The First Dance

My 12-year-old daughter has her first dance this Saturday. She has a pretty dress, jewelry and shoes. We had a hard time finding shoes for her. She didn't want to go with heels because she wants to be able to dance comfortably. I told her most people just take their shoes off anyway but she insisted on flats. Since I didn't see any comfortable sandals (I saw online that Dansko makes some sandals that look comfortable but they weren't quite dressy enough for the dress we bought), we found her a pair of dressy flats to wear with her dress. It's a black and white dance with masquerade masks. Sounds fun!

The dress has spaghetti straps so we bought her a tiny bolero type shrug that covers her shoulders (it's against school policy to wear spaghetti straps). We also had to make sure it was long enough (finger tip test) and the front wasn't too low (the three finger rule). Seems like she's in a parochial school doesn't it? It's a public school.

I can't believe that my baby is going to her first dance. She'll be a teenager in a couple months. I wonder if I'll be happy on Saturday seeing her all dressed up like a young lady or teary. We shall see.

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Fashion Diva vs. Responsibility

My daughter's dog has chewed up two pairs of sandals in the last week alone. We bought her sparkly sandals and the dog ate one. We went and bought her another pair of them because they were so cute. The dog ate one of those as well. They must have tasted really good!

I enjoy shopping for childrens clothing as much as most moms, but I don't enjoy buying the same thing repeatedly! Lesson learned (for mom and dad and hopefully my youngest as well). Even at four years old, she has to have some responsibility for making sure her shoes are put away where they belong so the dog can't eat them. I won't replace them again. I don't want her growing up to be like Christina Ricci with more shoes than books and thinking that's OK. Being the bookworm that I am, I'm going to have to teach her to find a happy middle ground. She can still be the little fashion diva she loves being, but she has to have a good respect for reading too.

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