The transition to winter clothes for Ellie

As the days have gotten cooler, Ellie has had a hard time giving up her summer wardrobe which was full of squorts and dressy shirts and cut sun dresses. Her winter wardrobe is much less girlie and thus, less appealing to her. During this transition we had a lot of crying in the morning about what she could wear. After a couple weeks I finally came up with a positive solution (compared to all the yelling we had been dealing with each morning). I set up a chore chart where she could get smiley faces for good behaviour. We agreed that after she got 50 smilies, she could go shopping for a new dress (since this was part of the problem). Key chores were to get dressed in the morning and brush teeth in the morning without any fussing. We focused a lot on theses. There were some others on there (totally 7) that we didn't focus so much on - pleases and thank yous, sharing, helping around the house, no whining in general, and cleaning up her toys.

After two weeks she finally collected 50 smilies, so this weekend we took her shopping for her dress. She was funny becuase the first dress she saw, she wanted it. It took me a few minutes to explain to her that the idea is to look at everything that have and then select the best one. (I'm not sure Daddy wanted me teaching her this fine art of shopping, but I did it anyway). After looking at the whole selectiong in Penny's in Columbia mall, she decided on two that we both liked. So, we ended up buying them both saying one for this time and another for the next 50.

Ellie could hardly wait for morning to come today so she could wear her new dress. When I went in to her and asked if she wanted to get herself dressed, she bolted out of bed while saying yes. (Usually I have to beg for about 5 minutes and then peel her out of her bed). It's amazing how happier this little princess is when she's getting dressed in dresses and "Dressy shirts." I will admit this little outfit is so cute and she does suit these dresses and dressy shirts very much!