Life continues

First a quick update on my life. Well Gretchen is still trying to walk. She can stand on her own without any support and take about 5 steps and then on her bottom she goes. You can tell when she is taking her time walking and when she gets in a big hurry cause at those times she takes only 2 steps before falling.

Sometimes when I start typing I start preaching and raving about people that have upset me and made me mad. But I stop myself and delete whatever I have typed. I am not going to use this blog to be mean to anyone. However, if anyone out there wants to give me advice on how to deal with a judgemental mother in law please do. I would love your advice.

Gretchen is also going through a hollering stage. Not crying or whinning but hollering. She gets really loud and at times I need to be separated from it to beable to think.

So, now I want to sort of go over my philosophy of parenting. Today lets talk about Clothes and Babies!

I am a big believer in hand me downs, thift shops, and consignment for kids clothes. Yes, I do buy Gretchen new clothes but the majority is used. As fast as she grows I feel I don't get my moneies worth from buying a lot of new clothes. Gretchen plays alot so her clothes need to be something she can get messy in and me not freak out if that stain won't come out. I'm also not one to go to a sale and buy too many cute dresses just cause they are on sale. Think about it. In a months time Gretchen will need to be dressed up about 4 times for church or other events. In a spring and summer season that would be about 24 times. If I want to actually get some use and my money worth out of a dress then she needs to wear it at least 4 times, equaling 6 dresses. I don't know how many dresses Brian's sister sold at a yard sale that still had the tags on them that were never worn. Ok, you got it for a good deal but since it was never worn and you had to sell it at a yard sale for cheap then any idiot would know that you lost money.

Another trick I have found was that I bought clothes a tad bigger so she can grow into then and they can last longer. When Gretchen was around 6 months she needed more winter clothes. It was almost spring so I bought just enough to last the rest of winter. When it came time to buy summer clothes she was in a 9 months. Instead of buying everything in 9 months and then having to buy 12 months later I just bought 12 months. This saved me a lot of money cause she will get more used out of the clothes before she out grows it. So, for a few months her clothes were a tad big but I saved in the long run.