Third Time's The Charm?

Today was Little Miss's holiday program. Nope, not a Christmas program - in fact, not one song sung mentioned Christmas or Santa or anything along those lines, although one song was a Hanukkah song, which made me giggle. The notes home from the teachers request that we send out children in their Sunday best - though with no need to buy new clothes - and the assurance that they would not play outside and thus risk harm to their spotless outfits.

Last year was a challenge. In Chicago, it had snowed a lot and the children had to wear snowpants and boots just to get to school. I had dress Little Miss in a Christmas dress and carefully styled her hair.

As I watched the other grades come on stage and perform, I patiently waited for Little Miss to appear. So many of the children had beautiful outfits and gorgeously dressed hair. I was jealous of the sparse hair Little Miss still had in kindergarten, but at least she'd look good with what she had. As her class trooped onto the stage, I heard my mother gasp next to me.

WHY is she wearing those shoes? my mother demanded in an angry whisper. I could only shake my head and shrug. Oops? I think I had told her to pack her change of shoes in her backpack but hadn't been clear on which shoes those should be. She was still cute.

This year, things were to be different. I offered Little Miss a choice of two different dresses she could wear, and she chose a cute red one with Christmas trees and such on it. I had her go back upstairs and find a headband to make her hair look cute, then brushed it for her again. I went so far as to send her hairbrush with her to school so she could brush it again before the performance - like my hair, hers tends to look like it's never seen a brush five minutes after brushing. Though it hasn't truly snowed in Chicago yet, it did pour rain yesterday, so I sent Little Miss to school in her "show boots" and ensured that her party shoes were in her backpack. I reminded her to change into them once she got to school. I swear I did.

Unfortunately, I think my mom repeated herself word for word. Well, almost word for word. I'm pretty sure she switched out "boots" for "shoes" since well, she is wearing boots this year.

On the plus side, she wasn't the only one wearing boots, I noticed. And there was a part in the song where she had to do a rolling motion that I think explains a nightmare she woke up with a few weeks ago.

There's always next year, right?