First Clothes Shopping Trip

For Easter, Beppe gave Charlotte a cute Minnie Mouse summer outfit.  Unfortunately, it was cut very long and narrow and didn't quite fit right through her chest and tummy.  We decided to exchange it, and thus began Charlotte's first clothes shopping trip.

I've shopped for clothes for Charlotte before, of course, and she's often been there with me.  But in the past, she wasn't too interested in the process or the purchases.  This time was a different story.  As soon as we walked into the children's clothing department, she expressed definite opinions about her tastes and preferences.  

Although I tried to steer her to pick out a replacement Minnie Mouse outfit, she was much more interested in the Strawberry Shortcake branded outfits.  As a compromise, we took both kinds back to the dressing room.

When trying on the Strawberry Shortcake outfits, she twirled, she oohed and aahed, her eyes sparkled and she looked like she wanted to hug herself with joy.  Based on the intensity of her reactions, her favorite one was a floral chiffon skirt with a matching t-shirt embellished with chiffon flutter sleeves.  Her second favorite was a one-piece dress made to look like a striped pink and white t-shirt tucked into a denim skirt.

She was unenthusiastic about even trying on the Disney outfits, but I thought it would be nice to replace the gift with as close of an item as possible so I insisted.  Fortunately for Charlotte, they all had the same long narrow cut as the original gift, and even a Disney outfit two sizes bigger still hugged her remaining toddler tummy oddly.

So it was between the two Strawberry Shortcake outfits.   

As she tried on the clothes and we discussed our options, I had flashbacks of shopping trips when I was the child with preferences that sometimes conflicted with the adult accompanying me.  As a little girl, it was so hard for me to understand why something I liked wasn't necessarily the best choice in terms of the season, practicality, quality, etc. 

Now here I was on the other side of the issue.  Charlotte had seemed to like the chiffon outfit better, but I thought the dress would be more practical as play clothes.  

Fortunately for me, it didn't turn out to be a problem.  Her preference for the chiffon outfit wasn't as strong as it had seemed, and she readily accepted my suggestion that we choose the dress.  

I'm sure there will be instances in the future where it won't be so easy though ... a new era in mother-daughter shopping has begun!