A Mommy Story

I was never into fashion as a kid. I had colors I preferred and liked some graphic t-shirts over others, but generally I wore whatever was in my dresser. And aside from a brief period with jelly bracelets and those plastic charm bracelets, I didn’t wear jewelry or other accessories. Having to wear more than the minimum needed to get by seemed like too much work when there was playing to get to. Besides, wouldn’t want a necklace or scarf to catch on a branch when I was tree climbing or diving out of swings or flipping over monkey bars.

Mira, however, seems to have the recessive gene. The more accessories, the better: hats, necklaces, bracelets, hair clips, rings, makeup, bright socks…she loves them all. Rarely do we get out the door each day without her asking if she can wear one accessory, or more if I’ll allow it. She’s still six, though, and easily loses those accessories, so I limit how much she can wear.

That doesn’t stop her from taking inventory of everything in her jewelry box regularly, looking over all of her shiny pretty objects and trying them on to make sure they still fit. I still wonder how she got the “girly” gene that I missed, but it’s cute watching how happy she gets when she dresses up.

The other night, I tucked Mira into bed as usual. We leave her light on in her room while she falls asleep, then turn it off when Aaron and I go to bed. When I opened her door to turn her light off, I noticed her radio was turned up much louder than when we left the room. This is also a common scenario – she sometimes likes to relax with louder music before she falls asleep.

Then I looked over at her and realized she didn’t look the same as when we put her to bed:

Flower garland, ring, bracelet, and (hard to see) two necklaces.

I guess she felt the need to play dress up after hours, and fell asleep before she could put it all back.

In the morning I asked her why she had so much jewelry on when she fell asleep.

Mira gave a shy grin and replied, “What? I wanted to be pretty for sleeping!”

That’s my girl: always striving for awesome.