When there’s a baby at home, there’s almost always something additional you need to buy, whether it’s more diapers, diaper cream, wipes, clothes, supplies… It feels like you’re in a never-ending cycle of constantly consuming more products. Chris just placed an order for more diapers and noted that for the same size box of diapers, quantity and size of diaper, the price has gone up about 17% since the middle of the year — seriously? All I have to say is — our salaries have definitely not gone up by that much since mid-year.

My nanny also keeps telling me that Kaia has outgrown the infant bunting bag for her stroller, and I need to upgrade and get a toddler sized one, as it’s getting colder outside, and she needs to stay warm. I’ve been stretching the infant bunting bag for as long as possible since last winter, we barely used it at all, other than to take her home from the hospital after she was born. So I finally sucked it up today and ordered a new, larger one. And to add to the list of things to buy: the nanny also suggested getting layering pieces for Kaia – short and long sleeved undershirts. But that also means she will need more sweaters and thicker clothing, especially for January and February when it will be especially chilly here in New York.

Next thing you know, she’ll be walking, and we’ll need to get her all types of different shoes, as well. And then we’ll find even more things she needs. We’re always in a state of buying more stuff now.

The nanny was excited to see all of Kaia’s new clothes, both clothes I’d recently purchased as well as gifts that I finally pulled out of the drawers to have washed, as she finally fits a lot of these now. She looked at a number of the clothes labeled as “12 months” in size and held them against Kaia.

“12 months?! You may only get 1-2 wears out of some of these NOW, and she’s 10 months now!” the nanny exclaimed.

That’s funny to think about. When my baby was born, she was so small that she didn’t even fit her newborn clothes. I felt a little worried about it, but in the end, she grew well and gained weight at a healthy rate. And well… the upside of having a small baby is that they get more wears out of all their newborn to 0-3 month clothes! Amazingly, some of the Australian clothes she was gifted that are 0-3 months she still manages to fit!!!! These things run big and are stretchy!

When I reached about five months postpartum, every shower when I’d wash my hair, I would dread. Because then, I was losing clumps and clumps of hair each time I tried to comb. And it was miserable. I was wondering if I’d start developing bald spots. Luckily for me, I did not, and since I already have very fine hair, it wasn’t that noticeable. Now that Kaia is older and far more aware of her surroundings, she’s also very interested… in literally everything. She pulls on her nanny’s necklaces and earrings. She pulls at my ears and nose, tries to put her fingers in my mouth, and occasionally tries to touch my eyeballs. And the most painful thing she does? She tries to pull my hair constantly. I only have my hair down on days I wash it, so on those days… she goes crazy and tries to get as many handfuls of my hair as possible. And on the other days when I have it pulled into a pony tail or bun, she still manages to pull the loose or baby strands and tug until they come out. At one time, she’s gotten as much as five strands of hair pulled out.

Yep, this is what it is to have a rapidly growing and curious baby.

Kaia’s hair is growing quite fast now. As she’s almost 10 months old, she now has a natural deep part on her head, with long bangs being swept to her left side. We’ve mostly just been sweeping it to her left, but it’s been getting a little out of hand and still getting in her face, especially when she’s been rolling and playing around on the floor. I started looking at baby and toddler hair barrettes, especially clips that she can use through her elementary school years, and so many look cheap and flimsy. Others seem to look like they’d probably last one or two wears and break. Some seem like they’d have small parts that would fall off and end up as potential choking hazards. So I thought I’d spend a little more on some handmade ones that, fingers crossed, will last a while and still be wearable when she’s an older girl.

Well, that led me into a browsing session on Etsy, and I found a handful that seemed like they’d not only be cute but last a while. They are also lined and seem like they’d fit comfortably on a small head and stay put. They’re also good for fine hair, which Kaia seems to have, just like me. And… it also resulted in about $43 spent. I justified it in my head that these would last longer than cheaper ones that were mass produced… but in the end, I guess this is just a part of being a girl mom — accessorizing and making my daughter look cute is going to add up, apparently. At least I haven’t spent that much on clothing for her to date thanks to all the generous gifts she was given.

I have friends who went crazy when they had babies, especially girls, buying them the most expensive and ridiculously adorable outfits, just to be worn once or twice and then immediately outgrown and put away/given away/donated. I didn’t really want to be THAT mom and be that wasteful, even though I obviously did want my baby to look cute. We’ve been super fortunate and lucky in that we’ve had so many friends and family give Kaia endless clothing. The majority of these clothes were for 0-9 months, the last of which she’s finally wearing now, and most of which she’s already outgrown and I’ve bagged up for storage. I hate to say this, but pretty much all the clothes that were gifted to her via our baby registry I had to end up returning because she was gifted so many cute and fitting things outside of the registry. So when the weather starting changing this last month, the nanny commented to me that I needed to start getting Kaia clothes to match the season. So Chris picked out a few outerwear pieces, and I purchased some warmer, autumn/winter pieces for her today.

“Big spender!” Chris commented, when he saw the clothing transaction in our Mint account listed.

Well, not really. In her first 9 months of life, I think I purchased a total of six onesies for her… and mostly from Old Navy during a sale. So in other words, I was being el cheapo mom. I also got a few more for her 9-12 month period that she’s finally wearing now, but it’s not really enough. We had some thoughtful friends who purchased clothes for her in the 12-24 month range, as they had kids themselves and said they were gifted WAY too many newborn and 0-3 month clothes, and figured the same would happen to us.

I told the nanny that I made a small purchase of new clothes for Kaia, and that Chris called me a big spender. She laughed.

“Chris better get used to it!” the nanny exclaimed. “Babies need clothes, and baby clothes don’t come cheap, especially girl clothes!”