Ribbons and bows

Yesterday I found out I am having a girl. GIIIIIRL. We are so excited. We already have one of the boy variety and we had our hopes we'd have a girl this time around (while swearing up and down that of COURSE we would be THRILLED with a second boy, and really, I think we would). Last night we cuddled up with a 30,000+ name book and I tried not to have nightmares about my husband's preference for names from our 70's and 80's generation. (WHAT IS WRONG WITH HIM?)

We told our parents, we told my sisters, we told some friends and the internet and it seems that the standard form of congratulations for seeing Girl on the ultrasound is not, "Oh, how wonderful, a daughter!", it's "YAY! Let's go shop for PINK!"

Fine with me! I love pink. I am the kind of person who walks into Pottery Barn Kids and wonders how to convince her husband to let her decorate THEIR bedroom with the PBK little girls' collection. Pastel pink polka dot curtains just make me happy! And I can't say I haven't wistfully strolled through the baby girl clothes or hoped to have a reason to buy those little felt hair clips you can find all over Etsy. So yay! Shopping!

Except! I have learned, in my nearly one year as a mom, that I do not shop correctly. Here are the proper ways to outfit your child, as demonstrated by my circle of Way Hipper Than Me Urban Moms:

• Share clothes. I had a boy and you had a girl? And now you're having the boy and I'm having the girl? We'll just trade plastic storage tubs of clothes!
• Shop consignment stores. This is different from thrift store shopping. These are consignment stores. Barely worn designer labels for cheap! Score!
• Shop the giant mom-organized sales. You know, the sales you hear about because someone in your moms group is on top of the Local Mom Pulse and shoots everyone an email about the big Moms of Multiples sale going down next weekend. This is where you stock up till size Kindergarten. Don't you have a closet big enough to store five years' worth of shoes?

And this is how I outfit my child:

• "Mom? Jack is totally growing out of his 12 month pants! They're like shorts! Nothing fits him anymore!"

As much as I'd like to be a trendy yet thrifty and savvy shopper, I'm the idiot standing in the middle of the Target baby clothes section wondering why no one sells footie pajamas past size 12 months, gets completely frustrated and goes home with nothing.

I didn't buy Jack clothes for a long time, seeing as how baby clothes are the favorite gift to give and we were up to our ears in cute stuff for at least six months. (Believe it or not, there are cute baby boy clothes too!) Then the grandmothers sort of took over the outfitting and I only have to go hunt for a particular holiday outfit or certain kind of pajamas (WHY NO FOOTIE PAJAMAS?) every once in a while. I had lots of friends offer to give me clothes, but most of them wanted the clothes back once Jack grew out of them and that was too much for me to handle. Keep track of borrowed clothes? When I could barely keep track of when he last ate? I don't see how people do it.

And now I listen to friends talking about the latest steal they found at a consignment store, or what treasures they discovered at the big sales and the mere idea makes me cower in a corner. Talk about overwhelming! It probably comes from the way I like to shop for myself: enter store, find exactly what I want, leave store. I'm not big on browsing and hunting and combing through endless piles to find the one item I know I can't do without. That's just a lot of work.

So! Now that I've confessed my shameful secret do you have any advice for the easily overwhelmed who really would like to figure out this bargain shopping thing? Because I'm having a GIRL and apparently shopping is REQUIRED.