Today, Susanna from the Fashion Meiser joins me…

Upon hearing that I’m expecting my second child, my friend Helen offered to return the baby clothes I lent her last year when her son was born. There are a lot of memories attached to those little outfits: the sailor suit my son wore for his first Easter, the cute frog-themed outfit he wore to a birthday party, the little Red Sox outfit (worn with red socks, of course) that I thought made him look so hip.

Now, as I sort through these baby clothes to prepare them for another go-round, I’m realizing that they are imbued not only with memories of my son, but also of Helen’s son, and, in some cases, my nephew, my niece, other friends’ children, my sister’s in-law’s children, and some unknown babies whose parents sold their “gently worn” clothing on eBay and at consignment sales.

The white pajamas with the blue clouds on them were the first baby gift I bought for my sister when my niece was born back in 2000. I was not used to buying baby clothes back then and didn’t know where to look, so I bought them on Bluefly, the same place I shopped for nice clothes for myself. Six years later, those pajamas were among the piles of hand-me-down baby clothes my sister gave me to prepare for my son’s birth.  When we decided that he was old enough for us to bring him to church, our son didn’t have any “regular” clothes that fit him yet, so he wore those cloud pajamas, which were still in excellent condition.

I especially like the clothes that were handed down to my sister from her in-laws in Belgium: little onesies with French sayings on them, some adorable white velour pajamas with a teddy bear applique on them that are as impractical as they are cute. I like knowing that these were worn by babies in our family across two continents and as many decades.

Now the cloud pajamas, the Belgian outfits, and a whole bunch of others, will be passed on to this new baby. I’m sure he or she will have some new outfits, too - things that will belong just to him or her. But this baby will also get to be the next link in a chain of memories passed from sister to sister, from friend to friend.

***

Please go visit Susanna especially if you’re into fashion… perhaps I should take notes?

and don’t forget, all comments left on guest blogger’s posts gets you a chance to win a copy of More Than It Hurts You by Darin Strauss.

Until next time…

Filed under Guest Bloggers |