Sunday morning fashion

Emma always picks out what she wears and dresses herself; most of the time there is more than one outfit per day. She loves clothes and loves mixing and matching. I must admit that I rarely argue with her any more because she is so happy in her sometimes strange outfits.

Her need for style now stretches to picking out her sister's clothes. On days where we are not going anywhere, I let Emma choose Mandy's clothes. But I am in charge of Mandy's look if we are going to be seen in public. It reflects badly on me if Mandy is wearing things that don't match and I have pride issues. It is hard enough to let Emma go out looking strange. I realize that someday soon I will have two daughters eager to assert their individuality. I am sure my pride will get more than one hit along the way. Baby steps.

Sunday morning Emma was already dressed in her spring polkadot dress and was helping me with Mandy:

Emma: "I really need Mandy to match me."

Mom: "But Mandy doesn't have any polkadots. She can where her jean skirt and boots."

Emma: "Please, I really need Mandy to wear blue like me."

She help up a blue plaid dress with a fur collar that I was half-hoping would make it through the holiday season without being worn. The dress was a gift and I wasn't entirely sure Mandy could pull off such a "festive" look.

Emma was quite sure that her polkadots and this blue plaid were perfect, so I finally relented. I imagined people would assume our family is fashion challenged, but if we can't be accepted as we are at church, where can we?

It wasn't until Emma put on her shoes that her "matching" began to make sense to me. She had in mind all along to wear her blue plaid shoes with the polka-dot dress, so of course she matched with Mandy.

Let me zoom in on the shoes and Mandy's dress so you can see for yourself that they match perfectly.

See. Matching.