Hand Me Downs???

One  [supposed] benefit of having two children of the same gender is the ability of using hand-me-downs.  Somehow this does not work well in our family...  Jack was born very small, and needed preemie size clothes, so, right off the bat, I had to go out and get new clothes despite the closet-full that we already had for Owen.  When Jack grew into bigger sized clothes, he was apparently making up for lost time, and wore each of the sizes  “newborn”, 0-3 months,and  3-6 months clothes for only a few weeks each.  It went by so quickly that he didn’t wear all of the outfits that we had.  When Jack finally hit the 6-12 month clothes he did slow down his rapid growth – but not before his little belly had grown enough to make it impossible for him to fit into any of the little jeans and cords that Owen wore when he was that age.  Out I went again to buy little sweat pants and one piece outfits.  The next snag was the fact that Owen and Jack are 18 months apart, which makes the clothes Owen wore in the summer fit Jack in the winter, and the winter clothes fit Jack in the summer…

This past year Jack has finally been able to wear all of Owen’s old clothes – and I have been glad that things are finally working out in my [financial] favo.r  But I guess that is going to be a very short-lived satisfaction on my part because Jack now outweighs Owen, and since Owen is taller, they have completely different body types.  They now wear the same size in most clothes, which you would think would be good because they could share – but I am not so lucky… While Owen loves the idea that Jack wears his old clothes, he doesn’t like the idea of sharing.  And while Jack loves the idea of wearing Owen’s old clothes, he can’t share either because once he has worn something, he wants to be the only one who owns it.   They agree to share socks – something that I don’t’ mind having an over-abundance of (if you know me at all, this will not be a surprise to you…) – and they have agreed to share pants.  But, of course, that won’t work out because   Owen needs a very skinny waist, and long legs.  Jack needs a regular size waist and legs.  So when Owen is done with his pants – they are too tight on Jack!

Today I went to buy some new shoes for Owen.  He measured a size 12.  Just to make sure I was not squeezing Jack into shoes that were too tight, I had Jack’s shoes checked as well.

“He is measuring at an 11 and a half,” the sales lady said, and I breathed a sigh of relief, until she finished.  “on the left.  And his right foot measures at a 12.”

Great.

Anyone have 4 pair of rainboots in size 1 that they want to pass our way???