FashBlog.com

By Christina VanGinkel

My grandson has been in a two-toddler size of clothes for so long, that it seemed like he might just stay that size throughout the upcoming summer. Then, almost overnight, it seemed like his shirts were suddenly riding high on his little belly, and his pants looked like he was waiting for the proverbial flood to show up.

We have always bought our children, and now our grandson, gifts for the Easter holiday. Because we will not be home this Easter, I asked my daughter if instead of buying our grandson another toy, if she would prefer it if I instead took him shopping for a few outfits.

So yesterday, even though it is a few weeks to the actual holiday, my daughter and I took him shopping. For toddlers, there is not a lot of selection of sizes, and after the two toddlers, comes, you guessed it, a three toddler. The shirts we found in this size are somewhat longer in the body part, and that was exactly what he needed, but looking through the racks of clothes, some marked a size three would not have fit him any better than the two-toddler shirts he was currently wearing. They were no longer in their length, just wider! When we tried one of those on him, we had all we could do not to laugh. They looked as if we had put a little tent on him. Whatever the manufacturers of those particular brands were thinking when they designed and manufactured them, heaven only knows! If you are shopping for toddler sizes, be sure to compare the brands, and do not rely totally on the sizes marked on the labels. Just like adult sized clothing, there are differences from brand to brand.

With the pants, we did not come across that same problem in such a blatant size discrepancy, though there was a definite difference between brands. However, what we discovered was that there is a big difference between a size two and a size three. Every pair of size three pants that we had him try on was too long in the leg, and a bit too big in the waist. Most of the pairs of pants we found had some elastic in the waist to try to make up this size difference, but this did not completely repair the size issues. As to their lengths, some were not quite as long in the legs, so we gravitated towards those brands, and figured that a belt would have to be purchased to keep him from losing his new pants as he ran around playing like a typical toddler. The shorter pants seemed to be the pairs that were styled like adult pants, with a button and zipper along with a side section of elastic, instead of a complete elastic waist. He also had a personal preference, and wanted pants that zipped as ours did. He actually told us he did not want baby pants that just pulled up!

With our shopping done, we ended up with one pair of jeans; one pair of camouflage colored pants with pockets all over them much to his delight, one pair of jean shorts, one pair of basketball shorts that were reversible, one t-shirt, and one short set that was a matching shirt and pair of shorts.

When we arrived back at my house, my grandson wanted to come in to show Papa what he had bought. My husband thought the camouflage pants were the most sensible buy of the day, and upon hearing this, of course my grandson had to put them on to wear home for his Dad to see. He came out of the bedroom where he had went to change, holding up the waist, and pronounced that he had pants just like Uncle Cody (My thirteen year old who thinks baggy pants are the perfect attire for any occasion!). We then realized we had forgotten to purchase a belt.

While he will surely grow into these new sizes as quickly as he suddenly grew out of the size two's, until then, my daughter is hoping that this first day of spring quickly turns to summer so that she can dress him in his shorts the majority of the time, as they are much more forgiving size wise!