My daughter loved cute little fruit dresses.... with happy, smiling cherries, dancing bananas, and merry melons. (Obviously, I never had these...so she did) Rose, daisy, and tulip buttons lined her sweaters, while bows of every type and color adorned her hair (She was quite easy to spot in a crowd) In fact she loved wearing everything... even if it belonged to her brother. You could have given this child a tattered fishing hat, and she would have sworn you her eternal love.

Then one day something horrible happened to them both....junior high school. (But, thankfully there was a gap between the 2 so I managed not to pull all of my hair out at one time)

My son started shoving his Superman shirts at the back of the closet, his Ninja Turtle underwear vanished (although I think that was the result of theft..dang beady eyed little neighbor boy) and his Mighty Morphin Power Ranger PJs developed an abundance of mysterious large holes making them completely unsuitable to wear (unless one intends to flash a great deal of butt cheekage)

One afternoon my daughter donated almost everything she owned to her younger sister. She then declared that she had no clothing. Luckily for her (or not) her Grandma had decided to send her a load of funky clothes to wear. (I say funky because I think they were from the 70s) There were mustard colored tights with wildly checkered skirts, buster brown turtle necks, saddle shoes, striped peddle pushers, a powder blue vinyl coat, and a ski mask..really.

And thus the transformation began...

One day I was shopping at WalMart, and the next I was being pulled into the mall.

I should buy stock in Abercrombie and Fitch, maybe Hollister. The teens are drawn to these shops like moths to a flame. Both shops play deafening music, have low lighting, and spray their clothing with cologne (All, I'm certain to put poor sweet mothers like me into a trance-like state, thus agreeing to any purchase anything... just so we can leave)

How many different ways can one design the name "Hollister" on a tee shirt and expect kids to buy it? (Apparently more then 20 ways) Then there's raised lettering, small font, large font, fancy font, surfer font...you name it. I won't begin to address the colognes at 30 bucks a pop. Why bother discussing jeans at 70-90 dollars a piece? I swear it all makes me want to become Amish.

I would like to say that there is still hope in my home...my dear little 8 year old...

That was until she came down for school yesterday...with an Abercrombie moose plastered across her chest.

Sigh