Like Mother, Like Daughter?

I know that Zadie is wearing this outfit in a lot of these blog photos, but it's because I really love this onesie that my cousin Amy sent her. Some of you may already know the background on this -- aside from being a cute little outfit, it's very reminiscent of my high school uniform.

The summer before my senior year in high school, I was riding in the car having some talks with my aunt Kay (Amy's mom), as we often did. On this day, we were arguing about the merits of private school education and I was arguing that she should send her kids to public school. But I did concede that uniforms were really cool and that I wished I could wear a uniform and never have to worry about what I wore to school. And Kay said, "Well, you know you can wear a uniform and go to public school." And so was inspired the idea to create my very own school uniform at a public school (this is, by the way, one of the many half-brain ideas that Kay has inspired, most notoriously convincing Tori and I to sell bbq off of Granddaddy's old fishing boat on Lake Jacksonville!).

Anyway, when I came home that summer I bought three Dickie's work shirts and had my name sewn on them (see photo). I also had a few matching pairs of navy blue shorts and also jeans that I wore. I remember showing my mom my new uniform and being so confused as to why she wasn't really excited that she didn't have to go school shopping that year. I can't imagine why she wasn't thrilled about that outfit!!

So for my entire senior year of high school I wore that baggy work shirt, tucked out, with Birkenstocks (except I wore "normal" clothes on Halloween). In the hallways at school, lots of people I didn't know would yell out, "Hey, Kate!" or "I want 5 bucks on #3" (I looked like a gas station attendant). The previous year I wore a baseball cap every single day and refused to be seen without it, but that's another story.

So hence Zadie's cute little outfit and this photo. I hope Zadie grows up with a strong sense of self and individuality, but maybe she won't have to go quite as extreme as I did. Although I would like to save $$ on her wardrobe!