The pink sleeper
So sorry for the radio silence. I've been busy here.
The company with whom I have my online t-shirt shops is undergoing a major upheaval. Along with making me a v. unhappy camper, it's also forcing me to expand to other vendors as well as doing some in-house rearranging. I'll be working hard to maximize my search engine placement including completely re-doing some of my websites from scratch. I'm anxiously awaiting Dreamweaver (Thanks, Dad!!) to that end.
I'll be pretty busy and distracted for awhile. Apologies in advance. If you're at all interested, I'll be trying to update the store blog to explain it a bit better.
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On with the baby stuff!
So my baby is blissfully sleeping, warm in his pink sleeper. Yes. His. Pink. Sleeper.
I think I picked it up when Bitty Girl was a babe, from my fave thrift store. It's nothing fancy: just a well-loved, terrycloth-like, cheapo sleeper. It's cuddly warm and soft as butter (after untold washings), and it has feet, so it's perfect for this drafty house.
Bitty wore it, then Bulk, and now Fiver has it. I don't sexually stereotype my kids, certainly not an infant. Every time I ever went out with Boy some old lady would bend over his carseat and coo: "What a beautiful little girl!" He was that gorgeous. And I always smiled and thanked them and pushed my cart on. I mean, it's not like I'd ever see them again, or like it was hurting my son any to be called a girl. Who the heck cares? These chicks who freak the heck out over folks calling their baby the wrong sex - going so far as to paste bows on their wee daughter's bare scalps - frighten me. I mean, don't you have something better to fret over, honey?
Anyway, I was feeding Fiver (we're doing quite well, BTW, thank you - and thanks to you) and I waxed teary-eyed over that damned pink sleeper. This is the last baby who will wear it. (Well in my house, anyway. I will re-donate it to the thrift. Hopefully some other mom will get it and enjoy it like I have.)
This is the last time anyone will be that wee, the last time I will breastfeed anyone, the last time anyone will be small enough to cuddle under my arm like a pink football.
I sometimes look at the baby gear (can you imagine the number of things I've accumulated over the years and the babies? No. You can't. It boggles the mind.) and I think, briskly: "Well, finally we can pass that on! Tired of looking at it standing in the corner!" Usually I am so practical. I like for things to be completed, wrapped up, tidy.
Then I start crying over a cheap pink sleeper.
Seriously.
Every time it gets worn I get caught up in a small detail: at some point, someone, embroidered a cluster of tiny roses onto this thing. Some mother or grandmother or friend took an item that costs, what, five or six dollars new? and carefully hand embroidered these flowers over the left breast for her little girl/granddaughter/friend's baby. How touching is that?
I've toyed with the idea of cutting up the sleeper when we're done with it and doing something crafty with the bit with the embroidery (help me out here, folks), but it 1) hurts my heart to think of destroying it, and 2) goes against my basic thrifty nature.
Perhaps this item, of all the things that has been passed down through all of my kids - and I have things that have been worn by all of them - should just go into my trunk to be gotten out and fondled in the future.
Oh, hell. Now I'm verklemt again.
I sometimes just want everything to freeze right here, right now, and none of them to ever age, ever grow up, go to school, leave home. Just stay static right here on this warm spring day with me.
8 Comments:
He's a handsome wittle man, he is.
Also, I've started saving my "favorite" articles of clothing from each of my kids to put into a quilt one day. Some are t-shirts they got, some are cotton prints (from the Brieberry dress). You may not have the mad skillz for that, but could be something to consider so you can keep that pink sleeper just that little bit longer!
Or pitch it - I've got too much crap in my house right now and am itching for a yard sale to pay for the kids' swingset
I am listed in the encyclopaedia under "not crafty," so making quilts and things out of old baby clothes doesn't even register on my radar. What I DID do, however, is take at least one outfit of the girls' that I loved them in and tucked it into a keepsake box (in which is also newspapers from the day they were each born, a favorite toy from their infancies, the little bracelets they came home from the hospital with, and other such ephemera that I just couldn't pitch). Would doing something like that go against your thrifty nature? I mean, you've GOT to keep the pink sleeper - figure out a way to do it that doesn't cause a relapse of the hives...
Dear GOD, but your kids are cute!
Thank God I'm not the only one who feels the same way about old ladies who say the wrong gender. Who cares!!!???!! I always get that my daughter is just a cute boy. Well she doesn't wear dresses everyday. I do wonder why they think that i would keep two boys hair short and be growing the other boys but whatever. Let they think that my baby is beautiful if they think that it's a girl or a boy. It's so hard to tell at that age when they are wearing a diaper.
I also hate those bows. WTF?
For the record, that is a very beautiful baby boy in pink.
I think the same thing about it being the last baby. I've talked Mr. Husband into one more pregnancy but have no idea how long that will be. We have such little space here that I've started donating things for next baby so the kids that are actually here have some room. It's hard everytime. I still can't get ride of the crib, toddler bed or the two matteress that go with them. It would be so much money to replace, even if it does take up half of our storage!
Oooh, he's so precious...
Seriously, I wouldn't return this to the thrift shop. I'd save it, and pass it on to one of my kids. I'll save (at least) one item from their infancy for each of my kids -even if we don't have the space to save more than one. I have some things that our mothers have saved from when Peter and I were babies, and I cherish them more than I can say. Also, I have this theory that lovingly made/saved/given items carry good mojo :)
BTW, Matilda was being called a boy constantly, because I kept dressing her in blue (my favorite colour)-I didn't have to buy one single thing for Philip, I had enough boy stuff left over from her! I haven't put him in pink yet though... hmmm... maybe I should! (And no bows for us, and she DID have hair, so I could have gotten away with it!)
Wow, is he thriving now! I'm so glad that you're both doing well.
Sorry to hear about the vendor issues. Hope the rebuilding of the store will go smoothly.
Being sentimental is quite ok. I can totally understand the emotional turmoil involved with "letting go." It's not easy to allow your life to change, and to give up a way of life that feels to right to you. But new experiences await, and, though they will be different, they can be equally rewarding. I have to keep believing this myself.... The important thing is that you are a beautiful person and a wonderful mother and role model. No matter how wee or how tall your children are.
Re the embroidered patch: you could mount it in a small picture frame, and hang it where you can see it every day. Or maybe mount it in a larger fram, along with a photo of the pink sleeper, or of Fiver wearing it.
Save the sleeper! :-D
You could stitch up the neck and wrist bands and stuff it to make a pillow. I've done that with outgrown favorites so they can be used and loved longer by the little one. Better than any silly old store-bought lovey. ;-)
Oh good, so glad to hear I'm not the only one who has dressed her baby boy in a pink outfit, lol. We only used it around the house but it was too cute and practical to pass up!
He is beautiful!! My youngest is 15 months and I've caught myself lately doing the tears over the realization he'll be last baby I have.
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