Thursday, December 22, 2005

Late Night Blatherskite

When Hannah got dressed for her Christmas concert Monday night, I noticed the skirt she was wearing was a size 12. It still fit her skinny little behind, but I wondered what the sizes of her other dresses were. So Tuesday I checked: they were all size 8 or 10/12. They still would have fit her waist, but they would've been too short on her arms and legs, so I took them out of her closet and put them in Boo's. Boo's old dresses got bagged up and will get donated somewhere, except for a couple dresses that my Mom made that I'll give to my grandniece Rory.

Taking the dresses out of Hannah's closet left a bit of a gap, a gap which I figured I'd better fill immediately. And since I had errands to do in town anyway, I did a little clothes shopping while at Wal-Mart. I looked around their girls department, but they didn't have anything I liked. Hannah wears a 14/16 (the largest girls' size) so I asked the dressing room clerk if size 14/16 translated into any adult sizes. Both the clerk and another shopper told me that a girls 14/16 is a junior size 3, so off to the juniors department I went.

The Juniors Department. I hadn't been in the Juniors Department since oh, maybe 1980 and I really wasn't ready for my baby to make that jump. I mean, I've already bought Hannah a few things that were Adult size small, but with the understanding that she would grow into them. This time I was shopping for an exact fit in the Juniors Department. I ended up buying her two peasant skirts (one tan and one dark red) and a black knit turtleneck, so now she has something to wear to church on Christmas Sunday. But as I was walking past the baby clothes I got caught in a wave of nostalgia. Here were the cute little baby dresses, all velvet, lace and fur, and I felt myself getting teary-eyed. I wanted to buy one of those sweet little dresses and take it home for my baby to wear. Instead, I bought her stuff from the Juniors Department. Wow. I'm holding my breath, just waiting for the other shoe to drop - Hannah's entrance into the "Mom! We're out of Midol!" stage.

I was really rather worried yesterday that Hannah was growing up too fast, but not to fear. Today she was still my baby. She forgot her lunch and started crying on the phone when her father told her she'd either have to get the hot lunch or wait until she got home to eat. (They had early dismissal at 1 PM.) I couldn't stand it. I just had to get my little girl her lunch. Fortunately I needed to go back to town to get some craft supplies, so I got in my truck and went fourteen miles round trip out of my way (school is west, craft store is east) to give Hannah her food. Hannah also cried when she got home from school and discovered that Mom and Dad were going to Deep Clean Her Room. At first she hovered and whimpered, but after a while she got into the cleaning groove and actually cheered up. Now her room is neat and tidy, and it will stay that way until Christmas Eve when she opens her Christmas presents. Then chaos will reign supreme for both of my little girls.

And that's the way it should be.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Aunt N: nice. The old Circle of Life goes around again.

We saw friends in ENgland last month we hadn't seen in a few years and they asked about our nieces, who they had met in 1980 as very young children. They are now 28 and 26.

Scary. I can only imagine how my mother feels. No wait, I don't have to - she tells me all the time!

7:51 AM  

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