Snowmen in July: Getting Your Toddler Dressed

Getting your toddler dressed in the morning can be such a frustrating way to start the day! Glad we have Elle Davis here to show us how to have some fun with it.

~By Elle Davis, This is Mommyhood

When I dropped off my daughter, aka my little hummingbird, at preschool last week, she was wearing a Christmas T-shirt that said “fa la la la la,” snowman socks, and a pink flower sunhat. Yes, in the middle of summer.

Since last year, she’s been obsessed with Santa Claus (“Sabby” to her). Before that, she developed a passionate love for hats, which has recently become a passionate love for anything girly and quirky. A few weeks ago, my husband took her with him to run errands and she refused to leave the house without her bright pink tutu and sparkly pink shoes with a pajama shirt.

I’ve watched my daughter go through more costume changes than the Spice Girls did at the concert my younger sister dragged me to a couple of eons ago. I’m also pretty sure that I’m doing even more laundry for her now than when she was a baby. And these days, that’s fine with me.

Sure, I buy her clothes, so technically I pick them out, but she’s the one who puts her outfits together. Before I turned the majority of wardrobe decision making over to her, trying to get my child out of the house without the “right” hat or jacket was a no-win situation for both of us. So I started to let her have more of a say, and we’ve never been happier.

Since there’s so much that my husband and I control in our daughter’s life, letting her choose her own clothes is one way she can express herself. So what if I may be slightly embarrassed that she’s wearing snowman socks in July? Seeing the pride she has when she can say she dressed herself more than makes up for it.

This is not to say there aren’t moments here and there when I feel a tad embarrassed. The one time we really got some strange looks was last Halloween. The little hummingbird wanted to dress up as “Sabby.” I loved the idea, and it didn’t hurt that she already had a Santa Claus costume in her closet. My husband got into the spirit as well, maybe a little too much, by donning his very own jolly red costume. I won’t lie: we caused a lot of confusion among the younger tots who couldn’t figure out which holiday it was, but the three of us had a blast.

So if you see a little girl running around in Frosty the Snowman socks with shorts and a candy cane T-shirt, you’ll know whose kid she is. And so what? Maybe we should learn something from our kid’s creative tastes in fashion. I’ve discovered it’s kind of hard to have a bad day when you look down and see Frosty the Snowman smiling up at you from your socks.