Monday, December 05, 2005

Five going on fifteen

We made a trek to Lenox Mall yesterday to ride the Pink Pig. Normally I try to avoid malls during Christmas. I like stuff, and I don’t like being enticed into wanting even more stuff. And of course I don’t like having my kids enticed into wanting stuff, even if its wonderful educational cool stuff. But the Pink Pig benefits Children’s Healthcare, and since Three-year-old has made us very familiar with their facilities, we like the idea of donating to them. Of course getting to the Pink Pig meant navigating a sea of stressed shoppers with my little loose cannons, and since I never get to this particular mall, I inevitably ended up doing dumb things, like taking two children into the Discovery Channel store.  A foolish sales clerk allowed Five-year-old to try out a remote controlled UFO thingee, which she steered into several heads before handing over the controls.  Five-year-old, who has decided she wants to be a rock star, then found the keyboards and toy guitars and started belting out a Hilary Duff song at the top of her lungs into the keyboard mike. No doubt everyone enjoyed this mightily.

Further along, while we were waiting for Dear Husband to emerge from one store, Five-year-old informed me that she was going to run into the Gymboree store to check out the clothes, and she did.  I have the only five-year-old I know who LIKES getting clothes for presents. I find this a little unnerving.  It’s not that she doesn’t like toys, but most of the toys she likes are related in some way to “Fashion.” She wants Barbies and Bratz dolls.  She is very concerned about the way her clothes look.  She poses. She wants makeup, for pete’s sake.  

We went into Sephora to get makeup for me, and you would have thought we had just gone into a candy store.  She was enthralled.  I was pretty happy myself, because everything looks like so much FUN.  With makeup lines called Hard Candy and Urban Decay, and bath products that smell like sugar cookies and gingerbread, I was practically drooling.  Still, in my day-to-day life, I tend to forget about makeup and jewelry (I like dangly earrings) for months on end (much to the disgust of Dear Husband, who thinks I tend to look pretty shabby).  Five-year-old pestered me to try on eye shadow and nail polish, and by the end of the visit was grousing about the unfairness of it all.  So tell me, is she five, or fifteen?

She also told me that she is going to collect bangles.  Bangles. Not dolls, bugs (well, that was a long shot), rocks, stamps, stickers, or beads.  Bangles.  Dear Husband, being the sucker (oops, I mean, sweet father) he is, gave here a few inexpensive bangles from Icing.  She’s taking them to Show and Tell.  I’m sure her teacher will be thrilled.

Oh, and I think the Pink Pig was probably pretty fun. I don’t know. I hid in the gift shop.

9 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. Geez, that "post has been removed by the author" thing sounds so ominous...just had some typos. Whatever. Just wanted to hold out a little hope, Alice. Mine cared far more about the bangle-related side of girldom at 5 and now, at 11, it's all I can do to get her to brush her hair (which she insists on growing out). I'm hoping this hints at some sort of balance down the road, something between obsession and neglect would be nice.

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  3. I had a five year old like that once. She always went for the "off the shoulder" look (hey, it was the 80s...). Luckily her obsession eased by the teenage years.

    Do you mean bangles as in bracelets? There could be worse things, I suppose.

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  4. What a wonderful insiders glimpse into your family. I loved it. It's lovely she likes to get clothes, don't push it down. But the make up can wait for a while. As for Jeff and the bangles :) I loved that too

    We NEVER go shopping as a family. We jsut can't stand it. But on Sunday hubby and I managed one store together. His idea and my 'wisdom'

    grr I hate this find featue every time I use a ' it blings up ....grrr and laughing :)

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  5. What can you say Elizabeth takes after her Daddy. I love you and all our kids.

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  6. What can you say Elizabeth takes after her Daddy. I love you and all our kids.

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  7. Thank you for your kind words on my blog. It was a blessing to Bob's family.

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  8. I think you must have inadvertently taken my niece's twin home from the hospital.

    She - also five - is also all about the fashion. And the pink. And the makeup.

    I can't believe we're related.

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  9. I think all little girls love make-up. My 7 year old Narnia girl and my 3 year old stand up comedienne go ballistic when I put on lipstick for church (usually in the car on the way over) and beg for some. Go figure!

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