Pretty in Pink

After a whole lot of drama, Emma got this new dress for Easter.

Last Thursday, I stopped at Southdale (by myself) to get Easter dresses for the girls. I wanted to avoid any unnecessary drama and time it would take if I were to bring the girls along. So, I picked out what I thought each girl would like. Lilah was really excited about her yellow dress. Emma, on the other hand, faked a smile and tried to seem grateful. I could tell by the the unenthused look on her face that she wasn't totally thrilled. Not realizing what I was getting myself into, I asked her, "Emma, do you like your new dress or do you love it?" She admitted that she only liked it, so I told her that I'd bring her back to the store so she could try on a few more, and pick out one (within reason) that she loved.

She picked out about 10 dresses to start, then headed directly for the fitting rooms. After trying on each dress, she curtsied to herself and turned this way and that, admiring how stunning she looked at every angle. (this was so cute, and made all the subsequent drama worth every minute- almost) She smiled and turned to me to ask how I thought she looked. After each dress I told her how beautiful she looked, and she beemed with pride, self-dignity and sophistication. She tried to pick the one she liked best, but struggled, because she did look lovely in all of the dresses. I helped her compare dresses, and taught her how to choose by using the process of elimination. She finally picked one (the one I liked the least- but I was ready to go, and agreed on that one). As we were walking to the register, she noticed a few more dresses she wanted to try on. So, I reluctantly agreed, and she picked out about 10 more. We followed the same procedure as we did with the first bunch of dresses, oohing and ahing over how beautiful she looked, then we heard an announcement over the loudspeaker, "Thank you for shopping at Macy's. The store will be closing in 15 minutes." Upon hearing this, Emma panicked. I assured her that noone would lock us in the store, but she should really JUST CHOOSE A DRESS! So, she finally chose one, we paid for it, got in the car and drove away. When I asked her if she was excited to wear her new dress, she started to cry. It turns out that she didn't love the new dress, but picked it out in haste because she didn't believe me about not getting locked in overnight. She wanted to know if we could go to a different store tomorrow. Instead of screaming and pulling out all my hair, I kept calm, and said, "I think you might be tired. Maybe you'll feel differently about the dress tomorrow. If not, we'll see what we can do."

Tomorrow comes around (no school on this particular Friday), and Emma is still not loving the dress. A friend invited the kids over, so Emma and I headed back to the mall, and Gavin and Lilah enjoyed a playdate. After another hour and a half of checking out different stores and different dresses, we went to The Children's Place. When Emma saw the pink dress, she said "I want that one!" Without even having tried it on! Hands down, no questions asked, this was it! Right about now is when a choir started singing the "Halleluiah!" song in my head. It didn't matter that this one was the only dress, out of the 30 she tried on, that wasn't on sale. She also picked out a matching headband, a pink cardigan, and agreed to wear tights.

The things we do for our children. Including the time I spent going to the mall the first time, the experience of purchasing this dress took a total of 6 hours. But, doesn't she look sweet- and happy!

Emma

All winter long, Emma wore pants under her dresses. She adamantly refused to wear tights because she doesn't like the way they feel. For the past two days though, Emma has been wearing tights under her pants. Yes, I got that right. Tights under her pants.

She went to school like this...

Some battles are worth fighting, but not worth what it takes to win.

Emma has 3 ponytails- two on the side and one in the back. She's sporting at least 3 barrettes in there, too.




Last week, Emma was trying her hand at hairstyling... on herself. I encouraged her to let me help, telling her that sometimes it's hard to get your own hair to look the way you want it to look. She said she got it right. I even told her that sometimes kids aren't so nice, and that they might tease her at school about how her hair is sticking up in places. She didn't care, and insisted that she keep it the way it was.

Aside from the facts that we were running out of time to get to the bus and that she was so very determined, I thought, who am I to put down her sense of style and creativity, or to discourage her independence and confidence in herself. I allowed her to go to school that way, as much as it pained me. At the end of the day, she didn't mention any teasing, but, she also came home from school devoid of ponytails or barrettes.

Inquiring minds

When the following conversation sparked, my first inclination was that I would definitely not blog about it, due to the saucy nature of the subject matter. But, after further consideration, I changed my mind.

A couple of nights ago, Emma was playing around with this balloon.

(pear placement gives an accurate account of size of said balloon)

At one point, she said to Mike, "What if someone's private was this big?"

To this Mike responded, "It's not nice to talk about people's privates."

When I brought this up to Aunt Amy, she suggested that a better response might have been, "It would be pretty hard to walk around." I suggested that the person in question would probably have difficulty finding a pair of pants that fit properly.

Anyway, since we're on the topic...

When Lilah was 3 years old and the twins were just wee tots, they all fit nicely in the bath together. There was a particular incident when Gavin was standing. Lilah started to flick his penis. At this point, I said to her-

-Lilah, that is Gavin's private part. You should never touch his penis.

In processing this information, Lilah looked totally confused, due to her misinterpretation of a key word in my reprimand. She cocked her head, looked at Gavin's anatomy, then looked back at me and said,

-How'd he get a peanut in his butt?

Before I could respond, since I was fighting the urge to burst out laughing, she continued to inquire...

-How's he gonna get it out?

Repressing the urge to gloat

Gavin beat me in a game of "Don't Break the Ice." After which, he informed me...

-Mommy, it's not nice to say "ha ha, I beat you" after you win a game, so I'm not going to say that to you.

How to behave when visiting babies

The kids were thrilled on Saturday when we were driving to the hospital to visit Benjamin, their new baby cousin. (born on Saturday, March 1. He missed being a leap baby by about 10 hours) On our way there, we talked to the kids about acting sophisticated in a hospital. They started coming up with "rules" on how to act like a responsible, normal human being while visiting a new born baby and his parents.
Here's what they came up with:

No yelling.
No running.
No shouting.
No acting crazy.
No screaming.
No hitting the baby.

I'm sure glad we cleared that up before meeting baby Ben for the first time.