DD would never go for that, even though it's plain and simple. She has such a long list of things she doesn't like in clothes that she's nearly impossible to buy for. I accidentally raised the issue of a future clothing allowance (she's not quite 10, so this is a few years away yet) and I'm thinking of doing a couple of 'dry runs' with her, see how she responds. Basically, take an imaginary budget and let her see what she could get for her money. She actually needs some clothes so if I can get her to seriously consider clothes under this pretext I'm off to a good start. She seemed intrigued! She asked about footwear and I said that all school uniform and shoes would be paid for by us, but the rest is hers. If she can look after trainers I'll probably buy them occasionally, but if she wears them out at her current speed then she'll be spending a lot of money on footwear. What does anyone else do with kids and clothes?? My DD has so little dress sense it's almost unbelievable - just no awareness at all of how awful she lets herself look. Fortunately for me she's skinny and short so we aren't going to have a tussle over bras for a while yet - that really will force her to 'be a girl' and she'll hate it I know. I just bought a swimming costume for her that she could agree to... it was a plain navy blue costume for school wear. Well that's what she needed it for, but once you chop out bikinis and anything pink or frilly or revealing (by which she includes 'holes in the back') we really had very little choice.

I could carry that rant on forever but I'll let you all off. I just imagine Lenora's girls all nicely turned out and looking so fresh and responsible and I get a little envious at times!

I've... ummm... ah yes, I did the grocery shopping as planned. Went to the hospital and got all the tests done and next appointment made. I also did some work on my accounts first thing, so it's not all bad today. And I'm back in shorts again which is kinda nice. I got so used to wearing shorts for everything that I don't care about the stubby white candlesticks sticking out of the bottom any more. There are plenty of people who look far worse than I do, especially in this country. In Singapore with so many skinny females around I looked quite chunky.

I have some more work to do before I figure out dinner, so I'd better get moving.

Kerri.