Sizing Up

If you have a baby, a toddler, a little kid, here’s what you’re going to do.

Go get a piece of clothing in a size that is like, 4-6 sizes too big for your child. Are they a 2T? Get them something in a 6 or 8. Are they an 8? Get them like, an adult small. Something that they legit can’t wear yet.

Then put it somewhere that you won’t forget about it but they won’t accidentally put it on one day.

Then wait.

Several years ago, my mother-in-law got my oldest child a pair of fleecy Santa Claus pajama pants that are size 14-16. They would drag on the ground—if they would even stay up around his waist, which they absolutely would not back then. This year, I went to the forgotten shelf in the closet where things go to die and I pulled them out and they fit him PERFECTLY—and it even happens to be the right time of year.

(I don’t recommend that you try to time the holiday part of this—that was a fluke and it will never happen again. Just do something generic.)

Then when you sense it’s the right time, retrieve that piece of clothing and watch as that thing that was once so laughably huge—fits them perfectly.

See, the inverse of this is when you save their baby clothes and hold up newborn onesies in front of their tummies and you get weepy at how small they used to be.

What we’re doing here is not reminiscing about where we came from—we’re celebrating where we are now.

Happy holidays! I hope you can make some memories and feel lucky.