It's raining clothes, hallelujah

Yesterday, my cousin called. Actually, I think he may be my second cousin, once removed. Or maybe my third cousin...or maybe just my second cousin? (Our mothers are first cousins, so if anyone can tell me how that works, that'd be lovely. Thanks.) At any rate, we're related, and get the chance to cross paths on holidays sometimes. Also, he and his wife have two little boys, aged seven and five, who recently outgrew a bunch of clothing. And another relative said, "Hey, you know, Anithe has two boys! You should ask her if they need clothes!"

Getting free clothes is one of the benefits of parenthood you just don't think about until it happens. Sometimes, it happens unexpectedly, and is badly timed; on a few occasions during Boy Wonder's infancy, I'd stock up on clothing and then go into work the next day and be greeted with, "Hey, how are you? Oh, I'm Lucille, from the sales department. Nice to meet you. So, I've got six Xtra-large bags of Georgie Junior's outgrown clothes in my trunk, and someone said you have a baby boy..." On the other hand, I very rarely turn down free stuff, and free clothing is never badly timed; kids, particularly infants, require frequent costume changes, and doing laundry less frequently is always nice.

Yesterday, though, the timing was grand. I seem to be washing pants for Boy Wonder every other day, and most of those are looking pretty short, at that. But it's almost summer here, so I don't want to buy him too many more pairs of pants...but they'll wear out if I keep washing them...but the only ones that look long enough anymore are the black ones...etc. So I was thrilled to hear that loads of clothing were mine for the asking, and even more thrilled when two super-sized bags were transferred from my cousin's car trunk to mine. And even MORE more thrilled when we got the bags home and opened them, because they contained at least sixteen pairs of pants, most of which look like they will fit Boy Wonder quite nicely. Jeans! Khakis! Sweats! Warm-up pants with stripes down the sides! Along with roughly a metric ton of T-shirts, both short- and long-sleeved, a fine selection of fleecy sweatshirts, and at least a dozen pairs of pajamas, most of them fleecy feetie pajamas with DINOSAURS. As a bonus, we also acquired ssorted mittens, hats, and some extra snowpants that will come in handy next winter. There are even some items that are too small for Boy Wonder but will be just right for Action Hero in a few months.

Boy Wonder is pleased with the haul, too. He helped me open the bags yesterday, anxiously waited for me to wash some of the clothes, and went through three outfits today. ("Oh no, Mommy! You got a drop of water on my pants! I need to go get new pants! Can I wear my new jeans?") Hopefully, he will not wake up several times during the night and ask to change pajamas.