Shopping with Lily

A couple of weeks ago my mom and I took Lily shopping. This is how I found out that Lily is 2 going on 17. Recently she has had a lot of confusion about her age. If you asked her how old she was, she would answer 5. When we started laughing about it and telling people that she was really 2, she changed her answer to, "I'm 2 but I think I am 5." After a lot of pressure from her sisters, her answer has finally become a resigned, downcast, "I'm 2."

But when she shops, she is definitely 2 going on 17. I took her to pick out an outfit, new shoes, and new socks. What I didn't realize was that her main qualification for anything was that she pick it out "HERSELF!!!" I took her to pick out shoes first. She would point to a pair of shoes and say, "I like these..." I would say, "OK, let's get your size to try on." The minute I touched the shoes, Lily would counter with, "Actually, I don't want those." After about 20 minutes of this, in frustration, I picked out some shoes for her, put them in the basket and herded her to the clothes section to pick out her outfit.

We looked at all the clothes and again, as soon as I touched something she seemed to like, Lily would move on. Eventually after Lily loudly told me, "No, mom, I want to choose the clothes MYSELF!!" I clued in to the problem. The thing that changed her mind every time was that I had touched her choice, and thus somehow contaminated it, and she was no longer choosing "HERSELF". I was just trying to get her the right size. I didn't know. After my revelation, I showed her the color of the tag that was her size, and she methodically went through a stack of shirts, found her size shirt and put it in the cart in about 2 minutes. Then she did the same with some pants. It was hilarious!! I thought the problem was that she just couldn't make a decision, when the problem really was that she didn't want any input from her mother. My mom thought it was the funniest thing ever. I am just worried that I may not survive until she is an adult.