Sweet swimsuits

Most of what I buy for baby D comes from consignment stores, and that's when I buy her anything at all. We've been extremely blessed to have generous family and friends who love to buy her clothes, and we have neighbours across the street whose daughters are just a bit older than D, so she gets their hand-me-downs, continuing a tradition that we had in my family. I always loved getting castoffs from cousins and family friends; it was like a store coming to your house, and everything was free. And usually in good condition, too.

I was debating what kind of swimwear to get for baby D, as the spring has been hot this year, and this is before summer even officially starts! I'm hoping to make good use of friends' pools and community splash pads. My first thought was that a two-piece would be nice, because that would make a swim diaper easy to change. After pricing out swimsuits at Walmart (9$ and up, almost entirely with licensed characters such as Disney Princesses and Dora) and Joe Fresh (8$ and up, mostly solid colours or patterns), I chose a 12-18 months' size sweet pink tankini for 14$.

I had also checked out my favourite local kids' consignment shop as well as a big consignment sale held at my old school a few months back, but the swimsuits were either neon or looked worse for wear. However, I did find a cloth swim diaper on clearance for 5.99$ (reg. price 19.00), and it was almost exactly what I wanted for her! I hadn't seen any in a plain solid pink, they always seemed to have some loud print and I thought that would show through her suit. Either way, I didn't want to buy expensive disposable swimming diapers, because even those won't keep them from peeing in a pool. And if it's only going to keep poop in, I'd just as soon go with a reusable one that I can wash with her other diapers.

Well, clearly I should have waited, because the next time I went to a different consignment store, there were swimsuits aplenty, and cute ones, too! My mom bought a little strawberry one (size 18-24 months) for baby D as a gift for 2.99$, and it was from- you guessed it- Joe Fresh.

Next came the hand-me-downs: a friend from church had one (size 6-12 months) from just last summer that no longer fit her little girl, so she gave it to me. Also Joe Fresh, also adorable.

And finally one more came from our neighbours: a pretty blue number, this time from Zellers, but size 18 months and in great shape!

We had our first pool party today, and baby D wore her strawberry suit with the swim diaper. The diaper fits perfectly, but the suit is still a bit big. In all fairness, she's only 8 months old as of yesterday, so that's not too bad. D loves the water, and she had a great time splashing around with three other babies and their moms. I'm looking forward to more fun days like this! Bring on summer.