*** Quoting Danny Ceppa from a message to Carol Shenkenberger ***

 CS> Meantime, here's something topical going on today.  See, Charlotte has
 CS> been bugging us for a playstation2 to add to her existing gamecube. 
 CS> Today, Don went out and got one.  (See, they have this playstation2
 CS> fishing game he's been eyeballing....hush now, fair use!) 

DC> Now he has to take her out fishing!   

Yuppers!  The problem is the local base fishing trips require the kids be
12YO ¨and she's not quite yet 11.

Meantime, Charlotte is almost 11 and you know what that means.. yup. 
Somehow ¨magically over the past month she's got a small but growing
'chest'.  I figured ¨it was about that time.

Since I am so often at sea, I am a bit proactive on things I know Don would
¨prefer to not have to handle.  I took Charlotte to the base today and got
her ¨new sneakers and her first training bra.  She's too young to need a
training ¨bra yet, but she's the age where some of her school mates will
start wearing ¨them and i do not want her to be the only little girl
without one (girls can be ¨very cruel about that sort of thing).  It might
be a bit big still, but all the ¨other ones had little 'cups' and that is
not yet the right thing for her age.  ¨This one is basically a little
sports-bra.

There was another little girl near, trying to get her Dad to take a look
and ¨the poor fellow was turning beet red, fussing his feets back and forth
and ¨mumbling something about 'mom wil take care of that when she gets
back'.  Grin, ¨I asked him if she would be gone long, and if so, if he
wanted me to help out ¨as i was getting Charlotte her first one.  He
grinned and said he'd be over ¨looking at the sneakers then he snuck away
.

They now have matching bras (Charlotte is a bit big for her age so is a
size 34 ¨and the other little girl is a 30).

I dont know if there are any Dads out there facing this alone, so the
basics of ¨sizes this time are to just measure their widest chest point
(She's apt to ¨breathe in to make it bigger at this age) and that plus 2
inches is the size ¨measure.  Do not buy a padded bra until 7th grade or so
or the other girls will ¨laugh at your little lady.  Mild padding though at
7th grade is a good idea if ¨she's a bit smaller than her classmates still.

Mystery revealed!
                                       xxcarol

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