With my youngest being three years old we haven’t had a “baby” in the family for a while now… Sometimes it’s takes little things along the way to reaffirm this fact.
For instance this weekend I realized that my youngest has finally outgrown his beloved Mets hat.. the one that we had bought our oldest when he was just an infant and then handed down to his little brother when he was just barely filling it out and it kept falling down covering his eyes, but he loved wearing it anyway because it was just like Daddy’s.
He tried wearing it this weekend and it just didn’t fit. It was just one of those milestones that sort of pulled at my heart a little.
Now that he’s three he’s also completely potty-trained. No more buying diapers or pull-ups for the just-in-case times. (Hooray)!
Another sign that we’re into the next stage of parenting is the fact that my older two have very distinct preferences of what clothes they wear and for the first year of school-shopping I’m letting them pick out all the new clothes that I buy for them (within reason of course).
The polo shirt with a collar that I bought for my oldest at Easter-time still sits in his dresser drawers with the tags on it, never been worn, along with all the sweaters and blue jeans that I’ve bought him over the past year and he refused to wear.
My middle child refused to wear typical shorts all summer and only insisted on wearing knee-length attire.
I’m done buying things they don’t like- So instead of wasting money and trying to insist they wear what I love, this year they get to pick out what they love.
I brought my daughter to the mall this weekend and she HAD to have this glittery skirt. Had to.
So even though it was a bit over the top glitterama for me- I let her get it.
It’s actually pretty cool.. and of course both my older children LOVE anything with skulls on it- so that’s always a safe bet.
And even though I tried to nudge her towards a pair of black leggings with peace signs on it, she HAD to have the plain black ones with lace on the bottom.
These are the ones I wanted.. but she was totally not into them:
So I’m okay with that.
Oh well.. I’m happy to let my children define who they are and decide how they want to dress.. now if only I could convince my daughter that it’s a great idea to let me braid her hair everyday… sigh
