If you give a...

I can't tell you how many times (even in my pre-mom life) I have made the comment, "Well, if you give a mouse a cookie..." in response to a situation where one thing leads to another, and another, and another. The quote of course is in reference to the popular children's book series, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, etc.

I have recently been thinking about how indicative it is of human nature, not just children, and the other day read a random blog post of a mom writing one about her teenage son. I could easily write, "If You Give a Pregnant Lady a Present" (or pancake for that matter!), "If You Give Your Husband a Hobby," and a host of others, but for now, I am going to stick with the following, "If You Give My Two-Year-Old a TuTu."

If You Give My Two-Year-Old a TuTu

If you give my two-year-old a tutu, she'll think it makes her look beautiful
and she'll want to twirl around.
She'll ask you to turn on some music to dance to.

Dancing will remind her that she doesn't really have any "dancing shoes"
so she'll ask you for some.
You'll search her room and come back with several choices.

Disappointingly, she'll inform you that none of them
are like Annie's or like princess shoes.

Talking about princess shoes will remind her
of her new Snow White dress
and she'll put it on instead.

Her blue Keds work just fine as Snow White shoes
so she proudly put them on all by herself
and run to look in the mirror to see how pretty she is.

Looking in the mirror will remind her
that she needs some make-up and she'll ask for some.

You'll grab her compact of assorted eye shadows
and let her put them on herself, then of course on you.

Eye shadow always make her think of Halloween when she was Cruella DeVil
so she will want to change into her Cruella coat and wig.

Being Cruella will make her want to watch 101 Dalmations,
so you'll pop it in for a few minutes.

When she watches a show,
she always wants a snack, and you'll suggest a popsicle.
You'll let her choose which color she wants
and she'll likely pick purple.

After she eats the popsicle, she will have a sticky purple mouth.
You will laugh and tell her that her mouth would match her purple tutu.

And chances are, she'll want to go put it on.

If She Doesn't Scare You, No Evil Thing Will

Lily's obsession with Cruella DeVil began about a month or so ago when she wanted to read a 101 Dalmatians book that I had picked up some time back at Savers. When we got to the page where Cruella makes her debut, Lily's eyes got wide and she said in awe... "who is that lady mommy?" From there I began singing the song, we rented the movie and the rest is Disney history. I hesitated to go all out with a costume, since it was still 3-4 weeks from Halloween, but as time grew near, her love did not fade.

Here is what being Cruella means to Lily...

1. Each morning when I went into her room, the first thing out of her mouth was, "I'm not Lily." To which I would say, "Okay Cruella, let's get up." 
2. When watching the movie, it is imperative that you see Cruella through rose-colored glasses. Lily would say things like, "those puppies need to find Cruella, or she'll be sad."
3. In her mind, she IS Cruella and out of the blue one day she said, "Hey mom, remember that time my eyes were on fire and I broke my red car?" It took me a little while to realize she was referring to a Cruella scene in the movie.
4. She insisted that everyone, including our children's minister at church (who thought she said gorilla) call her Cruella and not Lily.

Now that the trick-or-treat season is safely behind us, I am going to try and wean her out of this weird phase. She is leaning toward Snow White some, so we'll see where that goes...

Cruella, Roger and Anita

 

Kiddie Karnaval at church

Getting ready to Trick-or-Treat

 Miles the Skunk, Carson the Monkey and Cruella