Style By Hope

Hope is very into clothes. She has a style all her own. The more mismatched, the better. When she really likes an outfit, she says "That is soooooo fashion." I seriously have no idea where she got it from. I am a tshirt and jeans girl. She is a solid longsleeve shirt, under a striped short sleeve dress over a pair of polka dot leggings with shoes with stars on them kind of girl. Oh, and if you will kindly put her hair in 3 ponytails for her, she is set. Or, I should say, she is "fashion."

All this changes on Sunday Mornings.

Here's a little background. I thought I had my mismatch funky girl figured out as we headed into fall and winter. I bought her entire wardrobe, including some way cute dresses for church. So, first cold Sunday,one polka dot dress and tights coming right up! Nope. She flipped her lid. The dress was not twirly. What?! I didn't know that was a requirement. Turns out, none of the dresses I bought for her were twirly, and therefore not worthy of being worn to church. Every Sunday, and I do mean, EVERY SUNDAY, she cried and sulked all morning over the dresses I made her wear. She would say "This is a boring dress." (You are probably thinking, why not just go buy her some twirly winter dresses right? No way. They were cute dresses and she was going to wear them!)

Fast forward to February. We are in a store and Hope spots what she thinks is the most beautiful dress she has ever seen. And, it has a matching dress for her Bitty Baby Doll. She was just so sweet about it talking about how beautiful the dress was and could she PLEASE take it home with her and wear it to church. She wasn't fussing over it, just genuinely excited about finding this dress. I agreed. But I had to make sure she understood that she could not wear the dress until the Sunday AFTER Easter. She remembered. On Saturday night, what do you think she reminded me about? Yep, her "beautiful dress."

Her Sunday School Teacher, Ms. Bari, stopped and took Hope's picture during the pancake breakfast on Sunday. She was so proud.

And, in case you were wondering, I did not make the same mistake when buying her summer wardrobe as I did in the fall. Every dress for Sundays is very "twirly." I know our friends at church will enjoy seeing her sweet smile again instead of her looking at the floor and saying her dress is boring.