complex

I'm starting to get a complex. You see, while I would consider myself a lesbian of the lipstick variety, I don't really think I am over the top as far as primping and self-maintenance. I mean, when the weather allows, I style my hair by putting my head out the window while I drive, I use 12 hour lipstick so I don't have to bother reapplying and I wear a hair elastic on my wrist rather than a bracelet because my hair will inevitably end up back before the day is out. The extent of my beauty rituals include some necessary concealer and a brush of eyeshadow and a quick straightening of my hair a few days out of the week.

But if you would watch the girls, you would make up a different kind of a story.

Ella has taken to "getting ready" in the morning. She goes in the bathroom, wets her hair and then places any number of unrelated hair accessories in the tangle of hair and presents herself to us, usually with bangs pushed back punk rocker style behind a bejeweled headband. Sometimes she forgoes the wetting and simply brushes her hair until it shines (which for sure beats having us comb it like a whisper while she screams in torture.) I heard myself say to her the other day, "Look, you can have the sink to fix your hair as soon as I'm done."

Wait, is she really only four? What does this mean for us?

She has taken to picking out her clothes the night before to minimize the stress of making the choice first thing in the morning before she has had her coffee. She is currently attending a camp at her preschool made especially for little girls just like her- glamour camp. They are dressing up, making lipgloss, having tea parties in fancy dresses and doing their nails.

I've realized it isn't possible to make a child into this. They are simply born with it. The other day she redecorated her entire bed, lining up blankets, pillows and animals just so and hanging other blankets artistically from her canopy. She spent a good 30 minutes alone in her room doing this before the big reveal.

You see, I wouldn't have a complex so much if it was only Ella who had shown an increase in the primping. But the other day, I stepped out of the shower to see Maya with her finger jammed into a tube of toothpaste. She pulled her finger out and then wiped the green paste on her cheek. I looked more closely and saw the remnants of every other toiletry she had managed to open smeared across her cheeks.

People, tell me honestly, do we need more male role models around here?