Preschool Couture

One of my favorite times of the day is when Miss chooses the clothes she is going to wear.  It is so fun to see what she picks, and to hear her describe why she has made her choices.  Today was the first day of school, and she excitedly picked out her “school tights, skirt, and topping” last night before bed.  She really couldn’t wait to wear these tights.

It has been fairly recently that she has gotten into choosing her own outfits, and I have really enjoyed some of the other ensembles she has put together.  She is developing her own sense of style.  I love letting her run with it and be creative.

The one below was one of my favorites.  She pulled out the shorts and then said she needed to find a shirt that also had flowers on it so they would match.  Then she chose a leopard-print bow for her hair.

I laugh at myself sometimes, because though I know it is probably very obvious, I still feel the need to tell people that she picked out her own clothes when she is dressed this way.  Partly because I don’t want anyone to think I dress my adorable child in mismatched clothes, but mostly because I feel proud of her independence and style and like to draw attention to how she expresses herself.

And I love to see how she is working on learning how to match clothes.  For the outfit below, she first picked out the skirt and then had initially chosen a light blue and green top to wear with it.  She held them up together and said, “No, these don’t match.  I need a brown shirt to go with this skirt.”  And she found one. ( The goggles were part of a game she and Lass were playing where they were “hunting trees.”  As in the trees that pulled at Snow White’s dress as she was running through the forest after being told by the huntsman that the queen wanted to kill her.  I think).

I love this stuff.  My girl has definite ideas about how she wants to express herself through her clothing.  She wants to wear skirts and dresses and still loves her tights.  It can be difficult in the few instances where I really need her to wear something particular.  Like when we went to the visitation before my husband’s grandmother’s funeral and I had to purchase all new clothing for myself and the three girls in a hurry (we were out of town and had no nice clothes to wear).  I bought Miss a blue outfit I thought she would love, with a flow-y, ruffly shirt and capri leggings, in blue, her favorite color.  She put on the shirt and was so excited, until she realized it didn’t quite cover her rear end.  She pulled on it and danced around trying to get it to cover her tush.  She said, “It’s not long enough, Momma.”  She thought it was a dress.  Then I told her excitedly that it was a shirt with some beautiful blue pants that went with it.  She didn’t fall for that.  She wanted nothing to do with pants.  She kind of threw a fit about the pants.  We had no other option.  She wore the pants.

Sometimes the definite ideas of my preschooler can be tricky.  But most of the time, they make me proud and they make me smile.  Sometimes they make me laugh and sometimes nearly scream.  Almost always they make me excited to see where they will lead.  How this strong little personality will evolve.  I love that part.