she knows what she wants

Lacey knows exactly what she wants. She knows what bedtime story she wants to hear, and she knows what she wants for breakfast the next morning. She knows what game she wants to play on the computer and what TV show she wants to watch. She knows exactly how she wants to wear her hair - in a ponytail - every day, and she especially knows what she wants to wear. She has her favorites, which she will wear over & over again - like the brown tank top that she wears for several days on end under whatever else she is wearing. Or - there's the same brown skirt that she wants to wear to church every Sunday that is slightly too big and has a hole in it, that she wants to wear with a t-shirt so her belly shows ever-so-slightly. Or - there's that tight pair of jeans with the holes in both knees. She would wear those jeans every day if she were allowed. Thankfully, she will respect the "these jeans can only be worn on the weekend" rule - which to her means, they are the night-&-day-all-weekend-long jeans.

The girls & I all went to the mall on Saturday, and we were in the dressing room trying on clothes. Madi took one look at Lacey and said she looked like an orphan child. I hadn't noticed until it was pointed out to me. It is true that her hair wasn't brushed (simply pulled into a messy pony-tail ala Lacey style.) Her hands were rather dirty (she has taken on the hobby of coloring with markers quite frequently, and the markers always seem to transfer to her hands, & though they are washable markers, they don't seem to want to wash out of skin!) And . . she was wearing those jeans. "Mom, she looks disgusting" was Madi's remark. "What is on the back of her pants?!" Great, I couldn't wait to see what the back of her pants looked like. I took a peek and there was some sort of strange brown blob on her back pocket. Upon further inspection I noticed that the jeans were down right filthy. How did she get out of the house looking this way? Obviously I need to be more observant! Brad says Lacey gets the "wear the same thing over & over again" behavior from him. He told me that when he was a little boy he wore the same shirt every day. He said he thought his mom probably washed that shirt every night. Well, obviously I don't wash Lacey's pair of holey jeans every night.

So let's get back to the question of "how did she get out of the house looking this way?" This is a good question. Lacey and I frequently battle about her hair & clothing. On a Saturday, I guess, it's just not worth the battle. I have to really be up for a fight if I want Lacey to wear something other than what she has picked out. I try to reserve these battles for Sundays as much as possible. We have agreed that she has to wear a pretty dress that I pick out every other Sunday & on the other Sundays she can pick. This goes for the way she wears her hair too. Of course, I usually stick to my end of the deal, but Lacey seems to forget when it is my turn to pick what she wears & she usually puts up quite a fuss.

Just to give her plenty of advanced notice, I informed Lacey tonight that every Sunday in December she has to wear a pretty dress to church (it's Christmas for goodness sake!). She responded back to me, "so-&-so in my class wears the same skirt to church every Sunday & her mom doesn't care!" Apparently she was insinuating that I need to be more like "so-&-so's" mom. Oh well - too bad - that's not going to happen. I probably wouldn't care as much as I do, but I just hate to see a closet of beautiful dresses wasted. She's my last little girl! She has 2 big sisters who wore beautiful dress & have passed them along to Lacey. She looks gorgeous in them. She especially has a lot of winter dresses that just have to be worn - so December is the month! Maybe I'll give her January to wear that same brown skirt every Sunday.

These pictures were taken a week ago Sunday. It was my turn to pick out what she wore, and I strongly encouraged Lacey to wear her hair down & to put on this adorable little dress that was getting too short & needed to be worn. Naturally, she let me know that she was not happy, and she thought she looked "ugly"! Yes - ugly! Her dress was ugly, her hair was ugly, everything was just UGLY! I had to take these pictures to show her how non-ugly she was. She cooperated - somewhat - (note the picture above). You tell me - is this how you would define UGLY?




Yes - Lacey knows what she wants. Tonight she was telling me what she wanted in her lunch tomorrow. "I'll have a bagel with cream cheese. And for my protein . . . I'll have a honey sandwich."

(Great - at least she is taking my desire to feed her a little protein into consideration. Guess I'll have to do a better job of explaining protein.) When it comes to eating - Lacey wants - carbohydrates!