Along with those fun toddler traits, though, Vanessa also loves to dress up. Santa brought lots of dress-up stuff for Christmas. It was one of the first gifts opened. "Super Vanessa" was created instantaneously. Super Vanessa used her impressive skills to open the rest of her gifts and to conform to our Christmas practices. Her strength to pull and push and "try real hard" increased substantially.
You may notice the star Vanessa is wearing in a couple of photos. Out of her many headbands that she'd often rather not wear, she loves this one because of the star. She seems to be really interested in stars recently -- she keeps trying to wear winter boots that no longer fit, only because they have shiny stars on them. We made buttery spritz cookies in the shape of stars, so perhaps that sparked her obsessive interest.
As seen in the evidence below, it's important at this time to begin to instill the importance of looking in the mirror to assess the results of dressing oneself. Here she's wearing a skirt as a dress and a tiara all cockeyed. If you look closely, her hands and parts of her face are stained royal blue from finger painting. No matter how disheveled her look might seem to many, she's assured it is perfect. Love her confidence!
And these days Vanessa loves to be naked all the time. She's gone through small stages of this before, but now, in very cold and often single-digit temps, she insists on staying naked ALL the time. Fortunately we've been staying indoors. And when I say naked, I mean butt naked -- no diaper or panties.
When playing one morning, Mommy was able to convince her to put on something. She chose a head piece and wore it as a skirt. My explanation for its intended purpose prompted a performance of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.
