Do you want to know something that seems absolutely crazy?
Oh, you do? That's awesome.
Yesterday afternoon, Ellie and I headed to Target for some back-to-school
shopping to pick out all of the thing she needs for preschool. Well, actually,
per Ellie, that statement should probably be changed to just school shopping.
Allow me to submit the following (un)recorded conversation into the record.
Jesse:
"Ellie, did you enjoy back-to-school shopping?"
Ellie: "I've
never been to school. You can't call it back-to-school if I've never
been."
Honestly, the girl does make a good point. How can it be
back-to-school shopping if she has never gone to school in the first place?
I'll have to keep that in mind for the future.
I discovered that taking one's child school shopping for the
first time is quite the experience. For one thing, I spent the majority of our
time at Target having an internal dialogue with myself debating whether or not
she was really old enough to go to preschool. For the record, she was born in
2016 so she is definitely old enough. Of course, our trip wasn't all Daddy
suffering from some kind of minor crisis. Ellie had her own "minor
crisis" coupled with lots of fun decisions to make.
When we arrived at Target, we grabbed our cart and raced to
the school supplies section at the back of the store, Indy car-style. What I
mean by that is that Ellie perched herself on the front of the shopping cart
while I placed one foot on the bottom bar, using my remaining foot to quickly
push us through the store. Based on what I've gleaned from talks with other
people, this is kind of a male-only thing and any attempts to do so in the
presence of a woman will result in severe eye-rolling, forehead palming, or denial
of relationship. Lucky for me, Ellie's not old enough to realize what her
opinions on cart riding should be and still loves it.
Once we arrived at the special back-to-school section, I
consulted the list on my phone and began instructing Ellie what she needed to
put in the cart. For her, this was an amazingly fun experience. She initially
went down the aisles and only picked up the things I instructed her to.
However, when we reached the art supplies section, her excitement reached a
fever pitch. Before I knew what was happening, she was loading our cart with
crayons, paints, markers, and glue sticks. Lucky for us, everything she picked
up was on our list. In other words, she's a natural back-to-school shopper.
Finally, we reached the final item on our list: a backpack
for Ellie. Looking back upon my elementary school days, I remember the
importance of choosing the right backpack. After all, no one wants to
accidently have the same backpack as the geeky social outcast (I know; it's
mean). Like a good parent though, I didn't communicate this to Ellie. I simply
let her make her own decision. Before long, she had picked out a teal space and
panda bear-themed backpack. Sounds pretty cool, right?
As we headed towards the check-out, I stumbled across
another section of backpacks and felt the urge to point out one particular
model to Ellie. You see, earlier in the day when I asked Ellie what kind of
backpack she wanted to buy, her description was both simple and incredibly
complex. She wanted a blue backpack with rainbows. Lo and behold, I had just
found exactly that.
When I presented it to Ellie, she immediately jumped at the
idea. However, when presented with the idea that she would have to part ways
with her cherished teal backpack, the choice became harder. Finally I told her
we would take both to the front and she could decide then.
When we reached the front, Ellie still was having
difficulties and openly wished that her mommy could chime in. Therefore, we
placed a quick Facetime phone call. While talking through her choices with
Bethany, Ellie came to a decision all on her own. While she liked the blue
rainbow backpack, she could live without it. The one she wanted was the
space/panda bear combo she had liked all along. For the record, that was my
favorite too even though I was never going to tell her.
Finally, the time had come for us to check out and leave
Target. $57 later, we left the store; me with a plastic sack full of schooling supplies
and Ellie with her new backpack proudly slung over her tiny shoulders.
While I poke fun and laugh, I have to say that I'm really
happy I got to experience back-to-school shopping with Ellie for her very first
time. While there will definitely be more trips like this to come over the next
13 years, there will never be another first. I know I'll always cherish that
moment standing in front of the registers with my little girl painstakingly analyzing
her choice for her very first backpack. #DaddyWrite
No comments:
Post a Comment