Just Another Day in Paradise...

My friends, we have officially hit the dress-up stage in our house.

And I'm just not really sure how I feel about that yet.

We've avoided it thus far and honestly, it's probably my fault because I didn't really have any clue that Elizabeth was even remotely interested in playing dress-up.  Well, until we went to a friend's house to play and she came out of the room with a boa and high heels and refused to take them off...Diva that she is...

So, when a friend asked if we would like her outgrown princess play dresses, I jumped...because those suckers are expensive.  

Little did I know that my daughter would turn into a teenager in front of my eyes.

This is her princess pose...look at her hands!    How do you learn that?  We have a Little Mermaid dress and a Sleeping Beauty dress as well and she takes turns peeling them on and off and twirling around the house in them.  Of course, we had a small spat once Rachel woke up from her nap and came downstairs to discover the new additions.  Upon seeing her little sister fingering one of the dresses, Elizabeth came over yelling, "No, no, no, Rachel...that is not yours, that is MINE.  Here...this is YOURS,"  shoving a little tu tu in her face.  

Rachel took one look at the tu tu and another at the dress and then yelled, "No!" throwing them both down to the floor and running off to play with the beloved Dora puzzle that had been forgotten by the once possessive older sister.

I don't think she's quite ready yet...

Last night, I was making dinner and Elizabeth was on hour number five of playing with the dresses when she came in the kitchen and said, "Oh Daddy is just going to LOOOOOOVE this dress?"   And I was thinking looooooove?  Where in the world did that come from?

Then I watched the three-year-old, going on 16, go into a frenzy upon hearing her daddy's car pull into the driveway and strip off Sleeping Beauty for Belle because, "It just wasn't right, mama."  Then run in and strut and twirl for him as he walked through the door.

I hadn't had a chance to warn him about our princess inheritance, so he came in the kitchen and kissed me and said, "Why does our daughter have a little ball gown on?  And why is she holding her hands like that??  Is this normal?"

Which took my brain back to about 29 years ago when I clearly remember dressing up in some get-up my Memaw bought me from Goodwill that had sparkles and frilly skirts and coming down her stairs pretending I was my favorite singer at the time, "Olivia Neutron Bomb" (as I called her).

I also remember having a Mickey Mouse Club workout tape that taught a dance and then showed the kids performing at the end on stage under the lights and in costumes.  I was lucky enough to grow up across the street from three little girls so we would pause the tape and then all six of us would sprint to the back bedroom and get our "costumes" out of a box of dance outfits that someone had given my mom.  Then we would parade through the house and perform the dance with the tape as if our life depended on it.  

So I patted my husband on the back as he watched Elizabeth strip off one dress to only wiggle into another and assured him that I thought she was pretty normal...

...and that I was probably going to look for a pair of plastic high heels the next time we go to the store...