School Pictures

Today is picture day at my daughter's school. Oh, the chaos! It started last week with me trying to find her something to wear for the pictures. Who would have thought that would be so hard? I just wanted a nice sweater...is that so much to ask? Maybe I'm pickier than I thought. True, I wanted something that expressed her personality (fun, smart, hip and strong), ideally something that wasn't predominantly pink and certainly nothing with bows, ruffles or lace. Aacck! Speaking of which, isn't it hilarious to see what kids wear on school picture day (especially at this age?). You get a true idea of the parents' (or at least mom's) style based on what they want to see their kid wearing in an 8x10 frame in the living room for the next year. I started out at Target...they had a couple of nice things but one was pink and one was light tan which I figured would wash her out. Then I moved on to Babies R Us this past weekend...that is where I buy the majority of her clothes. I love the Koala Kids brand...it's funky meets trendy. There was a nice sweater there but it wasn't even close to her size. After exhausting the selection I headed to the mall. I went into Gymboree but immediately started sweating due to the claustrophobia coming over me as I struggled to navigate between the racks of clothes and hyperactive parents who are willing to drop $30+ on everyday clothes for their one-year olds. And I'm sorry to all of you dads out there, but nothing is more stressful than a dad in a kids clothing store who is actually taking the shopping seriously. I mean get out and go sit on the bench in the hall with the rest of the dads! Needless to say I struck out big time at Gymboree and by this time was starting to panic. I knew I was on borrowed time with my husband who was at home with Miss B, and had already called me twice to talk about....?? Moving on. I hit Macy's...surely a large department store would have something I liked. Nope. Nada. Zip. I was about to leave the mall when I remembered Baby Gap...and I had a gift card. Bonus. I speed walked down the mall corridor to Baby Gap, ducked inside and was immediately surrounded by cute clothes! Now the problem wasn't finding something, it was narrowing it down! But I managed and walked out with the perfect sweater and long-sleeved tee to go with the jeans I'd picked up at Target a few days ago.

Fast forward to this morning. Wait, I should back up to last night. Anyone who has seen my daughter knows that she is not lacking in the hair department. In fact she has the most awesome, curly strawberry blond hair. And with all that hair, it's a crapshoot as to what it is going to look like in the mornings. My husband took special care to comb it just perfect last night after bath time, giving her the best shot at waking up without a major case of bed head today. And it worked. She was looking good! We got dressed and were out the door by 7:45 in order to get to school by the appointed picture taking time of 8 a.m. I swear she could sense my stress as she wasn't her normal, jovial, dancing self in the car but instead she seemed a bit distressed...a little worried. A little like, "Mom, what is in store for me?" She has learned the word smile and when you say, "B, smile!" she puts her fingers up to her cheeks and it's so friggin' cute! I kept practicing that with her in the car on our drive. We made it just in time (my husband thought there was no way we'd be there by 8:00 earlier this morning when I was struggling to pull myself out of bed at 6:30), and her class was gearing up for the big moment. I did all I could...she looked adorable...no runny nose, no tired eyes. It's up to her now! Come on girl...show those pretty new teeth and perfect dimples! Love you!