The Polka Dot Dress

Madeleine is stuck in a phase right now, in which she falls in love with one particular outfit and wants to wear it EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.  Every few weeks, she ditches that outfit for a new favorite.  Many of you who have looked through pictures on facebook - or even on this blog - have been able to see the trend of outfits. 

First it was "my heart shirt and my purple skirt."

Then it was "my Ginny Weasley outfit" (a white tee and a navy skirt with white polka dots.)

Now it's "my Easter egg dress."

The Easter egg dress is a pale green dress with pastel polka dots.  It's suitable to wear to church, and not so great as a play dress, but Madeleine doesn't care.  She wants to wear it every day.  And she can't handle the fact that I need to wash it after wear.  It's the polka dot dress or bust, regardless of how dirty it is. 

So, this morning when I got her dressed into one of her previously loved outfits to get ready for school, she was not able to cope.  Despite the fact that we had picked out this outfit the day before and talked - A LOT - about how she would be wearing it to school, she came unhinged this morning when I tried to put it on her.  Doesn't matter how easily she agrees the night before to wearing something other than the polka dot dress.  Come morning time, it's as if we're yanking away her security blanket when we try to dress her in anything but.  So we started off the day right - with a sobbing melt-down.  Because why be cooperative when you can be stubborn instead??

At any rate, my tactic was to just pick up the sobbing kid and stick her in her stroller so we could get Julia to school on time.  We headed off towards the elementary school, with Julia galloping along ahead of me with her look of faraway wonder as she thought about walking with Hermione or whatever else she thinks about during Gallop Time (after all, ANYTHING can happen!)  Every few seconds, Julia would get distracted from her galloping reverie by something REAL that she would see, like a flower, an insect, or a vehicle, and she would stop short right in front of the stroller, leaving me to skid to a stop so as to avoid ramming into her. 

ME: Jules.  Jules.  If you stop suddenly right in front of me, I'm afraid I'm going to run into you and I don't want you to get hurt.
JULIA: (taking off at a gallop again without a word, with a look of enchantment in her eyes)
MADELEINE: But Maaaaamaaaaaaaa!  I don't liiiiiiiiike my outfit!  I need to change into my Easter egg dreeeesssss!

After dropping off Julia, it was time for me to bring Madeleine to school.  She gave one last plea for her Easter egg dress, and I promised to do laundry today so that it would be clean for tomorrow.  That mollified her a bit, although she felt the need to take one last dig at me before letting it go.

MADELEINE:  But Mama.  Why do you think everything is so GLORIOUS?

Ouch!  That one stings.  There's nothing worse than being accused of thinking everything is so glorious.

At any rate, Madeleine was finally over it by the time we were driving to her school, and she became contemplative over the lyrics to John Lennon's "In My Life," which we happened to be listening to.  As we pulled up to her school, she was ready to give me her literary analysis.

MADELEINE: Mama?  I heard the person that is SINGING this song say something that is very NOT NICE.
ME: Oh yeah?  What did he say?
MADELEINE: He said: "I love you MORE."
ME: Ohhhhh.  And you feel like he should say he loves EVERYBODY the same?
MADELEINE: Yeah.  So Mama.  I think that maybe it was JESUS that was singing.

That's a totally logical conclusion if I ever heard one.

Luckily, Madeleine was excited enough to be at school that she forgot (at least temporarily) about her polka dot dress, and I was able to kiss her good-bye as she happily played with magnet marbles.  On the way out, I grabbed some of her artwork from her little mail pouch, and was pleased to see that Madeleine's classic artistic style remains prevalent even at preschool:

Never mind the fact that Madeleine can draw intricate details such as eyelashes and teeth and what not.  Sometimes there's nothing like a little bit of black scribbling to unleash all that Gothic angst.