tonight is the coveted snowflake ball, a big dress-up-do for brownies and their significant daddies. BS even went out and bought her a corsage for the occasion (one parent informed him that she would be the only one without one if he neglected this, thus suffering shame and disappointing and ending up on an analyst’s couch at 30.) BC is very excited about attending, although she really didn’t have a thing to wear for the blessed event. we went tosyms this afternoon (because an educated consumer is their best customer, but me, i’m just trying to avoid the mall maelstrom) figuring we’d find shoes, tights, and maybe even a dress.

miss thang found two fancy-shmancy bonnie jean spring/summer dresses, two pair of tights, a pair of black patent leather shoes, and a purse to match. (when you’re seven, you see, you are seasonless and can get away with sleeveless thingies in february.) as the dresses were both $19.99 a piece, i figured, aw, what the hell. she has her cousin’s communion later this spring, so she should be able to wear the other then. one dress is a drop waist pink eyelet number with lots of flounces. “mama,” she said, “i love this dress, but it doesn’t t w i r l.” twirling, you see, is a very important criteria for a dress. the other dress has a funky, 1960s vibe, complete with a big kitschy pin in the front. i could never pull that one off, but BC? even strangers in the dressing room were commenting. (that, of course, bit me in the butt later on. at syms, an educated customer has to try on clothes in front of other educated customers, all butt nekkid. despite my neverending stream of no one’s looking at YOU, honeys, i couldn’t shake her entreaties. “but mama, they ARE looking at me!” anyway, this dressed, it t w i r l e d in a big way.

happiness is…

anyway, we decided to troll a little for mommy things. BC picked out a bikini. in my size. in theory. “darling,” i noted, “i haven’t worn a bikini since you were born.” a man walking by laughed so loud that i wanted to crawl into a hole and self-immolate. we then proceeded to check out shirts and sweaters. she found a leopard print sweater that reminded me of the bonnie and bill leopard sweater i have that was my grandmother’s and that is so fahncy that i cannot bear to part with it, even though i don’t think i would ever walk out of the house in that thang. she found every post-xmas sale sparkly sweater. i looked at the ceiling and said a small thank you. it was like shopping with my gram (BC is her namesake.) she touched every single item on the rack.

yep. belle freeman is alive and well and working her way through syms.