Pretty in pink in the fall

On the first brisk day of fall, I put Kalina in a slightly small t-shirt, pants that I'd bought on clearance from Target months before and a jacket, the sleeves of which were 3/4 length because it was size 3-6 months (admittedly, a large 3-6 months). I squeezed her feet into 6-12-month socks. In this way, she kept fairly warm, but she was probably about as comfortable as she was fashionable.

The next day, we received a nice, warm outfit in the mail from snowy Minnesota where, fortunately, her grandparents live and have access to cold-weather clothing a good month before I do.

And so we eeked by until temperatures topped 70 degrees again.

However, my inner drive to see my child both cute and warm had been ignited, and I rushed out to see what I could find for her fall/winter/early spring wardrobe.

This season, I had only 1 or two items already in place: the rest, I'd need to buy unless I wanted to do daily loads of laundry (besides diapers, that is). I was up to the challenge, and Kalina was a good sport.

The challenge, by the way, was this: outfit Kalina for cold weather on a budget without making her look like a ragamuffin. Bonus challenge: Kalina traditionally changes sizes mid-season, so my goal was to equip her with clothing that would look only slightly large in November and only be slightly small in March, by shopping for the right brands and fits and line-drying pants so they don't shrink in the dryer and fit her tall frame for longer.

Pajamas, by the way, should come in varying degrees of warmth, and should come in pairs so that even if one set of a particular warmth level gets dirty, another one would be readily available. Because we certainly don't want the baby waking up for being cold.

My strategy was this: buy a few nice outfits on consignment. Buy everyday essentials to mix and match at big-box, value-priced retailers and buy pretty much anything that fits and is useful if it's less than $3 and in good condition. Sew her a dress. When in doubt, get pink, because it's pretty easy to match and suits her complexion, and neither of us is quite tired of it yet.

The result: Kalina only looks like a ragamuffin every other day.

Maybe the toughest part about shopping for clothes for Kalina is that I usually bring her, and/or Matt along. They have about the same level of patience for clothes shopping (it's ironic, however, that Kalina has far more patience for activities like picking up leaves by only their stems from off the ground, or reading Curious George books over and over and over, than I do). Sometimes I bring snacks for Kalina, sometimes I shoo them away to entertain each other. Whatever I do, I usually end up with about 5 minutes to scope an entire department and decide what/whether to buy, based on price, matchiness, suitability and sizing.

Adding to the fun is the fact that, like women's clothing brands, all children's clothing brands fit differently. Probably especially little girl clothing brands, to prepare them for womanhood. Despite woman's emancipation from subservient roles and mindless careers, we still can't conquer this one for ourselves. Sorry, Kalina, but maybe your generation will have to take this, the toughest challenge of them all, on.

We've admittedly had some luck with the buy-and-return game. I never wanted to be this type of shopper, but considering Kalina still gets slightly claustrophobic in dressing rooms, I don't always have much choice.

Thus, I've determined that it's not really my fault if Kalina's pinks don't always match, or that she only has one purple shirt to go with her blue-and-purple pants, so if it gets dirty she's out of luck with purple until laundry day, or that a few pants have to be cuffed and sometimes safety pinned if she wears a disposable diaper instead of a fluffy cloth one. Poor girl.

Nevertheless, Kalina's closet is now cheerfully full of clothing in multiple shades of pink, as well as a couple other colors. Many of them match. She also has plenty of fitting socks, about three pairs of which actually stay on her feet with any regularity. She has dresses and several pairs of tights, because no child of mine is going to church in pants when it's such a nice excuse to put her in a cute dress. And she has jackets of varying degrees of warmth, from the consignment sale snowsuit, coat and hooded sweatshirt to the 6-month water-resistant jacket from last year, to the free garage sale fleece jacket, which is turning out to be a really good deal.

Now, still a month and a half away from winter, Kalina is already outgrowing a couple pairs of pants. Do I start over or buy longer socks?

Photo: Notice the careful matching of pinks in this cobbled-together, early fall outfit.