How Cheap is Cheap?

Pineapple is sprouting. She’s getting so big and tall and lean! It’s insane that each time I arrive at daycare school to pick her up, the other babies are such tiny little super chunks and then there’s Pineapple…a tall, skinny, pants-falling-off toddler waving from the window.

Given that she is so long, she’s wearing clothes sized 12-18 months but is really comfortable in the 18 month size – we’re sort of stretching out the 12 month clothes because we cannot afford to fund an entirely new wardrobe every 2 months! Another problem with just moving her to the 18 mo sized clothing is that they fall right off of her – the 12 mo stuff is super loose and sometimes slips when she’s crawling or climbing the stairs, but the 18 mo pants just hit the dirt as soon as she stands up.

She has the scrawniest, tiniest little arms and legs and the weensiest of poked out bellies. And her butt?! Fuggedaboudit. No such thing. She has her daddy’s hiney – which means there isn’t much of one. So, what’s a mom to do?

Here’s what a mom does – she starts calling the grandparents (thank GOODNESS for those!) and saying things like “wow, her little pants are so short they look like capri pants already! I don’t know how we’ll make it through the cold, cold PacNW winter!” and “gee, I know I’ve heard of those pants tigthener thingies but I can’t find one – *sigh* – I guess she’ll just make do.” You see,  I do this because Grandma’s are MAGICAL. They find the best deals on clothes, they have the disposable time to do bargain shopping, and when push comes to shove, they know how to work a needle and thread to tighten up those little pants waists!

All of this growing out of her clothes is making me wonder about Pineapple’s teen years…and not just wonder, but quake with fear. I’ve seen that Super Sweet 16 show and those kids are crazy – and demanding – and mean.

So I was talking to my little sister about my clothing conundrum – and making a plug for those super cute little sweat suits that Target has right now for wee ones (she’s young, doesn’t have to work because her husband is very successful, and she likes to shop…I TOLD you I ain’t too proud to beg) and she shared a bit of knowledge with me that nearly shocked the pants right off of me:

Apparently, when we were younger (junior high/early high school) and didn’t know any better, our mom would remove the cheap-o, off-brand tags from our clothes and SEW IN BRAND NAME LABELS! *!!GASP!!* Now how’s that for thinking outside of the box?! I had absolutely no clue that my ‘Guess’ jeans were probably actually ‘Who’ jeans. No idea that my ‘Esprit’ shirt was most likely a ‘Spirit’ shirt.

The interesting thing is that in my youth, this would have pissed me off to no end…but as a mom responsible for a mortgage payment, daycare school payments, care and feeding of a rapidly growing Pineapple, and car payments, I think this idea is freakin’ BRILLIANT! Though I’ve yet to confirm it with mom, Lil Sis swears it’s true.

So, now I just need to get my hands on some tags! Anybody have a surplus of ‘Janie & Jack’ labels that I can sew into Pineapple’s ‘Circo’ outfits? We need to get this started soon – so that she’s never the wiser….