I am open to whoever Harley turns out to be. If she wants to wear pink and play with barbies, or wear jeans and converse and play in the mud, or even wear her pink dress in the mud as compared to staying clean inside in her overalls while reading a book – whatever this little child wants to do with herself is pretty cool with me. However, I have some alternative ideas about how I want to dress her as a baby, and the sorts of things I want at her baby shower. It’s all part of my grand plan.

For the first few months of the baby’s life, people will relate to her based on how she looks. She won’t be able to express herself and will instead be assumed to have traits depending on what she wears, her toys and whatever random stuff she decides she needs to carry around everywhere. However, the interactions with adults that she has at this stage are integral to her development; the words she hears, the tones and facial expressions will all help her understand the world around her. If she is dressed only in typical baby clothes, people will respond to her as a typical baby. However, by dressing her in fun and outrageous clothing, people will be far more likely to use higher level vocabulary when talking to her, as well as laugh a whole lot more – which is great for her development.

Today, the awesome and hilarious Sam Wright sent me a link to {Kid}GotStyle (thanks Rattle&Mum) which has some brilliant baby clothes. In fact, I like every single item on the site and will be using it as a suggested link for people who want to buy clothes for the baby shower. I would honestly be happy with any of those onesies – they are all unique and funny and would make people have such interesting interactions with her, which is what I’m looking for.

There are other things I want to register for as well that aren’t the typical Baby City-centered things. I already knew that I wanted my “entrance fee” for people to be something other than the usual nappies or wet wipes. I want each person who attends the baby shower to bring their favorite kid’s book from when they were kids. They are welcome to write a little note in the front as well, but I just love the idea of sharing those favorite book memories with her; even if people have the same favorite book, it will be lovely to have those words and feelings from all the different people play a part in the formation of her imagination and understanding of the world.

Part of my goal of raising a child who understands that books and stories and love can be intertwined will be pursued by reading to Harley every night from birth. Of course, kids love reading the same books over and over again, but when new books appear it can be equally exciting. As a result, one of the things I’ll be asking for (and buying if I don’t get because it’s on my ‘necessity’ list) is a subscription to The Book Owl. I found it thanks to an incredible review from Pregnant in Cape Town & ever after that explained how books are selected based on the individual child’s tastes and each month new books arrive. It’s like the loot/geek crate idea, but for kids books and I absolutely adore it. What a great present for a baby shower – months of new reading material for the munchkin.

It’s things like this that I hope will help Harley realize that being an individual and seeing the world in her own way is the best thing she can do. If she decides that she will express those things by pairing a princess dress with converse, or wearing whatever it is that makes her happy and reading which books spark her imagination, that’s fine with me. It’s more just a matter of introducing her to the world in a unique way that will hopefully help her to be a trailblazer for life.

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