W-o-m-a-n!

"I've left an embarrassing amount of clothing for your children at your house" Joy said when she reached me on my cell phone while we were at the park this evening. Her timing was pretty good, actually. Kate was undergoing her nightly metamorphosis from sweet angel to gremlin and we were feeling somewhat pressured to remove her from the public eye. The promise of new clothes would surely excite her into getting into the stroller.

The mention of clothing didn't really do it, but when the topic of new shoes was brought up she was inspired. Not before rolling all over the ground and actually dumping handfuls of mulch on her own head. She stinks. We spent so much time at the park, though, there wasn't time for a bath before bed. Don't look at me like that. Have you tried to bathe over-tired Kate? Yeah, well, give it a whirl and get back to me on the whole "oh, how long does a bath really take" business.

We got home and saw that Joy's assessment of the quantity of clothing had been fairly accurate. Kate was beside herself with excitement. Sarah was more interested in the tasty tags than the clothes themselves. Kate was pulling items out of the bag one by one. "This is for you, Sarah" she'd say, plunking a diminutive item down before her sister. "And this is for Kate!" Like Bob Dole, Kate often refers to herself in the third person. Joy took my mention of Kate's need for sundresses to heart. She got her three and an adorable purple skirt. As she pulled a dress from the bag, Kate would hold it up in front of her and then twirl around the kitchen with it.

Before heading upstairs, she insisted on putting everything back into the bag. She handed the over-stuffed bag over to Jeremiah, demanding that he close it. We're working on asking politely. There's been some backsliding on her part lately. Anyway, we got upstairs and Kate dumped the contents of the bag on the bedroom floor, again dancing with her new dresses. I was distracted, trying to keep Sarah from eating all the tags. What is it with that kid and eating paper? What part of "Sarah, honey, humans cannot digest cellulose" doesn't she understand?

After placing each item, one at a time, even the shoes, in the laundry basket that just happened to be sitting in the hallway, Kate came prancing up to me with the final dress. She held it up to her chest, beaming. "I'm going to wear it!" she stated (we'd gone over the bit about my washing everything before she can wear any of it, hence the laundry basket deposits, I knew she meant she planned to wear it tomorrow.) "I'm going to wear it..." she said again "...I'm going to dress up like a woman!"

I was a little taken aback. Where did she hear that? I made a mental note to delicately broach the topic with her father...I assume she heard it from him while I was out on one of my longer training walks. At any rate, thanks, Joy, for all the beautiful clothes for Kate and Sarah. They'll be looking stunning this summer!