Shameless

I never intended to be the kind of mommy who takes too much personal satisfaction in dressing up my baby daughter like a picture-perfect doll. But since my babygirl was born, I've discovered that there's nothing in the world like the satisfaction that comes with finding the PERFECT outfit for her, then finishing off the look with the PERFECT accessories. Once achieved, the resulting nirvana demands it be memorialized with a $100 trip to Kiddie Kandids followed by a day of (possibly manufactured) errands designed to show off my babygirl's fashion perfection to the world at large. Yesterday was such a day.

Months ago, I found the cutest $12 outfit at Marshall's, a discount store. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was her holiday-photo-card outfit - it looked winter-y without being expressly Christmassy (I am, after all, Jewish); it came with everything including tights; and it had a nice, posh look to it. Only then, my sister-in-law suggested, "Oh! You should get some little pink Ugg boots to go with it!" Then, of course, nothing would do but that I had to have the little pink Ugg boots. It took a month of searching, and when I found them, they were at Payless of all places - $14, two dollars more than the outfit. Then I realized the outfit needed a hat to be complete. More searching ensued. I found it, for $10, and the thing didn't even fit right - it really just sat on her head but slid off with the slightest motion. I hung the outfit up IN THE LIVING ROOM, to be admired, until the day came to take her for her photos. Yesterday was that day.

I knew I had to get there early - KK's does a bang-up business even outside of the holiday season. We woke up, ate, bathed, watched Sesame Street, got dressed, and headed out the door. We were there 1/2 hour before they opened and were first to arrive. Other cars started arriving not five minutes later. By the time the doors opened, there were eight parties behind us, and the staff told new people arriving that they couldn't fit them in until 12:30! The babygirl performed magnificently. She posed perfectly and smiled right on cue. Each pose came out perfectly on the first shot. We were done in six minutes - a record for us by a long shot. She was a hit. Everyone (including the photographer) said how cute she was, and several people asked where I got her outfit and her tiny Ugg boots! 1/2 hour later, we were out the door with $100 worth of photos in hand - 24 holiday cards and two sheets of wallet pix in two more poses. (I can never get out of that d@mned place for less than $100!) Anyway, here are the three-out-of-five shots that I got made into photos:

The holiday card shot:



The too-cute-to-pass-up shot:



The glamour shot:



She fell asleep in the car on the way back before we even made it out of the parking lot. Also too cute to miss:



Then we went to Auntie G's house for a playdate with her son, who I'll call Big Boy or BB for short. He's 7 months old and weighs a pound more than my babygirl at 14 months. He's the boy-est looking baby boy I've ever seen, and cute as a button:



BB's older sister L. has lots of cool things to play with, including these party-favor sunglasses which the babygirl just KNEW she had to have:

Then the hubby, the babygirl and I headed out to price gas stoves at Lowe's/Home Despot/Sears/etc. (Our old stove conked out 2 days before Thanksgiving & refuses to be fixed... grr... could be another whole post but I promise I won't...) She had on her pink furry hat and purple embroidered winter coat with white furry hood and cuffs and embroidered flowers over the holiday outfit. Coming out of Lowe's, she insisted on walking back to the car herself, holding her daddy's hand. She looked every inch the baby fashion plate. Two older (maybe 50-ish) ladies walking into Lowe's made a huge fuss over her. "OOOHHH! Look! She's so FASHIONABLE!" "Isn't she just the cutest thing!" "What a sweet outfit!" My god, I just ate that sh!t right up.

I was not a pretty baby, a cute kid, or an attractive teenager. I was raised by a single father who did ALL our clothes shopping at Sears, so needless to say I was never a fashion plate until I got old enough to earn money to do my own clothes shopping. As the former class ugly-kid-whose-daddy-dresses-her-funny, it's so very validating in the most embarrassing way to hear strangers sing the praises of my babygirl's cuteness and of the way I dress her. I can't help it. I love dressing her up, not just for how nice she looks, but for the way it makes ME look so good by extension. God, I can't believe I admitted that. I'm totally shameless.