Blending in...

It is well known in my circle that I have spent more money on clothes for Tess these past two years than I have on myself in my entire life. It's a disease. It's a sickness. People who shop with me are under strict orders to carefully evaluate every tiny garment that I pick up in order to detain me with one of several pre-prepared rebuttals. I hear, "She has one just like that", "She doesn't need another pair of shoes" or, "You cannot spend $55.00 on a t-shirt" more times that I care to recall. Still, I manage to sneak by every now and again and Internet shopping has become by far my deadliest enemy.

(I only bought ONE t-shirt for $55.00...and it was totally worth it! Black and gray striped tunic with black tights and her little black Converse? Come on!!!)

Anyway. One of my favorite online vendors is Janie and Jack which is the children's clothing world's answer to to Banana Republic (Gymboree is like the Gap...Crazy 8 is like Old Navy...I have this all figured out). Now the trouble with Janie and Jack is that it is monstrously expensive, made obvious by the fact that their closest retail equivalent is in Short Hills Mall aka Trendytown USA. You feel inadequate just breathing the air in that place without the reek of money rolling off of you. I never would have delved into this world had it not been for my mother and mother in law who, prompted by only mild suggestions on my part, went crazy and bought Tess a Janie and Jack head to toe ensemble (dress, coat, hat, the whole shebang) to the tune of $275.00. After that I decided to keep a careful eye on things and limit myself only to Can't Live Without items.

The week after Christmas I got an e-mail from Janie and Jack for a $$$SALE$$$ which listed a whole mess of stuff up to 60% off. I went on and found an adorable outfit, shoes, pants and top for not unreasonable prices and so I bought them. The shoes in particular I had loved from afar for some time but their initial list price of $48.00kept me at bay. At $20.99 I was more willing to talk.

My green wrapped lovelies arrived over the weekend and yesterday I eagerly got Tess all decked out in the goods. We went to Gymboree for her final class of the session and then I had to look for a dress for a wedding I am going to this weekend. Just to give you an idea of economics at work, my entire wedding ensemble, dress and shoes, boots no less, came to $35.00. It was not until we were in the shoe store however, that terror struck.

Tess is a big fan of taking her shoes off in stores. She can get any shoe off, sneakers, Mary Janes, even hiking boots, with absolutely no trouble. I repeat, "Tess, don't take your shoes off, Tess don't take your shoes off, TESS!" at least fifty times a trip. Because of this, I have implemented a No Walk, No Shoes policy whereby if she goes in a shopping cart, her shoes go in my purse just to save my own sanity. We were shoe shopping in one of those big shoe warehouses with miles of shoes in fifty different rows. They did not have shopping carts so my sister and I let her loose while we looked for a pair of boots to go with my dress.

We were there for about twenty minutes when my sister noticed that Tess' Janie and Jack shoes were no longer on her feet. Where and when she had removed them were mysteries to me so Amanda and I lifted her up and began a frantic search. I tried grilling her to no avail.

"Tess, where are your shoes? Where are your SHOES??? Tess, where did you leave your brand new Janie and Jack shoes that Mommy was so happy to finally afford???"

She was not helping out. She thought this was hysterical. "I took off my shoes, Mommy! I took them off!"

"Yes, but where did you LEAVE them??? Did you leave them in a place where someone might try to PURCHASE them?"

After a few minutes of frantic searching my sister located them next to one of those little mirror stools and we returned them to Tess' feet which I watched much more carefully from that point on.

I hope she outgrows this soon...I can't help but feel that duct taping her shoes to her feet would somehow take away from her overall appearance...and I would like to keep all her ensembles intact in the hopes that I might someday have another little girl (or ten) to dress.