Should We Dance?

I hate to ruin the Halloween surprise, but since it’s no surprise at all I might as well tell you the girls are going to wear the same costumes they wore last year.  Thank goodness.  I put a lot of work into those dresses and frankly I’m glad my girls are game for another year of fringy, flapper-girl fun.  The thing is, I really only talked about this with PSP.  Being 5, I figured she’d have more to say about recycling her halloween costume another year.  So a few weeks ago we pulled out the dress to make sure it still fit.  It did, although a little shorter.  No surprise there.  That one grows like as weed as they say.  And she was really excited to be wearing it again for halloween.  Without really thinking about Lamp and her dress too much I decided PSP was still excited, so that was that.  Flapper dresses it was.  Well this past Friday morning as Lamp and I are driving home from our usual Friday morning stuff Lamp starts talking about sistah’s halloween dress out of the clear blue.  I can’t remember what she was saying, but clearly this dress made an impact on her.  Then I realized that she didn’t even know that she too has a fancy, fringy halloween dress.  She was just a little over a year old at the time, so she didn’t even remember.  Of course!  So I said, Lamp, you have a halloween dress too.  I can show you your dress when we get home.

Something registered, it’s not like her eyes popped out of her head or anything, but there was a definite perk in her face.


I have a Halloween dress too?
Yes.
Can we look at my halloween dress when we get home?
Yes.

We still had a few minutes to drive, but as soon as we walked in the back door, before I could even put my keys down she said, Mom, should we go look at my halloween dress now?

I’m telling you, nothing gets by her.  Yes.  Let’s go look at your dress.  In my head I was just going to show it to her, because I had things to put away, lunch to prepare, and stuff to do.  But it was clear that once she got sight of that dress there was no we’re-just-gonna-take-a-quick-look about it.  She had to try it on.  And I wasn’t going to be the one to stop her.  She was all giggles and smiles, just like any regular gal who tries on a fancy dress.  But wait,  I said, we haven’t even put on your head band and pearls.  Be still her beating heart… there was more?  After she was fully outfitted she asked to take a look in the mirror.  She was smiling ear to ear.  The confident smile of a girl who knows she looks uh-maze-ing.  And who could blame her?  Hot pink, fringe, pearls and sequins?  She knew this was the jam, the cat’s pajamas, the bee’s knees and every and all sorts of awesome.  And if I didn’t think she was smart before, what she said next would have made me a believer.

Mom, should we go dance?

Yes. We should definitely go dance.  Because the answer to that question is always yes.  Emphatically yes.  So we went to the living room, turned up the tunes and we danced.

And I have to say out of every smart thing that comes out of that girls mouth, that may have been the smartest yet.  Not only does she have an amazing vocabulary and excellent memory for your average two-year old, she knows that when she puts on a fabulous dress it’s time to dance.  I’d like to think that it’s something I instilled in her, that her mama taught her right.  But the other part of me thinks its much more basic and instinctual:  fancy outfit = need to dance.

Either way I couldn’t be more proud.