Hand-Me-Downs

When we found out that we were having a little baby boy back in February 2011, I was pretty confident that aside from clothing, most of our current baby toys/decor/etc. would be reusable.  We tried to keep things pretty gender neutral the first time around and were pretty prepared when it was boy time.  Of all of the items that we have been "re-using," there have been a couple of hand-me-downs that have been a little harder on me emotionally. 

Hand-me-down #1:  Diapers

I was in the basement a few weeks back searching for a few items among our stacks and stacks of boxes, when I came across one that was full of diapers.  I froze for a minute, knowing that they were ones that were left over after Charlotte died.  I threw the diapers in a box knowing that some day we would probably have another baby and that they would come in handy.  Charlotte, our petite little girly, was 12 months old and wearing a size 3 diaper (she had very deceiving chubby cheeks!).  Her brother is now 6 months old and sporting those same size 3s.  Notice I didn't call Harrison "petite"!  Charlotte's sick heart had to work a lot harder than Harrison's healthy one...meaning that she burned calories at a much faster rate.  Combine that with her feeding struggles and you get a little girl in the 10th percentile for weight.  We knew that Harrison would likely be bigger, but a part of my heart is sad knowing that he's already bigger than she ever had the chance to grow.

Hand-me-down #2:  Highchair

This one was a tough one for me.  Last May we contemplated selling Charlotte's highchair and getting a new one for Harrison...there were just so many memories (good and bad) of that silly chair.  It was an observation point for many after dinner dance parties, countless photos, stolen popsicles and eating celebrations....all good things.  But those highs were also accompanied by the frustrations of feeding a little girl who flat out didn't want to eat, or wanted to eat but would randomly gag and empty her tummy.  In the end we kept the chair and I'm really happy that we did.  It's just another piece of Charlotte that we are able to share with her baby brother.

Charlotte - 6 months

Harrison - 6 months

Hand-me-down #3:  Special clothes

Sigh....another hard one.  Most of Charlotte's clothes are packed away in totes just in case there is another baby girl in our future.  Some that we deemed "Charlotte's and only Charlotte's" are safely stored in her cedar chest.  She did, however, have a few items that were "hand-downable" to her baby brother...3 items that I know she would have been proud to share.  

Charlotte - 8.5 months

 Harrison - 6 months

And yes, Matt is wearing the EXACT same outfit in both pictures....and not for the sake of making the pictures look the same.  The picture of Charlotte was taken on the day that the Packers won the Super Bowl, and that OBVIOUSLY makes it a "lucky" outfit.  If it's game day, he's wearing it!  Boys are weird like that.

I wasn't sure how I would feel about pulling these items out of storage...for some reason I had always thought of them as being Charlotte's.  I've had to remind myself that it's normal for little siblings to have hand-me-downs and smile knowing that Harrison's big sister is still very much a part of our home.