My Little Punky Brewster

Last night HJ fell asleep in a really pink, really poofy princess tutu ballerina dress. She was wearing it over her new pink princess pajamas. Seeing her lying there in bed, with the layers of pink tulle all around her, I just had to take a picture of her, even knowing that the flash might wake her up. I know that these princess dress up days will be over all too soon. For a moment, I was reminded of that commercial where the dad is looking at his 16 year old daughter asking for the car keys and all he sees is this little girl sitting in the driver's seat.

Sometimes, like last night, HJ is totally that girly girl with the pink and the purple everywhere and the giant sparkly bow headband and rows of bracelets and "pearl" necklaces. But more often than not, HJ's fashion sense leans more towards Punky Brewster than princess.

A more typical outfit for HJ is polkadots and bright colors, accessorized not with girly girl jewelry but strangely random things like Hello Kitty goggles or a stretchy headband worn low on her forehead in a slightly boho-chic/Native-American/ or gym teacher kind of way. For example, there was the one day HJ woke up and decided she just had to wear her "Happiness is a Sunny Day" swim shirt and swim shorts, accessorized by the Hello Kitty goggles, of course. The only problem was it was 30 degrees outside, and most children don't go to school wearing their swimsuits. Pajamas, princess costumes, mismatched outfits, all might draw a few second looks from strangers, but hey, if you're 4 years old, you can still get away with it once in awhile. But really, you just can't wear a swimsuit in the middle of a Chicago winter. Or so you may think...

It must have been one of those "you have to pick your battles" kind of mornings, because I had to get HJ dressed and to the therapist's office and ready for school, and of course we were running late.  So rather than fighting about not wearing her swimsuit, I just put on a pair of leggings (yes, they happened to have polkadots on them) underneath her swim shorts, and we were off. The therapist put it kindly when she saw HJ's outfit, something along the lines of, "Wow, great job Mommy on figuring out how to keep her warm." Whereas HJ's preschool teacher was a little more honest when I picked her up after school, telling me, "I almost peed in my pants when she walked into class today."

Looking at HJ standing there that windy December afternoon, I almost forgot that she was wearing a swimsuit underneath her jacket. I thought her teacher was just remarking on her overall outfit, which consisted of a fuzzy hot pink fleece jacket, the navy blue leggings with pink polkadots under the hot pink swim shorts, a pink and purple fleece scarf with multicolored polkadots and big pink pom poms on the end, and her fuzzy red and purple mittens. Basically, if that's too hard to follow, the overall effect was a swirl of fuzzy polkadots in various colors.

One day my daughter may grow out of this Punky Brewster, who cares what I look like as long as I want to wear it stage, but part of me hopes she doesn't. To me, it just represents quintessential HJ. Sometimes I come across a picture of her with her paci and I realize how strange it looks. But really, that wasn't so long ago. I wish I had taken a picture of her that day with her swimsuit/polkadot outfit. All I have now is the memory, but knowing HJ, I'm sure she'll be coming up with crazier outfits before long.