Girlie Fun

With a house full of boys before Kaitlynn arrived, I was almost positive that our baby girl was destined to be a tom-boy. Don't get me wrong, she certainly considers herself as rough and tough as any of the dozen or more boys that live on our street, and she definitely knows how to get dirty and messy like them, too. But lately, Kaitlynn seems to be blossoming into quite the little princess. She is in to ALL THINGS GIRL lately. Here are just some examples I can recall:

• She LOVES the few girl books we have in the house. It started with Pinkalicious and then we won a copy of Goldilicious at the recent spring picnic. She LOVES those books and wants us to read them to her over and over. She can recite most of the lines in them, too.

Connor reads Kaitlynn's favorite book, Pinkalicious

• She talks nonstop about being a princess. She wants to wear princess clothes and hair bows, read princess books, watch princess shows, listen to princess songs, and play princess dress-up. She would probably eat anything I gave her if I called it "princess food."

• Every time she gets dressed, she walks straight to the big mirror in our bedroom and admires her reflection. Then she walks into the living room and places her hand on her hip in a pose, waiting for her Daddy and brothers to compliment her appearance.

Her signature "Don't I look so cute?" pose.

• She had her nails painted for the first time at Connor's school carnival, and she LOVED the result. She can't stop staring at her fingernails and wants to have them painted all the time.

• She was flipping through the channels on the television one morning and somehow discovered a Strawberry Shortcake show. Her eyes grew as big as saucers and she looked at me in wonder and said, "Mommy, I so LOVE this show!"

• She wants to fix her hair and put on makeup with me in my bathroom every morning. She takes my eyeshadow brushes and applies her makeup just like Mommy.

Applying makeup and admiring her work.

• She compliments my appearance when I fix up my hair and wear pretty jewelry. The other day I wore a fancy necklace and she kept saying, "Mommy, you look so beautiful! I love your necklace!"

Putting on her (imaginary) earrings, just like Mommy.

• She notices the candlesticks, flower arrangements, and other decorations I place around the house and tells me how much she loves them. I recently put together a red wooden cabinet for our entryway and she made sure to point it out to her Daddy. Finally, some appreciation for my home decor!

• Her favorite colors are pink and purple. She always wants to play with the pink colors and toys.

An attempted side french braid. She wouldn't sit still for me but loved it when I was finished.

• Like most girls, she is very much into her baby dolls. She can often be seen taking her babies on stroller rides and cradling them gently while saying, "I'm sorry, baby. It's okay, baby."

• She has become obsessed with jewelry lately. She has been wearing a few of my necklaces recently and has broken all of them. I recently bought her some sturdier necklaces and bracelets to see if those would last any longer. She insists on wearing them every day!

Showing off one of her necklaces (actually mine) that she broke in less than 24 hours.

Back when Kaitlynn was about 18 months old, I began to regret not having her ears pierced when she was an infant. I just loved seeing all the little toddlers with their pierced ears and thought Kaitlynn would enjoy having earrings. When I asked her if she wanted to get her ears pierced, to my surprise she immediately replied, "No! Ouch!" while covering her ears. I have no idea how she figured out it would hurt, but she wanted no part of it. Periodically I would ask Kaitlynn again if she wanted earrings, but the answer was always an emphatic "No!"

Fast forward to about 3 months ago, Kaitlynn and I were out running some errands. Out of the blue she told me, "Mommy, I ready my earrings." I have no idea what changed her mind, but from that day forward she couldn't stop talking about getting her ears pierced.

It took me a couple of months to finally decide to take her to Claire's for her new earrings. I was so nervous about how she would handle the pain, and I definitely was feeling some guilt for talking her into it. At Claire's for the big event, Jeff and my girlfriend Julie both joined us. Thank goodness for the moral support AND for the extra hands to take pictures and videos. Kaitlynn was a little nervous but still super excited. She sat in my lap and was SO brave, especially after the first ear was done and she had to sit still for the second ear. Poor girl, her cries afterwards made me so sad, but she shook it off very quickly. Within a few minutes, she was ALL smiles and celebrating her big girl earrings by also proudly wearing her new pink heart necklace.

Here's the video of her ear-piercing moment. Don't watch if you don't want to see her get a little upset! But, I promise, she recovered VERY quickly. See the "after" pictures below!

Daddy came for the big event. Kaitlynn was SO happy!

It didn't take long for her smiles and excitement to return. She LOVES her earrings.

See? I don't think I've seen a bigger smile on this face. She is in girly girl heaven!