The Giant

I always sympathized with my mother as a child. I knew that I was crazy tall as a kid and I knew that must have been frustrating for a number of reasons. Even though it was mainly a blessing, after all, how else would she have reached anything in our house without my sister and I, but there are odd problems that come with raising a tall child. She had it worse than I ever will, I passed her up in 3rd/4th grade in height, and from that point on, she had to tell me to sit down so she could yell at me the few times that I messed up. She also swore that there were times that she could see me grow. I didn't believe her until middle school when I was walking with some friends and the ground suddenly felt a bit further away from my head than it had moments before. I always grew in spurts and while they may not have been that abrupt, they were awful sudden.

Her biggest frustration (and my dad's too, but he rarely actually went with us, he just had second hand frustration) was shopping for clothes and shoes. I hated clothes and shoes shopping and still don't particularly enjoy it. I was in middle school with a size 10 shoe in women's, I wore pretty much the same size as I do now (non pregnant/postpartum) then as well. I grew quickly and rapidly and would rarely wear the same size for multiple years until I settled out in High school.

Today, I realized more levels of worry with a tall preschooler. I went through all of our kid clothes last week to see what we needed for fall/winter. I make a note in my iPhone ensuring that as I see sales, I know what sizes, colors, or things to look for. Mac surprised me last week when I saw that she had outgrown all of her shirts in addition to her pants. I knew the pants would be short, but I had no idea that the 5T shirts would be so tight on her. I made a little note of it and tried on shoes. When we tried them on it seemed that a kid's 11 or so would be more than acceptable. Fast forward to today when the child needed a 12 1/2 or 13 in sneakers (a 12 in dress shoes was a little big, but not much with tights) and was filling out the shoulders on size small (6/7) shirts. I went ahead and held up leggings and while a small will definitely work, I may try on a medium as well so we can get a little extra use out of it! How does a kid grow like that in one week?!? Some of the sizing is due to cut and styling, but it was consistent at a few different stores.

The most worrying part of moving up in sizes is finding things that are appropriate for an almost 4 year old to wear. Many shirts have sayings about talking on the phone, about meeting up after school, or other things that are technically fine, just not in the realm of what a preschooler is doing. And I want her to have "fun" shirts, not just plain colored shirts. Don't even get me started on some of the dresses for this new size grouping though. And the clothes are more expensive too. AND. AND. The big kicker. If we get Mac medium sizes, there is a pretty good chance that we are going to have to buy size small for Keegan at some point so we are going to have to buy it all anyways!

So here is where you guys help me out. Where can I buy good quality clothes for a good price that are appropriate for a giant preschooler? In the mean time, I am going to go thank my mother (and father) for being patient in my clothes shopping endeavors.