The things we do for love and good fashion

Today my little Zoey girl was dedicated at church. This is a day I have been looking forward to for some time. The initial date was set for the Sunday after Ike, but clearly that fell through. Then we were going to have it another day, but someone was going to be out of town, so we settled on today. Phew!
I have this sickness where I need for Zoey to look adorable at all times. Some might say this is simply being a mom, but I have to admit that this can become a compulsion at times. For instance, I searched high and low for the perfect dedication dress. "Doesn't she already have a million cute dresses?" you might wonder. Well, of course she does, but none of them were "the dress." So, on Wednesday, I packed Zoey up and we started on our quest for the perfect dress. Being thrifty minded mommy that I am, I started in Kohl's-nothing. I moved next to TJ Maxx-nada. Target-zilch. I was crushed, especially by my one true love Target. I have never been let down there. I was about to resign myself to her wearing something she already has (as if!), when N.K. decided that we search one more time on Friday. So once more, we loaded Zoey up and headed into the wild blue yonder. Our first stop was Babies 'R Us. I did find an oh-so-cute little black jumper that I could have paired with red tights, but in Kelly's words, I was "settling." We decided that if we could not find anything else, we would come back. Our next stop was Old Navy. This time we even made Zoey go into the dressing room and try stuff on. Could I be any more ridiculous? O.N. was a flop, so we moved on to my last resort-the mall. We tried Palais Royale-less than nothing. Horrible. We moved on to Gap Kids where I found THE perfect dress. I was happy, I shrieked out loud (and received some pretty humorous looks I might add. What did I care? When I experience elation, it is hard to keep it to myself). Did they have it in her size? Of course not. Sheer and tortuous devastation. Finally, battered and broken and STARVING we hit Dillards. There in the children's section, I saw her. She was beautiful and perfect, and best of all, she was Zoey's size. It was not as cheap as some places, but by this time I really did not care. So, I bought the dress, the tights, the shoes and the bow. It was great. I was ecstatic. So, that brings us to this morning. Everything was going so smoothly. The time change didn't hurt us too much and Zoey was in a great mood as her dad pulled on her tights. However, before I had a chance to do my make-up and hair, the bottom fell out. We could not find Zoey's headband (the one her bow attaches to). I was frantic. John and I scoured the house-nothing. I frantically called N.K. hoping to get some insight-nothing. I was on the verge of tears. I had worked too hard and too long to be taken down by a headband. John said, "It is not that big a deal. She just won't have a bow." I was shocked and appalled by this smug simple solution to my plight. What is a mommy to do 10 minutes before church and hours before a store opens? The only thing I could do. I took out my Spanx (the uber tight under shorts that suck everything in) and cut off the lace band at the bottom. I then poked Zoey's through the lace holes, stuck it on her head and headed out the door. The girl stayed precious and pristine the entire morning (she did manage to spit up all over John during the dedication prayer, but he just held her against him a little higher and no one saw the huge pool on the front of his shirt), and she got so many compliments that all the fashion hardships we had to overcome were completely worth it.