According to My Toddler - It's Important to Look Fancy When Going Out

On Saturday afternoon my husband and I decided to take our sweet daughter to a matinee. Ellie had her choice of seeing The Smurfs, Cars 2 or Winnie the Pooh. We were secretly hoping for The Smurfs, but Winnie the Pooh was the movie she selected.

We'd also told Ellie she could have some candy at the movies. She rarely gets candy so she was thrilled. She got even more excited when she happened to find one of her special dress up earrings in the car. She immediately wanted my help putting it on. "Oh, you want to wear your earrings?" I asked.

"Yes!" Ellie cheered. And then she looked at me as if she was about to share a very important life lesson. "These are fancy, and we're going out today," she explained.

I reluctantly put the oversized, pink clip on earring on her and asked where the other one was. She shrugged. "If you can't find the other earring, you'll probably want to leave this one in the car, right?" I was trying to coax her to come around to my way of thinking.

"Nope. It's beautiful, Momma," she explained.

I often find myself in situations like this with my precious toddler. She looked absolutely gorgeous and completely ridiculous at the same time. I have to decide whether or not the situation is worth an argument. I don't ever want to squelch her enthusiasm or individuality or creativity, but I also don't want her to be ridiculed. This Saturday, her "fancy" earring wasn't hurting anyone so off we went... one gaudy, dangling earring and three huge smiles.