Jan. 22: I am surrounded by a couch laden with little baby
clothes. My neighbor, Kathy, has a four-month-old daughter and a
three-year-old daughter, and she just brought me a huge basket full of
clothes for tiny babies. I think that "little sister’s" wardrobe size
just doubled. We had received so many hand-me-downs from Vicki when
Andrew was little, I was a little worried that baby sister wouldn’t
have quite enough clothes. That fear has now been banished.
I’ve
been reveling in the little clothes. Folding them, stacking them,
fondling them. Such sweet tiny outfits! What little socks and tiny
hats. Such adorable little sleepers and dresses and gowns. I think I
could hold them all afternoon.
Basking in the loveliness of baby
clothes makes me miss my mom. If she were here, I would have called
her right when I put Andrew down for his nap. Whether she was working or at home,
I would have said, "As soon as you can, drop everything and come over
to my house. We have some baby clothes to admire!" I may have even
tried to hold off looking at them until she came over (probably not).
Then we would look at each one, hold it up, admire the gussets and the
embroidery and the well-thought-out features. We would have come up
with possible outfits, and Mom would have offered sage advice about
various baby things. If she were here, I could have even gotten
annoyed at her for a moment if I wanted to. That would be nice.
There are a couple pieces of clothing in the pile that are from some
clothing lines that were around when Andrew was a baby. I remember
looking at them with Mom and wondering if we should buy something from
those lines in case someone had a baby girl someday.
Maybe Maretta…or one of my friends… It sort of makes me happy and
sad to look at those little outfits and remember some of those happy
times.If there was one thing that made Mom ecstatic, it was shopping
for clothes for kids. She often said that the only reason she had kids
was so she could dress them. She was mostly kidding:)
With all these new clothes, I feel a little like it is Christmas Eve.
I have so much anticipation about this little person. It’s a sweet
moment to be in. I’m not dealing with post-labor exhaustion. The baby
hasn’t outgrown anything yet. It’s all just something sweet and
wonderful to be thinking about. So I’ll pile the clothes around me and
dream baby dreams until Andrew wakes up from his nap. It’s just me,
Spooky, and the clothes:)