Princess Squared

I used to hate sparkles.
And hearts.
And rainbows.
Oh, and princesses? Forget it. The worst.
All of that glitter and glitz, the pageantry and twee-ness of little girl passions ... just, no.

I promised myself that my girl(s) would wear bright, cheerful primary colors. They'd have lots of stuffed animals and books to play with. They'd -- well, they'd be like me.

But see, that's the thing about parenting. It takes all of your preconceived notions and turns them on their head. Because what I didn't anticipate is that when your kid loves something, it pretty much makes you an asshole to tell them that what they love isn't cool.

And Riis? She loves princesses.

So.

Princesses she shall have. (Though I thank god every day I bought that $40 bag of secondhand dress-up clothes, because I am NOT mortgaging my life away to Disney.)

Here she is with her good friend Maeve. Yep, those are pajamas under those dresses -- it was an impromptu post-soccer-practice late-night playdate.

The shoes are the best part.