Last week when temperatures dipped, I felt like such a bad mother. It was cold enough outside so make me dip into my hat and scarf storage. I dug out gloves. I glanced at warmer coats.
But my poor daughter just had her little, lightweight fall coats. No mittens. No warm, fuzzy coat. No hat with little earflaps.
I had previously checked the coat area at Kohls. I found one coat her size on sale for $30. And I didn't buy it because, like an idiot, I thought I could do better.
So I went to Milestones, a consignment shop for children's clothing. They had adorable things in sizes too small or too big for Autumn. But nothing quite right. Yesterday, we went to Grove City to shop at the outlets. BabyGap, Gymboree, Carters, OshKosh, Old Navy, Children's Place and some very nice, but definitely not cheap, store as well. We shopped at all of them. We found lots of coats, but they were all around the $50 mark. No thanks.
If Autumn were not 2 years old and only wearing her coat for one season, I could see spending $50 or more on a coat for her. I'd go out and buy her a Columbia for $100 if I knew she'd be wearing if for a couple of years. But she's not.
So instead of getting a coat down there, which was a big goal of ours for the day, we drove back home and went back to Kohls. I purchased a lovely pink OshKosh coat/snowpants combo for $39.
It wasn't a dirt-cheap bargain, but it's a quality coat and it has matching pants. And at least now I know that the next time I see the snow fly as it did Saturday morning, I won't panic at thoughts of Autumn frozen like a popsicle.