The Independence of a Three (Almost Four) Year Old

As most kids do, Emma has grown substantially since last season (darn kids!) and the summer shorts are just not going to last through an Indiana September-March, so yesterday was her turn for new clothes for the fall/winter.

My first feat was to figure out what size to buy her. She is a skinny-minny, but tall (which is the only reason why she weighs all of 33 lbs at "almost" four). She has always been plagued with needing longer pant legs by time she actually grows into the waist of them (yes, even the adjustable-waist kind). For the record, I have both extremes at my house - Xavier is the COMPLETE opposite.

I do a little on-line research (a.k.a. ask my facebook friends) on what the difference is between a size 4T and a regular little girls' size 4. My hope is that it is length instead of just wanting to allow baby girls to look much older than they EVER need to. I get some words of encouragement and we head to Sears to pick out some outfits. "Why Sears and not my staple Walmart?," you ask? I saw Sears was having quite a sale AND I earned a 15% discount when I bought Xavier's pants there last month.

I learnt from my attempt to buy her clothes last weekend that Emma is no more ready to have to try on clothes than I am for her to need to, thus, the reason why I did the sizing research. I was hoping this would be a quick and simple venture of running through, grabbing cute things all in the same size and leaving. It turned into a little longer experience than I was hoping because she has already decided that Mom has no style and she doesn't like anything I pick up. Again, she is only 3! But after much explaining why I won't buy the $10 t-shirt that comes with a mini-stuffed zebra, here is what we came up with (all for $189 + tax - GO ME!):

2 Three-Piece Outfits

The brown and pink jacket is a pea coat (too cute!) 2 pairs of PJs
A pair of khakis and 3 mix'n'match shirts
2 ADORABLE dresses!and 7 Two-Piece Outfits

I got her to finally try them on at home and when she tries the jeans on, which fit perfectly, she says "These pants are too tight!" I explain to her that she's just not used to pants actually fitting. LOL

After having all of those beautiful outfit choices to pick from, here is what she picks (insert independence here):

Well, at least the clothes fit! :)