Girl stuff

{Malayna, the twins and mom-mom}

This past Saturday, me, my mom and Malayna went to "Doll's Day Out" at the Mercer Museum in Doylestown. As you probably know, my girl loves her baby dolls. She's a tad bit obsessed. So when I heard about this event, which included a tea party and doll fashion show {yes, you read that correctly}, I thought Malayna would love it. And she did, for the most part. When I signed up, however, I conveniently didn't think about the fact that I would have to go, too. Blech.

We sat at a big table with two other moms and their daughters, and were served cookies, little cupcakes and tea, lemonade and water. It was cute. But then the "fashion show" started. Little girls from the audience paraded around with dolls from the Museum's collection. That was also cute. There was a woman at the front of the room with a microphone, talking about each doll as it was brought around. She told a little of the history of each doll, but mostly talked about what it was wearing and how it looked. {I guess I should've expected that, since it was called a fashion show.}

When the show was over, we went downstairs - where there were vendors selling all kinds of doll clothing. It just felt wrong and not what I want to teach my daughter - to be concerned with how she looks {fashion show} and then go shopping. I know, I know - I'm the one who signed up for the event, but I stupidly thought it wouldn't be so bad. But I knew that she would enjoy it. The good part about it was that all the vendors' goods were handmade.

Where do you draw the line? You know, that line between what you personally can't stand and what you know your child will love? It's a little more than that, though. Based on my previous posts, you probably know that I don't want her to limited by society's version of what a girl should be. I want her to be more than a little fashion plate and consumer.

There was one booth there that had matching dresses for girls and their dolls. {Yuck. I honestly cringe just thinking about it.} Malayna saw the booth and made a beeline for it. She quickly picked out a blue dress for herself and then a matching blue dress for her doll. Then she realized that she had to go potty. So she took the dresses over to the woman running the booth, handed them to her, and said, "Can you hold on to these for me? I have to go potty." The woman said yes and Malayna responded with, "Don't put them back. Hold on to them because I want to buy them when I'm finished going potty." Hmm. My little shrinking violet.

Of course she wanted to wear her dress as soon as mom-mom bought it. She then asked me to put it on her doll. But not her girl doll. Her boy doll! She and her doll Sean have matching dresses. I don't mind the matching dresses so much now.

{Malayna and Sean in matching dresses}