We are back in full swing. School is back in session. I like the routine
Rachel at her desk with her stack of supplies (notice the extra strap on her dress – her gymnastics leotard is under her outfit because she was on her way to practice)
of school, but school time results in a lot of pressure for the modern day parent. Despite my suggestions to drop an extracurricular activity, Rachel seems pretty set to stay the course with all of her activities. Well, she did agree to drop dance.
So, again, I am wayyyy behind. Where to start?
Instead of casually getting to meet the new teacher and make new friends at “meet the teacher”, we ran in, quickly put away her school supplies, said hello, took a picture and left. We were then off to gymnastics practice. I really hope that someday all the extraordinary time (and money) sink that gymnastics has become will seem worth all the trouble. I mean, it is really a lot.
Then it was on to the first day of school. I am a bit of a dictator about how my kid looks when she goes to school. I am all for developing a sense of independence in kids and most days she at least picks out the main portions of the outfit (even if they don’t match perfectly – bright neon purple on faded purple for example), but I draw a hard line in the sand with mis-matched or out-of-season stuff. If she is dressed like that, you can bet money that Bryan was in charge of getting her to the bus stop.
This hard line in the sand often leads to drama. On more than one occasion I have threatened to give away all of her clothes since she didn’t appreciate them. This led to tears and drama, drama, drama!! She actually said, “Mom, I don’t want to wear fancy clothes to school. Other kids don’t wear clothes like mine”.
How do you reason a pointless debate? Simple – you don’t! Anyway, here is a snapshot of some of Rachel’s school time apparel. Special note – when I go shopping for her clothes, guess who picks out every single item???? RACHEL! (this is why I can’t understand why she refuses to wear some of her outfits).
Ok – let us begin! I admit, again, that I am a little bit of a control freak when it comes to my kid’s public appearance. I am trying to let go. It’s not like I can pick out Rachel’s daily wardrobe when she is a freshman at Harvard – lol! Anyway, I
Rachel on the first day of 2nd grade!
tried to lighten up, but insisted that Rachel begin the year in something that was given to her. When we visited family this summer (see the “We are family” blog), everyone bought Rachel and Sarah many cute outfits. Rachel chose the watermelon outfit – adorable! Little sis also had a berry colored outfit that she wore on that day as well. So, day one down!
(Ok, you must be thinking that I planned for the girls to be dressed alike. You are about 70% wrong! Rachel is wearing an outfit that was a gift from one of her great-aunts back in KY, and Sarah is wearing a little outfit that Rachel picked for her a month prior. So, after Rachel decided to wear her little outfit I thought – wow, I can dress the girls in semi-matching outfits!!)
Rachel with her summer reading trophy (all the kids who read 20 books get one, so don’t be too impressed). She is wearing a skirt and shoes that were part of her school wardrobe – her new gymnastics leo matches perfectly! She is minus the cute kittty cat shirt and plus the leo because we were on our way back from practice.
Day two was somewhat more difficult but ok. Rachel had many new outfits to choose from, and I thought “this will be a snap”. Sort-of-right. She decided that the glittery “dream, hope, believe, wish” t-shirt from last year would be the best choice. I gently guided her to the shiny and NEW clothes that I had just purchased. She chose a kitty-cat sweater with a cute
purple plaid skirt that was paired with her awesome new purple converse tennis shoes. I didn’t take a picture that morning but snapped a quick one on the way home that evening from gymnastics team practice. We had to stop at the library to pick up her end of summer reading trophy (every kid gets one, even if the parents read to the kid instead of the kid reading themselves….). This allowed a double opportunity – get picture with reading trophy AND the cute outfit. One problem, it was 100 F that day and the short sleeved sweater was “way to hot” to put back on. Luckily, her leotard matched the skirt and shoes!
Day 3 – we also had mid-week church (handchimes/choir practice) that evening, so it was somewhat easy for me to convince Rachel to wear one of her pretty new dresses. I pointed out that the green and white poka-dot dress that Great Aunt Nadine bought her looked so great on her and bet her that no one else had one just like it. She resisted, her logic was that she didn’t want to get it dirty on the
Wearing a “special” dress to church one Sunday morning this summer!
playground since it was so special.
OK – that is reasonable! Instead, she opted for the grey and purple Gymbore sweater dress. Again, I forgot to take a picture before she got on the bus, but apparently, her teacher snapped a picture of her for the “student garden” display in the hallway at school. Nice….
You can just see the excitement all over her face…. This gem was posted in the second grade hallway – it was cute, all the second graders were “flowers in bloom” – or something like that
Rachel’s favorite new outfit. She reminds me of her aunt Sarah in this one!
Winding down – Thursday brought her “teenager shirt and skinny jeans”. The material for the skinny jeans is very soft and not rough like denim, so I compromised and let her have “skinny jeans”… I think this ensemble looks like something that me or my sister would have worn to school circa 1985/86!
Finally – Friday, CAUSAL FRIDAY!!! After a week of discussing the merits of appreciating new things and all of the effort that goes into preparing for school, I decided to let go and let Rachel have complete control of her outfit. I feel a little bad admitting that she doesn’t have total control of her apparel, but I never claimed to be perfect.
Friday – the end of the first week of 2nd grade! Rachel picked out every single item in this ensemble. I did suggest the skirt. It seemed like the better alternative to the worn-out bright pink stretchy pants.
Anyway, she happily found the well worn “hope,dream, believe, wish” t-shirt. She then started throwing everything out of her dresser drawer (as I restrained from screaming at her…) and then pulled out a pink pair of stretchy pants. I looked at her. She looked back. It was almost like a scene from “The Good, Bad, and Ugly”! I went to her closet and brought out a pair of skorts that were at least in the same color family as the t-shirt. She said PERFECT!
Thank goodness!!! That evening, the entire family went out to celebrate in high fashion at Cici’s Pizza! 
