Dressing little girls...

This post is brought to you by the Baby Gap "crawler dress" that took me four tries to put on Lauren this morning.



Dressing Lauren is sometimes synonymous with wrestling an alligator. I recall this with Joshua, but as with many things, my memory doesn't seem to have the ability to recall the extent to which something happened. Yes, I remember he would wiggle on the changing table. But I do not recall him flipping himself from his back to his tummy mid-diaper change 47 times as Lauren does. I recall him being fascinated with the diapers and other items on the side of the table, but I do not recall an incessant need to throw everything off of the changing table and remove the cover each time we use it. This is, for the record, how a clean diaper has gone through my washer not once, but twice already since Lauren tossed the stack into her laundry basket beside the changing table and I missed taking one back out.

Add to this wrestling match the fact that I worked with the most complex piece of baby girls' clothing this morning, and it was almost comical and definitely bloggable. (Mostly it's out of exasperation that I find myself thinking about a topic long enough to piece together a blog post. So here we are.) I've had this little outfit in Lauren's closet for months thinking that it was ingenious. I LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing Lauren in cute little dresses, but it just doesn't seem practical as a crawler to have her little knees all boogered up due to the friction on the carpet. But this seemed to be the answer to the whole dilemma. It's a little dress with attached leggings, but they're only attached in the front, leaving the back open to make diaper changes easier. Perhaps that's true, but getting the thing on was nigh upon impossible. We managed on the fourth try, but the look on Lauren's face was enough to caption the whole episode. "Seriously Mom. Either get it together or pick a different outfit!"

Now that she's in it, I'm in love with it. But it was touch and go there for a minute.

Dear Gap,

Kindly attach some instructions to your adorable crawler dresses. Indicate whether I should start with putting the baby's head, arms or legs into the outfit first. Doing so will allow Mommies to appreciate the ingenuity of your creation without having to first catch their breath after dressing and undressing their wiggly alligator, I mean daughter, 16 times.

Regards,

Megan

I should say that, in my experience, boys clothes are so much easier in just about every regard. There's nothing fancy about it---- no straps or cap sleeves to hide onesies under, no button up backs or tying nonsense to deal with. If you wonder what goes with a shirt you have, you're just about guaranteed to get by with a pair of khaki shorts or denim shorts (honestly, why I continue to buy anything else is the definition of stupidity). The other observation I have is that with little boys, there is no need to accessorize. I'm finding that not to be true with little girls and I know it's only going to get more intense as soon as she has enough hair to do anything with (barrettes, bows, etc.). Even shoes are a little insane...and I may have a little girl's shoe obsession due to the cuteness of such things as Pedi-Peds, See Kai Run and Shoo Shoos. Just saying. Joshua has two pairs of shoes---- one pair of sneakers and one pair of church shoes. That's it. Lauren has....well, let's just say it's more than that.

Snoot faces are rare these days, but here's a charming look at one. Don't you especially love the drool on her chin? I've been saying this for 5 months, but I think she might be teething (finally).

That's a better face, sweetheart!

And although it has literally NOTHING to do with the post above, here's a picture of King Joshua this morning. See his crown, his robe and his scepter while he's sitting on his throne? We had some DirecTV work done this morning (I don't even want to talk about it) and were without television. Although Joshua doesn't really watch the tv when it's on, the escalation in his imagination was mind blowing this morning. It was really fun to watch.