Dressing Girls Is Hard

I'm going to share a personal shortcoming here, so please be gentle with me.

I'm a terrible dresser.

I would say that I can do alright for myself if I'm wearing a dress, but apparently, as I've recently been informed, you need accessories if you really want the whole "pulled together" look, and I SO don't do accessories.  Not belts that aren't designed to hold my pants up, not bracelets with no sentimental value, not hoopy earrings or clutches or ... I can't even think of another accessory.  Are there more?  OH!  Scarves.  No scarves.

True story, I recently sent my one accessorish scarf to my 6 year old niece for her birthday, because I have owned it for 18 months and worn it once, and that time only to cover up my bra straps (read: wrong).  I don't know how to wear it, and I don't know if I can feel like me while wearing it, and so I forgo it.  If I then had an intentionally accessory-less style, I don't think it would bother me as much.  But I don't.  I'm just... sloppy, most of the time.  I'm working on it.

Babies:
If it doesn't look like they dressed themselves, you're doing it wrong.
At least that's my coping mechanism theory

Anyhow, since my oldest child (and only, but sometimes I like to refer to RG like that, just to keep myself on my toes.  I also hide vegetables from myself when I'm cooking, so... whatevs.) has now been outside of my body longer than she was in, my body has been doing crazy things, all sorts of changing.  Long story longer, I had to buy new clothes, so I ordered a bunch online, most of them ugly, returned nearly all, and still wear my old jeans and t-shirts.  I just... I don't do well shopping by myself, nor do I do well dressing myself even when I have good clothes in there.  

So that's hard for me.

But guess what?  I have a baby.  A baby girl.  GIRL.  And who's responsibility is it to dress her?  Not Riley's.  Nope.  She's pretty useless in that arena, although she has started pushing her little fist through the sleeve by her own power, so we've got that.  Nope, I've gotta dress her.  When she only wore onesies, that wasn't a big deal.  When she wore one-piece play-thingers, also not a problem.  But now?  Pants.  And shirts.  THE HORROR.  Because now my little girl is big enough to actually wear outfits.  Which means I have to actually put together outfits.  

This is a problem (see picture above).

Sometimes, honestly, I stress about it.  In the scheme of things, I know this is not big.  But since the base of  my hierarchy of needs is pretty well covered, I sometimes choose to concern myself with these types of things.  It doesn't help that the majority of her clothes are seconds (or thirds!) or thrift store finds or consignment sale deals.  So things don't match or "go" and I nearly always forget the accessories.  And while I get by just fine without them, my poor little beautiful baby gets mistaken for a boy more often than not if she's not wearing something pink and frilly.

I'm working on it.  We just bought her first two pairs of shoes.  SO cute.  And its cold(er) out now, and so I mostly remember to put shoes on her, which, since they're not really functional, are currently accessories.  I've also got a stash of headbands somewhere that I sometimes remember to add flair with.  But then there are days, like today, when I just leave her in her gender neutral pajamas when I take her grocery shopping.  Is that bad?  What if I was also in my pajamas still?  Better or worse?

Of course she got asked "how old is HE?" this  morning.  And when I call her "Riley" it doesn't do much to clear up matters.  Please don't misunderstand.  I don't mind.  I know that she's still in that could-go-either-way stage, and I've done pretty much everything possible to make it as ambiguous as possible, although not intentionally.

Dressing girls is hard.  Boys get to wear shoes, pants, and a shirt and call it good.  Jeans or khakis and done.  But I'm discovering that if I want to look nice, which I do, I have to put effort into it.  And if I want Riley to look nice, I also have to put effort into that.  Double effort! So I'm working on discovering and developing a style that still doesn't force me to wear scarves, but that is an actual style, rather than my current fallback, "clean".  At the same time, I'm trying my darndest to keep Riley clean, covered, and if then possible, cutely attired.  

Was this hard for anyone else?  Is this hard for anyone else?  Am I the only girl who doesn't/can't wear a scarf?  (Yes, Meghan, an infinity scarf is still outside of my comfort zone.  Do not give me one for Christmas.  Nor for Hanukkah.  I'll just send it to my next niece for her birthday).  Any tips for dressing children?  For myself, I've found some bloggers who talk about fashion-y things from a viewpoint I can understand, and so I'm watching them.

True story (#2) - I used to sit in my college classes and watch people.  If I noticed some girl wearing an outfit I liked, I'd write down what pieces she was wearing, such as "Dark jeans, navy ribbed sweater, dark brown army boots" to refer back to when I went shopping at some later date.  If its possible to approach something as "cool" as style in a more uncool fashion, I don't know how.  I suppose it goes without saying that when I say "college classes", they were math classes.  I nearly wrote "math & physics" but then I remembered I was one of two girls in the physics department, and I wasn't really feeling Corin's style.

So that's my issue of the evening.  I'm clearly not yet an adult, as I cannot dress myself successfully, yet I am expected to, and to dress another chickadee on top of that.  Discuss.

<3 M.