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Amanda is a princess

Amanda has an interesting idea about what dresses are appropriate for her to wear.

First, she only wants to wear dresses. I can sometimes get her to put on pants and a shirt, but only if I tell her it is a ballerina shirt. Perhaps this dates back to the last two summers, when her legs were so itchy and scratched up (to the point they were bleeding) that I never let her wear dresses, because then she'd just end up scratching some more.

Second, she prefers long dresses. The other day she went into her closet and picked out a new (to her) dress. Eleanor had just put it in the closet since it was too short for Eleanor, and I hadn't moved it up to where Amanda couldn't see it yet. It was a size 5t. Amanda is a smallish size 3t. However, we put on the dress and it fit Amanda pretty well all things considered--the sleeves were a bit long, but the dress wasn't absurdly long, just longer than it was intended to be. Amanda enjoyed swooshing around in it.

Finally, she likes fancy dresses. I do not buy any dresses that are not washable and comfortable, so I have no problem letting Amanda play in whatever dress is available, even though it may be a fancy dress. Her favorites are two velvety stretchy dresses (I don't know what the material is, velour maybe?) that look like fancy Christmas dresses. The other day we went to the park and Amanda was in her dark blue velour dress. She was using the skirt to carry sand around since someone else was using the bucket. Thank goodness it's washable, I thought. Another mom came up to me and said that she had to laugh when she saw Amanda digging in the sand with her fancy dress on. Amanda noticed the other mom and came over, and the mom said "That's a very pretty dress!" Amanda responded matter-of-factly in her sweet little voice, "Well, I am a princess."

I guess we already knew that.

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