Shopping Madness

Ree is such a girlie girl, and as a result, she is really in to shopping.  Which is somewhat unfortunate, since I'm not a huge shopper these days.  I don't have anything against it, I am just lacking time and money.  Thankfully, Ree is easy to please.  As long as she can visit Target or Walmart and Harris Teeter each week, she is a happy camper.

Every now and then we try for a bigger adventure.  Sometimes, we fail horribly.  I learned back in February, that you can do extra things, like take her to Toys R Us, but you better not skip the regular shopping.  It would be like, hmmm, I can't really think of an example right now, but it would be bad.

The exception to the mandatory weekly trips is when we have company.  Ree may have rules for everything, but she is also good at knowing when to apply them.  (I read somewhere that being able to apply different rules to different situations is a sign of a successful person.  If success increases with the number of rules and situations, Ree is going to have one amazing life ahead of her!)  And Ree knows that when we have company, things are different.

So when Jeff's parents were visiting, Ree insisted we have some time for "just the girls," so one afternoon she and I went shopping at Kohl's with Jeff's mom.  When we got there, we headed straight to the toddler department.  Ree wanted to ride in the cart, and she was issuing orders.  (Perhaps it's time to cut back on the princess movies...)  We started looking for shirts, and she caught Jeff's mom looking at a stack of shirts that had a bigger size on top.  Ree dutifully informed her, "It has to say '2T.'"  (She might just be the only child ever to have the bossiness of a 4-year-old and still wear a 2T.)  Once that matter was settled, Ree then proceeded to locate every pink or fuschia outfit in the store.

Once the outfits were selected, I took her to the fitting room to try on the clothes.  Although she had watched me try on clothes, she had never actually done it.  I was afraid she was going to get upset.  With all her rules, she is not good with situations.  But, possibly because she is well informed on fitting rooms from reading Baby Blues, she was excited.  In fact, you would've thought I had taken her to Disney World.  Trying on clothes was the best thing EVER.  When she found something she liked, she twirled and spun.  I'm pretty sure at one point she even added "Whee!  This is fun."

I must remember this, and torture her with this knowledge, when she is 13 and shopping for jeans or a bathing suit.  It's my duty as a mother.