Clothing I finally got my daughter to wear

Have I mentioned that pants apparently are the work of the devil, and skirts are the only thing allowed to touch the legs of Her Royal Danciness With The Dancing All The Time? And pink, well, pink is where it's at, unless it's floral, in which case it's doubly where it's at. And that blue dress my mother made for my daughter this summer, which is too small to the point where one of these days a button is going to pop off the bodice and take out somebody's eye, is just about the best non-pink thing on the planet.

So you'd think that a replica of the dress, made by Grandma from denim with embroidered pink flowers and green sequins, would be a hit. Not so much, unless you count "screams and cries and hides naked in a corner whenever you suggest wearing it" as a hit.

I'm willing to tolerate this for a while - I used to hate it when I was forced to wear something I didn't like - but eventually I draw the line at not even trying the thing on. If you try it on and it itches or is too tight or looks dorky, fine, we'll scrap it. If you scream your head off at the idea of putting it on for the first time, you're just being Two.

I finally took the gloves off this week, pulling out that dress and one she hates even worse (Dora the Explorer denim cowgirl dress, in case you care) and telling her that she WAS going to wear one of these dresses. I didn't even have to dangle her beloved tights over the trashcan or anything - she just said she'd wear the Grandma Dress.

And then she spent 15 minutes twirling in the sunlight, watching the sequins refract the light onto the walls in little dancing dots. It was pronounced a "pretty dress." Thank god.

Now, if we can just convince her that the track pants and shirt that go with this gift from Aunt Susan are the EXACT SAME PANTS that Elmo wears in one of the Sesame Street online games we play, we may even get THOSE on her.

Sorry, Susan, but we may be using that gift receipt.