Attack...

Of the stinky ballet shoes. Otherwise known as "A Day in the Life of an Almost Three Year Old".

The second Princess Ella recently discovered her elder sister's outgrown ballet shoes - of course it would be the cheap-a$$ pair from Payless and not the good Bloch ones, right? My second child has worn them DAY and NIGHT, only taking breaks to bathe for at least a week now. The shoes REEK. Who knew baby girls could SMELL that bad?

She wears them outside, she wears them inside, she wears them to garden (she's been wearing her gardening gloves almost 24/7, too), she wears them to SLEEP. I'm about at my remaining wit's end.

Why is it that 3 year olds LOVE to wear the same thing DAY IN and DAY OUT?! Is it some mysterious rite of passage?

And what is it about this child in particular that she MUST wear a dress or skirt - no shorts, no jeans, no jumpsuits, no pantsuits - at ALL times. Including to sleep. She would rather sleep in a dress she's worn all day than to wear *gasp* pyjamas. She'll wear a nightgown - and GOD HELP US if one isn't clean and ready to wear - with no complaints. But PJs? Shorts? Pants?

This morning I laid down the LAW. She WOULD wear the shorts and Wiggles t-shirt OR ELSE. Well, the or else was a screaming fit that lasted half an hour. It sounded something like this:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WANT A SKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TAKE IT OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now this is the child that BARELY strings two words together to ask for anything - unlike the elder Princess Ella who is a regular chatterbox.

If someone has a clue as to why Threes act this way, I'd like to know. I've forgotten that part of Early Childhood Ed....