I’ve Seen My Future – and It’s Not Pretty: Part I

When I was young and foolish I thought, “Ahh, wouldn’t it be nice to have a girly girl who loved dolls and whom I could dress up in plaid skirts and Mary Janes.” Instead of looking at Bri who was sweet, kind, easy going and reasonable and being satisfied, I wanted a girl I could dress up and buy dolls for (to live through vicariously because I never got a three story doll house with furniture and I WANTED ONE and obviously I'm still scarred because I didn't get one).

Then I had Lizzy and she is more of a girly girl than Bri but in her own unique way. For instance, she started dressing herself at one and a half and she would only wear what she wanted to wear. She wanted pockets and belt loops. Knit pants or leggings? She wouldn't be caught dead in either. I would parade the most adorable clothes in front of her to hear, “No.” And she meant it!

When she was younger I would keep some of the clothes she refused in her drawer in hopes I might be able to get her to wear it at some future date. I think it worked once. I remember Brianne spent a half hour one morning convincing Lizzy to try on a non-preferred item of clothing. Lizzy put it on for her. But since I can’t waste 30 minutes every morning only to fail in my aim, she wears what she wants to as often as she can.

Lizzy is a child who literally wore a hole in plastic rain boots! Yes, she did. She will wear the same dress to church week after week after month after month. Case in point, she has four dresses in her closet. She’s worn the same one every week since November. But that isn’t even her record. She once wore the same skirt and top every week to church for five months straight. If I had any pretensions left at that point I would have been humiliated, but since I was mostly worried about Will stripping down to his underwear and parading up the aisle I was just relieved she had clothes on.