“We’ll send you a shopping list in August,” they said, and I instantly recalled idling in the pen aisle of the Staples on Connecticut Avenue, balancing stacks of marbled composition books with a bottle of Elmer’s glue and a packet of jelly roll pens, beseeching my mother to buy me new everything even though we had more than enough markers and crayons and folders at home, some of them tattered or dried up, but most of them perfectly functional. While she tended to be stringent with entreaties for excess during her bi-weekly grocery runs, my mother was often pliable during these back-to-school visits, an observation I greedily exploited. I never knew whether it was because she wanted to support anything ancillary to education, or because she was haunted by the memory of shoe shopping with her own mother that she has shared countless times in our life together — the one in which she wanted a pair of high heels so desperately that she anxiously asserted that a pair of too-small shoes fit because they had an inch-high heel she felt her mother had not noticed. That is to say: she understood too well the desire to “fit in” by buying the right things — to the extent that she would endure physical pain in pursuit of their acquisition.
But, so — a school shopping list? For my two year old?
I wonder what will be on it?
Probably practical things like spare underwear and a water bottle, marked with her name. A sweater for unexpectedly cool days?
But part of me hopes that it will include a box of sharpened crayons, a glue stick, one of those big pink erasers you never actually use to completion. Things that are way too advanced for my daughter but that make me deeply, painfully nostalgic for my childhood, for the excitement of covering my textbooks with brown paper (who else did this?) and decorating their covers with Mr. Sketch markers, of gingerly placing my newly-sharpened pencils and fresh-out-the-box thin-tipped markers into my pencil box, of organizing sheets of paper into Lisa Frank folders, of laying everything out the night before school in my Jansport in wild anticipation of the social experiment that is school.
Until we find out what is, in fact, on the list, though — I have already been dog-earing and occasionally ordering back-to-school items for mini. Below, some amazing finds:
SUPERGA VELCRO SNEAKS (SELECT COLORS ON SALE)
LUNCHBOTS BENTO BOX-STYLE LUNCHBOX
MONOGRAMMED KNEE-HIGH SOCKS (THOUGH I LOVE THE POM-POMMED STYLES FROM PRETTY ORIGINALS)
PINAFORES (MINI OWNS SEVERAL OF THESE — LOVE!)
MADDIE DRESS (MINI OWNS THIS IN OTHER PRINTS — TOO, TOO CUTE)
P.S. Don’t you grow up in a hurry.
P.P.S. I have been thinking, in anticipation of all possible permutations of mini’s adjustment to school, that I might gift her a special bracelet the day before she heads off along with a little pep talk that lets her know that the bracelet is just a reminder of how much I love her.
P.P.P.S. Le diaper bag reboot.
I just got “done” with my back-to-school shopping–are we ever really done? Some great ideas and links here, thefashionmagpie. Here is my go-to for iron-on clothing labels: https://www.itsminelabels.com/. They’ve helped me save/retrieve some clothes over the years and just to sort laundry for the little ones.
Thank you! Good to know! Really helpful to have all things clearly marked at school…
The seersucker backpacks are so very popular in NC. They’re a tight fit with a lunch box and no side water bottle pocket but they work great especially for camps or if you don’t have both kids and can have essentials for each child in one! I do this all the time actually and they fit easily under a stroller.
Highly recommend yumbox for toddler lunch!
I’ve heard some good things about the yumbox — thanks for that. I ended up ordering her one of the monogrammed seersucker lunchboxes (“gumdrop” shape) but it turns out she won’t need a backpack; the school provides one for each kiddo!
xx
This post has me so nostalgic for back-to-school time! I, too, covered my textbooks in brown paper bags … and the shoutout to Lisa Frank! Wow, that brought me back. I also remember, as I got older, spending August in Cape Cod thumbing through fall fashion issues I’d buy from the Brewster General Store and making long, complicated lists of holes in my wardrobe & all of the various outfits I couldn’t wait to wear once it cooled off. Haha!
xx
That’s so endearing — I love the thought of a long, complicated list marked with pencil erasures and cross-outs of things no child actually needs. HA.