With four boys, my hand-me-down game is pretty strong. It’s been fun to “shop” the selection of 18-24 month and 2T clothes for my little guy. It brings back memories from his older brothers!
As part of that, I’ve been packing up the infant clothes in bins — to go in the attic for now, though probably they’ll be donated at some point. I realized, going through the bins, that some of the cute baby stuff never got worn this time around.
I’ve been pondering why this is. For starters, we turn out to have a lot of baby clothes. Also, a big part of it is that we didn’t go many places. We wouldn’t have taken a newborn many places during flu season anyway, and then the pandemic began, and so there was much time at home. He wound up wearing pajamas frequently. Very practical — only one piece to deal with, comfy to nap in, and with footy pajamas, no socks to get lost. Making sure he was wearing all the cute outfits we had would have been a lot of bother, and in the midst of the newborn days, you tend to be tired enough that the easy way always seems like the best way.
And most likely it is. But then time passes and it turns out that there’s only really a 6 month window to wear those 6-12 month clothes.
In any case, things do get easier. I’m sleeping better. The little guy is old enough to assist with putting his arms through sleeves. He is going out and about. So the older kid clothes are getting worn. As are the older older kid clothes! My 6-year-old went to camp today in a T-shirt from that camp that an older child passed down. Good to see that get used.
In other news: I turn out to be flexible. Maybe not in terms of personality (though I like to think so…) but like a gymnast. A few children are working on doing splits and I mentioned that I had been able to do them at one point. They were curious if I still had this ability. I tried, and it turns out I do! Not bad for age 42. Also, when touching my toes I can put my hands flat on the floor. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with this ability, other than brag about it here.
Photo: A single tiny baby Croc. Sadly, I cannot find the other half of the pair.
The genetics nerd in me will point out that there’s something called benign hypermobility syndrome, which may also overlap with Ehlers-Danlos type III (a mild connective tissue disorder) and you just may have it =) There are formal ways to test, but it essentially means that you’re extra bendy in some or all joints and may have other mild symptoms like extra stretchy skin, easy bruising, and sometimes unexplained joint or muscle pain. There’s also somewhat of an unspoken personality type that sometimes goes along with EDS that you do NOT appear to have (based solely on my read of your personality via blog and BOBW, so who knows!). Luckily, most people with type III EDS and/or benign joint hypermobility don’t often need acute care or attention; you just may have some extra good party tricks!
I also went straight to EDS. (Interesting about the personality type! I worked with someone with EDS once and she and Laura are essentially polar opposites 🙂 )
(By that I mean I thought about it. NOT suggesting you actually have it, Laura!!)
PS: I am soooo inflexible as an adult despite being very flexible growing up.
@SHU- I’m guessing it’s like anything else! Bit by bit flexibility can improve. I have definitely read some literature on people developing the ability to touch their toes as adults.
I definitely couldn’t touch my toes as a kid and can at age 36. I had a brief period where I could get my hands flat pre-pandemic, and would like to get back to that.
I mean, the personality thing isn’t a given at all. But it’s definitely an observation shared by many in the field! Though maybe we only see it in people who present for care, rather than people who just live their extra flexible life without any need for evaluation!
Yes, me, my mom, and my daughter all have hypermobility.
Wow! I was a serious ballet dancer through high school and I couldn’t dream of doing the splits now at the age of 43. That is impressive!
Also loved getting the Continuing Medical Education above…
You can also be hypermobile without having EDS 🙂
I’m a dedicated yogi and will probably never be able to do the splits! Am a little jealous!
@Megan – yes, this comment thread took an odd twist. I don’t have any sort of joint disorder. I am not naturally bendy — I worked really hard as a kid to be able to do a split, getting there bit by bit through years of dance. As an adult I do enough stretching that I’ve maintained a reasonable amount of that flexibility. The splits were somewhat surprising since I haven’t attempted that in a long time, but I touch my toes at least once a week in the course of doing some back stretches so that is why I can still do that.
Sorry for starting the odd twist! And I certainly didn’t mean to try to actually diagnose you with a medical condition – just pointing out that lots of people are extra flexible and occasionally we have a name for it in genetics world. My apologies that this came out wrong and I sparked concern.
(Ugh, and this is why typing is sometimes a lot harder than speaking. No inflection and reading of other people’s reactions!)
It IS pretty impressive that you can still do a split. I am quite bendy and can easily put my hands flat on the floor as an adult without bending my knees but am very very very far being able to do the splits that I could easily do as a kid!
@KGC- I am not offended! Just wanted to clarify that I am normally bendy, not abnormally bendy 🙂
I found this fascinating! I am hyper flexible in multiple joints and now I’m going to look this up! I am a genetics nerd too but not in this field!
I have never been able to do the splits but have other flexibility in my hip area. I used to be able to put my feet behind my head when I was younger. Not sure I can anymore, though!
We have received a lot of hand-me-downs from friends so have bought very few clothes for our boys. But when Will outgrows a size, I have HAPPILY passed them along to others. I know we are done having kids and I want the storage space back! I have zero sentimentality when it comes to clothes, though. I have pictures of the boys in favorite outfits and that is all I need! We do wonder if the baby will be passing clothes down to the older brother at some point, though. Our 3yo is so petite. He’s wearing 18m bottoms (some of which are too big for him!) and 2T tops. He’s only 28 pounds but his little brother was 16 pounds at 4 months so he could probably outweigh him in the next year. The baby is still smaller than average but super long. But he seems huge to us compared to his brother since the 3yo was so tiny. I’m kind of surprised that the big brother will have anything to hand down to baby brother since he’s in every size for soooo long! But things have held up remarkably well!
Well, I’m going to continue the flexibility thing – I’ve just signed up for Medicare (so you know how old I am – LOL!), and I can put my hands flat on the floor, too, while wearing running shoes. I had to work to get to that point in my 30s, and I’ve maintained it. No splits for me, however! My mom was also extremely flexible. She’s the one who challenged me to get my hands flat on the floor. I remember coming home from school and my older sister told Mom they had worked on doing headstands in gym class, and she immediately performed a perfect headstand in the living room. Shocked us all! A MOTHER doing such a thing as unheard of in 1962. She was a riot!
Ruth, your mother sounds so cool.
@Ruth – nice work on putting your hands flat on the floor! I’m hoping to keep the ability!