Do you know what my daughter and I did last night?

We went shopping.

Now, I abhor shopping unless I know exactly what I am going for, which was the case last night. I got a new comforter and I wanted new sheets. So, we dropped Matthew off at tutoring and went to TJ Maxx.

Why don’t I go to TJ Maxx more often? They have AWESOME stuff in there.

Anywho, we got the sheets and pillows and then Sam asked me if we could walk around the mall. I wanted to say no, really I did. I hate the mall and I knew that if we did she would hit me up for everything that she found.

But I said yes. We’ve been struggling here of late and I thought that perhaps this would be some good girl bonding time.

I let her lead the way. The first store that she hit up was Bath and Body Works. First she had to find her favorite scent and share it with me. For the record, it’s cucumber melon (this week anyway.) And then she said, “Come on Mom! Let’s go try on the lip glosses!”

So we made our way over there and we stood there for ages it seemed like trying on all the lip glosses that they had. She was so happy and thrilled to be doing this.

I’ve never spent this much time in the store before. I asked her how she knew about all of this stuff and she told me that her big sister had brought her to the mall on their last outing after dinner. I love that her big sister is girly and into all this stuff. (For the record, I don’t have another child. Sam has a big sister through Big Brothers Big Sisters.)

When we were done trying on lipgloss I asked if she wanted to go to Game Stop in which she replied, “Mom, we don’t have to go there. Matt’s not with us.” And she bee-lined it for the end of the mall as she yelled, “Come on! I want to go to Penny’s!”

When we got in Penny’s I could tell that she was looking for something specific. She had that look on her face. And you know the look that I’m talking about — the one where you know what it is that you want, you just need to locate it.

That’s when I asked, “Sam, what are we looking for?”

“Prom dresses,” she replied as she took off, bounding up the escalator.

It was all I could do to keep up but things started to come back to me.

A week or so ago, we were in the bathroom, and she asked me. “Hey Mom. Did you have a strapless prom dress?” I told her that mine could’ve been strapless, but that I wore the straps.

“Well, when I go to prom, can I wear a strapless dress?”

I told her that we’d worry about it when prom time came around.

She located the racks and racks of dresses. And she sifted through all of them, feeling the material, holding them up, all with her eyes glistening. She was in heaven, it was apparent.

She showed me dress after dress, until she came upon one and held it up and said, “This is it, Mom. This is my dress.”

She was adament about it. She was excited about it. And for a brief moment, I was ready to purchase that dress for her… you know so she had it in 8 years when she attends the prom because that’s how excited she was… and it was majorly marked down to $45. I got caught up in the moment.

I searched and searched for a REALLY small size as I was going to go and let her try it on. I hate trying on clothes with her, but she loves it. She’ll take 15 outfits in and try them all on and then prance and pose in front of the mirror. Kinda like she does for pictures when you take them.

(My mom sent me this over spring beak with the subject line “I see Paris”… apparently, she posed like this all by herself.)

She didn’t try one on, but she did select a backup, just in case someone else had her dress or if it wasn’t available when it was time to buy it.

You always have to have a plan B, ya know?

What I’ve come to realize from this little outing is:

(a) my daughter is trying too hard to grow up. Prom is 8 years away. I’m not ready for prom. I’m not ready for her to be a 4th grader next year, or go to middle school in a year and a half. I’m not ready for prom.

(b) this is the kind of stuff that she likes to do, and I’m going to have to make it a point, even though I don’t know what it is that I’m looking at OR like it, in order to bond with her, I’m going to have to get into it. Who knows? Perhaps she can teach me something.

(c) When prom time does come around? We’re so buying the dress the May before, because these dresses? On sale? Were so in my price range.

(d) While she doesn’t mind JC Penny dresses now, I know it’s only because she doesn’t know of the boutiques that are around town and therefore, in the next 8 years I must find a way to shield her from said boutiques so that the $45 dress from JC Penny’s will still be okay.

(e) Prom dresses of today are much cooler than those from 1994.

Until next time…

Filed under According to Samara, Mom Stuff, Quality Time |