stitched across the front, and ridiculously low prices on the receipt.
What Ellie found were several very comfy, very cute, very unclearanced outfits. It turns out, they don’t make many of those holiday outfits, possibly because they know cheap vultures like us will snap them up on December 26th like so much excess Christmas fudge. She also picked up decorations for next season; mini-bulbs for the tree, large snowflakes for outside, small snowflakes for garland. Sadly she didn’t buy anything with the words “8-foot” and “inflatable” in its description.
Now the twins have a few more outfits, or at least they will as soon as I run another load of laundry.* None of the outfits advertise holidays, but that’s okay since no one wants to be reminded of the holidays long after the fact.
Now where’s my leftover fudge?
* It’s been two days since the last load, so I’ll probably do that tomorrow.
That ranks with some of my all-time dumbest underestimations, right up there with “how much work could one child be?” and “how much work could one blog be?” I forgot that newborns are adept at ruining their outfits with spit milk at mealtime and a different kind of spitting at diaper-changing time. About the time that I did laundry for the third time in a week, I decided we needed more outfits.
With this in mind, I sent Ellie out this morning on a post-Christmas shopping spree, looking for clearanced clothes. Technically this was my Christmas gift to her, letting her shop for a morning while I juggle three children, sometimes literally, out of her earshot at home.
The first rule of shopping on a busy day is to arrive early, preferably when the stores open at 7am. Ian helped her achieve this one by waking us up at 5am, giving her plenty of time to feed, change, feed herself, and change herself before attacking the sales.
I kept the peace by myself for about four hours at home. It was nothing too challenging, though my finest moment was feeding Abbie, feeding myself, and preparing the twins’ food while Ian, who was still in no mood to sleep, lay in my lap.
When Ellie returned home, I examined her haul with glee normally reserved for Abbie’s Halloween candy. I wanted to see several sleepers they could wear through spring with statements like “Baby’s first Christmas” or “Happy Hanukah” or maybe even “Festivus” stitched across the front, and ridiculously low prices on the receipt.
What Ellie found were several very comfy, very cute, very unclearanced outfits. It turns out, they don’t make many of those holiday outfits, possibly because they know cheap vultures like us will snap them up on December 26th like so much excess Christmas fudge. She also picked up decorations for next season; mini-bulbs for the tree, large snowflakes for outside, small snowflakes for garland. Sadly she didn’t buy anything with the words “8-foot” and “inflatable” in its description.
Now the twins have a few more outfits, or at least they will as soon as I run another load of laundry.* None of the outfits advertise holidays, but that’s okay since no one wants to be reminded of the holidays long after the fact.
Now where’s my leftover fudge?
* It’s been two days since the last load, so I’ll probably do that tomorrow.
posted by Matt at
10:34 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home