didn't I have this dream when I was 14?

I took Miss M out for some clothes shopping today.  The girl has boycotted the Mall altogether and insisted on getting school clothes at REI.  Makes me feel like I am doing something right with that one!

You may have gathered that Miss M is not a big shopper.  In fact, she only went because I told her she could buy a magnesium fire starter.  She has little experience in a dressing room since, until quite recently, I have been able to figure out what size she needs and I just get things for her.  But now she is not so girly and a little more young-womanly so the size-guessing thing I had going is not working for me.  The "guess your age" guy at the Mall has nothing to fear from me because (1) my child won't let me go there and (2) I cannot match his skill.  (Moose can, but that's another story.)

I waited outside the stall while she tried things on one at a time and showed them to me.  We organized into "keep" and "not keep" piles.  And at the end of it all the girl was spent.  Know how I know?  The girl was missing something when she came out of the stall.  That's right.  My budding woman-child came out in her shirt and shoes and underpants.  Missing: shorts.

The WHOLE store could hear her laughter (and mine) for the next 10 minutes she spent locked in the stall unable to compose herself long enough to re-enter the world of shopping.  She wasn't even embarrassed!  She was just laughing too hard to get her shorts on right side out and buttoned AND zipped.