Lynda Loveland: Flash forward

The flashier and bigger, the better. That’s how my four-year-old daughter Carys thinks when it comes to clothes, jewelry and hair ornaments. She would wear a prom-like dress every day to daycare if she could. Now, her passion for fashion has escalated. I think she’s on a mission to wear the biggest earrings and the most rings. Can you say blinged out??? Move over P Diddy, meet Carys QT!

I took her to get some clip on earrings last weekend. I won’t let her pierce them until she can take care of them. Surprisingly, she’s fine with that. Not that she really had a choice. But anyway, she picked out two pairs. One was dangly with different colored neon stars hanging down. She outdid herself on the next pair. She spotted some peacock feather earrings she could NOT live without! She begged me to put them on her the second we stepped out of the store. They were so long they tickled her shoulders. (On a side note, my sister and I fought over who would get to borrow them first).

When we got home, she couldn’t wait to show everybody, but first she had to run straight upstairs to her closet. When she came back down, she had on a bathing suit with a shrug over it and, of course, the peacock earrings and three new rings on her fingers. She didn’t just walk down the stairs, she sashayed. She tossed her hair back from her face and asked how we liked her new earrings. She’s FOUR!!!! My eight-year-old daughter wouldn’t be caught dead in anything even remotely girly. But that’s OK because Carys more than makes up for her.

While I was watching her, I suddenly saw her as a teenager. Oh my gosh! All these thoughts raced through my head. Could she get even more girly? How much was her fashion sense going to cost me? What kind of person would she be? And finally, she won’t be my baby anymore.

Could someone please put on the brakes, because I’m not ready for them to grow up…