Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why you should study the history of math

  Why you should study the history of math In the mid 1300s a fad made its way around Italy. Mathematicians would challenge each other to “mathematical duels”. They would post problems for their opponents to solve, sometimes along with their solutions in coded poetry. The winners would get support and funding from rich patrons, the losers would descend into obscurity. One such contest, between Fiore and Tartaglia, involved a new method for solving the cubic. In order to win, Tartaglia worked day and night to find Fiore’s method---unfortunately, Fiore did not do the same and only knew his own method and no others. (*Recall that the formula for solutions to quadratic equations of the form use the quadratic formula, Giorlamo Cardano---physician, philosopher, astrologer and mathematician---convinced Tartaglia to share his method and promised never to reveal it. Then Cardano figured out a more general method, and wanted to share it, but was blocked by his promises. Fortunately (for Cardan

Southern butter mints---vegan edition

After the last post, we started to be able to see what the fuss was about.  The ones made with twice the butter were the best candy I have ever tasted.  Ever.  So then we started experimenting.  How long do you pull it?  Longer than you think.  And then pull a minute or two after that.  Suddenly every single batch was creaming, pretty much right after we would cut them. I tried adding less than double butter and I think they taste much better (more delicate, according to one taste tester). The latest experiment we did involved using Earth Balance instead of butter.  It cooked pretty much the same as usual, although I was distracted right at the moment I had to pull it off the stove so it cooked maybe a bit longer than usual.  Amanda and I each pulled a quarter, while Luke pulled the bigger half.  Luke's really wasn't turning very fast---perhaps because it was too hot when he took it off the marble.  Mine was turning faster than Amanda's so we traded for a while.  Aman

Southern Butter Mints part 1

Some friends of ours have a granddaughter getting married (and she's a friend of ours as well) and so I agreed to help out with the shower.  Apparently this is to be a "southern" shower, full of tradition and elegance, but not too far over the top. Among things that are needed for a shower are punch with great grandma's punch bowl, sandwiches with cream cheese and green pepper jelly, and southern pulled butter mints.  "Ah, nobody can make those anymore.  We used to know someone, but the tradition needs to be passed down."  Like a fool, I said that I'd be happy to give it a try.  I suffer greatly from "I got a PhD in math, how hard could X be?" where X is something like gardening, or quilting, or cleaning, etc.  It's always harder than I think it will be. "We'll call Mrs. X who makes these, maybe she'll pass down the method.  I hope you don't hate me!"  I was actually planning on doing research online, watching a fe