Pinkalicious

Pink, pink, everywhere!

Buying baby clothing is a whole new game. There's a lot more to think about--most of all, "What size will she be during what season?"--and it's been an adjustment. However, despite having to do more planning and less impulse buying, I've really been enjoying picking out little girl clothes.

Soon after our Gender Reveal, Ryan expressed an earnest concern to me: He fears a closet full of pinks and  pastels. And, truthfully, I understand. Really, if it was up to him, he'd have (what we've deemed as) a "Pinterest kid," which means a little girl who belongs in a J.Crew or Anthro catalog (and, yes, I'd love that too!). I know it's not realistic (or truly important), but I made a promise to him to make a concerted effort to NOT buy ALL pink.  And I've done pretty well...

But, let's be honest, "pink" doesn't have to mean "obnoxious pink." Thankfully this season there's been a ton of coral and neon pink out there, and, of course, other wonderful summery colors to choose from. As many of you may know, I won a sweepstakes for a Gap employee discount for a year, which is up in April, and I've been trying to take as much advantage of it as possible. I love their baby clothes (which are less practical but way cute), and between Old Navy, Carter's and Target, I've amassed quite a few things so far.  I thought I'd share a couple of the pink things we've found--let me just say that I can't wait to get some use out of them!

Right now I'd say we're at about 50/50 for pink/non-pink clothes, and I consider that a "win" since most baby girl clothes naturally fall into the pink category.

We did have a moment at lunch the other day that made Ryan realize why so many baby girl clothes are pink: A woman was strolling her infant past us, and Ryan and I couldn't figure out if it was a boy or girl. The stroller was blue and brown, he/she was wearing a yellow onesie with a turquoise bib, and he/she was cute but didn't clearly look like a boy or girl yet. After a bit of speculating, we realized upon closer inspection that SHE had on zebra leggings, which we deemed the only tell-tale gender-revealing item.  (Unless, poor thing, the mom put zebra leggings on her little boy, to which I say, "Good luck, kid...") It got us into a conversation (since our stroller is black and our car seat is turquoise) about how I didn't want to have to have any awkward interactions in public about the gender of our baby, and how pink clothes, a hair bow or barrette, or some obviously girly toy or blanket was the only way to avoid those confused looks.  I think the experience opened his heart a little bit to the idea of some pink in her wardrobe. :)

Also, one last note about buying baby clothes: I know I'm supposed to be stocking up on sale items for next year, and not the 0-3 or 3-6 sizes (since I know deep down she'll be spending a lot of that time only in onesies that will inevitably be destroyed), but I'm having such a hard time purchasing the 12 month size.  I mean, I don't even have a baby yet, much less a one year old! I can't hardly imagine that yet. So, I figure even though they're not practical, the smaller sizes make me happy right now, and I'll want different things next summer.