If you give a mouse a cookie

Lately I've been giving Stasa choices so she feels in control of something, but I'm learning that if I'm going to give her choices, I'm going to have to be okay with what she selects. I usually let her choose which yogurt she wants to eat, but somehow she got it in her head that the peach is Daddy's and the vanilla is Mommy's. No idea how she came up with that one because we both eat any and all yogurt, but she only wants "mommy yogurt" and while this isn't a big problem now, it will be when we run out of the vanilla. But then maybe she'll learn another lesson: you can't always get what you want.

I also let her choice which plate, utensil, and cup she wants and what she wants to drink with dinner. And recently I've been giving her full control over what she wears each day, which leads to some questionable outfits.
Exhibit A (and no she's not summoning a waiter or calling a cab):


She insisted on the long-sleeved pink shirt, pink sparkly skirt, and pink crocs. I almost said no to the long-sleeved shirt, but then thought if I'm going to really let her have control, let her have it. So I just told her that since it was hot outside, she had to wear the shirt with the sleeves up. She was totally cool with that as long as I wasn't making her take it off. Because who wouldn't want to wear a pink polka dotted shirt with a bow on it?

Exhibit B (I so wish I had a picture of her standing so you could get the full effect of this masterpiece):


This outfit was a gem. Pink Easter shirt that says "DAD'S GOOD EGG", pink camouflage panks, blue and yellow Easter socks, and black patent leather Mary Janes. My only alteration was to roll up the pants since it was like 150 degrees outside.

Unfortunately there are many problems with letting her choose her own attire. Mainly, the amount of time it takes her to make a decision and we just don't have the luxury of extra time on weekday mornings, especially when she decides to sleep in.

(Sidenote: Since I'm a pretty frugal person I always buy her clothes on sale, including socks. Well, you can get a huge bag of all white socks or you can pay more for individual pairs of patterned or colored socks. Guess which ones I bought? Mmmhmm. I also stupidly bought her that pair of blue and yellow Easter socks from the Target dollar bin. Of course now that she knows there are sock options, she doesn't want anything to do with her plain jane white socks. Dilemma.)

I'm thinking the way to solve the time issue is to have her select her clothes the night before. That way we can go through her entire selection process with less tears. I should start taking daily pictures of her ensembles. She's quite the creative one when pairing colors and patterns.

Super Star

Stasa's been having a lot of fun with the sunglasses from her birthday party. When I put them on her she immediately starts babbling either "babababa" or "mama mama mama."

Last weekend I spent my Sunday morning organizing all of the clothes that Stasa's outgrown already. This way we can pack them away until our next baby arrives (NO I'M NOT PREGNANT). Check it out - 9 full bins. The kid has waaaaaaaay more clothes than I do. We're still building her 2T wardrobe, so any time we're out, if we see a sale we scoop up as much as we can.

And here's a couple of shots of Stasa wearing her baby with a "Fauxby," my homemade Moby.

Now that's better, isn't it?

I spent the day putting order to Stasa's closet and bureau. Something had to be done because I couldn't fit all of the stuff that was sent to us. So we went to Lowe's and Target and got a bunch of organizers and a closet system. I even managed to install the closet system ALL BY MYSELF. And of course I took some pictures so you guys could praise my organizational skills.

Closet before:

Closet after:

Toy bins:

Bureau drawers: (these are just her 3-6 month clothes - she has BINS of other clothes).

Generosity

Most of you know I spend a lot of time on this one pregnancy board, TheBump.com. I've met some really great moms (in real life, too) and have learned A TON about pregnancy, childbirth and babies from them. Recently one of the moms was giving away a box of baby girl clothes and since I was the first to respond, the clothes came to me (free of charge and shipping!). The clothes arrived today - let me say I was AMAZED. I expected a normal sized box with a month's worth of clothes. Boy, was I wrong. I have clothes that Stasa will be wearing until she's 18 months. Here's the aftermath of me unpacking the box.