the stars in your eyes | t.s. one shots

school shopping

"Mornin' Momma." The high-pitched voice fills the stillness of the kitchen as two little feet come skipping into the kitchen. Taylor turns her head from the table, where she's sipping coffee and working on the morning crossword puzzle from the New York Times. 

"Good morning, Maisie girl," she smiles over at her daughter. The sound of her voice, so eager to start the day, bouncing in with a greeting in the morning never gets old. "Daddy's at the gym right now, but he'll be home in just a little bit."

"Can I have strawberry Cheerios? So they turn the milk pink." she asks brightly, a little smile on her face and her hair messy. Taylor nods and stands up, reaching for the box in the cupboard. "Can we go swimming today? And I wanna wear my pink swimsuit."

Taylor laughs softly. Maisie, her opinionated little girl, is very into pink right now- hence the strawberry Cheerios. Everything has to be her favorite color- even her food. Last night at dinner, Taylor had to put food coloring in the rice for her little girl to even think about eating it. "Maybe, but Maisie, we have some really big plans today," Taylor says slowly, grabbing the milk jug from the refrigerator. "Remember how Daddy and I had a talk with you a little bit ago about how you're going to start kindergarten in a few weeks?"

Maisie nods. "Yeah. You said I'm going to make so many friends and that Nell is going to be there and that I am going to get to read books and play on a playground and even eat lunch there! I never, ever got to eat lunch at preschool."

"That's right," Taylor nods. "Well, yesterday, Mommy got a letter in the mail and it was a list of all of the things that we need to go to the store and buy so that you can have them for kindergarten. So, Daddy and I were thinking that today, we could go out and go shopping for all of your things. Does that sound like fun?" She pauses. "We can go swimming after dinner this evening if you have the energy still, yeah?"

The little girl's face lights up and she starts to rock up onto her tippy toes and back, too excited to stay still. "Yes! Yes! Yes!" Then, a pause. "Can I wear my pretty pink sparkly shoes you got me?"

Taylor laughs. She really had bought them for the first day of school, but she had told Maisie to wear them around the house a little bit so that they didn't hurt her feet when the big day came. She's had them for three days and has pretty much worn them her every waking moment inside, but they haven't been outside yet. As much as Taylor had hoped to keep them nice... those big blue eyes of her daughter's are irresistible- and she's only little once. There will come a day soon that she won't want to wear sparkly pink Mary Janes- and a day even sooner when those shoes will no longer fit her. So, she nods. "Sure, sweetie. Should we match them with your pink and white striped romper?"

"Yep." Five-year-old fashion has become a very serious topic in the Kelce household as of lately. It's something that is totally bewildering to Travis, quite frankly. He's such a fashionista for himself, but can't seem to figure out how to match a hair bow to a sundress, or that his little girl needs to be wearing a shirt underneath her overalls if she's going to go out in public. That was an interesting call for Taylor to get from the preschool. In the last few months, Maisie has become very vocal about her own style, as well, making it even harder on days when her dad is in charge of getting her dressed.

Breaking the news that she's going to have to wear a uniform to school might not be very fun.

It was a difficult decision to send her to private school, and they really did consider public. Taylor and Travis were both raised in their local public schools and they know that there's lots of aspects to consider- that teachers might have better training, that special education programs might be better if they were to ever need that... but ultimately, they felt that the security was tighter at a private school, and they really need that for their little girl. When Selena shared the name of a school with a wonderful reputation where she'd enrolled her daughter Nell, who is the same age as Maisie, for kindergarten- that sealed the deal for Taylor and Travis. The two are the best of friends and Taylor and Travis both agreed that it will be good for Maisie to know at least one person in the room. She's a social kid, but her preschool was so small- she's never been in a room of 20 kids before, especially when she doesn't know any of them.