Supermodel of the World

We took Shae shopping over the weekend, because when I wasn't paying attention for like 10 minutes last Tuesday evening she hit a rapid growth spurt and shot up like 6 inches in an hour or something and all of the sudden none of her clothes fit any more. Not even shorts that I bought back in May. What is it about heat and light and water and the Miracle-Gro that they are evidently putting in the food at school?

She does have a few things that we're keeping from last year, because I overshot how much she was going to grow over the winter, but we had to pack up a whole bunch of pants and shorts because this kid is all spindles. Her legs are almost as long as mine, and I am already a full-grown person. (Allegedly.) She still fits into some 3T's in the waist, but those pants are comically high-watered, or if they are shorts, borderline obscene. (Hello, baby booty!)

Instead of going to the outlet mall 10 minutes from the house, where we have had some luck in the past but not so much this time around (largely because stuff is FUGLY), this time we decided to go "old school" and visit the VF Outlet Center in Reading. When I was a kid I used to go there with my parents for back-to-school shopping, and I remember that I used to love it because there was always something different there versus what I could find at mall stores which I couldn't really afford anyway. One year I got a pair of Lee jeans that were purple and probably a size 7 and I loved them.

Here's the short version: those Outlets are not quite what I remember, and definitely not what I am used to. It wasn't a complete waste of time -- we got Shae three pairs of jeans for $4 each -- but it was very cluttered, crowded, and not all the stores were actually outlet stores, but retail stores in the outlet center. Which means I ended up spending more on some things than I might have if I used my Retail Ninja Commando skills at Kohl's or somewhere else.

But we did get a lot of stuff, and we didn't overpay too much, and like I said, we got jeans for $4, which is almost as cheap as free. I even got myself a pair of jeans for $6, which is definitely Not Too Shabby. (Especially because I plan on not fitting into them for very long.)

I wanted to put on a little fashion show where Shae can model all the cute stuff we got her, but she does not take direction and all she wants to wear these days is "princess dresses" and "Cinderella shoes" which simultaneously breaks my heart and makes me want to throw up a little. Princess dresses. Pshaw. I need to make sure that they are playing gender-neutral dress-up games at school because I'll be damned if I am raising a damsel in distress. Cinderella can put on her own darn shoes.

Anyway ... these are the best of the "model" shots I could manage. Her posing is ... weird, to say the least.

And her very favorite outfit? Was in a bag of hand-me-downs from my sister's in-laws.

It doesn't fit -- too small in the chest and shoulders, and too short -- but the good news is, her dress from my cousin Beth's wedding still fits, and I think that's what we're wearing for Christmas. Where people can actually SEE her in it, this time.