For example, a shoe?

Since the boys were up north all weekend for the youth hunt, Hailey and I had a girl's weekend. On Saturday after her football game I asked her if she wanted to go to Barnes and Noble to buy some new books with her gift card. 

I get stressed out about her reading.  She thinks she isn't a good reader, but she is much better than she thinks - she just lacks confidence in her reading ability.  We have been pushing her a bit to "read to self" at night (after we read to her of course) and she always picks books that are below her level.  She tells me the chapter books are too hard and she only understands them when someone else reads to her. 

It stresses me out because I don't know how to help.   Everyone else in our family loves to read.  Trent always has a library book and the boys read all the time.  Spencer used to get in "trouble" at school for reading too much!  I just don't know what to do. 

So we went to Barnes and Noble and we sat on the floor in front of a shelf full of books and found these.  Three fairly simple chapter books - I think she wanted the pony one just for the bracelet that came with it.  I also gave in to the begging for the Frozen book.  She is not a huge Frozen fan, I think the only reason she wanted that one was for the stickers it promised inside. 

I remember going to the Book Nook as a little girl with my mom and picking up book after book and reading the back cover until I found one or two that I longed to read.  It made me sad that she seemed uninterested in the books - she was drawn to the toy area more than anything.  I wish I could instill that same love in her.  I hope she gets it eventually.  

Last night when it was time for her to read in bed she choose the Frozen book and then proceeded to show me all the cool stickers that came with it.  Sigh.

She was not excited about the books but she was ecstatic about the shoes we found at TJ Maxx.  She had designs on being Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz for Halloween and thought that these shoes would be perfect ruby slippers.  Plus she could wear them to school too.  What happened to my girl that used to say "if it's clothes I am not interested"?

It turns out that the shoes will be just for school after all.  I am glad I only spent ten dollars on them. The Dorothy idea went out the window after a stop to Goodwill where we found the perfect costume for a mere five dollars and ninety nine cents.  She LOVES it and looks totes adorbs in it!  Stay tuned for the big reveal.