Friday, September 7, 2007

When isn't a Pink Tutu appropriate?

Here's the thing, I am starting to realize I may have allowed Lili a smidgen too much freedom in her everyday choices. I have never been particularly strict about clothes, shoes and hair. My thought has always been "As long as they are dressed and their hair was brushed at some point in the last 24 hours, I am doing great!" Chloe and Emma both understood that they can make these choices, and most of the time, I am okay with them. As they have gotten older, they have been very responsible, sometimes brushing their hair twice in a 24 hour period, and almost always wearing matching outfits. Actually, to Emma's credit, she brushes her hair more than any child I have ever seen. She takes the "Marsha Brady" approach to hair care, I often catch her counting, "87, 88, 89..." Yep, all the way up to 100. But I regress, back to Lili...As I have mentioned before, she is definitely the most free-spirited of all my girls, and as we were getting ready to take Emma to a doctors appointment yesterday, I started to think that perhaps I need to reign her in...

It all started with Lili wanting curly hair, now for those of you who don't know, Lili has the straightest hair ever. So she found the sponge rollers, let me put them in and slept in them. Great, now she looks like Shirley Temple, Step one complete. Step two: What to wear? A Tutu, of course. After a lengthy conversation about the appropriateness(or lack there of) of wearing a see through skirt to the doctors office, Lili figured it out. She needed the WHOLE outfit, leotard and all. Not just any leotard, the pink and purple sparkly one with the HUGE pink tutu, perfect!
Sparkly pink shoes are just the finishing touch this ensemble needs, now we can go. Luckily we have to go to school to pick Emma up a little early. That means there are 700 potential sets of eyes that can see Lili in all her pink tutu glory! Yeah for us! After making it down the hall with only a handful of curious glances, we make it to Emma's class room just in time for all the kids, in the whole school, to come in from recess. Great.
Here's the interesting part; no one seems particularly surprised to see Lili in this outfit. Hmmm.
Off we go, me, Emma and Miss Tutu herself. We are stopped by a group of teachers along the way and one of them says, "I always love to see what Lili will be wearing" (Fabulous, she's notorious) another teacher asked "oh, is she on her way to dance?" a very logical question considering the outfit. I respond, "Nope, we're on our way to the doctor". I can see their minds working, hoping against hope that we are going to see the psychologist, little do they know the appointment isn't even for me or Lili.

We make it to the doctors office with only a few curious glances from passengers in other cars, but this could be from the fact that we have all of the windows down and the "High School Musical 2" soundtrack blaring while we all, yes, even me, sing along at the top of our lungs. After a painfully long wait, we get to see the doctor, who tells Lili she looks lovely and is so glad she dressed up to come see her. No look of horror that I could possibly let her leave the house in that, no condescending glance implying I am the worst Mom ever, just a simple compliment to my funny, independent, outgoing 4 year old. And I realize, this lady is a Doctor, she had to go to school for a LONG time, she's really smart, and she doesn't think I 'm a bad mom. In fact, I think she approves of my parenting. I am so pleased I can hardly think straight. In fact, I feel so good about this whole tutu thing, I may wear one the next time I have an appointment,...then again, probably not. (By the way, Emma is fine, at least as "fine" as she can be with me as her Mom)