Hand Me Downs

Okay - I was pondering the whole hand me down thing.. With your first- you don't even WANT other people 's clothes- "what, put clothes that other children have worn on my brand new precious child." It is like your kid is too good for them.. and then your kid has their first blow out and you spend hours trying to get the yellow color out of their cute white outfit.. or you can't figure out how the collar is slightly yellowish (spit-up) - and you bleach or oxyclean EVERYTHING. Then if you happen to have the opposite sex next, I think you sort of do the same thing- with perhaps a few hand me downs- the cute, hardly worn ones.. but if you have the same sex baby- they get almost all hand me downs.. because, why re-buy jammies and onesies? or jeans? or t-shirts? (unless the jeans have ripped knees like all of Elliots did) and that white tank is only slightly gray... and then by the fourth- man they are lucky to be dressed AT ALL. Heck, they are lucky to get their diaper changed before it is hanging down to their knees. So I am here to tell you that I have come to appreciate hand me downs. Do you realize that Noah is really the only one who even needed new shorts for this summer? and the other benefit of hand me downs.. Memory Lane. I love putting Noah's old clothes on Liam, there are such sweet memories attached.. it places me back in Oregon, in our old house, and I love that.. plus I love seeing my girls clothes on my nieces or friends kids.. it just brings back their baby-hood and since it is all a blur for me anyway- it is nice to have a memory trigger..

Rowan in Peanut's old pants and tank top- I bleeached the tank and the pants are held together with a safety pin, but I love camo (the bow I made last year) so she gets to wear it anyway..
Ellie in some of "big" Maddie's pants.. My sister is tired of waiting for peanut to grow into things.. the tank I bought last year for this summer.. Ellie is trying to hold up three fingers and having a tough time keeping the pinky down..
Liam in a Willamette Law shirt that we were given while Colin was in Law School. Yes it is covered in drool or spit-up, or whatever.. but Law School was one of the best times of our lives and I bet I put Liam in it way more then I did Noah because of the memories attached- memories I didn't fully appreciate at the time.