Okay. Dressing a girl. I am starting from scratch. It's insane. INSANE how much there is to choose from. I am overwhelmed by the amount of crap stores try to get you to buy. They pull together wacky colors and themes from store to store on purpose so that it's impossible to mix and match different clothes from different stores together. Why can't there just be an affordable Americal Apparel for babies?! They are even vertically integrated! Because that's so important when selecting clothing!

So there I stood, thinking of my daugher's bright blue eyes and baby soft skin and really couldn't muster up enough courage to buy all the bright oranges and hot pink/ green polka dots on brown and funky color combos at each store I went into. It's the first full-on seasonal clothing need I am buying for her. Most everything up until now has been gifts. We have been very lucky that way, so many generous gifts.

I literally asked a sales person how this whole 'legging' thing worked. The walls in every store were filled with these legging stretch pants, but it didn't make any sense to me. They were all wacky colors that would require 7 parts of the entire outfit and nothing else in her wardrobe would corrolate to any of those selected leggings. And did I even want to dress her in leggings? What happened to pants? Where are the baby girl pants? Why does it feel like she is stuck in a baby wardrobe hell of leggings?

And who decided a dog would be cute? The whole clothing scheme for the season and all accessories revolved around this little dog image. And the next corner was a cat. Or a unicorn. Like some school mascot or something, but none were cute. Or cool. Why did it need a mascot? And why did all the mascots and colors surrounding the mascots clash? Why can't it just be basic colors with no animal or food or flower on it? If I had more time on my hands I swear I would figure out a way to sew and create my own baby clothing line. There is a need.

My head was spinning by the time I walked out of the 5th store confused about how I want to dress her and figuring out all the variations of needed clothing/ shoes and what color palate I wanted versus what I saw available. I'm starting over. Finding faves. And it's costing a lot more than I want it to. Dang it. Tell me if you have your baby girl shopping route/ path figured out to share with me. I'll need to figure out best place for jammies, church dresses/ shoes/ tights, everyday wear, extra cute outfits, etc. It's like I need a What Not to Wear for Baby Edition.

It wasn't until I looked in Janie & Jack that I actually loved the colors and design of the baby girl clothing. I cannot, however, feel good about the price of their clothing for everyday wear. Which is too bad because they have the colors, fabrics, quality, styling right. Where is my reasonably priced Janie & Jack!?

For my boys I learned the following:

1) Children's Place: argyle socks, ties, sweater vests, white buttom-up shirts, sweat pants. Nothing more should come from this store. Maybe jammies, only the kind without the flame resistant coating, though. Stuff always falls apart.

2) Gymboree: Pants (only those without special effects of wacky colors or animals on them- hard to come by at this store), socks, polos, blankets, jammie, onesies. Only from sales rack. Stuff never falls apart.

3) Old Navy: always buy the next size up (runs small), jeans, socks, undies, jammies, under shirts, T-shirts, hoodies, shorts. Barely makes it to round two with second boy.

4) Gap: church pants, T-shirts only on sale, church shoes, flip-flops, swimwear, shorts only on sale.

Stuff never falls apart.

5) Target: shorts, T-shirts, hoodies, ties, church socks, undies, under shirts, jammies. Never pants- they always wear out too soon. Sometimes falls apart, sometimes makes it another go-round with another kiddo.

6) Janie and Jack: sweater vests, button-up shirts, only on sale. Stuff lasts. Of course.

7) Vans: shoes.

8) Nordstrom: shoes.

9) H&M: Anything goes. Mostly T-shirts and hoodies are a score for the boys here. One should be opening soon out here!! Lasts, stays intact thru lots of washing.