Shopping with my girl ..

Last Wednesday, I got to go on an unexpected shopping spree..Balu came home from school, and announced that we had to give a spring dress for Shreyu's spring performace. I dint have any that fits her now, so I very nobly offered to go shopping to pick up one for her.

As always, Shreyu tagged along with me coz in our new routine as parents of 2, whoever goes out takes the girl with them so that the one staying at home don't have to deal with the two energisers at the same time..

It turned out to be quite an experience! Shopping with my girl almost felt like going shopping with any of my girlfriends, but ofcoz lot more eventful :)

Once I stepped into Kohls, I walked right to the Juniors section. Nah-ah, I don't mean the kids aisles, I meant clothes for me from the Junior's dept. Hey hey, don't gimme that look, I know a lot of other frenz who shop around these aisles too. So, I start hunting for this season's new arrivals, while Shrey played my assistant n pushed the cart around, following me. She looked adorable, pushing that cart which was way too big for her :) The scene did elicit a few nice comments from other fellow girl shoppers, and one even went on to say that she wishes to have a daughter like her too :) ....once Shrey realized that we were looking for my tops, she started pestering me to go buy things for her. When I had the cart fill up with all of my trial tops & pants, we move on.



Meanwhile, she happened to find one stray un-opened bag of chocolates lying there & without a blink, she picked it up. Despite a number of lies from me like, those are spoiled ones, or the cop will take her or that there are bugs in that bag, she chose to give the benefit of doubt & simply wont part with the bag. Now started the persistent requests, Amma can you open it? Amma can I have just one? Can I just touch it? so on n on on .....

I buried the bag of choclates under the pile of clothes in the cart, and to distract her, I asked her if she wants a cart ride, and she hopped on immediately. It was quite fun pushing her on the cart all the way to the kids stuff. Not sure who enjoyed more - the rider or the ridee :)

As I go through all the little spring & summer frocks, I began to see that my little one is too tall for her age - three & a half !! Guess I shouldn't be surprised as I see everyday how tall she is amongst all of her classmates, but never thought even 4T is not going to fit her. It seems Kohls does not carry 5T :( ....so very soon I will be shopping from young girls section, no more in the toddler section with all those cutsie wear :(( ...it kinda made me sad :(( ....I cudn't resist myself, so still picked up a few dresses & skirts that will barely fit her & she will most likely be able to wear those only for a couple more months. But Madam is not into these girly stuff....she wants capris n shorts n kind, Balu made her sucha tomboy u see :(( ...I sort of convinced her that all these will look good on her. She nodded & then took one step further & picked up a hat as well..Hmm, not bad I thought for someone who hates hats since infancy.


Amidst all the hunt, came constant demands to go into the fitting room. At first I did not understand why, but later figured it out. Her ever-plotting brain came up with this idea to go into the fitting room where I will start emptying the cart, thus paving a path to her hidden candy treasure. Smart kid!! If I don' watch out carefully, she'll get me fooled easily..

Finally I give in & headed to the fitting rooms. By now the cart was sooo full & the center of gravity shifted in a way that whenever I let go of it, to examine this & that on the way, the cart wud tumble down throwing Kutti on the floor. Happened three times :))))) .....it dint hurt her, so we just laughed it off :)) ....

In the room, her interest in trying out different outfits was almost as good as mine!! While I am busy with my stuff, she would try each of hers, stand in front of the mirror in a ballerina pose, admire herself, likes what she sees & then wud ask for my opinion. One time, when I was done with one outfit, & turned around to pick up another, I was MOTRIFIED to find Shrey sprawled on the floor, her head well into the room next to ours. I dragged her out still reeling in shock. Thankfully, the person next door did not complain, either she dint notice this curious kid peering at her, or was nice enough not to say anything. I chided the brat, but she just giggled. It happened another time, making it even worse, coz this time, the kid was in between changes & so was lying on the floor only in her underpants, n peeking at other women during their changes ....if I wasn't hidden behind closed doors, I would have dug a hole in embarassment.
Thinking back, I remember that shopping with her was so different six months ago when she was barely 3yrs old. During that trip to Kohls, she was all about me & my clothes. She kept picking up various tops for me, asking me to try them on. And I actually liked the ones she picked too. Not just selecting clothes for me, she was so good at giving feedback in the fitting room too, telling me which combos looked good and which did not. Her logic was mostly based on color matching :). That time, when I made a second trip to the fitting room after almost an hour, and retried one of the jeans again, she remembered that & was like, Amma you already tried this on, take it I like it :)) .....

It was fun that time, and it was fun this time around too!! But I had to put an end to our together time because I started getting frantic calls from home. Why can't men get it that an hour is only a few minutes worth in a girl's shopping world??

Anyways.....I really enjoyed that evening!! ...Did not occur to me that shopping with your daughter could be soo much fun when I was wishing for a girl during my first pregnancy. I only thought dressing up your daughter should be fun, but there seems to be much more to it :))

Wonder how exciting it'll turn out to be when my baby boy grows up & we are sitting on the edge of our chairs watching his basketball game !!!!

Dribbling his basket ball ...