Getting dressed!

I know I have posted several times before of how Cecilia likes to dress herself and often changes clothes at nap time into something crazy. Well, this has been taken to a whole new level lately. She has REALLY started taking pride in getting herself dressed before she even comes out of her room in the morning. And if by chance she doesn't, she will disappear for a little while in the morning and come back completely dressed. Now, the outfits are usually VERY interesting, but I can't really complain. She does it ALL on her own. She will take her jammies off, put them away, change her underwear, and then pick out her clothes and get completely dressed - including socks and shoes! I have been letting her wear whatever she puts on as long as it is weather appropriate, and we are not going anywhere that I am really concerned about how she looks. This has been VERY hard for me, but it makes her SOOOOO happy, and she is SOOOOO proud of herself for doing it. And frankly, it puts a little smile on my face to see her running around in public in a crazy little outfit!

For school though, I like her to look fairly presentable. So last night I picked out her outfit and called her in her room and showed her where they were and said "So when you get up in the morning, if you want to get dressed, you clothes are right here!" I didn't want to tell her that she couldn't pick out her clothes or make her feel like she was doing something wrong, so I just tried to act like I was "helping her" by setting them out for her. Well, she must have seen right through me bc she got a sweet smile on her face and said "Ok mommy, I won't pick out any other clothes tomorrow!" It broke my heart a little, and I felt bad. I am going to have to work on this situation a bit - I have a few ideas in my head, but I am not sure which way I want to go yet. They include anything from letting her "have at it" and wear whatever she wants wherever she wants, or me picking out her school clothes and she gets to do all the other days, or I pick out two that she can choose from, or us trying to do it together everyday, etc... Or we may just do a combo of all of the above!

Here is sample of just a few of her outfits from last week:

An orange shirt, red leggings, pink socks,
and navy shoes. She went to a an open gym and
lunch at McDonalds in this!

She did not want her picture taken here, obviously!
She has on an orange tank top, hot pink fleece pants,
red fuzzy snowflake socks, brown shoes, and blue mittens!

This was one of her best!
Pink floral velour pants, a pink ruffle skirt,
and a white shirt with a pink owl on the front.
I can't remember what shoes she put on, but I had
her to switch to her "sneaker shoes" since
we were going to a park.