Claire and her "Peacock Dress"

From the moment we first met Claire, she has been a "fashion queen". I had read everything about adoption and attachment that I could get my hands on before we went to China and I felt as prepared as possible for what lay ahead. I had read not to rush into changing your child's clothing too soon as they may feel attached to the clothing that they had been put in by their nanny or their foster mother. So, I was doing exactly that. After we had been in the room for awhile, I opened Claire's suitcase to get another toy out and Claire saw the suitcase full of clothes and she sat straight up and started looking in and then she started taking off her clothes and pointing to the clothes in the suitcase! She was so excited that she couldn't wait to try on the new clothes. Everyday in China she was thrilled to put on a new outfit and every night she was just as excited to put on a new pair of pajamas. We had a ritual of going and looking in the mirror at whatever new thing she was wearing and admiring how pretty she was. Once we got back home, Claire turned into a shopper. She would walk into a store at age 2 and start moving the clothes on the rack and looking at everything she could see. She had definite ideas about what she liked and I will admit that she had very good taste! Well, that was a long story to get to the point about this dress. We were at Gap and Claire saw this dress and she actually gasped out loud. She said, "Oh Mommy! I just have to have that dress. That dress will look so gorgeous on me!" (Did I mention she has great self-esteem?) She went on and on until I just had to buy it. She talked about the dress the entire 45 minute drive home. She said, "My Daddy won't believe how beautiful I am going to look in that dress." Well, when we got home she immediately had to put it on and she does this little run-way walk (I'm not joking), and she shows her Daddy the dress and she tells us, "I am so gorgeous in this dress. I am going to call this dress my Peacock Dress because it looks just like a peacock." So, that is why we have pictures of Claire in this dress, because Robin says that any dress that a child has given a name has to be photographed! I think it photographed beautifully.