Sunday, August 03, 2008

Payback?

I'm not sure, but I don't think I was as terrible a shopper as Sophie is. To clarify, she is a great shopper if we are shopping for toys, but how often does that happen? Today I took her shopping for clothes, school begins a week from tomorrow, and she has outgrown most of her shorts from this summer. Since it will be hot as heck till probably the middle of October, no fall clothes needed till then.

First stop: Sears to check out the Land's End stuff. Adorable skorts and co-ordinating tops, capris, shoes. All greatly reduced. All in the style I deem appropriate for an almost 7 year old, which means, not hoochie mama. All uncomfortable. Every single thing she tried on...uncomfortable. I really wish I had taken a video so you could see her contortions as she tried to explain to me...I can feel the seams....ugh this has a collar, I can't stand a collar...oh no, there is elastic at the sleeve, can't stand that either.

We left there with nothing, and headed over to the Carter's store. I didn't realize their girl stuff only goes up to 6X, but in skorts, that would have been fine for her. Again, found some cute ones, again, uncomfortable. That's ok, I used my 20% off coupon for Michael and Emily. Just an aside, but the 2T pants I bought for Mike, who will be 3 this fall...they literally fell off of him. Goodness knows what size he will go down to once the diaper is gone.

So on to Target, where I guess I should have started in the first place. By this time Sophie was sitting in the cart, I was doing the choosing, and things were moving fast. As we started into the dressing room, I told her I was feeling lucky. With a little finessing on my part, we found 3 pairs of shorts and 4 tops to buy. (The finessing was all about the adjustable waist, it has to be just so, big enough to breathe, but not too big to be objectionable) The tops were all the same, just in different colors. Terry's comment to me when she showed him her new stuff, was "So basically you got all the same shirts right?" That is correct, 4 variations of the same t-shirt, with different designs on the front, no collar, no applique that you can feel through the shirt, no horrid seam.
She still needs new sneakers, but neither one of us could face that today.

Each store we were in had a uniform section, many public schools are going to that. Not ours unfortunately. How simple would that be??

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

absolutely nothing wrong with getting the same shirt in different colors if that's what she'll wear, and ditto for the shorts. Why put yourself through the agony of trying to have her wear something that she doesn't want to? Pick your battles! Mary

Dorothy Gould said...

Mare, I totally agree, that is why her shorts are all variations of the same model as well. Gotta go with what works.

This morning at the Y we ran into a friend who was wearing the land's end capri's that were so uncomfortable. Sophie recognized them right away and looked shocked that they fit someone else. It was pretty funny.

StephB said...

It's hard to avoid hoochie mama clothes! Doug recently had to explain to Annika why she isn't allowed to wear anything with the word brat on it. : )

I'm glad you found some good stuff. I found some cute adjustable waist shorts in the clearance section at Target for $1.98. The tanks were ugly, but SCORE on the shorts!

Elizabeth said...

We voted YES for school uniforms, but apparently we were in the minority. It would be SO nice.

Wait until back to school shopping with 3 kids. WOW! Everyone in the 5 county area was shopping 2 aisles at Walmart on Friday night.

Dorothy Gould said...

E- Lucikly we can pre-order school supplies, so all I have to do for Sophie is pick them up at meet and greet and take them to her classroom. She and I did the supply list for the little ones at Wal-Mart, but that was easy stuff like wipes, play dough, etc.

But yeah, WalMart was the place to be this past weekend!

Mike Maier said...

Now that JAmes is mostly into underwear we are constantly rolling over the tops of his shorts to try to keep them up on his hips...

Dorothy Gould said...

Mike, I have to do that sometimes even with the diaper on!!

BTW, I have an overabundance of winter pants in 2T and 3T, there will be some in the box M&D bring up to the reunion.

Bill Maier said...

Dor - you should see the enthusiasm when trying on school clothes. Jeans are always a struggle - we get 15 pairs from Tom & Pat and the agony is fantastic! Shirts are easier for us as its mostly t-shirts and no discussions. good luck.

Jim and Ann said...

We are still enthusiastic about the b-t-s hand-me downs. Jack wore a pair of shorts to soccer camp today that may have originated with Tommy. They are down to his ankles,have about a 3 inch waste, and are still loose. One of the moms asked me where I got his cleats, um that would be from Bill's garage. At least all of the Maier boys have the same body type, some of these things can keep on going...

Peg Odenthal said...

Unfortunately Brendan has the opposite problem with pants/shorts .. most of them just fit on the waist (even with elastic!).. i have a box of pants from last year that just fit that will hopefully fit this year because of no diaper!!!

GrandmaMaier said...

Oh my, does that painful experience bring your Mother back too many years. The only hand me downs were from a family friend who had 2 girls older then Clare, Mary and Peg. She worked at Best & Co. (exclusive NY store) and would give me clothes- it was a struggle to see who got the best first. Shopping was always a pleasure with my darlings. Don't miss it a bit.