Old Navy: my new favorite toddler clothing store

I am going to do a few posts on stores that I love to shop at for my children and what my must-haves are from those stores.  First on the list is Old Navy.  I have always shopped at Old Navy for cheap wardrobe staples for myself like tank tops, camis, etc.  They have lackluster quality in some of their items that I don't fully appreciate like jeans and jackets.  I like their website and their selection of items in pretty much any color that you can imagine.   

Since we had kids we tailor a lot of our shopping trips around the play places in the local malls.  I can pretty much tell you which malls have good play areas and what I like and don't like about each one.  Before I had kids I was always annoyed by these places because it's like 900 million screaming children under 3ft tall running and screaming and being crazy all in one small area.  I'm not going to lie; it still touches my soul a little bit to be in there with my kids.

Ridgmar Mall, one of the closest malls to our house, has a pretty decent play area.  It's a rather large and has a lot of different things for the kids to climb on.  There are two things that I hate about going to that mall: 1) the people that bring their kids into that play area aren't always the smartest when it comes to being able to read the rules of the play area re: no food/drink and the height requirements of the children that they are bringing in, and 2) there are a lot of stores that have left that mall because of the lack of traffic. 

One of the big stores in that mall is an Old Navy, which has rekindled my love for the store.  I love cheap children's clothes, but I also want them to be decent quality.  Your kids wear an outfit only a few times before they either wear it out, spill something on it that you aren't able to get out, or they outgrow it.  I love pieces of clothes for both of my kids that I can mix and match and make different outfits out of so I can get more use out of them.  Who am I kidding - it's really first and foremost so my husband can pick them out something to wear that remotely matches, and the bonus is that they get to wear the clothes more than a few times. 


Below is a list of staples for my daughter's wardrobe from Old Navy:

• $5 leggings - these are a must.  I am a fairly modest dresser and I pass that on to my daughter by force at this age.  I dislike short skirts and dresses for toddlers.  I don't think that there is any reason why my toddler should have dresses and skirts that are shorter than people would be allowed to wear in school.  I put leggings under anything that she wears that I feel is even remotely too short.  They have them in all colors and patterns.  She has probably 6 pairs of these right now and she loves them.  Mom dresses her in them when she is at home to be comfortable and she wears them under dresses when we go out.  They are full length - not sure if they have a capri length or not.  The picture above is Isabella modeling the leggings in black. 

• 'mix and match' items - shorts, capri knit pants, t-shirts, and tank tops.  These are typically on sale for $5 a piece.  They have patterns and colors that are designed to coordinate together so that you can mix and match - hence the name.  I absolutely love the capri pants on Isabella - they are the perfect length and seem like good quality material.  The shorts are longer length and the shirts are longer than average length which helps them to not ride up and show her midriff.  The above picture is Isabella wearing one of the t-shirts.

 

• dresses - we absolutely love their longer flowy summer dresses.  We bought some from a seller on eBay on time and over time have purchased more than five directly from the store.  They are long enough to not be considered skanky and they typically have some sort of semblance of a lining on the inside which stops them from being see through.  Often they have a super cute detail like a bow in the back of the neck or a super cute neckline.  They also have awesome patterns. 

Below is a list of staples for my son's wardrobe from Old Navy:

• 'mix and match' items - shorts, t-shirts and muscle shirts.  I love the muscle shirts for toddlers, especially for my son because he gets so hot when he plays that I think that they keep him cooler than other shirts.  Their t-shirts, especially for boys are really soft and comfortable. 

• solid onesies - you will figure out soon after the birth of your child that you will be hard pressed to find a solid color onesie that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.  Carters will sell them in like a four pack for $15 or something like that.  Old Navy will regularly have them on sale for much cheaper than that.  The one down side is that I find that their onesies are on the short side as far as length so my kids usually can't wear them until they are too tight because they are too short on the rise. 

• shirts with cute sayings on them - the majority of ours for Silas have been long sleeve but they have a number of them that are short sleeves.  My sister bought him this one but I love it.  The arms are the right length for the size which is important because sometimes they are too short - maybe Silas just has long arms?  Either way, they fit well, are the appropriate length and looks good for multiple wearings. 

All in all, I can usually spend more money than I should on clothes for the kids when I go in the doors.  Another bonus of Old Navy is that there is normally at least a wall full of clearance clothes and you can find some excellent deals on clothes.  I definitely recommend Old Navy for children's clothes. 

- Sara



   

Wardrobe suggestions for today's woman

So, special thanks to Sarah for inspiring this blog.  Well, not inspiring it, because none of these tips are directed towards her, more so she posted this little gem to my wall and it completely made me want to write this.  I will admit that I had to pick myself up off the floor from laughing so hard first, but then all I wanted to do was write a blog about this. 

Lately, I have noticed that women might need a few suggestions when deciding what to wear in the mornings.  This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list.  I know that I will forget something and I will make at least one more part. 

1. Just as the picture implies... shorter is not always better.  There is another funny picture out there that says if you have to ponder whether it is a shirt or a dress, it is always a shirt.  Short shorts or super short skirts look good on about 4% of the world's population, and as sad as it is to admit this the majority of that 4% is not American, not a mother, and not over the age of 25.  I am not saying that you have to wear shorts down to your knees or even Bermuda shorts, just have some self respect.  No one wants to see you dig shorts out of any inappropriate place(s) and if you have to worry that your underwear is showing from the legs of your shorts, you need longer shorts.  Also, no one needs to see the bottom of your butt cheeks in your shorts.  If you can't bend over without auditioning for a porn, you need to change. 
2. Being on the 'People of Walmart' list is not a positive accomplishment.  My husband and I have noticed recently that people are going out in public without looking to ensure that all of their body parts are covered appropriately by clothing or that they are even wearing decent clothes.  Or it appears they are purposely trying to get on that list.  If you have seen the pictures, you (hopefully) know that you should use it as an 'Items Not to Wear' list instead of a guidebook for acceptable outfits.  Yes, it's funny and a great stress relief to look at what some people deem as acceptable shopping attire, but you getting caught on that list is not going to go on your resume.  And someday your children are going to be super red faced when they figure out that woman who forgot pants or the man in the thong is really their parent.   
3. It's called a bra.  All ladies over the age of 13 or so should wear one when going out in public.  Every.  Time.  This is inexcusable, especially if you are older or have had children.  Let's face it - boobs sag when they get older.  We don't even want to see it on our own bodies, let alone the bodies of strangers.  Side note: a bra goes under your clothes.  If you can see more than the straps of your bra accidentally, you should wear a different shirt, or a different bra, or both.  I understand that some people think that bra straps are cute, but for the majority of people it isn't.  It's sad and gross and creepy. 
4. This one is a touchy one but I say it with love.  Just because you can make it fit doesn't mean that you should wear it.  There are some items of clothing that should only be sold up to like a size 8.  The people who make those items of clothing for people bigger than that don't care how ridiculous we all look wearing that, they just want to sell it.  I am not saying that if you are over a size 8 that you need to wear a mu mu; I'm just saying that women my size have no business wearing a micro mini skirt.  Or ridiculously tight spandex yoga pants.  Be honest with yourself about how you look in clothes.  I am freely admitting that I have laid down on the bed at some point in my life to make my pants zip and button.  I am also freely admitting at this point that I looked awful in said pants and look much better now that I wear clothes that are an appropriate fit for my body shape.  To take an item of clothing that is ideally meant for a smaller size and make it larger often times makes the proportions off and you end up with shorter than appropriate sleeves or torso length, etc.  This topic also applies to people who want desperately to fit into a size of clothing that they are not.  I say it again: just because you can make it fit doesn't mean that you should wear it.  If you have to undo your pants on the way home and it's not Thanksgiving, you need to wear a bigger size. 

Those are my current top 4 issues.  Apparently they are not as common sense as I would like to think.  What ridiculous have you seen recently? 
 

My husband is a genius

My husband has some questionable ideas.  Let's face it - if you are married, there are sometimes that you're husband comes to you with this idea and on the outside you look like you think it's a good idea and on the inside you are wondering how he manages to get out of bed on his own everyday.  And don't even get me started on how many ideas he will have that end with some type of sexual overtone.  Luckily for me, since the beginning of the year, my husband has had some legitimately awesome ideas.

 The most recent idea being that he would try to investigate what happened to our broken washer prior to buying another one.  Let me preface by saying that our washer would fill, drain and spin but not agitate.  A simple review on google yielded a million different options of how to fix this issue but none that seemed to be applicable for our washer.  When you included our model of washer, zero decent suggestions. 

Of course, when our washer decided to stop agitating it was at the beginning of a wash cycle and so there were dirty clothes in the washer that had just been hanging around for a few days and were now just starting to take on this weird smell.  Last night after our trip to the Sears Outlet, we decided to at least run those clothes through a cycle with detergent to rid the house of the smell.  Let me say first that I remember various other times throughout my life that I have been in that place and seen better prices.  I don't know if now is the time of the year when washers and dryers start to break but they did not seem as reasonably priced as I remember.  The focus of our conversation then turned to how we could live with a temporary washer until tax returns came back.  While washing that load of clothes, he was letting me hear the noise that it was making and had an "Aha!" moment and said "I think that the coupler is bad!"  Possibly a washing machine fix it man in a past life? 

Excellent!  Verdict:  Bad coupler.  Cost of the part: $7.50.  Prior to deciding to buy a new one I looked up and it would have cost $75.00 just to have someone come out and try to tell us what the problem was.  I am obviously in the wrong business - you would imagine that we would have paid more than $100 to have someone fix that washer for a $7.50 part.  The markup on that is insane.  Nevertheless, I am excited by my husband for figuring this out and taking less than an hour to replace the part and get the washer going again. 

I am confident that sometime in 2013, we will again return to the ideas that culminate with a sexual overtone or ideas where I wonder if he has a monkey's brain, but it's nice to start off the year on the right foot! 

-Sara