Dresses

When she was little, Hayley loved to be in dresses.  Her favorites were princess dresses which were actually princess nightgowns, but when paired with red sparkly shoes, who knew!!!  The other type of dress favored by Hayley was the spinney dress.  You know, the dress twirls out when Hayley would circle around. 
I remember when Mom and Dad came to visit us in Germany they brought the girls both dresses.  Buying for Ashlyn at that age was pretty easy, if the Spice Girls would wear it, so would Ashlyn as long as it was toned down slightly.  But Hayley was tricky.  If she didn't like something, she made no bones about it.  There is ample evidence of this.  We all remember the "it's a shirt" incident when she got an awesome Pocahontas dress from her Aunt Crissy.  Hayley, not being a very good birthday present opener, lifted the dress from the box and kind of tossed it to the side with little love.  Once she realized (after we showed her and shamed her) that it was indeed a Princess dress, she was happy.
So my poor mom really stressed about the dress she was bringing Hayley.  There was no way to test the spinnability of this dress without trying it on.  There were no little girls for Mom to test it out on.  Molly, Hayley's cousin, was a year younger so that wasn't going to work.  Mom just went with a hope and a prayer! 
I have a photo of Hayley, Ashlyn and my mom at our home in Germany.  Hayley looks like a little angel.  She was not a little angel but with her soft blond hair and sweet plump cheeks, she fooled everyone.  The dress that Mom had picked out for her was the palest of pink on top and white on the bottom.   There was a little ribbon belt punctuated with ribbon roses.  It was soft and sweet and oh, so Hayley. 
Years later, Hayley would wear nothing but soccer clothes.  Sweat pants and t-shirts.  Dresses were a foreign idea to her.  She was so far away from the soft sweet pinks of her little girl years.  Her personality hadn't changed a lot.  Hayley was still fun and outspoken and independently minded.  She had just completely restyled her wardrobe.
I am not really sure when Hayley began to enjoy dresses again.  I am sure that entering high school and attending the school dances helped.  There was a white dress with black polka dots for freshman year homecoming.  The following year there was a pink one.  I don't know that these two dresses really reflected Hayley, I don't know if Hayley was that comfortable in her teenage skin.  Junior year, the dresses began to reflect Hayley a bit more.  There was a bounce to them and a fun. 
The best dress, by far, (after the Snow White dress and pink spinning dress and the old flower girl dress) was senior year prom dress.  It did not have much going on in the spin factor but it was beautiful.  The perfect blue to bring out Hayley's eyes.  Her hair was no longer the soft blond of a four year old, but was now like the creation of a world class colorist though Hayley's many shades of blond were all natural.  She was just stunning.

The next big dress will be the wedding dress.  I imagine that Hayley will take a little bit of all of her past styles and combine them into her big day dress.  I think she will require an element of princess.  The dress will have some spin factor.  It will have to be comfortable enough for a pick up game of soccer or badminton.  Or at least comfortable enough for karaoke.