Tuesday, July 6, 2010

the girl in the brown dress




many many many many years ago... i was a little girl.

probably around the age of 3.


my favorite thing to wear,
was a chocolate brown dress.

it was fluffy and poofy, i remember i loved to twirl around in it.

{there are several pictures of me in this dress and if i can dig them out, i will scan them in.}


but my favorite thing about this dress


was that it had a tiny bell, hidden in one of the layers of fluffiness.


i remember always feeling like i had a secret that no one else knew about.

when i wore the dress i would find the bell,

and hold onto it just so i wouldn't forget it was there.

i thought the bell was magic,

and i felt special.

i loved the brown dress with the hidden bell.


many many many many many many many many years later

my sister came for a visit,


and brought with her
the brown dress.

it is still in fantastic condition...


but i laughed at how different my memory was


from the real thing.


it really is a cute dress,


even though it's old-fashioned


and not really my style now.




before she left,


my sister made me promise

to put miss leah in it
and do a photo shoot.

so a few weeks ago, i did.



















that dress must have some magic in it

because leah twirled for the first time,

and called herself "prit-ty."


i showed her the hidden bell


and she stared at it,

and jingled it
and then let go,

and lost it and couldn't find it again.


she yelled in frustration

as she searched through the layers


until i helped her


and once she found it,


she looked up and gave me this smile.






i don't know what to do with the dress now,

it's hanging in the closet.

i'm not sure that leah will ever wear it again. {unless she insists}

but i just don't think i can part with it.


it was my first memory of feeling beautiful.










7 comments:

Andrea said...

Awwwww. Precious. So glad you posted these. That little lady is beautiful...as are you my friend.

Anonymous said...

Dude, I KNEW Leah could pull that dress off!

Promise me you'll save it! Let her put it on when she wants to feel extra fancy, like during pretend tea parties or pretend fashion shows or pretend presidential elections.

Now I'm thinking she needs a tiny little pair of cowboy boots to go with it...Ebay here I come!

Carrie said...

Oh my gosh Lyns did you cry when you saw her for the first time in it? Because I'm crying now!! I want that dress and I want to find the bell. Look, you have every woman and little girl in America invested.

Rachel Chick said...

That is so sweet, Lynsey. If you aren't going to let her wear it to church, I'd definitely let her dress up in it. So cute. You've got an adorable little girl.

Fawn Becker said...

Sooo cute! What great pictures. Do you still want to come over today?

ClancyPants said...

You know what's funny?? I had a little brown dress when I was a child too. Same look... brown gingham with solid brown. But that is the end of the similarities of our stories. I HATED the brown dress. I was probably only 2 or 3 years old and I REMEMBER screaming and being so angry that my mom would put me in it. In fact, my mom has a picture of me in it and I had fallen asleep in my dad's lap after a HUGE fit I threw because I didn't want to wear it. So, yeah. One of my earliest memories also involved a little brown dress, but I screamed about it because it was brown and I thought brown was ugly. HAHA!

But Leah is SO cute. And I love that there's a bell. A secret bell.

Mindy and Garry said...

she is such a doll!!!