Dare to be different.

As I've mentioned before, Maggie has very specific ideas about art and fashion, and I've always highly encouraged her individuality. Lately, however, she's taken to wearing her hair in strange ways, and I'm not gonna lie, this kind of bothers me. I constantly want to reach over, yank her headband off and comb that mangy mess she calls her hair (which is usually somehow inexplicably sticky - possibly from one of those glue sticks she's forever toting around in one of the 10,000 miniature pink purses she owns. Because you just never know when you're going to need to glue something. Seriously.)

But as much as I find this new phase slightly frustrating, I do appreciate the fact that my daughter likes to do things her own way. This is also why I allow her to leave the house in outfits that consist of what some might consider less than favorable combinations such as leopard print pants with a pink and purple striped t-shirt and patent leather boots. Because she likes it. And believe me, I do gets looks, as well as the sporadic comment from other parents. They either get it or they don't. But given the choice, I'd rather allow my daughter to explore who she is through fashion, than repress her individuality and insist that she look like a model for Baby Gap. Maggs, even though it drives me nuts sometimes, I like the fact that you have your own ideas about things. We will need to wash the glue out of your hair occasionally, but you can wear it however you like.

Mommy Nosferatu

Miss is an artist. That much we've established. The only question I have now is why I seem to resemble Nosferatu in her most recent drawing. Maybe this is supposed to be a depiction of me first thing in the morning, before coffee. But then again maybe not, because I seem to be smiling.



Not that I don't dig vampires - as a teenager I was obsessed with them. But the cool Lost Boys kind (OK, maybe that's not so cool now, but it was when I was 13 so give me a break).

WARNING: Delusional Mother Moment

This is some of Missy's recent artwork. Maybe it's just me, but I think the child has an eye for this sort of thing. I mean, look at her use of color in the first picture. What's more, Miss has very specific ideas concerning her masterpieces, and each and every one is a labor of love (please see November's post, "Ahhh, A Temperamental Artist in the Making). When coloring together, Miss will often reach over to my section of the picture and quickly scribble a little of this or that, claiming for instance "This needs more gold!" The child has vision - who am I to argue with that? I included the second drawing here just because I think it's cute.




A baby in a stroller.

Ahhh, A Temperamental Artist in the Making

Suddenly convinced that her art-class panda isn't "special enough," I've just spent the last ten minutes trying to convince a devastated, highly irrational three year-old that her yarn panda is indeed "special." She has now informed me that she's hidden the panda picture in her room due to it's lack of "special-ness," and that it will stay there until we "add more black." Since this project was created in art class over three months ago and it's been hanging on our fridge in plain view ever since, I have absolutely no idea why it suddenly fails to live up to baby Picasso's high standards. I'm kind of afraid to tell her that we don't have black yarn.