Jen on the Edge

My brother Michael and sister-in-law Grace Ellen came up with a clever way to help Elegant feel special this week while so much attention is focused on Graceful as she recovers from her tonsillectomy. They emailed Elegant and asked if she would be willing to help them pack for their upcoming move and also help with Baby Micah. Elegant was happy to be helpful and spent yesterday afternoon with her uncle, aunt, and cousin.

At one point, my brother called and explained that they were cleaning out Grace Ellen’s closet. Elegant was helping to sort clothes into three piles: keep, donate, and give to Elegant for dress-ups. The problem, Michael explained, was that there was nothing in the donate pile and Elegant’s pile was surprisingly large. In fact, there were about forty articles of clothing in it. Elegant, Michael, and Grace Ellen had discussed this, but couldn’t reach consensus on what would be a reasonable number of items for Elegant to scavenge, so they asked for my input. I suggested that ten would be okay.

I heard some murmuring in the background as Michael relayed this information to Elegant.

He then said, “She wants to know how many pairs of shoes would be reasonable?”

I said I was under the impression that the group of ten would include the shoes.

It appears that Elegant felt that ten would not be sufficient a number for both shoes and clothes.

A compromise was reached at ten articles of clothing and two pairs of shoes.

When I went to pick up Elegant, she came bounding up to the door, waving a $5 at me, saying, “Look what I got.” She then handed her sister an old sock and said, “Look what I got for you!”

Lest this appear to be an uneven deal, let me explain that Graceful is always looking for old socks, with which to make puppets and stuffed animals. When Elegant saw that her uncle had an odd sock that he was going to throw out, she immediately thought of her sister and realized that this would be a good thing to make her happy. In fact, Graceful was quite pleased and immediately set to work on the sock when we got home.

So what did Elegant scavenge from her aunt’s closet?

An amazing assortment of items, which she modeled for me when we got home. I took photos, which is really the best way to convey what I’ll be trying to describe here. Let me also say up front that all poses were decided upon by Elegant and I simply took photos and admired her.

First there were the amazing red platform boots:

And a nifty green plastic sun visor

Some lovely chocolate brown fancy schmancy sandals:

The sandals look particularly good with the usual assortment of bumps and bruises normally found on an active six-year-old’s legs.

A groovy peasant top, which I think is maternity:

A chocolate brown sheath:

Elegant is using the hanging straps as spaghetti straps.
And a lovely J.Crew dress:

And a blue polo shirt, worn as a dress, and paired with the red boots:

Elegant wore this particular outfit for the rest of the evening and was really quite a sight. When Pete got home from work, his eyebrows went straight up to his hairline when he saw his younger daughter.
As I’ve written before, my girl really is a diva. The crazy thing is, I have no idea where she got the idea to pose like this for me. She doesn’t see TV or other visual ads. Nor do we ever have any sort of magazines like Vogue or Cosmo in the house. But the child sashayed (and leapt and pirouetted) in and modeled her new duds. It was amusing, but a small part of me was (and still is) a bit horrified.

I think today I’ll encourage her to play with dolls and wear braids ala “Little House on the Prairie” in her hair. They’ll go well with her new boots.