tiny bottoms, long post

having your children 11 years apart is, in some ways, like having your first. this can mean different things for different people. for us it means not having anything saved from the last bebe. sure we kept some items that were special, but we gave away all our bins of clothes & other essentials long ago.

i've been searching around for affordable newborn clothes that i didn't loathe, but wasn't finding much. everything i loved was freakyexpensive. finally it hit me that if i could find just one pair of bottoms, i could make more! surely i could find one pair. with that thought in mind, thehobbit & i headed to a local resale shop.

we searched & searched the shop, but couldn't find anything! then! on our way out i spotted a little shelf with baskets marked newborn. did i manage to find one pair i didn't loathe? no. i found four!! 4 tiny bottoms (plus 1 thehobbit chose) that i actually liked, & that cost less than $2 a pair! faint-worthy to be sure.


the light was wonky, so the colors didn't photograph well. from left to right we have: black, tan, blue (thehobbit's choice), gray, lt. gray/drk. gray stripes. (the beanie was a bonus find.) ahhh plain, non-cutesy clothes! & yes, the black bottoms are my favorite.

***

i know it's silly to be so thrilled by this, but i can't help it. it was humbling enough to have had to take whatever was donated to us for thehobbit, but loathing most of it made me miserable. this go around we're blessed to be able to buy things we need, & blessed to be able to be picky with hand-me-downs.

something i've noticed that strikes me as odd: i actually feel more grateful for the donations now, than i did when pg with thehobbit. i wonder if it's the lack of desperation. we were utterly broke back then, & had to accept everything that came our way. this time i feel like i have enough breathing space to truly appreciate the generosity of family & friends. i'm not sure if that makes much sense.

11 years ago we were given a brand new stroller that i found extremely ugly. please understand that i was grateful to have a stroller at all, but for all the years we used it, i hated the sight of it. this time a friend offered us her gently-used stroller, & i was able to check it out before saying yes or no. that felt so amazing! no desperation forcing me to accept the gift, regardless of liking it or not. in case you're wondering: i love the stroller immensely this time, so accepted it with a great amount of gratitude & giggling joy. thehobbit has named it already (of course he has): mac for its brand.

***

back then i hated being poor, we'd had to make do with so little, & with even less once thehobbit came. fast forward 11 years & i'm happy we'd been in that situation. having had to have made do with near to nothing helped me truly appreciate the life i now have. it also gives me courage to have a bebe so long after the first. having money, a nice home, a huge community of friends, & so much more - trumps all the negatives by far. besides - who needs all that sleep i'll be missing, when i can put my bebe in tiny, black bottoms?

~peace.