Now that my son is too big for toddler clothes, we’ve had to abandon the ten dollar rule that we’ve stuck with since the day he was born. That is, no single article of clothing can cost more than ten dollars. A matching set that includes pants and a shirt could cost no more than twenty. It made things very easy. There were exceptions, as there are to all rules. Jake had a shirt that is apparently no longer available which featured a picture of a helicopter and the caption "I Was in the Shit." Loved that shirt. He also had this one, which his sister now wears, though if I were to have another child, he or she would wear this. (And I would be remiss if I didn't mention this shirt, which his aunt bought him after learning of his dislike of a certain vegetable.) I also made a point of trying to dress Jake up in outfits that were more appropriate for a 75 year old retiree in Boca Raton than a two year-old kid in Virginia. Which is how he ended up with outfits like this and this.

But the bottom line is with few exceptions we were able to maintain the ten dollar rule and keep our son reasonably well dressed. We are finding out that it is much more difficult to duplicate this with our daughter. Besides being far too pink and frilly, girls clothes seem to be more expensive. I'm not even talking about ridiculous crap like this or this. (But while we're on that subject, how about this? Or this? How about this one? We're starting to look pretty effin' cheap with that ten dollar rule, huh?)

Even places that normally have reasonable prices such as Old Navy tend to have higher prices for girls clothes. The obvious solution is that we should just dress Abby in all of Jake's old clothes. They're all boxed up in our basement, ready to go. There are two small problems with this plan:

1) I want to give these clothes to my nephew. My brother made sure that Jake always looked like he was ready for the yacht club, and I want to return the favor.

2) My wife cares about the appearance of our daughter. I definitely don't. In fact, Abby's daycare providers can usually tell who has dressed her based on how she looks when she comes to school. If she's got on a dress and tights and her hair is in pigtails or a bow, they know her mom was in charge that morning. If she shows up with this shirt on (which she actually has) or looking like this, they know it was my turn. The funny thing is she humors her mother, but she really is just a jeans and t-shirt kinda kid, just like her dad. I'll bet all girls are before their mother ruins them.