Little Sister, second to none.

One of the things I'd thought of since early on in my pregnancy was that if I have another girl, I'll have lots of the equipment already ready to go. Not only would she justify our frivolous decisions to buy the pink toys instead of the gender-neutral ones on a few too many occasions (and Matt's just as much to blame as I am, by the way!), but she would also curl up under the same blankets as Kalina, wearing her same clothes. Easy as pie.

Always one to root for the underdog, not to mention the second child, though, I felt a little bit sad for Little Sister. Doesn't she deserve to be as celebrated as Kalina was? Dread of sleep problems aside, she's certainly every bit as welcome.

And then I recognized that, really, Little Sister will be born in a completely different season than Kalina was. She may need a few long-sleeved and long-pant articles of clothing to put over the summery onesies characteristic of Kalina's earliest days. And, what the heck, they make teensy clothes pretty cheap nowadays so we might as well get her some new sleepers--Kalina's will definitely be too big for the first few months. And she must have at least 1 or 2 dressup outfits for pictures and such--she certainly can't come home from the hospital in the same outfit Kalina wore, now can she? And maybe some socks? And how do you keep a 3-month-old warm in January? Kalina and I will be doing some serious clothes shopping in September to get ready for this new sweet little baby.

And then I looked at Lamby. Lamby is just perfect--almost pose-able, a wonderful size for hugging and a lovely little thing. We like everything about Lamby, except, possibly, that she wasn't a darker color to begin with. Little Sister will need an equivalent. And she'll actually need two, so that one can be "taking a bath" while the other fills in. We've added that to our shopping list.

But what about the nursery? We have all of Kalina's bedding--perfect. But. Wouldn't it be a little bit sad for the baby not to get anything new? She now has a white crib that Kalina helped Matt set it up this afternoon (Kalina will keep hers, as it turns into a toddler bed that's a much better size for our house than a twin, not to mention the fact that she's happily sleeping and we don't think anything is worth changing that). And of course she'll need a mattress. So there are two new things right there.

But then, I thought, she should at least have a new blanket, to be her own. Right? And maybe I can create a little theme around it, that would blend well enough with Kalina's old stuff. The theme became butterflies (have you ever noticed that baby boys can choose anything from "under the sea" to trains, while little girls can choose princesses, ladybugs or butterflies, and that's it?). And then Babies R Us was having a sale, so Little Sister now has a super-soft blanket (after all, it will be winter and she'll need to keep warm) and a sheet, all her own. And Target had a crib bumper on clearance that would match just perfectly, so even though I was definitely planning to use Kalina's, this one adds a lot of cuteness for not much money. And Little Sister will definitely need her own lamp, as we use Kalina's all the time still, and I love cute lamps and Babies R Us had just the best one on clearance that's goes absolutely perfectly, so we got it, too. And if I could just find the perfect valance, and maybe a pink or blue butterfly picture for the wall, then we'd really be set. However, Little Sister will be using Kalina's play blanket for the floor--no question about it. And her flannel receiving blankets.

Surely diapers will be reusable, too, right? After all, that's why we went for cloth. Yes, absolutely. Why wouldn't they? Sheesh. But if I do come across a really cute diaper cover, I just might have to snap it up. After all, some of Kalina's are a little bit worn, especially the mediums, which she was in for more than a year. And we re-sold a few of Kalina's newborn diapers that weren't our favorites, so those are being replenished as well. But that's it.

And it's not like Little Sister won't still be using all of Kalina's hand-me-downs. She'll just have a few new things of her own now. So we'll be able to tell them apart in photos 20 years from now.

And so, it turns out Little Sister will be welcomed in style after all. She's worth it, right? :)