The Girl in the Purple Pants
posted Tuesday July 27th, 2010
I woke up this morning with a horrible thought.
The purple First Day of School pants. She can’t wear them.
On Saturday, the girls and I hit Target for back-to-school gear. I was so proud of myself — doing it two weeks ahead, instead of two days, or two hours. The three of us stood in the backpack aisle, debating. I’d decided Annabelle needed a rolling backpack this year, and she concurred, but reminded me wisely that it better be lightweight enough to make it up the stairs.
Those damn stairs. For the first time, this year, Sophie will have to negotiate them as well. So it took some searching to find her a REALLY lightweight backpack, since she insisted on having a rolling one like her sister (of course).
The outfits were easier. Annabelle chose very basic brown shorts and a light green tee shirt, informing me she doesn’t care for messages on her clothing. (Me either, come to think of it.) Sophie, too, was a Plain Jane, in purple, of course. She chose a tee and pants and will look like a grape.
In the shoe aisle, we searched long and hard til both girls decided on sporty slip-on sneakers with Velcro fasteners — easier for Sophie to negotiate, since she’s far from knowing how to tie a bow.
When we got home, I had to hide all the back to school stuff — I’m a firm believer in keeping it special. No one’s going to scuff her shoes or mess up her backpack. Not til the second day of school, anyway. Sophie talked non-stop about her outfit, her shoes, her striped purple rolling backpack with the little pink kitty cat applique for about an hour. Then we all forgot about it.
It was a full three days til I woke up and realized there’s no way she can wear those pants. They’re jeans — they button and zip. Sophie does not button and zip. We didn’t try the clothes on at the store, I already know the girls’ sizes and as always I was in a harried hurry. Crap. What was I thinking? I wasn’t thinking.
What am I going to do?
your going to remove the button and put velcro in its place. then stitch some velcro over the zipper too. no one will notice and she’ll still have her awesome purple out fit.
Oh- be the cool mom and buy purple velcro too!!
oh, wow. I’m just startng to think about this problem as we get into potty training,.
can you find some other purple pants, with an elastic waist?
crazy expensive, but boden has some cool pants that would go with purple:
http://www.bodenusa.com/en-us/Girls-Trousers-Jeans/32338/Girls-Velour-Bootlegs.html
http://www.bodenusa.com/en-us/Girls-Trousers-Jeans/32324/Girls-Heart-Pocket-Trousers.html
Not sure what size Sophie is in, but if she can do a 5 (or smaller), I really like the Gap leggings:
http://www.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=12378&vid=1&pid=764932&scid=764932062
oh heather, you know my sewing skills! and i’m not even sure she could navigate that. cate, that was my first thought — she owns several other pairs of purple pants, but i fear she will be onto me! best bet will be to find something “even better” at the store….
Carter is still holding out hope he’s assigned to the one 2nd grade teacher who is going to be on the 1st floor. I would have thought that being upstairs would have been somehow “cooler.” But he just wants to be in the same room as last year. He did get his teacher assignment today, and she’s new, so maybe…
You also reminded me to go buy a backpack and find clothes that fit.
i wish sophie and carter were going to be in the same class! but her teacher is a veteran…. “upstairs” is scary, i understand how he feels.
oh, she definitely needs something new. you can’t expect her to wear any old pants for the first! day! of! school!
Amy, apparently you are tight with Gilda, the sewing goddess. Perhaps she can combine Annabelle’s sewing lesson with the velcro remedy for Sophie’s pants. Speaking of which, why is velcro acceptable for children’s clothing, but as soon as you hit adulthood it becomes synonymous with stripper clothing? Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had the luxury, at bedtime, to just remove our clothing with one firm tug?
Oh, Todd, you must be a lot younger than I am if Velcro makes you think stripper. I think arthritic.
[...] pants. I don’t think I ever told you what ultimately happened with the cute — but totally impractical — snap/zip-style pants Sophie chose for the first day of school. At the last minute, I subbed [...]