Raising a Girl

I was never the girly-type of girl, having grown up sandwiched in the middle by two brothers. Dressing up, make-up, hair-do's, and manicures were/are not my forte. I haven't thought about it much until the last few months when Scarlett seems to be asserting her girly side more than ever. I got a pedicure (my first one) a couple of months ago at a spa for my friend's bachelorette party. Whenever Scarlett noticed it, she would mention that she wants her toes painted too (in blue). I thought to myself, that would be a great mother-daughter bonding thing to do, when she's a bit older. But really, I don't paint my nails so I don't own any nail polish. So maybe not. And hair? I'm terrible with that too. I rely on expensive haircuts to keep from looking too homely but aside from that, I'm only capable of doing pony-tails. So after the haircut fiasco with Scarlett's hair when she turned one, I decided not to cut her hair myself. She hasn't had her hair cut in over a year so it's grown long. She's blessed with really pretty hair that is not Chinese-limpy-straight or totally curled out: it's got small wavy curls at the end. So just a simple pony-tail looks great on her. So to keep her hair out of her face, I rely on my repertoire of pony-tails or the twin pig-tails. It's always funny (or sad, depending on how you see it) when I go and pick her up from daycare and she's got all kinds of pig-tails or braids in her hair to keep her hair tidy and out of her face. It puts my work to shame.
Lastly, she has really gotten into wearing dresses lately. I don't mind and she looks cute in them but I often have to argue with her over what to wear because she wants to wear a small skimpy dress when it's 50 degrees outside. Unless the weather outside is tropical and the wind is absolutely dead, I know that she would start whining about how cold/windy it is. So I have to talk her out of wearing a dress. On my work days, the minute we get home from daycare, she immediately wants to change into a dress. After she puts one on, she proclaims herself "pretty." It's quite endearing but I wonder if it's from her or from us telling her periodically that she's pretty. When I was in grade school, I progressively gave away my dresses to my beloved cousin until I had practically none left, much to my mom's chagrin. So it seemed funny to me that I would be raising a more-typical girl, one unlike myself. Luckily, she hasn't gotten into princesses (yet). I'm sure I can expect something completely different with her soon-to-be baby brother. There will probably be no arguments over what to wear and no giant tears that gush out whenever something doesn't quite sit right but I'm sure there will be a lot more bumps and bruises or more. At least Scarlett broke me in on that with her first urgent care visit for two stitches a month ago.