I have learned dressing a little girl isn't so easy. You want everything to look good together. Boys? Jeans, shirt, tennis shoes in shades of blue and brown always look good together..good to go. Girls clothes come in so many colors! Pinks, peaches, purple, lavender, yellow, greens. Once you have the color coordinated then you have to get her print coordinated! Girls clothes are covered with stripes, flowers, polka dots, whatever pattern the manufacturer could throw on there. You don't want to put polka dots with stripes or the kid will look like a clown. The dress has to match the shoes, the shoes has to look nice with the tights. Speaking of tights! I put a dress on her last spring when it was still cool and realized I had to cover this poor baby's legs up...but with what? They have pantyhose for babies? Really? I vaguely remember wearing something like this as a child but after four girls I think my mother gave up and we went bare legged. After searching all over Wal-Mart (cuz that's the only place to shop in my town) I finally found some baby tights. Dressing this kid has been an education!
I'm not sure going to all the trouble of dressing her like a sweet little girl is going to be worth it though. She loves being outside and whoever heard of a sweet little girl terrorizing the dog and eating grass? I am convinced she is going to be rough and tough. And why not? She has two older brothers who have pushed her over, slammed their bedroom door on her fingers and are constantly taking toys away from her. And we haven't had to deal with those three boy cousins much yet. Who knows what they have in store for her down the road!
She is sweet though. It makes me giggle inside to see her hug her baby dolls, so affectionate. She hugs and kisses and cuddles much more than my boys did at this age. Are all girls like that I wonder? For over five years I have lived the rough and tumble life of boys. Now with Yahoo here I am getting to play with dolls calmly! I don't think the word calm is in little boys vernacular. Or maybe I just have a preconceived stereotypical notion of what a little girl should be and maybe that idea is wrong. Or maybe every little girl is different. Who knows?
What worries my husband though is not his "little" girl but what she will become when she is a "big" girl. How will she dress? Will she wear makeup? Will she want to wear a thong when she's a teenager? These are his most pressing worries about her now..ha. I do remember my adolescence and he's in for a bumpy ride!
Though she is young and her personality is still developing and there is a lot to learn about raising a girl, I'm coming to realize her most admirable quality is her sense of humor. Loving to laugh she finds ways to entertain herself. She loves to be tickled and teased. I love to tickle and tease her too because when I do this is the face I get.
So this is my girl...tougher than raising boys? I'm still trying to decide but I'm having a lots of girly fun in the process.
I know how you feel about raising a little girl after a boy. They do seem alot more work and way different in their behaviors. Your story started to tear me up because it made me thing of Juli, too. I can't believe our little girls are this old yet anyway!
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