ideas about dressing herself

Exhibit 1: Dress on top of mom-selected skirt to create a
ruffled petticoat. Hat with ball puff ear flaps and favorite boots.

A few months ago, before winter started in earnest, I bought Lucy some nice brown leather shoes on a good online sale, thinking that they would be the perfect outside all-around shoes for daycare, since they play in the mud and sand regardless of the weather. She would not wear them, preferring her black ladybug sandals that Gramme got her, and then rain boots.

Oh! the love of the rain boots. At once way too big and now less so, this has never stopped her for a minute.

Exhibit 2: Members-only jacket, swiped from Aunt Wendell at Christmas.
Sunglasses gift from Aunt Wendell and Uncle Austin. Sneakers by cousin Sam.

So far she hasn't rejected any clothes I've tried to put on her (or maybe I've ignored her protests, sometimes it's hard to separate out specific requests from a general desire to stay "naked!" in the morning), but she has started to augment the outfits I pick out with pieces of her own. See exhibit 1. I had her dressed in a perfectly adorable skirt and t-shirt for a coffee shop adventure but then she picked out a dress that she really REALLY wanted to put on. So I helped her, and instead of ridiculous it turned into pretty much the cutest outfit I had ever seen. Then she added boots and her current favorite hat ("balls. ears.") and Voila.

Exhibit 2 is an early example from Christmas in Virginia, if memory serves I think the adults suggested she try on the Member's Only jacket with the cute sunglasses she wouldn't stop sporting, and she's always had a love for oversized men's shoes so Sam's Nikes were an obvious next step.

Exhibit 3 is an experiment in maximalism, She isn't quite at the point of dressing herself yet, so I helped (at her request) with the dress and the shorts, but the other dress worn as a cape and bloomers as a hat were completely her invention. Looking in the mirror, she clearly likes what she sees.

Exhibit 3: Trying on all the clothes mama brought home from the
thrift store, on top of previously selected outfit. Looking at herself
in the mirror. Hilarity ensues. Note the single sock, this is a
common theme. Please do not note the towel and unmade
bed, hopefully by now these fade into the background for you too.

PS. I just remembered that I have discussed the joy of seeing babies in too-large articles of clothing before! So maybe this is yet another thing that Lucy comes by honestly.