Back-To-School-Shopping

I don't remember where I read about this tip, but if you write your preschooler's name in their shoes so they have to pair them up correctly to read the name, they'll always know which shoe goes on which foot. Genius. Clara has to have 'indoor shoes' for school--these are the ones she chose. You can't tell in this washed out photo, but they are, of course, magenta. She spent all afternoon taking them off, lining up her name, and putting them back on.

Thanks to the grandparents and a very dangerous trip to the kids' sale at Old Navy by Mama and Clara, we are pretty set for back-to-school clothes. Or in our case, first-time-to-school-clothes. But Amy and I got a few glimpses in our new three-year-old of the horrific teen years ahead of us. Amy and I both are wearing clothes that we've had for about 10 years and that have holes. We just are not big shoppers, and aren't in a position to be. So I'm not sure where she gets it, but Clara is super opinionated about clothes and is a crazy little shopper. After a trip with Grammy to Hanna Andersson she spent 30 min. laying all of her new clothes on the floor, organizing and reorganizing and creating little two-dimensional outfits. Today at Old Navy she would stop in front of things, whip them off the rack, hold them up and say things like, "What do you think, Mama? Do you like this one? I like it; let's get it!" Very scary. But our most hilarious moment came when she was flipping through the miniBoden catalog today. She emerged from the bathroom after spending 15 min. in there looking it over to tell Amy, "There's something ridiculous in this magazine. Come look." She pointed to a mock-fur trimmed coat. "Look at these funny furry coats. Ridiculous."