Papa, do I look pretty?

Last year we got Mags a pink sparkly dress for her birthday/Halloween. She became so obsessed with it and started acting like such an evil princess in it that we took it and hid it in the garage. But, she found it there. So, we hid it in the trunk of Jay's car. It stayed there, quietly strengthening its vortex of power so that when Jay cleaned out his car and put it in a box in the garage again, it took mere days for Maggie to be sucked into the garage, forced to pry open a random box and compelled to pull the gauzy sheath from its confines.

"Mamaaaaaaa, what's THIS?????"
"I don't know, Mags. Have you seen your father?"
"Mamaaaaaaaaa, it's BEAUTIFUL! How did it get in this box????"
"I have no idea. Are you hungry?"
"Can I put it on?"
(crap) "Yes, darling, I suppose so."

And once again, the dress has begun to work its magic on my daughter. This time, it hasn't been all that bad - yet. We have an arrangement where she cannot wear the dress to KinderCare or sleep in it. She can come home and put it on for the afternoon, but she cannot ride any type of wheeled toy in it. (She learned this yesterday when it got a bit tangled up in the wheels of the tricycle.)

When she puts it on, she is transformed into a princess. We drew a picture of a crown on the driveway with chalk, and she will stoop down, pretend to pick it up and place it ever-so-regally on her blonde head. She walks with a certain grace - straight shoulders, controlled pace - but also with a bounce in her step that I interpret as her outward expression of pure joy... She even dares to dance and hold out her pretty skirts when in the driveway of our good neighbor whose presence usually causes her to hide behind a tree. So, maybe when you're almost 4 it's not so bad to pretend you're a princess.



















The first day she put the dress on, I stayed in the garage. She went into the house where Jay was. He said that as soon as she put it on, she went up to him and cautiously (but hopefully) asked, "Papa, do I look pretty?" He, being the good Papa that he is, told her she looked beautiful - and that she always looked beautiful. Over a glass of wine the next day, Jay and I were talking about the conversation. His mind went instantly to an article about a documentary about the objectification of women and kids' poor self-esteem he had just read in the Columbian. (The documentary features kids at a local school.) Yeah, that's some heavy stuff, but do you want to know where my mind went when he told me about his little exchange with Princess Mags? (Sappiness Alert. Turn away if you can't handle it...) I thought of her wedding day, and how beautiful she'll look and how at some point she'll look at Jay and ask, "Papa, do I look pretty?" Then, he'll get a tear in his eye - and there you have it. A country song just waiting to happen.