Toddler fashion

I. We will be going to a funeral this weekend, for a distant relative of Beaker's. After much consultation with the in-laws, we've decided to bring Miss T., of course expecting that she'll spend most of the service walking around a vestibule with a parent.

But what should she wear? I was thinking, solid colored dress or jumper, something dark but not too dark, maybe navy or burgundy corduroy? White tights, white shirt with collar if it's a jumper. You know, nice clothes, the kind of thing we might have worn to church on an ordinary fall Sunday back in the day, or like I remember all the 2-year-old girls wearing to Box-o-Tots back when Miss T. started there as an infant. (Really, they did. Even Beaker noticed the dresses, approvingly.)

We have lots of dresses for Miss T., but they all, and I mean every single one, are silly. Bright stripes, big flowers, ruffles, all three at once.

Serious dresses for a toddler? Almost cannot be found. I have tried. Baby Gap has one possibility, but all the other usual suspects, and lots of less-usual suspects, let me down. Everything out there is informal-silly, or bohemian-dippy, or baby-ho, or Christmas-velvet-and-taffeta, or flower-girl-princess, or pageant-ready (gack!).

I ordered from Olive Juice finally. We had a catalog from them deep in the recesses of our junk mail pile. Mostly the lifestyle implications of the catalog worry me a lot. But for right now: it's exactly what I was looking for. We'll see if they can pull off express shipping, and we'll see what the junk mail impact is---it is worrying that Google hit number 4 for "olive juice kids" was an offer to rent their mailing list.

II. Miss T. has crazy wavy hair like her dada. Despite my pre-birth resolutions to keep it cut short enough to not need combing until she was old enough to request otherwise, it's only been trimmed once. No bangs, either. Essentially all the hair on top of her head wants to fall in her face, so we'd have to cut an awful lot for it to be helpful.

Instead, she wears little ponytails. Sometimes one on top, mostly one on either side. Even when she's asleep. We let them loosen until hair is getting in her face again, then redo.

Often she comes home from Box-o-Tots with very sharp hair. Nice clean part lines all around each ponytail, hair pulled tight and flat over her scalp, bands wrapped more times than we can manage. On the one hand, this is great! Usually it lasts overnight, even! On the other hand, does this mean they think I'm a neglectful parent, who can't even manage her little daughter's hair? Also, I think they're using hairspray -- I can smell it -- which seems a little weird.

Recently Miss T. has started protesting violently when parents try to fix her hair. She'll let us put barrettes in -- they don't stay! -- but not ponytails. So her hair is even messier when we send her off, and the contrast when she comes home even stronger. I try to tell myself that women who have chosen with work with small children for a living probably like playing with little girls' hair. (But they probably also like noticing the little ways in which their charges' parents lose it...)

III. At dinner last night, Miss T. announced "I not a baby. I Beeta." Since then she's consistently answered "No!" to "Are you a baby?" and "Yes!" to "Is Beeta a little girl?" I'm so not ready.

Comments

[Elizabeth]

We've had good luck finding the sort of dresses you describe at Burlington Coat Factory's Baby Depot for $15 or so--I just checked a label, and it's made by "Good Lad of Philadelphia", which doesn't appear to have a website.

Are Miss T's caregivers Black? The hairstyle you're describing sounds like the way I see the little Black toddlers hair done...

Will she take hairbands from you?

[Emma Jane]

Hairbands (headbands?) just slip off her head, unfortunately. (You'd think the hair pointing forward would offer increased friction, but no.)

The staff at Box-o-Tots is racially diverse, as are the kids. A spy (i.e., a part-timer there who also babysits for us) reports that one African-American teacher does pull the ponytails extra tight -- still just two, though -- and that she's seen the hairspray in with the sunscreen and wipes in Miss T.'s room...

[Elizabeth]

Hairspray on a little girl T's age does seem weird. Can you request no hairspray? Tell them that it makes it harder to brush her hair at night.

Dorothy frequently comes home with her hair redone more competently than Tom and I can manage. I figure her teachers like to play with her hair (and at least one has admitted it). Recently she's been sitting still long enough to get French braids - would that work for Miss T. if you hype it a bit? Or is that totally hopeless if you can't even get her to sit still for ponytails?

When Dorothy was about Miss T.'s age, I picked her up and made an "oof" sound, and she said, "I getting so big!" I agreed (she'd heard that from me practically every time I picked her up). She then said in a very serious and thoughtful voice, "I growing up." It was like a stab to the heart. She can't grow up! I'm not done with her being a toddler yet! But she was right.

[BrooklynGirl]

Hairspray?

Even though my 4 month old daughter has no appreciable hair, I already worry about having to "do" it when she does....my own hair is always a disaster.

I think this place has nice, reasonable clothes for girls: http://themagicwardrobe.com

[Emma Jane]

Ooooh, yes, The Magic Wardrobe does have some dresses that are just what I was looking for. Thanks for the link.

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Baby Ho is sold out! How sad is that?

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Our Box of Tots does the same thing with our daughter's hair. It is really odd.

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My 3-year old girl keeps her hair messy because she doesn't like the way I make her hair. Since she joined kindergarten she always come one with her hair neatly redone. I guess her teachers or her kindergarten friends love to play with each others hair because of which she has her hair done.

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