Bee's Protest... Mommy's Sad

When we moved to Alabama, Bee was only three months old. I was determined at that point that she would be girly as long as I was in control of the situation. There is a tradition for little girls in the south that I latched onto and never really let go of... the hair bow. Not just any hairbow. We're not talkin' about the terry-cloth covered bands with a measly ribbon attatched to it like you get at Walmart. We're talkin' big handmade bows that you can only buy at one of the boutiques that exist on every other corner in suburban Birmingham, AL. We actually started out with fairly small bows, her head was still fairly small then and I was new to the bow phenomenon being a midwesterner. It was not long though before I was buying bigger and bigger bows and actually taking her outfits into the boutiques to match them with a bow like a true Southerner (this is hard for me to admit). If you couldn't find a bow to match (which is pathetic because most of those places have at least 1/2 a wall's worth of bows to pick from), call the bowmaker and she'd make one for you... I know you're all rolling your eyes. It became a very serious situation... I was addicted.

When Bee was two and a half or so, I decided that with all my fun making her girly, I was going to make her vain. So, I stopped using the bows on a daily basis, only putting them in for Sundays. The problem was that it was too late. The damage had been done. She already had southern-belle blood running thru her veins. She was developing a southern twang and refused to leave the house without her bow. Since I was already feeling guilty about having 30 or so bows sitting in her drawer that weren't being used, I easily gave in and let her have them back. (this is desparately hard to admit).

So, basically since she was about 3 months old (she'll be 4 in Feb.), Bee has only had a total of about 10 days that she wasn't wearing a bow in her hair.... until 4 days ago. She has now decided that she no longer wants to wear her bows!! This actually makes me sad. As all of you that personally know us know, her bow has kinda become one of her trademarks. She looks unfinished without her bow on her head. I don't feel quite so guilty as I did when I didn't wear them on her for awhile last year. During the last 6 months while we've lived here in the midwest, we've slowly lost several of them and without a boutique on every corner to buy a new one every other week or so when they disappear, our collection has dwindled to about 15 bows now. One of the mom's at our present church gave her about 10 bows a few months back, and while she has worn them and I appreciate the thought, they aren't the "southern" style that I'm so fond of.

So apparently we're coming to the end of an era in Bee's littlegirl-hood. It's hard on this mama to watch her baby girl walk out the door without her girly-lookin' bow in her hair. So for all my slammin' the south and it's craziness, I thank you for your tradition of making little girls be little girls, it was nice while it lasted.

*by the way, just so you all know, if anyone questions me about this, I will absolutely deny that the south ever did anything I approved of.