Keeping up with Growing Kids

This is the big year for the girl. She’s 11 going on 20, you see. By my estimates, this year, before she turns 12, she’s likely to pass me up in height, no small feat, since I am, (or was at one time) outlandishly tall. Since I met my husband (6’4″) and since my son has reached (we hope) his full height at 6’7″, I’m soon to be the shrimp of the family. The girl is gaining on me rapidly. She’s about 5’6″ at this writing (5’6.5″ by tomorrow). We both wear a size 10 shoe. A couple of months ago I wrote about a clothing-related incident that almost landed me in the ER.

She realized, with this week’s cooler weather, that she’s down to two pairs of jeans — both a little tight, both a lot too short. So tonight we ran to Target and skipped right past the girls’ section. There’s no need to even TRY there anymore. In juniors’ I pulled out a size three for her to try. No dice. Then a five. Too tight. I went back and fetched a seven and hestitating for a moment, grabbed a nine just in case.

Thankfully the sevens did the trick — I can’t have her catching up to me too fast! I bought two and asked her to slow down the growth spurt until I get back in town this weekend.

So parents, how do you do it? How do you keep ahead of these kids growing faster than you can shop? I don’t want to buy her too much now because I know in a few months we’ll be doing it all again. I also don’t want to buy her a size too big and make her feel (and look) ridiculous. I’ve already given her some hand me downs — shirts and skirts I no longer wear that actually fit her — it’s pretty weird.