sometimes being a parent is cool

At lunch today, ScrapMaven told us about her boys and their latest adventures involving the Tooth Fairy. Apparently, one of the boys is losing teeth like there's no tomorrow, and the other hasn't lost any. The first boy had a loose tooth a few days ago, and worked on it while lying in bed. This was his 2nd tooth, so he knew he'd get money when it came out. Out it came, and he promptly stuffed it under his pillow - without telling his folks.

Next morning, he flipped up his pillow. No tooth, and no cash. He made a distressed comment to ScrapMaven, who quickly filled in the gap (no pun intended) by telling him that kids have to tell their parents when the tooth comes out so the parents can make an appointment with the Tooth Fairy for a visit. After all, she's a very busy lady -- this is the time of year a lot of kids lose teeth -- and they have to fit her visit in her calendar.

ScrapMaven and her Beau promptly forgot about the tooth, and several days passed. Last night, as the boy was getting ready for bed, he bounded in to the Master Bedroom and asked ScrapMaven if she had made an appointment yet. Glancing in the hallway, she saw her Beau nodding vigorously and with a boyish grin. "Why yes," she exclaimed. "We sent an email a day or two ago. I think you're on her schedule."

Gleefully, the boy checked his pillow this moring, and found the $5 stuffed in the pillow case. $5??!! Oh my goodness, inflation is a (*&%@!! My nephews only get a $1 -- a shiny Sacajawea dollar, but a dollar nonetheless. To heck with allowances... let me knock out all my teeth...

Ok, so my final comment was "Sometimes being a parent is cool." No doubt.

What was really going through my head was this past Saturday with Critter. We spent the day running errands, the last of which was to find her at least 3 more pairs of jeans (I swear we're shrinking them in the wash...) and *maybe* a new dress. She has a dress or two in her closet, but I know from moving them to and fro that there's no way her adolescent frame can fit in them. And occasionally, she really needs to dress up, and doesn't have any options.

SOooooooo.... The MALL on a Saturday. Need I say more? The thrilling-est place for a teen; the bane of existance for parents. Actually, it was busy, but not horrible (post Christmas rush), and she was in relatively good spirits. We started at JC Penney, looking at dresses in the Junior Department.

Sidebar: Junior department -- the equivalent of every parent's nightmare in fashion for outrageous prices and of every brand name that every teen wants. All of the dresses in her size were either a) strapless or b) low cut halter-style in oriental satin prints.

She tried on a strapless red dress with a black satin belt and black piping. I have to admit, the dress looked gorgeous on her. But I was extremely uncomfortable with how old she looked in it. She's 14, for crying out loud, and she looked 21 in that dress. She is still pleasantly oblivious to the affects her figure could have on hormonal male teens... I wasn't about to let her have a dress that essentially said "Here I am, Boys. Come and get me."

So she tried a couple of the halter-style oriental prints. In various sizes. About 3 different styles. And they all had the same problem... they required, um, adult-sized chests to keep them on. NEXT!

The last choice was a dress I would have LOVED at her age -- a black and white strapless with white polka dots on the skirt. A toule underskirt "poufs" out the skirt. White piping creates a tasteful stripe along the top edges. She looked fabulous. Not drop dead gorgeous (thank goodness), but really stunning, and appropriately pretty. She agreed that it was a good dress - just needed a sweater or short jacket. And so, with dress in hand, we were off into the rest of the MALL.

We found a cute black/silver sweater at a weird clothing store called The Rave. Odd cuts of clothing, lots of shiny fabric and cotton blends. And black flats with zebra prints. You know, the kind of fashion store teens might populate... On the 70% off table was this sweater. It looks great with the dress, and was only $6.50 -- so a good deal.

Then we stopped at Mariposa. If you have a teen girl in your life, you will, at some point, go in to Mariposa. They have prom dresses, for one. We were there while a group of teens and moms were looking at matching halter tops in red/black/white for a dance team. Um, ewwwww. The style was NOT exactly flattering for all of the body types represented, but what can you do?

Anyway, we found a really cool evening/special event gown - one in red and another in blue. Lots of sparkles. Totally impractical fabric (can't be washed), and a gathered stomach (read: no way in heck I could wear it), and a neato ragged hemline. Amazingly, it did NOT have a plunging neckline or a back-splash (when your back is exposed).

I told her "trying on is free," grabbed the dresses off the rack, and steered Critter to the dressing room. I didn't even look at the tag. I mean, what are the odds that a) they'd look good on her and b) we could come up with any good reason to own one of these fancy, sparkly, things?
Odds were pretty good, actually. She tried on the red one first -- it looked amazing, if a bit tight at the hips. She tried on the blue one. It would have been my favorite (I LOVE electric blue), but it just made her look washed out. So I went back to the rack, found a slightly larger size of the red one, and came back. Sigh.... It fit. She looked really good in it. She promised she'd wear it for one of our upcoming musicals (we have season tickets), or maybe to graduation in the spring from middle school.

The dress is non-returnable. It is expensive. It is completely impractical. And for a brief moment, being a parent was really cool. I got to give my daughter something frilly, and beautiful, and special -- and she smiled a lot at me and thanked me.

We took pictures when we got home.

Yes, indeed. Sometimes being a parent is *very* cool.