A dress for Princess Kaida

Our little Kaida turned three in May, but she is 3 going on 13, or maybe even 33.  She comes from a family of very casual, sport sock, sweat pants, t-shirt people - on both sides.  Now we all have our moments of looking divine, but with Kaida, it is her mission in life.  She is a DIVA.  And, she needed a BEEEOUUTIFUL dress for Christmas.

Kaida's interpretation of beeouutiful is generally tempered by her Mother and Dad's common sense, but she only lets them go so far until she is stepping it up a notch in the glam department.  And there are some battles that are more worth fighting than others.  So, it was with this attitude that Holly, Kaida and I went in search of THE dress for Christmas.

Holly's first stop, without Kaida and I, was a complete bust.  Nothing at WalMart. Off to Zeller's then. To Kaida's credit her first choice was a really sweet little red velveteen dress, with sleeves and a collar.  None in her size.  She begged and pleaded and bargained with her Mom, but Holly had no choice but to drag Kaida away from that little dress because it was too small.

Next stop, the Cornwall centre.  The Children's Place.  The heat cranked to tropical, the aisles crammed with teetering piles of clothes and packed to the rafters with adults and kids all on the same mission as we were.  To find nice duds for Christmas.  We found a few prospects and a dressing room. But, alas, size was but one of the issues.  Too big, too small, not enough bling, had long sleeves, wasn't a dress, made out of material that didn't meet Kaida's standards, and on and on.  Remember, she's THREE.  However, if she didn't like it in the store, her mother was going to hate it more as it hung unworn in the closet.  She did find pink leggings with glitter in them, but Holly refused to buy them without getting the dress first.

Okay, so now we are tired and weak.  Across the mall from the Children's Place is BABY GAP.  We ventured over there.  There was enough tulle and sequins and glitter and feathers and spandex on hangers to rival the wardrobe of a Las Vegas Showgirl.  And the rest of the Lineup too.  Kaida was in heaven and raced to the racks of clothes to embrace every bit of sleaziness loveliness.  She picked a spaghetti strapped number, with a narrow satin bodice and rows and rows of tulle ruffles.  I found a satin dress with sleeves of the same style and colour, but no, it had sleeves.  Holly found one that had just a collar, still satin, but not the right colour.  Kaida LOVED this dress.  We begged and pleaded and bargained with her, but she was having none of it.  I promised to buy her a necklace if she bought the dress with cap sleeves and a collar.  Her mother pointed out that she would be cold with bare shoulders.  Kaida was unmoved by these and any number of other ploys we tried.  She LOVED this dress.  Her mother reluctantly dragged herself to the counter to pay for the dress.  Kaida insisted that she actually SEE the dress in the bag in her mother's hands as we left the store - obviously some kind of trust issues there.  Holly looked a bit pale and shaky and mumbled something about how she didn't like what went down here.  We went over to Michelle's where she dropped Kaida and I off and went shopping by herself. 

Personally, I suspect she went to a support group for parents of Divas.  Or a bar.

/bye