FashBlog.com

By Christina VanGinkel

We did some Christmas shopping for our grandson last night, and a few of the items we purchased for him were a pair of carpenter style jeans, and a long sleeved football styled jersey to go with the jeans. When I had asked my daughter what sizes he would need, she said he was still in a toddler two for his pants, and would be for some time even if he grew a bit before the holidays actually arrived, but any t-shirts or sweatshirts that we bought should be a size three, for the length of the shirt's body. A size two shirt seemed to be just a bit too short on him, though they still technically fit him. If he bent over though, a size two would ride up and expose his backside. With our cold winters, this was not something we wanted. He had grown some in height, though not in width. Looking at the jeans, my husband thought the size two toddlers was going to be too small. I reminded him that when he was at our house just a few weeks before, that the size two pants he was wearing that morning were constantly on the verge of falling down until we took the waistband and rolled them down to thicken them up. In the same breath, I reminded him how our own child, now thirteen, had just jumped more sizes in one year then I ever had though one person could. He had grown six inches in height, gone up three shoe sizes, but had actually lost a size in jeans, as he had slimmed down considerably. Our grandson would probably be in a size three pants before too long, but until he was, it did not make sense to have him wear clothes that were falling off him or that he would be tripping over because they were too long.

Children grow at their own rate, and unless there is a medical condition, parents should be prepared for sudden bursts of growth, but not panic when they seem slow in coming. While our grandson is, and has been in a size two pants for some time now, it is very likely that he will suddenly jump to a size three, or that he may stay in the size twos through the winter. His eating habits are very reminiscent of my own children when they were little. He will not want to eat anything for several days in a row, to the point that my daughter spends much of her days trying to get him to eat a bit of this or that. He will drink his milk or juice, but food is just not high on his priority list. Then, he will spend a day where she wonders where he puts all the food he can consume. When I kept him overnight last, he woke up and started his morning off by eating, or should I say devouring, two bananas, and not small ones either. He followed this up by a non-stop eating frenzy throughout the morning and into the afternoon. Every time I turned around, he was asking for something to eat. His words were 'I'm hungry Nana, what yah got to eat'. With this in mind, I also tossed a pair of size threes in the cart. They can hang in his closet until the morning my daughter goes to dress him and he suddenly looks like he is waiting for the flood of the century!