Victory

Over the last few weeks, I have been steadily noticing that more and more of Asher's clothes are just a little too small. Last night we came home from the evening's revelries and took a good look at Asher. Hugh and I agreed that the shirt he was wearing, which had fit him just fine a week ago, was definitely too small. I decided that it was finally time to go through his clothes and pull out all of the smaller ones to add to the too-small-burrito-clothes box for Asher's little brother (or, if we never have a boy again, one of his cousins) to wear someday. So, I lugged out the too-small-clothes box and the too-big-clothes box and the giant basket that I use as Asher's clothes dresser, and after the Burrito himself was in bed, I set forth to wash everything and re-organize it all.

I, the amazing mother that I am, was ready for this moment because I had spent the last several months collecting various articles of clothing in the next size up from a multiplicity of clearance sales. When I decided that I had garnered enough 18-month-sized vestments to last Asher though the fall and into the winter, I surveyed my spoils and noticed that almost the entire wardrobe was either blue or brown based. I thought this was convenient because everything would go well with brown shoes. And I bought some little brown shoes (also on sale) to square off the toddler trousseau.

I was feeling quite pleased with myself until I ran into one little snag. I now had brown pants, to be worn with brown shoes, but I could not find brown socks anywhere. Besides Old Navy, Target, Wal-mart, Shopko, and Kohls, I had searched every store in the mall that sold baby clothes of any description. Everyone had black and white and tan and grey and red, and even weird colors like lime green and fuchsia, but the only place that sold brown baby socks was the Gap. Maybe you are asking yourself at this very moment why, when I saw that the Gap sold the item that I had been seeking for so long, did I not snatch it up? The answer is that I have some serious moral qualms about paying three dollars a pair for baby socks.

So, after grumbling for a while about the cruelty of it all, I said to myself, "Self, brown is a fall color. If you just wait until fall is a little closer, maybe some other stores will get brown socks." This satisfied me for the moment, and in the meantime I managed to find a couple of very cute pairs of brown striped socks, but I still really wanted one or two pairs of plain brown socks--possibly just out of obstinacy.

This morning, while I was out for a walk with Asher, I wandered into Old Navy (which I will take this moment to mention is my favorite baby sock provider). They had put a variety of new fall things out since the last time that I was there. After I had glanced over the sweaters and long-sleeved blouses, I flitted back to the baby section. And, what should I find there but dark brown baby socks. The choir in my head struck up a rousing rendition of the last line of "Behold! A Royal Army." "Victory, victory, victory!"