Paying for one's raising.

To truly understand the term 'paying for your raising' you have to have had a four year old opinionated little person living with you. For starters, I always try to blame Steven and HIS raising any time Brooke decides to throw a fit, cop an attitude or pretty much anything else I think I can pin on him.....because we ALL know I was such an angel growing up.....hahahem. BUT, one thing I am pretty sure I can claim all on my own is how she is so very opinionated about her clothes, her hair and of course her shoes.

First off, I love it that she IS opinionated about her own style. To me, that just makes her that much more fun. BUT, I didn't think about how much fun (being sarcastic here) it would be when trying to shop for shoes besides flip flops for back to school. I am pretty sure I have shared with you guys before that over a year ago she was a tom boy who wanted to wear jeans every where we went, then suddenly (after I decorated several pair of jeans for her) she decided to completely STOP wearing jeans, and basically pants all together. She still only wants to wear dresses, skirts and leggings. Maybe it's all about comfort, but I think it's all about being girly. It's been a lot of fun shopping for her school clothes, because anyone that knows me knows I now spend all shopping attention on her.

Insert yesterday. We had a little time to kill while in Lubbock before her back to school hair trim (more detail on that to come), so we went shoe shopping. I know she doesn't need to wear our daily staple, flip flops, to school so Steven and I figured she needs some tennis shoes. OH BOY......I tried and tried and tried to get her to try on so many cute pair of tennis shoes....and I failed miserably. The only pair she tried on at all was three sizes too big, and when I found it in the right size she had already lost interest. The truth of the matter is that normal ole tennis shoes wouldn't go with her girly outfits all that much, I agree.....but I was thinking when she started school she would see her jean wearing classmates and decide to try them again. I think I was wrong. I won't go into any more detail for the fear of totally boring you, but see the picture below to see the ONLY pair of shoes she would have anything to do with. They are black, moccasin looking, rubber soled shoes. And yes, she is wearing them around the house with her sun dress this morning "breaking them in". The truth is they go so well with her girly personality and her girly wardrobe. My question is why do I try to fight it?!

On to the hair cut story. You all know I am not exactly one for dramatic hair cuts....clearly. But, I have been explaining to Brooke that we need to get our hair trimmed regularly to keep it healthy. She was excited at first for her 7th or 8th hair cut, yes I have lost count.....oops. This was what she WANTED to wear to get her hair cut. I did over rule this and made her choose just one flower.

Then we got to the hair place, and while Randy was cutting her hair her eyes started welling up with tears. I figured it was during what should have been her nap time, or he was pulling her hair or something.....but when I asked her she simply said "Momma, I wanted my hair LONGER not SHORTER" and started crying. She did get almost two full inches cut off, and yes it seems dramatic to Brooke and myself this humid morning.....but I keep telling her it is so much easier to comb through without the dry ends and that it WILL grow back!

Here she is with the two inches off her hair. No one besides her Momma would probably even notice!

Since our shoe shopping fun yesterday I have been looking online to try to find some shoes she might wear, and so far she has picked out a purple pair of moccasin looking shoes just like the ones she got yesterday......I am paying for my picky clothing raising!