Amy has new shoes which are already well worn in. I couldn’t believe we actually spent $80 on a pair of shoes which she will grow out of but justified it based on the fact that we really haven’t spent a great deal of money on clothes for Amy. We have had so many generous people hand over bags of lovely girls clothes including Ron’s cousin, a very kind and generous lady friend of Amy’s Grandma whom she works with and an old school friend of mine.

As a result Amy has always had a fantastic array of clothes to choose from. So why am I so lazy about dressing my toddler? I have to confess that I don’t often pay very much attention to what I wrestle Amy into and this kind of came to a head recently when she ended up in a pair of multi-coloured shorts with a tie-dye effect t-shirt, orange socks and her new pink shoes. She looked like a colour explosion and although it was quite sweet, it was also quite sickening. So I pulled my finger out and rearranged her cupboards. I folded up and put away all the clothes she has grown out of (sob, she is getting so big!) and layed out neatly all the clothes she is wearing at the moment.

Amy sat on the chair and gave me her opinion on what she likes and dislikes and now its so much easier in the mornings to put together an outfit.

Someone commented to me recently that Amy dresses like I do in jeans and t-shirts and this is true. I suppose because we haven’t actually chosen any of the clothes she owns we have had no real say over her style of dress. My opinion is that Amy will be more comfortable in jeans and a shirt, she can run around, scrabble in the dirt, climb up and down stairs and then I can just toss them in the wash. On the occasions when I put her in a little dress or other cute but impractical outfit, I end up soaking out grass stains or trying to scrub away the remnants of her spaggetti bolognaise supper! I wonder what kind of little girl Amy will grow into as a result of the way I have chosen to dress her? Will she pick out pink frilly outfits or will she choose jeans and t-shirts?