Wardrobe Malfunction

Sometimes I wonder why I bother getting the girls dressed in the morning. One of the most challenging parts of the day is getting them ready for the day after breakfast. We get dressed, brush teeth, and brush our hair. There is always some kind of resistance. They minimally run away for a little while, and frequently, at least one of them is screaming or crying about something. It generally takes about a half hour to get everything accomplished in order to be semi-presentable, and it takes about a half hour to undo all that work.

Ella and Penelope have legitimate clothing issues because of their ages. This morning, for example, Penelope had a diaper blow-out requiring a new outfit. Ella decided to go for a swim in the dog bowl. She also frequently has leaky diapers.

Samantha is a different problem. She is fast becoming a fashionista, and has very particular ideas about what she should wear on any given day (usually a dress of some kind), spending quite a while pulling things out of her closet and dresser to create her ensemble (leaving the unwanted strewn about her room for me to pick up later). Lately, we have been having the same argument every morning. She wants to wear a dress and I insist she wears pants under it as it is cold and rainy right now. She does not like to ruin her look with a pair of pants that don't match as far as she's concerned. (She can wear bright horizontal striped pants with a polka dot shirt, however.) After all that hassle in the morning, within an hour, she has changed into her Ariel pajamas with her tiara and dress-up high heeled princess shoes.

I'll keep trying to get her into real clothes every morning. Maybe one day she'll keep them on for even half a day.

*photo of Samantha's favorite outfit.