Lady in Making

For my third birthday I got my ears pierced. The story goes that for months I begged my parents for earrings and they finally consented. I vividly remember that day: Two women with big, bushy hair stood on either side of me with earring guns and simultaneously shot holes in my tiny ears. I think I cried for like 2 minutes and then began to admire my new earrings. As I got older, I began to question my parents about how much I really "begged" for earrings and how much was their idea. To me, three years old just seemed really young to be craving earrings. My mom has never moved from her stance that it was my idea and I begged until they finally caved. I am finally beginning to understand the indwelling nature of women from the time they can roll over.

Charissa is a lady in making. She loves ALL things girlie. She has four purses that she rotates between. She puts stuff in them, takes stuff out of them ... there's a lot of activity with purses. She has compacts, lipstick holders, credit cards, a llama - everything you need in a purse. She loves hair bows. She asks for them. She'll see a bow, point to it and say "bow" until you put it in her hair. And then she just smiles and laughs. Charissa LOVES makeup. She takes my blush brush and wipes it all over her face. She'll sit still and let you put lipstick/chapstick/lip gloss on her. And she even knows what eyelash curlers are for! She'll hold them up to her eyes and go "mmm" as if the noise is important to the curling (NOTE: She doesn't actually curl her eyelashes as she doesn't have the dexterity to move the slider up and down). This morning she kept asking for "more" blow drying. Charissa would brush her hair and I would blow dry, which is so silly because she has like 14 hairs. She's just a very girlie little girl. And don't even get her started with lotion. We have to hide lotion in our house because if she sees it she'll ask for it and want to rub it in her hands and then her arms and then her feet and then her legs ... and if she runs out of skin she'll rub it on you. And Charissa will do this over and over again until she's just slimy. I've tried to explain to her that she's using a 24 hour moisturizer, but she doesn't seem to care.

Can you imagine what she's going to be like at 16?