Dress Up Obsession

There's obsessed. And then there is Kaylee.

Without fail, each morning (as soon as she's bathed, dressed, fed, and I've fixed her hair), she comes running into my room asking me to get her "pretty dress" down from the high reaches of her closet. She has several "pretty dresses", but I know the one she wants. It's the same one she wants every day--the "Cinderella birthday one" (not to be confused with the "Cinderella itchy one")she'll remind me, as if I could forget. Kaylee has figured out that the cheap tulle that is sewn into many of the dress up costumes does not feel soft against her naked skin, and no matter how often I suggest that she keep an undershirt on, she wasn't born yesterday. She knows that no Cinderella in the history of Cinderellas has ever worn an undershirt with her ball gown.



Next comes the make up. "But Mom!!? Can't I just have a little of that sparkly litstick (aka lipstick)?" This inquiry is followed by a barrage of pleadings for "princess powder" (blush), "perfume" (how a 3 year old who has just bathed thinks she NEEDS this so she won't stink for the prince is beyond me), eye shadow, and get this: "black stuff" (mascara). So, lest you think I'm a Jon Benet Ramsey mother wannabe, I assure you, the obsession is all hers. Most mornings I can get away with tricking her into thinking that the soft brush of her cheek and eyes with my make-up brushes actually did some magical transformation, but in reality, I've done nothing more than make her think she has make-up. Other days she insists on seeing herself in the mirror, at which point, there is no fooling a precocious 3 yr. old. On those days, I consent, and she gets the royal treatment. As often as I roll my eyes at her persistence, there is a secret part of me that loves her obsession for dress up and make believe. Vicariously through her, my own love for all things magical lives on.



Her Cinderella birthday party was a "royal treatment" occasion, as was her recent participation in a friend's Princess party.

The proof is in the pictures.