To properly tell this story I have to back up to the weeks before Christmas. You remember them…trolling Target, the mall, Dick’s Sporting goods, Wal-mart, Harry and David, and The Hickory Farms mall kiosk for anything remotely appropriate just the right gift for every person on your list.
(I love the mall-less days after Christmas!)
So a few weeks ago, I was in Target to pick up a pair of slippers my mom wanted to get for my cousin Natalie (see, I can tell this story now since Natalie has opened the slippers and is wearing them) because they didn’t have the right size at her Target. I had Mikayla with me and, of course, we were long gone out of the slipper section since you can’t go to Target without leaving with a cart full of stuff.
So I’m looking for brown socks for me and I call my mom to let her know I did find the slippers in the right size and I have them in hand. We’re chatting away as I peruse the socks and suddenly Mikayla makes an announcement.
“I need a bra.”
Okay, so, just to remind you…Mikayla is my five-year-old granddaughter.
Yeah.
I’m not sure what the look on my face was, but I’m sure it was priceless.
But I cracked up laughing.
My mom, on the other end of the line said, “what did she say?” (no doubt because I’m laughing my ass off so hard I’m crying).
Me: “She said she needs a bra.”
Mikayla: “I do!”
Me: (trying to talk over my mom laughing her ass head off on the other end of the phone) “You do not need a bra!” Now how convincing is this really? I’m laughing like mad and saying “no”. ;)
Mikayla: “I do, gramma!”
Me: “Well, you’re gonna have to talk to your mom about that, girl.”
Mom (on the other end of the phone): “That child is getting a bra in her stocking!”
Sure enough.
Santa brought Mikayla a bra in the stocking my mom’s house. The hilarious part was she wouldn’t hold it up for me to take a picture after she pulled it out of the stocking and saw what it was.
But later, after things had quieted down, she came to me, grabbed my hand and drug me in the spare bedroom…
Mikayla: “Help me get this dress unbuttoned.”
Me: “What are you going to put on? You didn’t get any new clothes today.”
Mikayla: “I need the dress unbuttoned.”
Me (as I’m unbuttoning the dress trying to figure out what the heck is going on): ”Mikayla, what are you going to wear?”
Just as the last button comes undone, she slips the dress down over her waist and there, for my eyes and my eyes only to view, is the bra. She’d pulled it up around her waist under the dress but couldn’t get her arms out of the dress to get the bra straps on.
We got the little training bra adjusted as tight as we could and got her all button up and back out she went into the family gathering, none the wiser that a five-year-old had just become fifteen.
Wish I’d been a fly on the wall when her mom got her ready for a bath that night.
Wow! I’ve read that kids are maturing earlier and earlier but this takes the cake!
At least Mikayla is wearing her bra UNDER her clothing instead of on the outside, like was popular when my girls were first wearing bras (but I NEVER let them wear them on the outside; even straps peeking out were verboten!)
Yes, I too am interested in her mom’s reaction!
Just to quell your curiosity~
I actually *did* notice the bra at Christmas when I noticed that you missed a button on her dress and beckoned her to me so that I could fix it. My reaction: “suprise suprise, Mikayla said she wanted something and her gramma got it for her!!” lol.
At this junction in her life,however, I am none too concerned about the fact that she wants a bra…or her nails done…or any other grown up things. I am sure that I will be *much* more concerned when she is closer to 11 or 12 and she starts asking about them(and perhaps needing them, leaving me little ammo to say no). At this point she will forget by next week..or perhaps the week after that.
I will tell you that she wore that darn thing to bed that night, the next day, and that night to bed. When her father came to pick her up, he had a little different reaction than I did. “Ohhhh wow…what is that.” No suprise. He had the same reaction when I told him she needed a haircut- “No she doesnt, its fine how it is!” Ahhh he has no idea what he is in for. A tiny part of me feels bad for him, and the rest of me just giggles a little inside.
I thinking that button popped again because they were all securely buttoned up so no one saw. For a kid who “needs a bra”, she sure was shy about it! LOL. I knew you were probably expecting it and didn’t really care because, you’re right…now it just doesn’t make that much difference. But you’re right about her dad…he’s in for a rough ride if he thinks she’s gonna bypass all the girlie stuff. As tomboy as she is, she’s all girl!