Swim suit!

I'm not sure I'm capable of putting into words the daily battle that ensues everytime it is time to get dressed. It has reached an all time high or maybe it's an all time low?!? Either way, I gave up on the fight. I guess by kid #4 you lose steam. 

So, kid number four gets to wear her swimming suit out to play in the snow. She also wears or is carrying her swimming suit every where we go. (EVERYWHERE!) If it is not on her it is in her hand, if it isn't in her hand it's in her bag. 

The battle started six months ago (yikes! I thought it was a phase!) when suddenly one day her unders were tooooo tight! So, we convinced her to wear Julia's. That worked for...a few days, then it got to the point where she was fine with the unders as long as we didn't have to put clothes on. Which, I'm totally down with, but then after spending an unreal amount of days at home, (I would wrap her in her blanket for school drop off and pick up!) Sunday rolled around and there had to be clothes on top of those unders. Then, we were back to blood curdling screaming everytime it was time to get dressed. We tried ordering special, brand new unders just for her in a few sized too big, she loved them, for three days, and then it was time to leave the house again. Finally, she locked herself in her bedroom and then into her closet, (that's when you know she's doing something she thinks she shouldn't!) and when she finally emerged she was dressed and happy! FIST PUMP! We went on our way only to discover when it was time to potty that she was under-less. No big deal, she had pants on, right?! Well, we finally let her go underless as long as she had leggings on. It was just easier, not to fight it. Then suddenly, out of no where leggings hurt. Anytime they got half way up her leg she would start screaming like a wild banchee! It was horrendous. It got to the point where she just went naked unless we had to go somewhere. If we were lucky and it was somewhere she wanted to go she may just show up in clothes, they might be backwards, and unmatching,  but you were stoked because there was no battle. Somewhere in the middle of this was our trip to Florida, where we spent our entire time in shorts and a swim suit and things were sort of good... as long as she didn't have to be in shoes. I took 37 (or 4) or so pairs of shoes with us for her to decide from. None of them made her happy, NONE! So, we weren't fighting the clothes battle, but we started the shoe battle, it got to where we did not require shoes to leave, but we required shoes to get out of the car, usually we were somewhere that she was excited about so she would put them on. Then we got home and everything continued. I decided one day after she had been choosing to wear dresses several days in a row to hit up the clearance isle and buy her 7,653 dresses and then the fight would be over. I found exactly three. She was so excited too! She wore a new dress every day for three days! And then.... you guessed it! They HURT! Not just a little bit, a WHOLE LOT OF HURT. SCREAMING, SCREECHING, THROWING UP kind of hurt. I finally decided that I had to just stop caring. Never chose a single item for her. Give her plenty of warning that we were going somewhere and that she would need to be dressed it she was coming, and JUST STOP CARING! It worked for a little bit, but somedays there are those days when suddenly life throws a baseball bat at you and you've got to duck and run for your life. Well, those times end up in a raging, screaming, knock down, drag out, buckling a half dressed, stiff board into a car seat, kind of day. So, 99.9% of the time we just don't care. I pulled things from her closet that are too disgusting to accidently put with something that doesn't match and almost everything is in the same tones and shades so, 79% of the time she matches by default! But, then there was this one Sunday. Julia has the magical touch and can usually get her to dress in a speedy fashion and did just that. Unbeknownst to us she removed her unders sometime between that dressing session and the opening prayer of church when I looked down the isle to Elena sitting on the floor and her bare bum staring back at me. Thankfully we had a change of clothes in my bag that needed to be returned to another mother and in there was a spare pair of unders. We bolted for the hallway and I hog tied her while I put them on and then calmed her/emptied every wild threat I could think of if she removed them before church was over and we quietly re-entered church. Where randomly she would squeak out, "TOOOO TIIIIIIGHT!" Since then we have purchased special "church shorts" that she is required to wear under her dresses, we are about 9/10 with those, it seems to be almost working! 

Anyway-All of that NON-Sense (that was a very brief version) would explain why Elena gets to go out into the snow in her swim suit! 

This would also explain why she has 20 pairs of shoes and a billion clothes to go along. It seems everytime I shop I see something and think, "THAT WOULD SOLVE OUR PROBLEM!" It usually only lasts a day or two.

To say we are excited for swim suit season would be a large understatment. I would no longer be fighting a daily battle. EVER! 

**Today ICE OUT was declared! Which means we are closer than ever!**

(I'm totally open for suggestions-We've forced her into clothes (which still happens, cuz sometimes life happens) We've punished, rewarded, ignored, praised, and then finally quit!)

This Lacey girl, she went through a clothes and shoe phase, but they were nothing compared to her little sis. However, she is quite particular about her food. Woooweee! Thankfully, it's quite consistent and we are getting it down.