My Fashion “Sense”

It’s commonly known that the sense of smell is the strongest sense tied to memory.  I’m going to have to disagree here - it’s certainly my “sense of fashion” that has the strongest ties to memory.  For some reason I have committed to memory, every onesie, sleeper, creeper, jumper, sweater, jacket, hat, shoe and bathing suit that my children have worn since they were babies.  Actually since before they even entered this world!  I can remember which outfit I recieved as my first pregnant mom gift (those little onsies made it seem so real!), which outfits I packed to take to the hospital, which outfits my kids wore in their first few months home and then which outfits they wore to family celebrations or during milestone moments. 

When we found out we were having a girl the second time around, I realized that I wasn’t going to need a lot of Jagger’s clothes.  I wanted to sort through his stuff and get out any gender neutral stuff we could use for B and donate or give away the rest.  Well guess what?  I couldn’t bring myself to do it.  It wasn’t the thought of all the money that was spent on these clothes that I hated getting rid of them- it was all of the precious memories that were made when Jagger wore these clothes.  There was this one seersucker striped hat that Jagger wore at the beach when he was 6 months old that actually brought tears to my eyes- I didn’t even realize how tied I was this pile of old, worn-out clothes.  I seperated some of my favorites into a pile (which became quite large) and then got rid of most of the rest.  I sat on that bag of clothes for a while until I found this. That was it.  This is what I was going to do with all of Jagger’s old clothes!  I was so happy to not have to throw away his clothes and that I had a way to keep all those wonderful memories alive in my mind. 

My mom gave me this quilt on Jagger’s 3rd birthday.  From top left to bottom right, these are the memories that will be with me forever: Riding in the wheelbarrow in our backyard, my first mother’s day, your first birthday (when we told everyone you were going to be a big brother!), the first birthday party you ever went to (they had a moonbounce!), your first Christmas (sweater & shirt), your second year school picture, the first time you held your little sister (she loves you now!), your 2nd thanksgiving (first holiday as a big brother), the first time we left you with a babysitter to go to a concert (Pearl Jam!), your first jacket (exploring your new backyard), your first pair of jeans (look at those muscles!), your first Thanksgiving (pants & sweater), playing with one of your favorite toys, and lastly, memories of you starting to be a little monkey and try to climb on everything!

So the next time you are sorting through old clothes and not wanting to let go of all those memory-filled outfits, hold on to them and create something that will help you remember all those special times.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Babies, Parenting, Uncategorized . You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.