Pretty in Pink

On Wednesday night my kids had their annual Christmas concert. In the morning of the concert I was getting ready for work and I heard tears coming from my daughter’s room. I quickly went over to see what was wrong and what the heck Joseph did. It turns out this time, Joseph did nothing, she was upset because she could not find the perfect dress for her evening concert. I immediately began pulling out little outfits for her; nothing was what she wanted. She wanted a party dress; something fancy and beautiful. My daughter’s idea of beautiful is a regular person’s version of “tacky”..lol. She went on to cry and say that everyone was going to be beautiful and Sophia was going to look like a princess and she would not. I have to admit, that got me. I know it is horrible that it took so little for me to fold, but Franco and I could not bare to see her sad little face. So, Franco met me on my lunch at the mall and she chose a perfect little pink dress that was fit for a party.

Let’s fast forward to when she came home with the note that said, “Parents, please dress your children in jeans and a white top for tonight’s concert.” My jaw hit the floor. I asked my daughter if she knew that she was to wear jeans and a white top and she said, “Yes mommy, my teacher told us today but I told her you already bought me a pink dress to wear and she said that it was ok.” I explained to her that she would be the only one at the concert wearing a dress but she did not seem to care. I choose to pick my battles at home because there are just too many possibilities to lose my patience, so I let this one go. I figure, if it did not bother her to wear something different and her teacher said it was ok, then why should I argue with that?

I arrived early at the school, when I saw her teacher she just smiled. I apologized to her for my daughter’s attire and she told me not to worry, that she knew about it and that is was ok. As I looked around I noticed all the kids in my daughter’s Senior Kindergarten class and all I saw was a sea of white tops and blue jeans. I looked at my daughter and I asked her again, “honey are you sure you don’t want me to give you your jeans?” (I brought them in case) She insisted that she wanted to wear this dress and that she didn’t care.

I waited in the crowd for her class to come out on stage, after a few songs her class began to gather on stage. I quickly went to the front so she can see me watching her. All of a sudden, there she was, walking with her hair tied back in a pink bow, walking in with her black patent shoes, and there she was...proudly on the bench wearing her very girly,puffy pink dress. She sat their satisfied with her decision to be the only little person with a different colour.

In life, we want to try to teach our children about confidence, self love and acceptance of themselves. We know that life is difficult and that we second guess a lot of our own decisions and choices. So who was I to tell her that she should care what the others did? My daughter knew that she would be the only one in her class that was different. She knew that she would stand out from the crowd, but she didn’t care. I did. I cared what people would think, “Oh that poor little girl, her mother didn’t know that she was supposed to wear jeans.” Is what I thought parents were saying. Why did I care what others thought when my own daughter did not?

After the concert many of my parent friends smiled at me, and said “Maria-Alicia was so cute, the way she sang, sat and the way she looked.” Then they asked with laughter “Did you forget what she was supposed to wear?” I replied with, “No, I did not forget, and neither did she. She just wanted to wear something festive for the occasion, she decided that a Christmas concert is a special occasion because they are celebrating Jesus’ birthday and she always wears dresses at birthday parties. She decided that she didn’t care to be different; she just dared to be pretty in pink.
That’s my peace today!

Pizzelle
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder

In a large bowl beat eggs with sugar. Stir in melted butter and vanilla. Sift together flour and baking powder, blend into batter. Brush pizzelle maker with oil and drop 1 tbsp of batter, close lid for about 45 seconds. Remove from maker. ****You can make Nutella sandwiches by spreading the Nutella on a pizzelle and topping with another...delicious!