Each morning when Brynn wakes up, the first item of business she wants to take care of is getting dressed. It is not uncommon for her to emerge from her room dressed and ready for the day. This is awesome on days when her outfit matches, is not two sizes too big or too small, and is in season. However, most days it ends up being 0-3. She is very opinionated on what clothes she wears and it takes some serious negotiating skills to get her out of one of her "outfits" and into something a little more...well cute. For this reason I choose to just sit back and watch her outfit (and hair for that matter) evolve throughout the day as she changes approximately 5,769 times a day and I only choose to intervene if we are going somewhere or doing something with other people.
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| A small sampling of Brynn's outfits over the course of a single day. |
Brynn's outfit choice is largely driven by her affinity for hand-me-downs. I go to the store and buy her cute coordinated outfits and I cannot get the child to keep them on for five minutes. I literally have 2-3 things that have never been washed because she outright refuses to wear them. But when a box shows up with all of her cousins' old clothes she gasps like she's just been given a diamond ring and immediately finds the most well loved items in the box and wears them day after day after day. It's not that the hand-me-downs are ugly clothes, they're not. There are just a lot of pieces for her to creatively mix and match. Maybe that's why she likes them so much. Maybe my coordinated outfits are stiffling her artistic side.
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| One of my personal favorites. |
Sometimes I find myself battling with her trying to get her to wear the clothes that are cutter and to let me do her hair all fancy. Why am I trying to make my daughter more high maintenance? Why I am I trying to teach her that the hand-me-downs she gets aren't good enough? Or that she does not look good enough unless she is all dolled up? Don't get me wrong, I want to teach my daughter how to look nice. But my goal is for her to feel good about herself as a person and not base her self worth on her physical appearance. I know there will soon be a day she wants all new clothes and won't leave the house without properly primping, so I'm just going to enjoy these simpler times.
