My apologies to Ms. M's Kindergarten class

As the parent of a kindergartener, I get a lot of "reminders" in my daughter's princess backpack. We received slips of paper in bright colors that said "Don't forget to wear a Hawaiian shirt on Friday for the Rick Charette concert" and "Don't forget to dress comfortably for our Karate assembly next week (including the times of the assemblies assigned by grade)". We also received the annual picture day money envelope. Surprised there was no accompanying info, I did the research and went online to the school calendar to see what day would be picture day. And then I promptly forgot all about it. No brightly colored reminder slips were sent home. It wasn't included on the class "Week in Review" newsletter that includes what to look forward to in the upcoming week. But I rely on those reminders, centrally displayed on my refrigerator. My memory isn't what it used to be. I can remember every detail of my childhood, but something from last week? Forget it.

So, Tuesday morning rolled around - the second day of my husband's new job - and we had our typical cyclone of a morning trying to get Katie dressed and out of the house. MULTIPLE outfits were wripped off and strewn throughout the house. They all itched. They all bothered her. Didn't matter if it was her favorite shirt or a brand new one with no tags. So it was a compromise kind of morning. Wear what you want - as long as you're dressed.

Katie finally settled on this shirt:

Ok, not awful. We'll pretend it's not 55 degrees outside. You want to wear it with THIS skirt?:

FINE! At this point, I even turned a blind eye to the Dora crocs.

Tuesday evening, we talked abut Katie's day. While she was telling me her requisite 3 things that happened in kindergarten class that day, she gushed about getting to have her picture taken....

WH WH WH WHAAAAT?!?!

She kept gushing. She was so excited that everybody got really dressed up in fancy clothes. She assured me that everyone thought her outfit was so pretty. She got to take a picture by herself AND with her whole class.

Parent FAIL! 

Some time ago, I read this post  over at Classy Chaos and giggled. I thought, "oh, poor Pauline," but also how cute her youngest  looked. People, it's no joke. And yes, I got retakes done the next day. And yes, even if I didn't, the pictures are only of the chest up. I know her shirt was fine, but I'm thinking of her class picture, here: A snapshot of her first year as an official elementary schoolgoer. And I think to myself - THIS is just another reason why God has given this 5'1" momma an amazon-bred child. So that she will be the tallest in her class; she will be on the top riser for her class picture. And hopefully, just maybe, her lower half will be hidden and history will not record this ensemble.

I am currently too much in the moment to think about how someday I'll look back and laugh at the picture, remembering how "spirited" she was. No, it will more likely rekindle post traumatic stress disorder symptoms - reminding me of the daily torture this child unleashes on me. (This child who I love very much and wouldn't trade for anything....except perhaps one that gets dressed by herself and doesn't flip out for 40 minutes every morning about her clothes bothering her.)

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