Does size matter?
It's May and G-man is still comfortably wearing his Halloween costume (a skeleton sweat suit). How is this possible?
Surely, dressing a little kid would be easier. Right?
Going into this, I was delighted to find things in idiot-proof sizes: newborn! 0-3! All I had to do was look at my calendar and line up his closet accordingly. And in case I got stumped, some even have helpful hints like weight and height suggestions. I shopped with confidence, planning seasonal wear by his age and looked forward to the outfits for special occasions.
Turns out, it wasn't that simple.
For starters, the G-man was small. 5 lbs, 4 oz and 18" long. He came home 2 days after his grand arrival at 4 lbs, 14 oz (and I'm guessing, still 18"). The teeny tiny newborn clothes I had packed for his first few days of life now seemed huge. Cabbage Patch kids filled these out better. Everything hung off of him and it was almost hard to find him at times amidst all that fabric.
But he'd grow. I was sure he'd fill out quickly, sport some chunky rolls and move up the size chart as if he had, well, my metabolism.
Not so. Yes, he grew, just not rapidly. 0-3 months clothes were still part of his daily wardrobe as G-man approached the 6-month mark. But at that point, it was summer and the outfits that worked were winter. So much for planning ahead.
And ok, I'll admit something. I wasn't paying attention to the tags very well and thought that if something said "6 months" that's when they wore it. Oops, that really means 3-6 months! Clothes I hadn't even considered him being ready for were actually viable options. A little roomy, but suddenly, the wardrobe expanded.
After uncovering that great clue, I started to rely solely on the weight/height tags. And this is interesting; there is no consistency! Some brands run big, some small. I have things right now that say 18-months (and remember, this is really 12-18 months) and the weight starts at 20.5 lbs, while some don't start until 24 lbs. Yeesh, at his rate, he'll be two by then.
On any given day, he's wearing a 6-12 month, a 9-12 month or a 12-18 month item. It's all a crapshoot. Sometimes he stands up and his pants literally fall down. Sometimes his long-sleeve shirts have plenty of room in the width but look more like a 3/4-sleeve. Pants and one-pieces I buy by height, shirts/sweaters are mostly weight.
I dread when people, like well-meaning relatives, ask what size he's wearing. I know they are clothes shopping and will look at the big "month" tag like I would have pre-G. I just send them his current stats and see what happens. Unfortunately, as the warm weather moves in, I see that there are some cold weather items that he'll never get to use, unless - and this is a possibility - he grows into and not out of them by fall.
So, each day I will wonder what he fits into. I'll continue to agonize over what size to buy if I want him to wear it in the next few months. I won't get too attached to an outfit he's too small for in case the season changes before he's ready to move up the chart. And I will embrace the skeleton sweat suit and try not to think about how big it must have been on him on Halloween. Who knows, maybe he'll get to wear it next year. Handy.
