This comparison reminded me I need to take more photos with our ‘good’ camera. As most people are finding nowadays, we have lots of photos but the picture quality is on the low end.
If you have more than one child, which was the hardest addition?
For us #1 still ranks as the toughest life transition. Newbie parents + colicky baby = I often wondered if my life would ever feel ‘normal’ again.
Our second was too easy. Hence the quick addition of #3.
Our third boy has a temperament in the middle of his older brothers. Needs some cuddling in the evening and a few times overnight but can put down a solid nap in the stroller during the day.
Adding the third child hasn’t been quite as smooth as adding the second.
We are T-I-R-E-D and yes, we are feeling outnumbered.
We are leaning on my husband’s late night child soothing skills and my morning energy.
Of course, I’ve been reminded several times that this phase, young baby + toddler + five year old, won’t last forever. They will grow up and won’t want to cuddle like they do now, or their eyes won’t light up the same way when you enter or a room or they won’t be blowing you kisses as you leave the kindergarten classroom. So have an extra coffee and try to enjoy this moment. All the cliches are true and helpful reminders in this relatively short window of exhaustion.
The other thing that’s helping? All of our boys have been born in the winter. We know all the good and bad about being cooped up with a newborn for a long season of bad weather. Another nice bonus: all of our babies have been able to wear several much loved winter pieces. Hence the photo above. Three babies born in the same season has helped us keep minimalist baby clothes. If there is such a thing as a minimalist baby registry – no registry! – we’re doing it.
One little Hanna Andersson jacket, a gift for our oldest from a dear friend of mine, three boys keeping warm and looking, if I may say, adorable.
This is the little jacket that keeps on giving. It’s in amazing shape for being five years old and the cut of the jacket allows it to fit from a few months old right up to, and sometimes past, a year. I was so impressed with how much use we got from it with our first that I got another a couple of sizes up. It too is still in great shape.
While I have donated a lot of baby and toddler clothing in the last five years, this jacket has always made the cut. Until now. This is likely our last baby so I’ll be donating or selling everything #3 grows out of. And I hope this jacket finds a home where it will be worn by a few more babies.
Should you buy everything in the best quality possible?
I recently read this post over at Modern Mrs. Darcy: The furniture you live on, and the furniture you live around.I really enjoyed Anne’s take on investing in furniture that you sit and sleep on and spending less on things you live around. From my recent furnishing a house from scratch experience I would agree.
Our well made second hand couch is comfortable and holding up well with two children jumping on and off of it. Related: I won’t be buying a white couch again until I am an empty-nester. It was worth the time and effort I put into searching ads and the extra money we paid in comparison to some other second hand couches.
The cheaper pieces I bought that aren’t lived on? I’m happy with the upcycled corner unit that acts as our television stand and the ultra cheap cabinet I picked up and threw a coat of chalk paint on. We could have spent much more on newer pieces but these old timers got the job done.
What items do you invest in for a quality and durability and what things do you spend less on? Our kitchen is filled with excellent cookware and knives but we drink out of jam jars and our plates are basic white. I like great tools for cooking but simple plates and glasses do the job just as well as more expensive ones.
My two boys are “Irish twins”, are five and six with their birthdays only days apart. That was almost like having twins, I think. They are very tall for their age but only one size apart do big bros stuff automatically goes to little bro. They really hard on their clothes, and even though I shop the flash sale sights to get a deal, I am buying more and more from miniboden and Hannahanderson as they get older. I have learned the more expensive stuff really is better quality, you definitely get what you pay for! I wait for holiday sales to get a discount. I just started buying my six-year-old trousers with a reinforced knee from land’s end, I am so tired of the torn knees after three months. I bought these ones around Christmas and every pair looks fabulous. It’s nice to have clothes that last both boys to survive and make it to my nephews. Sometimes clothes were not fit enough to pass onto my younger son or even donation, now everything going to him is in great shape.
We have very expensive beds for all of us here that we don’t regret purchasing for one moment despite the fact that we are not rich folks. The wood bed frames are middle of the line quality but the nightstands are discount and match just fine.The furniture that is meant to last like our leather sofa set (bought on Craigslist, so worth the money we formed out!). Our book/toy shelf is ikea and our TV stand is the boys recycled baby dresser, and that pretty much sums up what we have in our home. I agree that with some things you can cut corners or upcycle pieces but other things must be invested in for the quality. I love your blog, I used to visit a lot without commenting but I haven’t been here in a while.
Sorry for those typos, yikes!
When my five year old was a baby, we got a hand me down patagonia fleece hoodie from friends. When I commented on how much we loved it, my friend told me that the original owner was now 16, and that probably 3 other kids wore it before ours. And then we handed it down, still in good condition. Even though we only have one kid, because of that experience, we’ve bought him a few more patagonia jackets and hoodies– we buy them super big and plan on handing them down to friends’ kids. It’s nice to think of things living on. For daily stuff like t-shirts and jeans, we generally buy H&M.
I too like to think of things living on. We follow a similar edict with buying kid’s clothes. H&M and second hand for daily wear and then we invest in some harder wearing outerwear pieces.
I also have three boys and my middle one is all dark haired like daddy whilst my 7 year old and 8 month old are red haired like me. I’ve had some very out numbered days, especially when they are ill but I wouldn’t change it.
🙂
I also have three boys who share a lot of their clothing through hand-me-downs between each other. It’s a lovely, money saving, nostalgia inducing thing 🙂 (I love your blog and have been following it since I started on my minimizing journey!)
Oh darn, I’m trying to stockpile articles about how adding a 3rd child is easy-peasy so I can use it as ammo against my husband 😉 Our #2 is about the same age as your #3, so we’re still in baby fog ourselves with our 2 boys. For children’s clothing I shop mostly thrift (some consignment) and go for the highest quality I can, which has typically worn well. As I put things away that this baby outgrows, I’m a little more picky about what I keep. I know that if we do have a third, I can easily pick up more (it’s fun). We had the same ease going through seasons of clothing as our 2 are 3 years, 5 days apart – works great, but part of me wishes that the second time we could have had a Spring baby that I could actually take outside to walk on those fussy evenings.
Most of our furniture is family hand-me-downs. other than our sofa, mattresses, and a high-end glider that sits in the living room. I like the rule that if you live “on” it it should be high quality (and that’s mostly what we’ve bought new). I guess I don’t buy much anymore that I would consider low quality, but I don’t buy as much and I often don’t buy it new, or just put the purchase off – maybe for too long. I do also have a bad habit of overbuying used items (ahem, baby clothes) because I can get great stuff at such a cheap price. For example, 1 or 2 fleece jackets would probably do but I have half a drawer stuffed full and no “signature” jacket like in your adorable photos above 🙂
Other families have told me #3 was the easiest. Particularly if they had a bigger gap between #2 and #3. If we had 2.5 years + between #2 and #3 I think this could have been a bit easier. Instead, there is 22 months and the toddler hit the terrible twos right before #3 arrived.
As I read this it reminds me so much of my life just a few years ago with a 4 and 2 year old and newborn. However, all girls. Then the oldest turned 7 and the fog seemed to slowly lift. I hadn’t realized how deep in this fog I had been with raising these kids and which I would also never regret. But as I started coming out of this haze I also realized I had seriously neglected my home. Our couches, once green, now dull brown, we’re now 15 years old and sagging. Our first buy was a nice couch that our family could use for years. Best buy I’ve made in years. Not only is it comfortable it looks great and reminds me of all the years to come with all 5 of us hanging out together in our living room. Next step, new floors and decor!
Agree on the kitchen! I invested in All Clad pots and pans upon the advice of a friend 10+ years ago and am so glad I did it, and this year with a chef for a husband, we invested in a gorgeous Wusthof chef knife and it’s so true – you don’t really need any other knife. Our plates and glasses are simple inexpensive glass made-in-USA ones sold at Fred Meyer/Kroger. Yay!
My two girls are 16 months apart–currently 3.5 and 5. When they were babies I favored consignment and Target. Stuff they grow out of in 3 months doesn’t have to be that durable. As the oldest started to plateau in growth, I discovered that Target is not the best choice for clothes intended to be handed down or last for more than a few months. Now the younger is wearing the same size as her sister, so there is no more handing down there. For fall/winter clothes, which they can actually wear the majority f the year, I bought Hanna Anderson almost exclusively (on eBay as I cannot stomach their retail prices.) They wear great! However, I just bought a slew of short sleeved shirts and shorts in anticipation of the weather warming up (a little early, I admit) at Target, because they only have to last for Seattle’s short summer and then I’ll just donate what, if anything, is still fit to be worn. It’s odd how strategic it all becomes.
Super cute jacket! Timing kids, or pregnancies in my case, for the same season is a great plan, if not actually a plan in the first place. I ended up with pregnancies in the exact opposite seasons, so I now own a full wardrobe of maternity clothes for any weather you can imagine!
For the goods we use, there is a time and a place for bargain shopping, and one for buying quality. We own several pairs of quality cowboy boots – for Mini Maroon #1 plus his parents too. They are not cheap. But they hold up well. And are virtually timeless. The baby ones were bought to be gender neutral, which turned out to work in our favor since Mini Maroon #2 made her appearance. You can bet she will get to wear the same boots as her older brother!!
I love that all of your children got to wear the same coat. We have a similar coat in our family. My sister bought a high quality red winter coat for her youngest. When she out grew it she gave it to me for my oldest. He out grew it and we passed it on to a 3rd sister, who passed it on to a 4th, who passed it back to the 3rd sister who passed it back to me and we used it for our youngest two children. When my youngest out grew it we sent it to my niece, the older sister of the original owner for her daughter. There are many clothing items I’ve bought over the years that have made a similar path, especially jackets, coats, snowsuits and rain gear. If we spend more but can get 3 to 8 children to wear the item before it needs to be re-purposed I think it’s great.
I loved this post. We are expecting our fourth & just found out it’s a fourth boy. Much to everyone else’s dismay, my husband & I feel a bit relieved. For our small house & simple lifestyle a fourth boy seems perfect. No additional girl things, never wondering how to work out room sharing & long nights at baseball&scouts. As far as furniture we save to buy nicer but we tend to get lots of handme down clothes from friends & neighbors so I’m forever patching knees. In July we will welcome our fourth boy to older brothers 5,3,&23months!
I understand “everyone else’s dismay” at a family of boys. We didn’t find out the sex this last time around but we were so sure it was a boy we didn’t even pick out a name for a girl. I’m from a family of mostly women so I was surprised at how much I love having boys. They are so loving! And fun. And, this is a broad generalization, they don’t care what they wear so it’s so easy to dress them.
Congratulations on #4 and all the savings/ease of hand-me-downs 🙂
I agree whole heartedly. I just knew this one was a boy. We didn’t find out with #3 but this time my oldest has been more involved so we took him in with us to find out. Every once in awhile I see a little girl in dance clothes that makes me a bit sad but overall boys are where it’s at!
Our 5 year old was really excited about the new baby this time around. He knew the name early on and we read a book about babies – The Baby Tree by Sophie Blackall which is great! – and he would find “our baby” in the book each time. Seeing how much he has enjoyed having a baby in the house makes me want to have more. Your older two will have so much fun with #4.
P.S. I try and get my girl clothes fix by buying nice gifts for nieces and friends. I’m sure you understand 🙂
Firstly it was lovely to see the boys all lined up! Super cute.
I concur – 1st born – what a shock. 2nd born easy peasy. I didn’t go for number 3, but I’ve heard it’s tougher than 2. You are, as you say out-numbered.
Quality over quantity every time. In all aspects of life.
It is tiring being a Mom, but as we all know ‘The days are long but the years are short’. I cannot believe I am now on the cusp of the tweenager years with my daughter.
Oh, I tend to spend less on clothes. As for furniture, we bought everything new 15 years ago for our first home but I am not sure I would do the same in the present. We have added in the meantime some second hand pieces and we are very happy with them. I think that sometimes hight quality second hand items are better than low quality new ones.