Spinny Bresses

My little girl is IN LOVE with wearing dresses, or “bresses” as she calls them.

Her cousin Lauren is also in love with wearing dresses and usually wears one every single day. And when she outgrows a dress, she passes is on to Mallory. So Mallory says “I want to wear the bress that LAUREN bought me”.

Mallory likes to rate her “bresses” by how well they spin, and won’t wear one if it’s not spinny enough (“but that isn’t a SPINNY BRESS!” and “but that BRESS doesn’t SPIN!”). However, sometimes she will accept a dress if it is a good “hopping” bress – which means it flairs out if she hops in the air.

She & Lauren have been in the same room at preschool this summer and a few weeks ago, Mallory came home and told me that Lauren showed her how to hold up her bress when she goes peepee on the potty. Because, you know, that is VERY important knowledge for a little girl to know.

Since she loves her dresses so much, I actually withhold them as punishment. She was a bear last Sunday and I refused to let her wear a dress for a week (then she was ornery again and added a couple more days). When I ask her what she did to lose dress privileges, she tells me “I was bad at Old MacDonalds” (McDonalds).

I’m glad we found the power of the bress since threatening to put up her gate doesn’t work anymore (she asks us to put it up at bedtime) and she doesn’t care that she gets a timeout (because she thinks the timer is cool – after her timeout she puts her babies in a timeout and sets the timer for them).