Been Caught Stealing

On Friday, LC and I went to the shops (aka the Mall) with baby Lo to look for some dresses for me to wear to a friend's upcoming wedding. I found one dress that I kindof liked until I looked at the price....$70 for a little cotton blend summer dress and $50 for a knitted short sleeved cardigan...The outfit was cute, but not $120 cute! It looked like the whole thing might cost you $40-50 at Old Navy. And the sizes...I felt like a beast. I know I've gotten chubby, but I can fit in to "normal" people clothes back home (and don't give me some B.S. about Australians are skinnier/healthier/smaller whatever, my Australian readers, because just last year you guys were the fattest country in the world) and here, not so much. Also, the stores seem to make bigger sizes bigger everywhere but in the chests...bigger girls typically come with bigger boobs, but they just aren't understanding that concept here! So I'd have things that looked cute otherwise and then not fit over my boobs.

There are also about three styles of dresses right now in Australia and I am not a fan of/cannot pull off any of them: maxi dress (my legs are too stubby to look right in these), dresses that look like a wife beater on top with a stretchy belt area around the middle and short flared skirt bottom (accentuates the boobage and not dressy looking enough on me for a wedding), and strapless dresses (which my Mom has always said chubby girls and girls with big boobs should not wear strapless dresses and I agree with her, at least for on me). Even the fat girl store only offered these 3 styles of dresses. I'm all for giving chubsters some cute options and some styles do look good on people of all sizes but how about some flattering and stylish big girl dresses, too? A cute wrap dress would be great or something that had short sleeves and hit at the knee or something. The shopping excursion totally left me hating myself and was so unmotivating for the healthy eating/walking program I've been trying to stick to for the last month.

Now to the stealing referenced in the title of this posting: So we had been walking around the shops for awhile looking for dresses for me and LC needed some accessories to go with her wedding outfit. The store she wanted to hit up was tiny, like the size of a small bedroom, and was already jam packed with people and 2 shopping carts so she asked if I would stay out with Lo and the stroller while she went in. I said sure, then noticed that we were near one store where sometimes I find things I actually like/would actually buy so I told her I was going to wheel me and Lo over there to have a look and sure enough, I found something to try on (the $120 outfit I mentioned above, I just didn't look at prices before I decided to try it on). As I'm making my way toward the dressing room the shop girl goes "Oh what a cute baby, how old is she?" And I go "Uhhhh, I dunno, like 8 weeks or something?" (She's 11 weeks, oops!) And the shop girl gives me a funny look and I tell her "Oh, this isn't my baby, it's my friend's and she's in another store so she's probably going to think I stole her baby if I go try this stuff on." So the girl says, "I'll keep an eye out for her and let her know where you are" (Keep in mind this store is about the size of a master bedroom in the U.S., too. All stores are small here, no wonder I go to 20 and still walk away with nothing!) So I wheel Lo in to the dressing room and try my stuff on and wait and wait for LC to come so I can show her the one outfit that actually fits and looks kinda cute. At one point, I go to where the dressing rooms lead out in to the store because I think I hear her voice but it's not her and I figure she must be enjoying her little bit of shopping time without having to deal with a baby and a stroller. Finally, I give up and take the outfit off and gasp at the ridiculous price and go out to put it back on the shelf and to find LC. I spot her outside the store and wave to her and notice she looks a bit upset. She comes in and starts crying and says, "I thought someone stole Lo. I couldn't find you guys and thought she had been stolen!" And the shop girl is standing next to me and goes, "Oh no, she's crying" and I say "See, I told you she was going to think I had stolen her baby!" LC says, "I didn't think you stole her, but I thought when I couldn't find you in here, maybe you had turned to look at something and someone had stolen her from you and you had run away because you didn't want to tell me you had lost my baby." I say, "Thanks for the vote of confidence, friend!" And that got her laughing and feeling a bit better, but I felt pretty bad that I had made her so stressed and scared. Needless to say, I don't think LC is quite ready to leave Lo with me anytime soon!