Granola Girl

Esme loves to dress herself.  For the most part I let her.  I know there's going to be a time in the future when the struggles of being a parent of a girl are going to be huge.  Boy issues, friend issues, self esteem issues, facebook issues.  Ugh.  Not looking forward to it.

I, not so secretly, hope that by the time Esme is a teenager the pendulum is going to shift far in the opposite direction of where it is now.  I pray that facebook and anything remotely similar is gone, that turtlenecks and long prairie style skirts and dresses are in, and that tattoos are taboo.  Please, just allow me to live in my dream world for just a little while, won't you?

Ok, so back to the real world.  As I said, I let Esme dress herself 90+% of the time.  My main reasoning for this is twofold.  First, I think that there are bigger fish to fry, if you will.  I'm not going to argue about colors that don't match, etc because I want her to have a lot of "yes" moments so that I'm not the "no" mom that never allows anything.  Second, and more importantly, I think it's most important that Esme likes the way she looks.  I care more that she thinks she's pretty than if anyone else does.  And if she thinks she looks beautiful in a mermaid dress and galoshes or a gazillion accessories who am I to tell her differently?!?  She needs to answer to herself.

On that note.  The other day she decided that she wanted to wear her Chaco's.  Yes there was snow on the ground and no she didn't care.  I told her that she had to wear socks so she should probably just wear her shoes.  She said - "I can wear socks with my Chaco's!"  The compromise that we made was that she had to wear her boots to preschool and then she could wear the sandals.  Oh my gosh, that made her a happy girl!

So here she is, my granola girl.  I posted a picture of this on facebook (do I see the irony in that?  Yes I do!) and a friend of mine from Washington state said this was a sure sign that we are meant to be back in the Pacific Northwest.  Who knows?  Wouldn't that be nice!  Maybe someday Esme really will grow up to be a granola girl in Portland or Seattle.  We'll have to wait and see!