Back to School Shopping with Little Crafter #ThatsMyKid

Most of you already know that in just two weeks, Little Crafter will be headed off to his first day of first grade!  What you might not know, though, is that he grew FOUR INCHES in the past year!  Which means we definitely needed some new Back to School clothes to fit his growing body.  Honestly, I kind of dreaded taking him clothes shopping, because I made the assumption that he’d be like the other men in my life {hubby and my dad} who have absolutely no interest in it whatsoever.  I was pleasantly surprised, though!  Little Crafter is now very much his own person and he knew exactly what he wanted and didn’t want in his wardrobe.  It was interesting to watch what he was drawn to and I was excited for him to get to choose things he’ll actually want to wear to school each day.  JC Penney offered him lots of options that express his own unique personality, which was fun to see!

Basically, when Little Crafter looks for clothes, he asks three questions:
1. Does it have someone/something I love on it?
2. Does it make me look like Daddy?
3. Is it really comfy?

When he finds something that’s a yes to one or more of those things, he wants it.  Take a look…

Does it have someone or something I love on it?
Those of you who know LC at all know that right now he is obsessed with a capital “O” about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  We just had a totally radical TMNT birthday party for him, and now that he got lots of TMNT toys and movies as gifts, he’s more into the turtles than ever.  He loves to play with the action figures but even more than that, he loves to pretend he IS a turtle; Michaelangelo to be exact.

 As soon as we walked into the little boys’ clothing section at JC Penney, Little Crafter spotted a rack of character tees and right there in the front was a shirt that lets you pretend to be Michaelangelo!  How perfect is that?!  It’s got Mikey’s body, complete with nunchucks, and your head acts as his head.  LC grabbed it off the rack immediately with a big grin and held it up to show me.  He also found another TMNT shirt that says, “I’m a Ninja,” which he insisted on getting too.  Since he’s actually about to earn his third new belt in karate, I’d say that’s a pretty good fit!

Right above the Michaelangelo shirt on the rack was a shirt featuring all the main characters from the LEGO movie.  When he’s not pretending to be a Ninja Turtle, one of LC’s favorite pastimes is being a “master builder” with his LEGO sets.  Plus, all three of us in the Artsy Family think the LEGO movie is absolutely hilarious.

He asked if he could have that shirt too, and I was happy to oblige since I know having shirts with his favorite characters on them will help him to actually be excited about getting himself dressed in the morning.  There was a great sale going on too, so the character shirts were just as inexpensive as “regular” shirts without his favorite things on them.  Major win!

We also really hit the jackpot in the shoe department.  Little Crafter had outgrown his old sneakers {he spent all summer wearing Crocs}, so we were in desperate need of finding him a comfy new pair.  I want them to be functional and affordable; he wants them to light up and have a fun character.  We both got what we wanted when we found these.  They have Dusty Crophopper on them, they light up, and they were on sale for just $15.  Yes, please!

Does it make me look like Daddy?
More often than not, as you can see, Little Crafter gravitates to character or graphic t-shirts, but he does make the occasional exception when he finds a “Daddy shirt.” You see, this little man looks up to his Daddy in a big way and wants to be just like him however he can.  Daddy’s favorite type of shirt to wear {or maybe it’s Mommy’s favorite type to buy for him, so it’s what’s in the closet?} is an attractive plaid button down shirt, usually in shades of blue or green.

I always make a big fuss over how handsome he is when he wears a “Daddy shirt,” and you can bet I was melting when I watched him model these two Arizona shirts in the fitting room.  First, he picked this short sleeved blue one since blue is one of his three favorite colors. It’s great by itself, and it will also be a great layering piece; something he can layer over a t-shirt for added warmth, or under a jacket or sweater.

He also picked this long sleeved green shirt {maybe it made him think of the Turtles?}, which will be another adorable layering piece for fall and winter!  I love that he has a few button down shirts in his wardrobe, because they’re perfect for occasions that are just a little dressier like going out to dinner, school concerts, and yearbook photos.  Plus, since he picked them out himself and likes the colors and how he looks, I don’t have to fight with him when it’s time to change out of a t-shirt.

Is it really comfy?
This kid loves to run and play and jump, so his first priority is being comfortable.  He also still has a little trouble sometimes with traditional button and zipper style pants, so he prefers things with elastic waistbands so he doesn’t have to worry about needing help.  Last year, he made it very clear that if given the option, he would wear “fuzzy pants” {sweatpants/athletic pants} every day.  As a matter of fact, he tried several times this summer to get out of the house wearing a pair even though I told him that 90 degree weather and fuzzy pants don’t mix.

Unfortunately for him, he’s grown out of all his favorite pants from last season, but the good news is that we found several great great styles of comfortable athletic and sweat pants during our trip to JC Penney.

This particular pair in the photo was his favorite, so we bought it in several different colors.  He also got a pair of sweatpants that say “Dude”, á la the Turtles, and a pair of pull on Camo pants.

And speaking of comfy, we also “had” to buy a pair of footed pajamas with a football on them because, “footies are my favorite…they are so soft and warm.”

All in all, we ended up with multiple shirts, both short and long sleeved, several pairs of pants, new sneakers, two pairs of socks, and a pair of pajamas, all of which Little Crafter picked out for himself and is excited to wear this fall.  It was actually a lot of fun having him involved in the process and letting him choose things that express his silly, unique little personality.  After all, I choose my clothes to represent who I am; why shouldn’t he?  And so, we have a turtle.

That’s my kid.

When it fits, you feel it.

Compensation was provided by JCPenney via Mode Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of JCPenney.