Reputation for Repetition

Being three or four years old has got to be the coolest time of your life. You can talk and tell people what you want and do big-kid things, but you're still cute and soft (and you have all your teeth). One of the most intriguing things to me is the fact that a preschooler has a reputation for repetition. If you know me (not the most patient person in the world), you would think I would be utterly annoyed by this but I find it peculiarly endearing. One of a preschoolers favorite things to repeat is movies. Tatum had her fair share of movies that she would watch every day when she was between the ages of about 2 1/2 and 5. Among the phases of movies were "Shrek", "Lady and the Tramp" (which, at 2, she called "Shrimpy the Plant"), "The Little Mermaid" followed by "The Little Mermaid 2", "Monsters", "Sing and Play with Elmo" and many more that don't come to my numb mind at the moment. She knew all the lines and even acted out some of the scenes. It comes in very handy when you don't have a lot of movies (or when you want to take a nap).
Now, three kids and scads of Disney (and other) movies later, I've come to expect it. Portia, in the throes of four years old, has recently been a huge fan of "Cats and Dogs" (more affectionately known as "Dogs and Cats"), "Arthur and the Invisibles" and just this week "Beauty and the Beast". In "Arthur..." she pretends she is the character that is voiced by Madonna, called Selenia (I think) and she even wants her hair and her outfit to be like her. Her outfit consists of a half shirt showing off her perfectly sculpted abs, and teeny tiny pants which Portia substitutes with a little girls bra-type tee and a brown skirt (see below). When I first saw her do this it worried me and then when I realized why she was wearing it, it just cracked me up. Well, it's all pretty cute.
As for the brown skirt, my mom bought Portia this flowy, Bohemian-style brown skirt with flowers and sequins on the front and Portia absolutely LOVES that skirt. She will wear it for days on end, sometimes even to bed if I don't feel like fighting. It needs to be whisked away sometimes, yes, for a good scrub, but she will spot it a mile away (or keep nagging me to wash it) and she'll shimmy herself right back into it. Another thing she discovered as of late was this pair of black, footless tights that I bought two pairs of (one for Tate, one for Po) at the beginning of the school year for ballet. But, like anyone with a little girl knows, it was under piles of OTHER cute tights because little girls can never have enough tights, you know. I discovered the black footless tights the other day thinking she wouldn't like them but, well, they didn't come off for days. She slept in them, played in them and just totally adored them. They've been hanging out at the bottom of the hamper and she forgot about them after a couple of days but I'm sure as soon as she spots them, onto her little legs they will go.
And, back to the movies, you're probably wondering if Stella, not quite 2 yet, has any favorite movies. Well, yes, she does. She LOVES "Charlie and Lola" (I love them, two little cartoon kids with British accents--what's not to love?) and will scream "Lola! Lola!" when she's near the TV, overpronouncing the "L". That's actually pretty cute. (No, she doesn't have any favorite clothes yet, although she does seem to keep taking dresses off the hanger and really doesn't mind if her sisters dress her up in their princess-clothes.)