Warm-Weather Wardrobe

Come on, Spring!!! We've got closets and drawers full of warm weather clothes that we have GOT to get a jump-start on wearing!

Confession: I may have overdone the 12-18 month wardrobe for my daughter. With her newborn and infant clothes, I was so proud of myself for not overdoing it because I just knew she'd be in easy, comfortable, onesie-type outfits most of the time. When Will was a little baby, he had way too many impractical outfit choices and I learned my lesson there. So I conserved and kept it simple for Soph. But between gifts, hand-me-downs from cute, little Cora, and my own addictions... well, let's just say she may only see a couple wears out of many of these summery clothes. It almost makes me sick. So frivolous and wasteful. But one relief (or justification, if I'm being honest) is that I have a new, little niece coming soon that will get most of Sophie's hand-me-downs. So it's not totally wasteful. (Yep. That was another justification.)

The good news is: the urge to stock such a plethora of clothing options gets progressively less as the child ages. Not that I don't still enjoy shopping for Will (I do! Boy clothes are so fun!), but he has a much more realistic amount of clothes per season. And I even pulled all his shorts from last summer to see if any still fit since they were a little big last year and most have adjustable waists. It's a huge job keeping clothing organized - getting the small stuff out and stored away, washing and bringing in the new stuff, etc. Very time consuming!

Anyway, here's the hanging rack of Sophie's 12-18 month clothes. Below it (not pictured) is her rack of current 6-12 month stuff. I'm not sure the picture does it justice - there are A LOT of clothes in there. And it's almost impossible to hang little girls clothing in a color coordinated manner because of all the prints and patterns. So I just broke it up into tanks, short sleeves, complete outfit sets, skirts/dresses, long sleeves.
And then there's the drawer full of shorts, swimwear and miscellaneous stuff.

And of course shoes! Funny thing about me: I am SO not a shoe person. I do not have an admirable selection in my own closet and I hate shoe shopping. But for my daughter on the other hand... it's way more fun.

Just look at all the dresses we have to choose from! I only purchased 4 of these, my mom bought 2 and the rest were from Cora. Good thing we're making a habit of going to church now! Maybe we'll crash some weddings just to get some wear out of these bad boys. :) Actually, several of them are casual enough for everyday play. A few favorites I'm looking forward to...

And here's a snap of Will's current wardrobe and shoe collection. Boys are soooo much easier and more practical. He has a fair amount of cute, trendy stuff, with a much larger portion of cute, comfortable stuff. And I can hang his clothes in order of the rainbow like my OCD personality desires. Actually, from left to right it goes short sleeve, polos, then long sleeve. His sweatshirts and sweaters are on the rack above and everything else is in drawers. Lucky Will gets hand-me-downs from a very trendy Griffin too! We have a drawer full of 3T stuff waiting in the wings.

A few of my upcoming summer faves for Will. Plaid shorts and polos are my favorite on boys... can you tell?

Love my Puma finds and the Old Navy sweatshorts at the bottom are absolute staples. Now we just need a variety of cute t-shirts to go with those colors.

Oh, and this super cheap tie from Children's Place for Easter so he can dress like Uncle Dub - love it!

One of my best purchases ever! I ordered this hanging organizer from One Step Ahead about a year ago and it has been so handy for getting dressed on weekday mornings when Craig's in charge of Will.

So in closing:

Dear Family,

A polite suggestion/request with the upcoming Easter holiday and birthdays in the next few months: if you were planning on giving Sophie anything at all for the summer, please reconsider. She may not get a chance to wear what she already has. Perhaps an item for next winter instead (18-24mos) if you must buy clothes? Will, on the other hand, could use a variety of shirts - mainly t-shirts. I think he has 2-3 pair of jeans from Griffin for 3T and most definitely does not need any shorts... except maybe a nylon-y, gym-type short. Thank you in advance and please excuse the stipulations on gifts - I don't mean to sound... um, bossy (?).

Dear Mother Nature,

A warm spring and an Indian summer would be very much appreciated around here! ;)

Thank you,

Ashley