Ponytails, Polka Dot Pants and Flowery Rain Boots

A little over five years ago, I got Taelin’s hair into pigtails for the first time.  It was quite a triumph for two reasons.  First, Taelin held still long enough for me to get them in.  Second, I was able to get them in fairly straight.  I don’t know which reason was more impressive.  Here was the result.

Seriously, I worked for those pigtails.

Little did I know that first time, how much she would grow to love pigtails.  Rarely does a day go by that she doesn’t have what are now affectionately called “piggies”.  I have suggested and tried other things but she always comes back to pigtails.

If I am being honest, I have been waiting for the end of pigtails for awhile now.  I have been expecting her to say one morning, “Piggies are for babies!” But she hasn’t. The other day, I was trying to convince her to let me braid the front of it back and then put it in a ponytail.  She turned to me and said, “No, just piggies.  It is my signature.” Alright then.

I quietly finished up her pigtails, which you can imagine we are getting quite good at, and decided that I just needed to back off.  She wasn’t angry or snotty in her request, that isn’t her.  She just knew what she wanted.

Later that day, we were getting ready to go down to the park.  She was wearing a princess dress (because why not?) so I asked her to go and get changed into something a little more park appropriate. As she was changing, I gathered my camera and keys and slipped on my shoes. After what seemed like longer than usual,  she came out with these polka pants I didn’t even know we owned, a long sleeved shirt with a big patterned heart and purposefully mismatched socks.  (That’s another one of her things, her socks never match.)

She tightened each ponytail up as she looked at the shoe rack.  I wasn’t surprised when she grabbed her flower rain boots, a pair that has been her favorite for awhile and am convinced are too small. She pulled them on, stood up and announced with a smile she was ready.  I thought, “Yes. She. Is.”

I have decided to stop waiting for the end of pigtails. I could be waiting for awhile.  After all, it is her signature.